Yearning for the Moon

Chapter Four

I don't see much of an improvement in Maeve at first, it seems as if the crystal isn't doing anything at all, until her eyes slowly start getting brighter, I don't notice it at first but slowly her eyes are taking on a glow as the days go on. But still, that seems to be the only change in her, it isn't till we are just over a week from our final stop, that she shows that the crystal is doing more than just making her eyes glow.

She gets up to stretch after taking a nap in the carriage, and suddenly smoke begins coming off her fur, I am ecstatic thinking that she must finally be healed enough to make Dream Smoke. "Maeve! You're releasing Dream Smoke! This is amazing, the crystal worked!" Orpheus opens an eye to look at her from where he is curled up on the opposite bench, except upon seeing the smoke leaking off her fur he stands up and looks at her curiously.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but that is not Dream Smoke. That is something else. Looks like it very well might have been worth it to keep the weakling alive, glad I didn't let you kill her." I give him an annoyed look, because he certainly had nothing to do with healing her, he is the one who had told me to just let her die, that she was too weak to be of any use.

"Well, if it's not Dream Smoke then what the hell is it?" Orpheus gives me a brief annoyed look before looking back at Maeve with curiosity.

"I don't know, but I will find out. Hurry, go get the rich vassal, he should be the perfect one to test the smoke on." I release out an annoyed breath, sick of Orpheus' endless mocking words.

"He's not my vassal, he's my friend, and no, I am not going to grab him to try this smoke on, surely there is a better way to do this." The look of annoyance is longer this time, but I expected as much.

"Friend, vassal, he spends his money to buy you things, to please you, if it wasn't for the fact that I can't smell any pheromones when he is close to you, I would think he was in love with you, but since you'd rather not use him, I suppose we have no other choice, I had thought to spare you from this, but you refused to use the foolish human who trails behind you with no use, so I guess I am forced to employ other methods." A glimmering cloud of black smoke and suddenly the fox has disappeared, and a handsome man is in his place, but the black claws on his fingers and his black fox ears on the top of his head tell me that even in human form not all of the fox is gone, not if he chose not to appear completely human, and he had no reason to hide his true nature from me.

A wave of his fingers and my head is immediately pushed to go above Maeve, making me directly inhale the smoke. "What are you doing!" I struggled to move away, but whatever energy he is using to hold me down, holds firm.

"Testing the smoke, isn't obvious? Tell me do you feel short of breath, is your heart pounding, your mind going fuzzy?" He sounds so eager, but all I feel is annoyance for being held like this.

"No! All I want is for you to let me go." He sighs and releases me, and I go flying back to my seat once the energy holding me down disappears.

"Pity, I thought it might be toxic, though maybe because you are contracted to her, it doesn't affect you, there is hope yet that it is deadly." He sounds so excited to find out if the smoke is deadly or not, and if it really is, all I hoped for is for him to inhale some right now.

"Your wish is my command, Mistress." I glance down at Maeve in horror, as she swishes her tail and a cloud of smoke goes directly at Orpheus' face, he sputters and chokes in surprise, his pupils dilating visibly, showing that while the smoke had had no effect on me, it is having a very noticeable one on him.

"Oh no! What did you do to him, Maeve!" She sits down observing him calmly as the strange clear but slightly iridescent smoke still rises slightly off her fur.