It’s cold…
…
My arms started searching around , instinctually looking for a source of warmth.
Where?…
After a while of not finding anything, I reluctantly opened my eyes. The sun was just peeking up over the horizon as I lay there in bed, just like any other morning. But this ti, there was sothing missing.
“Umbra?…” I called out, my voice a little hoarse.
No response.
Where did you go?
The last few days had felt a little different. Well, it was mainly Raynelle who had been acting a little differently. She’d been strangely eager to take to train, but as soon we would arrive at the guild, it seed like her mind was elsewhere. And now, Umbra was nowhere to be found even though I know I went to sleep with them yesterday.
Not knowing what to do, I just got myself dressed. I picked out a nice dress, similar to the first one I had received from Raynelle and Ava, though bigger and with fewer frills. At so point, I just felt that they didn’t really suit very much.
Right as I finished fastening the dress and pulled my tail through the flap, Umbra crawled out from my shadow. Almost imdiately, I leaned down and lifted them up, assuming they had decided to show themselves just to get their usual pats.
“What were you doing in there? It isn’t like you to hide away like that.”
As I brought them closer, I noticed that there was sothing in their mouth. A small folded piece of paper being held carefully between their teeth, almost as if making sure not to damage it in anyway.
“What’s this?”
To my surprise, as soon as I brought my hand closer to try and take the paper out of Umbra’s mouth they just dropped it into my palm.
“*Yip*”
“… Is this… for ?” I asked, a bit confused by the gesture.
“*Yip*”
…
I don’t know what else I expected you to say.
…
I just unfolded the note, hoping to get so answers.
‘Hello there! I’ve been wanting to talk for a while now. Been a few years I think, hard to rember with everything else going on. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible right now, but this is a good first step if I’ve ever seen one. Now, to make things nice and simple, can you please hand this note to one of the twin Goddesses? They’ll understand, alright? Great talking to you and all that. -JD’
What? JD? Who is JD?
They know about the Goddesses?
They know that I know them?
…
But… I haven’t told anyone.
Sohow, the ssage wasn’t even the strangest part of the note. The letters themselves seed to wobble slightly as if they were struggling to stay in place. There were even what looked to be the faint outlines of extra words just behind the legible ones.
“Umbra, where did you-?” I stopped myself, realising that I wouldn’t get an answer from them.
What do I-?
Right at that mont, I heard the faint sound of footsteps coming from behind my door. Before I could think things through, I handed the note to Umbra so that they could hide it in my shadow, which they gladly did.
Are they already awake?
But they’re never awake this early…
Did sothing happen?!
Not wanting to jump to any conclusions, I put my ear up to the door and listened.
“Is she awake?” It was faint, but I could tell it was Raynelle’s voice.
“I don’t think so,” Ava responded, “Wouldn’t she have co out of her room if she was?”
“But she’s always awake early when she’s going to the temple. She normally wakes us up.”
“But you’ve been pushing her at training lately, right? Maybe she’s just exhausted from it?”
“But it’s never stopped her before. I don’t see why it would today of all days.”
There was a brief pause.
“Should I go wake her?” Ava asked.
“We probably should… if we wait too long, we won’t be able to do this before she wants to head out.”
Without anything else being said, I heard the footsteps rapidly getting closer. I don’t know why, but at that mont, I felt a small surge of fear. It wasn’t like I had done anything wrong, but it still felt like I was doing sothing I wasn’t supposed to.
Without thinking, I jumped back into bed, pulling the covers over just before the door opened.
They didn’t hear , did they?
…
“Kierra?” Ava was the one to call out.
I didn’t open my eyes, trying to sell the idea that I was asleep.
“It’s ti to wake up little fox.”
Little fox?!
Every ti Ava called that, I couldn’t help but feel a little combative. It wasn’t my fault that I had barely grown in the last year… My growing pains just suddenly stopped, and I stopped growing along with it. That should be a good thing!
…
Despite what was going through my head, I managed to keep my eyes and mouth closed.
…
…
Nothing. Nothing at all.
Did they already give up?
…
Did they leave?
…
Was my acting that good?
…
…
No matter how long I waited, there was just silence.
What’s happening?
Sowhat reluctantly, I opened one eye just enough to get a peek at what was going on. However, all that greeted was a bright purple eye staring right back at , making jump a little.
“So you’re pretending to sleep now?” Ava asked, “Unfortunately, you can’t trick , little fox. You’re a little too easy to read with the way your ears twitch.”
…
“I’m not little…” I sheepishly let out while blushing.
“Yeah, yeah. You can say that once you’re taller than ,” Ava chuckled, “Now get up. We’ve got sothing for you before you head out today.”
Not saying anything else, I clumsily slid myself out of bed.
“Oh, you’re already dressed? That’s even better! Now, get out there. Mom is probably beside herself waiting for you,” Ava gave a light push towards the door as she spoke.
It seed I had no choice in the matter, as Ava kept nudging forward until I was standing out in the corridor.
“Kierra!” Raynelle called out from the main room, “What are you doing over there? Co sit. Co sit.”
The excitent in Raynelle’s voice was almost infectious. I quickly made my way over and sat down next to Raynelle at the table; Ava followed closely behind, choosing to sit on the other side of . In the centre of the table, there was a large cake, along with two boxes, one small and narrow, the other large and flat.
I expected either Raynelle or Ava to say sothing first, to explain what was going on, but instead, they just looked at expectantly.
“What is… this?” I asked.
“A celebration!” Raynelle responded imdiately, the smile on her face only seeming to grow, “Your celebration!”
My celebration? For what?
What did I-?
“It’s been exactly two years since we took you in,” Ava said, clearly noticing my confusion, “I know we didn’t celebrate it last year, but we just wanted to do sothing this ti, alright?”
They did all this… for ?
They didn’t have to… really… but…
“Thank you…”
“Wait! Don’t say thank you yet!” Raynelle called out, reaching for the boxes on the table, “Say thank you after you’ve got your presents, that’s the right order to do this in.”
Raynelle took the smaller box and handed the other, larger box, to Ava.
“I’ll go first,” Raynelle said, handing her box, “Go on, open it!”
Seeing the look on her face, I just couldn’t turn her down. I slid the top off the box. Inside was a knife nestled on so sort of plush lining, almost being presented like jewellery. Both the blade and handle were a deep black. Even when tilting the box slightly, the blade didn’t catch the light. Carefully lifting it up, I could feel sothing on the other side. Turning it over, I saw the na ‘Kierra’ engraved into the handle, surrounded by intricate motifs.
Before I could even say anything, Raynelle started speaking.
“It’s never a bad idea to have a good knife on you. It could save your life, or it might just live on your belt and be used to peel fruit… but for this… I wanted it to an a little more…” She paused for a bit, “I still rember that day you gave us a heart attack… when you sohow worked up the courage to finally tell us your na… I hope that by having your na engraved on this knife that you carry with you… it will help remind you of your courage that day… To give you that little push if ever you need it.”
…
I didn’t know how to respond. Even when I saw the knife, I had just thought Raynelle had gotten it for because she noticed that I preferred using knives for our training. I didn’t expect it to co with such a heartfelt ssage attached. But that wasn’t a bad thing.
“I… thank you…” I carefully placed the knife back into its box to keep it safe, “It’s… almost a sha I’m not wearing a belt to put it on right now…”
“Oh co on now, you don’t have to worry about sothing like that. If you want to keep your knife on you in a dress, we can go have a thigh sheath made for you at so point. Just knowing you want to keep it is more than enough for right now, okay?”
“Okay,” I responded, feeling a little better thanks to her words.
“Then is it my turn now?” Ava got up from the table with her box in hand, “What are you doing? Co stand in front of .”
Now that I was getting a little swept up in the energy, I imdiately did as I was told.
“Now, close your eyes for .”
As soon as I closed my eyes, I heard the sound of a box being opened, followed by a slight weight being placed on my shoulders.
“Now I just need to…” I heard Ava move around to the front of before fiddling with sothing, “And we’re done! You can open your eyes now.”
Opening my eyes, I saw the cloak that had been draped over my shoulders. Just like the knife, it was a deep black. The material itself felt very high quality, but by far, the most interesting part was the mass of feathers decorating the collar.
“Unfortunately, unlike Mom, I don’t have any deep reasoning as to why I got you this. Just thought you could do with a new cloak instead of using whatever we had lying around. For the feathers… I just noticed that even after all this ti, you still like to stare at my wings… So I made sure to keep any of the softer ones when moulting season ca around and worked with Ana to get this done in ti,” She said with a smirk, “Ah, and there is a hood. I just tucked it under the feathers so it didn’t get in the way.”
…
“Thank you… It’s… pretty…” I said, running my hand through the feathers.
“Now that’s much better,” Raynelle patted my head as she stood up, “That’s when you’re supposed to say thank you.”
All three of us burst out laughing at her comnt and it took a surprising amount of ti for us to eventually calm down.
“Anyway… now that we’ve done all this… there’s sothing I wanted to ask you, Kierra,” Raynelle knelt down.
Is there more?
Isn’t this already enough? Maybe even too much?
“Both I and Ava spoke about it a bit… but… how would you feel about making today your… birthday?” Before I even had a chance to respond, she put her hands up, saying, “I don’t want to force you or anything. We were just thinking about how you didn’t have one last year… and thought that maybe you weren’t sure when it was, or maybe you just didn’t want to tell us. It’s just… if you want it to be your birthday… it seed like a good option… Again, I don’t want to force you into this or anything, y’know?”
My… Birthday…
…
I hadn’t really thought about it before; there were just always other things that were more important, and by the ti I was taken in by Raynelle and Ava, it had already completely slipped my mind.
…
It would be the sa day as the day they found …
I…
…
Why am I even hesitating?
“Yes…” I said, holding back my tears so as not to ruin the mont, “I would like… today to be my birthday.”
Right as the words had left my mouth, the two of them shared a glance before shouting in unison, “Happy sixteenth birthday, Kierra!”
Before I could say anything else to them, Raynelle pulled the cake towards us.
“Now, let’s quickly get so food in you and head out,” She said, “Don’t want to keep you from the temple too long.”
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