Fight or Flight

Chapter 19

Enola

Three days later...

"Enola!" Simon's excited shout roused me out of a pleasant nap on the hillside. The sun was so warm today. And my arms and wings were still sore from flying that clunky cart all the way to the human town, and then back again. Sore enough that I was willing to risk a nap outside of the safety of my lair, even with the risk posed from not being able to set magical warning spells around me.

Though Simon seemed to be just as good as any alarm spell, when it came to waking me. I began to hope once again that the second-rate cleaning charm he wore would inflict more misery upon him for daring to wake me from my nap... then I remembered that he had picked up what he claimed was a new cleaning charm from the town. My mage senses didn't work enough to let me verify that even if I cared to check, though privately I still hoped Simon had been swindled, and that the new charm would not actually clean his clothes. The new vermin-shaped pendant had ruined what little opportunity I had for potential revenge for some of Simon's behaviors, which only made me feel all the more grumpy at having my nap ruined by the human.

Although, my sleepy mind finally realized, I can always smack him until he shuts up if I want to go back to sleep. That is one perk over an alarm spell.

I tried not to grin at that thought, and opened my eye in his direction. "What."

Simon was trudging up the hill towards me. His clothes looked soaked, and he held a small wooden bucket in one hand. He held it up with a huge grin when he saw me looking at him. "Look! Did you know the lake here has clams in it?"

I groaned and closed my eyes. Was that all it was? Some new amusement Simon had found? That was hardly worth interrupting my nap over. "Yes, I did. Now go away."

"On the way back from Lakeshire I saw some crows dropping things onto rocks, and when I chased the birds away I found the clams. I borrowed a bucket from one of the villagers and did a little swimming, and managed to find a whole bucket's worth." Well. That explained why Simon's clothes were so wet. "Clams! Do you know what these are worth? I can't wait to cook these; they'll make for a great stew."

"Do not eat those." I grumbled and spread my wings further out, soaking up more of the warmth beating down from the sun. "Why did you even bother scooping that out of the lake? Are you trying to find the limits of your new magical trinket? If you break that one, you will have to go back to the old one, and get a rash again." It would be absolutely wonderful if he broke the new charm only a few days after getting it...

"Aw, come on, you're going to love them. I know a few recipes for them; I just didn't expect to use them here. Usually you only find these by rivers, or maybe by the coast." Simon continued prattling on as he climbed the rest of the way up the hill. "Just look! There's enough in here for even you to have a meal."

I opened my eye again and stared at the bucket. It was nearly full with the rock-like creatures, if they could be called creatures. "I have no interest in eating one of those. They are slugs that hide in shells. No matter how many of your weeds that you throw on them, they will not be worth eating. Go give them to your horse instead."

"Ha, like Smokey would eat these. He's happy with hay and grass."

"Both of which are preferable to armored slugs." I turned my head to the other side, hoping Simon would get the hint and leave me alone.

"We'll see. I'll dig through my cooking supplies and see what I can do with this. You'll be singing a different tune come dinner time, I'm sure of it. And that will be more than worth the potential money I could make off this bucket." I could hear the grin in Simon's voice, even as I heard his feet start walking back down the hill.