endsthegameWeeks, since they'd come back to Fandom. They'd been here weeks, and Ender hadn't managed to settle. By now, it was like part of him was expecting the move to come, to jump on some ship and go on to the next place. He hadn't felt like that before - waiting, sure, marking time, but not this firm restlessness.
He'd gone down to the beach early in the morning in some attempt to calm his restlessness. Working on the raft had always helped him that way. But now-- now he was staring at the piles of damaged wood and frayed rope, and instead of thinking I should fix this, he was just... looking.
It wouldn't be long until the temperatures dropped so far that using the raft would be impossible. How long would he have, next summer? Just the first month, until graduation? Part of it? The whole thing? The IF kept shifting dates for his colony vessel's departure. He had no idea.
He shoved the wood out of the way. He'd leave it to rot - it would become an ecosystem on its own for a while, and feed several kinds of lifeforms. Some of the rope had plastic in it, though, and so he gathered that up and put it aside, to be taken to the dorms later.
With that done, he sat down on the beach and stared at the water.
That still calmed him. But it didn't take away the feeling of finally being completely uprooted.
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