Accidentally On Purpose

Rememberies.

                                                   Zaastaish's P.O.V.

I had to carry Kitty. Arctica refused to let Fox carry her, the Birdman was flying above to find an animal hospital, and none of the kids knew how to hold a cat correctly. But the thing is, now I have cat drool all over my shoulder. I'm perfectly fine with that, but apparently it was a side-effect of the tick bite.

I absently pet her head, and stretched my wings. They get stiff and cramped easily for some reason. Kitty just made a weird sound that I have quickly learned to take fear of, and I quickly pointed her away from everyone and let her puke onto the forest floor. She made a gurgling distressed sound that broke my heart. I held her close again, scratching under her chin. She couldn't move her back legs, and I could feel her tiny heart thudding on my arms. And based on what the Birdman said, she's going to die.

Now, this may seem totally weird for me to say I would be devastated if she does, but it's true. When their red-haired friend fainted at my skeleton guise, I looked into his mind for a brief moment and saw all of them. Kitty especially. She does tiny nice things that everyone takes for granted, but I'm glad that at least the red-haired friend noticed them. Like singing a song to the children when they had nightmares, or putting a smile on someone's face after something hard just happened. Putting Band-Aids on cut knees, or running through the forest belting out My Little Pony because it made a very sick child happy. The things most people forget.

And then this Al person came to me and said that Kitty would protect my brother in the near future, and we had to keep her alive if that were to happen. But that really wasn't the reason I wanted her alive. She was a good person--everyone here was a good person aside from Arctica--and I wish them all good health. Especially Fox. He cares about the world the way I do: tout est précieux. And he has to deal with that diable of a sister.

I looked to my brother. He was now letting Dyl touch his wings, and I smiled softly. He was sensitive about people touching them, so she must have been pretty down. I glanced at Fox again. He had a curious name, really. But it clicked a while ago that their names were supposed to be an arctic fox run-on thingy. You know what, I will call him Renard Beau, which is handsome Fox. Don't tell him that, though. Americans tend to take that as meaning someone likes another, and I don't want to mistake him. I love all, but I only love them as...someone else...when I know them.

The Birdman swooped down in front of us. His eyes glanced at the cat in my arms before he said, "There's an animal hospital not four miles from here. If we can hurry..." he trailed off, and though he was looking calm, his eyes betrayed him. Then again, I was someone who saw everything in everyone.

We began to pick up our pace, following the Birdman-who-isn't-Birdman-anymore to where the hospital was. Kitty made a strangled sound, and I saw everyone flinch at it. I wanted to help her, I really did. But I couldn't until the Hunters set me free. A jarring memory came back into my vision.

My brother and I were flying. We had to so we could stay free. "Je suis fatigué! On peut s'arrêter?" my brother cried. This was four years ago, before he learned English. I was tired to, but I knew we couldn't land. If we did, we will get caught. We were only free again because a kind hunter had set us free with the last wish. And then they grabbed my brother's leg. Somehow, in some way, they managed to grab him. He fell. I went after him, he was the only family we had left. And then it was all a blur, and when it un-blurred, the silver shackles were around us again. We were in a soup can--a soup can of all things to put us in--and escape is something we could never do. We were bound to that soup can, which is now currently in my back pocket.

"Are you having rememberies?" someone beside me asked. I looked down to see Hailey. How the child was walking, I will never know. But she was, and she had just asked me a question.

"Oui, I am. But it's nothing, really. So, how is a mignon thing like you walking?"

"I don't know. My mommy thinks its because when I was in my daddy that Lucy and May and Andre played to much Mickey Mouse and Elmo."

"Wait, weren't you in your mother and not your father?"

"No. I was in my daddy's belly." she said firmly. I looked to someone else for confirmation, and Renard Beau nodded. Wow. America is so strange. From fathers giving birth to glazed donut bacon hamburgers, they are crazy. This is why I didn't want to leave France.

We emerged from the forest a few cat barfs later, and my brother and I used glamour to hide our wings. It was the only power we really had outside of the soup can.

And somehow I was left to babysit all of the children while the Birdman-who-isn't-Birdman-anymore and Arctica and Renard Beau went to help Kitty.

I sighed and crossed my legs in the chair. "So, what do you guys do for fun?" I asked, and all of them looked to me with wide eyes. "I like blood." Dyl said, and Mayson nodded. "I like bunny blood." and Lucifer grinned. "I'm half vampire and half siren, so I swim in pools of blood." Andre crossed his arms. "I have blood. I also like to be in people's heads." Hailey smiled and said giddily, "I like kidnapping the Kool-Aid man and drinking his blood!" and finally Ferrin looked up at me. "I like to drink vampire blood."

I made a face. What is wrong with these children?

And then they all laughed. I realized they were joking, and I relaxed. Uanai beamed at me, and I ruffled his hair. He has weird friends.

"We like playing with dolls." every child said in unison, which made me a little creeped out. Très effrayant.