"Xiaofan? are you okay?"
The girl fixed her gaze at the owl sitting in the window, she rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing right.
"Xiaofan?",
The girl turned her face to the door, hearing footsteps approaching her room, She hurried up as the doorknob turned slowly.
Xiaofan held the handle and opened her door.
"Meili?? hey!" the girl chuckled nervously.
The maid had heard the thud while cleaning Xiu Lan's room, she came to make sure Xiaofan was alright.
"Are you okay? I heard a loud thud from your room... did something happen" she asked while trying to peep into the girl's room.
Xiaofan didn't leave her door handle as she spoke to Meili, she shook her head and gave the maid a deceitful grin.
"That was just.... just the books on my shelves! I was trying to ready then booom! they all scattered everywhere..." she said smiling, hoping the lady would believe her and leave.
Meili knew something wasn't right, Xiaofan has never stopped her from entering her room, she has never, the lady instantly knew she was keeping something from her.
"let me help you arrange them",
Meili responded as she took a step closer, Xiaofan instantly stand in front of her, stopping her from moving further.
"Aren't you so sweet Meili... but no I will fix that. I am sure you got a thousand things to do. I wouldn't want to disturb you... get along" the girl said.
Meili stared at Xiaofan for a short while.
She smiled at her before turning to leave, immediately she walked away. Xiaofan shut the door and locked it with her key, she inhaled sharply.
"Whooo! that was close".
For that little moment, she totally forgot about the mysterious bird, Xiaofan turned and met the bird already standing on the floor, in her room.
She let out a surprised gasp, why is the baby owl she had met in Chun and Lee's cottage in her room? how did it know where she lives? why is it here? she doesn't know the answer to all of these questions in her head.
She kept staring at the owl whose full eyes were on her.
"Hello? how can I help you? ermmm you are in my room... how did you follow me here?".
She asked but there was no response.
"Right it is a bird... they can't possibly talk..." she thought and immediately remembered Yi Chen's word.
Xiaofan gathered courage, she swallowed hard as she took a step closer.
"My friend said you could talk... I mean I know he could be bluffing... but is he right?"
There was still no response.
Taking a step at a time, she got close to the bird who had now looked down.
Suddenly it looked up at Xiaofan who was a few inches away from it, the girl froze as the bird's big shiny golden eyes stare into hers.
This went on for a short while, it looked away again.
Xiaofan inhaled sharply, she noticed the bird's eyes searching around her room, it finally moved from its position, towards a scrub of biscuits under her table.
The girl whose eyes followed the bird as it got under her table, kept staring in amazement as the bird eat the scrub gently.
"Are you hungry?" she asked, knowing it wouldn't answer.
"I have a question though", she scratched her neck as she continued, "I may sound crazy talking to a bird right now but I swear everything happened at the same time, I heard someone whisper my name and immediately that happened, the breeze, the...." she paused and let out a deep sigh.
"Who am I fooling? it's probably nothing", she said and could see the bird enjoying the biscuit, "yeah" she added and turned to her window, she gently closed it.
Turned back and noticed the bird has finished the scrub.
"Wow you are really hungry,".
Xiaofan grabbed her bag and searched for the extra biscuit she didn't eat, "okay here we go..." she brought it out.
The bird's eyes were already on the biscuit, the girl held it as she watched the bird walk closer to her, trying to see what the bird would do, the girl didn't move.
"Come get it..." she said still holding the biscuit in her hand.
The bird stopped walking, eyes fixed on the biscuit.
Xiaofan had an idea, she moved her hand and immediately the owl eyes followed, the girl's lips curved into a smile.
She moved it in another direction while the owl kept watching the biscuit.
All of a sudden, it flapped its wing and tried to fly to get it out of the girl's hand. Xiaofan flinched and fell on her butt.
It hurt but it was funny to the girl, she let out a giggle as she watched the owl eat the biscuit that had finally fallen.
Her smile faded slowly.
"I thought you owls feed on other animals to survive, how come you are eating a biscuit? are you a vegetarian?"
There was no response, she stared at the bird as it almost finish the biscuit.
Xiaofan stood up.
The bird stopped eating the biscuit, it looked up at the girl as their eyes met again.
Xiaofan let out a sigh, "It is getting late..." she said and walked towards her closet, "I believe you know how you came in here... you could use that same method to go back" she removed her shirt and skirt.
She brought out a long yellow silk gown, "Father wouldn't allow a bird in here? he doesn't like pets" she added.
The girl zipped up the gown and finally turned, her jaw dropped.
"How did you get up there?" she asked.
The owl stood on her bookshelves, looking around the room, it hop around making the books fall one by one to the ground.
Xiaofan remembers how she had lied to Meili about the books on the shelves, and now it had happened.
The girl narrowed her eyes at the bird, she folded her arms in disbelief.
"You are getting even more strange...." she crouched, trying to pick the books, "you know you...." Xiaofan paused as she couldn't find it on the shelf anymore.
"What? it was just...." she stood up and looked around, "where are you now? little birdie?" she said still searching for the owl who was nowhere to be found.
Xiaofan bent and looked under the bed and there it was.
"It's not been 10 seconds, one moment you were here and the other second you weren't... I accept you are strange, come on out...".
The bird who was staring at the girl didn't move.
Xiaofan put her head under the bed and tried stretching her hand to get the bird out, but she couldn't.
Suddenly, she noticed the bird running towards her.
The girl got startled, she hit her head while trying to get away from it.
"What are you doing Xiao?"