As we walked home, I couldn’t help but notice Rising glancing at Gabriella’s wings and up at the pegasi above us. I could guess what question was burning in his mind: why isn’t she flying? I would guess that it was for the same reason I wasn’t. Sometimes, your heart just wasn’t in it, and having your husband or your parents leave certainly would put you there.
At the speed we were going, it would take us about half an hour to get home. None of us talked. I, for one, was too caught up in my thoughts of Guiding and keeping a close eye on my son and my new charge. It was hard not to think of her as a daughter who I could fly with and teach about clouds and making and breaking storms and—
I cut off that line of thought. We would do all that, but it would be with her as a student. Besides, it made me seem like I wasn’t thankful for my wonderful little Star.
His question was definitely eating at him by the time we were halfway home, so I motioned at Gabriella a couple times with my head, prompting him to ask.
“Hey, um, Gabriella?”
She looked over at him as we continued down the street. “Yes?”
“So, I was sort of wondering why you aren’t flying. I mean, pretty much the only time my pegasus friends aren’t flying is when they have to sit at their desks.”
She looked back and up at me. Maybe she thought it was a strange question since I was walking too. But then she kept looking around at the other ponies on the street and the pegasi in the air, taking a minute before answering.
“It vould be rude. At least, zat is how it is seen in Griffonia. Flying around others who can’t, unless you have a good reason, is disrespectful.” She looked up into the sky. “It does not look like zat is how things are here.”
What she just said was hard to wrap my head around. It just didn’t make any intuitive sense. I flew around Guiding and Rising and all my earthbound friends. They’d never given me any flack for it.
I guess my confusion must have shown because she started to elaborate.
“Where I come from, ze only ones who can’t fly are ze old und sick, and we do not want to hurt their pride. It is an old tradition, und only ze very rude ignore it.”
When she put it that way… I shuddered a bit. Not being able to fly was pretty far up my list of things I didn’t want to think about, and the same could probably be said for any pegasus.
I shook my head. No use dwelling on it, not when I had a friendship to foster. I reached down with a wing to nudge Rising towards her, and he bumped against one of her saddlebags. “You two are going to be together a lot for the next month or so. Better start making friends early, right?”
It didn’t take much more coaxing to get them to start talking. Star had always been one to make as many friends as he could. They went over all the typical kid things like who was older — she was by a couple years. They also went over what games they liked, but there wasn’t much overlap; however, checkers and skipping rocks came up. And when Rising asked what books were her favourites, he almost tripped because she said she didn’t like to read.
I wondered if that was going to be a problem. The way he looked at Gabriella when she said that made it seem like it was either going to be a deal-breaker in their friendship or it would be a life goal for him to change that about her. How serious he looked almost made me burst out laughing.
When we got home, Rising took off for his room upstairs, no doubt to get some of his favourite books. I stayed back with Gabriella, who went off to take a look around the downstairs. She went around the left side first, and I followed to show her the kitchen and dining room, then we went around to the right. On that side, we had the sitting room. I pointed to the door at the far end of it as we walked.
“That’s the guest bedroom. You can leave your things in there.”
She nodded and slunk towards the door. “Thank you very much, missis Line.”
I followed after her. “Oh, no need for that. Just call me Squall; everypony does. Well, everyone,” I amended.
We went into her room, and she looked around, heading for the far side. It was a simple affair, a bed with a nightstand, some drawers, and a body-length mirror. After placing her saddlebags under the bed, she flapped once and landed on the bed. She curled up and laid her head on her crossed talons.
“Nice und comfy. Everything is vunderbar!”
I went to sit beside her. “I’m glad you think so! Make yourself at home. Stay awhile!”
She scooted farther away and kept an eye on me as I sat. It felt like something just hit me in the chest. Ponyfeathers, she was skittish around me.
The sound of hooves coming down the stairs let me know Rising was on his way a few seconds before he appeared in the doorway, three books floating in his magic.
“Rising, could you give us a bit of privacy? We girls need to have a little talk.”
His ears flopped back, and he frowned. “Okay, Mom.”
As he walked towards one of the couches to sit, he closed the door behind him with a burst of magic. At the click of the latch, she turned and gazed up at me with her big golden eyes. “Talk?”
I sighed and lay down on my back. It seemed like the least threatening position I could put myself in. “Yes, talk. Really, I need to apologize for what I did to your parents the other day, right in front of you no less. If I could take back the violence, I would, but I can’t. What I can do is try to regain your trust and be a supportive caregiver while they’re away. If there’s anything, anything I can do to make this better for you, let me know, and I’ll be sure to do it.”
Gabriella looked at me for a long while, completely silent. Had I said something offensive or somehow scared her again?
“I am sorry, missis Line… Squall. I have never been apologized to by an adult before. A griffon vould never apologize to someone younger. It simply isn’t done.”
“Well,” I said, rolling to my side to face her and spreading a wing, “we do things a bit differently here.” I smiled.
Gabriella eyed my wing then looked back into my eyes. She fidgeted and began to rise only to settle back down.
I sighed, a slight frown crossing my face. “Okay, not ready for a hug yet, then. I hope we can make it to that point soon, Gabriella.”
I rolled off the bed and stood. “But for now, I think I’m going to have to let my son read at you. Yes, I mean ‘at.’” I raised my wing closer to the door to my mouth, cupping it towards her. “If you fall asleep, just tell him that his voice is soothing, and he’ll buy it.”
I dropped my wing and pushed open the door. “Rising, come on in. You two have fun while I make some lunch.”
He rushed past me, five books floating over his head. Hadn’t there only been three? I facehooved. He must’ve gone and grabbed a couple more while I talked to Gabriella.
I sighed, and it turned into a laugh as I went into the kitchen. Two children in the house… I smiled stupidly. Guiding had outdone himself. This had to be the best present I’d ever gotten, and it wasn’t even for any special occasion. I’d really have to do something nice for him when he got back.
But I was getting ahead of myself; he wouldn’t be back for a long time, and I had lunches to make.
One of them would be less fun than the others… One of the things Gertrude and Gregor had been adamant about was their daughter eating meat or fish at least once a day, preferably twice. To that end, they had given me the names and addresses of the two stores in the city that sold them. I’d had to go once this morning, and I was not looking forward to going back every day.
At least I didn’t have to do much to prepare it, just pop it in the oven, lemon and pepper to taste for the fish, spices for the meat.
From the icebox, I took out the fish I’d bought earlier, and I tried not to look into its dead little eyes as I put it on a lightly oiled tray. I’d be sure to wash that one twice when it was done. Then I put it in the oven to bake. With that bit of unpleasantness out of the way, a nice eye-free salad was definitely on the menu for Rising and me.
As I tossed a salad together, I listened to my little Star’s high voice. It certainly wouldn’t be that way much longer, a year or two at most… And by then he’d have found his calling and probably given Guiding a bit of a shock.
While he could usually see pretty clearly in these sorts of situations, my husband’s heart was too set on Rising following him into the business. I just couldn’t see that happening. He could parrot back information about ships and how to move cargo effectively, but that’s all it was. He knew it by memorization, not by heart. I knew how to cook by memorization, but that’s not what I knew by heart. My cutie mark was a life preserver, not a whisk or something, and I couldn’t see Rising’s being a shipping crate. Our little colt was made for bigger things — I could tell.
But he’d never get to them without good meals to let him grow big and strong. I set the table, and then when the smell of fish made me wrinkle my nose, I took it out and called them for lunch. They rushed in, washed up, and dug in. Lacking any sort of subtlety, Rising and I didn’t look at Gabriella as she started eating.
After a minute or two of silence, things started to feel wrong. Rising always chattered during meals, and though it made them take longer than they should, it was normal, and I liked it. We needed something to talk about.
“Gabriella, after lunch, would you like to show me what you know about making clouds and lightning?” I asked, making myself look at her. Though, I did try to avoid seeing that fish.
“Yes, missis Squall” — I smiled — “I will. Mine parents hoped for us to start right away.”
“Can I watch?” Rising asked.
“Of course you can… if Gabriella wants you to.”
I looked over to her and found that she was staring at me, fork halfway to her mouth and seemingly forgotten. Apparently that suggestion hadn’t gone over well.
“Never mind, Rising. Maybe some other time.”
“Aww… alright.” After another bite, he sat up straighter, his ears perking up. “Oh, now I can make chapter three look really good! I’ll show you when you’re done!”
He gobbled up the rest of his lunch, then, at my nod, he rushed off, his book already floating over to meet him. Gabriella and I finished a couple minutes later, and I sent her outside to get ready while I cleaned up.
When I got outside, I had her show me what she could do from a bunch of different standpoints like flying and making wind, clouds, and lightning.
I didn’t know what I was expecting to find, but I sure didn’t get it. Griffons do a lot differently from us ponies. When I asked her to fly a bit for me, she didn’t take off and start hovering like a pegasus would; she went and landed on the roof, looked around for a moment, then glided off to a thermal and rode it up to soar high above the city. Putting Gabriella through her paces showed me her ability to soar far outstripped most if not all pegasi’s. I shook my head as I watched this little eleven-year-old who could put even dedicated endurance fliers to shame. She was also really something in sprints. Really, she had almost no middle ground; for her, it was either a burst of energy or what I thought of as just lazing through the sky.
Seeing her do the other things I wanted to check was enlightening as well. I didn’t think she could carve out a working cloud if I put her in a room full of fog, but she pulled lightning from empty air better than I could — which is to say, she managed to do it at all. She said she’s not very good for a griffon, though. Remembering what her father hit me with, I suppose I would have to agree.
Watching her left me with a couple of questions about training her. The most important one was: where do I even start? I knew, from talking with her parents, that they wanted me to teach her attacks, but I wondered what counted. I could have fun showing her how to make hail, which definitely hurts if it hits you.
Since finding out what she could do had taken a good portion of the rest of day, I’d sleep on it and come up with a training plan tomorrow. While they were in school, I’d have plenty of time to think on my shift down at the bay. Being a rescue pegasus in what is usually a pretty safe place was almost always boring, and it gave me lots of time to think about how to help ponies.
I sent Gabriella inside, where my little Star was undoubtedly waiting to show her not only chapter three but the fourth and maybe fifth ones as well. Meanwhile, I had a few chores to do before it was time to make them supper.
As I passed by the sitting room a few times, I saw lights and the sound of my colt’s voice. I noticed that it was often interrupted by Gabriella’s questions and occasional laughter. From what she asked, it seemed that griffon tales were rather more grim than ours. Seeing as I was in the middle of cooking a bunny for her to eat, I could understand why…
Once supper was over, Rising went off to write in his journal, which was in a book identical to the one Guiding used for his captain’s log. He always used it when his father was at sea, and then they compared when Guiding got back. He didn’t have much to write about other than practicing his magic to make the story more interesting for Gabriella, so I tucked him in to bed soon after. I gave him a kiss and a wish for a good night’s sleep without asking for Luna to visit his dreams like some ponies had started doing. She must have had more important things to do than visit a little foal’s slumber, as nice as that sounded. And besides, the chances that she would visit his were so low that it was best not to get his hopes up.
As it turned out, I didn’t have to do anything to put Gabriella to sleep; I found her already curled up on her bed, just like a cat. I wished I had needed to do something, though. I felt almost cheated out of getting to help.
I sighed and went up to my cold, lonely bed. Was it wrong that I wanted my son to have a bad dream and hop in bed with me? It was, definitely, was my last thought before I fell asleep too.