The Fifth Season

CHAPTER FIVE: MAKING A PACT

SNOH

        "Talking to birds? Now... I'm not sure if I heard you all right." Yursa seemed genuinely concerned when I posed her the question concerning the owl I was currently in search of. I watched as her storm-blue gaze focused intensely on my hair, deterring from her words, she commented on the different shade. "What happened to your hair?" She asked me curiously.

             I shrugged shortly, "Your guess is as good as mine." I pursed my lips, "I woke up and it was like this." I stated as I lightly tugged on my strand feeling the changing coil twist around my finger before eventually letting it go.

               Yursa held onto the bag of groceries, shifting her weight between her feet as she spoke, "I'm a little worried about you, Snoh." She admitted truthfully. I furrowed my brow at her statement, unsure of how I should respond to it, "Worried? How so?" I inquired.

              She sighed deeply, "First, the changes in your hair and now you're telling me you can speak to birds." She clutched her items securely in her arms before slowly walking over to me, her eyes never left me as she did so. Yursa bent over slightly to meet my slightly shorter height, "You don't think maybe we should go see a natural healer or perhaps a holistic sprite? Maybe they will have more answers for us?" She suggested to me in a hushed whisper as if she didn't want anyone to hear that her step-daughter was potentially going crazy.

              I sighed deeply, part of me thought the idea might be helpful, but the other half of me thought there had to be something deeper going on; though there wasn't much evidence of anything peculiar happening with me other than the change of my hair color and my ability to speak to this particular owl—that part I could not prove as much.

              I shook my head, "Mom already said she would see if she could find something for me at the apothecary shop... maybe she'll end up conjuring something up for me. For now, we shouldn't jump to conclusions." My eye scurried a little over where the tree beside my room was resting, still no sign of Saam anywhere.

               "Still... I think maybe we should get you checked out or something... what if you're sick? I don't want anything to happen to you Snoh." Yursa said sincerely. I gave her a soft smile, grateful that she cared about what happens to me. I still couldn't believe there was a time that I thought this woman was out to get me, but she was genuine from the start, becoming a second mother to me when I needed her the most.

                  "Maybe I'll be fine. Let's give it some time, okay?" I asked her.

                  After a moment of gazing at me intently, her shoulders slumped as she agreed to my suggestion in defeat, "I suppose... you're an adult after all, but remember your mother and I are here to help you in whatever way we can." She reminded me.

                  I nodded, "I know, Yursa." I cleared my throat my hands finding their way to my back as I clasped my hands together, "Also... do you think you can try to dye my hair back to the brown it was before?" I inquired.

                  Yursa cocked my head to the side, "Do you think it will work? The color on your head is an unusual silver and..." She trailed off as she stared longer at my head, "Blue... silver blue." She finished.

              "Nothing that a bit of dye can't fix, right?" I cocked my head to the side innocently, hopeful for a confident answer. Yursa's lips curved into that of an unsure smile as she hoisted the bags of food higher in her arms, "Well, we won't know until we try, huh?" She replied.

              Soon after Yursa disappeared into the house to unload what she had bought from the marketplace and I was left in the yard once again starting my search for Saam; this time I was a lot quieter in my ventures in fear of someone thinking I had absolutely lost my mind. The last thing I needed was to be on the front page of the Wysterian Chronicle and the talk of the city, that would be embarrassing in itself.