12-Colored Crystal

When the girl woke up, at first she thought it was a strange dream. She felt a pressure at her waist, like she was being held up at her waist. Her arms and legs dangled, like they had been left free to blow in the wind, like the branches of a tree.

It only took her a minute to realize that she was awake and being carried. That the pressure on her waist was the stranger's shoulder. She wasn't sure why he was doing hat, but she knew she didn't like it.

"Let me down!" she demanded, not caring if the stranger was inconvenienced. She could walk herself, though if he was carrying her in a different way, then maybe she wouldn't mind as much.

"Sure, no problem," J said, setting the girl down on her feet.

When she had been set down, she noticed the falcon nearby watching them. "You're back," the girl remarked, not sure if she should be surprised or if there was a reason it had come back.

"Yes, I'm back," the bird replied conversationally. "I couldn't help but notice that you hadn't left the area around the wagon."

"When I got out of the wagon, I walked with the sun in my eyes and still ended up back at the wagon," she said, feeling a little annoyed at the way the bird had made it sound. Like she had spent her time wandering around, not trying to get out of the area.

"Is there anything that you know of that might have caused that to happen to Elin?" J asked.

The girl felt a little strange at hearing the name 'Elin.' She couldn't say what it was about, but she couldn't help but feel a little wary of the stranger at that point.

"No, I haven't seen this happen before. Though, maybe it's because I can fly that I don't have that happen," the bird said. "If you'd like, I'll se if I can help find a way out for both of you."

"Sure, but is there something you'd like us to do for you in return?" J asked. The girl couldn't help but wonder if he was serious about that offer or not.

The bid lifted its feathers a little, making the girl wonder if that was its way of shrugging. As it certainly wasn't a kind of behavior she'd seen from birds that she'd known of before, although even those memories felt a little hard to distinguish for some reason.

"You don't have to do this, partly because I'm not sure where it'd be located, and it could be held directly by Douglas himself, but there's a crystal known as the 12-colored crystal. Douglas uses it to hold whatever he catches prisoner. Though, it can only hold up to 12 creatures at a time. Even still, it can be used to capture them physically or even just who they are instead."

The more the bird said about that crystal, the more the girl felt like she didn't want to try and get it from this Douglas, if he even had it on himself, that is.

Though, the girl couldn't help but think about the crystal pendant she'd found. It at least changed color when she turned it, so maybe that was the 12-colored crystal?

"What's the crystal look like?" J asked.

The bird was looked at the girl, it's head turned sideways, the way birds do sometimes. Though, the girl couldn't figure out why the bird was doing that. Somehow it felt important right then.

"Have you spoken to her about who she is?" the bird asked instead of responding. "I remember when I was under his influence, I couldn't remember who I was."

The stranger glanced at the girl for a moment before looking at the bird. "She looks fine to me. I don't see anything wrong with her."

The girl couldn't help but start to giggle as the bird gave the stranger a look that was definitely not something she was even aware a bird could do. It almost seemed more human as it looked at him like it was ready to be done with everything about him.

Her amusement, seemed to draw their attention, which somehow made the girl giggle even more. As if it just made the whole situation even funnier to her. Not that she could really explain why.

"You know who you are, right?" J asked, making it sound like he was only asking because it was expected of him and he thought it was a waste of time.

The girl had to wait until she'd calmed down enough that she could answer and maybe it was because she had just been laughing, but she couldn't help but give a playful response. "Of course, I'm me."

"See?" J said. "She knows who she is..

The falcon lifted one of its wings and put the wing over its head. "You really don't care to make sure she's the same person, do you?"

J looked at the girl briefly before turning back to the bird. "Uh, could we talk together? Just you and me? I have a few things I want to check on first."

"This better be good," the bird groused, flying away a little.

"Uh, would you wait right here?" J asked, his expression on that almost felt like he was pleading, even if his tone didn't match that look.

While she still couldn't really think of J as more than a stranger, she at least felt like she could trust him. If only a little.

"Okay, but why?" she asked, not sure if it joining him and the falcon would explain a few things that almost felt like it was just barely beyond her reach. Although, she couldn't say why she both wanted to reach it and was afraid to. Just that it somehow felt like it would change things for her if she knew at least something more about that than she currently did.

J looked over to where the bird had landed, just barely still visible in the distance. "There's some things that I want to tell you, but I don't know if its dangerous or not. The bird might now, but it might not. If not, then I'd like to get the bird to stop bothering me about it, but if it can assure me that it's safe, then I'll let you know what I can."

The girl nodded, feeling trust for this stranger. Trust she felt like should only be extended to someone she knew quite well. Which wasn't anything that she felt like she could explain. Not unless she learned more about herself, though she wasn't convinced that if she was told a few things about herself that it would suddenly bring things back for her. It felt like it would be too easy for that to happen like that.

As J walked away, the girl watched him until he'd crossed about half the distance to where the falcon had landed before turning around. Even though she felt trust for J in regards to what he was doing and that it wouldn't be harmful towards her, she wasn't sure if she could trust him with this secret. The crystal pendant that she'd found accidentally in the wagon.

She pulled it out of the neckline of her dress, where there was a hidden pocket on the inside by her breast. There was something about it that she felt scared of even the idea of another person seeing it. She didn't know what it was, just that the fear was there.

She looked at the crystal, turning it until she found the girl that she somehow knew everything about without having met her before.

The girl wanted to reach in and pull her out, but she couldn't think of how to go about doing that. Especially since she couldn't think of how she could reach inside the crystal pendant anyway.

Though, she couldn't help but wonder if this might be the 12-colored crystal that the bird had mentioned. That her having this might mean that they wouldn't need to bother looking for whoever this Douglas was.

Thinking about that, she turned the crystal to look at others who were inside it. She wasn't sure what to really expect, but no matter what she looked at, none of them looked as familiar as the girl did. Although, a few of the creatures did look a lot like the bird who was currently discussing something with J. Something she would have liked to have listened to, but was confident that it should be fine that she was left out of that conversation.

At the very least, it gave her some time to inspect this crystal. She hadn't really thought about it since she'd found it, but when the bird had spoken about a 12-colored crystal, she suddenly wanted to look at something with it. If only to verify something.

As she counted the different colors, while turning the crystal, despite it having only four sides, she felt surprised to find that it had exactly 12 colors in it. Though, not all of the colors had some creature inside of it. Maybe around half was filled, from what the girl had seen.

"What're you looking at?" a voice from behind the girl asked, startling her to the point she nearly dropped the pendant.