Eleven: Owlet
Owlet
Faustus worked under the orb light, trying to remove the legs to no avail. The flesh surrounding each of the legs embedded into her skin was stony and hardened. The pollution crept outward when he attempted to cut into the clean tissue around the rocky surface. He abandoned that method immediately. Trying to physically remove any of the legs spread the flesh to stone curse. He rolled back from the table and leaned forward on his knees. Groaning in frustration as he put his head between his hands.
While in the greygg, when all else failed, he felt like giving up. He’d take a knee and pray to his Livinity. Now she was physically before him. Reverently he picked up her right hand. Rolling forward until he was close enough to kneel on the floor in front of her open palm and slid from the stool. He bent his head until he was close enough to press his lips into her palm. Closing his eyes, he leaned closer until his forehead touched the skin of her wrist.
His brows drew together, and he pulled back to confirm that it was no longer just skin on the underside of her wrist. The birthmark was raised now and warm to the touch. It glowed a faint rosy pink, but as he stood, it grew brighter. He traced the shape with his thumb, a scythe with a wing for the blade. Looking over at the bug-like oval filled with green fluid, he shrugged and pointed her wrist at the object. As her wrist faced it, the faint glow became a beam of brilliant rose-colored light.
Watching in near disbelief as it made a shrill noise, the green fluid evaporated as the light touched it. All eight legs retracted from Verd’s flesh at once. The joints audibly crunched as it rolled onto its back and off her chest to the floor.
He lifted the smoking remains with a pair of tongs and barely breathed until after it was sealed in the specimen container. The stony necrotic tissue on Verd’s chest cracked and peeled. Flaking off with the brush of his hand, revealing healthy, healed skin beneath.
She’d not awoken, and Faustus didn’t feel a rush to bring her around. He was pretty sure sunrise was soon, and hunger pains were becoming annoying. He wondered what the market in town looked like these days. He knew that was too long for her to be left alone and far too risky. Friends of the family were closest to the house, just across the lake, and they’d be willing to help.
Amos and Evelyn, Richard’s parents, were directly connected by a rune carved into the foyer’s outer door. His three younger brothers lived with his parents back then too, and they’d always encouraged Faustus to visit when he wanted. Still, dropping in unannounced didn’t feel right.
Faustus wished he knew where the two of them were after he’d been crammed in the greygg. Without Jenie, Faustus was responsible for explaining the second nature Verd would have access to now that the curse was removed. He had no idea how to teach an owlet to fly. His wings were a manifestation Father Rod equipped him with to keep up with Verd as she grew. While Faustus’ wings were commanded through his mental will. Verd’s were actual barn owl wings that replaced her arms once she transformed. She needed her mama to navigate the worlds between forms to fledge and learn to fly.
From the corner of his eye, Faustus caught the twitch of Verd’s eyebrow. Her breathing pattern changed. Her hand clutched at the top of the sheet, forehead creasing in a wince as her eyes blinked open.
“Verd? Can you hear me?” Faustus asked as he stood, wrapping his hand around hers and squeezing it lightly.
Her dark eyes fixed on him and went wide, “You’re real,” she breathed, looking down at his hand over hers. She squeezed it back and said, “help me sit up.” Faustus cradled his arm around her shoulders and guided her to sit with her legs dangling over the table. He wrapped the sheet around her and kept it from falling. He then arranged it until he was confident it wouldn’t fall from her when she stood.
Verd looked around in awe and then to his unblinking eyes, “Did we make it? Are we here?” she breathed.
“Yes, we’re in papa and mama’s house. After you passed out, I carried you down to the basement lab. We’re under the kitchen floor right now,” Faustus replied.
Verd gasped, fear apparent on her face. She said in a rush, “Scotty saw me through the glass before I walked in! He can’t follow me, right?”
“You may have accidentally left the outer door ajar when you came into the house. I imagine Scotty heard the safety alarm on the door, saw the flashing light, and followed you through.” He chuckled as he nodded his head, “Richard was worried you’d attempt to wander unnoticed out the door without a sound and light alerting him.” He met her eyes as he said, “When the ding sound stopped, I knew the outer door was closed. I left the lab door open in my hurry to get you down here. Stabilizing you was far more important. I bet the light from the opening on the kitchen floor caught Scotty’s attention. He was a moth to a flame. Once he was down here, I hypnotized him and dusted him.”
Verd frowned at him in confusion and shook her head, “You dusted him? What? What is that?” she said.
“I was given the ability to consume the life force of a creature to extend my own lifespan. I absorb their soul, leaving a husk. All that’s left is the most basic element life is created from. Dust. There’s no afterlife for a creature destroyed in this manner. While it's how I maintain immortality to be at your side, my choices are restricted to those that have done life-threatening harm. Once Scotty was nothing more than a pile of dust, I rinsed him down the drain under the table you’re sitting on,” Faustus nodded his chin toward the drain below them and smiled.
Verd’s eyes widened incredulously as she said, “You ate his soul, and it killed him? He’s dead forever now?”
“Yes, there’s no chance for that one to live again. He was delicious,” Faustus said and winked.
She shook her head in disbelief as she looked down. In all honesty, she didn’t feel afraid of Faustus or sad for Scotty. Her hand pressed against her lower belly. “Am I still bleedin’?”
“No, I gave you one of your papa’s healing potions, accelerating the healing process. Your body spontaneously initiated the termination and expelled the tissue already. The blood loss was serious. I imagine you’re craving iron and might feel weak and a bit tired. Your lower back may still be sore, but the worst part is over,” Faustus said as he sat back down on the stool in front of her.
“I need a drink of water. My mouth feels dry,” Verd said.
“The sink is right up the stairs. There’s an icebox as well. I don’t know what’s in there after all this time, but I’m willing to brave a look,” Faustus offered her his elbow.
She laughed good-naturedly and took it. Leaning on Faustus, she slid down from the table onto two taloned bird feet attached to barn owl legs that looked nothing like the ones she’d crossed the threshold with hours ago. Verd stood staring down at three sharp black-tipped talons where her toes were and a single one keeping her balance where she thought her heel used to be. Fine pale hairs covered her foot up to her heel. The genuinely disturbing part was that her heel was at the height where her kneecaps used to be. Her foot was now most of what she thought of as her leg, and it was huge and hairy. White and honey-hued feathers covered the rest of her legs from her heel. Speckle patterned feathers began at her hips.
Faustus smiled as he watched her tentatively flex her taloned feet and said, “It’s a long story, but Jenie, your mama, was a barn owl. You can transform into the form of a human-sized barn owl. That is a form you learn to control shifting into. It isn’t the form you live daily within. I can fly as well, but it’s more of a manifestation of bat wings, not an organic part of me.”
“Guess I’d have mocked you if you’d of said I was also a human-barn owl hybrid in this fantasy with kind parents?” she queried, quirking a honey-colored eyebrow as she raised her right talon and brushed it against his shin.
He flinched as she tickled him. Laughing, he said, “Your existence is improbable enough as it is. I thought it was a detail best experienced rather than told.” He guided her to the stairs, letting her navigate the stairs ahead of him as she held the railing on both sides.
The stairs were difficult with Verd’s new toes. After the second time she almost tumbled backward onto him, Faustus kept his hand rested on the small of her back. Supporting her as she learned how to walk up the steps. His eyes watered. Maybe he hadn’t missed all of her growing up after all.