# Reunion

Title: Reunion
Status: Complete
Characters: Anon, Fang, Amber
Rating: SFW
Classification: One Shot
Author: Anonymous
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Now it was the present moment. It had always been.
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They walked without clear destination across the quiet beach, the husband, the wife, and their child. Footsteps only audible by their faint impact against fine pale sand accompanied the family's silhouettes, defined against the setting sun's illumination which blanketed the entire visible coast in its signature orange gold. The summer breeze, warm and thin, joined the minute percussion of the family's steps in concert with the rhythmic tidal whispers which hovered over the face of the waters.
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The husband, human, and the wife, winged reptile, stood together and in near lock step as if they had been one flesh. In her arms the pterosaurine woman held their daughter - no more than seven years old - and both of the excitable girl's parents engaged in continuous playful conversation as they continued leisurely across the serene shore. The child had received the vast majority of her traits from her mother, who even now she unmistakably reflected in appearance, tiny feathered wings flapping excitedly against the woman's hold as her citrine eyes gazed into perfect replicas.
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The mother's wider and matured wings trailed gracefully behind her as she walked in contrast to that of her offspring's, and her silvery hair which she had also passed on to her daughter fell gracefully at her sides, shining in the familiar sunset's rays. She wore a plain yellow sundress with a decorative red bow, a golden pendant worn as a necklace around her neck, that same shade which had colored their lives, and a similar miniature counterpart of the outfit was worn by her daughter in a shade of vibrant pink. Matching her height beside her was the woman's husband, dressed in plain khakis and a dark green dress shirt, his face now aged ever so slightly compared to the day of their child's birth but still absolutely unchanged in the expression of pure love with which he never failed to look upon the two loves of his life.
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Only a scant few passerby now graced the beach or its surrounding area, hums of passing vehicles a rare and distant occurrence which did little to disturb the tranquility of this seaside vista. Gradually, the family's strolling gait slowed and they giggled collectively over some frivolous revelry that had happily beguiled them. There was a prolonged pause as the mirth settled down, and then the girl had inquired about something to her mother, who in turn looked towards her husband in contemplation before returning her attention to the child and nodding in assent to what had been requested. She brought her long snout towards the child's equally beaked face and pecked at the young girl's cheek, and then she descended along with her daughter in her arms to the earth below, letting her hold on the child go once tiny feet touched the ground.
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Image of the parent, the daughter proceeded from her mother and onto the waiting sands, therein unfolding a receptive feminine reflection of the world around and within them. The girl took in for a still moment the sights of the littoral expanse, and then she kicked off her shoes and stepped forward, slow and tentative at first but then rapidly transitioning into first a brisk jog and then a practical sprint, no barrier now present to whatever she may tread upon. She ran across the shore, glittering waves behind her continuously coming to rest with the land at the coast in the ancient dance that the Lord had set there in innumerable eons past. And she was dancing, too. Hopping about aimlessly at first, and then twirling around, once, then twice, peels of innocent laughter escaping her beak and her small wings unfurled, the motions kicking up fine grains of crystalline sand which clouded briefly around her form like points of sparkling light in a fine mist.
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A few gulls gathered on nearby rocks, perched and silently watching one of their long distant evolutionary cousins pirouette along the coastal stage. She trusted the earth beneath her feet and the heavens above her head without reservation, and they happily responded in kind. The magnificent solar rays, from the same sunset which had seven years ago christened her with the name of their gleaming brilliance - Amber - painted the sky in their trademark luminous golden orange, generously imparting their warm tones upon all they touched. Across from the shining tangerine descent of the sun, the moon had already arrived above the horizon, ahead of the night, eager to join in the stellar waltz.
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And along the golden beach, and on through the quiet nearby roads, and further still into the heart of the city of Volcadera, like a relaxed and harmonious exhalation, all became tranquil. Far from where Amber danced, shops littered along the district of Little Troodon slowed in their activity, with only a few last tentative customers idly perusing about, most still present having found a place to settle and take in the sights of the vibrant evening, tiny snippets of their conversations serving as windows into hundreds of lives equally as dazzling as the sunset above them. The interior of Dino-Moe's, illuminated as it had always been by empyreal light from its large front windows, bustled with patrons anticipating its renowned dinners - as it always had. Beyond and deeper yet into the town, past serene suburban roads and onto the school district, stood Volcano High, emptied for the summer, standing as a hibernating monument in brief repose against the beaming citrine welkin before the time would come again for it to open its halls to a new flurry of young memories, experiences, and dreams.
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And there surrounded the building still the verdant gardens that had remained carefully tended to by successors of their original attendant, as colorful and as lush as they had been years ago, a couple of bumblebees studiously perpetuating the process of pollination, their fuzzy bodies rustling small portions of the flowerbeds as they hovered to and fro. Above, and overlooking the vacant parking lot, wind passed across the surface of the school's roof, rattling gently the chain link fence which surrounded it and the metal ladder affixed to the end of an elevated section that rose higher still. The roof's concrete floor had long been dry of the tears that had long ago fallen from a quivering snout, long quiet of the soft notes from an old guitar fashioned into a makeshift hall pass that had sounded off through the air during countless songwriting trysts. Distant sounds of vehicles traversing the surrounding city's roads grew less frequent, a soothing peace settling in the warm summer air and embracing the vast expanse of urban settlement. Here was a city at rest, evening breeze passing through the streets as air released from great paved lungs, bathed in amberlight radiance.
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On the beach, the child's parents stood shoulder to shoulder, the mother's wings unconsciously moving to bring one of their feathery spans across the shoulder of her lover. He leaned in towards his wife - his Lucy - and whispered something to her softly, which caused her snouted mouth to curl into a warm smile and her glistening orange eyes to grow watery as a single tear fell down her cheek, touched by the words he had said to her that only the two of them were privy to. And she brought the lips on the end of her long muzzle to his - a practice they had both become extraordinarily familiar with - and delivered a chaste kiss, before they both turned towards their daughter who twirled in tandem with the rhythm of the crashing waves, looking upon her with a singular and unified love which surrounded and guarded her like an all-pervading sentinel.
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Without a sound, Amber felt her parents wordlessly calling to her across the sands and the waves, and she pivoted towards them, sprinting with her arms flung out to her sides and wings fully extended, flapping joyfully against the wind. She was carried a few inches into the air briefly by the feathery motions, flying in the golden sky's light, before her feet touched down again to the ground, drawing closer to the waiting arms of her mother. Then she leapt forward and returned into those outstretched arms of infinite, luminous compassion from which she had come, and it was if she had never left.
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"On the vast canvas of the Self
the picture of the manifold worlds
is painted by the Self itself
and that Supreme Self
seeing but itself
enjoys great delight."
-Adi Shankaracharya, Svatma Nirupanam