Warmth.
Soft sheets.
The faint scent of cedar and cold winter air lingered against silk curtains.
Jemina smiled before she even opened her eyes.
She knew this morning.
Knew it instantly.
Because this had once been one of the happiest days of her life.
"…My lady," the butler said carefully, "please stop climbing the duke."
"I'm not climbing him," Jemina argued immediately while wrapped around Noctellis like an overexcited squirrel. "I'm celebrating."
"You are currently hanging from his shoulders."
"That is still different."
Noctellis stood perfectly still while Jemina clung to him shamelessly in the middle of the hallway.
The servants had long since stopped reacting. Somewhere along the way, they had simply accepted that their duchess possessed absolutely no sense of dignity around her husband.
The butler, however, still tried.
"Your Grace," he said with visible exhaustion, "a duchess should maintain elegance and restraint."
Jemina gasped dramatically.
"Are you saying I should love my husband less?"
"…No."
"Then I shall continue."
The butler looked moments away from retirement.
Jemina laughed brightly before turning back toward Noctellis.
"You really got all of this for me?"
Her room had become completely unrecognizable.
Flowers.
Books.
Jewelry boxes.
Silks.
Hair ornaments.
Paintings.
An entire vanity imported from another country because she had once casually mentioned liking the craftsmanship.
The gifts filled nearly every corner.
Extravagant.
Beautiful.
Overwhelming.
Jemina was not particularly materialistic.
In truth, most of the items mattered far less than the simple fact that he had thought of her at all.
That he remembered.
That he listened.
That he had quietly researched the things she liked without ever telling her.
Her chest felt unbearably full.
"You have done your research well! You deserve one million out of one hundred! One billion!" she whispered dramatically.
Noctellis looked down at her quietly.
"You mentioned them."
As though that explained everything.
To him, perhaps it did.
To Jemina,
it felt enormous.
She made a small delighted sound before suddenly jumping at him again.
The servants gasped.
The butler closed his eyes in surrender.
Noctellis caught her automatically.
Effortlessly.
Jemina held his face between her hands and kissed his cheek once.
Then twice.
Then repeatedly.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you—"
"Jemina."
"You listened to me!"
"You are overexcited."
"I am exactly the correct amount of excited."
Noctellis sighed softly.
But he did not push her away.
That alone had once felt like proof of love.
Jemina buried her face against his shoulder happily while the servants politely pretended not to exist.
"…You're smiling again," she whispered triumphantly.
"I am not."
"You are internally smiling."
"That is not a thing."
"It absolutely is."
The butler finally spoke again.
"…I will leave now before the duchess starts reciting poetry."
"I have poetry prepared actually—"
"Don't."
That night, he stayed.
Jemina remembered being almost too happy to sleep.
Every time she closed her eyes, she opened them again just to make sure he was still there beside her.
And he was.
Dark hair against pale sheets.
One arm is resting loosely near her waist.
Breathing slow and steady beside her in the quiet darkness.
Jemina had stared at him for what felt like hours.
"…My husband," she whispered softly to herself.
Just saying it made her smile.
Carefully,
so carefully, she moved closer.
Resting lightly against him.
Warm.
Real.
For once, she did not feel shut out.
For once, she did not feel like she was standing outside a locked door, desperately trying to be loved.
That morning, when sunlight spilled across the bed,
Noctellis was still there.
Jemina smiled sleepily and closed her eyes again.
Just a little longer.
Cold wind slammed violently against her face.
Jemina's eyes snapped open.
Feathers.
Branches.
A cliffside.
The structure sat wedged within the narrow crack of an enormous mountain wall, protected from the wind by layers of twisted branches thicker than tree trunks. Feathers the size of blankets covered the interior, mixed with broken antlers, bones, torn hides, and the glittering remains of unfortunate prey.
She was inside a nest.
A gigantic nest.
The memory rushed back immediately.
The mantis.
The parasite worm wrapped around her waist.
The sky spinning beneath her.
And then,
while dangling helplessly from that horrible creature's body,
she had tried to force a connection.
To tame it.
The creature itself had refused her.
Not violently.
Not explosively.
Just… absolutely.
And now she was trapped inside the nest of whatever had eaten it.
"…Ah," she whispered weakly.
Silence.
"What the actual f—"
The smile slowly disappeared from her face.
Above her, one of the giant bird chicks coughed up half a fish.
Its slimy tail slapped directly across her cheek.
Jemina stared at the sky silently.
"…I miss my bed."
THUMP.
The entire nest shook violently.
Jemina slowly turned her head.
Three enormous red birds stared back at her.
"…Oh."
They were young.
Probably.
Which was horrifying because each one was already the size of a carriage.
Bright crimson feathers covered their bodies unevenly, fluffy in some places and sleek in others. Their golden eyes blinked at her with unsettling curiosity while massive talons dug deep into the nest branches.
One tilted its head.
Another opened its beak.
Jemina immediately pointed at herself.
"I am very stringy and nutritionally disappointing."
The bird squawked loudly.
Jemina screamed.
The bird screamed louder.
Now they were all screaming.
Eventually, one of the chicks lost interest halfway through and began eating the remains of the mantis instead.
Jemina blinked.
"…Was I competing with the mantis for survival points?"
The answer was apparently yes.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
That first day, she barely moved.
The second day, she realized the mother bird was the true monster.
The creature arrived like a natural disaster.
Wind exploded through the cliffside every time it landed. Its wings blocked out the sun completely while massive talons crushed branches beneath its weight.
And every single time,
Jemina pretended to be dead.
Very convincingly.
"…I am a decorative stick," she whispered once while lying face-down beneath feathers.
The giant bird stared at her for a very long time.
Then dropped an entire deer carcass into the nest and left again.
"…Thank you for respecting my privacy."
The chicks grew quickly.
Terrifyingly quickly.
Within days, they were hopping around the cliffside, flapping their massive wings wildly while the mother forced them farther and farther from the nest.
Jemina watched one nearly fall to its death.
Then recover midair.
"…Woah. Tough childhood."
By the third day, hunger became unbearable.
By the fourth, loneliness settled in.
By the fifth,
she missed home so badly it physically hurt.
She missed the lodge.
The noise.
Raisa yelling at her.
Rosaline's shy smiles.
The Ghastlies biting furniture for absolutely no reason.
Even the mudwolves' strange habit of staring at her while she slept.
Jemina curled deeper into the feathers.
"…I want to go home."
The wind swallowed the words.
She wondered if they thought she was dead.
Honestly, it was a reasonable assumption.
Jemina sighed weakly and looked toward the nearest chick.
The red bird stared back at her while chewing something that absolutely should not have fit inside its mouth.
"…You."
The chick blinked.
Slowly
carefully
Jemina reached out.
Her fingers touched warm feathers.
She braced herself for the rejection.
The freezing paralysis.
The violent backlash.
But,
nothing happened.
Jemina blinked.
"…Oh."
The chick chirped softly.
The connection felt faint.
Unsteady.
Young.
Not fully formed yet.
But it was there.
Jemina's eyes widened slowly.
"…You accepted me?"
The chick immediately tried eating her sleeve.
"…We'll work on boundaries later."
The idea formed immediately after that.
Terrible.
Dangerous.
Almost certainly fatal.
Naturally, Jemina committed to it wholeheartedly.
The chicks were beginning to fly longer distances now.
Soon, they would leave entirely.
And if they left, she would die here.
So now there was only one option.
Jemina climbed onto the back of the largest chick while trying very hard not to look down at the endless drop beside the nest.
The chick turned its head curiously.
"…Listen carefully," Jemina whispered. "You and I are about to do something incredibly stupid."
The bird chirped proudly.
"I love the unreasonable confidence of the younger generation! We will get along so well!"
The other two chicks suddenly noticed her.
Their enormous heads snapped toward the scene simultaneously.
"Why are you noticing me now of all times?"
The other two looked very interested in taking a bite out of her.
Jemina froze.
Then panicked instantly.
"GO! GO! GO!!!"
The chick beneath her did not move.
"Go now unless you want me to haunt you forever!"
The other birds opened their beaks excitedly.
Jemina screamed.
They screamed back.
One flapped directly into her face.
And then, suddenly, the chick launched itself off the cliff.
Jemina's soul immediately left her body.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
Wind roared past them violently as the bird plummeted downward.
Not flying.
Falling.
Very aggressively.
"THIS IS NOT FLIGHT—!"
At the very last second, the chick's wings spread.
The air caught beneath them.
And suddenly, they soared.
Jemina stared down at the endless forest below with tears streaming from her eyes.
"You did that on purpose!!!"
The chick glanced back at her.
Offended.
"…Please forgive me."
The chick dramatically flipped its head away from her.
Unfortunately, the bird possessed the attention span of an overexcited toddler.
Every few minutes, it spotted something "interesting."
A rabbit.
A fish.
A shiny rock.
Another bird.
At one point, it became deeply fascinated by a waterfall and flew directly through it.
Jemina nearly froze to death.
"WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?!" she cried while clinging desperately to soaking wet feathers.
The chick chirped happily.
Travel that should have taken a few days became a nightmare spanning an entire week.
They slept in trees.
On cliffs.
Once, briefly inside a cave occupied by something that hissed at them until the chick hissed back louder.
Jemina stopped asking questions after that.
By the time they finally reached the familiar area of the Null Forest,
Jemina looked half-dead.
Her hair was tangled beyond salvation.
There were leaves in places where leaves should never be.
And emotionally, she had aged at least forty years.
The chick screeched triumphantly as the familiar trees of home came into view.
Jemina burst into tears immediately.
"…HOME!"