"Are you sure?" Eren asked quietly. "It seems too bad to come all this way and have nothing to show for it. They might be able to teach you a lot."
"I don't want their kind of help," Lucy retorted. "And I do have something to show for it. I'm glad she taught me how to find my inner griffin." She had an inner griffin! She was still filled with joy at the thought; even the discovery of the strings attached to Amarantha's offer couldn't dampen it entirely. "But I've been a prisoner in my uncle's house. I know what that's like. I had nice things and my needs were provided for, but it was still a prison and I'm never, ever going back to it. I'd prefer any amount of danger to that."
"You're incredibly brave, Lucy, has anyone ever told you that?"
"It's not bravery, it's stubbornness," Lucy said. New Lucy apparently didn't let people push her around; who knew?
"I'm not sure there's a difference. You seem very brave to me."
He boosted her back up to the deck, where Dane gripped her hand and pulled her up.
"How'd it go?" Dane asked. "Seemed like things were going pretty well for a while there."
"They told me I could come stay with them but Eren couldn't," Lucy said. "And if I came with them, I couldn't ever leave. Forget that. No wonder my dad and uncle left."
Eren, still on the sand, shoved the boat off and then caught the railing and swung himself gracefully on board. "Everyone ready to go?"
"Please," Lucy said. She brushed off her sand-covered hands and looked around. "Where did the little griffins go?"
There was a chirp from the top of the pilot house, and she looked up to see all three of them up there, lined up in a row like the gargoyle statues in town. Lucy giggled.
"Hi guys! Never mind, we're ready to go."
Eren laughed. "Amazing. They really do like you." He went into the pilot house to start the motor.
Lucy smiled, but she hesitated to follow him. Instead she looked back at the island, straining for a final glimpse of the griffin pair watching from the beach. They had both shifted back to their griffin forms and stood on a rock, watching the boat leave, looking like a pair of sculptures.
Can I do that?
Is something like that inside me?
Lucy reached down into the elusive part of herself that might be called her soul, but if there was a griffin reaching back for her there, she could no longer feel it.
Yet there was no part of her that felt as if she had made the wrong decision. She was never allowing anyone to take her choices away again, for any reason.
And whatever she did next, it would be with Eren by her side.
EREN
Lucy was subduedand quiet after they left the island. Even the antics of the trash griffins couldn't seem to cheer her up.
"We'll be back by nightfall," Eren told her. "Our course back is more direct than the way out. And Dane is getting himself home." He had offered his friend a ride, but Dane shook his head, undressed on the back deck, and slipped quietly into the water. After a little while, the black and white orca flashed briefly among the waves before Eren had lost sight of him.
"I'm looking forward to it," Lucy said. She smiled a bit wanly. "As much as I love boating, I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bed that doesn't move and eating something other than sandwiches and canned soup. I hope that doesn't make me high-maintenance."
"Lucy, first of all, you're the most low-maintenance person I've ever met, and second, even if you wanted to live on nothing but filet mignon and caviar, I'd get it for you."
"No thanks!" Lucy said, laughing. She got up off the bench seat and came over to stand next to his seat, moving with unconscious grace as the boat skipped over the water. Rain streaked the windows; the weather was lousy again. "Actually I'm dying for a stack of those amazing blueberry pancakes your sister makes."
"I'll make sure she has pancake batter on standby."
Lucy leaned on his shoulder, a warm weight at his side. "I can't believe how much this feels like going home." She turned her head to kiss his cheek briefly.
A black and white orca body streaked past their bow. It leaped out of the water and then splashed back in.
"Is that Dane?" Eren asked, frowning. He throttled down. "Could you take the helm for a minute? I'll go see what he wants. Back in a minute."
Lucy nodded and took the controls with no hesitation. Eren stepped out onto the deck. The weather was deteriorating steadily; rain and wind lashed at them. Holding on to the railing, he made his way back to the stern, where Dane had shifted and was pulling himself out. Eren gave him a hand and Dane, lean and muscular without a spare scrap of fat on him anywhere, scrambled out on deck.