✓ | Girls of a Feather | #OpenNovellaContest2019

| ten |

Aleta

Aleta stirred, opening her eyes to a sinking silver moon and a gleaming bronze bird.

"Elke?" she croaked, groggily pushing herself up into a sitting position. "Why did you come back?"

Something flitted across the dancer's features, gone before Aleta could read it.

"For you," she said simply.

Aleta's heartstrings thrummed. She never thought Elke had liked her that much. Annemie had always been her favorite, her little dancing prodigy, and Aleta was just the graceless girl who tagged along and watched. But maybe the older girl finally saw something in her, even if she wasn't as nimble or graceful as her sister.

As fast as her heart had swelled, it deflated. "How?" she asked, the gears in her head whirring louder than her heartbeat. "You said you were cursed. I thought Antsje Pluk forced you to return." If she didn't, she added silently, her eyes narrowing, why did you leave in the first place?

Elke held her penetrating blue gaze without flinching.

"I got her permission," she answered, but the way she shifted her weight on the branch aroused Aleta's skepticism. The older girl's words rang true, and yet... Aleta had listened to her sister lie to Mam and Pa enough times to know a proper one when she heard it.

"How?" she pressed, but Elke only laughed dismissively.

"You always were the curious one, lieveling." The dancer smiled, but the mirth didn't quite reach her eyes.

Something was off, but Aleta was in no position to turn their relationship bitter. If Elke left, Aleta would have no chance of saving Annemie. That was a risk she could not afford to take, even if it meant she would have to ignore her gnawing curiosity.

"You should go back to sleep," the bird said, gesturing at the paling sky. "It's almost morning, and we need to travel fast if we want to get to the flower before Antsje Pluk senses our presence."

Despite the thoughts crashing through her mind, Aleta's body betrayed her, and she yawned into the palm of her hand. As her eyelids drooped, she decided to wait until morning to interrogate the older girl further. Aleta curled up on the ground, clutching her sister's blanket tight in her fists, and slipped into sleep.

"Slaap zacht," Elke whispered, watching the girl's chest rise and fall as the first tendrils of dawn curled across the sky.

━━━━━━━━ ✠ ━━━━━━━━

Aleta woke with her sister's name sitting on her parched tongue. She blinked her bleary eyes against the light, wincing at the harshness. Why was it as bright as midday already? And why were the contents of her bag strewn across the ground?

With a start, she sat upright and began digging frantically through her bag. Only when her fingers grazed golden silk did she relax. They were still here. Annemie's ballet slippers were still here.

With another start, Aleta realized Elke was gone, though she didn't know why she was surprised. The bird had already abandoned her once, but at least now Aleta could assume she would return. "Elke?" she called, glancing at the trees circling her. In the light of day, the forest was much less intimidating, almost enough to forget it housed a child-stealing witch. "Elke?" she repeated, her voice taking on a worried edge.

"I'm here, lieveling," the dancer's hurried voice called from the trees. "Don't worry, I'm here."

Aleta breathed a sigh of relief, but her anxiety quickly turned to annoyance. "Why didn't you wake me?" she accused, rising to her feet. "And why did you rifle through my things?"

There was a pause before the older girl spoke again.

"Time slipped away from me," she said. 

Aleta scoffed at the pathetic excuse. Just a few hours ago, Elke had warned her about the essence of time, yet now she seemed to have forgotten her own words. "And as for your bag, I hope you don't mind, but I needed to borrow some of your clothes."

"Why?" Aleta asked, her curiosity getting the best of her irritation. She inched forward, trying to spot the older girl amongst the lattice of branches. A sharp crack came from below. Why wasn't Elke in the trees? Aleta lowered her eyes toward the sound and gasped, her hand flying to cover her mouth. "You're human!"

[ a / n ]

sorry for skipping a week, but I'm back now! school's still kind of busy, and I start a sport  in the next week or so, so that's going to mess with my schedule even more, but we'll see ^^"

some food for thought: will Aleta figure out what Elke's hiding? do you think Elke really does like Aleta, or is she completely on board with Antsje Pluk's evil? how will Aleta react to Elke's transformation? back at Antsje Pluk's, do you think Annemie's transformation will be as easy?

as always, thank you all so much for reading! (and i hope the results for this round of the contest come out soon, though it does mean more time to write)