WOW!!! This is amazing! @CL, what if  you changed the names around and published it as an actual book after you were done writing it?

WOW!!! CL, you are an amazing writer. Keep up the spectacular work!

AHA! I KNEW IT! *sends vurtial message to self in Solo write* Its Icy...ITS Icy....ITS ICY! 

This is sooooo good, CL, can't wait to see what happens next!  

Congratulations on two hundred posts! Doscientos! Ducenti! Diakosia! Dvesti! Elua haneri! (Spanish, Latin, Greek, Russian, Hawaiian)

Part 13

~~

Before…

* * *

Leaning over the railing just a little bit farther, Kestrel adjusted her telescope lens and zoomed in on the bird as it fluttered around the aviary. There were a few other people milling about in the viewing room, but Kestrel and her sister were the only ones who were focusing so intently on the birds. “Hey!” Kestrel said, nudging Lily in the ribs. “Look at this one— an African Grey.”

“Lemme see!” Lily said excitedly, grabbing for the binoculars.

“Come on, now,” Kestrel grinned, holding them just out of reach as her little sister frantically jumped up and down. “Wait your turn.”

“But I don’t want it to fly away!” Lily complained, huffing. Kestrel ignored her and looked at the African Grey parrot for a few more seconds as it preened in the tree, the sunlight shining on its dusty feathers. Finally Kestrel relented to Lily’s chatter and handed her the binoculars, and obligingly lifted her up so she could see over the banister. As Lily peered through them, though, the delighted grin quickly dropped off her face, and she put the lens down, frowning.

“Kestrel, I was right!” she whined, her blue eyes wide with disappointment. “It did fly away, and now there’s another bird there instead!” Kestrel raised an eyebrow in confusion, and she shifted Lily over to one arm, operating the binoculars with the other.

“No, it was there just a—oh,” she stopped short in the middle of her sentence as she realized that Lily was right. Instead of a large, pale grey and red tropical bird, there was a narrow-headed bird of prey perched there instead, with a lean body and black-and-dark gray speckled feathers.

“That looks like… a peregrine falcon. I wonder what it’s doing there…”

* * *

The atmosphere of the room crackled with tension as the two people at the table scribbled furiously on their notecards before one of them slammed the paper down, pouncing on the bell. “Team B?” the judge called, turning to the boy was had chimed out first.

“The highest-grossing movie of 2016 is Finding Dory,” he panted, his eyes bright. The judge nodded, a point appearing on the screen under the letter ‘B’, and the boy pumped a fist while the girl competing against him scowled, unwillingly getting up from the chair and rejoining her team.

As the boy walked past Ember and plopped down next to her, she whispered to him, “Nice one, Jackson!” Jackson grinned, flashing her a thumbs-up until his attention was drawn back to the newest competitors. Ember waited, fidgeting in her seat, as the question was announced and the teams on the platform scrambled to answer it. Trivia competitions could be one of the most stressful things Ember had ever participated in, but also the most fun. It was a pure thrill of anticipation and excitement, only you, the judge—and all your random knowledge. As someone from C took the correct answer, Ember realized with a jolt that she was up next. As her teammate Laura sat down at the end, Ember stood up and smartly walked up to the the podium, forcing her hands to stop shaking as she waited for the question to appear.

The second she read the words, she set onto the paper with her pencil, frantically scribbling out the answer as she read it. Of course she couldn’t even consider how out of place the question seemed, and how different it was from anything she had been asked before. In fact, not once in this whole competition had a question about animals appeared. Yet there it was…

 

What are the two names for a group of foxes?

* * *

“...That’ll be one hot dog and one lemonade? Alright, your total is $3.75,” the vendor said, taking Nebula’s money and sliding it into his cash register. Grinning, Nebula thanked him and took her food, immediately tearing the paper enveloping the hot dog apart as soon as she rejoined her friend. Her companion, a girl with pale brown hair gathered together in a ponytail, raised an eyebrow as Nebula devoured the hot dog in less than a minute.

“Slow down, Neb,” she said, chuckling, as Nebula snarfed down the remainders of the food. Swiping her tongue around her lips, Nebula rolled her eyes as she chucked the greasy paper in a nearby trash can.

“Come on, Mia,” she said, taking out the straw and inserting into the slot of the top of her lemonade. “I was so hungry I thought I could’ve eaten one of those elephants!” Mia shrugged, shifting her backpack from one shoulder to the other so she could remove a map from it.

“Well, I’m glad your stomach-beast has been sated,” she commented as she scanned the map. “Anyways, if we head to the Asia exhibit now, we can be hit the North American one after and then go to—”

“We’re going in here!” Nebula suddenly exclaimed, grabbing Mia’s arm and dragging her towards a tent. Mia squawked in surprise and pulled away from Nebula.

“Neb, what’re you doing? We have to go this way if we want to see everything before it closes.” Nebula shook her head frantically, pointing to a sign hammered into the ground outside the tent. It read ‘Rare Animal Exhibit— Come Inside To See. Begins at 1:00 PM.’

“Aren’t you curious? Aren’t you excited?” Nebula begged, not giving Mia another chance to speak, and hauled her inside, the flap brushing aside as the two girls barged through it. Quietly Nebula and Mia took seats in the second row, nearly up-close and personal with the stage. Only a moment after they’d sat down, the lights in the tent dimmed, and a man came out onto the stage, dressed in colorful drab. Nebula zoned out for a moment as he spoke, her mind wandering to the mysterious animal figure on the sign outside, but she snapped back to attention when an eerie yellow glow pulsed from backstage, and two workers wheeled out a platform that was covered by a sheet. Nebula leaned forwards in her seat, excitement quivering in her throat.

The drape was lifted in a long and slow fashion, and a gasp went up from the audience as they saw what was beneath it. Like a dark knife of obsidian cutting through the vibrant light, a dark-feathered peacock was perched on a slim wooden stand, dark violet and blue shimmering up and down its feathers.

“Whoa… a black peacock!” Nebula breathed.

* * *

“No… no… and no third-grade math assignments…” Sighing in frustration, Icy tossed the sheets of paper onto the pile that she had marked for throwing away. They fluttered into the air, settling everywhere except for where she wanted them. Hissing in annoyance, Icy leaned over and shoved them back into the pile, then turned to the rest of her mess of papers. Sifting through the amalgamations of old worksheets and doodles, she tried to put her mind into the future when she wasn’t stuck in her room sorting through old papers. To when she was outside, enjoying the summer sun, to when she was hanging out with her friends.

But that wasn’t going to be for awhile, Icy thought dejectedly as she stared at the pile of random papers, stretching all the way back to kindergarten. Random drawings, messy scribbles— you could find all of it in there.

Slowly Icy worked her way through the stack, not admitting that she was actually beginning to enjoy seeing her old stuff. It was interesting to see how she had improved, in writing, in art, in thinking overall. She went through all the sheets of paper, the ‘keep’ and ‘trash’ piles behind her slowly growing in size. Finally there were only two left. Icy let out a huge breath of relief, the stuffy air in her room starting to get to her head. Shaking it to clear out the fuzziness, she tossed the first crinkled sheet aside, ready to leave her room, but stopped cold as she saw the last one.

At the very bottom of the enormous pile, buried beneath layers of rubble, was a wide, stiff sheet of watercolor paper. Painted on it in varying hues of blue, grey, and white was a swan, gliding on a painted lake. Its head was slightly bowed, and it was looking away from the viewer, so that only a slit of its eye could be seen. Carefully Icy picked up the watercolor, marvelling at the skill and detail put into it. She thought about asking her mom what it was doing there, but then she realized where it really had come from.

“Oh… of course,” Icy laughed, gently setting the watercolor down on her bedside table to hang up later. One her aunts had been an artist, so she must have been given that painting as some kind of a gift. “But why was it at the bottom?”

* * *

“Hey, Percy! Come here, boy!” Danie shouted, the leash in her hand dragging on the floor as she called for her dog. She didn’t have to wait long, as the next second a faint scraping grew louder and louder, and a black Labrador skidded around the corner, his claws scraping against the hardwood floor. “Hey, wait—” Danie wheezed as he crashed into her legs, knocking her backwards into a wall. “Percy!” she laughed, though she wasn’t mad at all as he bounded around her, nearly salivating in excitement. “Chill out!” Eventually she managed to clip the leash around his collar, throw on a jacket and yell out to her mom, then she was out the door.

Leaves swirled around Danie as they were bullied about by the wind that tugged them off trees and set them adrift in the air, the same wind that blew Danie’s hair in her face. Spitting it out of her mouth, she looped Percy’s leash around one arm for a second as she tied her hair into a ponytail. He began to whine as she stood there, fixing her hair up in spite of the wind, until finally he began to pull on the leash, yanking Danie off balance. “Okay, okay!” she said, stumbling a little. “We’ll go to the dog park!” Percy yelped in excitement and broke into a trot, with Danie jogging along behind him.

It’s a good thing I live so near to a dog park, Danie thought, her mind wandering as she walked down the street. It lets me take Percy to it whenever I like without too long of a walk. After another minute or two, Danie arrived at the gate to the dog park, which was covered with peeling dark green paint. Already she could hear barking from inside, and Percy was jumping up, pawing at the fence. Chuckling, Danie unclipped him and he bolted off towards a Golden Retriever she’d had to drag him away from socializing with last time they came.

Taking care to lock the gate again, Danie entered the park, strolling through the grass. Keeping one eye on Percy, she meandered over to the far side of the park, resting her elbows on the wooden slats and staring out into the forest that bordered the park. Feeling sleepy in the ray of sunshine, she half-closed her eye and let the wind wash around her.

Suddenly, a soft crack from the forest made her jerk up, and she froze as she saw the slim shape of a deer making its way through the forest. Her breath caught in her throat, Danie watched as the tawny-gold doe picked its way over the leaves, less than ten feet away from her. Its large, dark eyes were framed by lashes, and it seemed to glide through the trees in such a way you could mistake it for a wandering spirit.

Without thinking about it, Danie moved her hand towards the deer, reaching out though she couldn’t touch it, and the doe’s head snapped up, and in a second it had bounded back into the foliage. Percy came bounding over to Danie, shoving his muzzle into her hand, but Danie couldn’t do anything but stare back into the woods, waiting for some sign of the doe to reappear.

* * *

Quietly thrumming her pencil against her desk, Booksy let her mind wander as her teacher droned on and on about some American war or another. She glanced up at the clock for a second, and realizing with an inwards groan that class was only about halfway in, and that she still had another twenty-five minutes to go. Bleh, bleh, bleh… social studies had to be one of her least favorite classes. Or at least, this teacher was. Sure, learning about the ancient Mayans, English knights, or Chinese emperors could be fun, but it was so hard to listen to this teacher speak… Booksy looked down at the notes she was supposed to be filling out and scribbled down a few things, but eventually ended up doodling in the side columns.

RIIING!

Twenty agonizingly dull minutes later, the bell blared to release the students to their next class. Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, Booksy stood up and left the classroom, caught in in the tide of her classmates. “Hey!” someone suddenly said, close to her ear. Booksy spun around, her heart pounding, and saw her friend Erin standing there, suppressing laughter.

“Erin!” Booksy complained. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Erin chuckled, pulling Booksy aside as some students began to glower at the two girls blocking the hallway.

“I wouldn’t call walking up to your friend ‘sneaking’, exactly, but however you want to look at it…” she grinned, twisting around to unzip a compartment in her backpack. Booksy waited as Erin fumbled around in her bag, searching for something. “A-nyways… I saw this at a store the other day and totally thought you’d like it! Here you go!” Delight pulsed through Booksy as Erin slowly drew a package out of her backpack and handed it to Booksy.

“Erin, you so didn’t have to!” Booksy said as she tore at the blue wrapping paper, stuffing the curled shreds into a side pocket with one had. “Oh, wow, thank you!” she exclaimed as she took out the gift, beaming at Erin.  “I love it!”

“You’re welcome!” Erin said, grinning back. Just then a chime rang out, signaling to the students they only had a minute left to get to class. “Ah, I gotta go!” Erin said, starting. Quickly she waved goodbye to Booksy and took off down the hallway, vanishing around a corner. Smiling, Booksy turned around and set off for her class, passing another one of her friends on the way there.

“Hey, Booksy, I like the hat!” her friend called out, flashing a thumbs-up as she walked past. “Owls really suit you!”

* * *

“Runners, ready…” the voice rang out over the chattering voices of the audience, and Claaws took a deep breath, steeling her nerves. She’d run in plenty of track races before, so this one should be no different. But as she snuck a glance to the runners at her sides, she saw blazing determination in their eyes, and she knew this wasn’t going to be an easy match. “On your mark. One… two… three… go!”

As soon as Claaws heard the pop-gun go off, she shoved herself forwards, hitting the ground already in an enormous stride. Adrenaline began to race through her body as she dug her feet into the rubber track and used it to hurl herself forwards. She could hear the other runners on her either side, but she tried to close her ears out to the sound of other people and instead just felt the wind blowing against her face.

She was still in the lead as she neared the finish line, and desperately she put on one last burst of speed, dashing in a dead sprint for the white line. However, she stumbled and slowed a tiny bit as someone suddenly blew by her, crossing just a second before she did. The next moment Claaws was bending over on her knees, her chest heaving from the mad dash. She cast a quick glance at the runner who had finished ahead of her, a girl with long reddish hair knotted up in a braid. Taking in a huge breath, Claaws leaned down and grabbed a water bottle and walked up to the girl, circling around to stand in front of her. “Hey,” she said, pausing to take a big drink of the water. “Nice job out there. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting you to come up so fast. What’s your name?” The girl grinned back at Claaws, heaving herself to her feet and shaking her hand.

“My name’s April,” she replied. “You?”

“Claaws.”

“Nice to meet you, Claaws,” April said, stretching. “You ran so well! I didn’t think I was going to pass you at the end— and congrats on silver, too!” Claaws smiled, flashing her a thumbs-up, but as she looked down she spotted a stitched-on patch on the runner’s side, one she hadn’t noticed before.

“Hey, that’s cool!” she said, pointing to it. “What is it?”

“Oh, yeah!” April said, twisting around so she could see it. “My mom gave it to me to sew it on. Do you like it? It’s a caracal.”

* * *

Beads of sweat dripped down Joan’s face as she heaved the weights up, her arms trembling under the pressure. She could only maintain the lift for a few seconds before she dropped it back down. “Oh, man,” she chuckled to herself, flexing her fingers as they seized up momentarily. “That was… a bit too heavy, I think.” Leaning over, she took a bar off the weights and glanced at the pile. Not to say that sixty-five pounds was bad, though. Rolling her shoulders, she set to work again, slowly raising the weights up and down without dropping the whole thing with a loud clang. She’d done that once before, just when she started working out at the gym, and had speedily learned that was not something you were allowed to do.

After about thirty minutes, Joan’s muscles felt too sore to even lift a water bottle, so she relented and stepped back, inhaling deep breaths. She walked over to a bench, nearly stumbling once, and crashed down on it, taking a quick breather before heading to another area.

As she was resting, all of sudden her MP3 player gave a little beep, cutting off the song she was listening to. “Hey, what the—” Joan exclaimed, before she saw that the green light had faded to black. “It’s never turned itself off before—come on, you stupid thing,” she muttered, toggling with the switch until it flashed back to green. “There we go.” Joan closed her eyes and leaned back to listen. But as the first chords of the song struck, she opened her eyes again, confused.

“What is this?” she asked out loud, and picked up the device, flicking on the screen. “Eye of the Tiger? I don’t ever remembering downloading that one… huh.” For a second longer, she stared at the words correlating with the song playing, the gears in her mind turning. Finally she just shrugged and stood up, the odd choice of song shoved to the back of her mind until she forgot it completely.

* * *

“Oh, shoot,” Eria muttered, fishing through her wallet. “I don’t have another five. Hey, dad!” Turning around, Eria waved her father over, imploringly opening her empty wallet. “Come on, can you lend me one?” Her dad chuckled, though he obligingly pulled out a five-dollar bill.

“I thought you said this was my birthday present, and you’re taking my money?” he said, smiling. Eria frowned as she took the money and handed it over to the bemused clerk, then turned back to her dad.

“But it is for your birthday! And we’re sharing this popcorn, remember?” she protested, twisting around so she could take the food and wave goodbye to the clerk. As she and her dad walked towards the theater, Eria reached back into her pocket to find the ticket stubs that would get them into the movie, finally procuring them just as they stopped in front of the ticket checker. A bored-looking woman greeted them and took the stubs from Eria’s hand, her eyes quickly scanning the scraps of paper.

“Alright, so we’ve got two for—”

“Sssh!” Eria quickly said. The clerk glanced up, looking a little offended, but Eria hastened to explain. Lowering her voice to a whisper, she said, “It’s his birthday surprise, and he doesn’t know which movie we’re going to. Could you just tell me the theater number?” The clerk’s mouth opened slightly, then she smiled and winked at Eria, simply handing back the stubs.

“Okay, then… Theater 6 is your match.” As Eria pushed her dad towards it, she flashed a quick grin back at the clerk, who returned it warmly. As Eria and her father turned the corner, she spotted a room with the number six and the name of the show above it. Hurriedly Eria slapped a hand over her dad’s eyes, to his start of surprise. Standing on her tiptoes to keep them covered, she led him over to the theater and slowly released her hand so he could see the sign.

She watched with excitement as her father’s eyes widened in delight, and he grabbed her in a hug. “Aw, Eria, thank you! You know me best!” he laughed, grinning down at her. Eria hugged him back, but as she caught sight of a watch on his wrist she yelped and let go, dragging him along the corridor.

“It’s about to start! I think we missed all the previews, too,” she said, stumbling into a seat just as the last clip ended. “Ready?” she whispered to her dad, who nodded back, looking like an excited kid. A long strings note was played, then the words ‘Birds of the World - a documentary’ appeared.

They hung there for a second, a faint sheen glistened over them, then they faded into colorful shards as an emerald-green bird burst through them, swooping around the scene.

“Perfect way to start,” Eria whispered, a grin lighting up her face. “A hummingbird.”

* * *

Tiny black flakes drifted to the ground as Scylla traced the charcoal along the sketching paper, carefully outlining the shape of the face she was drawing. She paused for a moment to wipe her hands off on the white rag crammed into the easel in front of her, then she set back to work, making tiny notches in the oval shape of the person’s head. The longer she worked, though, the more thick she felt, the more the sun streaming in from the window next to her lulled sleep.

Before she knew it an enormous yawn escaped her mouth, one with an uncomfortably conspicuous noise. A quiet laugh swelled from the class as a few people turned around from their boards to glance at Scylla, who shut her mouth with a snap.

“Nice one,” a voice next to her chuckled. Huffing, Scylla leaned over and punched his arm, though not hard enough to actually wound him. “Hey!” he complained, rubbing the spot.

“Shut up, David,” Scylla muttered, though she sighed as well. “It’s too hot in here to even think, let alone work on this project. And I think most other people agree with me.” Tellingly she pointed to a few people in the front whose eyes were half-closed, bleary with the stifled heat in the classroom. Apparently the teacher had noticed too, because he suddenly stood up, jolting all the students awake, and strode to the front of the room, clapping his hands loudly.

Scylla had always admired this teacher, Mr. Grant. He was an unpredictable man, one who would burst with excitement one minute, but still allow quiet sketching time the next. Scylla stopped, her charcoal loose in her hand, and waited for him to speak.

“I can see that a lot of you are looking like you’ll fall asleep at your easel,” he commented, grinning. “Well, how about we take a break from the project and spice it up a bit? Get our your spirals and graphites!” There was rustling from the classroom as everyone pulled out their spiral-bound sketchbooks and graphite sketching pencils. Scylla’s was a dark green notebook that she had covered with doodles of cats and wolves and people, racing around the white border. David’s was a pale bluish color, with his name written in blooming text across the middle.

“Now…” Mr. Grant continued, walking along the aisles to check that everyone had their materials out. “When I say start, you’ll have exactly thirty seconds to draw the first thing that comes into your head. Doesn’t matter how good it looks; just get it down. Then, when you’re done, we’ll have everyone come here and try to guess what we’ve drawn. Ready?” Scylla leaned over her notebook, pencil leaving a tiny smudge on the paper. Her mind was racing among things to draw, and she barely even heard the word ‘start’ when he said it.

Frantically she scribbled over the paper, sketching out the lines and details in light pencil. Before she knew it Mr. Grant was calling out, “Pencils down!” and beckoning everyone to the front. Already people were sharing their drawings with each other, laughing with each they saw. Obediently the students laid the notebooks down on a long table, walking around to to look at each others’. Out of the corner of her eye Scylla saw David wave her over, and she walked over with her notebook in hand, trading it for his once she reached her friend.

“Is this?… oh, wait I know!” Scylla said after she’d studied the drawing for a moment. “It’s a really good tree, for the time you’d been given too.” David modestly waved her off, scratching behind his ear, but his humility turned to excitement as he showed off hers.

“If you think mine is good, look at yours!” he said, proudly displaying it.

“It’s not really…” Scylla protested meekly.

“Yes, it is!” David said back, his eyes scanning the sweeping wings and proud, regal head. “Honestly, I don’t know how you managed to draw such a good eagle in that amount time.”

* * *

With a sigh, Little Reader put down the book she had been reading, slipping a piece of paper inside to to save her place. Then she hefted herself up from the chair and turned to walk away from the quiet nook, feeling drowsy in the silence of the library. Slowly she paced up and down the aisles, surrounded by innumerous books that would take a lifetime to read. It was nice, she reflected, to have libraries. The world outside was so chaotic, rushed, and ugly; whereas the world inside the library was a quiet one, a place to escape to.

If only she could find something interesting to read today…

Narrowing her eyes, Little Reader glanced over the shelves, eventually settling down by the fiction section and staring upwards. Her eyes roved over the books, searching for something she might be even vaguely interested in, and as she did her eyes crossed over a novel with a violet-bound spine and a blue cover.

A memory hit her mind like a bullet, and she jumped onto her feet, something right on the tip of her tongue. Little Reader rubbed her, growling angrily under her breath as she paced up and down the fiction aisle. Oh, she just hated when this happened—something she couldn’t remember that was right on the edge of her brain, but for some reason she just couldn’t get at it.  

It was a book she had seen in the shop awhile ago, one that she had really wanted to buy. Unfortunately, she hadn’t any money at the time, but maybe she could find it again if someone would help her…

Little Reader poked her head out of the fiction section and spotted a librarian at the far end of the room, turned away so she could only see their back. She began to make her way over to them, once nearly tripping over a small man clustered around a pile of books. Little Reader turned the corner to get the librarian and almost toppled over him, only managing to catch her balance at the last second. After apologizing profusely, Little Reader made her way to the counter again, now more careful of where she stepped.

Finally she reached the ask desk, and leaned over to ring a little bell with a sign nearby it stating, ‘Ring the bell if you need help! Just because you don’t see us doesn’t mean we aren’t here!’ At the chiming sound, the librarian turned around and walked over to Little Reader, her heels clicking on the linoleum floor.

“Yes, how can I help you?” she said, smiling pleasantly at Little Reader, who suddenly felt awkward explaining her situation.

“Well, you see…” she started uncomfortably as the librarian blinked at her genially. “I was… I was looking for this book I saw somewhere… only I can’t remember the title…”

“Do you know what it was about?” the librarian asked, turning to a computer by her and poising her hands over the keyboard.

“K-kinda…” Little Reader said, self-consciously adjusting her ponytail. “I know it was about animals… and it had a purple spine and a blue cover…” The librarian nodded and typed in a few words, her hand moving to the mouse and scrolling down. After a few quiet moments, her eyes lit up and she turned, glancing back at Little Reader to tell her to wait. Little Reader obeyed, and in a few moments she returned clutching a book in her hand, one with a familiar color pallet.

“Is this it?” the librarian asked, holding it out to Little Reader, who took it with delight.

“Yes! Thank you!” Little Reader exclaimed, nodding gratefully to the librarian. Just before Little Reader turned to leave, the librarian tapped the cover with a red-painted nail, smiling at Little Reader.

“I think you’ll enjoy that one. I have a cat just like that,” she said, pointing to the blue-eyed tabby cat on the cover.

* * *

Icy snowflakes swirled in the air as St Owl blew down the mountain, the edges of her skis slicing into the snow. Leaning the slightest bit to her left, she dug into the side of the mountain and shot around her brother, sweeping up a snowdrift in his face. Spluttering, he swerved to a halt as St Owl stopped just down the mountain to him, laughing as he wiped snow from his goggles. “Not fair, St!” he yelled, steaming with anger. Too late, though, did he shout this, because St had already taken off again, only a trail of plowed snow left behind.

It was days like this that St loved most, ones where the cold wind bit at her and blew through her hair and she was able to think of nothing except controlling her skis and gazing down the snow-covered mountain. Just ahead of her, St saw a large yellow sign proclaiming the entrance to a woods trail. Excitement pulsed through her body as she spotted it, so quickly she swerved to a halt in front of the sign and waited for her brother to catch.

“Hey, Michael!” she called, waving him over. “You wanna go on a woods trail?” Michael shuddered, firmly shaking his head no.

“You’re welcome to it,” he said, sticking his tongue out. “I can’t stand being trapped in all those trees, and what if you tripped over a stone or something?”

“Suit yourself,” St shrugged, then watched as Michael turned and vanished down the curve of the mountain. Planting one of her poles into the snow, she gave herself an enormous push and shoved off on the woods trail.

The silence that greeted her as she maneuvered around the trees was both eerie and exhilarating in its own way. Her eyes always had to be flicking over the ground to watch out for stray bits of root or overhanging branches, but it was a challenge to a skier to make their way through a place like this. If Michael wanted to go the easy way, fine. St Owl would rather take the road less ventured.

After a minute on the trail it opened up into a clearing, and St decided she would take a momentary break there, grabbing a breath before she went off again. Twisting sideways, she screeched to a halt, snow pluming up around her skis, and took in a deep breath.

Before she inhaled it all the way, though, it got caught in her throat as her eyes traveled upwards to a tree nearby. Sitting in it, like nothing more than a living drift of snow, was a white-feathered snowy owl, with piercing yellow eyes and soft gray flecks brushed along its body. For a second St couldn’t move as she stared at the owl, and it regarded her with a look of nobility. Then she snapped out of her reverie as the bird took off at yelling from some snowboarders outside the trail, and vanished over the pines.

St’s poles hung loosely in her hands, only staying on because they’d been clipped to her gloves, as she gaped at the spot the owl had once been.

“St Owl?” a voice called from somewhere beyond the woods. St’s head jerked up, and she recognized her mother’s voice.

“Ah—coming!” St said hastily, shoving off from the clearing.

Somewhere far away, a pure-white bird winged through the sky.

~~

A few notes I want to make about this part:

• Firstly, let’s call it ‘not canon’. It isn’t really furthering our plot, but I wanted to take a break to write something like this. Like it says, it all happened ‘before’ the story started. It’s an interim, let’s say.

• The answer to the question Ember gets is a ‘skulk’ or a ‘leash’. Did you know that? I didn’t.

• Percy is also mainly based on my dog, Dex.

• What David does when he’s embarrassed—scratching behind his ear—is actually what I do. Or more realistically, this spot on my neck just below my ear.

• I also realized that some people might read ‘St’ as just stt. It’s pronounced Saint, when I want to shorten her name (Sorry!) instead of saying the whole thing, like shortening Clouded Leopard to Cloud or Booksy Owly to Booksy.

• I hope you enjoyed this intermission in between our parts! 14 is definitely coming out after. Thank you, all of you, for not giving up on the story. It is not over yet!