Hush the memories are speaking

Date | 10th of March
Time | Early noon
Weather | Sunny and warm
Surroundings | There aren’t really many around
Attire | Prober clothing for a hike

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Did Birdie feel guilty? Yes, maybe a little. She had promised her daughter that it would be a fun trip through the national park by Grounds of lily, mostly because the needed to get out and what better way to put both her daughter and then the dog in the car and drive off? She had thought it was brilliant! Well, not so much right now as they were running after the dog, calling after Tofu that just kept running, not a care in the world. God, if it attacked the wildlife. She picked up speed, knowing she could use magic to catch it, but she didn’t want to scare the poor dog half to death.

She just had to, just a little further.

Then the dog started jumping up a person standing a little further ahead. What stopped Birdie dead in her tracks was the light chuckle. Then the figure. When he turned his face towards her. She needed every strength in her body not to crumble on the ground. No, it couldn’t. He was dead, he had to be! This man was human, no human could. No, impossible. She trotted towards the man that looked so much like Reginald. “I’m sorry, he usually a really god dog, but he somehow broke the leash” she said with a soft smile showing how the leash in her hands were broken by the metal hook. She turned around to see if her daughter was still in the proximity. “Tofu, no!” she said, pulling the dog down “Sit” she commanded, and the dog sat down, clearly not seeing any trouble with what it had just done.

Amelia hadn't said no for a good walk with her mother, it had possibly been the best present for Christmas to get her back into her life again. And once she had gotten out, Amelia had tried to spend as much time as possible with her, to get to know each other again - because it had been a lot of years, none of them were really the people who had been lost in the fire. Amelia had tried to get a hold of Oscar for a few days now, if not weeks but he hadn't responded to her calls, so in the end she had become worried but had chosen just to give him space if that was what he needed. One day she could perhaps get the chance to tell him about this finding of hers. Amelia noticed how suddenly her mother ran after Tofu, and started to walk a bit faster to follow along then running because no way the dog wanted to stop the fun of running.

Reginald enjoyed this time of season the most. And he had looked so much forward to it since he had gotten out of prison. So, he had been spending most of the day here mainly just sitting in a clearing and enjoyed the energy of nature waking up. He had taken a few trips around the forest with Katelyn as well, it had been nice, feeling the forest wake up from the sleep. He had gotten up when he heard a dog running towards him, slow movements, but mostly so he could see if the owner was nearby. Then she showed up. They showed up. Like ghosts from his pasts taken out of the horror he saved in his night terrors. It couldn't be. But her voice, it was like the back of his mind played the old tapes reminding him just how she had sounded like, because he had forgotten, and he had hated himself of how he had forgotten the sound of her voice so many years ago. Reginald blinked, looking possible as puzzled as she did. And hadn't he just been sitting with endless of ways of meeting different family members, blood related or not, himself or people he loved. So, many found each other lately, but he had no expected for himself to be granted with the chance to look into the eyes of two people he thought he had lost so long ago. "It's okay, perhaps it just the energies of the nature lifting his spirit," Reginald looked towards the dog shortly before his eyes reached hers again, then the other fairy slowly beginning to catch up a little down the path. "Birdie?" He slowly breathed out in a lower voice, mostly to see if she caught up on the name spoken to her.

She gave him a brighter smile and nodded, when he theorized that he could feel the nature lift his spirit. “I think you’re right; it has to be in the air” she looked over her shoulder as she saw Amelia come down towards them. “you’re alright?” she asked a little louder so her daughter could hear, hoping that nothing had happened after both her and the dog had run off. Not that there was a whole lot that could have happened in those few moments. But could you blame her? A mother finally finding out she was one, and now she had her baby girl close again. There was an instinct that wouldn’t let her out of her sight. Which had also been the reason why she had invited her to come live with her. Then she heard the stranger say her name, she turned back and widened her eyes. “Reginald?” she said with a quivering lip, her eyes stinging with the tears threatening to spill already. No, that couldn’t be. Her lips slowly parted, and every fiber of her entire being wanted to jump in his arms and kiss him. But she didn’t, she was frozen to the ground. Looking at the man that had been the love of her life, the father of the child standing beside her now.

"Yeah I'm fine," Amelia called a bit further back. Well she was, she just wasn't used to that much hiking, even if she enjoyed it. But she noticed her mother was talking to a stranger that already from this distance looked so familiar to her that she stopped, not even daring herself to move any further. Not yet at least.

Well, Reginald did notice that, but before he could react to that, Birdie spoke his name, and he felt the knot tie tighter in his stomach. It was like someone just ripped the first critical wounds of his up and filled it with salt to make sure he felt the aftermath of it. Both how she looked at him, he could fear himself tear up as well, feeling how his eyes got more wet and the heaviness around his heart grew. Amelia had dared moving seeing how puzzled her mother looked, and it felt like ages till she reached her mother's side. Her eyes grew as well, shock. Reginald almost forgot to exhale, feeling like all air had gotten kicked out of his system, so he took an almost defeated step back. His words lost, and it was like they were choked up in his throat making him unable to even speak. They had died. In the fire, he hadn't been able to find anything but ashes and corpses after Cassian had helped him, he had been all alone. Reginald blinked a little, letting a few tears escape his eyes as he moved his hand up over his mouth, still just taking it in. Should he be surprised by now? No, not really. Both their death had shaped him into something far more cruel than he had liked, it had taken a tool on him, not just losing them that night, but also his brothers, sisters and parents. He had been the last one standing. "I thought you were dead," his voice almost cracked, almost, trying to hold himself a little bit up, but this was like an attack form the side, and for a second he wondered if this was someone trying to play a cruel joke on him.

Tears was starting to glide down her cheeks. “I could say the same about you” she answered, licking her lips. “I –“ she looked towards Amelia, and then back at the man she had loved for such a long time. The man she had forgotten and remembered. “I got Amelia out, but we got separated in the woods, when I tried to come back, I was hunted the other way” she breathed, grabbing the leash a little harder. How did you really explain what had happened? She wasn’t dead, she was standing there very much alive. And she was the woman that he had known. More or less.
For a moment she just stood there, overwhelmed by the whole thing. Then she started walking towards him. Slowly, for a moment she wasn’t sure she even dared to touch him. Because maybe it was just her mind being so broken at this point, that it was just her own imagination. After debating, she finally reached her hand up, and placed against his arm. “Oh god, it’s really you” she said with a brittle voice, looking up at him with tears springing from her eyes.

The whole thing just hit like a stab through his gut that got twisted around, completely taking his breath away. Reginald felt his eyes burning with tears as he looked behind at Amelia the second that Birdie looked over her shoulders. And there she was, walking up closer towards them with careful movements almost afraid that she wouldn't be known to his eyes or remembered. Reginald had seen that look in Ayah and Hope so many times, the small glimpses of fear for not being recognized, and the cruel joke being Juniper having none of hers, where Reginald remembered every single little detail. But they got out. It lifted one of the heavier burdens of his chest, even if it was so long ago. He felt the tears leaving his eyes, blinking a little bit only seeming to feel the next set coming in faster, blurring his vision.
Silence. Heavy emotional waves of silence, he wanted to embrace her and hold her close. Just making sure she wasn't a ghost set to haunt him, but then she placed a hand against his arm, and he felt her warm skin brush against his. The tears in her eyes, made the next float of his burst, and he opened his arms to pull her into his embrace, holding her close for a moment before reaching out for Amelia, and pulled her into his arms as well. Not saying anything, words weren't needed. The only thing he needed right now was to hold them close that was all he needed.

It truly was one of those moments where you didn’t need any words. Because the way your body reacted spoke louder than any word could ever do. It conveyed feelings that poets and writers would never be able to truly put down on paper. Birdie let herself sink into the embrace of the man that had been her truly love once. It was such a wave of emotions where she wasn’t really sure how to feel about them. Because there was so much about it that needed to be talk about. But not now. Her eyes closed and she lifted her arm as she felt Amelia’s presence. Pulling her towards them just standing there feeling the moment. The forest around them. The wind in the trees and how he smelled. The arm arms that had kept her safe so many nights.
Tears glided down her cheeks like a flood, it was like nothing would be able to stop it. She had no words to speak, no idea what she could do or should do. Other than just standing here and taking it all in. What a weird couple of months it had been. Her whole life just turning upside down.