Page 103 of Suncatcher

Red dirt smudged her shirt, a faint handprint from Driz. Pearl pressed her own smaller hand over the spot, almost feeling her.

“What d’you think will happen with her?” Sheriff Oak was saying. “What’re you expecting? To live happily ever after?”

Pearl shrugged, popping out her teeth. “That’s none of your concern.”

“The hells it isn’t. What’ll happen when the railroad comes? D’you think the company or the people arriving will put up with a monster lurking around? A young goyle just attacked the northern rail camp. They won’t risk damage to more of their property.”

Pearl sank down onto her bed, toeing off her boots, not really listening. “I love her.” The words tasted so strange and a bit frightening, but not wrong.

Her mother reacted like she’d been the one shot. “Don’t say that.”

Pearl shrugged again, climbing under her quilt still mostly clothed, unwilling to remove the faint remnants of Driz’s touch. She really was a goner, and she didn’t care. “Be mad if you want. It doesn’t change how I feel.”

“You can’t love her. You don’t know her.”

“But I do. D’you really think you can convince me I don’t?”

“You’re making a mistake.”

“Then let me make it.”

“Please, Pearl.”

Through her anger, Pearl loved her mother. Even if she hated her sometimes. “I’m tired.” Pearl rolled away.

“You’re all I have. She’s already destroying us.”

“No, you did that,” Pearl bit out, glaring at the wall. “You started it when you shot her the first time. And you finished it the second.”

The clunk of footsteps approached, and a hand settled gently on Pearl’s shoulder. “I’ll always love you, Pea. No matter what. You know that.”

“Then let me be happy for once. Let me have her.”

Sheriff Oak didn’t answer. Her hand fell away and the footsteps retreated downstairs and out the door.

Driz crouched in the center of her grotto, staring around at her collection. The taste of Pearl lingered on her lips, along with the sweetness of Molly’s pie.

She was still just as confused as she had been when she’d woken that night, though she couldn’t deny she was much happier.

If the humans could stop shooting her, Driz didn’t see why she couldn’t keep seeing Pearl, as she had before the fire. Driz longed for so much more, but she would take brief visits at dusk if that was all Pearl could give her. And she believed Pearl did want to give her that.

But Driz didn’t know if Pearl would. Her bond with her people and her mother was strong. Stronger than her bond with Driz, surely.

Driz could forgive Oak for killing a goyle Driz had never known. Oak must have had a reason, right? But if Oak could not get past Driz existing, then she didn’t think Pearl could leave again. Not forever. And Driz would not take her away. As much as Driz needed Pearl with her, she needed her to be happy.

Humans needed connection and community. Driz alone could not give her that. Driz had no community or family to offer.

She ran her hands over the railway tine she’d stolen. Humans were driving goyles from this place, but Driz could not follow them. Well, she could, but they would not accept her. They never accepted her in the first place. She had always been different. Always been wrong for the things she desired, for the thoughts in her head.

Driz didn’t feel like a goyle, but she certainly wasn’t a human either. She was simply herself, a creature who didn’t belong anywhere. Except she felt like she belonged when Pearl looked at her.

Driz dropped the tine and strode through the thin waterfall, looking around for a being to befriend. A sign she wasn’t quite so miserably alone.

A field mouse quivered in the grass, its tiny heart beating faster as Driz looked at it, sensing her agitation.

Driz slowly crouched, extending her palm, and went motionless.

Soon, the mouse’s attention shifted away, the looming threat turned back to a presence resembling stone. It bustled about, nose twitching, investigating the new shape. Soft fur brushed against her hand and then paws scampered up it, finding a shred of pie crust caught in the fold of her remaining shirt sleeve. The mouse sat on her forearm and gobbled the crumb down, whiskers flicking happily while gazing up at Driz, snuffling and scurrying higher, searching for more.