When Orenda came in for lunch the next day, after a tedious and difficult morning of cutting the tall grass so that the children could lay it out to dry to eventually be made into the hay they would need to help their sheep make it through the winter, she was in for a pleasant surprize.
Alongside the usual lunch spread Sokomaur had prepared the largest cake Orenda had ever seen, three layers tall and covered in frosting. She had written on it, in frosting of a contrasting color the words, “Happy Birthday Orenda”. However, even if she had not had the foresight to write the information on the cake, Orenda would still have known it, because as she walked into the room everyone gathered there shouted at her:
“Happy Birthday!”
In addition, someone had set up a barrel, and Sokomaur began to fill glass mugs from it, until they were full of a frothy, golden liquid. She passed them around, and Orenda stared down at the one in her hand as she tried to process what was happening. She had never had a birthday before, and she wasn’t sure how one was supposed to react.
“Happy Birthday, Rendy!” Anilla ran for her and wrapped her hands around her waist.
“How did… how did everyone know?” Orenda asked as she tried to fight past the shock.
“I was there,” Falsie said matter-of-factly.
“Rendy!” Draco shouted from where he perched on the counter near the sink, “Come and say hello to Impy! He wants to tell you happy birthday!”
Orenda felt herself more or less shoved in his direction, but when she looked into the sink all she saw was the tiny amount of water that had been gathered there.
“I… I can’t see him,” She told Draco.
“Sorry,” he huffed, “Damn tiny dragon body.” He tried to touch his collar with the tips of his wings, perhaps to adjust it in some way, but without real hands the attempt was meaningless. “Well, he can see you! Say hello.”
“Hello, Imperius!” Orenda shouted to the empty sink.
“He says ‘Happy Birthday’!” Draco relayed.
“Thank you!” Orenda shouted.
“Yes, darling.” Draco said to the sink, “I’ll call you later! Enjoy your day!”
Orenda didn’t know what to make of this, but luckily she was directed back towards the table where Soko was distributing the cake.
“Rendy!” Orenda looked down to see the younger children, whom she could now identify as Harvey, Angel, Frank, and Alice, were surrounding her, holding a patchwork blanket that did not seem to have been crafted particularly well. It was made from different scraps of cloth with no discernable pattern.
“We made this for you!” Harvey explained.
“It’s a quilt,” Alice told her, “Because Mary Sue says you’re not used to snow! You’ll get really cold!”
Orenda was afraid it would fall apart when she touched it, yet she took with with a smile.
“Thank you,” She said, “That’s so generous. I’ve never had a birthday before.”
“Then how did you get so old?” Angel asked.
“I made due without them, I suppose,” Orenda said, “I didn’t know when I was born. I was too young to remember it.”
“Someone was supposed to tell you!” Frank said, as if Orenda had been done a great injustice, “To remind you!”
“I can’t help that,” Orenda told them, folding the quilt to put on her lap, “I can’t make others do anything. I can’t make them remind me of things.”
“We’ve all made gifts for you,” Sonny said as he handed Orenda a small package. “They ain’t much. We don’t have a lot to work with.”
“You didn’t have to do any of this,” Orenda told them, “I… I don’t know what to say.”
She opened the box, and found inside a small charm- a pin, perhaps a broach, though it was a little small for that, made out of some sort of stone that had been worked and polished into the shape of a rabbit.
She was bombarded with gifts of this sort, small things, many meant to ward off the impending cold, such as a hat, scarf, gloves, socks, and others meant to be more display than practical, often carved into the shape of a rabbit, her favorite of which was a block of soap that she couldn’t imagine ever using and destroying the form of.
Sarya stood, with one leg on the table and produced something that startled Orenda- a new fiddle case. She produced from it a fiddle that looked as if it had been freshly oiled and strung, and Orenda wondered where she got it. She opened her mouth to ask, but Sarya spoke over her.
“Let’s have a song!” She said, and pulled the bow across the strings as she began to sing. “For she’s a jolly good fellow,
For she’s a jolly good fellow,
For she’s a jolly good fellow-
Which nobody can deny!”
Everyone else joined in, clapping as they sang, and Orenda began to laugh. She had never had a party before, not really. She had been the focus of a party, but only as the thing that held the staff, not as a real person, not as herself. But this was different. This wasn’t a party for a figurehead- it was a party for her.
“We’ll have more dancing tonight, Rendy,” Sary promised.
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“We’re going to build a bonfire,” Barbra Allen said.
“Rendy,” Mary Sue sat next to her with a piece of cake and a glass of beer, “Don’t go back into the fields with the others after lunch. Meet me in the back garden, where we grow the food for the house.”
“Oh,” Orenda said as she chewed, “Alright.” She swallowed and asked, “Where are Aunt Bella and Uncle Gareth?”
“I’m not sure,” Mary Sue said, “I ain’t seen either of them today.”
“I don’t think Gary can get up the stairs,” Anilla said, “He’s probably still in his room. I bet Bella stayed with him so he wouldn’t be lonesome or upset about missing the party.”
“Oh,” Orenda sat her fork on her empty plate, “He’s recovering so slowly… I didn’t think about him not being able to walk. I should take a plate down to them.”
Orenda and Sonny each held a plate and a glass of beer as they approached the guest room that Orenda had taken to thinking of as her own. She shared it with the other pirates, but she had shared many rooms before.
Sonny held the glass in the crook of his elbow and tried to open the door- only to find it was locked. He held up one hand and pressed his ear to the door, and Orenda followed suite.
“Please, baby, you have to… Gary, it’s her birthday,” Bella said.
“I know,” Gareth sobbed, “But I can’t. I can’t. It’s… I can’t. I have to… I can’t!”
“Give me the medallion,” Bella demanded.
“No! My mother gave it to me!”
“You’re too emotional. You can’t have a focus. Give it to me! I’ll put it right here on the nightstand. Everything is going to be alright-”
“It isn’t alright! He’s DEAD! He’s dead and we’re but a few day’s journey from the fucking castle! We’re right here! I could WALK to that shore! There’s no way he doesn’t feel me, doesn’t know where I am-”
“You’re panicking! Give me the medallion!”
“NO! MY MOTHER GAVE IT TO ME! SHE’S DEAD!”
“GARETH!”
Orenda felt the heat and looked around frantically for anything to set the plate on. When she found nothing, she opted for the floor and tried to turn the knob, but it wouldn’t budge.
“You can’t do this to her!” Bella said, “It’s her birthday! You can’t do this to that girl on her birthday! Please, please just this once! I know it… I know every year it hurts, but please, love, please just… just breath.”
“I can’t!” Gareth screamed, “I can’t! I’m trapped! I’m trapped in this place! We should have never come here! Now we’re stuck- underground, like a goddamn warren of rabbits and all they have to do is send the dogs after us! I should have never let her come here! She’s too much like him! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE HERE!”
“Gareth! Give me the medallion!”
“No!”
The sound of a scuffle grew stronger and the heat intensified as Orenda tried again to turn the knob.
“Shit,” Sonny said, “He’s gonna set the furniture on fire…”
“That’s why she’s trying to get the focus off him,” Orenda explained, “You’re a shifter! Use that strength to break down the door!”
Sonny set his plate in the floor as well and hopped back, but as he did all noise inside the door stopped, and Orenda felt the pressure in the air shift. Then she heard the sound of choking, the sound of someone trying desperately to breath when they could not. Sonny stood on one leg and in one swift motion kicked the wood between the knob and the doorframe so hard it shattered, and the door, no longer encumbered by the lock that remained, along with the doorknob, stuck to the wall, swung inward.
Bella stood with her wand pointed at Gareth, who had fallen to his knees with one hand clutching his throat and the other his chest as if willing his lungs to inflate with the air they did not have. Orenda could feel the magic in the room, and thought of snuffing out a candle.
“Bella, stop!” Orenda demanded.
“I’ve had to do it before,” Bella said with far more compassion than Orenda expected, “He gets… he gets worse around this time of year. We have to get the medallion off of him. And the gun. Rendy, get the gun.”
“You’re hurting him!” Orenda told her.
“Get. The. Gun!” Bella demanded with such ferocity that it left no room for argument. Orenda didn’t understand what was happening, but she doubted that Bella would ever intentionally hurt Gareth. So she knelt quickly and pulled his gun from his belt.
“And the medallion,” Bella said, “And his earrings.”
Orenda moved as quickly as she could while Gareth’s eyelids fluttered, then she stood, clutching the items, and hugged them to her chest.
Master, the staff said from where it still sat, leaning against the desk, You have the power to protect those you love.
Orenda elected not to answer it, and Bella lowered her wand.
Gareth fell forward and caught himself with both hands, taking in huge breaths of air, so much that he choked on it and began to cough, then to cry.
“I can’t,” he said, “I can’t… I can’t do it anymore. I can’t… be alone anymore… why would he… why would he take the good one and leave me? I’m supposed to be… Ronnie was… Ronnie was the good one and… RONNIE WAS HER FATHER!”
“Stop it!” Bella begged, “Please, Gary, please stop it! I can’t bear to see you like this!”
“I just… I just… we could… we could be together again and… it would be… today would be the perfect-”
“Not on her birthday!” Bella shrieked, “You’re not going to do that to that girl on her birthday! You’re all she has left!”
Gareth sat up on his knees and covered his face in both hands as his body wracked with sobs and great tears rolled down his face.
“But I’m nothing… I’m just a… just a knock-off, an imitation, a parasite. I can’t… I can’t do this… please don’t… please don’t make me do this. Please just let me leave. I can’t bear it anymore. There’s so little left of me… it just keeps chipping away and there’s nothing left. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t even… I can’t even get off the floor I can’t… I can’t… why did they… you can’t help… I can’t help asking myself why- why did they all… why did they do this to me, in particular? What did I do? Why did Ronnie… why would anyone…”
His voice gave way to incoherent sobs, and Orenda stood stupidly behind him clutching the weapons she had taken him from. She understood what Bella meant.
“If you killed yourself on my birthday,” Orenda told him, “I would never forgive you.”
“I’m sorry,” Gareth cried.
“I don’t think I can forgive my father for it, either,” Orenda said. “I never knew him, Uncle Gary, but I know you. And… I brought you some cake, but I suspect you need the drink more.”
“I’m sorry,” Gareth said again and fell forward on one hand, clutching his eyes with the other, “God, Rendy, I’m so sorry. Mom… Dad… I’m sorry. I’m sorry we didn’t listen to you. Ronnie… I’m sorry I did listen to you. I should have stopped you. Rendy I’m sorry I let you go- I’m sorry I ever let you go. Can’t we… Can’t we please just go home? God,” he said as if he had forgotten it, “Xac is dead. Xac is dead and all he ever wanted was some… some silver medal to let him project fantasies onto and I wouldn’t even… wouldn’t even comfort a friend who… God, he loved him too…”
“He won’t get any better,” Bella told Orenda, “Not today. Every year he… this is one of the bad days. I don’t think he even knows where he is right now. Here, put those things in the nightstand. I’ll watch him. He’ll be fine. I won’t let him hurt himself.”
“Thesis’s glowing eyes,” Sonny said. “That guy has been through some shit. I’m gonna get him something a hell of a lot stronger than beer.”