Disconnect
By SMYGO4EVA

They stood in the middle of the red wasteland, side by side.

"So, this is the world you left behind, Kisara…" Mana spoke finally, her words soft and pensive. "How does it look to you?"

Kisara took in a trembling breath. "It's…empty….and very quiet."

"Do you like the quiet?"

The White Dragon's hesitation weighed heavily on her.

"I used to," she murmured, "but this feels very different…"

She felt the young apprentice's curious eyes gazing at her closely when she said, "I didn't think I'd miss the crowds and the noise so much."

"I..." she started, but she wasn't sure what else to say, and Mana looked at her, serious.

"This is all that this place has to offer," The spellcaster said, carefully, slowly, and it sounded to Kisara that the sentence wasn't finished.

She waited, trying not to let the bubbling impatience show on her face, and then Mana finally continued.

"Right now," she says. "This is all I have to offer right now."

And the blue-eyed woman nodded, reached over, taking Mana's hand.

Because there was the vaguest promise of something in those words, the tiniest hint of a future, and maybe that was enough for her.

She was going to let that be enough.

Mana blinked and she squeezed the blue-eyed woman's hand, choosing her words carefully. "D-Do you want to go back?"

"…Only with you."

The apprentice smiled brightly, and then the blue-eyed woman smiled back.

With a wave of the spellcaster's staff, the red world then slowly turned to blue.