Helen Epilogue
#8 of Cadi, Volume 7: Helen
Briar's Cauldron was packed. The six brothers, the whole crew, all of the guardians, Cadi and Helen had really taken over one of the secondary bar rooms in the pub. Briar was certain that she'd need to continue expanding the place as the island grew... but as problems went, that was a fairly good one to have.
The brothers were celebrating. Not their father's death... because he hadn't really been killed. They really weren't thinking about him right now, and that really was for the best. No, they were celebrating a fresh start. A new opportunity to have the kinds of lives that they never could have back at the temple.
Beta was handling it interestingly. He was happily helping tote heavy casks up from the cellar with Briar, glad that he was able to use his strength to help rather than to intimidate. That's all that he'd ever been allowed to use his strength for before now.
Jacob was sitting off to the side with Maisie and Alisa, singing along to some of the shanties that they had learned back when they'd take people out on parties on the lake. Kestrel was even there joining in along with him.
Dean was having some good fun arm-wrestling the members of the crew. At the moment, he was going againstKrystie. Helen watched as he looked to be winning for a moment before the feline moved her arm just right and slammed his arm down against the table to a round of cheers from the gathered crew. He looked quite defeated, but a moment later, Krystie handed him a mug of beer, which he accepted with a laugh, nodding his head to her as he said, "Good game."
Martin and Lucas were having an absolute blast flirting with several of the female members of the crew and staff, all of it playful and in good fun, while Aman was sitting by the window, sipping on a beer as he looked out across the ocean with a thoughtful look in his eyes.
Helen laughed and sighed, shaking her head, "They'll be fine," she said.
Neither Cadi nor Robin could disagree with that assessment. "It's... good to see them genuinely happy... for a change," Cadi said with a sigh, sounding like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.
Robin nodded her head in response to that, lifting her glass to Cadi as she replied, "It may have taken time... but all's well that ends well, yeah?
Cadi couldn't help but laugh. "I suppose so. Even Zaros," she said with a tired sigh.
Helen smiled softly at her mother, reaching over to pat the back of her hand. "Oh... he's not at his end. His next story is just beginning."
Cadi smiled at her daughter, nodding her head. "I'm... very proud of you for what you did. I really couldn't have come up with a better solution, myself."
Helen blushed a little and bowed her head. "Thank you. I don't know what I would have done if he hadn't agreed to it... but he did, so it really isn't worth worrying about now, is it?"
Robin laughed at that, "Yeah. And the rest of us can stop wracking our brains over how we would have handled needing to kill him if it came to that," she said, looking out of the window. "I wonder where he'll end up."
Cadi stretched and patted Robin's shoulder as she got up. "I can't say for certain. But Helen was right. Odds are that it will be better than the life he led this go around. Anyway, I need to step to the restroom," she said, heading out of the room and toward the ladies' rooms, though she never made it there.
Up on the mountain, there was a beautiful lodge that... no one had really built. It was staffed by fluffy, white-furred rabbits, who were commonly known as snow bunnies. They were eternally cheerful and always happy to tend to the needs of their guests. Even the needs that they themselves didn't know that they had.
No one was entirely sure how the snow bunnies had come to the lodge... none of them were among the furs that had been brought to the island the night of the exodus.
If anything... they seemed to be... embodiments of the island's hospitality and care. Across the multiverse, they were one of the true constants of the island, which tended to support this theory.
Whatever the truth of it was, their lodge was a lovely place, where guests could soak in hot springs, or enjoy massages... or any deeply needed self-care.
On this particular day, though, one of the snow bunnies was in the process of giving birth. The bunnies around her were on point and ready to help the mother-to-be. Soon enough, though, the midwife stood up, holding the newborn child. She was a little white-furred rabbit, though she had a few scattered black markings on her fur, that resembled a tiger's stripes.
Still, the bunnies in the room all just thought that it made her even more adorable as they just fawned on the infant as she was brought up for her mother to hold.
Cadi stood there off to one side, watching the child being cared for by the bunnies, and she couldn't help but smile. She bowed her head and wished the child the best life possible before she turned and left once more.