In which Cuthbert is nearly brained by a bird.

[saikamai]

Even on the island, where the fair weather made the days and weeks run together and blend, marked only, it seemed to Bert, by the disappearance of friends or one of the island's magical anomalies, he found that this time of year made him thoughtful

Comments

[turnthebadinme]

With a sound somewhere between a squawk of terror and a laugh, Serena ducked out of the way, hands flying up over her head. "Oh my god," she cried, pivoting on her heel to watch the bird for a few moments before turning her attention to the boy running after him. "Don't tell me you know that bird, Bert." Now that she had a look at him that wasn't head-on, he was beautiful, unlike any Serena had seen since coming to the island.

[saikamai]

"I do," he shouted, breezing past Serena to catch him up on his arm. David flapped his wings a few times, as if to remind both Bert and Serena that he was, indeed, a wild thing and only a passing fancy kept him from taking off at any moment. Bert turned around carefully and smiled at her as Davey inspected Bert's hair carefully for any spare field mice or grasshoppers.

"Sorry about that," he laughed, his voice lilting up. "I guess he realized just in time you were probably too large to be a contender for supper. He's nothing if not ambitious, this guy."

[turnthebadinme]

"Then no wonder he's a friend of yours," Serena teased, looking to the bird in awe. She had known people who kept such birds, for whom falconry was a hobby, but she wasn't particularly well acquainted with the practice firsthand. The colors of his plumage were outright entrancing. "He's so beautiful. You know, for someone who has a taste for your hair. Or for me."

She hadn't been injured so much as startled, so she couldn't bring herself to mind in the least.

[saikamai]

"Yeah," Cuthbert said, eyes rolling upward as if to check on David's progress. "I promise he's not actually finding any bugs in there..." The bird tugged particularly hard at that moment, startling a laugh out of Bert.

"And thanks, by the way. He is beautiful. Died before his time." Bert gave a demonstrative, sad little smile before shrugging. "Luckily the island's decided to provide me with my very own menagerie. Glue Boy last year, David this year. Think I've finally run out of animals, though." Speaking of animals, there was the matter of Caerbannog, the rather bossy white hare that Lloyd had gifted him with last spring. Somehow, Cuthbert wasn't certain that 'Nog and Davey were going to be the best of pals. Hm.

"What about you? Was the island half so kind to you in its selection of presents from home?" Bert smirked, then winced slightly as David gently tested out the tasty cartilage of Bert's ear.

[turnthebadinme]

Serena was a little startled by the revelation of David's death, though she supposed she shouldn't have been. People here did it all the time -- why not birds, too? Anything that could bring a person back to life would surely have no trouble doing the same with a hawk.

"No, not nearly," she admitted, feeling the heat of something -- of embarrassment or shame or some old habitual fear -- riding up her neck. "It... I only ever get one thing and it was..." She took a deep breath and looked up with a smile, devoid of her usual cheer. "It was from Georgina." It was all that bore saying, really; Georgina had been nothing but bad news.

[saikamai]

"Ah," Cuthbert said, trying for commiseration, though he felt he only knew about half the story, there. "Well, hopefully you'll have more luck in the future. ...hey! Did you get to go home?" he asked, brightening suddenly. David lunged powerfully into the air, taking off like a bullet after some unseen target.

[turnthebadinme]

That was a topic much more to Serena's liking and she brightened in turn, nodding. Distracted for a moment as she watched David go, she smiled, then looked back to Bert. "I did," she said, pleased as punch it was so. "It was so good to see the city again, just for a little while. And to introduce Beat to my mom. What about you?"

[saikamai]

Bert watched David go with an easy grin. It was nigh impossible not to; it was exhilarating just to watch him, to feel the brief breeze created by those powerful wings. "I did," he said. "And it was good, though-- we had Sandor with us, and he'd been around when it happened a few years ago, I guess, so once we knew we wouldn't be staying..."

He hesitated, deciding what to say. "Well, once we knew we wouldn't be staying, it was... You know, it was funny. I think there are a lot of folk who'd do anything to go back home. Maybe almost all of them, except for those who came to the clearing when they came here, or the ones who've got a lot to regret about their former lives. But mine was a peach, for the most part, and you know... I still can't say I'd go back. Makes me feel like a perfect savage, but there was more relief in knowing I'd be back on the island than I felt when I thought I was home for good. Does that strike you as strange? Or do you ken what I mean?"

[turnthebadinme]

"I think I do," Serena admitted, hesitating a little. "I mean, when we showed up, I thought maybe Beat had just been... I don't know, misfiled in the universe and I was just praying they didn't fix the mistake, you know? Because I wanted to be home, but I wanted to be here, too, and I didn't want to be there without all the people I knew. And then Kate told us it was temporary 'cause it happened to her a few weeks before and I was... kind of relieved."

She flashed a small smile, rueful, but grateful not to be the only one. It would have been safer, getting to stay, knowing those choice few who had gone with them wouldn't be lost to them, but there were some things at home she wasn't ready to face and others she had grown out of it. Strange as it was, this had become home.

[saikamai]

Cuthbert began nodding adamantly halfway through her admission. "Yes! Yes. It's sort of terrible, isn't it? I don't know..." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking troubled but also enormously relieved. "You live in a place for your entire life, look forward to a lifetime there-- it seems... disloyal, or... fickle, somehow, not to want that back."

It was strange, such heavy talk in the middle of the bright afternoon, but it was something that had been itching at the back of Bert's mind. He nodded at the path ahead. "Feel like a walk?"

[turnthebadinme]

Serena glanced up at the path and nodded, looking back to him with a smile. "Yeah," she said, "sure." It felt so good to have someone get it, to say what she'd been holding in. Starting down the path, she shrugged one shoulder higher, hands slipping into her pockets. "And that's it exactly. I just feel like I'm a horrible person for being okay with not being there, but... you can't live here and not make a life. And it's not easy to leave that behind, but... I guess I got used to the idea of not going back."

[saikamai]

"Yep," he said, simply. "That's exactly right. It might seem like an awful callous thing to say, but where doesn't matter nearly as much as people expect, I think. And sure, it isn't just about where, you're leaving behind people from home, too, but..."

He sighed and shoved his hands in the back pocket of his jeans, studying the ground as they walked along. "I'm not generally one for prayer if it comes to anything more serious than horseracing, and... well." Bert smirked. "I had a friend back home who liked to ascribe just about everything to ka. Like, fate. Nothing drives me battier. I like to think for the most part, we're given random chances and we make the best of them. But here... it's different. It's hard not to see meaning in things, I think," he said, sounding excited. "Or at the very least not to marvel at the chance, even if that's all it is. Doesn't it just... amaze you to think that otherwise most of us would never have met. Hell, our worlds probably wouldn't have even brushed against one another. We're all of us so