Finding a Home

Chapter 10: Recovery

Sparrow woke up in the bed provided to him by the Apple family. His body hurt, no specific area, just a general pain all throughout. He had a terrible headache to top it off. It was still dark outside and Sparrow could hear the crickets chirping outside his window. He turned onto his side and stretched out his legs, pushing out past the covers on the bed. He thought of what had happened earlier that night. The song he and Applejack had sang together brought a feeling to his heart, it was warm, content. He wanted to sing it again.

Sparrow shuffled from his bed and got up slowly, he was dizzy too, Oh sweet Grover why, he thought. He stumbled through the room until he reached the door and opened it, the lights were on in the hallway and Sparrow could hear someone talking downstairs.

"You did well enough but he's going to be out of commission for at least 2 days. He needs plenty of rest and water before he can attempt working again. If you hadn't helped him he would be dead right now." Someone Sparrow didn't recognize was giving a lecture, he winced as he pushed the door to the bathroom open and the old door let out a slight squeak. Stepping through the door he saw his goal, the water basin.

"Well that makes me all the happier I got to him when I did. I really appreciate you comin' all the way out here Nurse Redheart." Sparrow recognized the voice of Applejack, "Like you said, I did well enough, but I've only dealt with this maybe one other time. You sure he doesn't need to be at the hospital?"

Sparrow slaked his thirst as Applejack finished asking this so called Nurse Redheart about him going to the hospital. "Oh no dear, he'll be okay after some rest, in fact I think I'll leave now as it sounds like your patient is awake." Sparrow approached the stairs and looked down to the living room below, he saw Applejack with dark bags under her eyes and the same from a white earth pony wearing a nurses hat on top of a light pink bun who he assumed was Redheart. "Hello there Sparrow, you should thank your friend here, if she hadn't stepped in you might have really been in trouble."

"I gathered," Sparrow responded "Thank you Nurse Redheart for all your help, sorry you had to travel so late just for me."

Redheart waved a hoof "It's my job Sparrow, I wouldn't be a nurse if I didn't do it. Now you get back to bed mister before I sick this distraught filly on you."

Applejack and Sparrow both laughed at the joke before saying goodbye to Nurse Redheart. Sparrow looked at a clock in the living room, it was nearly four in the morning. "Alright sugarcube, you heard the nurse, back into bed."

Sparrow rolled his eyes but complied, "So two days huh?" he turned and asked to Applejack as she had followed him upstairs.

"Yup, two days of you getting to lounge around, be thankful, I never got such a long time off even when I was sick." Applejack quipped.

"Oh ya I'm sure." Sparrow joked as he stood outside his door, Applejack bumped his side with her own and they shared a smile to each other. "Thanks again Applejack, if you hadn't found me-"

Applkejack put a hoof over Sparrows beak to stop him from finishing his thought, "Twern't nothin' Sparrow. Anyways, what was I supposed to do, just sit and watch you suffer? What the hay do you take me for?" She finished her question smiling at the griffon.

Sparrow shrugged "I take you for a hard working farm gal who knows how to help her friends no matter what. How's that?"

Applejack mimicked Sparrow with a shrug of her own "Eh, I'll take it. Now get to bed you goof, don't need you bein' as tired as I am."

"Fine fine, so what time are we starting tomorrow?" Sparrow pushed the door to his room open and turned away from Applejack. He was near his bed before he felt a shove and he landed on his side looking at a disgruntled Applejack "Ow, sorry sorry, just joking. I'll stay in bed like a good griffon." Her scowl disappeared and was replaced with a smug grin.

"Good to know I can get you to do what I want with a shove." Applejack giggled

"Oh yes, didn't you know I'm not very confrontational? With one shove you can force me to do just about anything." Sparrow struggled with his wings and the bed sheets for a second before wrapping himself in a ball of blankets with only his head poking through.

"Oh really? I might take advantage of that sometime then." Applejack raised an eyebrow.

"Please do, I've got two days to be shoved around before I can retaliate in full." Sparrow shuffled his feathers and raised them up around his head to make himself look bigger. This got a giggle out of Applejack and Sparrow laughed as well. "Until then, I'll do my best to get well."

Applejack turned to leave and when she reached the door she looked back to Sparrow "Well I appreciate that Sparrow, you sleep well now y'hear? Whenever you wake up just come find me and I'll make you something to eat alright?" Applejack closed the door silently behind her. Sparrow could hear her step down the hall and into her own room.

The griffon shuffled around under the sheets some more before he was comfortable, he still hurt, he was still dizzy, but at least he was being cared for.

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A crash of thunder outside woke Sparrow, after having his fair share of nightmares based around storms he was afraid he might still be dreaming. The pain he felt was real enough, though it was more subdued now, likely his muscled were relaxing more with water flowing back into them.

Sparrow didn't notice how heavily he had been breathing and did his best to slow it down. Breath in, four seconds, breath out, four seconds. After about a minute of doing this he felt much better. Still slightly dizzy however, Sparrow decided to get another drink of water. He got up from his bed and stepped lightly along the wood so as to not make any creaks in the old house.

Exiting his room there was another crack of thunder and Sparrow yelped involuntarily, Why do storms have to be so loud, what are they out to prove With Sparrows yelp he could hear a door creak open down the hall.

"Sparrow?" Applejack stepped towards him from her room rubbing the sleep from her eyes "What are you doin' shrieking in the hall?"

Sparrow didn't want Applejack to know he was afraid of a little thunder "Oh I thought I saw a, uh, spider! Ya, a spider."

Applejack raised an eyebrow "Uhuh. You sure it wasn't something else scarin' you? You're mighty big to be scared of a little thing like a spider."

"What? No, they're creepy little things that steal ponies in their sleep and take them to Tartarus, why wouldn't I be scared of them?" Sparrow responded as he stepped into the bathroom and pushed his beak into the water and started drinking. When he was finished he looked back to see Applejack leaning on the door frame smugly grinning like a filly. "What?"

"Scared of a little thunder Sparrow?" Applejack teased

"Pshaw, me scared of thunder? Come on, I can fly and mess with clouds myself, why would I be scared of-" Another lightning strike followed by thunder caused another yelp from Sparrow.

Applejack started laughing as the griffon glared at her "Hoo boy, who would have thought that you of all griffons would be scared of a little weather." She finished laughing and wiped away a small tear, then she noticed how upset Sparrow looked "Aw shucks, that was mighty disrespectful, sorry Sparrow.

Sparrow sighed, he couldn't stay mad at Applejack "It's okay, I just don't like storms, it was a thunder storm that caused my wing injury in the first place. After that I've just kind of been on edge about storms."

Applejack nodded and walked over to Sparrow and put a hoof on his head, "Well your temperature seems to be fine. How are you feeling over all after sleeping for a good fifteen hours?"

Sparrow's beak lay open incredulously, Applejack stepped back out into the hall and started going downstairs, he followed with his beak open still "Fifteen hours? How in the name of Grover did I sleep that long?"

Sparrow could hear the eye rolling from behind Applejack "Cause you were tired Sparrow, you needed time to patch yourself up so you slept a while. Certainly a mite longer than I woulda thought you capable of, but then again you're only the second griffon I've met."

"Well sorry for waking you, were you sleeping for long?" Sparrow asked Applejack as they reached the kitchen

Applejack shrugged as she began grabbing food from the cupboards "Not particularly, honestly I thought you'd have been up much earlier, so I'm making you food now, no ifs ands or buts. You need food in you."

Sparrow felt his gizzard warble in protest from no food for so long. "Thanks, guess I'm pretty hungry after only having water in me for almost a full day."

Applejack made Sparrow a simple plate of pancakes with some apple glaze and an extra large glass of water. She made some for herself as well and they sat and ate together at the table. There wasn't any real need to speak while they ate, they just enjoyed a companionable silence. The pancakes were delicious, but gone too fast for Sparrow's hunger, he ate another two apples before his hunger was slated.

After the meal Sparrow helped Applejack with cleaning up, "It's the least I can do right now, please, let me help you." He tried to put on his best suave look to convince her, after a short smack on the head Applejack complied and let him help. The dishes went by quickly with the two of them working on them. Applejack said more than once how useful Sparrow's claws were for this kind of work, he puffed up his head feathers once again "Careful all this praise is going to my head." That earned him a sincere laugh from Applejack.

When clean up was all said and done Sparrow found himself sitting on the couch in the Apple family living room, it was pitch black outside and all he could hear was the howling of the wind and the pattering of the rain on the windows, along with the occasional thunder clap. "Well Sparrow, I'm gonna head to sleep, you holler if you need anything alright?" Applejack said to him as she stepped to the stairs.

Sparrow, feeling braver than he had in a while decided to speak up "Hey Applejack?" The young orange mare turned her head and looked him in the eyes "Could you sit with me for a bit? I can't sleep with that noise going off every few minutes."

"Of course, Sparrow." Applejack smiled and walked back over to the couch where Sparrow was sitting, he scooted over and let her hop up beside him. The warmth she gave off was immediately comforting to the griffon as he shuffled his feathers and preened at a wing.

They sat in silence with each other for a few minutes until Sparrow decided to speak up "My mother died in a thunderstorm." Applejack tensed up next to Sparrow, she turned her head and looked at him, he stared straight ahead out a window. "She left in the afternoon when the clouds still looked nice. Said she was going to get more things to build a nicer nest. We didn't really have a roof or anything like that, so she decided to go out that day and get the supplies for it."

Applejack brushed Sparrows side "Sugarcube, you don't have to..."

Sparrow continued "None of the shops in town would help her out, we didn't have any money, we always had to go and hunt our own food. She assumed anyone in that town would help her. Instead they turned her away because she didn't have any money. So she had to fly out near the mountains to find what she needed. She made it back a couple times and left the sticks with me, she showed me how to thread them through the nest and then she left again. Each time she came back it got later and later, my claws were starting to hurt from working by myself. But I kept at it because it was our chance to have a better home for ourselves."

Sparrow swallowed as a lump began to form in his throat. "Once the storm began it was all I could do to make a small cover for myself in the nest. I kept building when I could and I would go back to the nest when I got too cold. I sat there all night in the nest, shivering, wondering where my mom was. I was cold, hungry, and alone. When I tried to sleep the sound of the thunder would wake me up every time I got to sleep."

The rain pattered outside and a lightning strike flashed brightly. A tear rolled out of Sparrow's eye "It was in the morning that I realized my mother wasn't coming back. So I did the only thing I could. I just sat there and breathed deeply. Something she taught me to do, breath in, hold for four seconds, breath out, hold for four seconds. I kept on doing that, hoping that after each breath she might swoop in from the sky and hold me close. I spent the whole day there doing that."

"Once I collected myself I realized that I had to keep going, I couldn't just stop because of what had happened, I was still expected to go to school and put on the same facade everyone else did. So I did, then I got picked on for my size, until I got better than them at flying. I always flew away from my problems at that time. Now I don't really have that luxury. I'm trying to do better now, better than I did before because I finally have a chance to find something of my own and once I do, I don't ever want to let it go." Sparrow sighed as he finished "Sorry for talking your ear off, rain gets me sentimental I suppose." Sparrow looked to his left to see a teary eyed Applejack staring back at him.

"Thanks for sharing, you didn't have to, but you did. Thank you Sparrow." Applejack moved closer to Sparrow's side, he felt warmer now, warmer than he'd ever felt before in his whole life. This wonderful place with these wonderful ponies, maybe they were what Sparrow really wanted instead of just bragging rights from yet another race.

"Applejack, could I ask you to do one more thing?" Sparrow looked to the mare next to him, her blonde main all mussed up from sleep and her emerald eyes shining at him.

"What is it?" Applejack asked

"Could you stay here tonight and keep me warm during this thunderstorm?" Sparrow whispered

"Of course." Applejack responded and pushed her head onto Sparrow's neck. He draped his left wing over the mare to keep her warm as she held close to him and kept his heart warm. They stayed that way until the sun rose hours later.

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