Book 5, Chapter 17: High Noon
“Alright, take a stick and sift through that ash. Try to find the coals I buried last night.”
“You buried them?”
“You were supposed to be paying attention.”
“Right, yes. You buried them. In the dirt.”
“Hmm.”
“Under the ashes.”
“Push them together when you dig them out. Put some twigs on them and blow. On the coals.”
Fine grained white ash lifted into the air like reverse snowing, settling on my eyebrows and hair and into my lungs and I coughed and coughed.
“Not too fast, blow gently and long.”
Wiping my eyes, “it would have helped if you’d given those instructions a bit earlier.”
“Now you know.”
I tried again, but as he said, slowly and long, in the same manner children blow up enormous soap bubbles where I came from. It worked, a tiny flame took hold on one of the twigs. Then went out. I looked over at the big man, but he was not paying attention, so added more twigs and blew again, longer, more deliberate. They flared up, twigs curling inward, darkening, then the fire took hold atop their thin bodies all at once. I added slightly larger pieces and soon the fire was burning merrily, as if it had only been resting the night, under an ash blanket. “Neat.”
“I wouldn’t call getting ash all over yourself neat.”
“Well, I was blowing in the ash. How else was I supposed to get the fire going?”
“By blowing at the coals.”
“But there’s ash in the way.”
“Gently, at first, then stronger. Alternatively, you can move the coals away from the ash.”
“You know, these instructions would be more helpful if they came before the actual starting of fire.”
“But then I wouldn’t see you delightfully covered in ash, Princess.”
“Oh, I’ll show you ash!” I grabbed a handful, stood up to toss it at him, thought the better of that, opened my hand to blow it in his face and the wind tossed it into mine. “Aah!” I shut my eyes.
“That is most certainly ash. In your hair and all over your face.”
Blinking and blinking, eyes watering to deal with the dust, “I am such an idiot.”
“My lady, I will offer your esteemed person no argument.”
“Morry!”
“Perhaps you want to wash up?”
I pushed myself into his arms, squeezed, and rubbed my face and hair against his chest. “Perhaps I want to share the ash.”
“You’ve succeeded, Princess.”
“Ok.” I let go of him, “I’m going to go do my thing, then bring back some wood.”
“Alright. I’ll see what the foxes brought us for breakfast and get it ready.”
I found myself smiling, heading off into the trees.
***
Bringing wood back, I dropped it all in a moment of shock. Some distance away from our camp, atop a fallen tree, a woman was sitting on Morry’s lap. What the hell?
“Hey! What are you doing?” Neither of them looked in my direction. I snapped my fingers, “Hey! Morry! Woman! What the fudge is going on?”
She pushed his hair back, then pressed her lips onto his forehead.
For a weird moment, the thought entered my mind ‘We didn’t bring any camp followers with us’ but then the alarm bells started ringing. Even if we had, Morry did not, would never, behave like this.
“Lady, you’d better get the hell away from him.”
She looked at me for the first time, youthful features, smooth skin the color of tree bark, full lips and wide, wide green eyes, frizzy auburn hair trailing down her back, “Is this your man?” She was perfect and wrong. So very, very wrong.
“He’s, uh, my companion.”
“I am taking him.”
“Lady, messing with me is about the last thing you want.”
She put her finger under the big man’s chin, looked deep into his eyes, “Tell her whose you are and where you are going.”
“I am your man. We are leaving to your home.”
“You see? He is coming with me.” She rose off him, holding his hand, about to pull him along with her.
As my anger grew, the energy took over, roaring around my body. I opened a palm and let orange and red fire grow into a twister, up into the canopy, blackening and wilting the foliage as it rose. “Lady, you have one last chance.”
She waved her arm in my direction, as if an afterthought. Trees grew alive nearby, reaching out to me, vines slithering toward my feet. I burned hotter and they lit aflame and, coming closer, burned brighter and brighter until they were but coals.
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh!”
Where she was, a bunch of butterflies in human form were, for a moment, then fluttered apart, scattering. I watched them bob and weave between the foliage until they were out of sight. Then looked around, no more vines attacking, nor branches reaching in. Possibly because I was standing in a circle of charred and burning embers, nearby trees aflame.
“Morry!”
Morry shook his head, stared at something on the ground. “I don’t remember sitting here.”
Past him, some hundred yards away, three white unicorns stood. The lead unicorn stamped its feet, put its head down so the horn faced directly at me.
Arms at my side. Fingers twitching. Orange and red streams moving around them.
The unicorn raised its head again, then pointed its horn at me again, scuffled the ground with its front hoof.
Ravens landed on the trees between the steeds and me, foxes staring at the unicorns from the ground, growling.
A yellow leaf fell onto the path between us. Got caught in the wind, turned over and over, and fluttered into the bushes beyond.
The equine’s muscles tensed, getting ready.
I curled and then straightened my fingers.
“Princess, I will go with her.”
“What? No you won’t!”
He shook his head. “What? No, of course not. Wait, are mages attacking?”
Morry was too close. I’d kill him if I pushed it. I could still fire a narrow blast through the unicorn.
“Princess?”
I looked over at him, his face confused as he stood up. Worried for him, I forced myself to calm down, counting to ten slowly, dissipating the energy.
The unicorns relaxed, the main one snorted, gave a quick nod of its head, and they turned and vanished into the forest.
“Well, there goes my wish.”
“Can you explain to me what’s going on?”
“You were right and I was wrong. About the dryad. I shouldn’t have stepped so close to her grove.”
“Princess?”
“Let’s go have morning tea. Come with me.” I slipped my arm into his, leading him back to our campfire.
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