Dryads and Nymphs

Chapter 12-The Bird and The Boy

She realized Azul was still clutched tightly in her grip, and went to put him back in his cage. He looked disappointed.

"Don't worry. You'll be free by tonight," she whispered. Azul looked at her warily. Suddenly she heard a knock on her bedroom door. She stiffened. Nobody in her house gave her any privacy. They just barged right in. So it must be Salem, who was obviously nervous because the knock had been light and urgent. She covered Azul's cage with the curtain. Remembering the necklace, she ran and put it on just as there was another knock. This one louder than before and more urgent than the last one.

She opened the door and Salem stood there looking uncomfortable.

"Ariana, are you joining us for dinner? Since you missed lunch, we thought you had gone to sleep. No doubt you must be tired after working so hard," he said, his tone formal and cold at first but softening at the last sentence.

Ariana smiled and lifted her head a little higher so that seahorse glittered on her throat. Salem's eyes were fixed on the seahorse when he asked, "Are you? I mean are you going to join us for dinner?" He sounded as if he had wanted to say something else but had changed his mind in mid-sentence.

"Of course I am," she said, wondered what he had been about to ask.

"Splendid, join us in ten minutes," Salem said and turned around abruptly. She could notice that he seemed confused yet his stride had a happy spring to it.

Ariana went downstairs to the kitchen where she saw her father at the table eating and laughing. Since the start of the uprising, he had stopped eating dinner at the table and his smile was even rarer than spotting a diamond. Either he had put the idea of the rebellion at rest or he was very happy, and that was no doubt because of Salem.

She had decided not to break the news of the rejection just yet because of her father and the grief it would cause him, and because of Salem. The heartbreak might be too much for him, not to mention that they would never be a family again if she said no. The feeling of losing a family member was so crippling that she felt her defenses lower. Why should she say no? Her life would be easier if she said yes. Why was she doing this to herself and to everyone around her? The answer, though lame and simple was all she needed: it did not feel right to say yes.

Sighing she went in and everyone turned to stare at her, as if she was a stranger. Her mother was smiling at her warmly, trying to read her expressions at the same time. Rose was gazing at her happily, her expression expectant. Her father's gaze was fixed at the necklace. That unnerved her. Why would he care about the necklace? Maybe Salem had told her father about the necklace, and he was curious as to why he had not seen it before. And Salem was gazing at her, his expression far away as if he was lost in a pleasant thought. She ignored everyone's looks and sat down. The rest of the dinner passed without event except for the fact that Rose demanded a story before bedtime.

After dinner, Ariana went up and sat near Rose's bed while she crept underneath the covers, and looked up at Ariana, her eyes shining expectantly. Ariana tried to think straight, her mind was too jumbled up in speculations and worries.

"Once," she began, "there was bird that lived in the highlands. He loved to fly all day in the warm sun and feel the wind beneath his wings. He loved dangers and loved risk his life and escaping, and later he enjoyed narrating his adventures to his friend. The elder birds warned him not to do this, since eventually, he would die or worse; be captured and live a life of slavery. But he was confident of his skill of escaping. The elders tried warning him, but try as they might the young bird turned deaf to their reasoning, and logic.

One day he was flying down by the plains searching for food and fun, when he spotted a handful of birds gathered in a wheat field. He flew down to see what the matter was. The birds seemed bent over, looking at something, or maybe they were pecking at the seeds, and plants. He was hungry and curious so he decided to see what they were doing. When he landed, he went over to a bird but to his horror, he realized that the bird had been stuffed with hay and set there. He saw that the other birds were the same. They had been set there to attract birds to the field.