PHOENIX

Chapter Eleven: To Honk or to Quack

When I woke up the next morning, I was greeted by the black eyes of a bird staring down at me. It took me a second to shake the grogginess out of my head before I actually took into account that there was a bird inches from my face.

"Agh!" I sprung up, startling the creature.

The bird flew away to a shelf on my wall, squawking while ruffling its feathers.

"Jesus christ!" I exclaimed, putting a hand on my chest. "What are you doing in here?"

The bird didn't respond back, obviously.

"How did you even get in-" I noticed the window closest to my bed wide open, and remembered the fever I had last night. Oh right.

"Well, as long as you don't poop on anything I guess you can hang out here" I announce, eyeing the bird carefully.

The small gray parrot replied with a screech deafening my ears.

"Great, you remind me of another person in my life that is constantly screeching. Have you met him? His name starts with a T and ends with an ommy" I walk past the bird, getting some breakfast and changing for the day. The parrot messed around in my room, knocking things over and taking a huge shit on my bed. Not the best way to start out the day, but the bird was pretty cute.

Opening my door, I waited for the bird to follow me outside. It flew past me and onto my shoulder, steading itself before settling down near my face.

"Make yourself comfortable" I sighed, leaving my home and heading towards the docks.

I knew that I wanted to apologise to Niki today, even if I was still unsure about Eret hanging out in her house. She didn't deserve to be chastised for having someone in her house.

The sun was bright as I walked to the entrance of her cave, peeking my head inside, causing the parrot to fly off.

"Niki? Are you in here?" I called out, slightly nervous about how I left things with her yesterday.

"Yes" Niki responded from a room off to the side, her voice quiet.

"Hi......" I entered the room with caution, Niki adding frosting to a cake. This girl really bakes all day, huh.

"Hello" Niki responded with a small smile.

I took that as a sign to continue, and took her hand in mine. Letting out a sigh, I prepared myself for the worst.

"Niki, I'm so sorry for the way I acted yesterday. You're right, you should be allowed to have whoever you want in your house. And I shouldn't have stormed out when I was upset. I was acting like a child and I really hope that you can forgive me and we can be friends again?" I asked hopefully, without making eye contact.

"Who said we stopped being friends?" Niki giggled, moving so that she could look me in the eyes. "And I accept your apology. I understand that you have issues with Eret, and I hope that at some point those issues can be resolved. But for now, I'll try and tell you ahead of time when he is here and when he isn't"

We hugged each other, me towering over her quite a bit. There was no debate that Niki gives the best hugs, even if you're five inches taller than her.

"Do you want to help me deliver these two cakes? I'm giving it to some new people, they haven't decided where they're planning on living yet, and I'm hoping to sway them to move into L'Manberg" Niki pulled away, looking back at the small chocolate cakes on the counter.

"Sure! Where are they staying right now?" I asked, jealous of whoever was receiving the delicious dessert.

"Over by Tommy's embassy" Niki handed me a cake, and we walked out into the crisp autumn air. About two seconds later, the gray bird landed on my shoulder once again, catching me off guard.