Fragile Pathways

Chapter Two

Ari turned the other way, to the left, and noticed a flight of stairs. She started up them, nearly falling back when she heard a bark from the top step. She looked up and laughed as she saw Regulus staring down at her. He jumped the next step and hurried down the hall and she bounded after him. There were three doors at the top of the stairs, along with a square cut in the ceiling for an attic. She went to the door to her left revealed her mother’s room, along with Erich’s. It was a large room, possibly double the size of her own. She looked at the bed and smiled when she saw Erich’s arm wrapped around her mum’s waist, as if he was protecting her from anything and everything. When she heard a slight growl down the hall, she quietly shut the door and reached the room that Regulus was pawing at. She opened it slowly, willing her jaw not to drop.

Inside the last room were two cages covered by sheets, along with drawers of bird supplies. She peeked in the cage, quietly gasping when she saw a large, gray bird with red tail feathers. She uncovered the cage slightly, grinning when the bird made no noise. Regulus, however began woofing eagerly until she scolded him, snapping her fingers at him. He let out a whimper and sat at her feet, looking up at her with pleading eyes. She rolled her hazel ones and stepped closer to the forest green cage. The parrot’s pupils dilated as she grew closer, and she smiled. “What’s your name?” she wondered aloud.

“Ech-ie.”

She froze, looking at the bird. “What is your name?”

“Echo. Ech. Ech. Ech-ie.”

Ari let out a loud laugh, quickly slapping a hand over her mouth. “Echo?”

“One new message, today at—“

“I see you’ve found the bird room,” Ari heard a voice smiled. She whipped around, coming face to face with her mum.

She smiled sheepishly, backing away from the cage. “Sorry,” she murmured, looking down.

“That’s alright,” Katharine laughed. “Echo is nice. So is Haley. We’ve had Echo since we started dating. Well, Erich has. Echo was just born when we got her, and Haley’s owner passed away. He worked at a bird store. Steve. He was only thirty-two. He passed away in his sleep. The bird store is closed, now, but we still occasionally talk to the owner, Phil. It was a shame to see them close. I met Erich there, actually. We were both looking for something small. Like a parakeet, lovebird, maybe even a conure. You know how much I love those sun conures that Vanna had. But we kept meeting there. Eventually Erich got Echo for himself, but he called her ours. I allowed him to, and I guess it wasn’t exactly a bad thing. She’s a—“

“Congo,” Ari answered. “African Gray. Vanna got another bird. Well, two more. A congo and a quaker parrot.”

Her mum nodded. “Yes. Haley is a muloccan cockatoo. She’s four years old. Her vocabulary is larger than Echo’s, but unlike Echo, she doesn’t answer questions.”

“Mum!” Ari frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me about them? You know I love animals!”

Her mum laughed. “It was supposed to be a surprise for today,” she laughed, pulling Ari out of the room. “Come on, hurry and get dressed, would you?”

“I need to look in this last room, though!” she pouted, planting her feet outside the room. Katharine was tugged back unexpectedly, frowning as Ari ripped her arm away. With a grin, Ari threw the door open and gasped. “There is a bloody ledge window?”

“Bay window,” her mum corrected her. “Yes. There is also one in the bird room, and your room and the empty room. But you’ve yet to move your curtains…”

Ari smiled widely, charging down the steps and into her room. She threw the black and white curtains aside, gasping when she saw her back yard open in front of her. Behind the fence enclosing their yard was a forest, something Ari would definitely look out at as much as she possibly could.