“Sure.”
We took the trail that led away from the Forsythe manor, beyond the low wall that surrounded the property. Once we had rounded a corner and the mansion was no longer in sight Jack let out a sigh. It seemed he had a bit on his mind, but I kept quiet the whole way into town. We emerged onto the street where I had had my first horrible encounter with the infamous Seth Swaggart, and where I had first met Jack. Though now of course there was no deathly thin boy dressed in black anywhere. The thought of seeing him again made me shiver as I remembered the feeling that had coursed through my body when I had looked into his eyes. Like ice freezing me in place.
I drove this memory from my mind and tried to keep pace with Jack’s long strides. The snow crunched under our shoes as we walked down the road. Not many people were about as it was so early in the morning. I wondered where we were going, and what errands Jack had to run.
Before I got a chance to ask, Jack pointed to a small shop to our left. I remembered seeing this place when I first walked through here. It appeared to be a mail service. We walked through the door, a bell clanging loudly. Jack led me over the threshold and waited by a low counter. It was quite warm here, but cramped. The room was empty of any other people, and quite small. Beyond the counter I saw an adjoining room with several rolled up pieces of parchment slotted into different holes in a wall. Every now and then a hand would reach through from the other side of the wall to take a scroll of parchment. I watched rather interested.
A second later a large, older woman with long, grey fly away hair bustled into view.
“Hello, hello!” She addressed us in a rather booming voice, “Ah, Jack!” She crowed at the sight of him, “To what do I owe this pleasure today? Official business?”
Jack smiled, “Ah, Gretchen, can’t a man stop by to say hello to a lovely lady without an ulterior motive?”
I thought this Gretchen was far from lovely. She reminded me of a pug-dog. She even seemed to have a moustache. I immediately felt guilty about my snide thought. Perhaps she was a lovely person.
Gretchen turned red and waved her hand, “Oh, you do know how to flatter, Jack.”
Jack grinned showing all his pearly whites, “I’m here on an errand, but you know how I love to visit. I’ll take the job to see you any day.”
Gretchen positively beamed and I wondered what Jack was up to. This woman was old enough to be his mother.
“So what can I do for you, m’boy?”
Jack fumbled for a scroll of parchment in his pocket and put it on the counter in front of him, “My Master needs this delivered to Mistress Frost.”
“Regular or Express?” Gretchen picked up the parchment.
“Well that’s the thing. It needs to be delivered rather soon … but I was only given enough gold for the Regular …” Jack trailed off.
Gretchen looked at him before patting his hand, “Not to worry m’boy, I’ll give you the Express. Don’t worry about the extra gold.” She gave him a sly smile. I suddenly understood the reason behind Jack’s shameless flirting. He was trying to get faster, cheaper delivery!
“Thank you so much.” Jack’s words dripped with sincerity.
Gretchen’s face was still pink with blush when she bellowed over her shoulder, “R?VEN!”
The yell caused me to jump and Jack grinned at me when Gretchen wasn’t looking. A moment later this “R?ven” she had called came into view from the adjacent room. I felt my jaw drop.
A beautiful black bird swept into the room with long elegant tail feathers, fluttered above our heads for a moment before lowering next to Gretchen and morphing into the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my entire life. She was slender yet curved graciously with glowing pale skin. Her eyes were cat-like, and a shocking blue that seemed to pierce my very being. She had a heart shaped face with a bob of shiny blue-black hair. Her full lips were currently puckered in a patient yet annoyed fashion. She was shorter than me by perhaps four inches. I guessed she was around the age of sixteen. I burned with jealousy at her perfection, yet I couldn’t stop myself from staring and admiring her.
Gretchen handed R?ven the scroll of parchment, “This is for Mistress Frost. As quick as you can.”
R?ven nodded and grasped the parchment, sweeping from the room without saying a word. I noticed that she was slightly bowlegged, her knees knocking as she walked, and her feet pointed inwards slightly. I thought this reminded me of how a child or infant might walk or stand with their toes pointing towards each other. It seemed as though R?ven wasn’t quite as lithe in her human form. I was sure that I would prefer flying to walking too.