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Keiron and Kasper’s mother was an exuberant woman with the attitude to match Kasper’s own personality. Which became even more enjoyable to watch when Sebastian got smacked up the head by the old woman’s walking stick for snickering at Keiron and Kasper’s lecture from their mother.
They weren’t a wealthy family, going by the mildly barren and hole-in the-wall-esque home they had. But they didn’t seem to mind it, they filled the space left with bird song and conversation.
Mrs. K, as they were instructed to call her upon meeting the woman, served them a mix of flaxseed and purple cracked corn with apple slices once the sun had begun to shift and recede back into the thin window panes. It was bland, compared to the food that Elaine and her mother were served back over the wall. Elaine was grateful though, it had been awhile since she’d had proper food that wasn’t something magicked to look appetizing by Sebastian.
The dinner consisted of Keiron, Elaine, and Mrs. K all talking to each other pleasantly around the head of the small rectangular table made of worn and loved wood, and Kal periodically trying to join in but eventually cowered back into his wooden bowl as Sebastian continued to stare(?) at him. Kasper himself was munching away happily at the flaxseed, which seemed to be his favorite, and inserting his own comments into the conversation here and there.
After dinner, Mrs. K batted her walking stick at Elaine and Sebastian’s shins as she squawked at them to go grab some blankets from the closet to the far side of the fireplace. Once they had grabbed the blankets and laid them down on the floor near the fireplace, Keiron came into the room with two worn pillows and handed them to Elaine. Which pissed Sebastian off, but he got over it quickly enough.
Elaine was lying down on the wooden floorboards, listening to Bartholomew’s quiet chirps of dreams.
“You remember that one boy? The one that always threw rocks at your window?” Kadena quietly asked Elaine as they were reminiscing over their life before Isabella and Charles’s party.
“With the freckles?” Elaine whispered back to her.
“Yes, do you remember why he stopped coming over?” Kadena conspiratorially asked Elaine as a beaked smirk grew across her dark face.
“Not really.. I figured he had found a wife by then,” Elaine answered as she moved onto her side and she looked at Kadena.
Kadena’s purple eyes started glittering as she proudly lifted her right wing to her chest and said, “I convinced the local family of crows to come and chase him off with me. We flew after him for a half hour before we stopped.”
Elaine giggled, “you really did that? He’s probably afraid of birds now, Kadena!”
“Serves him and his bad aim right,” Kadena whispered back. Elaine snorted and smiled softly at Kadena.
“I wonder what it will be like when we go back home.”
“If we go back..” Kadena reminded Elaine as she sat down and huddled closely into her feathered chest.
“Right. If we go back.”
Kadena lifted her head and looked at Elaine as she fiddled with her ringed finger in front of her sullen face.
“..Elaine.. do you want to go back?” Kadena gently asked.
“I.. I don’t know.” Elaine soundlessly replied as she sighed.
“I like it here,” she continued, “I don’t know how to describe it. I just feel so much.. better here,” Elaine gestured around the room with her hands.
“Better than I ever did over there, at least.”
Kadena made a thinking noise as she mulled over Elaine’s words in her head.
“What about your mother? Or Isabella and Charles?” Kadena asked.
Elaine didn’t know what to think of anything about her situation. She missed her mother and friends but she would also miss Sebastian if she ever left. Over there she had the comfort of her friends, but here she had her freedom. And not to mention she hasn’t been able to revert back to normal either, not that she’s even tried. She’s been getting worse!
Elaine groaned and covered her face with her hands.
“This is so hard, Kadena. I don’t know what to do,” Elaine quietly admitted to her friend.
“You don’t have to know right now Elaine,” Kadena replied back as soothingly as she could from her perch in Elaine’s frizzy hair.
Elaine looked over at Sebastian’s sleeping form. He somehow had mastered the ability to look angelic while asleep, and damn if she wasn’t jealous. Sebastian had also wormed his way into Elaine’s heart throughout their journey so far, and it would really suck if she had to leave him behind.
It would also suck if she never got to see Isabella and Charles again.
Oh. Charles. Her maybe-fiancé.
Elaine bit her lip in thought before whispering, “what do you think about Charles?”
Kadena’s eyebrows shot up as she looked over at Elaine. She looked to be sweating even though the fireplace had gone out hours before.
Kadena eventually sighed and said, “I think he’s impulsive and an opportunist who cowers behind his father.”
Ah, very concise and to the point. Thanks Kadena.
“Do you think he’s a good person though?”
“Elaine, he pushed you over the veil!” Kadena whisper-yelled at Elaine.
“He was scared,” Elaine defended.
Kadena pushed back, “If you met Keiron or Kasper that day, would you push them?”
Elaine stared down at her ringed finger as it stood out from the feathers around it. A reminder of everything that she did to her family and friends beyond the wall.
She snuck behind her mother’s back, she lied to her too, she lied to Isabella as well, she ran away and didn’t save that poor rook, and she hurt Charles.
But as she thought more about what she would’ve done, instead of defending Charles, she thought, I wouldn’t have done that to anyone.
“See? You wouldn’t.”
“How did you get so good at mind reading?” Elaine questioned the huddled up rook.
“I spent years of my life dealing with you.” Kadena joked back, and thanked whatever power existed when Elaine giggled at her joke.
“Goodnight Kadena,” she softly said to her dear friend.
“Goodnight Elaine,” the rook replied as she closed her beady eyes.
Elaine softly frowned down at her hand, and took off the golden band. She then put it under her pillow, and went to sleep next to her friends.