It had been only a few days since my infuriating apprenticeship to Jay. Let me tell you he didn't take his newfound responsibility very seriously.

"Great Glamora! Kittens these days, I have to do everything myself." He sighed dramatically, whacking my face with his dark blue feathers and pushing me aside from the extract I had been working on.

"Um, excuse me-" I started, this had been the seventh time he had done this.

He glanced back at me. "What? You gonna fight me? My young student you have much to learn."

    I mrrred in annoyed amusement. Normally I would have gotten a little angry at him but, you know, for the first time in a while I actually felt kind of happy. It was strange, almost exhausting.

    Not to be rude, but I miss you too. Zach's voice nagged from in my head.

    That snapped me back into perspective. My air-headedness evaporated like a drop of water on a hot iron sheet. Jay seemed to sense this and he stopped doing my work for me a moment to face me.

"What's up?" He asked sincerely.

"I...have something to confess." I admitted, my heart speeding up at a rapid pace as I decided last moment whether I could trust him or not.

He gave me a quick lick on the ear. "You can trust me, I won't judge."

I surprisingly did not feel uncomfortable by his affections, but I did not want to think about that right now.

Are you sure you can trust him? If the wrong people find out about this they'll try to separate me and you, again. Zach pointed out.

It's Jay though, I've known him my whole life. I felt like I could trust him with anything. I honestly don't think I can keep this myself anymore.

"You're going to think I'm crazy." I admitted.

He shrugged. "I always think that."

"Well..." I chose my words carefully. "It's hard to explain."

He waited patiently, wings relaxed and ears tilted forward towards me. I glanced around to see if we were alone. There was no one around, no one in the tunnel outside. Still I lowered my voice.

"I've been talking with Zach." I whispered, the words lifting a huge weight off my chest.

Jay paused before answering. I scanned his face for any sign of disbelief, but he just looked like he was pondering deeply.

"May I ask how?" He said calmly.

    "I'm, not sure. It's like telepathically." I blinked, honest to Glamora just happy he didn't think I was loosing it.

    "You think he's been telepathically contacting you from Glamora." Jay attempted.

    "Yes."

    He leaned back to study the problem from a new position. "How long has this been going on?"

    Tell him about the times earlier, when we were kids. Zach suggested, sounding excited.

    "Well, it happened before, you know, the first time was when we went to Ghost Mountain-"

    "Without me." Jay interrupted passively salty.

    "-And it's been happening at random moments ever since." I finished.

    He let out a hmm, nodding. "What's he saying?"

    I took in another deep breath. "He's been telling me about a potion, or serum or whatever, that'll will bring him back...to us."

    He believed me. Thank Glamora he believed me. I don't know what I would have done if Jay hadn't believed me. I watched his face as he gazed off into his own darkness, looking suddenly very solemn. He wanted Zach to be with us as much as I did, I could feel it.

    "Huh." He breathed, his voice cracking slightly. "Is that what you needed those weird plants for?"

    "Yeah, you don't mind helping me do you?" I asked hopefully, already pretty certain of his answer.

    Jay strangely enough paused before answering. "Of course I'll help, what other stuff do we need?"

    Do we need. That made me happy. I'm so glad there was actually a claw I could trust in this Glamora forsaken rock.

   
Citrus extract, human hair, pure copper, spider venom, human blood, jade tea leaves, black lamb fur, and pure gold are most of them. I can get the rest on my own. Zach explained patiently.

    I repeated the list back to Jay and he frowned.

    "That's quite a list." He observed. "Is he talking to you right now?"

    "Yeah." I admitted.

    "Can...Can you tell him that I miss him?" He questioned, somewhat venerably.

    I already know. Zach sighed.

    "He knows." I told him. "I'm so glad you're helping me."

    "I'm glad you told me." Jay admitted.

    "Why?" I questioned, slightly impulsively.

    "Because you're going to need a lot of help." He explained, and when I didn't answer he went on.

    "Well some of that stuff we can only get from humans." He explained as if it were obvious. "We have to figure out how to do that."

Oh, duh. That should have been obvious. I felt my hopes sink rapidly. Jay blinked as he noticed my absence in the conversation.

"It'll be alright though, we can ask your friend Xanthos for help? He does magyk right?" He added quickly.

"You're a genius." I realized, feeling hopeful again. "Maybe we can actually pull this off?"

With my heart bursting with newfound hope and  energy, I continued slaving at my medicinal tasks, humming to myself under my breath. It was nice to feel happy again.

Jay on the other hand was less sure of himself. Part of him really wanted to believe what Zara was saying, part of him kinda did. There was just one small voice in his head, one doubt that had taken over his view on the whole problem. Jay knew she had been feeling down, he had tried his very best to be there for her. Even though it had been years. Yeah he lived in a world where cats could fly and bees were larger than a squash. Things like this happens because they could. On the other hand, it's exactly what a gief stricken Zara might make up ease the pain. Whatever she was experiencing was real to her, even if it wasn't to him.

One major thing stopped him from calling her out. He could tell she was happy. She was genuinely happy for the first time in years. Those same years it hurt him to see her so sad. This wasn't just making her life better, it was helping him to. All those feelings he had suppressed over the years were being set free. He loved her. He loved her so much. He loved her more than the moon and the stars could ever tell. All of these years he had been afraid to bring up these feelings again in case it made Zara feel worse than she already did. He didn't want to ruin their friendship.

So out of love, he kept his mouth shut and played along.

____________
Coughs loudly

So yeah

Sorry? I know it's been, like years?? I'm going to be entirely honest this book went on a short hiatus for a very stupid reason.

I had planned to get this done by December so 2017 would be free for me to start new things, but then it turned out to be bushier than I expected and I didn't meet my deadline, and that made me feel really guilty because I get worked up by stupid things and i kinda pushed it aside to keep a constant stream with other stuff.

But I'm back now, I've been nourishing this baby for years there's now way I'll ever NOT finish this book. Besides I'm still super proud of the ending I've come up with it's super intense

So forgiveness? Pls?