When they were younger, Ceallach sometimes thought that Aisling was part bird. After all, she sang; her hair fluttered, winglike, behind her when she ran; and she loved being carried around so she could flap her arms in mock-flight. She also had a habit of putting her bread near the window, despite him telling her many times that she should eat her food instead of letting some ungrateful gull get it, but she continued to do so and then he would give her some of his bread because he didn't want her to go hungry.

"It's cold, and the birds need all of the food they can get!" she said in response to his disapproving expression.

"What's a bird doing all the way out here in the middle of the sea if it's so cold then?" he retorted, and then they went very quiet because they did not like to remember just how alone they were.

Even if it was cold, even if they were surrounded by ocean, there were birds, and they began to linger by the window sometimes, turning their heads towards the two children inside.

The sun started to stay out for a little longer each day, and one morning, while playing on the top floor, the two children heard peculiar noises from above. They were soft, but very persistent sounds, and it mystified them.

"Is it coming from the ceiling?" Aisling asked, staring at the slightly domed surface above.

"No...I think it's from outside, on the roof," Ceallach said, but just what would be on the roof making such a noise was beyond them.

The sounds did not go away as the days went on. In fact, they seemed to be getting louder. Anytime they were on the top floor they could hear the whatever-it-was making the constant, muffled noises.

"I'm going to go look," he said, hoisting himself up to the windowsill.

"It's dangerous!" she said from behind a table they usually used to play cards on. When he didn't climb down, she cried, "Stop! Don't do it!"

Ceallach craned his head up to try and spot the whatever-it-was, as the edge of the roof was out of reach. "I think I see something," he said after squinting.

"What is it? What is it?"

"I can't tell. But I think it's whatever's making the noise." He stood squinting at the something for a while. "I think you could climb up to the roof if I helped you. Come here."

"Nooo!"

"Come on, you can stand on my hands and I'll push you up. It'll be easy."

"No. I won't," Aisling said firmly, hiding behind the table so that just her eyes showed above the top of it. Eventually, though, he convinced her to sit on his shoulders while he hung on to the edge of the window.

"I got it," she said quietly after reaching for the edge for a few minutes. Slowly, with fearful care, she shifted so that she was standing on his shoulders instead of sitting on them. Then she scrambled up and disappeared from sight.

After a few minutes without anything happening he grew worried. "Hey! What's going on?"

Her head slowly appeared from over the edge of the roof. She had a meek smile on her face. "It's a nest! There are three hatchlings in it and they're peeping!"

Figures that the thing bothering us for so long ended up just being a bunch of birds, he thought. "Okay, as long as it isn't anything dangerous."

"They're really fluffy! And their eyes are so round..."

"Alright, yes, that's fine. Here, I'll catch you."

She climbed back down and for a while they paid no more mind to the noises.

----

One day Ceallach could not find Aisling anywhere in the tower. She was not in her bed, not in the washroom, not on the bottom floor nor the top floor with the window. He called her name while running up and down the stairs - the idea that he was alone in the tower filled him with terrified energy.

While he was catching his breath, he saw two feet dangling from the top edge of the window. He yelped and rushed to it, peering up to see her trying to find a foothold in the cracks and bricks making up the wall.

"Get down from there! What are you --" he shouted, grabbing her more roughly than he should, practically tearing her down. "Are you out of your mind? Trying to get up to the roof by yourself?"

Aisling stared defiantly back at him. Finally, she said, "Well I did get up to the roof, so there!"

Ceallach stared at her for a long moment, speechless, then grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "And what if you fell off and got killed? Or fallen when you were climbing up, huh? Huh?"

"I just wanted to see the hatchlings again..."

"Gods above, Aisling, they're just a bunch of stupid birds!"

She gave him a look of horror and sadness and hate and broke away from him, covering her eyes. He stared after the door she left out of for a moment, then let out his breath in a rumble.

Aisling did not speak or sing for a couple of days, nor did she allow him her presence. On the third morning, Ceallach found her singing by the window. He sat by her and she went quiet.

"What's that you have there?"

She had some kind of wooden contraption in her hands. At first she tried to hide it from him, but then she placed it on the windowsill so it would be hit by the sunlight. It was not very well built, and hard to identify.

"It's supposed to be a house," she said after a while.

"Oh," said he. "It's a very nice house."

"No it isn't," she said, hanging her head. "It keeps falling apart. It's a stupid house."

He took it into his hands and studied it. "Can I try fixing it?"

She let him, and after some tweaks and nails it was significantly less miserable looking. He left it on her bed to find, in case she still wanted to avoid him. Later, she found him reading and gave him a hug.

----

There were a few balmy days, but then the sky darkened and soured with an upcoming storm. Ceallach had barely enough time to realize he should bolt the window shut before the rain started coming in.

"Wait!" Aisling cried, running up to the window. "Don't close it yet! I have to go out!"

"What do you mean, 'out'? Out where?"

Her breath was ragged from all the running she had done. "The house -- I have to give the birds the house or else the rain will..."

He looked back at her and the wooden thing she was holding with an incredulous look, but she looked desperately determined. "You're going to give a bunch of birds a house," he said, putting a hand to his forehead. "While it's raining."

"Let me through!"

It was stupid, completely insane, but she looked ready to fight him over it and he did not want her to be angry at him again. "Fine, but I'm helping you up. Let's make this quick."

They opened the window into the gusts of wind that were beginning to fling themselves at the tower. He hissed, she shuddered at the cold, but he picked her up anyway and faced the rain. He could feel her slip once, twice while trying to grab hold of the roof, but he held onto her despite that and the wind. Then she scrambled up and disappeared from sight.

Ceallach had half a mind to climb up with her, but he didn't know if he could manage it in dry conditions and wasn't about to try in this weather. A rumble in the distance meant lightning was coming. He hissed again, then shouted for her.

He felt Aisling's hair rather than seeing her head at first. "I...the hatchlings are safe, the house..."

"That's good. Come down now!"

He felt the strands of her hair swirl on his face, as if she was moving her head from side to side. "Ceallach, I...I can't see. I'm scared."

He bit his lip briefly and growled under his breath. "Just ease your way down. I can see your dress well enough."

She inched downwards with her feet first, kicking out for support as soon as she could. He took a hold of her ankles. She - slowly, measured in loud heartbeats - bent to give him one of her hands.

"Just a little more!" he called out.

The world lit up, she gasped and faltered, and one moment he was standing just outside the window's threshold and the next he was bent over the edge of it, the air knocked out of him. If his legs hadn't braced themselves against the inside of the tower, the two of them could very well have been tumbling down into the waves that instant.

Her hand was still clasping onto his arm. She didn't scream or make a sound, so for a cold instant he thought that she had fallen after all.

"Hurry -- give me your other hand, Aisling!"

She was staring down into the water below until he spoke. Then she swung her arm up and reached as best she could. He tried to catch her hand, or at least her fingers, but they kept missing each other. She whined, a faint and unconscious noise. He could feel - or vividly imagine - her slipping away.

A heap near his feet gave him an idea. "Grab onto this!"

With his free hand, he threw his hair out the window. It tumbled down until it hung like a rope next to her. She took it with her other arm, clinging it to her chest.

"I'm going to let go so I can pull you up!" he shouted. She looked up again and nodded. He stepped back, planted both of his feet as solidly as he could, and pulled. He could hear her scratching with her feet for grip. Soon he was able to catch her shoulders and pull her back into the tower. Then he placed her on the ground and bolted the window shut.

They were both sopping wet and her dress was dirtied beyond recognition. Her breath came out in rattling sighs, like she was trying to cry but was too shaken up to do so.

"Are you alright?" Ceallach asked, kneeling down to put his hands on her arms and look into her face.

Aisling looked up, back at him, and bit her lip as she thought about his question. "My shoulder feels a little funny..."

He rumbled through gritted teeth, gently but quickly feeling her shoulders for anything out of the ordinary. She clenched her eyes shut when he pressed there but didn't yelp. "We'll have to wait until it gets light to have a better look at it. But it feels okay. There doesn't seem to be any broken bones."

"Alright," she said softly.

"That house had better damn well save those chicks or I'm going to break something," he grumbled, and then shrank into himself afterwards. He did not like to swear, but the moment and the storm had made it fall out of his mouth.

For a moment she said nothing. Then she shuffled closer, so that he had to part his legs to make room for her, and hugged him very tightly. He hesitated, then put his arms around her as well.