Pinfeathers Chapter 30

Heading inside for the night, Miriam took rhe bird in and Evergreen picked up the jar of flour, and for some reason Henry picked up the bloody feather.

Before going inside Miriam directed Bannon to carry her little bag and be careful with it.

After that earlier display of his little sisters physical prowess, Bannon was as obedient as a loyal dog.

Walking back inside the house. Miriam made her way past Francine in the drawing room as she asked Evergreen if she knew where her room would be during this visit.

"Which room am I staying in tonight?" She asked and cocked her head to the side in an adorable fashion.

Francine couldnt help but overhear this and snapped out " In the servants room, of course. Where filth like you belong."

Miriam stopping in the middle of the drawing room, turned her head towards Francine to take a good look at her.

If she wasnt such a bitch Miriam would consider her fairly pretty.

Deciding to not hold back, Miriam retorted "Ah, so I am supposed to share a room with you? I will have to respectfully decline this generous offer."

Francines facial freckles could no longer be seen as her face had turned so red that they no longer showed up against her once pale skin.

"Ah, Evergeen and Ophelia show me your rooms. I bet you both have a beautiful room." Miriam giggled honestly abit at the end of her sentence.

Two Twins, who had a rather favorable impression of their new 'little sister' motioned for her to follow them up the stairs.

Walking out of the drawing room and up the stairs that were simply but beautifully carved Miriam followed the girls down a hall to the right of the upper floor of the home.

Bannon and Beatrices following quietly behind her.

Reaching a large room with a door wide open, Miriam saw two small beds on opposite sides of the room both colored in bedding the color of white with yellow embroidery and patches dotting the linens.

The carpet in their room only covered half the room near both the beds. It was a older yellow color.

Smelling something abit fowl, Miriam noticed the chamber pots below the beds of the girls were full and needed to be emptied.

"Why aren't the chamber pots emptied when they are so full?" Miriam asked the twins.

Ophelia blushed abit beforw saying "We had to let some servants go to make ends meet. Francine has insisted on having new trendy gowns to attact wealthy suitors and it has put our family in a bit of a pinch." The young girl explained with a pout on her small oval shaped faced.

"Oh. Well father is going to open a mine or two soon and make alot of profit." Said Miriam rather off handedly.

This perked the girls interest up and they came closer to Miriam and the bird.

"Ah we need to make a flight leash for the bird." Miriam said as she turned to Beatrice.

"Beatrice get my sewing kit out of my travel trunk. Also find out how to get some Strawberries, Blueberries, or Mulberries."

Aftering hearing Miriams bossy tone, Beatrice just turned on heel and left to follow the instructions given to her.

Whistling slightly to the parrot, Miriam carefully petted them on the head.

Ophelia, remembering something, excused herself and ran out the room as if on a misson.

"Miriam held the bird steadily and went and sat down on one of the beds.

This bird was heavy!

Looking over its head with her clear blue eyes, she saw some pin feathers on top of its head.

"Evergreen come here, I'll show you something cool about birds."

Creeping quietly to the side of Miriam, Evergreen peered over and looked at the beautiful parrot and couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration. Whoever lost it was probably beside themselves with worry looking for it right this minute.

Her selfish little brother wanted to claim it as it as his own.

Jeremy was really a handlful. Even attacking a girl younger than him.

Pointing at the pinfeathers on top of its head, she asked the girls if they knew what they were.

"Do you know what these weird feathers are called on top of its head?" Miriam questioned as she pointed to the hard looking feathers that resembled quilltips mixed in with the normal feathers on top of the birds head.

Evergreen and Ophelia leaned in closer to look and Ophelia gently swiped her hand across the top of the parrots head, feeling the feathers.

Surprise came across her face, and she hastily withdrew her hand from the parrots head.

Those feathers were quite weird!

Miriam giggled and showed a heartfelt smile before proceeding to explain to the twins what those odd looking feathers were.

"This what people refer to as pinfeathers. Once or twice a year, birds go through a process that we call molting. During this process they lose their old feathers and start growing new feathers.

Before the feather is fully formed it is encased in this little thing that looks kind of like a pin. There are active blood vessels in some of these and others there aren't. Do you understand?"

Looking towards the twins who were probably only about 7 years old, their minds were totally blown.

Blood vessels?

During her teaching session, Miriam failed too notice the families older cousin Henry creep into the doorway quietly and observe from a corner.

Obviously intrigued, he stayed there to listen too.

Afterall, most people didn't know sh*t about birds.

"Ah, a blood vessel is like a little vein that has blood in it. You see that large vein on your arm underneath your skin Evergreen?" Miriam said as she pointed to a large semi transparent looking vein on the inner paler side of Evergreens right arm.

Looking at Evergreens arm, sure enough they saw a little line on the inside of her arm.

"Thats a vein, it carries blood through it to the rest of your body. Haven't you ever wondered why when you cut yourself you bleed? There's tiny veins everywhere in your body. When you cut yourself, you break a vein, and blood comes out."

"Birds also have veins, and new feathers have veins attached to them because they are still growing. They need the nutrients carried through the blood to go to their still growing feather. Like a baby who needs milk to grow bigger."

Miriam tried to dumb down the science of blood and what not to make it seem plausible to the young girls. Afterall, who hadn't had milk as a baby or cut themselves before? You indeed did bleed!

Miriam looked at the birds head and stroked it a little more before finding a pinfeather that stull had blood in it.

Motioning the twins to come take a closer look she carefully pointed the feather she was looking at out to the girls.

Ophelia got really close to the birds face, and poor parrot didn't like that so it let out a mighty but squeaky squawk at the girl.

'Personal space please!' Was what it was trying to convey.

Beatrice and Bannon were not to far away and watching the whole little lesson on birds, Beatrice in particular seemed very interested.

Ophelia squeaked out in surprise and hurridly backed up from the feisty bird.

It may not be a 'Hawk' but it was still somewhat scary when provoked.

Miriam looked for a different kind of pinfeatehr and quickly found one.

The hard protective casing of the feather had grown out to just mostly the tip of the feather.

"Watch carefully." Instructed Miriam as she carefully took the hard feather casing in between two of her fingers and easily rubbed it into little bit that fell off and onto the ground.

The parrot made a quick face of relief and once he knew this human was grooming his itchy head feathers for him he calmed down abit more.

"When the feather casing moves along onto just the end of the feather, its then the right time for the casing to come off and the beautiful new feather underneath to come out like a flower in spring bloom." Said Miriam as she had moved onto taking off another ready pinfeather.

"But why is it only on its head? Surely they grow new feathers all over right?" Asked Evergreen with a pout on her face. Clearly she was still trying to figure out this point.

"Birds groom themselves like cats, but unfortunately when they are pets they often don't have a buddy to help take their pinfeathers off. In the wild, birds usually live in flocks or they have their mates help them groom the pinfeathers they get on their head.

Birds just can't reach their head to get the pinfeathers off with just their little bird feet, beak, and wings. It almost feels uncomfortable for them. Kind of itchy. You can tell a happy bird from a sad bird by his behavior. Just like with people."