My Name Is Evie

Sick

*Evie's P.O.V*

I hadn't seen Lei in a few days which worried me. I was worried that she had been injured or had died. I would be very sad if she had died. It would be quite devastating to lose her companionship. She may be quite annoying sometimes but she was constantly there to listen.

I felt a tremor of fear run down my spine when I saw a crow circling the house. I knew it wasn't Lei, her talons were still painted pink. She seemed to favor the color for some reason. My nails had already been a myriad of different colors.  I had them pink for only a day and had bribed Lei to steal more colors. She had done her job well, collecting pebbles in the rafter of the barn.

On her last trip, she had come back a little more tired. It had taken a lot out of her for some reason. She had rested in my room for over two days before she had gotten well enough to fly again. She had taken off that same day and it had snowed most of the night.

I had searched the woods countless times. All of our usual places hadn't been touched. I was afraid that something terrible happened to her even now as I watched the strange crow fly over the house. It looked towards my room and I shadow traveled to stand on the roof. It was still snowing and the large flakes of snow landed on my face. They didn't melt when they touched my face, sticking to my hair and eyelashes with a chilling cold.

The crow landed on the ledge in front of me. It tilted its head while staring at me and I hissed at it, making it flap its wings and move away. It was clearly Mother Miranda's crow, no other animal would be so unafraid of someone. I moved closer to it and it hopped away.

"Look birdie, you can keep hopping away or we can get this over with," I said as I held out my hand. The crow seemed to consider my words before taking flight, landing on my hand. Its talons dug into my hand to keep steady and I noticed the letter tied to its leg.

I carefully untied it, the bird squawking in discomfort at my awkward hold. I managed to get the letter free and let go of the bird. It let out a disgruntled caw as it flew over to the ledge. I sighed as I shadow traveled to my room and came back with some bird seed. I threw it on the ledge and the crow hesitantly hopped towards it.

As the crow ate, I looked down at the letter. I carefully undid the small scroll, recognizing the handwriting with disgust. A small part of me hoped that it hadn't been from Mother Miranda. I looked over the letter, my lips curling up in displeasure.

Come see me Evie. Now

That was the only thing written on it. How very unhelpful of her to do. I hated that woman and her cryptic letters. They were so annoying. I huffed as I crumpled up the letter, throwing it off the roof. I immediately felt bad about littering and shadow traveled to the ground. I picked up the snow covered letter and just tucked it into my pants pocket.

I shadow traveled back to the roof and huffed when I realized that the crow was gone. My best guess in finding Mother Miranda was probably the old church she had taken over. I knew that's where meetings were and I supposed that was where her lair was.

I had to take several small bursts of shadow travel as I had exhausted my power a bit by constantly shadow traveling. It was just so much more fun than walking. It took me about thirty minutes or so to reach the chapel and I paused when I reached it.

I had to mentally prepare myself to see her before I entered the chapel. It was so dark and dreary. My eyes drifted upwards to where Heisenberg's lycans had been last time I was here. They were absent, probably hunting down people to eat.

I wandered further into the building, and found a set of stairs that led down. Something drew me in so of course I followed. I opened the door to the basement and found a living room of sorts. There was fire burning in the hearth. I heard a weak caw and I turned my head to see Lei. She was in a nest of sorts, one clearly human made.

"Lei," I said hesitantly, looking around for Mother Miranda. I felt a surge of anger, wondering if she had hurt Lei. I moved closer to Lei and noticed that she was really sick looking. I didn't know much about crows but she certainly didn't look good.

"She is ill. She shouldn't have been out in the snow," Mother Miranda's voice made me spin around. She seemed displeased and I couldn't tell why. Every second she seemed to get closer to me.

"She was resting in my room for over two days. I thought she was just tired," I said quietly. My eyes trailed up to meet her gaze and I had to restrain myself from trying to pull her stupid bird mask off.

"She was ill. Birds do not often rest for so long without reason. Only when they are ill or protecting their eggs," Mother Miranda said.

"How do you know the difference?" I asked with a frown as I continued to hold her gaze.

"When birds have eggs, their mates usually visit and help sit on the eggs. They also usually flock together," Mother Miranda said as she glanced at Lei. She lifted her up and Lei cawed, trying to stand up. Her wings flapped slightly as she ended up giving up on standing.

"Does Lei have a flock?" I asked curiously.

"No, she's a rather odd creature. Prefers to stick to herself. Has since her mate died," Mother Miranda said simply.

"She had a mate?" I asked curiously.

"She was a rather curious bird. Too curious. She was shot by hunters late last spring," Mother Miranda said simply. "It was a tragedy, she was one of my best messenger birds," she stated.

"You cared for her," I said hesitantly. She had set Lei down and I turned to look at Lei for a moment. When she still hadn't answered, I turned to look at her and she had disappeared.