Chapter 5: Two Birds in the Bush
“Good morning!”
The hippogriff I waved to looked up from her gardening with a start. When her eyes focused on me and she realized where the unexpected greeting had come from, she smiled and waved back. “Good morning, Silverstream!”
I had no idea who she was, but I didn’t have time to find out; I had somewhere to be and kept to a brisk pace.
The walk from Dad’s house to Gallus’s new apartment wasn’t terribly long. I was up early, before the streets grew crowded with the daily hustle and bustle. The soil was cool under my claws, and the city was quiet enough that I could hear the distant humming of the Harmonizing Heights carried on the breeze as it gently rustled the leaves of the trees overhead.
It was gorgeous. I hadn’t gone to the HH in forever, not since I was home for Spring Break. I loved going there with a sketchbook in hand. The low hums the mountaintop produced always helped get my muse going. Maybe if I found time later I could—ooh!
Idea: I could take Gallus there later! I didn’t know how much exploring he’d done on his own in the last week, but even if he had been there already, nogriff was immune to its charms.
I smiled as my plans filled themselves in for the day. I left the house that morning without any solid idea of what I was going to do, just a goal.
When I saw him at the docks yesterday, he tried acting like everything was fine, but I knew what was really going on. From how tired his eyes looked, I could easily see that he wasn’t enjoying himself, but the hard work didn’t bother him. No, this was a friendship issue.
Or, more accurately, a lack-of-friendship issue. He came a long way over the last year, but hadn’t made a complete turnaround. Ever aloof, Gallus was still a closed-off and introverted griffon, slower to warm up to new creatures than the rest of the gang. That wouldn’t change easily.
He was sad that he hadn’t made any friends among the crew griffs. I knew that the crews usually worked in groups, so if he was out there by himself, they probably hadn’t accepted him as one of their own just yet.
Of course, he would never tell me that outright. He was too proud.
The guilt didn’t leave me be for the rest of the day. If he wasn’t happy, it was my fault since I was the one that put him up to this. I couldn’t exactly go to Queen Novo to fix it either, not even counting that I’d basically cashed in all of my favors with her to get him here in the first place. I didn’t want to say it, but if Gallus was having trouble making new friends, then he would have to sort it out himself. I could still do something about it, but it was going to be something more my usual speed.
I could cheer up Grouchy the Griffon. It was the least I could do.
I rounded the last turn onto his street with urgency in my step; I wanted to get a start on things S-T-P. At the doorstep, I let myself into the apartment with the key hung around my neck. The den was dark, curtains drawn over the windows. Clearly, the boys living here had a sunlight allergy.
“Typical bachelor pad,” I muttered with a smile.
Up the ramp, Gallus had his door shut tight and, on a wiggle of the knob, locked too. Not that it mattered, though—my key worked for both doors.
I frowned as I stepped into the room. Gallus was still asleep, curled up on the bare mattress without so much as a blanket. One wing stuck straight up in the air, rising and falling in slow, even rhythm with his breaths. I crept over to the bedside, taking care to move silently. He kicked a hind leg out as I approached, but he didn’t wake. Another kick, and a quiet murmur of something I couldn’t understand. His legs twitched again, just a little.
He was dreaming, and it was one of the most adorable things I’d ever seen. A small, content smile crossed his beak, and he went still once again. I had half a heart to just leave him be. Unlike downstairs, Gallus had the shade panels in his room completely turned off, letting in all of the light from the outside. If he was still asleep, he must have been extra tired, probably from working hard all week. I stepped back from the bed and looked around the rest of the room.
It hadn’t changed at all since last weekend. Aside from the wadded-up uniform sitting on the floor next to the bed, it was still completely bare. Another glance around the room made me decide against letting him sleep. Plans had changed. I could take him sightseeing, but before any of that, we were going shopping.
I clapped my hands together like I had a pair of cymbals. “Wake up, sleepyhead!”
“GAH!” His eyes snapped open and he scurried to the head of the bed, putting distance between himself and me by pressing his back into the headboard. He took a second to focus in on the situation; when he did, he incredulously asked, “How did you get in here?”
I held up my necklace. “I have a key, doofus.”
“I locked the door for a reason,” he shot back with a frown. “I don’t want to get jump-scared while I’m asleep. Also, privacy?”
My smile waned when I considered that. I was invading his privacy by barging in here unannounced. No matter how good my intentions were, I probably shouldn’t have come in without knocking.
“Sorry,” I said with a blush. “I’ll knock next time.”
“Please do.” He deflated a bit, relinquishing his grip on the mattress under his rump. “So, what’s up?”
“You tell me,” I joked, waving a claw at the rest of the room. “This place looks exactly the same as it did last week.”
“I was busy.” Gallus rolled onto the floor with a soft thump. “New job, remember? I haven’t had time to worry about decorating.”
I pointed to the exposed mattress with an unamused crease of the brow. “You didn’t even get sheets for your bed.”
“…I was really busy.”
“Well you’re not busy today, so we’re going shopping! There’s a yard sale around the corner and we’re going to go pick out some stuff for this place, so get up!” I bounded off toward the door with the expectation that Gallus would follow along with me, but when I paused in the den, he wasn’t there. He took his time, ambling down the ramp with a yawn about thirty seconds after me.
That was a problem. I’d been to enough yard sales in the year I’d lived on the surface to know that they played by the same rules as reef sales in Seaquestria: if you wanted the good stuff, you had to get there early. “Come on, Gallus, we’ve gotta go!”
Gallus lazily pointed his hand toward the kitchen. “Can I not shower and eat first?”
“A shower will take too long! All the good stuff is gonna be gone if we don’t get there quick. Nogriff cares what you smell like at a yard sale.”
“Yeah, but this griff does.” Gallus moved to walk past me, but I stepped into his path.
“Just smooth your feathers out and grab something to eat on the way. This is time-sensitive.”
“Silverstream, chill out. It’s just a yard sale. I’ll be quick.” He stepped around me, popping the bathroom hatch open and disappearing into the space below. With him gone, I went to the couch and flopped onto it with a frustrated sigh.
Staring at the ceiling was one of my favorite forms of catharsis. Something about lying flat on my back and staring up at nothing was exactly what I needed to get the thinker going.
I heard a door hinge squeak off to my left, and I turned my head to see the hippogriff I could only assume was Gallus’s roommate stumble into the kitchen with bleary eyes, his pale red mane sticking up in angry cowlicks where it wasn’t matted down to his scalp.
“Good morning, random girl on my couch,” he said, waving at me.
“Hey,” I said back.
A long silence took over while Gallus’ roommate poured himself a bowl of cereal. I didn’t mind, considering how occupied my mind was. I knew where a couple of yard sales were going to be. If the one closest to us was picked over, then those might still be a possibility even though the pickings would be slim. I mentally mapped out the most efficient routes while I stared at the ceiling.
“I didn’t see you at the party last night,” the roommate continued, interrupting my train of thought.
“Party?” I asked.
“Oh, ok, so you didn’t crash here last night,” he mumbled through a beak full of cereal. He held up the box. “Hungry?”
“No thanks.” I was about to go back to my brainstorming, but a different idea popped into my head. I had a pretty good idea of what Gallus was bothered about yesterday, but I wasn’t totally sure. If I wanted answers, I had just met someone here who lived with him.
“What was your name, again?” I asked.
“Ty,” he answered. “You?”
“Silverstream. ”
“Huh, so you’re a random, mildly famous girl on my couch. Neat.”
“I’ve got a question for you, Ty.” I hopped down from the couch and walked to the kitchen, taking a seat at the breakfast table across from him. I glanced at the bathroom hatch, making sure to keep my voice low in case Gallus could overhear. “Has Gallus seemed upset to you in the last week?”
He shrugged. “I’ve barely seen him since he moved in. I was gone most of the week on patrol, and he was doing his thing here.”
“What about this party you mentioned last night?”
“What about it?”
“Gallus was there, right?”
“Yeah, I took him over to the rave at Meistra’s last night.”
“Wait,” I said, squinting, “you took Gallus to a rave?”
Ty nodded. “He tagged along with us.”
“And I missed it?!” I slapped the table, jostling his bowl of cereal.
He winced, rubbing a claw on his temple. “Can you take it down, like, three notches?”
I paused, blinking, then pulled back a little way and tapped my talons together. “Sorry,” I said, grinning sheepishly, then cleared my throat and tried another approach. “I mean, uh… what was it like? What did he do there?”
Another shrug. “I dunno. We took him to the dance floor and we got separated in, like, five minutes. It was crazy out there.”
I deflated a bit, my smile waning. “Did he dance?”
“Not that I saw. Why?”
“Because if he goofed it up and I missed it, I'd be really upset.” I chuckled, but decided against including the part about how I’d been trying to get Gallus to open up a bit more. Dancing was one of the things I’d tried to get him to do while we were at school, but with no such luck.
Ty and Gallus were barely acquainted; I didn’t want to embarrass him. Not yet, anyway.
“Fair,” Ty mumbled through a mouthful of cereal. “Tell you what. You seem pretty chill. If you’re around next time I’m making plans, you can come with us.”
“I’d like that.”
The hatch opened, and out of it climbed a still-damp griffon, working over his face with the towel as he walked across the room.
“Pick ’em up and set ’em down, Gallus. We got places to be!” I called after him as he disappeared up the hall to his room.
“Blah blah blah,” came the muffled reply.
True to his word, it only took Gallus a couple of minutes to come back down, feathers straightened and crest fluffed back to its usual place. “We going or what?”
“Yep! Clock’s ticking, gotta fly.” I hopped up and made for the door, dragging Gallus along behind me.
“You kids have fun,” Ty called after us.
“Just a teensy bit more, aaaaaand… heave!”
“Gah!” Gallus shouted, shoving a recliner up to the top of the hallway. I braced myself to the doorframe and tugged with all my might against the weight of the chair, and finally, it tipped over the threshold and we slid back a few inches.
“Woohoo!” I shouted, falling onto my back, winded. Gallus appeared at my side a few seconds later, his breathing as labored as mine was. I held up a fist and he bumped it.
“Let’s not… buy… anything that… that heavy again.”
“Deal.” The armchair had been a bit of an impulse decision at the second sale we went to. It wasn’t that either of us found it particularly interesting, but…
Gallus huffed a breathless chuckle. “I bet that old hen is crying over this thing right now.”
“Totally.”
We were browsing the furniture available at the sale and were about to leave when Gallus nudged me. Another hippogriff was standing behind us, hoof tapping on the ground, eyeballing the chair like a hungry wolf.
In the ensuing bidding war, more than a few expletives were exchanged between Gallus and the other bidder. It became a point of pride more than anything, but in the end, we walked away from that yard sale victorious, a ridiculously heavy and moderately worn recliner in tow for about double the price it should have gone for.
“Any ideas where you want to put it?” I asked.
“Front and center, right next to the door,” he answered. “We spent way too much money on this. It’s a trophy now.”
We shared another laugh and picked ourselves up off the floor to slide the recliner over to its new spot, which wasn’t far at all, considering that it was already about where he wanted it. While Gallus adjusted the chair to his liking, I went downstairs and retrieved the other two things we’d picked up: a poster and a book. Gallus found those on his own, and the poster was still rolled up, so I didn’t know what it was, but the book was highly appropriate: Nautical Terminology for Idiots.
I passed the poster to him. “Where do you want me to put the book?”
“Nightstand,” he said, pulling the rubber band off the poster and unrolling it. He spread it out flat on the floor, and I got a good look at it as I walked back over toward him.
“I never took you for a minimalist, Gallus.” The poster was exceedingly simple: a yellow circle in the center of a red backdrop with a white triangle on the lower side, coming up to meet the circle.
As the words left my beak, I took another glance around the room and took the words back. With our additions, it was only slightly less empty. There was still a long way to go before we could call it complete, but it made me think back to his dorm room at school. I rarely went in there, but the few times I had, it had been about as spartan as this. Gallus lived with just a bit more than what he could carry on his back, so it made sense that he would have gone for a simple decoration like that.
“What’s the poster of?” I asked.
“It’s an old tour poster for some band I’ve never heard of. I just like the way it looks,” he explained, picking it up and scanning the walls for a place to hang it. “And I just realized I don’t have anything to hang it with. Great.”
“Maybe your roommate has some tape?”
“I’ll ask him later.” He carefully laid the poster across his mattress, which was still bare, and I came closer to examine it.
“Oh, I get it. It’s like a sunrise over a mountain.” I traced a claw over the poster. “It somehow evokes a feeling of calm with just two shapes. That’s amazing! Maybe I’ll have to pick up a record and see what their music is like.” I squinted to read the tiny logo in the corner of the page. “Brahe sounds like an interesting band name.”
“You’ll have to let me know if they’re any good.” He idly scanned the room and blew a tired sigh. “So, now what?”
“I figured I’d leave that up to you. I had the morning, you get the afternoon.”
Gallus frowned. “That’s fine and dandy, Silverstream, but I don’t really know anything about this place. I kind of need you to lead me places right now.”
“Well, what sounds fun? I could take you on a tour of the city or something, or we could go somewhere?”
“Let’s go somewhere,” he answered a little too quickly. “I’ve been cooped up in this city all week.”
I smiled to keep the appearance up, but internally I frowned. He really didn’t like it here.
It just… I don’t know. It hurt a little more than it should have.
“Sure! Anything you want to do in particular?”
“Not really,” he offered unhelpfully.
I racked my brain for a few seconds, trying to think of things to do outside of Mount Aris. The only thing that came to mind was, “I know where there’s a wild stackberry bush. They’re in season right now. Maybe we could go pick some?”
“Works for me.”
“Oh! We can bake something when we get back.”
“You know how to bake?”
I laughed. “Nope. Terramar does, though. He’ll help us. Let’s go!”
After we found some bowls to carry our harvest in, we took off for the wilderness. I led the way, Gallus lagging far enough behind that we spent most of the flight in silence. I hated it, but it gave me time to think. Chief among my thoughts was that berry picking was a poor substitute for what he needed. He didn’t like his job; how would this make that any better?
Ugh. I hated it when I didn’t have any good ideas. Winging it usually worked out for me, but this was pretty sad compared to my usual skill with this sort of thing. I was the happy one—the one who could cheer up anygriff even on their worst day. But here I was, leading him off to pick berries instead of addressing the actual problem. Sure, hanging out was nice and all, but it wasn’t enough. I needed to do more to help.
But what to do exactly?
I had no idea.
The bush was a couple of miles from Mount Aris—still within sight of home, but far enough away that it felt like we were far out in the woods. It grew in a shallow ravine, hidden by ridges that obscured Mount Aris when we were on the ground.
“So, stackberries?” Gallus asked from behind me, finally ending the silence as we approached our destination.
“Stackberries,” I confirmed.
“What are they?”
I blanched. “Really? You’ve never had stackberries before?”
He flew up alongside me, shaking his head. “I was vaguely aware that they existed until about ten minutes ago. Do they taste good?”
“They’re kind of bad as far as berries go. Not very sweet, kinda tangy, but they’re really good when you add sugar and bake them in desserts.” I pointed to a ridge just ahead of us. “ The bush is right up ahead, in that valley.”
“And none of the other hippogriffs come out here to pick berries? Won’t it be worked over already?”
“Way ahead of you. Stackberries grow all over the place out here. We’ve already passed like three other bushes, but those are the ones everygriff goes to. This one is far enough away that there should be plenty.”
He nodded, and we flew quietly for a few seconds more before he spoke up again. “Hey, Silverstream?”
I thought I sensed the faintest hint of vulnerability in his voice. I looked over and was instead met with a smug grin.
“Last one there is a rotten fish!” He opened his wings wide and flapped hard, shooting out ahead and blasting me in the face with the gust.
“Oh, you’re on!” I put on speed and began catching up to him, but we had maybe another twenty seconds of flight left before we were there. He had too much of a lead for me to make it up in that time.
“Haha, slowpoke!” he shouted over his shoulder. In the midst of taunting me, he wasn’t watching where he was going, and at that exact moment, a small black blur came in from the right.
“Look out!” I shouted.
He whipped around just in time to duck away from the incoming crow. He dodged downward and clipped the top branch of a tree, knocking him off balance just enough that when he put on the brakes, he tumbled butt-over-head and dropped out of sight below the canopy.
I backpedaled hard, slowing myself so that I could hover over where he’d fallen through. From below came loud rustling and snapping as he crashed through the underbrush with the grace and subtlety of a train wreck. “Ow ow ow ow ow!”
“Gallus? Are you alright?”
“Why didn’t you tell me this thing had thorns?”
I breathed a sigh of relief; he hadn’t broken anything. “Did you fall into the bush?” Now that serious injury was off the table, I couldn’t resist the urge to giggle.
“Everything is pain!”
It was still a little funny, but the agonized shriek of his voice made me feel more sympathy for him than anything. I’d been pricked by the bush’s thorns many times, but never all over my body at once. It was bad enough to just nick my arm on the bush when I reached in to grab a berry. This was on a totally different level.
“Just fly up, there’s less to go through that way!”
More rustling and a shrill squawk of pain split the air, and Gallus emerged from the bramble like a whale breaching the surface of the ocean, with the caveat that he was covered in torn-off pieces of stackberry stalks. He dove past me toward a spot clear of underbrush.
“Help,” he pleaded, trying to pick the thorny stems free of his feathers and fur. I swooped down to him and went to work on a piece that was embedded above his tail.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“Ow! Easy!”
I let go of the stalk, waiting for him to calm down. He caught his breath for a moment and nodded to me before he ripped one off his shoulder and winced. I followed suit with mine, pulling it out in one swift yank.
We spent the next few minutes in tense silence as we pulled the rest of the thorny branches free from Gallus’s fur and feathers. He’d fallen directly into the center of a thicket. If it hadn’t been for his feathers, he would have been covered in little bloody scratches. Not that he didn’t have more than his fair share of that, especially in the finer feathers on his face, but most of the thorns didn’t quite make it through to the skin.
I was working one of the last short scraps of vine free from between his wings when he spoke up. “Thanks,” he muttered, eyes downcast, his ears flattened.
“No problem,” I said, yanking the spiky stalk free from his feathers.
He winced, which morphed into a wry chuckle. “Now I kinda wish you’d taken me on that tour of the city.”
It wasn’t the sort of laugh I felt like I could join in on, but I decided to keep it light. “There are bushes with thorns in Hippogriffia. My dad has a bunch of rose bushes around our house, so you wouldn’t be completely safe there either.”
“I’ll be sure to watch my back, then.” He sighed and wiped at his face, a tiny bit of blood coming away on his claws. “Gods alive, that stings.”
“I’ve gotten my fair share of cuts from these bushes, too. They can be mean if you’re not careful.”
He shot me a look.
“Sorry, not helping.”
He lingered on me, then blinked and lowered his gaze. “It’s fine. Just… stupid mistakes, right?”
“Oh sure, I can’t tell you how many times I crashed when I first got to be a hippogriff. Flying is hard! One little goof and wham—you’re going headfirst into a tree before you can figure out which way is up!” I chuckled at the memory, the mind-bending pain of hitting that spruce with my face distant enough in the past that I didn’t cringe at the thought of it anymore. “I still crash every now and again because I forget how you can’t float in the air like you can underwater and—”
Gallus’s breath hitched, his shoulders shaking. I came out of my own little world just in time to see tears streak down his cheeks.
“Gallus! What’s wrong?” I scooted over to him and took his hand.
“This was all a mistake,” he whispered, wiping at his eyes. The effort was worthless, though, as more tears fell down his face.
In that moment, I did the only thing I knew to do: hug. I scooted up next to him, wrapped a wing over his shoulders, and pulled him close. “Hey, it’s okay. Just let it out.”
In true Gallus fashion, he didn’t let it out. “This is so stupid,” he muttered, rubbing at his eyes with the back of his wrist. “I’ll be okay, I just need a minute. Go get started with the berries or whatever.”
“Will you really be okay?”
A pause, followed by a reluctant “no” and more tears and sniffling. I kept my wing on him while he got a grip on his emotions. It didn’t take him long to recover, probably thanks to the ‘hardened nature of the griffon psyche’ that he always liked to proudly boast about.
Gallus didn’t let things get to him. He was stronger than that.
But I knew better.
Except for now, it seemed—despite all that talk about wanting to get him to open up… I genuinely didn’t know how to feel about this; I’d never seen him cry before.
When the shuddering and shaking finally subsided and he was left with a bleary-eyed, pensive stare at the ground in front of us, I decided to try prodding him a little.
“Feeling better?”
He nodded.
“Want to talk about it?”
He shook his head.
“Gallus, you know you’ll feel better if you talk about it.”
He sighed. “And you won’t let me get away without it either, will you?”
It was my turn to shake my head, and I reinforced it by tightening my wing’s grip on his shoulders. “You said this was all a mistake. That wasn’t just about the crash, was it?”
“No,” he confirmed. He took a deep breath and steeled himself. “I feel like… coming here in the first place was a mistake.”
I decided not to let him know just how much that revelation stung. “Why do you think that?”
He took a long time to answer. “I don’t even know where to start. I don’t think I’ve had a single good experience since I came here. My job sucks, I haven’t made any friends, and—” he pointed his gaze at me “—the one friend I do have left me alone for my first week.”
“Left you alone? What did—oh, I did that, didn’t I?”
He nodded. “I get it if you were busy the whole time, but I haven’t had anyone for the last week. Pretty much total isolation except for my racist ass of a boss and drunken party animal roommate who I’ve only seen twice. This is probably going to sound really selfish, but I came here to not spend my summer alone and struggling, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.”
“You haven’t met anyone else at your job? I thought dock crews usually worked together.”
Gallus sighed. “I scoop trash, Silverstream. They gave me the literal lowest job they could find, and then they threw me into the cargo hold by myself to do it. I’m lucky if I see anygriff at all while I’m down there. It’s hot, it’s gross, and it’s lonely.”
“But you said—”
“I lied.” He averted his eyes. “I was embarrassed to tell the truth, so I cooked up some crap on the spot about how I work with the regular crews. I’m sorry.”
So I was only half right. He hadn’t made friends, but he was also stuck with a job far worse than what I’d expected him to get.
And it was my fault. A renewed wave of guilt crashed through my gut. “I… I can talk to Queen Novo and see if we can—”
“No,” he said flatly. “If you try to change things, you’ll only make it worse for both of us.”
“But—”
“You don’t get it, do you?” He turned to me again. I could see the frustration written plainly across his face. “This isn’t something you can just fix. If you go to Queen Novo, you’ll get shot down. If—for some reason—she does decide to push me up, I’m going to pay for it by officially becoming the pariah of whatever crew I work with. My reputation will be destroyed.”
He looked back to the spot on the ground in front of us and continued. “I’m not mad at you. You were doing what you thought was best for me, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to work out.”
Realization dawned. “Wait, does that mean you’re quitting and going home?”
A pause. He took a breath and let it out slowly, leaving me in suspense. “I’m considering it.”
My ears drooped, and I deflated. I pulled my wing off of his shoulders and stared at the ground beside him. The quiet was stifling, but I had no idea what to say to break it. Suddenly, all I could concentrate on was how guilty I felt for even having him here next to me in the first place. I was desperate to try and say something that wouldn’t steer the conversation in a worse direction than it had already taken. The first thing that came to mind was “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said.
“It is my fault. I could have come over to see you this week. I could have done something else to make things better.”
“Silverstream, stop. There’s no way you could have known.”
“Well, what can I do to make you stay?” I shot him a pleading look. “I know things have been terrible, but I don’t want you to go home already! There’s so much more of summer left, and we haven’t done anything together.” I took a breath. “I don’t want this to end.”
“I still haven’t made any final decisions.” He shrugged. “I dunno, it’s been a bad first week and I’m just frustrated.”
“Can you at least think about it for a while? I promise things will get better.”
“I will.” Gallus stood up. “Still up for picking berries?”
I smiled. “Let’s get some fruit.”
Stackberry cobbler was amazing.
After Silverstream and I finished picking berries from the bush and thorns from my butt, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen at her house. True to form, Terramar came to our rescue and saved our baking efforts from total failure, though not without more of that whiny little brother stuff I’d seen the day before.
I was going to have to sit him down and give him a lesson about standing up for himself. Silverstream had a tendency to walk all over him in the nicest way possible.
It was evening when we got back to my apartment, a half-eaten stackberry cobbler in hand and a pair of stomachaches to go with it. Silverstream was right about the berries. They weren’t great on their own, but after baking? Totally different story. Adding sugar transformed them from unpleasantly tart to deliciously tangy. When the question of who deserved to keep the leftover dessert came up, Silverstream decided that I’d literally bled more for it and therefore deserved the rest. I didn’t argue.
The lights were on in the den when I opened the door. Ty was sitting at the breakfast table in the exact same spot as that morning, though instead of cereal, he was eating a full meal this time. I detected salmon on the air, but something else he’d cooked smelled stronger. I wasn’t quite sure what it was.
“Sup,” he greeted, casually waving a claw toward us. “What’s in the dish?”
“Stackberry cobbler,” Silverstream answered with pride. “We made it ourselves.”
“Dibs!” His smirk went away when he saw the glare I shot him. “That was a joke.”
“It’d better be,” I muttered, taking the dessert into the kitchen. I found an empty spot in the fridge for it and safely stashed my treat for later, but as I closed the door, one of the lessons from school came to mind. “Generosity is caring,” Professor Rarity had said, or something like that. The actual quote used more eloquent vocabulary that I didn’t remember. Not to mention that he fed me the first day I was here and paid my cover charge last night.
I sighed. “If you want to try a piece, you’re welcome to it.” If Grandpa Gruff had seen this, he would have laughed in my face and taken the whole thing. The thought made my stomach tighten, but then again, I wasn’t in Griffonstone anymore.
“I’ll take you up on that later,” said Ty. He was still in the early stages of eating his meal, so that probably meant when he was done with the main course. Looking over his shoulder, I identified the source of the stronger smell as some kind of rice. It actually looked pretty good.
“I really should get going,” Silverstream said. She waved for me to come to her for a good-bye hug. When I stepped up, she leaned in close and whispered, “Are you sure you’re alright? After, you know, earlier?”
I smiled and nodded. “It was fun. We should do something again tomorrow. Maybe that city tour?”
“Yeah! You haven’t seen the Harmonizing Heights yet, have you?”
I shook my head.
“Then it’s settled. I’ve got some stuff to do tomorrow morning, but I’ll come over in the afternoon.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said with a smile. She reached out for the hug, but I kept it short again.
“See ya!” she chirped, taking wing and zipping out the door.
I was in the process of turning to say good night to Ty before going up to my room for the night, but he got a word in first.
“Nicely done, my friend,” he said, flashing me a wink.
“What?”
His smirk grew into a devilish grin. “You got yourself a keeper.”
“What?”
“Your friend. What was her name again?”
“Silverstream?”
Suddenly it made sense. I knew where this was going.
I did not like it.
“Yeah dude, Silverstream. I think you found yourself a good one there.”
“Whoa whoa whoa, easy there. I don’t know where you got that idea from, but Silverstream and I are not dating.”
Ty laughed. “Really? I couldn’t tell.”
“Dude, come on. Are you serious?”
Suddenly his expression sobered. “As a heart attack. You guys would make a really cute couple.”
Faced with the sudden resurgence of my fight or flight response, I decided to fight it. “You sure you’re not still drunk from last night?”
That was met with more laughter. “I think anygriff could tell you that blindfolded. Call it what you want, but you guys obviously have something going on. I know it when I see it.”
Scratch that. It was time for flight. “Whatever, dude.” I turned and left the kitchen without another word, letting the sound of Ty’s amusement fade behind me as I climbed up the tube to my room.
“He’s so full of it,” I muttered. The lights came on, and then I remembered the first thing we’d done that morning. The new chair and poster hanging over it stuck out like a sore thumb in the otherwise empty room. I went to the chair and took my first official seat in it. Aside from the faint smell of use it carried, the thing was comfortable—perfect for thinking. It was convenient that we’d bought it today because I had a lot on my mind.
I rubbed my eyes and winced. My face was still raw from crashing headfirst into the stackberry bush, as were a number of other places on my body where the thorns had found their way through to the skin.
“Stupid.” I had no idea why I’d decided to race Silverstream in the first place. I got distracted while flying fast and lost control because of a stupid crow. That wasn’t like me. I never crashed.
I was still embarrassed that I broke down crying in front of her. However, I knew exactly why that happened. Going to a rave with Ty had only served as a distraction, but hanging out with Silverstream all day had brought the thoughts of abandonment back to the surface. I did a good job of hiding it all morning, but I guess the crash was enough of a shock to make me lose control and spill my guts.
But then I took it a step further. My contemplative stare turned to a scowl, the memory of what I’d said ringing in my ears.
“I’m considering it.”
That was a lie—another outright lie that I made up on the spot. In the heat of that moment, I was angry. I wanted her to feel the same fear that I felt—that her friend was drifting away from her the same way I’d been afraid all week.
It was vengeful, and I regretted it the second it left my beak. I never considered leaving. Regardless of how much this sucked here, at least it wasn’t Griffonstone.
If I felt dirty about the methods I used to play Silverstream to my advantage to get here, this was downright filthy. This time I wasn’t lying to improve my situation or cover my tail. It was malicious, for no reason other than to make her feel worse. I’d had the lessons drilled into my head a hundred times throughout the school year: lying to friends is bad.
And yet I was lying to her more than anyone else.
I wanted to punch myself in the head. What if she found out about all of the lies? How would she react? What if Silverstream stopped talking to me because of it? I was digging myself a deeper and deeper hole.
And Ty said we were cute together. Sure, she’d be the cute one, but me? No way. Liars didn’t get to be cute.
Wait, did I just call Silverstream cute?
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I just realized that if I'd made Silverstream crash as well, I could have titled the chapter "Killing Two Birds With One Bush" and I'm a little sad I didn't make that happen. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
WHOA!? A new chapter? Can't believe it went over my head. Can't wait to
notread it! :)So was this just Sil getting the "ASAP" acronym wrong in her head, an example of a hippogriff equivalent of that acronym (in which case, I want to know what it stands for), or just something else altogether?
Has she ever even been to a rave before? Does she even know what, exactly, a rave is?
Is that a real band? I tried googling it, but only got mostly hits on Tycho Brahe, the astronomer.
As usual, Gallus is exaggerating his "lying" a little, though the whole "I'm considering it" one I suppose is a little below the belt. That all said, I think Silverstream would and will be much more understanding than he's giving her credit for.
Please don't stop.
I need this story, you have no idea. It's so good.
9913512
i assume it means "sooner than possible"
9913722
That's likely it...just never seen it referred to as an abbreviation like that before.
Fine, I cave. To the top 10 list for me...
I really enjoy this story and I look forward to the next chapter, please keep writing!
Great chapter! I love where this is going.
I also have a small idea for the story if you're interested?
Yes, yes you did, loverbird
Great chapter. Can't wait for the next.
9913512
I guess deep down inside, he knows he's pulling off the same stunt he did during Hearth's Warming. Probably even thinks he doesn't deserves friendship at this point either. However he thinks of himself, he certainly isn't helping the situation withholding the truth, though. The sooner the truth comes out, the better. But his fear isn't completely unfounded. He was suppose to learn this lesson the first time. Silverstream might not be as understanding this time around. Especially if their relationship starts to grow from the "lies".
Gallus might be heading into a very painful car crash.
Great chapter. I really enjoyed the whole thing and even got a good laugh at several points.
Ty pulling Gallus up was icing on the cake.
But I do wish Gallus would ease off on the lying, especially since they will hopefully be taking bigger steps toward being a couple soon.
Wonder if she will get pulled up by her brother or parents about Gallus soon?
9913411
Whoops.
Loved the new chapter. Ty has good shipping taste.
This is a very enjoyable story! I enjoyed this chapter! Very well written.
And so the feels begin
Man the story is great! I wonder what'll happen with pirates it's exciting!
The seed has been planted.
And it has apparently taken root. Just give up now, Gallus, you are doomed.
9913512 Silverstream has actually said "S-T-P" before, once in Chapter 2. Granted, that was a small detail that came up over three months ago, so it's easy to miss. 9913722 has the right idea, it does mean "sooner than possible".
Silverstream may be a little sheltered and naive, but she's been to parties before. Raves happen underwater, in fact they might even be more interesting there since vertical motion is an option. Also Brahe is not a real band, but this one is.
9913701 Just wanted to say that I appreciate this comment a lot. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon, my man. Thank you for the support :)
9913862 Wow, that's a high honor! Maybe I'm doing something right after all
9913922 The birbs will keep coming, rest assured. Thank you for reading!
9914163 Shoot me a dm, i'd like to hear what's on your mind!
9914306 It's a classic case of old habits dying hard. Gallus has spent a lot of his life grooming ulterior motives to try and get ahead because that's just how it is in Griffonstone. Now that he's in a society that values sincerity and has genuine relationships in his life, he's conflicted between his old nature and the fledgling side of himself that isn't always plotting how to use everyone around him to his benefit. He's basically a walking ball of guilt at this point.
As for the crash, we will just have to see if he can rein in his old ways before it truly gets out of hand.
9914415 Ty is certainly putting Gallus on the spot, isn't he? Maybe someone will have to do the same thing for Silverstream
9915082 Thank you!
9919063 The pirates haven't been forgotten. I can give a little teaser that we will be seeing more of them in the next few chapters. There's a few scenes I've had planned from the start that will finally get written soon, and I'm super pumped to finally make them a reality. If all goes according to plan, the next couple of chapters should be a bit more exciting, so stay tuned!
9919543 RIP burd boy, we hardly knew ye
9921649
Not bad music, too. 
Ah ha, I see what you did there with the band names then.
9921649
Ok here's my idea: The pirates end up capturing Sliver and Gallus has to rescue her. Adds to the adventure tag a bit more you know what I mean 😉
Aw, poor Gallus seems to be dealing with a lot of insecurity bordering on self-hatred. I know how that feels, and I also know it can get better with the right help. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
Ah man, I finally got to catch up. This fic of yours, I swear, it brings a smile every time.
9921677
I've toyed with a lot of ideas for the later-story plot. That may or may not have been one of the possibilities I've entertained. Stick around to see if it is!
9929888 And it brings a smile to my face that it brings a smile to your face!
9921649
Thanks for sharing the tune!
Chill, yet mildly energizing.
I love these two too much, it’s probably unhealthy
No upload in almost three month, bad sign...
10024694
Not to worry, I am working on it. Life is busy, finding time to write isn't always easy. If you are interested in seeing how writing is going, I keep a progress tracker on my user page up to date regularly.
10025973
It's a great fic! I'm willing to wait.
Empire of the rising sun.....
Not yet you aren't. Give it time, and much hetero will be had.
Yes, this is exactly on the mark. No other reasons.