Curiosity's Price

Chapter Four

"Haha! Come on, come on!"

A young voice, one that Sera had heard a thousand times over in a thousand different pitches and tones, called to her friends as she frolicked on the playground.

Sera was in the bushes, watching for any sign that just maybe this could be her younger, lost sister.

Yet this girl was blond and had gray eyes, it appeared. It was not her sister, and this realization made Sera's heart sink yet again. Crestfallen, she turned away from the play structures and made to dash into the trees for better coverage and security. The last thing she was going to do was let anyone see her wings. If she was exposed...

Well, it would spell all kinds of bad news for her home and her people, not to mention Sera herself.

She was in a small city in a state she had learned was called New Jersey. A 'garden state' though she had yet to see very many flowerbeds or vegetable patches. Then again, when keeping to the shadows, sightseeing was not much of an option.

"I have to get back soon..." she murmured to herself as she noted the position of the sun and calculated the approximate time of day. "They'll be looking for me."

~

"Sera!" Matthew called as he rose to meet her farther down the street in their cloud-strewn city. "Where have you been?"

"My parents are on a trip, so I found time to go during the day," Sera replied as she set her pack down and took a long sip of water from her canteen. "They won't know I was gone."

"I got worried... I saw a few priests go into your house while you were gone," Matthew reported, his indigo eyes filled with uncertainty and the fear that comes with that. "Is everything going to be okay?"

"Priests went into my house?" Sera repeated, and he nodded. Then, with a mighty beat of her brown wings, she zoomed off in the direction of her home, flapping like mad. What if they found something they didn't like and condemned her family while her parents were away? Had they found something alluding to her plot to find her sister? That was forbidden!

She would be banished if they discovered her intentions...

That couldn't happen!

When she got there, she found a note nailed to their front door. With blooming dread in the pit of her stomach, she found the courage to approach the note and read it.

The priests of the Angelic Temple would like to convey our thanks to this household for allowing us to complete an inspection. Nothing out of the ordinary was found, and you may continue as you have been. Thank you  for not raising a fuss, and we will be holding service as usual on Saturday evening.

-- The Priests of the Angelic Temple

Sera almost fainted on the spot from the relief she felt. It had only been a routine inspection, nothing more, and not a thing was to be worried over.

"Oh, thank goodness," she whispered.

From behind her and closing in, Matthew huffed and puffed as he fought to catch up with her. "Sera! S-Sera, wait up!"

She turned and caught him under the arms when he all but collapsed on the front step. "Don't... fly... so... fast...!" he panted, and she managed a little smile.

"Sorry, Matthew," she replied. "I had to see what happened, but everything's fine now."

"Yeah... Good," he said. "So, are you still going to search for your sister?"

"Of course! I just have to be much more careful, so things like this don't happen again." She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at the door; more specifically, at the note tacked to it. "I don't want to be found out."