The Witching Hour (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 9

After a few hours, I made us stop. I didn't feel like walking anymore, and the little sun shining through was getting to me. I waved a hand at Marak. "Troglodyte, please." Marak bowed his head and left swiftly.

I let myself collapse onto the grass. Allen sat beside me, a little bit more graciously. "Tired?"

I closed my eyes. "Not in the mood to talk."

I felt him scoot closer to me. "Come on, Faeryn. Maybe I should call you Fae?"

"Allen."

"Fae is a pretty name, don't you think? I think I'll just call you Fae."

I groaned and fell onto my side. "Why do you try to annoy me?"

I felt his hand on my back. I flinched. "Do I really annoy you that much?"

I nodded, but I didn't move away. Perhaps I going crazy from stress. That must be it.

"You've grown bolder with me," I muttered, but he didn't hear me. Allen shifted his position a little bit, getting even closer to me. He didn't remove his hand, but I didn't care anymore. I guess it felt kind of nice. The sun warming me a bit, the breeze rippling the grass and leaves, the safety coming from Allen. It was nice enough for me to nap.

It still felt like that when I woke up, but my stomach was what woke me up. I sat up slowly, slightly disappointed that Allen wasn't beside me still. I shook my head, trying to get rid of the feeling. I rubbed my eyes and looked up. The first thing I saw was Marak tearing apart a Troglodyte. I frowned. Not the best thing to see right when you wake up. I smelled the next thing before I saw it. Allen sat beside a fire (did he build it himself?) and watched as parts of a Troglodyte roasted above the flame. I sniffed the air again. Does roasted spider really smell this good?

I crawled over to Allen. He glanced over at me. "About time you woke up, Sleeping Beauty."

I refused to say anything. If he didn't get a reaction, he might stop. I hoped. I stopped beside him. "You started a fire."

Allen nodded. "Yeah, I did. Is that a problem?"

I shook my head. "No, I just didn't know that you could."

"I'm not helpless just because I don't have magic, Faeryn."

I frowned and began to take the meat away from the fire so that it could cool. "I never said that. Normal people are just at a disadvantage. Things that are simple for us can't be done by you, so we make sure that we don't overestimate others. That would be unfortunate for us. Besides, you have magic. Everyone does. It's a matter of controlling it. I, however, have no magic at the time being."

Allen raised an eyebrow at me. "You always overcomplicate things. Enough with the normal humans and witches. We both can't use magic, whether one of us has it or not. We're both humans, okay?"

I began to rip meat off the stick that it was roasting on. I handed Allen some before eating my own handful.

I chewed in silence. I was having a conversation in my head with myself on why people didn't eat spiders when Allen interrupted my thoughts. "I'm stumping you, aren't I? You aren't retorting anymore."

I gulped down the meat. "I don't really have the energy to respond anymore, Allen."

He tilted his head to look down at me better. "I guess you don't look all that great."