CHASING BIRDS
Chapter One:
When the Bird Leaves the Nest
Running away was the easy bit.
Nodoka's home was a small, two-story house. Sokosa-san was asleep, downstairs. Her bedroom was next to the back entrance, since she had always been deathly afraid of a fire or some other hazard forcing them to have to get out of the house quickly. The key for the back door was always on her bedside table.
"You never know what might happen," Sokosa-san had said to Nodoka when she had asked about it, but Nodoka already knew that a small part of her aunt was ashamed of her own neuroticism.
From the top of the staircase, Nodoka thought she could hear her grandfather speaking in his bedroom. Her grandfather had been living with Sokosa-san and her ever since Grandmother had passed away. He arrived at their household with a smile and a pocketful of sweets, but Nodoka always heard him refer to 'Juri-chan' as if she had never left.
Nodoka strained her ears and realised Grandfather was just sleep talking, something she thought was hereditary since Sokosa-san sometimes did it and she supposedly did it a lot, too.
She waited for the house to still.
Until the only thing she could hear were crickets chirping, Nodoka silently treaded down the stairs. Now the only sound in the house was the soft thudding of her feet. Reaching the end of the fleet of stairs, Nodoka walked along the corridor to Sokosa-san's bedroom, whose door was slightly ajar. She opened it slowly.
Nodoka could've gone through the front door without any sneaking around, but someone from the village might've seen her if she took the normal route out.
The door didn't squeak anymore because Nodoka had oiled it beforehand. Stepping inside the bedroom, she saw her aunt – a restless figure on the bed, tangled in a mess of blankets. Nodoka noticed her red hair was slightly oily and she was still wearing the clothes she had worn during the day.
She must've been up late drinking, again… Nodoka thought, sadly. The day Nodoka had asked for her aunt to sign the Hunter Exam permit was the day her aunt broke down. Nodoka smoothed her aunt's hair away and neatly pull her blankets over her. Sokosa-san's sleep was always deep when she had drunk herself into a slumber.
Nodoka kissed her aunt a last goodbye on the cheek and took the keys from the table.
Paru was waiting for her outside.
Nodoka pulled on her boots and slung her knapsack over her shoulders. Bringing her hands to her mouth, she let out a low bird call.
From the dark sky, a small figure swooped down to hover over Nodoka and then perch itself on her shoulders. It was dark, but Nodoka could make out the familiar, golden splotches on its head and its long wings which looked more like ornaments than instruments for flight.
Looking at its owner with small, black eyes, it gave her a look which said 'Where to, now?'
She held her palm up to Paru who pecked at the seeds in it. Nodoka began to look back at her childhood home, but she swore never to look back the moment she decided to run away since it distracted her from the 'now'.
Or maybe she was scared to know what Sokosa-san would say.
...
...
It was deciding to run away that was hard.