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]

"You asked me what I do all day. I do a lot of that."

[mute_pen]

"I suppose you do have to occupy yourself somehow." She chews her lip. "...Is the bit about catching fire in the library just you, or could I go in?"

[growcrooked]

"I don't know. But if you catch fire, you might not live through it, so I wouldn't try it if I were you."

[mute_pen]

"So us swan types are only eternally youthful, and not invulnerable," concludes Etty.

[growcrooked]

"He could've changed something after the prince, but if he did, I don't know about it."

[mute_pen]

"I'll only try it if I become so bored or desperate as to risk immolation, then."

[growcrooked]

"Okay."

[mute_pen]

"People say burning is the worst death. Are they right?" asks Etty.

[growcrooked]

"It hurts a lot. I don't know if it's the worst death; I've never died."

[mute_pen]

"I imagine the dying part is roughly similar in all cases."

[growcrooked]

"I've done a lot of things people die from, but it's different when you're immortal. I've been set on fire and beaten and raped, and I've jumped off the top of the tower and tried to drown myself in the lake and eaten rat poison and broken glass. Fire hurts the most while it's happening, but it doesn't last as long as some of the rest - but I don't know if it'd kill you faster or slower."

[mute_pen]

Etty shivers.

[growcrooked]

"What?"

[mute_pen]

"It's - gruesome."

[growcrooked]

She laughs.

"That's my life."

[mute_pen]

"Well, maybe it's fixable."

[growcrooked]

"Maybe."

[mute_pen]

"Do you think you could teach me to light - does it have to be candles, or could I burn leaves and tinder and the like? I think I can adjust to this level of moonlight and be able to write, but the moon will wane, and I don't know how - how long it might take to break the curse."

[growcrooked]

"I have no idea," she says. "But if you light anything, he'll see it from the castle. And there'll be hell to pay if he sees you doing magic, I bet."

[mute_pen]

"Even if I go deep into the woods? Or as deep as I can, anyway, I don't know yet what's keeping me from walking or flying away but it must exist."

[growcrooked]

"Maybe not. And I guess he can't hurt you as bad as he can hurt me, or you'll die and he'll have to find a new flock again."

[mute_pen]

"Do you know if I heal - clean, like you do? If he breaks my legs or something - for that matter what happens when I transform, if I'm hurt?"

[growcrooked]

Nona shrugs.

[mute_pen]

"Well," sighs Etty, "no need to hasten the experiment, I'm sure to trip and scrape my knee soon enough."

[growcrooked]

"Do you do that a lot?"