Page 72 of The Splendor of Fire
“What are you saying?”
Massaging her temples that way, it looked as if he was giving her a headache.
He lifted his chin. “I want to learn what Calum has. Teach me how to understand.”
Moira folded her dress and placed it on the stump he had been sitting on. She sighed and held up one finger and pointed at him. Her hands made claws that came toward him, then curved inward.
“This means Léo?”
She shook her head in disagreement and mouthed the word.Lion.
“Lion?”
She smiled, then pointed to herself, putting two fingers to her mouth and pinching her fingers rapidly together.Birdy.
“Birdy.”
She nodded and kept her right hand straight and tapped her forehead with her fingers.Good day.
He mimicked her. “Bonjour.”
With a smirk she mouthed the french back,bonjour. He prayed the ice was melting.
She touched her cheek with her right thumb and then pointed toward the ground.Goodbye.
Again he repeated her sign. “Au revoir.”
She wiggled her fingers, then turned and ran.
He jogged after her. “Wait, where are you going?”
Running as though she had just been freed from a cage, she took off across the meadow, birds launching into the air around her, dipping through the heavens. He picked up his pace and ran beside her, and she turned to him and smiled, pulling her hair free of the plaits and shaking her fingers through her wild hair.
The look of elation on her face made his own spirits lift as they ran side by side, and in his soul he felt something tilt. He had never seen thisside of her before, though there had been hints over the past year and a half. Moira trilled the cheery song of the crested tit, her arms wide, her head back. It was as if the pieces of her mystery fitted into place. She didn’t belong in castles or fine gowns; she belonged here, in creation, among the wildflowers and mountains.
In a steady pace they ran across the meadow. Sweat built at her temples, but her face beamed with delight. Along the bank of the pond she picked up her pace, then sprang off her palms and launched through the air. As her feet hit the ground she bounced and tucked her hands beneath her knees, flipping again.
Halting, she bent forward in silent laughter, her chest heaving for air.
Breath panting from trying to match her pace, he came to a stop beside her. “Why do you do that?”
She turned up her palms and curled her fingers slightly, bringing them inward.What?
“Why do you tumble around like that?”
She spread her hands, touching her thumbs together, waving her fingers as if they were wings.Flying.
He made the sign. “En volant.You are flying?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
She tilted her head to the side and breathed out in frustration. Walking over to the mud that formed at the edge of the pond, she picked up a narrow stick to write.
The higher I go, the more I feel free.
Léo began to understand.
