Själ

The princess could not help the grin that spread over her features at the lightning-boy's obvious excitement. His joy was infectious, even pulling her from the gloom that clouded her mind as a result of her failure to coax the egg-orb-whatever-it-was to hatch. If she were to think back over her past, she would realize that the only creature thus far to bring such an expression to her face and such ease to her mind was Zero. He had not asked anything of her, not expected greatness from her mother's alleged prodigy, not wanted her to follow this rule and that expectation. He had simply accepted her for herself, and as she grew older, she would no doubt treasure him all the more for it.

But the future was not today, and the princess was not one to reminisce on her short history and compare the different individuals she had come across - so she merely basked in the boy's light, enjoying the intrusion into her solitude. She had been lonely, even surrounded by her new family in the mountains. (Were they her family? She wasn't quite sure yet.) With the lightning-boy, she was entirely comfortable, entirely sure of herself, entirely relaxed. It was a wondrous relief from being Psyche's daughter and having to be careful to do all the things that Psyche's daughter should do.

A blue feather wiggled in front of her amber gaze, and she was momentarily entranced by the beauty of it - the luxurious, yet honed appearance, as though if she were to touch it, it would be soft and sharp all at once. Perhaps, one day, Zero would let her find out what feathers felt like. The burst of childlike curiosity did not feel entirely familiar, as though it were someone else's errant thought making its home inside her mind. She shook it off.

"What is a-" Squishy, she had been about to say, but then a silent, stony creature trotted its way through the snow, pausing as though to regard the pair. "Oh. Well, what's a whale, then?" The girl had never seen the ocean, never heard the crash of waves upon the shore and seen the glory of a seaside sunset. She knew no more of its inhabitants than she did the stars in the sky. Perhaps he would enlighten her; perhaps he would even show her what a whale was!

The thought of an adventure with her best friend cheered her considerably, erasing any lingering embarrassment at having to ask what he'd found. Surely the lightning-boy wouldn't hold her ignorance against her, nor linger over the fact that, in this, he had more knowledge than she. You see, the princess had inherited her mother's tendency to hate being wrong, or unknowing, or anything of the sort - she hated to feel stupid, despised the way it made her seem inferior. But Zero wouldn't make her feel like that, would he?

A quiver of something in the back of her mind made her frown for a moment, confused about this second invasion of her thoughts and yet, somehow, nonplussed by it. "I don't know about subjects," she admitted, "but I found the Aurora Basin. My mother lived there... before..." Before she left, before she disappeared, before she was murdered. But the girl could not put any of those into words. "But I'm not a queen. I don't rule anything yet," she added hurriedly, as though to skim over the unpleasant questions of her history.

"What's a 'panion?" she continued, genuinely interested now rather than avoiding her and her mother's pasts. The niggling thought in the back of her mind continued and persisted, some kind of excitement-confusion-curiosity-type-feeling that would not go away. In fact, it was only growing stronger.

The first crack of the egg startled the girl, and she yelped with surprise and panic. She stared at the little orb and the puncture in its surface, entranced by the tiny beak poking out into the world. It retracted, then reappeared nearby, a second crack accompanying its appearance. As more holes and more cracks followed, she watched as a small creature began to emerge from the shell. It blinked up at her, rolling over onto its back and stretching its tiny wings out in the dirt, exposing its belly and making a gentle prrrring sound.

"It... it hatched," she whispered. Then, "It HATCHED!!" She was squealing for joy, her happiness mirrored by that something at the back of her mind. The little creature stretched further, rolling to its stomach again until it was against her side. It seemed to realize, for the first time, that they were not alone; noticing Zero, the creature squawked, contracting its body until it lay in a little ball against the girl's barrel.

She laughed. She laughed so hard, it almost hurt. "I... I think you... I think you startled her," she gasped, wheezing for air. "You really are... a badass!" she whooped before collapsing into squealing giggles.

"Text."