Dragoncrest Cliffs of soldiers' dreams

Sobo leaned over the cliffs and watched the twisting progression of a shell in the air. It flashed once in the midday sunlight, then disappeared forever into the crashing waves.

For him, this was a symbolic ritual. Too long had he allowed anger to suffuse his heart on account of Njord. Too long had he suffered the pain of feeling replaced and unwanted by the man he idolized. It seeped into his every relationship in Sapphique and poisoned them all. It poisoned his very home, driving him to spend long periods of time beyond the borders instead of here with his family and all the places he loved. That morning when he woke, Sobo chose to be done with all of it.

When the shell hit the water, Sobo excised the very notion of Njord as Da from his mind. He took scissors to the family portrait and snipped the man from the picture, leaving his two wonderful mamans and his siblings. He had thought long and hard on whether he should leave Sapphique entirely — no one else seemed to care how Njord had changed, so perhaps he alone was the problem — but he was not willing to be forced from his home. That left him no other choice to end his own suffering but to lower his expectations to nothing. Njord had new puppies to be da to. The lwa willing, he would be a more worthy da to them.

Rosalyn was right. Fathers were disappointments. His siblings did not need fathers. Now, neither did he. The boy licked his lips and took a long breath, settled at last with his decision, and turned from the cliffs lighter in spirit to look for @Mireille, whom he had spent far too long away from of late.