forgotten

[mute_pen]

It's past dark, but when you need the outhouse, you need the outhouse.

Isabel picks her way across the yard of her father's house in the moonlight, hoping to sneak back into bed without waking him.

Comments

[mute_pen]

Can swans give withering looks? This one is going to try. She cannot answer the question. But she can lift her head up and look over the baron's daughter's shoulder back the way they came.

[growcrooked]

"Okay," she says, puzzled, and she carries Etty back up.

[mute_pen]

Etty points her beak at the scroll and ink and pen.

[growcrooked]

"Oh, that," she says, and puts down her armful of swan, and frowns thoughtfully.

[mute_pen]

Etty looks up at her. Surely she can just make two trips if she can make one? But she can't ask.

[growcrooked]

"I'll bring it out to you later," she says, and picks Etty up again.

[mute_pen]

Etty nods and settles her head on her own back for the ride. (It's kind of fun to do that once she's gotten over the concern that she will injure herself doing it.)

[growcrooked]

Down they go.

[mute_pen]

Etty waits to be put down. Not particularly impatiently. The baron's daughter is pleasant to be held by.

[growcrooked]

Just outside another of the side doors, the baron's daughter puts her down, then leans down and kisses her on the beak.

[mute_pen]

This surprises a little sound out of Etty.

[growcrooked]

She grins.

"Can you get in the orchard?" she asks. "I'll leave your things there."

[mute_pen]

Etty is not sure.

She tries walking a step.

It doesn't work very well, and she's not used to catching herself when she's working with wings instead of arms.

[growcrooked]

"...Can you get in there when you're human, though?"

[mute_pen]

Etty nods.

[growcrooked]

She shrugs. "Okay. Then that's where I'll put it. He hardly ever goes there."

[mute_pen]

Etty nods again, then tries walking some more. She's not very good at it; if she thinks through each step in full detail she overbalances halfway through and if she tries to speed up she forgets how her joints work.

[growcrooked]

She giggles.

[mute_pen]

Etty clacks her beak at the baron's daughter. She stumbles over to the water, where at least she can expect to float if she forgets how to work her legs.

[growcrooked]

The baron's daughter goes back inside.

A little while later, she hides pen and ink and scroll in the orchard.

[mute_pen]

Etty divides her day between napping - so she'll be able to stay up all night - and figuring out how swans work. She can flap her wings by the end of the day, but hasn't worked out how to actually take off.

She sits on the shore when the sun starts going down.

[growcrooked]

The other swans all cluster on the shore by the castle as the sun sets.

There is a definite warning - a heaviness in her limbs, a fizzing in her bones. It goes on for a little while, as the sun sinks below the treetops; when the glow is fading from the western horizon, the change finally happens. All at once, she's a woman again, complete with pretty white dress.

[mute_pen]

Well -

Strange sensation, that, not something she'd do recreationally, but it could be worse.

Etty gets up and heads for the orchard.

[growcrooked]

The orchard is right up next to the castle, and of its four walls, the one that it shares with the castle grounds is thick enough to walk on.

Someone is standing on it.

[mute_pen]

Etty waves.