Freaks: Year One

Your Duty

"Be careful!" Alabaster exclaimed.

His owl, the one he didn't have a name for yet, was attempting to fly out his bedroom window, but due to his smaller wing, he was not ready to fly on his own yet.

"Hoo." The owl hooted, as Alabaster gently grabbed him before he fell.

Alabaster put him on his bed. "You need to be careful, I don't want you to get hurt."

The owl looked toward the window. "Hoo."

"Do..." Alabaster said slowly, not wanting to say it, because he loved the owl very much, but he did know what he wanted to do. "Do you want to leave?"

The owl shook his head.

"Then why do you keep trying to go outside?" Alabaster asked. He had sensed the owl's interest in the outdoors, which made sense as he was an owl, but the owl always asked Alabaster about it first.

The owl indicated to Alabaster, and then to the window.

"You want me to go outside?" Alabaster asked.

The owl nodded.

Alabaster shook his head. "It's dangerous, Mr. Owl."

The owl shook his head.

Alabaster laughed. "I love how you can understand me." Not many owls could do that, right? "But I am not allowed to go outside. It is for my safety."

The owl looked at him in a questioning manner, like he knew something Alabaster didn't, but that could not be possible. Sure, the owl was familiar with the outdoors, but being an owl, and being a pureblood human were two entirely different matters.

The owl hopped off his bed, and started to walk toward his bedroom door. Alabaster stared after it, and the owl turned, and signalled with his bigger wing to follow.

The owl led him down the hall to his sister's room. It was still early in the morning, so he didn't want to wake her. He was about to tell the owl to wait until she woke up when the owl started to hoo at her door.

Alabaster quickly went shhhhh to try to make the owl be quiet, because his parents still didn't know he was hiding an owl in his room, and his hooting would definitely alert his parents that something was going on. The owl turned to him. "You need to be quiet."

His sister's door opened, and Alabaster saw that she was at the opening, already dressed. Her long black hair just needed to be braided. She looked down as the owl walked into her room, and she looked up at Alabaster. "You need to tell that thing to be quiet."

Alabaster said, "Adelaide the owl is not a thing."

She sighed, and let Alabaster in to see the owl was attempting to fly to get on the windowsill. "What is he even doing?" She asked.

Alabaster shrugged. "I don't know, I think he wants to go outside." He approached the owl. "Do you want help getting on the windowsill?"

Adelaide rolled her eyes. "Why are you talking to it?"

"Because he understands people." Alabaster replied. He put the owl on the windowsill, as the owl nodded his consent. Alabaster had a thought. "Do you think the owl can understand French too?"

Adelaide made a face. "Why would he?"

"Because the owl knows English!" Alabaster exclaimed. "Maybe he can understand other languages as well. Maybe he will understand Tamil too!"

Adelaide stared at her brother. "I highly doubt it."

Alabaster turned back to the owl. "Bonjour."