The Bird and the Garden 3: The Final Adventure

Chapter 13: Returning Home

"The Church...?"

Sasha gripped her arm, nodding her head. "Y... Yeah... My parents were..."

She didn't need to finish her sentence. Yin already knew what happened; they were murdered. Before he had come to this city, he might've laughed at her. But after seeing the nonhumans and their daily lives, after seeing the similarities between himself and them, he couldn't bring himself to see them as any less than a human. They had thoughts and feelings. That included Sasha. "I'm... I'm so sorry..."

The elf just shook her head. "... Don't worry about it. You didn't know."

Yin was happy she was so forgiving, but he still hated that he ever said it. He swore under his breath he'd make it up to her. Meanwhile, Sasha continued speaking.

"I didn't see Nikita when I got home. I promised I'd find him after that. Been adventuring ever since - I heard he escaped too."

Yin smiled. "That's a relief... Any ideas where he went?"

"Nope. All I know is his master was some guy named Rojo."

Yin raised a brow. "Rojo? Cardinal Rojo?"

Sasha nodded. "You know him?"

"Yeah... He runs the cathedral in Faralda. It's a long walk though, so I just go to the parish, since it's right down the road..."

Sasha sighed. "... Not like it matters anyway... Nikita isn't in Faralda. I would've definitely seen him by now."

Yin was about to reply, but he stopped. Vao was walking towards them. But different from usual, he wasn't smirking. He was scowling.

"Oh, hey Vao. What's up?" Sasha asked.

"Verde woke up," the thief growled. "Get your shit. We're going home."

"Already?" Sasha asked. "We haven't even met the kin-"

"And we aren't going to," Ozpin said stoically. The knight was approaching from the other hand of the street, Salem following behind, holding Verde's hand as she guided the witch. The short woman had bandages wrapped around her head, a dazed look in her dark green eyes. Yin felt a pang of guilt. "We have decided it is not in our best interest right now. We're leaving toda-"

He was interrupted when Vao coughed, his eyes filled with confusion. The thief held up two fingers, reaching them into his mouth. His party watched in horror when he pulled out the blue feather.

"Oh. I knew I swallowed one-"

"V-V-Vao! Where did that come from!?" Salem screamed.

"It's blue, so it's gotta be Poppy's," he answered bluntly. "Guess I'll keep it... Can't really get harpy feathers in Faralda... Now that I think about it, wouldn't that be like giving someone pubes?"

Sasha and Yin looked back at their unfinished bowls of noodles, pushing them away. They lost their appetite. To their dismay, Vao just kept going on.

"So the thing is," he said. "Humans are alright, unless it's Melania and Miltia. They get scary. With goblins, lots of alcohol, and just generally wild. Dwarves will throw you around, which kind of scared me at first, but I was piss drunk, so I was kind of into it. Lamias tend to squeeze a lot, but it's like being hugged, which is something my mum doesn't do a lot of. Werewolves sometimes transform, and when my friend Emerald did it I screamed in terror. Slimes are alright, but it's hard to know where anything is unless they take a human shape. Vampires try to do a lot of biting, so I was with only one. Fairies are really tiny, so I used my little finger. Charybdis was really big, but she loved to cuddle-"