Celia (Old)

Chapter 17

Celia could not sleep that night, she kept worrying about Dawn's recent vision. She wondered why she looked at Harley all worried and afraid. Was he going to turn on them? Was he going to become one of Walter's mind controlled slaves? Was he going to die? Nobody except Dawn knew, and Dawn wasn't talking. Harley could not sleep either, he was worrying about the same thing as Celia for obvious reasons as Dawn's vision seemed to directly involve him. Though, that wasn't the only thing Harley was thinking about. Once morning arrived, Harley stood outside as the autumn wind blew leaves around him, his horns beginning to charge up and his feathers ruffling. He sensed that something was wrong. Celia stood outside beside him and asked "Are you going to be okay?"
"I don't know, but I sense that something is wrong and I can't shake off the feeling." Harley replied with an odd serious tone. It was weird for Celia to hear Harley being serious because he was usually full of sarcasm.
"I do too, kinda, but I am worried about you." Celia told Harley with her ears folded down a bit. Harley turned his head and looked at Celia with a bit of a surprised look.
"Why worry about me? Do I actually mean something to you?" Harley asked Celia seriously again. Celia nodded and said "Of course you do, you're my uncle."
Harley lowered his ears and looked to the side before sitting down and letting out a sigh. Celia did the same, wondering if he was going to tell another story.
"I don't know if you know already, but I'm not your biological uncle, Roscuroe is just my best bud who let me into his family." Harley told Celia as she immediately responded "I know, but do you have any other family?"
Harley lowered his ears fully and stared at the ground as he thought for a moment. He then lifted his head back up and answered "I did, but they are all gone now, the humans killed them in Victoria and I was the only one who escaped. That was years ago though, when the humans decided that feather manes needed to die."
"That's horrible, I can't imagine what that was like for you." Celia responded with a somewhat surprised look on her face, she didn't know what else to say. She felt bad for Harley but there wasn't anything she could do to help anymore.
"Well, if it didn't happen, then I wouldn't have ever met Roscuroe, Hannah would probably still be a slave to Walter, and I would have never gotten to meet you two." Harley said to lighten the mood a bit.
"So, is that why you are depressed?" Roscuroe asked Harley out of nowhere, Celia didn't notice him approaching. Harley's ears lowered again as he replied "It's one of the reasons."
"I mean, it does explain a lot, but I want to let you know that we do still appreciate you around, even though it may not seem like it sometimes." Roscuroe told Harley as he sat down with them.
"Even after all of this? After I lost your children in the river and got you all into this mess?" Harley asked Roscuroe.
"I'm glad that you lost our children." Roscuroe said before immediately correcting himself "No, that's not what I was supposed to say, but I'm glad this happened so we can put an end to Walter fully."
"Thanks, but I still feel bad about it." Harley responded before Rowan ran up and pounced onto him, knocking him over.
"I love you Uncle Harley!" Rowan exclaimed as the two started to play fight again. Hannah then came over with Leena and sat down beside Roscuroe with a saddened look on her face while she looked at Roscuroe. This worried Celia as whenever Hannah wasn't happy, something was very wrong. Not long after, Dawn came over with the same look as Hannah. Once Rowan got off of Harley, Harley stood up and looked at Dawn as she stared at the ground.
"So, what is going to happen to me?" Harley asked Dawn. She hesitated before giving him a straight answer "You are going to die very soon."
"How am I going to die?" Harley asked Dawn again, surprisingly calm about this news.
"I can't tell you." Dawn replied.
"So, is this why everyone is suddenly warming up to me?" Harley asked again with his ears folded back and feathers ruffled again.
"No, it's not because of that, it's because we really do appreciate you." Roscuroe responded, trying to reassure Harley.
"No! You all don't appreciate me at all! You all see me as the one family member who does nothing and is completely useless that for some reason you tolerate! You are all warming up to me now because my life is over soon!" Harley exclaimed as his horns began to charge up again.
"HARLEY! LISTEN TO ME!" Roscuroe shouted as he stood up. Celia stood up as well, ready to break the fight if one broke out.
"NO! I'VE HEARD ENOUGH LIES IN MY LIFE AND I DON'T NEED MORE FAKE LIZENS RUINING IT EVEN MORE!" Harley shouted back before dashing off towards the forest.
"Harley!" Rowan called as he ran after him, Celia following with Roscuroe. Dawn quickly went after them and stopped them, saying "Don't go after him, this is how it all ends."