Jenny: A Change of Things

The words were foreign to her. The Guttersnipe woke to Domitia singing, and it was not unlovely... She knew Domitia meant for it to be soothing, and that the girl could not know how it took her back home where she and Caleb would sing together over the notes of his harp, and how things were quiet and homely and safe.

Shoving the notion savagely aside, she put her hands into the water and thrust upward into a sitting position, feeling every muscle groan in protest. She wondered what she looked like. It felt as though her spleen had become a rock that she had to drag up with her.

"That was nice, Domitia," she said groggily. "I didn't understand a word of it, but I like listening to new lang - "

She broke off midsentence and crushed a scream back down her throat.

Across the stream, on one of the rocks, sat an enormous White Falcon.