Twisted Wings

Chapter 4

The rest of the day's classes went by quickly. Celeste excelled in Music and astronomy, impressing the teachers.

Then it came time to meet Ace and Deuce after class. Not far from the botanical gardens they found a grove of trees, the ground around them was littered with strange spiky green balls.

"Whoa! There really are a ton of chestnuts just layin' around. I'm gonna be livin' large on chestnut tarts!" Grim said excitedly walking up to the spiky balls.

"Are these... Truly edible?" Celeste said eyeing the chestnuts on the ground.

"Sure they are. You gotta take off the spiky part first." Ace said as Grim grabbed one of the chestnuts and let out a yowl.

"The spines pricked my paws!" He whined rubbing his paws together.

"I don't think we can do this with our bare hands. We need something to put them in, too." Deuce said with a slight frown as Celeste checked Grim's paws for injury.

"Maybe we can find some supplies in the botanical garden?" Ace said looking back at the large greenhouse nearby.

"Let's take a look." Deuce said and they all followed him inside.

"Whoa, I didn't know this place was so huge." Ace said looking around at the vast variety of plants and flowers. Some of the plants were familiar to Celeste while others were completely foreign.

"Mother would have loved it here." Celeste said, feeling a sense of nostalgia as she spotted some white lilies - her mother's favorite.

"Whaddya mean would have?" Grim turned his gaze up at her curious having caught her use of past tense.

"Mother passed away quite some time ago." Celeste said causing Ace and Deuce to give her surprised looks.

"Celeste... I'm sorry. It must be painful for you to remember. I can't even imagine..." Deuce trailed off with a pained look.

"Don't be sorry. It was a long time ago." Celeste reassured him. It had been 50 years since her mother's passing, and while it wasn't very long for an angel, 50 years for a human was half a lifetime.

"... A place this big has got to have a groundskeeper. Let's split up and look." Deuce said after a brief pause.

"Sure. I got dibs on the right side." Ace said after giving her a worried glance.

"Then I'll go left. Celeste, you and Grim go straight ahead." Deuce said and they split up heading off down their chosen paths.