Physalis: A Broken Claw

==Chapter One==
Physalis scooped her talons in the water and watched as the shining droplets cascaded across her pale white scales. In the night, she glowed like one of the moons, but with the snowdrifts surrounding her she looked like a sculpture of glittering ice.
Her father settled next to her, his breath clouding in the air. "Physalis," he said, "I just want you to know how much I love you. You're the most precious thing in my life."
The two-year-old dragonet stared adoringly at the hulking, scarred SkyWing next to her. "I know, Papa," she said. "And I'll awlways wuve you, too!"
"I just want to say," he said seriously, staring into her ice gray eyes, "that no matter what happens, I love you."
And those had been his last words. To her, anyways.
The next morning, when Physalis woke up, her father was gone. A series of talonprints led outside of the Talons of Peace camp, ending abruptly next to a stooping pine tree. Clearly he had flown away, away from his 'most precious thing in his life.'
And now, one year later, she was still waiting.
Every morning, she made a small breakfast of bread or fruit, and then she headed to the riverbank and watched as clouds drifted across the sky. And every morning, her hope grew feebler and feebler.
This particular morning, however, was different.
It wasn't that the sky was an impersonal blue or that the river was a little swollen with snow melt. It was because that exactly one year ago, on a day that had been just like this one, her father had left.
Physalis dipped her claws into the river and shook the shining droplets off of her pale white scales, before reaching into her carpet bag. When she withdrew her claws, she was clenching a sloppy painting that showed four moons in a twinkling black sky. In wobbly letters she had signed her name.
When had she made this? When she was one year old?
Physalis tore the painting in half, and then in quarters, before throwing it into the river. The paper drifted around a curve and was lost from sight.
Angrily, Physalis reached in her bag again. And again. Painting, drawings, letters, all signed by the same dragonet, thrown into the river. She watched them go, and then she clenched her talons. "I'm done waiting!" she called, raising her voice. A few birds squawked in panic and surprise before taking off. "I'm done waiting, Father!" she said again. "Why won't you come back?"
Physalis hated that she was crying now. She hated that she was so vulnerable.
Why should she care? He obviously didn't care about her, no matter how much he had said that he loved her or whatever.
But that was the problem.
She did care.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)