I had never put my name to much use. Its meaning was irrelevant to me until someone who recognized the language it was derived from smiled in acknowledgment. I liked those instances. But looking back, I had never truly appreciated those instances. Those times of solace I seemed to give humans when they understood that I was, and always would be, a friend to them if they had no one else to turn to. Someone to listen, and spend time with them in the nights when they would come in sadness, hoping to have an ear to bend. And they always would---always could. I looked back at Silas when he presented his question and shifted until I was sitting, wings folded halfway around myself.
"I do remember." I said, and closed my eyes to do so. "The sun shone so beautifully and made it look so purely blue in the open. And it shimmered delightfully in the canals. And under moonlight, it was so romantic, and people loved to photograph the effects in the water. I was made to face the canal and open ocean, so I remember it very well as each day I stared at it. And each night I traveled outside to watch if I had no visitors that wanted to keep company." I laughed when I remembered some human antics, and opened my eyes again to Silas. "Sometimes humans would try to jump the narrow bits of the canal, and would never make it. I regret that I couldn't laugh along with the humans when they did that..." I saw Silas close his eyes, and could imagine that he was conjuring up the same images.
"Well..." He said when he opened his eyes again. "There's an upside to this... We don't have to sleep anymore!"
I had to admire his optimistic edge, perhaps a little forced as it were. I nodded. "True... This is true. Though I do wish the sun would shine a little though. To help, at least, keep spirits up." Was a ray of sun too much to ask now?
Silas looked at me, thoughtful, then turned his gaze back out to the other rooftops. I wasn't sure what he was looking at, but I was sure we were trying to see the same thing, at least until I looked back at him. His shockingly bright hair, bright but lovely in the frightening gray and black. The red of the ribbons that held his little silver bells to his horns. He was a mix of humanity and protector.
"Do you think they're not in the city anymore?" He asked suddenly. "I mean, if not here... Then some other city. Holed up somewhere we should be guarding. Somewhere we should be, with them." His tone darkened noticeably, and I narrowed my eyes. He seemed to switch between optimism and pessimism quite easily, but I really couldn't blame him for that.