truthwright | and my ears will listen

Skip to Main Content

and my ears will listen

Time goes by. Shura's mother lets her cut a cloudpine branch, and she and Helen go flying together.

Helen celebrates her eighth birthday by baking all her favourite people a cake again. And then she goes away with Kas, to Iceland and Russia and back by way of Alaska.

When they fly in, Kas on Petaal's cloudpine and Helen on her own, Helen is wearing blue jeans and a pink T-shirt.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"We don't know," says Shura.

"Maybe she isn't any things. Or she's kind of like in that book where there are aliens whose daemons settle but only to a color, not a shape. Except she's all kinds of colors," Nicoa says.

"Maybe she's all the things," says Helen. "Sometimes she's really strange things. She was a human with big fluffy bird wings once."

"They were soft," says Kalavar.

"I've never heard of that," laughs Nicoa.

"It's peculiar," says Helen, giggling.

"He's super, super peculiar. He should be in superhero movies. Super-Peculiar!"

Helen cracks up.

"Actually having an unsettled daemon and being a grownup would be a pretty good superpower," muses Shura.

"It is! It's useful," says Helen. "Petaal can do all kinds of stuff."

"Maybe one day I will draw comic books and they can be Super-Peculiar and fight crime."

Helen giggles.

"That would be silly!"

"It would! But it'd be based on a true story, or at least a real person, like all the ones where the Shade-Dreamer does stuff."

Helen snorts. "Yeah."

"If we'd been born earlier we would've gotten to meet her. She was in our clan."

"I know," says Helen.

"I just think it's cool," shrugs Shura.

"I guess."

"You don't seem to think it's that cool."

"Don't I?"

"You don't! How come?"

She shrugs.

"I dunno. I'm hungry; do you want to come see what there is to eat at Ranata's house?"

"Yeah, okay."

They go to Ranata's house.

There are muffins!

Nom nom.

Muffins!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only