When she had finally recovered enough to speak, Gabby looked up, but seeing Sharna’s eyes on her, she returned her eyes down to her hands. “Sorry,” Gabby said, in a small voice.

  Sharna waited to see if there was more coming but Gabby remained silent. “It's really okay,” Sharna said gently, “that seemed like something that you needed to get out. Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?”

  Gabby shook her head and blew her nose again, “no I don’t want to, but thanks, I think I really did need that.”

  “Is there anyone that you're talking to about what's going on?” Sharna asked gently, “it's not a good idea to keep everything to yourself. I know we haven't known each other long, but I'm a good listener if you need an ear..?”

  Gabby shook her head again, smiling wetly at Sharna. “Thank you, I appreciate it, I really do. I have already spoken to someone about what’s going on, and will share it with everyone else when I'm ready. I'm sorry, I really didn’t mean to react like that, I didn’t realise that I had been keeping so much emotion inside. I just.. I just want us to be friends.”

  “Me too,” Sharna smiled, “and we are, we will be.”

  Gabby nodded, straightened her shoulders and stood up to leave. When she reached the door, she turned back to Sharna. “I hope you're feeling better soon.”

  “You too,” Sharna replied with a smile, Gabby grinned back, and then closed the door gently behind herself.

  Sharna threw herself back onto her bed, stretching her arms out wide. What could possibly be causing Gabby so much distress? And what had triggered her outburst? She didn’t really know Gabby well enough yet to gauge whether her outburst was proportional to whatever hardship she was facing, or if she felt her emotions more like a dramatic summer rain, quickly passing and leaving little trace behind.

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  Sharna mentally shook her head, Gabby would let her know when the time was right, as a more pressing concern, where was Quinn?

  She sent out a questioning pulse Quinn? she asked, worried that something had happened to the fairy. To Sharna’s immense relief, she immediately felt a pulse back from Quinn. Quinn didn't use words, but Sharna could feel that she was groggy. Did the soul connection mean that Quinn went unconscious at the same time?

  Sharna reached down as she realised that Quinn was still in her hip pocket. A cozy, dozy little ball of light.

  Sharna cuddled her little soul fragment close, grateful to be on her own again. Well, alone with Quinn at least, which was as comfortable as being on one’s own. She pulled her knees in and rolled into a fetal position on her side, as she turned her thoughts inward and tried to understand her own heart. Quinn nuzzled into Sharna’s neck, also seeming content to follow her own thoughts for the moment.

  There was a lot to keep track of at the moment. Sharna was still unsure of her future manifestation goal, so needed to direct some thought into that area. She longed to speak more with Clara and Laynie about her mother and grandmother. She wanted to work on her ward creation, as well as speaking with Adelia about what had happened with Sharna’s barrier. And then there was all that her new friendships involved.

  Instead she did none of this.

  Decisively, Sharna jumped up from the bed and dragged the armchair that Gogo had been sitting in until recently towards the window, knocking over the stack of books on the way, so that they spilled across the floor. One fell open to an inviting image of a sitting room and, ignoring the other books, she picked that one up, keeping it open to the page that had drawn her interest and settled herself into the chair, pulling the open book onto her lap where it lay ignored as she instead stared out the window.

  During her movements, Quinn had fluttered onto Sharna’s pillow, but returned to her spot at Sharna’s neck as Sharna settled into place.

  The beauty of the garden outside the window arrested Sharna’s attention. Clearly a storm had blown through while she had been unconscious, but now the sun’s warm light shone over the vista, sparkling as it was caught by the droplets that covered every surface, turning the windblown plants into a dazzling display.

  And Sharna felt dazzled.

  Sharna put her hands over her heart as she felt her heart warm at the remembrance of everyone’s many kindnesses over this time that she had been settling into her new home, time that had not yet spanned a week. She felt her happiness tingle through her neck and shoulders, relaxing and softening any tension she had been retaining there, and then flow through to her limbs, where it stayed, lifting and lightening her whole body.

  She often privately thought that this was the other side of being so overly sensitive to the fluctuations of the environment around her. The reprieve from the weight of the headache was one thing. However, it was the sensation of actually feeling her happiness flow through her entire body that was the subsequent flip side of this that made her feel like it was probably worth the pain that she sporadically had to endure.

  Sometimes she wondered privately if this sensation flowing through her body was what it felt like to fly.