DISCLAIMER: I do not own Jing, nor am I making any money off of this. It's all in good fun.
Dream CatcherChapter 1
Stir sat quietly in her room watching the birds flit about on the summer breeze outside her window. She wasn't feeling particularly like doing anything, being content just to sit. Her mother had just gone off to town on a shopping expedition. Stir had been overjoyed when her mother had given up masks and trying to replace her brother. Her mother, the Queen of ZaZa had started visiting the town more often since the King of Bandits had been in town.
Two years had passed since then and, still, he haunted her dreams. She had saved her first dance for him. He never showed up. She supposed that she probably shouldn't expect him to, but still… There was never a day when thoughts of his dark eyes didn't travel through her mind. She stretched leisurely and wondered what he was doing at that moment.
She'd last seen him around six years ago, the day of the masquerade. That day he had managed to single handedly steal her heart and the Vintage Smile. The theft of her mother's mask had been forgiven. After all, once it had been stolen, her mother had no need of it, having learned how to smile again all on her own.
Stir smiled at the memory of her mother's smile. It had been so long since her brother had died and, up until Jing's visit, she hadn't showed any emotion. The Madame's first smile had been a beautiful thing to Stir and her mother's concern had convinced Stir that she did indeed love her, something Stir had begin to doubt.
Her thoughts strayed once more to the boy who had fixed her family. He'd been a tall, gangly, yet graceful boy. He had been quick witted and nimble on his feet. She still couldn't believe he had stolen her first kiss from her, not that she minded; she had just been surprised. She hoped he hadn't done it just so that she couldn't draw attention to it. For the hundredth time that day, she wondered what he was up to. Where was he? What sort of danger has he gotten into?
THUNK!
Something struck her window. Stir jumped at the sudden interruption of her thoughts.
Glancing at the window, she saw nothing that really seemed out of place. The panes opened outward so it was possible that it had been an over zealous bird. She went to check and found a very familiar looking bird on the sill.
She gazed in surprise at a bird she hadn't seen in years. She supposed that there were other birds like this one around, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen this particular bird before. The bird was a rather large black bird wearing a red bandana. Stir suspected that this might be the bird she'd seen with Jing. She couldn't be sure though, not until the bird awakened. She remembered; Jing's bird could talk.
Stir brought the bird inside her room and placed it on a pillow. She checked its wings to be sure that they weren't broken. They weren't and she determined that the bird was just knocked out. Can birds get concussions? She wondered. She supposed that they could and hoped fervently that this bird would be all right. She gently moved the bird to a patch of sunlight and wrapped it up to prevent it from going into shock.
All she could do was wait and see.
