Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait on this one. I uploaded 2 chapters at a time to make up for it. :)
As Rachel flew as quickly as her tired wings could flap, her mind was assessing the feasibility of her plan. She processed the information that she had gathered thus far.
She had since discovered that she was like a ripple in the plane of existence. Something that others could not see, or hear, or touch, but whose presence was acknowledged by the laws of physics, or whatever it was that made the world go round. The fact that Tobias had been able to see her feathers proved that point.
Crayak had demanded that she not talk to anyone.
But any other form of communication might not be banned.
Yes. Her plan could work. No, it had towork. She was not going to come back from the dead, only to be pulled back to the depths of hell (or wherever she was going) without saying what she wanted to say to the one bird-boy who loved her more than anything in the world.
Impatiently, she flapped her wings harder, trying to gain speed. She had to hurry. The Drode had said she was running out of time. She wondered briefly about why the Drode was letting her execute her plan without interfering. "Maybe he's busy doing Crayak's other dirty work. Oh well. All the better for me." she thought.
Finally, she reached her destination. She flew into her room through the open window. With her talons, she grabbed the sheaf of papers that was her unfinished homework as well as the ballpoint pen lying on top of it. And then off she went, racing against time.
When she arrived back at her grave again, Tobias was staring into space, his mind lost in a walk down memory lane. A walk that he took countless times every day since Rachel's death.
He only snapped out of his reverie upon hearing the flutter of numerous pieces of paper floating down, and landing right in front of him. He looked up, and his eyes narrowed instinctively. In the strong sunlight, each piece was dazzlingly white and almost painful to look at.
He stood up, and examined each piece of paper. It was…homework. He glanced at the handwriting. Rachel's homework. A flicker of hope began burning inside him for the second time that day.
Slowly, he began flipping over each page to see if there was anything written on them.
To his disappointment, there wasn't.
Panting, Cassie slowed her run into a walk as she approached Rachel's grave. Jake and Marco were just behind her, and Ax had raced ahead of her in a blur of hooves.
At that moment, a whole bunch of papers fell from the sky, and landed in front of Rachel's monument. They watched as Tobias got up and stared at the papers.
Sensing that this might be a private moment between Rachel and Tobias, she called for Ax to stop, and held out her hand to prevent the others from moving forward.
Just as Tobias was looking up from the last piece of paper, two fully-formed hands shot out from the feathery body of a demorphing Rachel.
"Yes!" she cried, and reached for the ballpoint pen that was lying on top of her incomplete essay on the Great Depression.
Walking over to the piece of paper Tobias was holding, she uncapped the pen, and began to write.