BACK TO THE BEGINNING — You are still you

Her mother saw her before she could call out. She came down so quickly that Skyblue barely had time to open her wings. Her father appeared behind her, and for a moment the three of them held one another in an awkward embrace, with no wish to untangle themselves.

“You’re here,” her mother kept saying.

Skyblue buried her face against her. She had crossed worlds to understand how many forms home could take. This was still one of the dearest.

They stayed together for a long time. Her parents asked if she had eaten, if she was tired, if she was staying. Skyblue told them some things and left others for later. It was a long story, and she no longer felt she had to tell it all at once.

Before she left for Evarista’s tree, her father looked at her closely again.

“You’re still you,” he said.

Skyblue brushed her face against his.

“Yes.”