Needle and Thread

Goblet of Fire

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It took a little longer than Winter had predicted to get them to their destination. Almost the entire time, Roxy concentrated on bringing as much luck as she could from the surrounding creatures to envelop them. Had anybody been able to look at the world the way she did, they would have seen a glowing force field surrounding the group, made up of constantly shifting strands of Luck.

She ceased talking almost entirely. Talking took up too much energy. As soon as they got done with the long day's walking, doggedly climbed the nearest tree, and fell asleep, where nightmares seemed to consume her. The next morning, she would wake up before everyone else, and check on how much luck they lost. Every morning, she got up earlier and earlier, and every new day her friends found it easier to travel. On the night that Roxy first ceased sleeping, Nereida's migraine went away, and Roxy began to fall behind the group. She caught herself as she nearly fell asleep and returned to her normal place just behind Lyra, who glanced back at her worriedly. That evening, there was much whispering before the night's stop, and everyone sat down in a circle and forced Roxy into the center.

"We're going to play Hot Seat tonight," Lyra said. "Also known as, this is an intervention."

Roxy looked blearily up at her. She couldn't speak. She was too tired...

"Roxy, you need to sleep," Benny said. "Like, now."

Roxy shook her head. With much effort, she croaked, "The Luck..."

"Is that what you've been doing?!" Winter said. "Concentrating Luck on us?!"

Roxy nodded.

"Sleep now, really angry lecture in the morning," Benny decided. "I should have noticed this earlier."

"Nightmares," Roxy said.

"Yeah, you have PTSD. But you're so tired, I doubt they'll come."

Ananda scooched in, closer to Roxy, and held her hand. "You can sleep," she said. "You will be okay. We will make sure of it."

"No..."

"Roxy, let us help you, dammit!" Lyra barked.

"N..." Roxy was holding back tears.

"That's it, I'm tired of this schist," Andesine said, and everything went black.

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Benny watched as Andesine withdrew his hand, which had just finished clouting Roxy on the back of the head. "What? She needed it."

He just sighed tiredly. "I guess that's one way to do it," he said. "Well, I guess we can camp here for the night. But we're going to have to camp on the ground, which is... bad?"

"Very," Winter said. "Scavengers are everywhere. It would basically be like fighting a battle, except against a hundred thousand giant cockroaches and flies in the middle of the night, all night."

"Oh. Great." Lyra looked around. "And without Roxy's Luck spell, that's probably going to happen?"

"Almost definitely," Winter replied.

"The best thing we can do is find a cave," Ananda said.

"Good thing Winter's got a map,"Lyra said cheerfully.

"There aren't any caves near here," Winter replied almost immediately. "I checked."

"Huh. Well, let me try... this!" Lyra said, brandishing the Rowling key. "Luna'll be able to help. Just you watch."

"Heck yes! I get to watch the Gatekeeper in action!" Nereida said.

Lyra ginned, and with a bit more flourishing than was necessary, summoned Luna.