A tear splattered onto the page as Dalai pressed in in her hand. She wiped her face on her sleeve standing and ran to where her brother was.
"Chetan," she said shaking his shoulder that peeked above the coverlet. He looked up at her his polished wood eyes enshrouded by a plume of dark lashes.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Her voice was rough.
Her brother remained mute. She drew her eyebrows together. He reached out slowly and wrote with the brush.
I can't speak.
She looked down and read it. "You could before. I remember."
He began writing again.
After father died when you were young, I went to find a spirit. I asked it if it could help her. It agreed in exchange for something.
Dalai looked at her brother his neck the pale bandage stark against his purple neck. She blinked hard and waited for him to continue.
It asked for my voice. The spirit came and waited for Nalai.
He stopped writing for a moment dipping the brush back into the ink pot.
But when it saw her it broke its promise.
The drip of the recent rain tapped along a steady rhythm above them.
Dalai swallowed hard. "Why?" She pushed back his hair. "Why so much for her..."
Chetan looked up.
She is my little sister. Just like you.
Dalai bent over, hair brushing the dusky floorboards. "All for that mon— " She gritted her teeth shaking her head. Chetan wrote again.
Take care of her.
Dalai fisted her hands together, and bit her lip. "The doctor will be here soon."
When Chetan stilled she removed his body quickly cradling his head in her arm. She began to uproot a small area of earth near the house. A twisted tree beside her. A shout rang out from the shed.
"What is it now!" She threw the shovel down and pushed toward the building a weak rain piddling the soil.
She she pulled the door open slamming it against the wall. The girl crouched on the dusty fool, enveloped in scales and feathers. The girl's eyes were dark. Tetsu, Ren, and Jinora stood in a circle around her. They heads turned toward the door. Dalai walked up and down at her. She grabbed the girl harshly by the chin scales biting into her palm. A few drops of blood to fell to the floor.
"You're supposed to be my older sister but you act like this."
The girl lashed out with long-nails. Dalai shoved the her back into a stacked pile of wood that clattered into disorder. She stepped back leaving the shed with three stunned spectators. Jinora walked into the kitchen as Dalai chopped a radish loudly and pushed the vegetable into a pot.
"Is your ship fixed?" Dalai said when Jinora didn't move.
Jinora blinked. "I believe so." There was a long pause. "Dalai."
Dalai turned away. Later she buried her brother. The moon hung like a heavy necklace pitted and scarred against its own brightness. She approached the shed opening the door with a creak. The girl lay on the floor sleeping, the dark feathers and scales illuminated by a patch of moonlight turning them iridescent like oil on water. In the morning Jinora paid Dalai and Ren and Tetsu prepared their few belonging in the barn. Jun Lin was already at the ship.
Jinora frowned looking into Dalai's face. "I'm not sure what she is only that...she is rare," Jinora said then walked from the door.
Dalai breathed a sigh. She stepped towards the dusty room near the garden but halted at the sound of footsteps. She turned and saw Tetsu. He was bent over his hands on his knees. He straightened. She squinted at him.
"When I learn more," he said, "I'll come back."
Dalai laughed.
She was alone. She stepped quietly onto the floor and came to the still room running her hand along the worn wall. She picked up the book she had found, a crumpling vellum moth eaten and dtiff. She turned the first page. Inscribed was 'The Cricket and The Lantern'. She turned more pages and saw it was transcribed by Nelam. She threw the book into the wall several pages fluttered from the binding like the injured wings of a butterfly.
She turned and took a deep breath. "It smells like...blood."