Knightingale [THE FIRST DRAFT.]

CHAPTER SIX

"In which foe becomes friend in exchange for knowledge."

[ THIS BOOK is available illustrated on my KOFI @/2ndstarart ]

It was still light, as the small magpie flew underneath the cover of leaves prior to her finding Adric – she had tried soaring above them, yet it soon became too dense, and she was almost certain he wouldn't have firelight come nightfall for her to see at all. How wrong she felt when she smelt the smoke of fire.

Following the smell like a black cloud she weaved between trunks and through branches, almost smashing into a real bird's nest. 'Real bird.' She thought to herself, that felt odd to think about, not a real bird, not a real girl either.

Before she could dwell too long on the nature of her reality, a bright light shone through the darkness. She looked around herself, it wasn't sunlight for that was slowly regressing beneath the horizon line and this was much too bright. Therefore, coupled with the billowing smoke, it could only be fire.

The bird sped up, her wings flapping as hard as she could – which was perhaps impairing her ability to streamline her flight towards the light. It wasn't a large fire that greeted her as she landed, but rather a great, bright, scolding light which dissipated like dust. Stood in its wake was a human girl, cloaked and tall.

The curious nature of a magpie got the better of her as she hoped closer to the figure who was collecting bundles of sticks for the fire that was slowly roaring. It was only a small blaze but enough to produce the smoke that had alerted the magpie in the first place.

'Someone competent.' She thought to herself. The human girl stopped in her tracks, not even the twigs in her arms made a sound as she did, it wasn't until she turned slowly towards the small bird that the leaves beneath her feet crunched and broke apart. The bird mimicked her, she wasn't sure whether she had in fact said that out loud. She couldn't speak in this form anyway, perhaps she squawked without realising.

"How are you doing that?" The girl asked, her voice was low and forceful with the slightest inquisitive tinge. The magpie tilted her head to the right.

"You're one of me. How are you doing that." She repeated through almost gritted teeth and a twitch in her eyes. She was the most peculiar-looking girl with short, almost white hair yet one strand of it was long, almost curling at the end that reached just below her collarbone. It had numerous different metals and thread wrapped around it.

To match, her eyebrows her light enough to blend into her skin which was pale as snow, with no red blush in sight – one would think the girl was sick by looking at her.

It was her eyes that caught most people off guard, they were light grey, a tinge of blue around the pupil but that was all the colour that her body seemed to allow. She was beautiful, it was hard to admit otherwise, but not in a conventional sense that someone like Edie was, rather she looked like... magic.

She was so content staring at her that she had missed the start of the question, 'You're one of me.' It wasn't common for the cursed girls to cross paths, but it was common for them to instantly recognise one another like a link only they had access to.

Gale screeched, a loud, whistling screech that sounded like the traditional nightingale call but had twisted itself to sound much rather like a horrific monster you can't help but bend your will to. Which is exactly what the bird felt inclined to do.

Before she could notice, the small magpie began to shine, light pouring from her feathers as it turned to flesh. Mallory stood, her maroon dress catching the fire light beautifully as she looked dazed and confused; seemingly not remembering asking her body to do so. Being a magpie, Mallory was intelligent, not so much as the old owl but a close second, but she hadn't been able to pull herself from what was seemingly a trance the odd girl had placed her in, rather rationalising why it had happened so easily.