Part 3: Smell the Roses

Chapter 25: Forgiveness and Other Things

The Fifteenth of September

Griffs – 1

Eaglle – 7

Hawkks – 15

Dukks – 31

Sparrs – 54

Total byrds: 909

-0-

I woke up the next day with not even a trace of the fever, which was good. Mouse forced me to stay locked up in our room for an extra day after my fever broke just to make sure that it wouldn't come back while I worked in the bakery. I could just imagine how well it would go off with the customers if I suddenly got sick while helping them pick out the best loaf or bread or whatnot. But since I was declared perfectly healthy, I had been allowed to resume working in the bakery. A few of the regular customers commented on how they missed seeing me while I was sick once I got back and said that they were glad I was feeling better. That was nice of them.

Whenever I wasn't busy at the shop, I was always thinking of one of four things. The first of which was Wiltera. It terrified me that she could pop up at any second, in my dreams or the waking world. I acted skittish all the time thanks to my new fear of her. Thankfully, she hadn't reappeared anywhere yet. Her threat would pop into my mind a few times a day. "You will do this or much worse will happen." I hadn't stabbed Mouse and I never was going to, but nothing worse had happened besides me getting a little sick. If only I knew what to expect what would happen. Way to be vague, Wiltera.

I often thought of my new strange dreams, too. Not necessarily every night, but frequently I'd dream of either the sad family, fire, or fairies. I didn't always have all three dreams in the same night, but either way they were always the same. I'd wake up remembering pretty much every detail, but couldn't make heads or tails of what they were supposed to mean, if anything at all. Don't reoccurring dreams usually mean something kind of important?

The royal family was the next thing I often thought about. It was on my first day working after getting sick when Amity and Arvin walked into the shop, huge grins plastered on their faces and a few small gifts in their hands. A round of group hugs and jokes went around before the Fallance twins gave us a jar of some spice, a few pretty flowers (which Arvin gave to Mouse, ooh la la), a new book (Amity's gift to me), and a shiny, uncirculated eaglle coin. At first Mouse and I complained that we couldn't just accept the gifts, but they kept insisting that we simply had to accept them to make up for how long they had been gone. (I don't know about you, but time had flied by and it hadn't occurred to me until just then how long it had really been since I had last seen the twins.) Plus, Amity pointed out that a Spelikan holiday, Gift Day, was coming up soon so they were giving us our presents early.

As we tired to continue running the bakery, plenty of jokes and new stories were told. The visit was all too short, though, and eventually the twins had to leave for the day with a promise to come again soon (which they kept. Once every three or four days at least one of the twins would stop by to say hello and buy a pastry or two.)

The fourth thing I often thought about was confessing to Mouse about my mess-up. Every day for a week after I was feeling better I would wake up planning on telling my friend everything. However, I kept putting off the confession because Mouse seemed way too happy one day or the twins would visit the next. Regardless, I knew I had to tell the truth. Hiding the truth was like sitting back and letting a wound fester.

I cracked on the twenty-fifth of August. While Mouse and I were getting ready in the morning, I turned to her and "Mouse, can we talk?" to which she replied, "Of course."

"I made a huge mistake," I quickly blurted out, knowing that once I started talking this time I wasn't going to shut up until I had said everything on my mind. "At least, I very nearly made a huge mistake. Just hear me out on this … I nearly bought a dress and slippers for the ball. I took the money from the jar and placed the orders and everything. Oh! I'm such a horrible friend! I cancelled the orders and got the money back, but I feel terrible for even thinking about spending even a single sparr from our money jar without telling you. I'm sorry."

Mouse sat down on her bed, looking down at her feet or looking across the room at the wall. She looked everywhere but right at me. I swear I could see a single tear go down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away. "You said you got the money back, right? You didn't actually buy anything, correct?"

"I got all the money back … Well, most of it anyway. The dress shop kept some of the money because of … reasons. I'm so sorry, Mouse. I never meant to hurt you or make you cry. I'm so very sorry. Is it possible that you could forgive me one day?"

Mouse looked up at me. "Cry? Oh, no, I had something in my eye." She stood up and gave me a giant hug, which I definitely wasn't expecting. It took me a moment before I reacted and hugged her back awkwardly.

"Of course I'll forgive you. No harm no foul, right?" Mouse gave me a small smile, but her eyes betrayed that she really was surprised and hurt that I went behind her back like that. Then she sternly said, "Just never. Ever. Ever. Do. That. Again. You hear me, Cat? I trust you with my life, so don't go stabbing me in the back."

I nodded wildly, happy that Mouse wasn't going to kick me out of the shop or something completely ridiculous like that. I was on the road to forgiveness.

-0-

Time went by fairly quickly after that, with no sign of Wiltera and plenty of reoccurring dreams. I very nearly never wanted to go to sleep again. But one night, as I was dreaming of the fairies for what felt like the hundredth time, I noticed that there was one fairy hanging behind who was dancing separately to the others. I hadn't noticed her was because not once did she light up like the others. The only reason I noticed her was because for a split second she wandered to close to one of the other dancing fairies. There was something off about the fairy who didn't glow, though. She seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it because her long blonde hair was always covering her face from my view. How she could dance and see in the dark while her hair was covering her eyes, I had absolutely no idea.

When I dreamt of her again, I made another discovery. The fairy had no wings. Did that mean that the fairy wasn't actually a fairy? She was dressed and moved around like once, that was for sure. Overall, it was confusing.

-0-

"I distinctively remember that Arvin was the one who tripped and spilled the juice all over himself while I made it out without a drop on myself."

"Stop changing the story, Amity. We all know that you were the one who tripped and spilled milk all over yourself. I made it out completely dry!"

On the fifteenth of September, I went on a picnic with only a few of my friends in the gardens, just like old times. Arvin and Amity were bickering over the details of some story they were telling, while Mouse and I laughed. Bird took it upon himself to sort out the false facts from the true ones in the stories, causing even more laughs.

Okay, so it was't just us. There were a few guards a short distance away because I suppose that the king and queen or someone way up there in the ranks in the castle wanted them to watch over the royals.

Bird slung an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to where he was sitting. "Actually, they are both lying," he whispered into my ear. "Arvin tripped first and spilled milk all over Amity, and then Amity tripped over Arvin and spilled her juice all over him." I chuckled at the thought.

A cold gust of wind blew through, with a few brown leaves being carried around by the wind. I shivered and leaned into Bird's side, trying to steal his body warmth. My actions didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the group, though.

"Hey! Split it up, lovebirds!" Arvin said as Amity cooed, "Aren't they so cute?" I blushed and Bird only pulled me closer.

"You know, Cat, Stephan doesn't ever shut up about how amazing you are," Arvin said with a mischievous wink at us.

"And you better not say anything else or I will find something to throw at you," Bird challenged his brother. When Arvin responded with something along the lines of "as if," Bird actually leaned over and grabbed a carrot which I hadn't even realized we had and tossed it right at his brother (why was it everyone threw carrots?), who couldn't dodge fast enough and got hit on his stomach. Laughter and chaos followed, causing me to dash away for cover to the closest place I could find: the maze. That had me thinking that while I was in the maze, I might as well go to my usual spot.

I could hear my friends shouting as they ran around for cover. It seemed that they also thought the maze was a wonderful hiding spot because soon enough I could hear people yelling from very close by. At one point, I was absolutely sure that if I could have looked over the wall I would have seen Arvin trying to figure out why he had run into the same dead end (again).

A part of me knew that Bird was going in the same direction as I was. Since I had a head start, I beat him to our tree. As I stood in the shade, I reached over and grabbed a small bottle. A few pretty hair ribbons were tied around it, but only one small piece of paper was tucked inside. It wasn't dated so I had no idea how long it had been there, waiting for me to read it.

-0-

My dearest Rose,

My parents just asked me if I had met a girl I like yet, and I told them I had. They were very excited at first, throwing out the names of random noble girls who were around the castle at the time. I told them that they would probably never guess who the girl was, seeing as how that girl is you. Yes, you read that correctly, Rose. You are the girl who is always on my mind. You are amazing. Just the thought of you makes me smile. That sounds very cheesy; I will stop that now.

I cannot say my parents took the news very well at first. "A commoner?" they asked, to which I said, "She may not have the wealth of a noble but she has a heart of gold and a beautiful face to match her beautiful personality." That caught their interest. They had me tell them everything I know about you, and I am very happy to say that they seem to like you. I am sure that if you could meet them they would fall in love with you.

Anyway, just thinking of you.

- Bird

Author's Note: Many thanks to HauntedApple, Pokemonchen, Ilikemutemath, LeyahRayne, kerensparkle, and Brimo for reviewing this chapter and to any new reviewers.

Thanks for reading! -Lauren