A Kind of Magic

Forty-Six

Fiona was up and dressed, feeling strangely at home in this place that looked like it belonged into a fictional world of some novel she had read, with a single candle burning tremulously in the chamber filled with predawn darkness and the soft breathing of Freddie and her mother, when Annwyn knocked on the door on her way downstairs, to summon her to make her bread. 

"Good morning," she said, turning to Fiona from the row of candles she was lighting as she walked along the corridor. The half dragon's face was positively glowing with love and happiness in the flickering, golden light, and the feeling spreading to Fiona on the scent of melting wax made her lips turn up into a content smile. She felt happy for Annwyn and Leodhais; they both seemed to have found exactly what they needed in each other. 

"Just... don't say anything," Annwyn said seriously but couldn't stop a smile from blossoming on her lips as she laced her arm through Fiona's and led her towards the staircase. "Leodhais is still asleep, and so is everyone else," she added. "We'll bake the bread and prepare breakfast before we wake them up. Luckily, no guests apart from you all stayed for the night, we have the inn to ourselves until my helpers come in a couple of hours, when we usually open."

Fiona was glad it was only their group for the moment too, she felt awkward enough last night with the people looking at her as a princess, their future queen. Getting used to that was the most difficult part of this adventure so far; she needed time to come to terms with it.

"So where will we sleep tonight?" she asked, her adventurous spirit awaking along with her mind as the two women entered the kitchen.

The large room was permeated with the pleasant scent of bread dough, making Fiona feel even more at home. Annwyn revived the banked fire, adding few pieces of wood to the cinders and helping them catch fire with the candles in the candelabra she was carrying, while Fiona retrieved her dough and spilled it directly onto a bread shovel she spotted, propped against the wall right next to the fireplace, burned around the edges by the often use. She rinsed her hands in a bowl of water Annwyn passed her, then levelled the surface of her flat bread and made holes in it with her fingers, before sprinkling it with oil, salt crystals and fresh rosemary she noticed last light, stuffed in a vase with many other herbs.

"That's interesting," Annwyn muttered as she observed her, then, leaving Fiona to shove the bread into the flames alone, she walked off to pack their other provisions into fabric sacks that could be comfortably placed into saddle bags when the men arrived. "I've never made bread like this. Anyway... If we are still in Draconia by sunset, then we will probably spend the night in an inn. If we'll have crossed into Goblinica, though, we'll most likely sleep outside. Peregrine doesn't trust the goblins."

"Why?" Fiona asked, pulling her focaccia out of the fireplace to inspect it, then shoving it back; it needed a few more minutes to become soft but crisp at the same time, the way she liked it.

"You better ask him. I've never travelled beyond Draconia, and I've only met a handful of goblins in my life. Just like the dwarves, they lack the adventurous spirit to become travellers," Annwyn said, then added even as Fiona removed the bread from the reach of the flames and slid it off the pan onto a large wooden cutting board she spotted on the table. It filled the air around them with the homely, familiar scent of fresh bread and rosemary, making her heart soar when a new scent mingled with it, announcing Peregrine's approach before he could reach her, making her breath catch by placing his hand on the small of her back, in a way that Annwyn couldn't see it.

"Oh, here you are," Annwyn said. "I was just about to tell Fiona that her clothes are the best she can wear for the day spent on horseback, I myself start the journey in my male clothes."

The half elf looked at her jeans appreciatively, the glimpse of Annwyn's pointed ears as she adjusted a strand of her silky black hair making Fiona smile. Annwyn was such an intriguing being.