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Chapter Two: Decisions

The tall brunette collapsed on her couch, her dark eyes vague and distant. Her father's insurance had managed to pay for the funeral that had taken place half an hour before, but the young lady was untried at living alone in the real world, without a single person to call if she ever got stuck. She knew that she would eventually have to give up her home.

Flying again. She should have known that it would come to this, since everything else did.

Her mother had been well-known in the area for her flying delivery service, before getting caught in a storm that never truly let her go. Haru was only nine when it happened. Her father had been obsessed with flight long before meeting her mother, and took great pleasure from his job as a pilot. Before her mother got killed, the brunette loved to go flying with both of them. But since Kiki's death, her daughter hadn't ventured out to the sky again, by any form. No one blamed her.

It was so strange, that she would be repulsed by the sky even as she was attracted to it. Like a moth and a flame. But it had stolen enough from her. No more.

Her familiar came through the special window her father had made, which came into a little balcony just for him. The dark crow gripped the railing; looking at her sadly. Her mother's familiar, a black cat that went by Jiji, had died two months after she did, so there wasn't any competition in that form.

"I wish there was something I could say, Haru."

She smiled up at him, and beckoned him closer. If her father were around, he wouldn't have allowed the crow into the human part of the house, but her familiar did as requested so she could stroke his feathers.

"Please don't say anything, Toto. Words are pretty useless right now."

He wrapped one wing around her shoulder in a compromised hug. She did her best to bury her face in his soft feathers as tears began to flow.

"I heard that man yesterday," Toto said softly. "Can you make the payment in time?"

Haru struggled to contain her sorrow.

"No, and he knows it. I wouldn't be surprised if a family came this time next week, all ready to move in."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

The slim brunette sighed, and stood up from her couch to start looking through the books that still aligned the walls.

"What every witch does when she's in doubt. Read in every family spell book until a solution is found." In fact, she had a good idea of what she wanted. But it would still require several hours of looking through her magic books.

Toto sighed, hating the cloud of depression that always seemed to hang over his mistress, the years since her mother's death. Having just eaten his fill of the bugs and such outside, the dark crow flew up to his little nest, and settled in for a nap while the familiar sound of rustling book pages lulled him to sleep.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Toto was startled out of his sleep by a cry of triumph, several hours later. Haru was surrounded by piled of hand-bound leather books; one open on her lap. He grinned, as much as he could, with his beak.

"I take it you found the solution?"

The young woman nodded enthusiastically.

"If you'll remember our year away from home, I specialized in spells and charms. Well, I just found one that might be what I'm looking for."

He hopped down from his balcony in order to land on her shoulder and read the old script.

"Heart's Home," he read, wondering what she was thinking. True, most birds couldn't read human, but his mistress had been very thorough with training him to be her familiar, after he had begged for the position. Haru traced the spell's title thoughtfully, knowing it was her last option.

"It's supposed to take you to the place where you're meant to be. Sometimes it takes a tree or another soul along for the ride, since it's so powerful."

"Haru, are you sure about using something this drastic?" the crow asked worriedly, wondering how much such a powerful spell would take a toll on his beloved mistress.

The woman smiled grimly, stroking his feathers.

"Toto, besides you and our house, there's nothing holding me here. I'm tired of people looking at me with pity and expecting me to lap up their words. Mom loved this town. It was hers, not mine. I need to find where I belong."

Toto knocked heads with her affectionately.

"I belong wherever you are. Let's go."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Prince Artemis, younger brother to King Phoebus, was not looking forward to the visit of his nephew, the crown prince Lune. Putting aside physical similarities, which included the mismatched eyes of the royal line, the old longhair wouldn't have been able to tell that his nephew was a true member of the royal cat family. He was just so serious! When was that boy going to learn that life was to be enjoyed on every level, and not just endured?!

The prince sighed, and shooed away the young pretty girl-cat that had been entertaining him; a service she performed in order to protect her family and home from his wrath. For some reason, the old prince's amusements always distressed his proper nephew. But his elder brother never found anything wrong with them, possibly because he had his own variants.

The graying cat stood on his hind legs, and started walking out of his palace to greet the upcoming visitor. He grinned happily, noticing how all of the servants made way for him. Prince Artemis was glad that they hadn't forgotten the violent demonstrations of his earlier days, since it was oh so much trouble to repeat them on a daily basis.

He could see his nephew, Prince Lune, slightly in the distance. He appeared to be shouting something, but the old cat couldn't understand. The dark gray cat pointed one paw up, making the old cat look to the sky. Was it his imagination, or was there a house coming toward him?

"What's going on, dude?"

He was knocked out of the realms of the living, before he could decide if it was a dream or not.