Heather has only ever known one way of life; she's been kept on a leash by her auntie and uncle, as a fancy 'pet.' They say that her true parents were killed when a horrific disease struck Hyswæ and that they were the reason she had a home, but she...
Heather heard her auntie scold Melanie. It brought tears to her eyes; if Mel hadn't taught her how to read she wouldn't be getting in trouble.
She heard the sound of hand meeting cheek at speed, then sobbing and Melanie teleported away, collapsing into Heather's arms.
Heather held Mel as she sobbed into her shoulder. She wrapped her wings around her.
"I'm so sorry Mel," Heather whispered. "If I hadn't asked you to teach me to read this wouldn't have happened!"
Melanie lifted her head and Heather saw the bright red hand-print stretching from her jaw to her eye. She stroked Melanie's cheek. "Oh, Mel.."
"It's not your fault," Melanie hiccuped. "It's my parents who are to blame! One day I'm gonna slap them across the face so hard, they won't know what hit them!"
"You go do that, I'm not stopping you," Heather scowled in the direction of her aunt and uncle. "In fact as soon as I'm free I'll strangle them with this chain!" She pointed at the chain around her ankle.
"Let me see if I can fix that," Heather said pointing to the slap mark across Melanie's face.
"Mmkay," Melanie looked slightly worried. "Will it hurt?"
"Shouldn't," Heather replied. She placed her hand on Melanie's cheek, closed her eyes and concentrated hard. She imagined Melanie's skin un-reddening and the stinging pain Mel was feeling stopping. She opened her eyes. It had worked!
"Amazing!" Mel exclaimed, touching the spot where the mark had been. "Your healing magic has improved!"
"Hey, can I read you some of 'The Wind in the Willows?'" Heather asked, glancing at Melanie hopefully. She wanted to show Mel how her reading in English was going.
"Why not!" Melanie answered enthusiastically.
"Okay," Heather opened the book and began...
* * *
"'This was a base libel on Badger, who, though he cared little about society, was rather fond of children; but it never failed to have the full effect.' The end!" Heather had just spent the rest of the day reading 'The Wind in the Willows' to Melanie, who seemed overjoyed that she could read a whole book in the 'English language'.
"Wonderful!" Melanie clapped. "You've improved so much since last week! You must have been practising!"
"I was actually," Heather admitted. "But then again, I didn't have much to do while chained to the wall."
"Fair enough," Melanie chuckled. "Do you want a snack?"
"As long as you don't get slapped in the face for it," Heather replied seriously.
"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" Melanie assumed, teleporting to the kitchen and back; holding a large ar-like thing.
Heather examined it, curious. "What's this?"
Melanie snapped the bar in half and handed one of the pieces to Heather. "It's called chocolate," she said, munching on her piece. "It was also brought from the Planet Earth to Hyswæ! Try it!"
Heather munched into the chocolate. Her face lit up. "YUMMMMMM!!!" she grinned, taking another large bite of the bar. "This is sooooooo goooood!!!"
"I'm glad you like it!" Melanie chuckled.
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I know this chapter is a lot shorter than usual, but I just wanted to say that 'The a Wind in the Willows' from the Planet Earth is a real book! So I'd like to give credit to Kenneth Grahame, who wrote the book, I am sad to say he is not alive anymore but you can find his books in bookstores everywhere. The Wind in the Willows was published first in 1908! Gee that's a long time ago! - Luna P.S Btw, this is the part I used;
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