Jorge, as it turned out, had heard I was back in town and was expecting us to show up – probably he guessed that he’d have the most space other than my family and I wouldn’t want to stay there – and greeted us cheerfully.  He was a shorter, rounder gentleman who seemed a lot more cheerful than I remembered from my years growing up.

He apparently caught my confusion as he showed us around his home.

“I’m different, no?  It’s not an accident.  I’m not so tense anymore.  I used to be scared all the time.”  He pointed to one of the pictures on the wall.  “My boy, Ryan, he followed Marilyn, and I was always scared of that.  It wasn’t something I’d have picked for him – I wanted him away from danger, you know.  But I knew as well as you did that not supporting them would mean backlash, and in my case, it could mean losing my store and my livelihood.  So I pretended to support them, even though it scared me when Ryan started hanging out with Marilyn.  When the curse fell, I was delighted, because it meant he wasn’t in danger anymore.  I got him sent off to school and I’m happy to say he’s doing well out there.”  He smiled proudly at the picture.  “He got a job in another city and isn’t planning to come back, not to stay, anyway.  I’m happy for him.  This place is my home, so I want to stay, but Ryan – he finally realized there was more for him than this place and the fights that the feud would inevitably bring.  Seeing him free has been a huge relief to me, not to mention, being able to actually speak my mind has been a big deal.  Me, Gia, the people like us – we don’t have to constantly hide in the shadows and be afraid anymore.  I’ve gotten a lot more talkative since the curse,” he confessed.  “At least so my patrons tell me.”

“But we like it,” Gia stated, smiling at him affectionately.  “You’re fun to hang around with now.”

“Now,” he agreed, shaking his head sadly.  “I wasted so many years afraid to even crack a joke because people were always so serious.  But we can smile and laugh and not be constantly burdened down anymore.  It’s a relief.  I think people are hesitant at first to realize they can actually laugh at stuff, but they find it nice and some of them even come here I think just to hear me talk,” he informed me with mock graveness.  “It’s what I used to dream of – having a store that could be the heart of the town, you know?  Where people want to come not just for supplies, but because their friends might be hanging out on the porch on the rocking chairs, swapping stories.  It’s nice to see that start to come true.”  He smiled in a satisfied sort of way, then motioned to the stairs.  “I got a couple bedrooms up there, we’ll get some fresh sheets on them.  Gia said you already ate?”

“We did,” Gia checked her watch, “and I should probably get going, actually.  I have an early shift tomorrow and we’re going to want to call a meeting so people can talk to Winter.”

Jorge nodded.  “Got it, got it.  I’ll spread word on my end.  You have a good night now, Gia, and thanks for bringing them here.”

We waved goodbye to her, and then Toph and I insisted on helping Jorge with the sheets, so he showed us the linen closet and the rooms where we could stay for the night.

To be honest, I’d never thought I’d stay in Ryan’s parents’ home, but Jorge was nice.  It was a shame he hadn’t been able to be fully himself for years.

I hesitated as I finished with the bed, glancing at Jorge as he stood in the door and explained the history of the town to Toph, who was nodding politely but probably didn’t really need to know all about our wars – well, more than he already knew.

“Jorge?”  I asked a little hesitantly.  “Why didn’t you just leave, if it was that bad for you?  Start a store somewhere else?”

He sighed, accepting my interruption without hesitation.  “Luisa, my wife, she’s from Terium.  I met her and fell in love and moved here when we were younger than you are now.  I can’t say I enjoyed the feud, but I’ve lived most of my life here now, raised my son, started my business – this is home, even if there was a war going on.  And Luisa, she wouldn’t have wanted to leave.  Her family is here, some of them in graves so the only way she can see them is to stay here.  I almost tried to talk her into leaving once, when Ryan was little, but by then we’d sunk all our savings into the store and we really couldn’t afford to go anywhere.  I was more scared for him than for us, you know.  Luisa and I, we’re not really fighters and don’t have all that much magic.  We’ve never been that much in danger from the feud personally.  But Ryan idolized Marilyn and wanted to be one of her people, even if his magic was fairly average, and that was what scared me.  Him getting pulled in.  Him getting hurt from following her – which was much more likely than us getting hurt.”

“Terium is your home,” Toph agreed.  “Despite the problems, it’s still your home and you wanted to stay.”

“Exactly.”  Then he got a little more cheerful.  “But the curse has made it possible for home to feel safe here.  No more worries about fights and people coming back in a coffin.  Finally we can just be a normal town.”  He gave me a smile.  “I know you’re likely going to face some arguments from Marilyn and her likes, but just know, we have your back.  Everyone who realizes how good things are now, we 100% support you.”

I did appreciate that.  Actually, I appreciated it a lot, considering that most of the time growing up I’d felt like no one would support my dislike of the feud.  I actually had a lot of people on my side now, people who understood and agreed with me.

I’d just have to make sure I lived up to their expectations and used the curse to help the town truly – and permanently – change.

Which meant the next morning it was time to see my family.  I’d decided I might as well not put it off, so I’d told Toph my plans to meet with them before meeting with Gia, Jorge, and the other peace-promoting people in the afternoon, and he’d agreed with the idea.

After breakfast with Jorge and Luisa, who was a little shy but warmed up to both of us when we praised her food – which was honestly probably some of the best food I’d ever eaten and I had no idea how she made it taste that good – we headed out towards the house I’d grown up in.

We didn’t get too far, though, before I paused, recognizing the person approaching us.

“Trouble?”  Toph murmured under his breath.

“Cousin,” I explained briefly.  I had no idea if this would be trouble or not, but this was my cousin who’d been there in the school the day the curse was placed.  The only one who’d noticed that I was planning to leave that day and seemed to want to talk me out of it.

“Winter!”  He was almost seething.  “I heard you’re back, and first of all, you didn’t even bother to come say hi to us?  We’re you’re family!  But second, why the hell wouldn’t you tell us that you were a dragon?  All those years, you just lied to us and pretended to be a kapra!  Why?”

There was a lot of anger there, but some hurt, too.

I was fully aware that people were watching our little confrontation, but I didn’t figure that was much of a point in keeping my reasons a secret – there would definitely be rumors, so I might as well get the rumors to at least be about the right thing.

“Mother didn’t want to be a part of this war and she didn’t want me to be, either,” I responded simply.

That didn’t calm him down one bit.  “You are part of this war!  Your family is, so you are!”

“No,” I snapped coldly, startling him into silence.  “I never wanted to be a part of this, family or no.  Just because my family is all stuck on a pointless venture doesn’t mean I have to be, too.  I deliberately refused to take part in any attack against someone, and everyone knew that.  I was never part of the war.  And don’t you dare pretend that if you’d known about me being a dragon – or your parents had, or my dad – that they wouldn’t have tried to use that to your advantage.”

He managed to look deeply offended and pissed off at the same time.  “You’re our family, too,” he started to say.

I cut him off again.  “You’re really trying to tell me that your mom wouldn’t have tried to force me to tell Marilyn that I was a dragon?  And use my magic to help?  That your dad wouldn’t have tried to make sure I took out as many hydra as possible?  That my dad wouldn’t have tried to make sure I was trapped into helping no matter what?”

He paused, a seed of doubt there now.

“Mother and I made the decision that was best for her, and then for me,” I told him, a little calmer.  “And honestly, I think it was best for the town, too.  If I’d have been forced into helping with the war, it wouldn’t have solved the problem – it would have just made it worse.”

Toph was glancing back and forth between us, trying to gauge emotions most likely and figure out whether he should step in.

“Have things been better for you since the curse?”  He asked gently.

My cousin seemed a little confused by this question.  “Better?  How?  We don’t have magic anymore!  Apart from being able to transform, anyway.”

“But you also don’t have fights and deaths and a lot fewer injuries,” I pointed out.

When he frowned, further confused by this point, Toph continued.

“Have you taken the opportunity to really look at the quality of your lives since the curse fell?  I know I’m new to this town, but so far I’ve heard that people aren’t scared of losing their children in a random fight anymore; injuries are less common; people are free to laugh and relax more than in the past; children aren’t afraid to go to school; and your education itself is improving.  Those seem like all good things, and some of them major good things.”

He didn’t add the underlying thought – that the feud itself was destroying the town, and it wasn’t until the violence was stopped that the town was able to start recovering – but it was there.  My cousin would have to admit it if he really thought about it, and same with all the kapras and hydras.

Life had gotten better since the feud had been forcibly ended.  That should make them think, shouldn’t it?

He was still frowning, but finally glanced at Toph, then at me.  “This your boyfriend, I take it?”

I made a face while Toph muffled a laugh.  “No.  Cousin, on my mother’s side.  Toph, this is Manuel.  Manuel, Christopher, or Toph.”

“I’m a sphinx,” Toph added as he held out his hand to shake Manuel’s.  “My mom is a dragon like Winter and is Winter’s mom’s older sister.”

Manuel shook his hand automatically, apparently confused by this, but didn’t ask further.  “So are you coming back to the house?”

I tried to keep my sigh mostly internal, but I didn’t think I fooled either of them.  “Yes.  I’m going to come say hello to everyone.”  Then I smiled tightly.  “But I’m not staying.  And I’m not going to be quiet anymore and just listen to their opinions without stating my own.”

Manuel gave me a searching look, like he was trying to figure out what that meant.  Surely he – and the entire family – couldn’t have been totally oblivious that I didn’t agree with all the lectures I got about supporting Marilyn?

“If you didn’t realize that I never agreed with them, you were paying a lot less attention than I thought,” I stated quietly.

Then, without waiting for further comment, I marched forward towards the large house at the far end of town.  The house where I’d spent my early years.  The place that had never really been home.

I did care for my family.  But…sometimes I wondered how much they really cared about me.  They didn’t understand me, and it had always made me feel like an outsider.  Maybe that was my own perception, knowing I was hiding this big secret from them, but maybe it was just that I didn’t feel like I fit in with a family that were staunch “old order” people while I was just…not involved.  Or not wanting to be involved, at least.  They tried, I knew that.  But even them trying hadn’t made it feel like a real home.  No, home for me in those years was sitting in the woods with Mother, talking to her about whatever I felt like, or listening to her tell me stories about her many years.  Sometimes, home was creeping out in the woods in the middle of the night to meet up with Mark and listen to him rant and then talk about the future.  Home had never been this building.  Home had always been away from it.