Chapter Text
Pure Vanilla had brought his dog, a tan and white pitbull terrier named Orchid, out for a walk in the forest near his house. She loved to go out and investigate all the scents and sounds nature could offer her, and Pure Vanilla enjoyed walks as well. He would listen to the birds chirping, and occasionally found flowers to bring home and press.
Typically, they would go in the afternoon or morning, but Pure Vanilla had been too busy that day, working as a healer. The day had been exhausting, and he believed a night time walk would benefit him as well as Orchid. The forest was quite different at night, the typical sounds of birds were absent, as well as insects, which struck Pure Vanilla as odd. He could usually hear crickets from his home, and yet there didn’t seem to be any within the forest.
The trees appeared black, and rustled lightly in the wind. The path, created by Pure Vanilla himself and lined with rocks, was a simple line following a naturally clear area he had found a while ago. There were many smaller bushes around the area, with small berries of varying color. The sky was clear, and faintly visible through the tree tops, the moon was full, and the stars glittered across the sky.
Occasionally, he would hear a loud chirping noise, so there may have been some birds after all. He also heard the occasional hissing sound, likely caused by some snakes. Pure Vanilla knew they lived in the area, as he had found some in his yard and garden before. Some rustling could also be heard off to the side of the trail, caused by the wind and some animals wandering the forest.
Orchid was walking quickly, nose down to the ground, seemingly following an interesting scent trail. Pure Vanilla smiled, and walked a bit quicker to keep up with her. Pure Vanilla wondered what she had found.
Eventually, they reached the end of the path Pure Vanilla had been following. Orchid continued sniffing around the perimeter of the area, eventually stopping on the right side of it. It was rather dark, so Pure Vanilla couldn’t see what had drawn her attention. All he saw was dark trees and bushes, as well as the starry sky above them.
Orchid sniffed the spot again, then walked backwards and began barking. Pure Vanilla jumped and tried to see what had alarmed her.
Upon further inspection, he saw a large, black, iridescent feather with a blue spot near the end. He thought it looked rather similar to a peacock’s. Perhaps there is a darker subspecies living near here. Or maybe it’s just the light here making it look black. Pure Vanilla figured he could return to that spot later to investigate further. For now, he decided he would take Orchid home to calm her down.
After reaching home, he brought Orchid to her kennel and gave her a treat before she went to sleep. He shut the door to his room quietly, to avoid disturbing the sleeping dog. He smiled; she really was quite adorable. He didn’t understand why so many people despised that breed of dog.
He walked to his desk; it was a light brown wooden color and had a white top. He placed the feather atop the desk, and stood up, walking to his bookshelf.
He grabbed a book and placed it on the smooth, white surface. Turning on a lamp, he inspected the contents of the book, which was about local birds. He found a section on peacocks and read the page.
There did not seem to be a darker subspecies living near him.
How strange. I would assume that this bird would’ve been in here. Perhaps this book was written before they were found around here? He checked the date the book was published. Hm, that was only a couple years ago. That should be recent enough… He figured he could return tomorrow, perhaps with some berries or something to entice the bird, then he could get a picture and figure out what it was.
He stood up, stretching and yawning, it was quite late. He switched off his desk lamp, placed the book back on his shelf, and placed the feather between two books, so the fan in his room wouldn’t blow it away.
He grabbed a pair of pajamas, and walked to his bathroom to brush his teeth and change. He was still quite curious about the bird. Before then, he had assumed that most peacocks would look the same, but clearly there was some variation among them.
He finished what he needed to do, and walked to his bed, shutting off the light and going to sleep.
___________________________________________________________________________
The next morning, he had decided to go visit one of his friends, White Lily, and ask her about the feather. He figured she would know, as she was quite knowledgeable.
He picked up the feather, placed it in his shirt pocket, and went to feed Orchid. He filled her bowl, and let her out of the kennel. She ran excitedly to the food, wagging her tail as she ate. Pure Vanilla made sure to leave the dog door open for her, as his yard was fenced, so she could go out when he wasn’t home.
He said goodbye to her, and left the house, making sure to lock his door. He walked through the garden in the front of the house, admiring the flowers he had planted as he passed. They were in many colors, some yellow, orange, blue, pink, or any other color one could think of.
His garden was often called chaotic, but he had organized well, if you asked him. The flowers were sorted by similar needs rather than color, so perhaps that was where people got that from.
He had decided to simply walk to White Lily’s house, as she did not live too far away from him. He really hoped she would know; the curiosity was killing him. He had begun to wonder if the feather was from a bird with some kind of mutation. That was possible, wasn’t it?
Eventually, after about a 20 minute walk, he reached her house. He was rather excited to see her, as he loved all his friends deeply and enjoyed their company. He rang the doorbell, and waited for her to answer.
He had called and asked her this morning if he could come and ask about the feather, to which she had agreed, as she wasn’t busy that day. It was the weekend, after all. The feather had also caught her curiosity, from what Pure Vanilla had said about it.
After a couple minutes, White Lily came to the door and opened it. “Oh! Hello, Pure Vanilla. Sorry it took me a minute to get the door.” she said, with an awkward laugh following her statement. “That’s ok, it’s good to see you, friend.” Pure Vanilla said, grinning happily. They both walked inside, and began to discuss the feather.
White Lily’s house was decorated with quite a few plants, primarily vines and ferns, but she had a few flowering plants here and there. The whole house was rather cozy, and Pure Vanilla liked the way she had decorated.
“Hm, I can’t seem to figure out what this could be from.” White Lily pondered, turning the feather in her hands and frowning thoughtfully. “It does look similar to a peacock’s, but the coloring is more like a blue jay, and the marking is more eye-shaped.” “How strange,” Pure Vanilla mused, “Well, thank you anyways, White Lily, I did plan to go attempt to get a picture of it later today, so perhaps I will show you when I have it.”
Pure Vanilla stayed a while after that, chatting with her over random things. Eventually, he decided he had to go, and began to walk home. Strange that neither of us could figure it out. He thought. Maybe it’s something new? An undiscovered species perhaps?
He did wonder why Orchid had been alarmed by a simple feather, especially considering animals never really scared her. Maybe she mistook the marking for an actual eye, and thought that there was danger? That seemed possible, but something about that explanation didn’t seem right to Pure Vanilla.
Oh well, he supposed he would figure it out that night anyway.