"I was just going for a walk." Her innocently sweet voice drifted up to my ears. It was hard hearing what she was saying, she was always so quiet and so meek, kind of like a mouse. I bet that asshole had done that to her too, made her silent to the point where her opinions wouldn't be heard by the rest of the world. Unconsciously, my jaw tightened, revealing my anger to a seemingly frightened Maisee. Did she think it was directed at her?

I was digressing. Trying to remember what she'd said to me, I finally remembered, making an appropriate question about something I didn't even care about anymore. We'd found her, that was all that mattered.

"For 4 hours?" I was trying to tone down my anger from my thought before, but it was getting increasingly difficult, especially when she pressed herself further into the tree, looking like she'd rather disappear within it than staying in real life.

"I lost track of time." For the second time since I'd met her, I got lost in her eyes for a second. Her icy blue eyes gleamed in the sunlight. They had so much depth, every single little thought being too complicated for me to even attempt to understand. It served to snap me out of the stupid anger from before too. I shouldn't be thinking about that asshole if it scared her more, I should be actually thinking of her feelings. God, what was I even doing?

"Don't you have a watch? Or a phone? Or anything? Maisee you really scared us, we thought you ran away." She didn't even have to reply to my questions; I already knew what she was going to say.

"I don't have anything, no. I'm sorry." I'd promised myself I'd try to calm down for her sake, but it was getting increasingly difficult. If that asshole hadn't given her a coat, I highly doubted he'd worry about giving her commodities like phones and watches. It made me so mad, knowing she'd never be able to remember living a normal life as a kid all because of him. "I'm really sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Oh god please don't hurt me I'm so sorry." She had stepped away from the tree now, slowly making her way towards me with sauntering steps. She seemed zombie-like, no longer in control of her actions and just letting instinct take over. The tears which had been reflecting in the sunlight before were now freely cascading down her marred cheeks as she leaned down once again. She was… Kneeling in front of me.

No, oh god, no. She couldn't think I was like that asshole who'd called himself her dad. I couldn't. This was all so messed up. I'd screwed up without even realising and now it was too late.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"I didn't mean to go away for so long. I'm sorry. So sorry." She was keeping eye-contact to a minimum, refusing to look up at me as she blubbered around her tears. A new surge of anger went through me at the thought that he'd done this to her, but I repressed it much easier, now that I had a reminder, written in her tears.

"Maisee, I'm not mad, I was just worried. I mean, I saw how scared you are of us and I feared you'd run away. After how you almost died escaping the first time I didn't want that to happen to you again. Please get up, I promise mom and dad won't be mad either. None of us will be." I wanted to hold her, hug her until all the pain went away. But seeing how I was pretty much 100% sure she'd freak out if I did that, I just extended my hand for her to get up.

"I… Ok." She got off the ground quickly, without using my hand even though her knees were shaking and ready to buckle. She must have been terrified of me. God I felt so shit. I shouldn't have even found her, if it'd been mom she would've been able to deal with the situation perfectly, always gauging her feelings and putting her needs before her own. Not like me. I'd gone and gotten angry for absolutely no reason and ended up scaring her half to death.

"Come on, the house is this way." I wanted to just get home and have this all done and over with. Maybe once we got there mom would be able to fix the mess I'd created. Although something in the back of my mind told me that the problems I'd just started to gleam were only the beginning.

I walked towards the house quickly, glancing back at her every once in a while. She was so quiet, I couldn't even hear her footsteps as she practically glided her way across the landscape. I'd been right before: it was like she completely belonged. Every time I looked at her, I couldn't imagine her in any other place than here.

"C-can you please be quieter?" Surprised to have the silence disrupted by anything other than my footfalls, I turned around.

"Huh?" A flock of birds flew over us, making her glance up in pure and utter sadness. Was she still afraid of me? Did she need me to be quieter so she could compose herself again? Because she could ask me to do anything, anything, and I'd do it, if only to make it up to her for all I'd done.

"I like listen to nature and…" Half-way through, she backed out of continuing her sentence, despite the fact that I hadn't actually done anything to stop her. I wanted to listen to what she had to say though, she was such an interesting person. So much that at some points I wanted to sit her down and just beg her to tell me what she was thinking. I'd never come this close to actually doing it.

"Keep going." She was surprised by my words, that much I could tell. Did she never have anyone to encourage her to keep explaining her ideas?

"No i-it's nothing. Just- Nothing." But it wasn't though, was it? I'd seen how alive she looked when she asked me to be a little bit quieter. She was finally expressing her true opinion. Why would she back out of that? It might seem to her like it was nothing, but it wasn't to me, and it shouldn't be to her either. How we see the world is one of the most beautiful things that humans have about them, and I liked hearing others'. I'd certainly love to be able to understand hers.

"But I want to know what you were going to tell me. It sounded interesting." She paused for a second, ultimately making up her mind.

"Look. Now that we're quiet and still, the birds are coming back. Listen. When you're not talking you can hear the birds chirping" Whilst she talked, a wave of energy flooded through me, silencing everything about me. My breathing, the sound of my feet making crunching sounds on the floor, even my heartbeat had been stilled by the magic. And then… Everything came alive somehow, even though I was no longer in my body. Trees buzzed to life, the chirping of birds being augmented in the background. Everything was just more. What was happening? "and the leaves rustling and the…" The sound of her life brought me back to reality as she closed her eyes and leaned delicately to the right. Was this how she saw things every day? It was beautiful. No, it was more than that, it was magical. "And the soft tapping of paws against the frost of the ground. I think it's a fox."

"How can you do that?" At the sound of my voice, the fairy dust which had clouded my judgment, fell apart. No longer could I hear and see and feel the forest. But I could lay my eyes on her. A massive gust of wind ruffled both of our hair, and as she went to remove it from her line of vision, I couldn't help but be entranced once more. No one had ever had this effect on me before but she was truly beautiful, in the way that you can't just see but also instinctually feel. It was in every fibre of my being.

"I- I don't know." We both seemed to snap out of a dream we'd been put into when she next spoke up. Luckily enough, that gave me time to finally clear my head and decide what was going on. Her ability was uncannily like a savant's. It wasn't anyone's I'd ever met but it was too spectacular to be anything but a gift. She had an extra shift, that was for sure, no one could've made me see nature like that. All of my senses were multiplied for just that one second, no amount of explanation could have done that.

"No, it's not just that. It isn't that you see, it's that you made me see." I took an involuntary step closer. I needed to see her do that again without being under her spell. Then I'd be able to see if she was putting any savant energy into doing that. Being able to see forces, I should be able to tell what she's doing.

"Well, I explained, that's all." No, that wasn't it, that wasn't it at all.

"I've never seen anything like it. I mean I've had other people try to explain nature to me before but this was… It was like a gift."

"That's-" Suddenly, I had an idea.

"You mentioned a fox earlier, right? Can you find it for me?" This was it. If she tracked it using a savant power, I'd know. In that moment, I promised myself that if I saw no indication of her being a savant, I'd leave her alone. She was already broken enough without needing me to be around her and shatter her more. I'd been too good at that lately.

"I… I guess. Y-you just need to be very quiet."

"Deal." Slowly, her eyes closed of their own accord. And a fine mist of savant energy formed around her, tugging her in the direction she'd been leaning in when she first discovered the sound of the fox. It was like she wasn't herself anymore. Maisee was clumsy and shy, but this person was confident, travelling across the frost in sure steps. There was never a stumble in her step, and even though her eyes were closed, she navigated her way around trees. Even the smallest of roots were avoided without a doubt.

And suddenly, we were there. A fox shot up from its crouched position. It'd been sniffing around the floor, probably looking for the trace of a smaller animal. When it saw us, it startled, running off as quickly as we had come. That wasn't what I was focusing on though, instead all I saw was the energy surrounding Maisee as it peeled away from her, vanishing like it was never there.

"I need to get you back home now." I'd never been surer of anything in my life – Maisee was a savant. But maybe that wasn't what I should be finding out. The real question was, did she actually know that she was one? With her prior family history which had all been informed to us, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd kept another secret from her. I mean, what was the weight of keeping her from the knowledge that she was a savant when they carried the massive burden of knowing they'd lied their child into thinking she was unworthy?

"No, please don't hurt me, I'm sorry!" One day, I'd kill the asshole who'd done this to her. But I had to vanquish all those thoughts from my mind, I'd already scared her tonight as it was.

"I just want to show them this ability that you have. It's incredible. In fact, a little bit too incredible. It was like a gift." After that point, I stayed behind her to ensure she wouldn't just take off without my knowing. Although, without noticing, my footsteps has become substantially lighter, and the soft chirping of birds followed us all the way home. I wondered if she knew that the forest wasn't even half as alive as it was when she was around. I hadn't noticed before due to the ruckus I was accidentally making, but now I noticed that there were way too many animals around to be normal.

During winter most of them hid, but all the animals had come from the whole forest, seemingly gathering around us to provide a symphony for their queen. That was an apt way to put it. Maisee, queen of nature.

It suited her.

Hi :)

So there you have it, Petal's (or Maisee, to be fair even I call her Maisee by this point XD ) savant ability! And thanks to all you reviewers out there who made my day brighter with their comments :)

I hope you all liked it, and I've decided I'm going to be updating the story on Thursdays so I finally have a system for updating. Whoop!

Bye bye =^.^=