It was barely dawn, and if the sound of the songbirds screaming their territorial warnings were not enough to wake her, Bailey her cat was. The yowling and head bumps came with an urgency, desperate to wake the woman, a woman who had been up to that point in a deep, deep sleep. Groggily she spoke, the cat knowing enough to understand certain words, but like most owners it was more of a conversation with the beloved pet.
Got to sleep...Alright...alright...you want out?...Alright...In a...
Jackilyn fell back to sleep, only to be woke with a pot crashing down into dozens of pieces from the windowsill. The noise shook her, stark upright and fully alert now, with the culprit jumping on her bed, looking at her as if to say "Get Up". Jackilyn whined at first.
Bailey!!! I really liked that pot! Alright..I'm up. You want out? Is that it? Come on then.
Both cat and owner avoided the shards upon the tiled floor, the smaller one with more grace than her owner, who was still trying to wipe sleep from her eyes. Lifting the iron latch, Bailey didn't waste a moment in charging outside, much to the horror of several starlings who were feasting on the insects crawling through the long grass. It took a moment for Jackilyn to notice, it was too bright and she was still sleepy, but she eventually looked down and saw them. A tied bouquet of about thirty stems of daffodils, mostly still in bud, but the emergence of bright yellow coming from others. They'd been thoughtfully left in a metal jug full of water. about the twine was a note, simple and neatly written. "Thinking about you. Good Luck J". She looked around to see if she could spy the sender, she brought the flowers up to her nose, she inhaled softly and she thought.
Carrying them in, they were set in the middle of the dining table. The note puzzled her. Yes, she had things happen, yes, she'd taken on new responsibilities, but why just leave them on the doorstep? She knew who they wouldn't be from, and started eliminating possibilities. Not the dwarves, it wasn't what they would do and she hadn't seen them in a long, long while, why would any of them do such a thing anyway? Atharann? No, he would have been bolder and just arrived with them in hand, he wouldn't hide. Elias? No, he had his hands full and she would be the last person on his mind, his mind was with someone else. Jack? Maybe, but he used to bring flowers in tankards and Quentin had warned him away so many times that such things were rare now. J? Not many call her that. She considered it strange, yet looking at them made her smile and appreciative of the gesture.
Bailey returned, and the womans joy was short lived for a bird almost as big as the cat was in its mouth, it's feathers ruffled and the neck broken. Jackilyn felt sadness, pity for it. Her cat was beautiful, the bird had been too, the cat was acting as nature dictated, making an offering to it's mistress. The lifeless body was rested at her feet, a proud meow and a slinking around her ankles was given by her pet. Life changed for the bird so quickly, one moment it was happy, the next, nothing, everything gone. Carefully she lifted the feathery corpse in both hands and carried it outside, Bailey long since having gone off to clean herself at the fireside.
