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]

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.

[growcrooked]

The baron's daughter waves back. She appears to have put on clothes of some kind.

Then she climbs over the edge of the wall and drops to the floor of the orchard. It makes an unpleasant sound when she lands.

[mute_pen]

Etty blinks.

Then she moves - at a brisk walk; she knows how these legs work but that doesn't mean they work well - around to the gate and into the orchard.

[growcrooked]

She walks up to the orchard gate not long after Etty steps through it.

The clothes are her fathers - is her father's, a shirt and nothing else. It hangs loose, half-buttoned. She isn't wearing shoes. If the fall injured her, she shows no sign of it.

[mute_pen]

"- Are you okay? That's - a drop."

[growcrooked]

"I'm immortal," she shrugs. "And the Baron thinks scars are unladylike, so I heal clean."

[mute_pen]

"But doesn't it hurt?"

[growcrooked]

"Not that much. I've had plenty worse."

[mute_pen]

"I heard a noise, it sounded like you broke a bone."

[growcrooked]

"Yeah, my ankle. It's all better now, see?" She twirls, moving lightly on both feet.

[mute_pen]

"...I guess you got used to it after however many decades?" ventures Etty uncertainly.

[growcrooked]

"Breaking bones is nothing new," she agrees.

[mute_pen]

"Why are you dressed like that?" Etty asks next.

[growcrooked]

"I hate wearing my dresses, but it's not comfortable being out here naked."

[mute_pen]

"What's wrong with your dresses?" She has many complaints about her situation, but her white feather dress isn't really one of them.

[growcrooked]

"He makes me wear them."

[mute_pen]

Etty looks down at her own outfit. "I haven't even been yelled at yet, and yet if I were to list the sources of my displeasure the fact that I did not choose this dress would not rate highly."

[growcrooked]

"That's you," says the baron's daughter. "I'm me. We're not the same."

[mute_pen]

"That is true."

[growcrooked]

"And you might not care about wearing dresses, but I care that my father beats me when I wear clothes he doesn't like, so I do it whenever I don't think he'll catch me."

[mute_pen]

Etty nods.

"I thought of some name ideas, today," she says. "While I was trying to learn to work wings."