Guitar Strings and Flower Petals

Lack of Sense

"...So, yeah, I'm not allowed to try summoning a phoenix for a couple of weeks. Or they might try and peck my eyes out. And also try to eat me. Again."

"I swear, you get yourself into situations like that every few days."

"Hey, at least this time it wasn't my fault - No one told me that phoenixes didn't like light spells!"

"It's a phoenix - It's in the name!"

"...I - I feel like we have very different definitions of what a phoenix is?"

There was another round of laughter that came from Gus and Willow, and after just a couple of seconds, the Human joined them.

For a moment, Skara let her head turn to glance at the three of them out of the corner of her eye. It bothered her... More than she was willing to admit right now. She believed what Willow had said earlier - At least, about not having told anyone about their encounter the other day. The part of her brain that told her that Willow had to have been lying, or was just waiting to do it later so she could feign ignorance, or some other thing that Skara couldn't fathom wanted to yell at her for believing Willow. But the rest of her mind just... Wouldn't let that part of her talk over it. She didn't believe it. She was beyond certain, more than anything else right now, that Willow had been honest back then.

And she just didn't understand why.

For a moment, she just watched the group of them interact. She couldn't hear much, but from what she could, they told stories about how their day had gone, jokes, that kind of thing. It wasn't too dissimilar to how her own friend group operated, at least from a distance. And a part of Skara wanted to feel angry, believe that she was having some sort of elaborate prank being pulled on her or... or something. Something that would make more sense. But she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

Watching them though, the dynamic that they had wasn't at all like the ones that existed within her own friend group. From what she could tell, they didn't really have a leader, like her friend group did. They didn't treat one another all that similarly to her group either. It was just... Different. Lighter somehow. Some other people looked at them as they passed by. A few people gave them raised eyebrows, but none of them seemed to care.

It reminded Skara of the books she read when she was growing up. The books she read to this day.

There was a split-second where Skara noticed something change, and based purely on reflexes, her eyes darted towards the Plant witch.

Willow was looking directly back at her. It couldn't have been for longer than that split-second, if even that, but she had noticed the Bard watching them.

Instantly, Skara turned on her heels and made her way down the path, away from the school, away from Willow, and with any luck, away from all the intrusive thoughts that had wormed their way into her head just now. She needed to sleep. To get her head back on straight. She needed to be away from people.

Behind her though, she could practically feel Willow's eyes still on her.

She shook her head, and picked up the pace.

"I mean... It is right there in the name."

"Gus said the same thing - "

"- And I was right!"

"- But like, how? I don't get how you get 'Will attempt to eat you if you show them bright lights' from 'Phoenix'!"

"You said Humans had myths about them back on Earth, right?" Amity questioned. Luz nodded her head, to which Amity's face scrunched up slightly as she thought about it for a moment. "Maybe they just ended up having different etymological origins?"