On her seventh birthday, Lisi knew three things about herself; she liked being called Lisi rather than Elise, Silver was never around when she really needed him, and she couldn't cry.

There were other things, of course, about her that would have been good to know- but she decided to stick with three and keep it at that.

Silver was Lisi's guardian of sorts that was never there when she wanted him the most. As far as she knew, he never aged either. Silver liked to talk about 'constants' and 'variables' and how they effected time and space- but it was nothing Lisi ever really paid attention to. In all reality, it made her more bitter about why he was never around. But there was something Silver knew that Lisi would always ask about and knew he would give her an answer: her parents.

You see, Lisi's memory of her childhood, even at seven years old, was rather poor. In a way, she knew it was connected to why she wasn't able produce enough tears to cry- but she never had any proof to back this theory up, and she had no way of testing it out either. The one good thing about Silver was that, when he was there, he could fill in the gaps of where her memory lie and helped her stitch them back together. But Silver was a bad liar- she came from a royal family? Ha, no one could believe that, not even Lisi!

But she liked it when he called her 'princess' though- it made her feel special.

. . .

"Elise?"

The young girl jumped a few inches in surprise when she heard Silver's voice from behind her. He certainly hadn't been there five seconds ago, that's for sure.

Lisi's response was a rather irritated glare.

"Happy birthday Princess." Silver then said, pretending that she had answered him verbally. "I found a present for you. It's something for your feather collection."

Lisi raised an interested eyebrow.

"A phoenix feather?" she asked, almost entertaining the idea. Silver's once pleased face quickly became cold.

"No. Not at all." he told her rather bluntly. "You know they don't exist."

Lisi smirked, knowing that she had made him angry.

"Sorry." the girl said.

"If you were really sorry, you'd stop asking." Silver told her as he started to return to a state of perkiness again. "Guess again."

"I give up." Lisi told him with a shrug.

Silver smiled at her as the hedgehog pulled out a rather decided sized feather from behind his back. Lisi took it from him without hesitation and observed it carefully.

"What do you make of it?" Silver asked as he looked over her shoulder as she studied the feather.

"Falco mexicanus. Juvenile. Female." Lisi slowly said.

"You sure?" Silver asked curiously.

"Yeah." the young girl decided. "I'm sure."

Lisi turned to look at Silver to tell him something else, but she found he was no longer next to her. The girl skillfully tied the feather into her hair as she bitterly stared at the place Silver had once stood. With her only friend gone and nothing else to do, Lisi started to walk toward town.

Whatever.

She liked being alone any way.