[hider=Mellie]
[URL=http://s131.photobucket.com/user/librarychick77/media/Amelie_zpsa4063ef6.jpg.html][IMG]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301/librarychick77/Amelie_zpsa4063ef6.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/183892]Character Sheet[/url][/hider]

The rest of that day had gone by in a blur. Mellie had made it home, she must have walked but she couldn’t remember a single step of the trip, and when she got there the little owl had been right on her heels awkwardly hopping along. She had spent the evening staring off into space as the world seemed to spin and then gradually reform around her.

As she realized the effects the little owl had brought to her life moments she had let skip by her unnoticed whirled through her mind – a news article about a man and cougar being shot, a piece on the radio about a woman stoned to death, Judy leaving her home because she didn’t feel safe…all of it added up to overwhelm her completely.

She had been certain she wouldn’t sleep, but she woke up to sunbeams warming her skin and puffs of warm breath against her cheek. Her attempt to shift without disturbing the owl was given up right away as a sleepy hoot accompanied her first tentative movements. She sighed and put up a hand to steady him as she sat up stiffly in her chair. It had been a long time since she had collapsed in her chair and not woken until morning.

Despite the changes wrought on her brain the night before Mellie felt surprisingly fresh and calm. She still wasn’t sure what she would do, how she would cope with these differences, but a few hours out in her garden would help her find a new path.

Today was Thursday, but she had left a note for the principal saying she was ill and wouldn’t be coming in, with tomorrow being a bonus day off she had a lovely long weekend stretching before her.

Mellie slipped on her favorite gardening clothes, old ratty jeans and a comfortable top with an old sweater to protect against the chill still hanging around, and stepped into her own backyard oasis. She had spent the past five or so year she had lived her gradually reforming the garden from a boring and plain slab of grass to a maze-like wonderland of bushes, trees, and plants she had picked out herself. She took a moment to simply drink it in with her eyes, let the new growth cheer her up and soothe her spirit.

The little owl chirruped and hooted cheerfully before he hopped into the mess of plant life to scratch around for bugs. Watching him ferret out a grasshopper and a fat earth worm in minutes Mellie allowed herself to relax to his presence too. She could feel him, almost as though her heart and his beat together – his fast little rhythm a companion to her own slower and steadier beat.

With one last sigh she got her working gloves on and set to it; clearing last year’s dead growth, spreading mulch on this garden patch, digging some green compost in other places. At each small patch she spent a few moments just looking and feeling the ground; wondering if the onions and garlic she had planted here were coming up yet, checking on a bush she had planted a bit late and been concerned about, just reconnecting with her space.

When she’d finally accomplished enough that she felt she had made a start she went back to the first bed she had touched – and started. She had begun working in her garlic and onion bed for this year, she was positive the vibrantly green tips hadn’t begun to do more than break the top of the soil, but now each tip was poking through the mulch she had re-spread after checking on them. With a confused expression she went to the little bush she had just checked, it too had about an extra half inch of growth from what it had had less than 10 minutes ago!

Shaking her head Mellie dismissed it, obviously she had been too distracted to garden. Hopefully she hadn’t managed to kill anything in her fog. She couldn’t’ shake the scowl, or the strange drained feeling that suddenly suffused her limbs. She hadn’t done THAT much work, why was she so tired?

She felt a bump against her leg as she reached to open her back door, the little owl with a predator’s scowl on his face. He nudged her with his beak again, and Mellie got the feeling he wanted her to go inside and eat something. Well, surely that was her own stomach telling her and she was projecting it onto the owl…right?

~~~

After a quick lunch Mellie had made up her mind and looked up that Avingdale fellow in the phone book. She sat down at her table, cell phone in hand and owl snuggled contentedly into her lap, and dialed the number.
It rang once.

Twice.

Three times, and then someone answered in a solid male voice, 

“Hello?” 

~~~
*note* Bah, sorry for any confusing things...I'm recovering from a cold so my brain isn't quite working yet. lol I'll post the NPC reply to my own right away, and then who ever wants to can go next :)