Beauty and the Magician (Tales of the Red Witch Book 1)

Chapter 29 - Fee fie foe fum... Dragon!

"I've been dying to try one of the fish pies from Mr. Larsen's stand. Toby says they're the best."

Rose tugged on Eben's arm as they strolled through the Hafenstadt market towards the pier. Ever since they said their apologies a few days ago and spent those hours talking about things that had nothing to do with a witch or a prince, tensions had eased and clouds had lifted around Other. Eben found himself utterly amazed at what a few words could do. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to entice her to stay and talk with him. Perhaps it just knew that she had a way of making him feel comfortable when she wasn't proding into his secrets. But knowing that he had already spilled his secret to her, he had little left to hide. It was actually sort of refreshing having someone who knew. Having someone who just accepted him for what he was.

He had indeed told her his age and was surprised to find out that she was only a few years younger than him. He had somehow thought her much older, she just had one of those personalities that made her seem so matronly. Always telling him what he should do and letting him know when he was acting like a turniphead.

He supposed he was still acting like a turniphead. He had not yet made any further action to fix his mistakes, nor had he really put any thought into it. But he had promised himself that he would tomorrow. He tried not to think about how he had been promising himself that he would look into it tomorrow for the past three days.

At breakfast, Rose had admitted that she had yet to walk down to the pier and really see the ocean face to face. Eben found himself appalled at such an admission. How could one live in Hafenstadt and ignore the beautiful bay? He offered to take her, and it wasn't entirely because he was avoiding certain other things. He promised that he might even be able to get a friend to let them up on a boat. Her excitement at the prospect made all his concerns about Andri and Demelza melt away for one brief blissful moment.

Amazingly, for some reason, Toby had not begged to come along. Eben pondered for a moment that either he must be sick or up to something. But then he thought it best to just accept his good luck and go with it. And so he had hooked her paw on his arm and escorted her out the door.

"Well, why haven't you?" He smiled genuinely at her. He did quite a lot of that lately. It was quite out of character for him but he found himself unable to stop when he was in her company. When she wasn't yelling at him, he found the things that tumbled from her mouth to be quite irreverent and amusing.

"Because the only money I have is what I find while cleaning up after the two of you. And really, you both should keep better track of your coins. I find them, literally everywhere. Just yesterday, I pulled three coppers from the tub drain. Why would anyone have coppers in the tub? Where would you even keep them?" She raised her hands in exasperation.

He laughed and allowed her to pull him along. He bought them both pies and directed her down the sloping road which led down to the pier. The day was overcast but warm and pleasant. The birds chattered above and the smell of the salty fishy bay was all around them. It was perfect. It was everything Eben loved about his home town and the slight bounce in her step told him that she loved it too. It was a thought that warmed him.

Rose froze suddenly at his side.

"What is it?" He turned his head down to look at her at his side. She lifted her head and looked up at the sky with a quizzical furrow between her brows. Her large ears twitched indicating that she had heard something.

He followed her line of sight and saw the shadow pass overhead masked by the clouds and fog. An uneasy feeling shot through him. He had seen shadows like that before. They would occasionally pass over Other, but to see one so far south...