“So… why can’t he talk…?” I asked Lilly with a whisper.

She and I were sitting alone on the last wagon in the caravan. I held the reins, but only to give her a break. Ahead of us was the smaller wagon, one currently being driven by Nessa, Oplar’s human assistant.

“His tongue has been cut out. How many times do you have to be told this Renn? What’s wrong?” Lilly asked with a glance at me.

The man we were whispering about, Folz, was Randle’s associate. He was several wagons ahead, likely sitting on the first wagon in the caravan alongside Randle. He was a half-blood, as Vim would call him, and although a seemingly gentle man… he was also what Lilly called a mute.

“I… don’t know. It just does,” I said honestly.

I wasn’t sure why, but ever since we picked the man up yesterday at the village he’d been waiting for us in… I’d felt a little uneasy around him. There was something weird about the way he was so quiet. He would nod and shake his head when we spoke around him, or to him, but he of course didn’t speak or make a sound. It just made me feel… uneasy, for some reason.

“I mean… I get it, I guess. He’s a churchman, and an herbivore, so it’s natural to find him strange… but for his lack of speech of all things? I thought you of all people would not be so bothered over it,” Lilly said, sounding amused.

“Isn’t it odd…? I wonder what’s wrong with me…” I groaned.

“You’re being normal for once, is what it is.”

I wanted to argue, but couldn’t. She was right, at least from her perspective. By all accounts I, as a pure-blooded predator, should feel this way about all of our normal members. Particularly the ones who were a part of the same church that hunted and burnt our people.

Yet… that wasn’t me, was it? And I’ve known many people with disabilities, and never once had I been so off-put by them before. For instance for a long time I had been unable to speak with Lamp and her people, which in essence was the same thing wasn’t it? After all it wasn’t as if he wasn’t able to communicate. He could hear, and as such could answer questions and stuff with gestures and even with writing… Which meant it wasn’t his lack of speech… it was likely something else.

“Maybe he’s got a heart or something,” I wondered.

“Does he…? Shouldn’t’ you be able to tell?” Lilly asked.

I shrugged. “I thought so. Vim said I’d feel the tingle whenever near one… but he also said there would be some I’d not be able to sense, as they won’t be able to sense mine either. If they’re in the same bloodline, supposedly.”

Lilly hummed. “It’s so weird that the same bloodline would do that. You’d think it’d be the opposite. Wonder how that works.”

“Don’t know… think that’s it…? But I hadn’t felt this weird or bothered by Light or anything,” I asked.

“I don’t know, Renn. But I’m no fool. If something is bugging you about him, then it’d be wise to heed that feeling. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on him for you,” she said.

Smiling softly, I nodded. “Thanks… I’ll let Merit know too.”

“Could just be whatever he is, Renn. You’re a cat. He might be something you find off-putting. For instance I get on edge near snakes, such as the ones at Twin Hills.”

“You do…?” I asked, a tad surprised to hear so.

Lilly nodded with a frown. “Yeah…? I mean it’s not so bad I hate them or anything, but it’s noticeable. Vim says it’s because they’re the kind of snakes that eat baby owls, so it’s just something from my bloodline. I know they’re good people, but it’s instinctual. Odds are he’s just something that bothers you. Funny you finally found one after all this time,” Lilly said.

Huh… “I’ll ask Randle what he is later, then, to see if that’s it or not,” I decided.

Lilly yawned as she leaned back. The wagon made some creaking noises as she did, since it wasn’t that well made. “Either way you better figure it out. You’ll be basically living with these idiots for years, can’t be on edge the whole time after all,” she reminded me.

I sighed at that. “I know…”

“Same with your weird prophecies. Either accept them or ignore them like Vim does,” she said, going back to the conversation she and I had been having earlier. I had sat with her originally to ask her what she thought of the fact I was supposed to have shown up a long time ago. I had been surprised to find out that Lilly had already known about it, or at least had put one and two together concerning it. But the conversation had drifted to Folz and how he bothers me before it could have finished.

“Hm… what do you think of them, Lilly?” I asked.

Lilly shrugged. “Prophecies are just… that? I can’t count how many I’ve heard and dealt with. For crying out loud the whole reason I joined the Society is because Celine had shown up because of one, back when I was young. You’re basically worrying over what the weather will be like tomorrow. It’s silly,” Lilly said.

“Rather I’m worrying about the weather tomorrow because I know it’s going to storm, for a fact,” I argued.

Lilly chuckled at me. “Right? But you get my point, don’t you? You’re stressing over something that honestly isn’t something you can change. You might be strong, Renn, and now have a heart inside you… but you’re still just a normal person. You can’t change the past, can you?”

“No…” I admitted.

“Then…? What is it you want me to say? Would I have loved to have met you way back then…? Sure. Of course I would have enjoyed that. But it didn’t happen. End of story.”

I sighed but nodded. “Merit said much the same,” I said.

“That just makes me want to change my opinion,” she teased.

Shifting the reins I held, I huffed at her. “What do you think I should do about Vim? Should I tell him about them?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t. He’d just get annoyed at best, and at worst might do something drastic. He hates such things, Renn,” she warned.

“Right… but he already knows about it. He was the first to realize they had been acting on prophecies concerning me, before I did,” I said.

“Because it was obvious…? But him knowing they saw prophecies concerning you is not the same as them knowing you were supposed to be here hundreds of years ago. And that you were meant to marry him and change his personality or whatever it is they think you were going to do. I’ll be honest Renn, I’d keep it to yourself. Knowing Vim he might even… change his relation with you over it, if you’re not careful. I know that sounds drastic, but it’s a serious concern. Vim’s like that.”

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I groaned as I reached up to cover my face. I let the reins drop to my lap as I did, since they stunk. “Right…?” I said through my hands.

Lilly chuckled at me as she patted me on the back as if to reassure me. “I doubt he’d actually do so, Renn. Vim’s odd but he’s a man of pure dedication. If he vows something he’ll see it through, damned all else.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that I really should tell him… now I find out there’s some major disaster that’s going to happen in a few years…? Vim really should know stuff like that, too,” I said.

“Hm… honestly a lot of this stuff is a bit beyond me, Renn. I can’t imagine being so twisted by fate like you are. Makes me kind of happy to be just a simple owl,” Lilly said.

“You speak as if you’re not involved…! If all goes wrong and Vim abandons me I’m going to lock myself up in your tree and never leave, making you listen to me cry forever,” I warned.

She paused a moment, and then laughed at me. “That’d be horrible!”

“Wouldn’t it…?” I said with a smile.

Lilly, like Merit, had a very… black and white view of such things. It was relieving in a way to hear their opinions, not just because I could trust them enough to talk to them about it but also with how grounded they were. I wanted to scream at how worrisome the knowledge I was hundreds of years late to join the Society made me. Yet to Lilly and Merit…? It was just something to sigh at and move on from. I wished I could be like them, and was trying hard to, but… well…

Obviously I wasn’t doing very well at doing so.

After a bit I had to re-grab the reins, since the wagons in front of us started to slow a little. We were nearing a turn in the road, it seemed. Another cart, one with only two wheels, was turning the bend right now so we needed to stop as to not run into them.

This cart was being pulled by oxen, so I needed to tug a bit harder than I would for the horses for them to realize it was time to stop walking. The creatures were huge, and gentle, but a tad dumb. Lilly and others had mentioned they’d just… walk into the cart in front of us if we weren’t careful. Almost made me think they should stay up front of the group just to avoid such an issue.

“Are these what Angie is, Lilly?” I asked as I thought about it.

“Huh…? Ah, not far off I think. To me they’re all cows, but I’m told they’re not.”

“Wonder why she’s small then,” I wondered.

“Some of us just are. Look at Merit.”

“Right…” I nodded as I watched the two-wheeled cart head towards us. It was being pulled by only a single horse, and looked only half full… were those pelts? Looked like it.

There were two men sitting on the driver’s seat of the cart, and I was a little pleased to see how bored they looked. They weren’t even staring at us oddly as they passed.

“Think we look normal…?” I whispered the question, since they were getting closer.

“Probably. We have more women amongst our group than typically seen amongst human travelers, but it’s not so blatant now. Especially since Merit hides in the wagons all the time.”

I perked up at that as the cart of two men rolled by. I turned to Lilly, glad that she brought such a thing up and for the opportunity to ask about it. “Speaking of that, does Merit sleep a lot? I’d not noticed before till lately, but it feels as if she spends more time sleeping than doing anything else,” I asked.

She frowned at me for a moment and glanced ahead, at the other wagons ahead of us. “Well… maybe? She’s probably just bored, Renn. I mean, I am too. I’d be even more bored if not for the fact I’m stressing out over seeing how many of my kids have ran off instead of waiting for me to return,” she said.

Right… “Surely not,” I said.

“You’d be surprised. I’m hoping at least Branches is still there… what with Lellip and all.”

“Hm… she’s excited. I heard her talking about him to Nessa earlier,” I said. I had heard their conversation before I’d come to join Lilly back here.

Lilly sighed. “He better work out… otherwise I’ll never hear the end of it from Nebl…”

Smirking at that, I nodded. He would indeed tease her, something fierce, and odds are so would Vim…

I turned and leaned off the edge of the seat a bit as to see behind us and to make sure the cart, and the two men on it, were leaving us behind and doing so without issue. They were. They were already out of earshot… at least for humans.

Upon turning back around, I found Merit approaching us. She approached the side of the wagon, and then I had to scoot over a bit as she climbed up next to me and sat down with a huff.

“Thought you were taking a nap?” I asked.

“I had been. Angie and Lellip woke me up, Angie’s mother had been a quiet woman. I had been hoping she would have taken after her, obviously not. I’m glad we’re almost there, though I know I’ll just complain about something else once we are anyway,” Merit complained.

“You knew her mother?” I asked.

Merit simply nodded.

“Was she tiny too?” I asked.

Merit glanced at me with a glare. “Considering they’re taller than me, that’s quite a statement.”

Woops. I smirked a little softly as Lilly chuckled beside me. “If they’re tiny that makes you tinier. Tiniest? Teeny tiny?” Lilly teased.

“I came here for refuge and get this…? You’re lucky it’s about to rain,” Merit said with a huff.

Oh…? I glanced up, and sure enough found there were darker clouds heading our way. I couldn’t smell the rain on the wind yet, though, which was odd.

“Why would it raining stop you from… what? Beating her up? Arguing with her?” I asked.

“If she shocks someone when they’re wet it hurts them more. It’s more effective, basically,” Lilly told me.

“Really…? Why?”

“Has to do with electricity and how it flows. Another thing I got to teach you, I guess…” Merit said as she leaned against me, sighing as if tired. Probably was.

“Another?” Lilly asked.

“I’ve a growing list of things she has to teach me. Stuff like her shocking stuff, math, gymnastics…” I listed a few.

Lilly chuckled at me. “Gymnatics…? What’s with that?”

“Gymnastics. At least a parrot can copy what someone says, stupid owl,” Merit said.

“What’s a parrot?” I asked.

Lilly’s chuckling turned into real laughter. “She’s worse than my kids!”

Worse…? “A type of bird that is known to repeat what it hears. I was basically saying she’s so stupid she can’t even do what a little bird-brained creature can do.”

“A… bird that repeats what it hears…? Like sounds and stuff?”

“Yes. It can mimic words too. We actually have a few parrots in the Society… they visit Nasba and the rest occasionally, I’ve not seen them since my kingdom, though,” Merit said.

“Ah, I forgot about them. They’re not bad, for actual birdbrains,” Lilly said.

Gosh! More members I’ve never even heard of! To think we were getting ready to double if not triple our numbers and I still haven’t even met all the ones who were already here! I really did have so much to do, and so many people to see still. I felt as if I’d met so many of our members, but in truth I’ve only gone with Vim on a few routes since joining him. I bet I’d not even met close to half of our members yet… And I’ll likely be spending the next few years here up north. It almost made me want to sigh and regret my decision to join Angie and Randle, but at the same time I felt it was needed.

Not just because I genuinely wanted to help, and also wanted to build a home… a proper one, for myself and Vim, I also really felt that it was needed for another reason. Or well, a couple reasons.

The first and obvious one was that I believed Vim really did need a break. Light would not have suggested it otherwise. My hope was that Vim would linger with me, if even for a few months at a time, once we were settled. And in that time period… if possible…

“What…? Why are you blushing all of a sudden?” Lilly asked as she reached over and too the reins from me, as if my wild thoughts were going to distract me and put us all in danger or something.

“No reason…” I mumbled as Merit sat up, sitting away from me.

“Probably thinking of Vim.”

I was! But I wasn’t going to admit it!

“I think she thinks of him more often when he’s gone than when he’s with her, which is saying something considering how much they flirt,” Lilly teased.

“Gosh…” I mumbled. I couldn’t even argue since I had been caught so blatantly!

“Want to make a bet, Lilly?” Merit then asked, leaning forward a bit as to look at her.

“Sure? About what?”

“Who will consummate their partnership first? Your son and Lellip or Renn and Vim?” Merit asked with a huge grin.

Gosh!

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