When she was still a human, the owl expected to end up death in many different ways, due to her nature. She had never expected that it would end up in her becoming a monster with human heart and mind. Afterwards she was left wondering if her mind stayed the same, as this was what she was, even before the feathers sprung out. She had noticed from early age that her nature and desires were different from the women around her. Owl never saw herself in the roles expected from her, of a wife to a man, a mother to his children. To her, it sounded like death of herself in another form, so between the two, she ended up preferring death of human body and rise of monstrous one.

Owl took on false identity, presenting herself as a peasant man to escape questions and other people's gaze, who went from village to village. Every time someone got too close to figuring out either aspect of her identity, she would disappear overnight, as if she was never there. The last village she would visit was one in the north, where she met a trapped swan. It was with her, that owl felt like she could be herself and could accept every aspect of herself. It was also for her, that owl didn't care about the supposed monster others saw in her, if it meant letting swan fly high again and follow her dreams.

It's been weeks since Jadwiga woke up and her recovery could start, with Shivane overseeing it. After years of staying still in that coffin, with how much her muscles and body mass deteriorated, every small improvement in her mobility was an achievement. In few weeks, she could sit fully straight on her own.

Through out the entire time, swan maiden remained by her side whenever she could. She even took free days to be able to be there for her as much as she could in the first few months. While progress in her movement started to rise, so did other problems. Most important one for Shivane was the realization that Jadwiga had been asleep for years, meaning that she barely understood the language people spoke around her. While some words stayed or changed barely, most of them went through massive modification, causing for the archaic language having strzyga to be confused. Conversations in english, or any other language, were completely off the table around Jadwiga for her mind's sake.

So until strzyga would be able to catch up on the modern vocabulary, the two opted to use primal communication as main form of communication, with the use of pointing, head shaking or nodding. Trying to teach Jadwiga the basic words and sentences came second, with Shivane helping her build up word library over time. For now, the most important thing to Shivane was making it that strzyga would feel better and welcome again.

That's how they went through everyday. The dietary matters were solved by Shivane showing the other woman various pictures of food, with the latter deciding if they should try it out or not. It was soon obvious that Jadwiga had affinity for meat, as long as it wasn't avian, so Shivane would often get them salad with meat on the side, so they could eat it together. Same with clothing matter. It was surprise to Shivane, that strzyga still preferred masculine wear. Her presentation barely changed from how it used to it seemed.

While everything seemed fine in the household, changes happened to outside. More specifically, with Shivane's relationship with others. Her friends had gotten used to her asking for help, especially when it came to finding certain owl, so it was odd when no requests came after she had found them. Most found relief in it, as they finally didn't have to be dragged everywhere, but some couldn't start to question it. Among them, was Marina who took visit to Shivane's nest.

She had helped swan maiden to find that strzyga, but ever since then, she barely heard from her friend, as the same strzyga took all of Shivane's attention.

The conversation the two had that day was mild, to say the least. Jadwiga could hear them from her room, but since they spoke in foreign language, she understood nothing from that. Still, she decided to peek out, to see. Ever since she awoke, the only person she would see was swan maiden.

"You practically dropped us all, after years of us helping you, and you thought that we're not going to start asking?" Marina said, with a frown on her face, "We had known each other for nearly 200 years, Shivane. Why aren't you replying to any of us?"

"I didn't drop anybody. I'm just concentrating on helping her." Shivane replied, staying to the point.

"'Her'? Even after years, you refuse to tell any of us her name.'' The siren sighed. She thought that after years of friendship Shivane would be more open about her past, about that person, but the swan merely smiled and titled her head to the side in response.

Even after years, Shivane was an enigma to others, one which listened to what her mind said first and what other said later. People would think it was a miracle that she was able to bond with people in the first place, but maybe it was because of the attitude swan maiden had people would gravitate towards her, Marina included. Or maybe it was due to how often she would come to others rescue. Shivane was almost like walking contradiction with her behavior.

If Marina didn't know that Shivane was a swan maiden, then she would have believed that between the two black-white haired woman was the siren, as that would be the explanation for that.

With the conversation ultimately going nowhere, Marina decided to leave, but not before she saw strzyga again from the end of the hallway. At least Shivane's claim that she was taking care of her was true, seeing that she looked better from how she was when they found her. The mangled hair was cut short, so it could regrown. The piercing silver eyes were the only part that was unnerving, as otherwise, she looked harmless. Nothing like the images that Marina saw, whenever she looked up stuff about strzygas.

"You know that we can hang out together, right? Our friend group and strzyga?" She said, glancing over her shoulder.

"I know." Shivane replied, keeping her smile, "We will, when she will be ready."

Once again, Marina could only sigh, as she could only guess when would Shivane consider that her new roommate she found to be ready for socializing, especially with outside world.