//------------------------------//
// Chapter 21: Wall of the heart 
// Story: What you Need 
// by Hemlock conium 
//------------------------------//

As the group's conversation went on, the Grey-Feathers', more specifically Mrs.Grey-Feather's, concerns with Phoenix seemed to mount. The filly seemed to just stone wall every attempt they had made. Causing her to  request a “grown up” talk with Virulent Lesson mid way through the meeting.  
Phoenix gave an understanding bob of the head before they left the room; heading for their arts and crafts meeting. The group waited for the door to close before looking back at one another. For a long moment they sat in total silent, leaving the room heavy with a sense unease. Most of which came from Mrs.Grey-feather. An uneasiness Virulent Lesson picked up on, causing him to set down his pen with a sigh to break the thick silince.

“Listen,” Virulent Lesson began,” I know Phoenix can be… Difficult to talk to, and that she's not your average filly,"  Even by our standards he added in thought. "But she is a good kid.” Which by his accounts was the truth. Well if the idea of good was solely based on the fact she never caused trouble. Though he could say that about most of, if not all, the children under his care. They said their yes ma'ams and no sirs; cleaned up after themselves and did as they were told. Unfortunately, being left by their parents tended to have adverse effects on foals' personalities. Causing all sorts of odd quirks and habits. SOME FILLIES, just happened to be more adversely affected than others. 

“I’m sorry,” Mrs.Grey-feather began, ”But I don’t know if she’d be a good fit for our home.” She felt a bit cruel for the comment. She knew it wasn't the fillies fault she ended up that way and for that reason she couldn't really blame her. Yet she was nothing like the daughter she envisioned. She wanted a filly she could gush too and spend quality mother daughter time with. Unfortunately Phoenix was anything but that. She was reserved and became uncomfortable from even the slightest attempt at getting to know her better. Mrs.Grey-Feather knew she shouldn't have pressed her hopes for the ideal foal on Phoenix, it wasn't fair to the filly, but given she and her husband couldn't have a foal of their own, she just couldn't stop think of how wonderful it would have been to have such a filly. One that gushed about her school day hugged her mouther good night and let her be tucked to bed. 

“Maybe, you have some creature else?” Mr. Grey-feather asked as he gently rubbed his wife's side in a comforting fashion. Virulent Lesson gave a slow tired nod as he began to go through his drawer for other filly's files. Maybe he could get them back around to Phoenix, he hoped. 



 

Meanwhile a few yards down the hallway, a room softly hummed as cloud grinded against cloud in a magical form of art. The room itself was nothing special, at least for those whom could fly. The room was a cloud poetry area which itself was relatively primitive and confined compared to other rooms. The pottery room itself was connected adjacently to the main art room through a narrow, unintuitive doorway in the back. 
The Pottery area served to let foals to express themselves with art and relieve stress in a more hooves on medium, than traditional paper or canvas. However due to the room's tiny size and location only a handful of children could ever find themselves in there at once. Today only one creature found themselves in there; that being Starling.

He sat near the center of the dinky room; slowly lowering his talons to a small cloud poetry wheel. His claws guided themselves round the pottery; shaping it into an abstract figure. The feeling of cloud grind away against talon caused the tiniest beginnings of a grin to formulate across the base of his beak. Though it was not because he enjoyed what he was making. But rather it was the process itself that infatuated him. It let him enter a trance-like state of zen, in which his body moved itself while his mind simply thought. Sometimes it came to peace with nothing, other times it struggled to grasp the concept of infinity. Oftentimes though it was something mundane and in between the two extremes. Today it wondered where Phoenix had been. She was supposed to meet him here almost ten minutes ago and yet she was nowhere to be seen. 
While normally he wasn't one for punctuality himself, the whole reason he was here right now was for her; causing the young gryphon to become mild irritated. This irritation that was only made worse by the fact he didn't even really want to help the filly. Not that he had anything personally against her, other than making the lovely bug that was Carapace have an anxiety attack, he just didn't want to deal with her baggage of issues. She was a maelstrom of drama and stress. So he reasoned: why should they deal with it, especially when it was just stressing Carapace out. After all, the filly didn't even want help. She insisted she could handle it herself. Unfortunately when Carapace had come pleading to them with her wide heartbroken eyes, his resistance melted away and he caved in to her plea. 

At some point during his thoughts his ears picked up on the gentle crunch of hooves approaching; causing him to look up. To his surprise the filly of the hour had finally decided to show up. 

“I was beginning to think you skipped,” Starling hesitantly commented before he let the spinning blur of clouds re-encapsulate his vision’s full attention. 

“Sorry, Virulent Lesson wanted to see me for an adoption interview.” The filly explained as she took a seat at the edge of the room. This answer had caught Star off guard; in fact it nearly made him lose control of the wheel as his body reeled back in surprise. Within an instant he snapped his attention back to Phoenix. His eyes carrying a look of disbelief and curiosity. The reaction seemed to puzzle Phoenix causing her to shoot him an questioning glance of her own in return.

“Sorry,” he replied before taking back control of the wheel, “It's just  we don't see a whole lot of those.” He explained before shooting her another questioning look about the interview, trying to prod more information out of her.

“If you’re trying to ask how it went, it went poorly. At least I think so. ” Star’s head slowly nodded at the confirmation. That was about what he had expected to hear. Not only because that's how all the adoption meetings went, at least the ones he knew of, but also because of the filly’s, in question, personality. 

“Well, don't let it rattle you too bad. I'm sure they loved you,” he assured; hoping to alleviate some of the uneasiness Phoenix may have had. But Phoenix only gave her iconic indifferent shrug without a further comment. Typical… he initially thought with a sigh. While normally being left to just quietly mold the cloud wouldn't bother him, he knew the fit Carapace would have, and the frustration the head stallion would have if he didn’t try and talk to her. So he tried again.  
“You know if you-” He was cut off by the filly preemptively shaking her head. 

“Listen, I don’t really care about this adoption nonsense.” Starling blinked in surprise at that statement as his mind struggled to reason what could cause any creature to say that, especially a pony. He knew that the filly was strange, but to not even want a home? It made him wonder just how jaded she must have been. Assuming what she said was true of course and not just a coping mechanism that was. He thought his folks dumping him with no explanation was bad. But even he still hoped for the prospect of a family again. 

The rest of the two’s time was much the same, Starling would try and start a conversation of some kind, only for Phoenix to shoot it down. It made him start to wonder how any creature put up with this. It was like dealing with a stone wall, if that stone wall would slap one across the face for so much as trying to talk to it. Needless to say his efforts were fruitless. Thankfully their confinement together had drawn to a close. Phoenix, without missing a beat, made her way to the exit, only for her to be stopped by Starling with one last comment. 

“You know. Don't have to deal with everything on your own,” he irritably informed her, not knowing what else to say to the stone wall filly. 

“No offense, Starling, and I mean this in the most literal sense, none of you could even come close to understanding or helping. My problems are just too…” she paused in thought, “Alien?” she finished before leaving. 

“You-!” He began before sighing in defeat as the filly had left. Maybe she was right, maybe her problems were different. Every creature here’s problems were unique in some way after all. And maybe she was right; they couldn't fully relate if at all, to what happened to her. But to say no creature could help. He wasn't completely convinced. He knew first claw that having others helped with anything. Sure maybe they couldn't heal your wound, or save your broken family, but they could carry some of that burden for you and that was reason enough, in his mind, to let others in. His time here was proof enough of that. If not for Carapace being there at his side when he arrived, he was pretty sure he would have lost his own mind over his sudden abandonment. 
Then again on second thought, with how irritably stonewalled that pony was he knew that he couldn't solve her issues. Maybe even no pony could. In fact, he wasn't even quite sure he wanted to help after that exchange. Who would with how stand offish and cold she could be.