All Shades of Magic

A Thickening Plot

 I stayed up all night, so obviously it was me who was up first. In the daylight the dark sense wasn't as strong, so I went back to sleep for a bit while I could.

I only slept about an hour before getting back up. Kimi was still asleep but she looked as if she was on the verge of waking. I quickly fed the fire some wood, grabbed some apples from my pouch, and then decided to be a sweetheart. I grabbed some water, poured it into two cups, and set up a station where I could boil the water. I fished some mint leaves out of the small bag of herbs I had collected.

Mint tea was one of my favorite morning drinks when I'm tired or sick, and I think we needed the comfort and energy boost. Besides, I was bored and making tea was fun. The tea was starting to boil so I shook Kimi gently, not really wanting to wake her. I wondered how in the world she woke me. I then remembered that I was sleeping on her lap and she was probably relieved to have an excuse to get me off. I wish that was the case for me.

It took me a few minutes but Kimi finally woke up, blinking a few times before actually rising to meet my face. She smiled sleepily.

"Morning princess," she yawned.

"You alright Faerie?" I smiled. "I made us a treat,"

"Again?"

"I had time this morning," I said, handing her a cup. She grinned.

"Gee thanks Val! And i thought you couldn't cook,"

"I can't promise the tea is gonna be good," I giggled, embarrassed. We sipped half-decent tea and some bread. We thought about eating some fruit but we decided to save it for later since we were beginning to run out. We also completely forgot about the few vegetables we had brought, so we figured we would have that later as well.

"Should we move?" Kimi asked. I nodded and we packed up.

We didn't walk very far until we stopped and ate. I guess slices of bread aren't enough to keep you walking properly after all. Shame. I really wanted to save food so we wouldn't have a problem later on.

As we ate, a thought slowly started to curdle in my head. A thought I hadn't been thinking muhc of for quite a bit.

"Faerie?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think... Do you think the battles have begun yet?" I asked cautiously kimis face darkened, her dark eyes filling with a glassy and yet somehow focused sorrow. She took a minute before answering.

"Yes, i reckon they've already spilled blood,"

Turning my head away from Kimi, I swallowed my fear for my kingdom and my family. My step-mother would be fine, as would the servants and such, or so I hoped. But my father, the royal guards, including the soon-to-be-married Benjamin, the townsfolk, they could all peril. Their lives taken by enemy soldiers, who weren't even truly enemies but were angry.

Anger and misunderstanding are the true weapons.

Another thought occurred to me as I thought about the war.

"If my father didn't hide the moonstone, and your father didn't hide the moonstone," I paused before asking the question, for I feared the answer. "Who did?" I faced Kimi once more to see a quirreled expression on her face.

"Princess, the scary thing is that i don't know," Kari, who had been sitting in Kimi's lap, scrambled away and into our pouches, where the little thing had been staying instead of playing with us as we walked nowadays. A silence fell upon us as we finished our small snack and started moving once again.

It was cloudy today, fitting the tired, solemn mood I could feel along with the threatening pulse of evil in the bushes. The gray magic from the other day had disappeared, and i wondered if i had finally seen my own aura although i suppose my aura would be darker from the gray and black spells i had been casting for the past couple of days.