…That was quite possibly the longest writer's block I've had since I joined FF. Yeesh. Blame school.
"What was that?"
Molly skidded to a stop (if skidding is possible when you're airborne) and looked around. Her face turned red at the sight of a kappa who had apparently heard her shouting at nothing. Molly fumbled.
"What-I-um…"
"No matter, yar har har! Kapp'n knows he's gone singin' ta himself before! But lass, ye gotta pay the fee to enter the island. Can't just fly in all willy-nilly like ye are now."
"Oh, I'm just getting my friends," Molly replied. "I wont stay long."
The kappa shrugged. "I don't write te rules, lass."
Molly sighed and flapped down to Kapp'n, paying him the 1000 bell fee.
"Thank ye, lass," he replied. "Have yerself a good time." Molly nodded and went into the island. Luckily, nobody was on tour, so that made the job quicker. All the villagers looked up curiously when Molly entered the small hut.
"OMG! Molly! Where were you?!" came a high-pitched squeal from the corner. Molly turned around and saw Pippy jump up from where she had been sitting (next to Leila who was now pouting that her new playmate's attention had been stolen by Molly) and run to Molly.
"Sorry, Liam needed help," Molly apologized. "But it's all good now. We can go back."
Pippy nodded. "But seriously, like, what even happened? One second I was eating apple crisp under a tree and the next second there was all these alligators everywhere, telling us you and Liam had run away because you were criminals or something! Nobody bought into it, though, so whatever! Anyway, while you were at Solaris, we-"
"Okay, Pippy," Molly interrupted. "Are you ready to go?"
"Totally! Everyone's ready," Pippy answered.
It turned out only four villagers could fit onto Kappn's boat, so six stayed at the island while Biff, Cherry, Pippy, and Butch left. After about fifteen minutes, Kapp'n came back.
"The next four can hurry up 'ere," he called into the hut. "Then I'll come back fer ya stragglers."
"No, thats fine, Kapp'n," Jacques said suddenly. "Me and Molly can fly home." Molly stared at Jacques, bewildered. The last thing she wanted to do was spend several minutes alone with him, but it was too late; Purrl, Filbert, and two residents Molly didn't even know that well named Friga and Kidd-which went to show how much time she spent with Liam and working on the whole medicine deal-had already jumped onto the boat and Kapp'n was already starting up the engine. As the boat starting chugging along the ocean, Molly stood still as a statue next to Jacques, who was walking out onto the dock.
"Well?" he said. "Come on, lets go."
Molly looked at him and didn't conceal her look of loathing.
"Come on," he repeated.
Molly sighed loudly, fully aware that she was being a jerk, and walked next to him. He nodded and opened his wings, then jumped off the dock.
Molly watched as the final dying rays of sunlight managed to catch his feathers for just barely an instant before shimmering away, leaving him a dark shadow soaring through night. Molly took a deep breath and leaped after him, flapping hard to get herself in the air. Jacques slowed down considerably, waiting for her to catch up.
"I don't get why we have to fly side-by-side," Molly said irritably.
"Calm down for half a second, will you? Jeez," he shot back. This filled Molly with frustration.
"I'M the one who should calm down? Who's the one who-"
"I told you I was sorry," Jacques broke in.
"Sorry? More like you yelled at me that you only half-helped because you felt like it, you self-righteous ass."
Jacques groaned and rolled his eyes. Molly tried flying away from him, but he followed.
"Look," he said in a frustrated tone. "I had no idea what I was doing."
"Hey look at that, I'm grabbing Molly's arm and telling her to stop running and let Liam get killed, oops. Accident on my part!" Molly imitated in Jacques' voice sarcastically.
"But I didn't know what I was doing, Molly! They're the ones who said you were criminals!"
"Stop trying to justify it! No one in Solaris bought that criminal thing, Jacques!"
"Okay, fine, you're right, I can't justify it. But hey, the mayor's alive, right? So-"
"I am going to slap you," Molly announced.
"You are such a pain sometimes," he sighed.
"Look who's talking."
Jacques looked off into the distance with a frown. They flew for several minutes in silence, Molly boiling with anger and Jacques freezing with conflicted feelings.
"Just…tell me why," Molly rasped. Jacques stayed silent. When he spoke, his voice was considerably more exhausted.
"Isn't it obvious? Because I like you, Molly. And I did when I was a human, too."
Molly stopped dead and dropped several feet before scarcely managing to flap again.
"H-how do you know about that?" Molly spluttered.
Jacques looked towards her. "Heh. Thats for me to know, and for you to find out. Heh!" he answered, his voice sounding just like it did the time she had met him.
"No, seriously, stop playing around. How do you know about that?" Molly pressed, still trying to recover.
"Hey, look! There's Solaris," he said, clearly evading the question. He sped down to the dock and landed, then took off into the sand.
"Jacques! JACQUES!" Molly yelled, landing and chasing after him. But he had already escaped into the night. Molly let out a clear huff of frustration.
"That bird," she sighed. "Sometimes I don't understand him."
Molly woke up. For a second, everything was the same; she'd get up, eat breakfast, play some violin, water her garden, say hello to her friends, and go see what Liam was doing. For a moment she just stared at the sunbeams filter in through the window, highlighting the dust dancing in the air.
Then it was back to business.
Alli had carried Liam to his own bed sometime when Molly was at the island, so she had been able to get a good night's rest; but now it was time to check up on him and see if he was okay. She flung off the sheets, briefly considered making the bed, decided to later (aka never) and ran out the door. She walked up the hill to Liam's house, the golden roof glinting off sunlight. Of course, the HHA claimed the roof was real gold, but everyone knew it was just metal painted yellow. She pondered this as she knocked on the door, then realized it was unlocked. She opened it tentatively and looked around.
"Liam?" she called. No response. He was probably still out cold.
Molly walked up the stairs to his bedroom, remembering doing the same thing a few months back. There was no trace of the fire that had burned his home up, which Nook had replaced at lightning-fast speed.
Sure enough, Liam was there on his bed, mouth open and making half-snoring noises. His head was still wrapped in the white bandages. Molly walked up to the side of the bed.
"Liam," she repeated. She wanted to check if he was unconscious or asleep.
Liam stopped half-snoring, as if questioningly, then resumed. Molly rolled her eyes and poked him. Liam shifted.
"Five more minutes," he murmured. Molly grinned.
"Good morning, sleepyhead."
"How'd you get in? Door's locked," he mumbled, words blurred by either sleep or his concussion.
"Quite the contrary. It was open."
"'Quite the contrary'? Did you really just say that?"
"This is the part where you say good morning back to me, Liam."
"Right." he yawned and stretched. "So, uh, morning. What brings you here? State your purpose."
Molly laughed. "I wanted to check to make sure you weren't suffocating on your blankets or something. Snoring while lying on your back shows that you aren't breathing right, y'know."
"I was snoring? Don't tell me you videotaped it," Liam said with a smile.
"I would've, but you know about the whole lack of phones and cameras and such."
"Oh, right."
Molly went back to the stairs. "I'll let you sleep on your back with your half-snoring breathing problems for a little while more."
"Molly," he said, stopping her. The goofy mood suddenly changed.
"What is it?" Molly asked, turning around.
"What happened?"
She knew exactly what he was talking about, but she stalled. "What do you mean?"
"You and Alli told me that an alligator caught me and hit my head against some pavement, but I don't remember any of it. How did an alligator get close enough to me to do that?"
Molly sighed. She wasn't fully prepared to retell the story, but she did it anyway. When she got to the part where the alligator caught Liam, she paused.
"You don't have to go on," he said.
"No, I…" Molly took a deep breath. "An alligator. He jumped on you, and grabbed your head. Then…I saw it…and I was running toward you to stop him."
Liam nodded, his eyes wary, as if he was afraid of where the story would turn.
"But someone stopped me and I saw it…he did it twice…the second time, you lost consciousness. I managed to get free, and you woke up for a few seconds, but nothing else really happened, I guess."
"Who stopped you? An alligator?" Liam queried.
"Uh…yes," Molly mumbled. She decided that telling Liam that Jacques had done it was most likely a bad idea.
"That sucks. Oh well, I'm fine now. And hey, Molly?"
"Yeah?"
"Tomorrow's the day."
Molly looked up, her heart thumping. "Do you mean-"
"Yes, I remember. I got the memory down. But right now…" Liam trailed off.
"Thats totally fine." Molly started down the stairs.
"Molly," Liam called, and she paused again. "Take this."
Molly backtracked and walked back to Liam. He handed her a letter.
"When'd you write this?" Molly asked in surprise.
"I woke up in the middle of the night. Don't open it until you get home, alright?"
"Okay, got it. See you." Molly waved awkwardly and went down the stairs. She practically sprinted to her house and opened the letter. Inside was some clean, white, lined stationary with one simple sentence.
Meet me at the first place.