The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#142 From Above

[Sophia]

The next morning, I brought the Moonflower terrarium back to the tree house. Despite my apparent deliriousness, I still remembered the answers I had received. And I figured there was no point in the Moonflowers with me anymore. When the Twins asked me about it and why I suddenly changed my mind, I just told them it was probably safer in the hands of someone who knows how to take care of it.
I didn't tell them anything about what I saw or heard last night.
I don't know why though.
If anything, I guess I wasn't completely sure what I heard or saw last night, so I wasn't completely certain about anything. For now... I just decided to believe what was already in front of me.
I climbed up to the platform of the tree house and leaned against the wall, staring up into the sky. Looking past the treeline and trying to focus on what could be seen in the distance. The Twins walked through the doorway after returning the terrarium back inside and hopped down to the ground and sat around the low table. I tuned out their conversation as I gazed upwards. Apollo wasn't here with us today. He told me earlier that he had to finish some things before coming out here. Most likely some chores we'd been putting off.
I told myself to remember that when I got back, I had to take out the trash from the kitchen and the bathroom.
I didn't pay attention to Teri, who heaved herself out of her aquatic room, said hello to the Twins and conversed from them for a moment before hopping up next to me and greeted me with a small smile. Her sudden companionship didn't please me, and I didn't make an effort to reflect her emotions.
"Hey, are you doing alright up here?" she asked as she sat down next to me. "You've been staring at the sky for a while, are you thinking about something?"
"Huh? Oh, um... no, not really. I'm just, uh... I dunno." I replied quickly.
I never liked having my thoughts interrupted, even if I'm just dazing. But when anyone asks what exactly I'm thinking about, I don't make an effort to try to explain it to them. They wouldn't understand what I was thinking about.
No one does.
"Are you feeling alright? Are you and Apollo doing well at home?" Teri asked, her bright face leaning towards mine.
"Um, yeah? But why? Is something going on? Are you..."
"What? No, no, no! I wasn't implying anything! I'm just asking how you're feeling. I didn't mean... uh, are you sure you're okay?"
"Oh, no, no! I wasn't actually, uh- ha, ha... It's just, usually when someone asks me how I'm feeling, it's always followed up by a more serious conversation. I'm not trying to be defensive or anything! I'm just... not used to that sort of thing... ha, ha."
"Oh, don't worry about it! I guess it's just a... what's that phrase?"
"Force of habit?"
"Yeah! Before I met you all, sometimes I would go around my kingdom and I liked to talk to everyone, check in and see how they were all doing and feeling. My Mother thought it was good of me to always be checking in on everyone and making sure their needs are met. Especially now with everything that's been happening... I still think it's good to check in from time to time."
"Yeah, that's true." I replied blankly.
"You know, since the last time we got attacked, there hasn't been much to do around here. I mean, it's nice when we get together and we're all trying to figure out what's going on, but I feel like... we haven't really figured out anything.
"Yeah, I feel ya there. I've been thinking about it a lot and you know I've been taking notes on everything that's happened so we can look back and try to see if we can piece everything together, but nothing really makes any sense, no matter how many times I look at it. If anything, I think I'm just grateful that I'm still alive."
"I'm grateful we're still alive. You're right though, we have a lot of evidence... but not nearly enough to figure out what this... Demon really wants from us and why. We kinda know what it's searching for... well, not really. But it's looking for something that... we don't know and neither of us know where it is or how to find it. I'm not going to give up, but without something that could help us... I really don't know what to do. If anything, we might just be missing something, or maybe we didn't think about something we haven't thought about before. I don't know." Teri let out a deep exhale and we both looked up into the sky for a moment. I didn't feel like talking anymore, but I had a feeling Teri would continue the conversation. And I was right.
"Oh, right. I was actually meaning to ask you if you wanted to come with me to the lake?"
"Why?"
"I want to get some more resources and ingredients. I just want to stockpile as much as I can so I can make more medicine and charms for the future. I thought it'd be good to make a lot of it when we need to rest and heal quickly."
"That is a good idea actually. Bring your weapon with you, I think from now on we shouldn't go anywhere without one."
"Of course, I was thinking the same thing. From now on, I'm not going anywhere without it."
I pulled my satchel around my shoulder as Teri hopped off the platform, dive into the pond and jumped back out with her trident in hand. We told the Twins we'd be back soon and they told us to be careful. We promised we'd make it quick. No distractions.