Matias

Eve maintains her garden, walking around with a watering can in her hand. I lay down on the porch, watching her. She gives water to those plants that need it, at others she bends and picks their weeds. To the rest of the plants she stops and talks to them, gently pets their leaves, and moves on.

A rustling sounds from the sky. I look up to see a crow lower itself towards the bird bath.

"I told you it would attract birds," I shout to Eve, not bothering to move. 

She spins around, completely ignoring me and watches the crow as it starts to dip itself in the water.  "Aren't you a beauty?" she says, almost breathlessly.

The crow pauses and tilts its head towards Eve. It watches her for a moment before continuing its bath. 

"Are you just enjoying the bath?" Eve asks. "Or would you like to stay?"

Again, the crow pauses. "I see lonely girl, and a cat, and a crow." Then it flies away, water droplets dripping behind it. 

Eve watches the bird go, a frown on her face. 

"I told you the bird bath was a bad idea."

Eve wasn't anywhere in town. Yesterday in the market I had reached out and tried to feel her presence in town, but nothing. The market had been filled with people, but none had been my girl. Even on the walk home I had kept reaching out, trying to feel her, but she was nowhere.

Now, not even the sun beams can cheer me up.

Staring out the window that looks to the street, I wait. And wait, and wait.

A rustling of feathers reverberates beside me, before quieting down as the clink of talons on the window sill fills the space. The birds beak comes into my view.

"Staring will not make her appear."

"But it might," I argue.

He peers at me. "The girl will be here soon."

I flick my tail as I turn my head towards him. "Eve will be back soon?" Hope laces my words.

His empty eyes fill with sorrow. "No. The other girl."

The hope deflates like one of Eve's spells gone wrong. I turn back to staring out the window. "Why would you get my hopes up?"

But he doesn't respond, and even if he did I don't think I'd hear him as my attention gets snagged. A girl with brown curls stands before the fence. She looks once to her right, then to her left before facing the cottage. She reaches her hand out and opens the latch of the fence.

"What is she doing here?" I hiss. I raise myself up, as if I'm about to pounce on her.

The bird lifts off of the sill and flies to somewhere in the house.

I stay and track the girl's movements as she makes her way up the stone path towards the front door.

A click sounds somewhere in the house. But my gaze never leaves her as she climbs up the porch steps, and then she's standing before the door and... and disappearing through the open door?

That crow opened the door for her!

I hop off my spot and dash to the entryway.

The girl stands there, one hand up towards her mouth, hiding her little o of  surprise. The bird flies in front of her face.

"Welcome!"

"You talk too?" she asks, her eyes wide with wonder. 

The bird cocks his head to the side. "Sometimes."

A hiss sounds from deep inside of myself until it's nearly the loudest noise in the entryway.

The girl's gaze snaps to me, her eyes widen farther but not from wonder. "Will he stop hissing any time soon?" she asks, as if I'm not right in front of her.

The crow swerves to look at me. "Eventually."

Slowly, my hiss dies out. The moment it does, she speaks, "Look, I'm sorry for showing up unannounced but... I decided that I'll help you."

"Help me?" I walk towards her, baring my teeth.

She gulps. "Yes. With finding Eve."

"She can do it," the crow interjects.

I glare up at him as I make my way closer to the stranger. Once I'm in front of her, I plop down. My tail sweeps back and forth along the floor. "And how do you think you can help us?"

She blinks. "Well... I'm not sure, but you asked for my help and..." She hugs herself. "And I know what it's like to have a family member go missing." She takes a deep breath before turning her attention back to me. "So if you'll let me, I'd be glad to help you."

"Aren't you scared of the witch?" I narrow my eyes.

Her face turns red and her cheeks puff out, but she nods. 

Looking up at the crow, I try to see what he thinks. He stares at me with one unseeing eye before nodding. With a sigh and an eye roll, I back off. "Fine. You can help us."

"Great! Well... not great given the circumstance, but that you'll let me-"

"Let's take this into the living room," I say before turning and making my way there. I don't glance back to see if either of them are following, but the slap of the crow's wings, and the almost quiet footsteps of the girl, assure me they are. 

Once I'm in the living room I head over to my tree. My nails dig into the rough texture as I climb my way up to the the perch on top. I circle once, twice, before settling down with my paws just hanging over the edge. The spot allows a view of the whole living room, so I watch as the girl picks the arm chair directly across from me. The bird lands on his perch just beside mine. I will never understand why Eve had to place it right there.

"What do you think you can do to help us?" I ask.

She had been looking around, but my question brings her gaze right to me. "Oh, we're jumping right into this? Not even going to introduce ourselves?"

I huff. My tail swings back and forth. "Would you like us to?"

After a moment she nods. "I would like to know the names of the animals I'm helping. It's better than 'the cat and the crow'."

With a sigh I tell her, "I am called Matias."

"Name is Calchas," the crow croaks. I roll my eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Matias and Calchas. I'm Selene."

"Now that we're done introducing ourselves, how can you help us?"

She looks down at her hands. "Well... I'm not entirely sure, but I figured I could ask some questions and then maybe connect those to answers or even look for clues to help you find Eve?"

"I can assure you that Eve left behind no clues."

The girl looks up at me. "But what if she left clues that you couldn't find?"

The hair on the back of my legs rises. "How dare you suggest that!" I flash my fangs at her. 

She holds her hands up, palms toward me. "I don't mean to be mean by that. But what if she did leave clues that you couldn't find? Can you even read?"

"I- I-"

"Selene is right," the bird says.

"Shut up!" I spit at it. I turn my glare back on the girl. "Do not suggest that again."

"Okay, I won't."

The hair on my legs settles back down, and I let my glare go. "Good. Now what kind of questions are you thinking can help us find Eve?"

"Well, do you remember what she was doing that day? Maybe there was something unusual she was doing?"

I look down at my paws, the black fur on them maintained nicely. "She was working on a spell, and had been running around gathering ingredients. Nothing out of the usual."

"Where did she gather her ingredients from?"

"Normally from her garden, and if she couldn't get them from there then the forest."

"Could she be in the forest?" she asks. She pats her pockets until she reaches in and pulls a notebook, followed by a pencil, out.

"Are you writing this down?" I ask.

"No," the bird says.

The girl looks at him. "Are you certain? The forest is huge."

He peers at her, his head tilted so one eye is settled on her. "I cannot see her there."

"What do you mean you can't see her there?"

The bird picks at something under his wing. 

I sigh. "He claims that he can see things. So he most likely can see an empty forest." I side eye him. "Or he sees nothing leading to the forest."

The girl peers at him, interest shimmering in her eyes. "Can you see where Eve is?"

"It doesn't work like that," I explain as the bird continues to pick at his wing. "Things come to him in bits and pieces, so he could have seen this conversation, or maybe even seen Eve here safe. Other times it's cryptic words or images like-"

"Flying!" 

"Like that."

She notes that down. "What could flying mean?" she taps the end of the pencil against her chin.

"He probably just wants to go for a fly, or something." I huff. "I don't think this is helping us find Eve."

"Right! Right. Um..." She looks outside. "I'm sorry, but I have to go."

"But we haven't-"

She's left the room before I can even finish my sentence. 

Chapter word count: 1,518

Total word count: 4,364