Page 112 of Where Broken Wings Fly

He was still screeching to me when I entered the kitchen again after placing them outside in our new yard.

“Would you be quiet?” I finally snapped at him as I finished getting ready for my first day. “I don’t know much about Cornwall, but I doubt the neighbours here are any more thrilled about your screaming as the last ones were.”

“You’ve left the dog flap unlocked. You could get robbed, you know.”

I tutted at him as I spun around the kitchen, grabbing an assortment of things to shove into my bag. “I guess it’s a good thing that my house is guarded by a dragon then, isn’t it? And I’m leaving it unlocked for you, in case you need to get out and about.”

“I’m not coming with you today?” I didn’t think parrots could sound so crushed, but Urram did.

“It’s my first day, Urram. Let me get through it with some dignity without introducing my cursing parrot, then we’ll see.”

He let out a strange snort before he flew across the space, landing on my couch.

At that I said goodbye, left, and locked the door behind me.

When I returned home, though, Urram was asleep on his perch beside the TV, listening to some weather report on the news.

Expecting very little, I performed my usual routine of getting undressed and tucked into sweats and a hoodie, braiding my hair behind my head and scrubbing my face until my pores were empty. Then I took care of Urram’s things, his various perches that I wiped clean and his vegetable chop that he refused to eat most days, instead demanding meat even though I warned him against it.

Then I went to collect the full bowls of porridge from my backyard.

I wrapped a coat around my body and tied it off in the front, threw my hands into my pockets, and asked Urram if he wanted to come out with me. He whistled something that sounded far too similar to a swear word for me to respond to, and dipped his head back into an attempt to sleep.

Rolling my eyes at him, I stepped out of the house and let the brisk, evening air bite at my skin and remind me that I was alive.

It took me a few minutes to locate where I had set down the porridge, partly because the backyard was in desperate need of a trim. But that wasn’t the only reason I couldn’t find them.

I couldn’t find them because they were gone.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Not one bit.

Until I found the imprint where I had set them down, and saw only one thing left in their midst. Had it been anything else, I would have assumed that a neighbour cat or dog had stolen the food, or perhaps a pesky bird.

But there it was.

One small, four-petalled, golden flower.

Pixies took my offering, and one particular King left behind a single aotrom.