Chapter Text
“Namaari, are you sure you want to do this?” Chief Virana had a look of regret on her face. She didn’t look quite happy about it all. “There is still time to negotiate a better option. You don’t have to go.”
Namaari gave her mother a serious look. “You know there’s no other way, Chief Virana. Fang will never be able to move forward with me, or you there. It’s for the good of the tribe.”
“But what will you do?”
“I’ll stay here in the Heartlands with Raya,” Namaari stated. “I won’t be alone.”
The older woman stared for a moment before she finally sighed. “It looks like you have made up your mind.” Namaari nodded. The chieftain came over to her daughter and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just know that you are welcome home any time.”
“Thank you, mother,” Namaari thanked her, but after a moment she shook her head. “But my home is here now.”
“I see.” Virana breathed out, looking a little disappointed but accepted her statement. “I have nothing to worry about then.”
Seeing as this conversation was done, Namaari turned to leave the room. Chief Virana still had things to do after all. Fang was going to leave the Heartlands sometime this week and there was still a lot of preparation to go with it. Namaari had helped but she was also tying up loose ends. Saying goodbye to the people she loved was hard.
As she was exiting out the door, her mother called out for her again.
“Namaari...”
Namaari stopped, looking back at her mother, waiting to see what she was going to say. They watched each other for a moment. For the first time in a long while, Namaari could see the emotion in her mother’s eyes. Virana always tried to put her feelings aside, that was simply how Fang leaders were groomed to be. Sharp, calculating, and a iron ruthlessness to protect their people. Emotions were something that always had to be put aside. And honestly, Namaari knew how it felt because that's how she was raised too.
But now she could clearly see the emotion in Virana’s eyes.
She was sad.
“I’m sorry.”
Without a beat, Namaari answered, “I am too.”
She didn’t spare her mother another look as she left the room. Despite feeling at peace with her decision to leave Fang, give up the ‘crown’, and stay here, there was still this twisted knot in her chest. Even if she knew that this was all for the better, some part of her wanted to hang on to the past, how it used to be. But it wouldn’t be healthy. Not by a long shot.
Namaari slowed to a stop as she exited the palace. She looked out into the view, the great expanse that seemed to stretch on forever. She took a deep breath out, feeling as though the shackles that had tied her down had finally broken. Sure, not being a part of Fang would be something to get used to, but she looked forward to what came next.
She was free.
It seemed so long ago that Namaari had been so consumed by her own obsessive guilt that she almost threw her life away. At the time, she had been so blinded, the only thing she cared about those months was trying to find a way to make up for what horrible things she’s done. Honestly, Namaari still felt the same, but... it felt manageable now.
It was all thanks to Raya.
There were just so many things Namaari owed to her. Not just for effectively saving the world, Raya had saved her too. Raya had given her a second chance when she gave her that Dragon Gem, and brought her back from a tragic fate when no one else would’ve cared. Namaari was certain she would follow Raya to hell and back if she needed her to. There was no way Namaari was going to leave her side now.
There were just so many things about Raya to admire, Namaari honestly felt uneasy about what she could offer in return.
Namaari could be a little ruthless and driven sometimes, a strong competitive streak when it came to certain tasks. She hadn’t always done or said the nicest things to people sometimes. It seemed like there was more to dislike her than there was to like.
‘Course, she liked dating Raya, there was no way she was going to give that up. But still, these were things to wonder about. What did Raya see in her?
“Oh, there you are!” Namaari was pulled from her thoughts and saw a peppy blue dragon approaching her.
Instinctively, Namaari straightened up and was about to put her hands in respect, but Sisu quickly grabbed her hands and shook her head.
“ Aww , Namaari. I told ya you didn’t need to do that,” the dragon told her gently. “We’re friends now.”
“Habit. Sorry,” she answered curtly, still feeling rather shy. It was a hard thing to shake, especially since she’s idolized dragons her whole life. Acting more casual with them just seemed taboo, even if Sisu’s real personality was a lot more childish and friendly than what she’d imagined.
“Don’t be. You’re just being too nice,” Sisu assured her, coming to stand next to her. “So whatcha up to?”
“Thinking about my life, what it was and what it’s going to be,” Namaari told the dragon. “I would’ve never thought my life would end up this way.”
Sisu tilted her head, listening intently. “Is… that a good thing?”
“Mostly,” Namaari answered with a bit of a smile. “There’s nothing to do but move forward now.”
“Sounds good!” Sisu agreed cheerily.
“I must ask, Sisu, what are you doing here?” Namaari asked, not really believing the idea that Sisu came to talk to her for no reason.
“Oh, Raya told me to keep you from the market - aah !” Sisu squeaked, covering her mouth. She glanced at Namaari, eyes wide. “You didn’t hear anything .”
“You know I did,” Namaari said, completely deadpan. “...What’s Raya doing?”
“I... can’t tell you. Never . I won’t.” The dragon shook her head vigorously. “But you can’t go to the marketplace. I promised Raya I would keep you from there.”
Namaari raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Listen, Namaari, Imma say it straight. It’s real special and I can’t tell you ‘cause Raya wants to,” Sisu finally said.
Now that Sisu said that, Namaari couldn’t help but be curious. An afternoon of stalking Raya and seeing what her partner was up to in the marketplace sounded fun, but she respected Sisu too much to not do as the dragon said.
"I see. I will just have to find out later."
" Whew!" Sisu sighed in relief. "Raya was going to lemme have it if you found out."
Namaari just smiled. She glanced out again into the scenery before turning to Sisu with a nod. "I don’t mean to be rude, Sisu, but I need to leave. I have things to do."
"Oh, I'll come with you!" Sisu said, bouncing on her feet and trotting towards Namaari. "Not because I'm trying to keep you from the market or anything."
"I'm not that interesting to hang out with," Namaari warned her, as she made her way down the stairs of the palace, heading towards the residential area of the Heartlands .
" Pssht , look at you being all shy, you're just sayin' that." Sisu fell into step beside her. "Raya always says you need more oomph in your step sometimes. After talking to you, I think I agree."
Now that caught Namaari's attention. "So Raya talks about me?"
" Oh yeah, she talks about you all the time," Sisu answered cheerily, looking quite giddy actually. "You know, she used to be really annoyed by you, but now she likes being annoyed by you. She says it's you guys’ 'thing' now or something like that."
"Hmm." Namaari smirked to herself, filing this information for later. "Interesting."
"Raya also loves your muscles. Your arms especially, says they’re nice to touch,” Sisu rambled on nonchalantly. She leaned over to Namaari. “Tell you the truth, think she’s jealous, but you didn’t hear that from me."
Namaari stopped in her tracks shocked. She stared at Sisu, who didn't seem to really realize what she said.
"What...? What's wrong?"
"You just said…" Namaari trailed off, still shocked by what she heard. Sisu stared at her, still confused. "Nevermind." She shook her head, deciding to continue walking.
Raya probably didn’t want her to know that. Though, it was nice to know something about her that Raya liked. Namaari was glad she spent all those years building those muscles then.
"Did I... say something wrong?" Sisu asked, genuinely concerned, trailing after her.
"Nothing like that." The woman chuckled, slowing to a stop. They had finally reached their destination. "I feel like I heard something I was never supposed to."
" Uh , was that... supposed to be a secret?" Sisu said out loud, thinking deeply. It looked like she was just now realizing what she said, but didn’t quite understand why Namaari was so shocked.
"For Raya's sake, let's just say I didn't hear anything." Namaari said, shaking her head and opening a door to the house. Even though she said that, Namaari felt like she would be putting this new ‘knowledge’ to use in the future.
Sisu seemed to accept that answer and trotted in through the door, barely squeezing in with her rather huge body. Namaari stepped in after her.
It was a decent sized house with all the knickknacks and accessories. There were quite a selection of weapons and the like on the wall and elsewhere. When Namaari entered, she was greeted by her serlot, who came to her and touched its nose to her hand to greet her. Namaari patted it on the head in return and it retreated to a particular spot under some shelves to continue snoozing.
"What's this place?" Sisu snaked around the house, looking through everything with great interest.
"My place."
"Owh. I thought you were staying in the palace with Raya." Sisu poked her head out from the bedroom she entered.
"I'm not comfortable with that yet," Namaari told the dragon honestly. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to share a room with Raya, but it didn’t feel right to stay in the palace yet.
"I guess that's fair. Though, I guess it also means Raya's prolly going to sleep over. Which means I'm going to sleep over! Maybe everyone can sleep over!”
"This house is hardly big enough for that much company."
"Oh, I can always downsize!" Sisu emphasized by switching to her human form and back, as if it was as easy as pouring a glass of water. "See?"
Namaari stared at the dragon in a mixture of awe and bewilderment, still not quite used to how Sisu was just able to just do that.
"I guess… that's fine," Namaari relented with a small smile.
There were some scrolls on the kitchen table and Namaari laid it out. A curious Sisu walked over to see what Namaari was doing and her face fell upon looking at the scrolls. "Oh… I… I didn't know you still had these." Sisu grimaced a little.
"I'm wondering what to do with them." It was all her research and notes related to the ritual that almost ended her life. "Seems like a waste to throw it all away."
"If it were up to me, I'd take them out to sea and drop them off at the edge of the earth," Sisu stated, her tone of voice quite serious. There was still a bit of anger hidden somewhere there.
"Not a bad idea,” Namaari said honestly. “But I was wondering if I could use the information in the scrolls to find other ways to stop the Druun." When Sisu looked panicked, Namaari quickly spoke up. "Without risking my life."
Sisu looked a little downcast. But she put a hand on the former princess' shoulder, making Namaari turn to look at her. "Namaari, promise me you won't ever do that again. Not just for me, but Raya too. You don't know how broken she was when we found you. You have to take care of yourself. Forever , 'til the end.”
Namaari looked into the dragon's eyes, feeling a bit paralyzed by her gaze. It was a similar feeling to when she first met Sisu way back then. Just like before, it felt like she was staring right through her.
"I won't do that again, Sisu," Namaari answered sincerely, but she pulled herself away, feeling a bit awkward. She wasn't that close to Sisu yet so deep conversations like this still felt a bit lopsided.
On the flip side, Sisu seemed relieved by Namaari’s answer and brightened up instantly. "So, have any plans here in the Heartlands? Gonna schmooze with Raya or something?" She giggled at the last part.
Namaari closed up the scrolls again. "I will be looking for ways to keep the Druun away as you should know. But Chieftain Benja reached out to me about being the new guardian for the Dragon Gem."
" Ooo, that sounds fun," commented Sisu. “ Gem Guardian Namaari, ” she said in a grandiose voice. “I think it suits you.”
"It may be too soon for me to become that, but it's an opportunity… I suppose." Namaari sighed, fiddling a bit with her wrist guard. "I'm still adjusting to life here alone."
"Don't be silly , girl, you have Raya here. And me. And Tong, Boun and little Noi," Sisu assured her with a grin. "You have loads of people rootin' for you Namaari."
"You're right," Namaari said after a while.
It was still weird to think that she had so many friends now. Recalling the warm fluffy feelings she had hanging out with them was borderline unreal. Namaari was still having trouble believing she was actually making chit-chat with a dragon . Things to get used to, but honestly, Namaari looked forward to life here.
"Oh! It's almost sunset!" Sisu exclaimed, poking her head out the window. "We gotta hurry, Raya's probably waiting already!"
"Wait, what?"
Namaari didn't even have a chance to register what Sisu had said before she was picked up by the dragon as she rushed outside the house. Sisu jumped through the air, running on the rain that suddenly appeared. By the time Namaari had realised what she meant, Sisu had plopped down on the ground, putting Namaari down.
Bewildered, Namaari shook her hands a bit, drenched from the rain.
"Oh, oops. I… wasn't supposed to do that." Sisu tried brushing off some of the water off Namaari with her hands.
Namaari wordlessly looked around, a bit dazed in all honesty. It took a moment or two to realize where they were, but it was a place that was familiar to her. It was that little grassy hill near the entrance of Heart.
It was when she first met Raya six years ago.
Speaking of the devil, Raya stomped up to them. " Sisu , what are you doing!?" She looked furious.
"Uhhh, oh man . She's all yours, kitty." Sisu patted Namaari on the shoulder and pushed her towards Raya. Surprised, she caught her girlfriend and quickly put her asde.
“Sisu!” Raya called out, trying to confront the whimsical river dragon, but Sisu was already gone.
They both watched Sisu flee into the woods and towards the river.
"I've done my part, Raya! I did everything you said, I'm out!" Sisu's distant voice shouted before an audible splash was heard.
Confused, Namaari turned to Raya who was still staring off at the river dragon.
"I told her to just bring you here normally, " Raya huffed, annoyed. She looked at Namaari, who just stood there idly, not quite sure how to process the situation.
"Wet, but fine." Namaari sniffed, wringing some more water out of her hair. "What's this about? Is this about the market I wasn't supposed to go to?"
Raya stared at her before grimacing. " Sisu. " Her voice was laced with venom.
Namaari chuckled. "So what's up, dep la ?"
"I didn't want it like this," Raya mumbled, but she reached into her pocket. "But since we're here anyway, I'll give it to you." She handed Namaari something shiny.
Namaari took the shiny something and turned it over in her hands. It was the dragon pendant, or rather, half of it. Before, it was just a pendant of Sisu, but it looked like half of the dragon was modified to be another dragon. Now it was two pendants with a dragon holding half a gem piece, which would be whole once put together.
"Is this… the pendant?" Namaari asked, feeling nostalgic.
"I knew a smithy who was good with jewelry and… I thought it was pretty troublesome to keep passing this back and forth." Raya pulled out the other half or the pendant. "So I had it modified. This way we can both have half of it."
She couldn't stop herself from grinning. Namaari knew the stages of dating and all that, even though it wasn't an activity she participated in at all. She was so focused on Fang and survival, there was simply no room for romance at all. She knew presents and gifts like this were common among couples but she didn't know how wonderful it felt.
"Did Sisu consent to being cut in half?" Namaari joked, putting on the necklace immediately.
"Actually this was her idea. Well, kinda . She just said something about how it would be nice if we both could have it," Raya explained, putting on her half. "Since it's important to us."
"How sappy ." Namaari mockingly groaned.
Raya playfully shoved her partner with a grin. "Just say 'thanks', dep la, I know you like it."
"Hmm, maybe ." Namaari snickered, which earned her another good natured shove.
Raya's face then grew a bit more serious. She stood in front of Namaari and looked her dead straight in the eyes. Feeling the mood shift, Namaari matched Raya's demeanor and straightened up.
"I know the road you have isn't easy," she started. "But I want you to know I'll always be by your side. No matter what. "
“Same goes for you.” Namaari smirked. "You'll never get rid of me, y'know?"
"Exactly what I'm hoping for." Raya grinned.