 She leaned into Danny's hug, burying her head in his shoulder. There was some comfort to be drawn from the movement of his breathing. “How did he look?” Renn asked Danny looking up with desperation in her voice. When she had calmed down she would kick herself for scaring her little brother so much but in that moment all that mattered to her was Henry. “Did he look okay? He wasn’t hurt? He wasn’t too thin, was he?” She looked back down at the picture in her hands; she’d forgotten she was holding it. “You said he looked different,” Renn pressed with wide eyes, “how different?” Her lip was trembling again, and this time she made no move to disguise it. She had to know everything...everything. “Where abouts in the cove?” she asked Danny and Solarius, her gaze flicking back and forth between them in an almost frantic search for answers, “what was he doing? Where did he go?”
Nico looked on helplessly from his place on the floor, and the usually mild-mannered toucan found himself cursing the ancient creature. He might have been more help if their mental link had been intact. The familiar however did not need to be able to sense her thoughts to realise that she was starting to unravel. He hopped back across the floor and hopped up onto her knee.
“Renn,” he said in a voice that was simultaneously gentle and firm, “Renn, you need to calm down. Please. This is good! I’ll go and fly around the caves again, I will, I promise!” She began to nod, yes, Nico was right, there was hope. Then a thought struck her like a jolt of lightning as the implications of what Danny had told her hit her with full force.
“Oh Aura,” she said again, holding her brother’s gaze, “Danny, what did you tell him? Did you tell him about Dad?”
He would be devastated; devastated and alone in an unkind place. Never, even in her better dreams had Renn ever considered that the pirate caves could ever be a nice place to live. It had kept her up at night sometimes with worry and this...this was so much worse.
“I have to find him,” she announced, suddenly jumping to her feet and running across her room. She grabbed her old satchel from its hook on the back of her door and began marching around stuffing clothes and belongings into the bag.
“Renn...” Nico said, trying again with another glance at Danny, hoping for back up. His fairy turned to him with tears staining her cheeks again. She couldn’t think straight. How could anyone think straight when Henry was out there alone having just found out that his father had been murdered? She would have fallen apart without Flynn. Renn was scared for her twin, and she voiced her fear in a small voice.
“Nico,” Renn said, “what if he does something stupid?”
Renn began frantically filling her bag again, oblivious to the other inhabitants of the room. Her toucan took a deep breath and puffed out his chest importantly. It was time for him to take charge...even if he felt helpless. He had to think about Danny and Solarius for his fairy whilst she couldn’t. Nico knew she would hate that her brother had seen her lose her fragile control. Hopping up onto Danny’s knee Nico pointed his bill up at the boy’s face and said two words.
“Find Flynn.”
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