Winged

12. Goodbyes and Hellos

"Here! Here, I've got it. This is it. And I even have most of the ingredients here. I just need to fly to London to pick up an eagle egg shell, then we should be able to make the portal before Saturday." My dad burst into the living room holding a giant, dusty old book. Some of its pages were falling out, and the cover carried the smell of real leather. It could easily have been over a hundred years old.

It was beautiful.

I stood up from my place on the couch and walked over to him. I looked at him, gauging his mood.
"May I?"

"Sure. Yeah." He handed me the book. "I have to call Elena, but if I can get a flight, I'll try to leave tonight."

"Will she stay with us while you're gone?" Toby spoke up from the couch.

"Oh boy, I hadn't thought about that. Yes, she'll have to." He turned to me. "Ester, will you make up a bed for her?" I nodded. "Good. I'll just--" He looked as though he might say something else, then turned around and left the room.

I sat back down on the couch, cradling the old book like a baby. Toby moved over to look over my shoulder.

"A bloodberry, a midnight worm and two pounds of Baobab root? And he has this kind of stuff just laying around?" Toby pulled a face.
"I am definitely finding more and more things he's kept hidden from me. I guess I understand though... When you start to love someone, you don't really want to ruin everything by busting out a giant secret like this." I caressed the page.

"I guess it would be a true test to see if they loved you or not." Toby said.

"And if they didn't? If this scared them off? Then they go to the authorities, the press, the scientists. Such a move would almost ensure you spent the rest of your life in a laboratory."

"Not always." My dad was standing in the doorway.

"What do you mean? Did something happen?"

"I think I should take this now." My dad took the book from my hands, closing it gently. "Elena will be here any minute. I'm leaving for the airport. I should be back in a couple days." He turned to leave.

"Dad?"

He turned around. "Yeah?"

"I love you."

A smile lit up his face. "To the moon and back." He left.

***

Aunt Elena was in the kitchen. I told her that me and Toby could handle things just fine, but she had insisted on making us dinner. We finally settled on just doing dishes.

I was reading one of my favorite books to Toby, and he was pretending to massage my feet. In truth, I believe it was more of an attempt to tickle me, but I tried to keep the smile off of my face. I didn't succeed for long, however, and soon burst into a fit of giggles. This resulted in an epic tickle match.

After the laughter had died down and we were sitting on the floor trying to catch our breath, I heard a faint chirping outside of the window. I pushed the curtain back to see a sparrow sitting on the windowsill. He tilted his head and chirped some more, making me smile.

"It's almost as though he's trying to talk to us." Toby spoke up.

I wonder... I opened the window and stuck a hand out. The tiny bird jumped onto my finger.

Toby laughed. "Oh, so now you're a Disney Princess?"

I shushed him. I tried to remember how I had spoken to that duck when Toby and I had first met. It seemed like forever ago, when really it was only a few months. As it was, I didn't have to. The bird's voice penetrated my mind.

"Are you what I think you are?" It was a sweet, syrupy voice.

"Well, I'm not quite sure what we are. Apparently we're from Aves." I didn't know whether to speak with my mind or with my mouth.

"Are you talking to the bird?" So Toby didn't hear it? I furrowed my brow. There had to be a reason. The sparrow shifted its weight on my finger. Aha! I placed my other hand on top of Toby's.
"Can you hear now?"

The look on his face was priceless.

"So who are you two exactly?" The curiosity peaked through in her voice.

"I'm Ester, and this is Toby. We're half-bloods from Aves."

"Wow. I had heard that there was some of you around, but I never thought I'd get to meet--"

"What are you guys doing?" Aunt Elena stood in the doorway. We turned, and she gasped when she saw the bird. She held out a hand, and the sparrow alighted itself on her finger. There was a short exchange between the two before she held a finger to her lips and shooed the bird out the window.

"I-- I'm sorry, we didn't mean to do anything wrong." I had a bad feeling.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just don't talk to any other birds. Most of them are such gossips that it wouldn't be long before the yard was full of them, and imagine what a scene that would make! Dinner's ready, by the way."

I didn't even notice I was still holding Toby's hand as we walked to the table.