Gathering Blue

A short time after the events of the previous chapter, Kira visits Annabella in her cottage. She goes there alone, a little frightened, since Matt has grown bored with their visits. When Annabella asks her why she’s frightened, Kira tells her that a wild beast chased her. Kira is surprised when Annabella laughs at this news—Annabella has always been kind to her. Annabella tells Kira that they’ll boil coneflowers today, and they get to work.

As Kira and Annabella boil coneflowers, Kira tells Annabella again that she was frightened about wild beasts on her walk. Annabella again laughs, but this time tells Kira that there are no beasts. Kira is confused—while it’s true that there would be no beasts in the clearing where Annabella lives, since there are fires there, this doesn’t mean that there are no beasts in the forest. Kira thinks that Annabella sounds as childish as Matt. She tells Annabella that she heard growls, but Annabella insists that Kira heard a human pretending to be a beast.

Later, when Kira is eating with Thomas, she asks him if he’s ever seen a beast. Thomas points out that the hunters bring beasts back from their hunts, but Kira replies that the only beasts they bring are hares, birds, or deer—nothing dangerous to humans. She tells Thomas that her father was supposedly taken by beasts. Thomas can’t think of anyone he knows who’s seen a beast. While he finds it hard to believe that beasts don’t exist, he suggests that he and Kira should believe Annabella, since her name has four syllables. Before they can discuss the matter any further, Thomas complains of a headache, since he’s been hard at work all day, and retires to his room. Kira’s day of walking outside has been exhausting, but satisfying, too; she thinks that Thomas should go outside more often.

Alone in her room, Kira wonders if it’s true that there are no beasts. If this is so, she wonders what could have happened to her father. As she falls asleep, she thinks about her cloth—the cloth tells her something important about her father, but when she wakes up she finds that she can’t remember it.