Page 4

Now he sounded as crazy as Agrel.

And Agrel was currently looking unconvinced about the entire matter. He nodded, however, and took several steps back but paused and seemed to reconsider because he hurried to the basket once more when a loud cackling noise broke the air.Agrel’s crests rose threateningly as several feathered creatures flapped their wings aggressively as they emerged from wherever they were hiding and proceeded to launch themselves at the basket.

His hiss was the only warning they got before he dispatched them as well with a slash of talons and a violent beat of his wings and leaving them strewn where they dropped around the basket. He nodded approvingly, his feather puffed out with pride.

“Nothing will take food from her or her nestling,” he declared as he turned away with a slight fanning of his tail feathers. “Now I am ready. Let us return to the dismal hovel. I hunted well today and there is plenty of meat waiting for our meal.”

“Yes,” Gehj murmured.

With one last glance at the little nestling staring at him wide-eyed from the window, he lifted a hand in farewell and departed from the street with his ahaku.

Chapter

Four

Delilah gaped at the pile of dead birds left beside her basket. She hadn’t seen what happened as she had come from the cellar just as the males were leaving, but Lily had filled her in with excitement that only a child her age could achieve. They had murdered every single ornery old hen because they went for the food in the basket.

She should be furious, but it was hard to be angry when the aliens clearly didn’t recognize domesticated fowl when they saw them and probably only saw scavengers attacking her hard won food. And if she was honest, they saved her the effort of having to personally dispatch the poor old things herself. She could put them in the stewpot with the bits of potato, carrot, and onion that she had scavenged for their lunch, and they would easily get several meals from it as it would last for a few days in refrigeration.

Without a second thought, she gathered the hens by their feet before bending down to fetch her basket and carrying the whole load inside. She promptly deposited the birds on the table without so much as a glance toward the basket. The birds would take some time plucking so she would have to get on it quickly.

“Oh pretty! Momma, look at these!” Lily exclaimed, drawing her attention from the task of meal preparation as she withdrew two feathers from the basket.

Her eyebrows climbed at the sight of two large, brightly colored feathers in her daughter’s hands. What were the chances of two such prominent feathers falling into the basket? One bore a hint of green and the other was almost entirely blue—one from each alien, she surmised.

“They are presents for us; I know it!”

Presents? Why would aliens give them presents… and such odd ones at that? They were pretty, but they literally came off their bodies. That didn’t sound like a normal sort of present. Lovers who intended to marry often exchanged locks of hair and wore them in small pieces of jewelry. Like the locks of hair, the feathers seemed too personal.

“I don’t know if we should accept them, Lily,” she quietly admonished. “Birds often carry parasites on their feathers. We don’t know what an alien’s feathers might carry.”

Her daughter’s face fell in response and guilt assailed her as Lily’s big hazel eyes turned to her pleadingly.

“Please, momma. They don’t have anything on them… I’m sure of it. They wouldn’t give us anything that would make us sick. Please let me keep them.”

Delilah wasn’t so sure of that. What if making them sick under the guise of charity was exactly their goal? She sighed. Or maybe she was being overly suspicious. Although they had startled her, she had the impression that they had been just as surprised to see her. And they hadn’t tried to attack her. Nor had they attempted to attack her home when they discovered where she lived. Given that she wouldn’t have a real chance of fighting them off if that was what they decided to do, she decided that she could afford to give them the benefit of the doubt. What else was she going to do… cower in terror? Then there was thecareful respectfulness that they were showing by maintaining their distance.

“Oh, very well. Just put them on the mantle so you aren’t handling them—just in case,” she agreed with a sigh of exasperation.

Although she wasn’t convinced that accepting the feathers was a good idea for reasons that Lily wasn’t old enough to understand, it was worth it, however, seeing her little face light up with obvious pleasure as she carefully displayed the shimmering pair of feathers.

“They look magical,” Lily observed in awe and Delilah joined her by her side to peer at the feathers speculatively.

There was a certain quality to them that made them appear almost like fire when the light hit them just right. “They are certainly very pretty, Lily. You chose a good spot for them,” she replied as she dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

Returning to the kitchen, she wasn’t entirely surprised to hear Lily’s footsteps following behind her. She often had a captivated audience while she cooked and was frequently peppered with dozens of questions that needed answering. She smiled privately to herself as she prepared the water to dip the birds, but the questions that came from her daughter were not ones that she was expecting.

“Do you think they are here for us?”

Delilah glanced up from the water filling the small tub she put in the sink, her brows knitting with confusion. “What would ever make you ask that?”

Lily shrugged. “No one ever comes to the village. Even traders stopped coming a long time ago after daddy died and couldn’t keep the woods safe. Why would they come all the way here if not for us?”

“Baby, we are in the middle of nowhere,” Delilah gently explained as she carried one of the birds over to the tub. “How would they even know that we are here?”

“Well… because I wished for them.”

“Wished for them?” Delilah echoed, her head lifting to peer at her daughter. “What do you mean?”