Bird

Navi woke in an unfamiliar light. She sat up too quickly and her head spun with confusion. She had to piece together the sounds, the smells, the cloudy sights. Humming, quiet and mournful, coming from a different section of the room, or were they meant to be separate rooms? A gray, peeling wallpaper room lacking in light, with floorboards that looked rotten with age. A wonderful, glorious smell, coming from the same section of the room the humming was coming from. She couldn’t decide what it was but it made her sleepy once more, a comforting feeling that almost filled her stomach with its scent. She tried to get up but was stopped by aching muscles; she was snapped back from her trance. She realized where she was. An apartment, on a couch full of loose springs and dirty holes. She was in the apartment she was sure belonged to the strange, old woman. She looked in the section where someone was singing, she could just make out a shadow, crazy, springy hair. It must have been her. Navi held her breath, waiting for the woman to come out, for Navi to gain her strength, say goodbye and leave the poor woman be. She stopped, came out and almost lost her precarious, balance in walking at her sitting up.
“Didn’t know you were awake, dear, how’s that towel, there?” Navi looked down to where she was pointing to notice a wet towel on her knee wound. She cringed at the weight it put on her flesh and opened her mouth to speak but caught herself before trying. Navi nodded her head, pulling the blanket wrinkled on the couch up and around her neck. She eyed the woman carefully, a look of doubt in her surprisingly bright green eyes. The woman brought out a tray and Navi stopped, there were pastries, juice, eggs and a savory meat piled onto a tray. It was a meal fit for a queen, something Navi couldn’t possibly deserved, but it made her mouth water, her eyes ravenous and her stomach growl at her denying mind. She attacked the food as it was set on the table, juice running down her cheeks and jelly smothering her mouth. She stopped instantly, looked at the woman and stopped.
“No, no, it’s fine dear, go right ahead,” Navi was cautious and continued slowly, staring at the woman go through the motions of getting a chair, smoothing her dress and sitting daintily on it opposite her. She was baffled, the woman, whom she didn’t even know the name of showing kindness that Navi hadn’t seen in years.
“Is it okay, dear?” Navi nodded at the woman’s question at stopped, trying to form the words to say. She didn’t know how to say it, her eyes struggling to say it for her full mouth. The woman understood immediately, much to Navi’s surprise.
“Oh, pardon my manners! The name’s Fable, honey, Fable Travis,” Fable held out her hand, pulling it back after several awkward seconds of Navi staring at her quizzically. “What’s your name, m’darling?” Fable placed her hands on her lap, staring at the malnourished Navi.
“I-I’m Navi, nothing else, just Navi,” Navi looked away in shame; she knew she didn’t deserve this kindness.
“Well, such a pretty name, would you like some better clothes? I have some that will be a bit big but they’ll be more comfortable as I wash yours,” Fable tilted her head to its side as Navi nodded, getting up, head on the floor from the couch. Navi’s head was still spinning as Fable handed her a pile of bohemian clothes.
“W-where shall I go?” Navi’s shoulders sunk (expecting a blow), a habit formed from her former ‘house’. Do not speak out of turn, only speak when you are spoken to, no questions unless addressed to.
“Oh, silly me, y’can go to my room,” Fable placed her hand on Navi’s shoulder, causing her to jump. She hobbled to a door blending curiously in with the wall surrounding it.
Navi hadn’t noticed this door before. Her child-like instincts overcame her as she peeked around the woman, expecting a just as boring room behind it; she was surprised by the sight.
There, before her, was the most spectacular thing she had ever seen, a room seeping with a color that shown on every space its light touched. Her eyes widened and a twinkle came to them. She stepped in, analyzing the new surroundings. There was nothing to identify it as a bedroom, no bed other than the mat rolled up against one of the kaleidoscope walls. Canvases crowded the room with their dazzling paintings: greens, blues, reds, browns, grays and every color Navi could and couldn’t imagine. Her eyes moved to the wall to her left and she saw a work space; caked brushes, unfinished paintings, sketch pads, canvases and much more. Navi’s eyes shifted once me to the walls and floor. The floor was splattered in colors of every kind and the walls were filled with painted murals of everything, real or surreal. Best of all, was a window to Navi’s left. It looked out across the entire city.
“I know I’m not a very orderly person but, I was thinking you could sleep in this room until you leave,” Fable stepped in front of Navi, ready to see her expression to the proposal.
There was that word, 'leave' and Navi felt sick to her stomach. She felt woozy and sat down on the floor.
“Oh, my is something wrong? Would you like to stay someplace else?” Fable kneeled down and looked into Navi’s eyes; she shook her head and moved, steadily to her feet. She nodded, a head movement of approval and Fable shuffled out. Navi shut the door behind her and sat down by the wall once more. She breathed heavily.
“Calm down, Navi it’ll all be done by tomorrow, you know you can’t let them find you, just stay calm,” she spoke to herself quietly and sighed. She placed her head in her palms, she couldn’t believe the words. She did know she couldn’t let them find her, her life, and more importantly, the woman named Fable’s life depended on it.