Opening the door to Denzel's bedroom, Elias steps inside with a smile on his face. "Fancy taking a walk down to the lake with me this morning, Denzel? You can feed the ducks if you want." He sits at the foot of the bed, waiting for the young boy to respond.


Denzel sits up, his hair a mess. "Yes! Yes I do." He quickly pulls himself out of bed and fixes his hair in the mirror. "What should I wear? I think it's too cold for a dress."


"Then don't wear a dress. Trousers will do. I'll be downstairs. I'll fix you some breakfast and then we'll head out. Don't be too long." Elias takes his leave and heads downstairs into the kitchen and makes Denzel some cereal.


Changing out of his nightclothes and into something more suitable, Denzel grabs Lucky and goes to eat his breakfast, adding a sneaky extra spoonful of sugar to his bowl when Elias's back is turned. "All done." Putting his hat and gloves on, he waits by the door, impatient. "Come on Eli, you're taking too long!"


Elias joins him and opens the door, laughing. "There is no rush. You make mistakes when you do. You forgot to get some bread for the ducks. Good thing I remembered." The child seems to ignore him and skips outside, the bear in his hand.


"I love it when we go out for walks together." Denzel stays by Elias's side as he walks. Lifting up his hand, showing Elias his glove, Denzel giggles. "This possum is going to eat you. Rawr!" He then reaches out to take Elias's hand in his own to hold. They walk silently for a while, observing their surroundings before Denzel comes to a halt, pulling Elias back. "Look at them all!" He points to the group of large black birds in the field next to them.


Elias nods. "Yeah, there are a lot of them. Do you know what kind of birds they are?"


Denzel beams up at him. "Yes! Crows. Like Sebastian!"


Crouching down, level with Denzel, Elias shakes his head, smiling. "Look closer. Some have grey on their heads, and some have large white beaks. None of them are crows."


Denzel bites his lip, and leans forwards towards the birds, squinting his eyes. "...I have no idea. Tell me what they are."


"The smaller ones are jackdaws, and the big ones are rooks. They group together in the winter and come down into the fields and pick at the worms in the ground."


Pulling a disgusted face, Denzel sticks his tongue out. "Ew. I hate worms. I've seen crows do that before. Sebastian eats worms for dinner."


Elias laughs, rolling his eyes. "Yes, of course he does." The pair carry on their walk until the lake is in view, and Denzel holds Lucky out for Elias to hold, and then takes the bag of bread from him in exchange.


"Look after him, please. I don't want him to accidentally fall in the water. I don't know if bears can swim." Walking down to the waterfront, he is greeted by several ducks and a pair of swans. Pulling a slice of bread from the bag and ripping it to pieces, he starts to toss it into the water. Elias remains standing behind him at a short distance, keeping a watchful eye on him to make sure that he doesn't get too close to the waters edge. "Elias, there were more ducks here last time. I bet it's too cold and they're all still snuggled up in bed. These ones are just hungry. Some days, I stay in bed and only come out to the kitchen when I'm hungry. Ducks don't have a kitchen...so they come to the people instead."


Elias sits down on a wooden bench overlooking the lake and places Lucky down next to him. "You could be right, Denny. Or maybe they've gone on holiday some place warmer." Leaning back and stretching his legs out, Elias thinks about the time he took Skye down to the lake and how they both ended up going for a 'swim'. "Not so close, Den. The bank is muddy and you might slip."


Nodding and taking a few steps back into the dry grass, Denzel starts breaking up the bread and laying it in a circle on the ground. "I have an idea, Eli." He then sits himself in the middle of the circle of bread and remains completely still as the birds come up the bank and start to pick at the bread around him. Keeping his eyes on one of the swans, Denzel smiles more as he sees it come up onto the bank to join the other ducks. The boy speaks quietly, whispering as not to scare them off. "You're so pretty... I will call you Solange, and your friend over there is Cross. In memory of my mummy and his friend." He very slowly extends his hand to touch the swans wing, stroking it.


He remains there, still and quiet until all the bread has been eaten and the ducks lose interest and move away from him. After watching the swan clean it's feathers, and hop back into the water, joining it's mate and swimming further out into the lake, then does Denzel stand up and pick up one of the swans feathers it had pulled out. Turning back and skipping over to Elias, grinning excitedly, he holds out the feather. "Look at what he left me, Eli. A gift for giving him a name. Swans get sad if they don't have names. They're too special and pretty." Denzel tucks the feather into his hat so that he doesn't lose it. "We ran out of bread. Is it time to go back now? My toes are cold."


Elias nods. "Yes, I suppose so. I think it was nice of you to give them names. I'll bring you down here again in a few days and you can do that again if they're around." He gives Lucky back to Denzel and holds his hand and sets off walking back to the manor. "I'm just so glad you didn't fall in. Skye did when I took him down here."


"Did he?"


"Well, your father didn't fall actually, but he jumped after I told him not to, because I didn't think he could swim. Turns out he could, and he just likes to play games. I found out he could swim right after I jumped in after him."


Denzel giggles, "Silly daddy, making you worry like that..."