Eight months. Crannogās life had been ripped away from him for eight long months, and he didnāt even understand why. When heād escaped from the witchās lair and found his way home, heād assumed there would have been some kind of search party, some kind of huntĀ to find their missing son... but instead, heād been met with the news that the world had thought him dead, and that all of this was a miracle.
It was still confusing to him, the details -- both those he had and those no oneĀ had. All he knew was that apparently, heād been born a twin, and his long-lost brother had had some sort of evil vendetta against him, some bizarre plan to take over his life. It didnāt seem real; it seemed like something out of a horror movie or a bizarre mystery novel. It wasnāt the sort of thing that happened in real life, and yet here Crannog was -- it was his life, and he was living it.
His parents had insisted he was weak, delirious, and that he needed to stay put until the witch who had aided in all of this was found. Theyād promised that Mairi and Julie would be visiting them during their spring break from Walt, and he could reveal the news to them then. But the whole time heād been captive, his daughter and Julie had been the only things heād thought about, the reasons heād fought to keep going and eventually get away. Waiting a month more to recover before seeing them again... it didnāt feel right, and being an expert at escaping now, heād snuck out of his parentās home in time to make it for Walt for Valentineās Day.
Perhaps this was the wrong way to go about it -- perhaps he should have waited, or at least send word. But who would believe it if they got mail from a dead man? How would they understand over the phone? Seeing them in person felt right, and Fairy Godmother had agreed, tentatively letting him into Walt and giving him a change of clothes for the ball. The ball. He hadnāt really considered that when heād departed for Walt, heād just been thinking about how he needed to get to the restĀ of his family as soon as possible and let them know the truth.
And now here he was, awkwardly walking into an event where last year heād caused so much emotional turmoil... Hopefully, at least, this emotionally jarring news would be more pleasant than his relationship with Jac had been for Julie. Did any of that even matter now? It felt so far away now, a different lifetime ago, before heād lost so much time for reasons that still baffled him. Before he could even enter into the dance hall, though, a figure splashing in the fountain caught his eye, and before he even moved closer, he felt it, that it was his daughter.
She was always growing, getting bigger and bigger all the time, and eight months without seeing her made her seem huge in comparison. But there she was, his Mairi -- theirĀ Mairi, and he glanced around, praying heād spot Julie beside her, too. His eyes locked on her next, and his heart felt like it stopped; God, they were both so beautiful, such a sight for sore eyes that had thought theyād never get to see them again. They hadnāt noticed him yet, and he wanted to call out to them, to tell them he was here... but the words caught in his throat, overwhelmed. Instead of offering a greeting, the noise he made that alerted them to his presence was nothing more than a choked sob.
