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

[growcrooked]

And Nona doesn't want to leave her alone, and she's slept in worse places. So.

[mute_pen]

Etty doesn't fall sleep.

She doesn't usually have nightmares, but there's no time like the present.

[growcrooked]

Nona does fall asleep.

[mute_pen]

Etty sits.

And cries, quietly, intermittently.

And at dawn she looks at the sun.

[growcrooked]

The change comes.

Her wing is whole.

[mute_pen]

That's good.

At least she isn't in physical pain anymore.

She tries the wing.

She makes a few false starts, getting lift and then not knowing what to do with it -

And then she's in the air, wobbly but aloft, and she smooths her flight and does her level best to travel in a straight line, away.

[pythbox]

It goes well enough, for a little while, and then - is that the lake up ahead?

It is.

[mute_pen]

Etty doesn't understand.

She turns towards the rising sun, flies that way, keeping it ahead of her -

[pythbox]

And after a few minutes, she comes upon the lake again.

[mute_pen]

She tries all the cardinal directions.

To approximately the same effect.

She half-lands, half-crashes into the lake in despair.

[pythbox]

The other swans are mildly startled by her splashy landing.

[mute_pen]

Etty ignores them.

She floats.

She puts her head on her back.

She closes her eyes and she sleeps.