Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

B2: Chapter 7 - Identity - III

  Coming home after so long, Natalie expected a loud dressing-down from Lily. She expected scolding and punishment. She'd been gone since Friday afternoon, and only shown up again after sundown on Saturday. They'd be worried sick, wondering where she'd gone, if she was in trouble, if they had to help her.

  As Natalie walked into the kitchen, with mud caking her pants and scuff marks everywhere, Kendra glanced up from her laptop.

  "You should take a bath."

  Natalie gaped at her. "I—"

  Lily looked over from the teapot she was pouring out into a mug. "Good heavens. I agree. Upstairs, right away."

  Natalie didn't know how to respond to the total lack of judgment. She went with silent compliance, heading upstairs without a word. She dumped her clothes into the hamper and turned on the water. She set her purse atop the counter, where she could still see it and still feed it that tiny trickle of magic to keep it working. Percy fluttered onto the towel bar and latched on, watching her with a great deal of concern. He'd never quite understood how clothes worked, so to see her change appearance so dramatically always sent him into a panic.

  <I'm fine, Percy. Just taking a bath. It's just like preening. Kinda.>

  Percy pointedly licked a few of his feathers, then waved a wing at her arm dismissively.

  <No, I don't have feathers you dingbat. I'm not a bird. I still gotta clean though.>

  Natalie slowly stepped into the steaming water, but quickly recoiled as it stung the cuts on her leg. She sat down and examined her leg carefully. <If I can do magic on myself, can't I do something about this?>

  Percy squawked in confusion, tilting his head to the side again.

  <You're useless.> Natalie reached out mentally again, feeling out the cut on her leg. She could feel how it made a little valley under her skin, but also how the skin had grown over top and was starting to fill it in already. Could she make it go faster somehow?

  No risks. Don't end up screwing up even worse.

  Natalie sighed and gingerly stepped back into the bath, wincing at the sting on her legs. Still, once she got used to it, the bathwater felt amazing on her skin. <Okay Percy, I changed my mind. There's no way I can live out there forever. Can't survive without this.>

  Percy cocked his head to the side again, eyeing the water uneasily.

  <Don't hate what you haven't tried.>

  Natalie luxuriated in the hot bath for a long time, thinking. Truthfully, she knew she couldn't actually live out in the forests all the time. Besides the obvious needs like food and water, which she wasn't totally sure how to get on her own, she was still too tied to the comforts of the real world. She loved baths like any other girl might, she loved the internet and games and TV. She loved lounging on the heater vent whenever it kicked on, and she loved sneaking chocolate while reading her favorite book under her comforter late at night.

  She couldn't give all that up, but that realization only confused her even more. For a brief moment out in the forest, Natalie had felt like she'd finally uncovered a piece of who she really was—but now, back at the Laushire house, she felt all of that fading away again, replaced with the old familiar Natalie she knew.

  <Who am I, Percy?> she asked aloud, though she knew it was totally pointless.

  Percy only looked at her, not understanding the question in the slightest.