Put back together

23. Killing Bumblebees with Silver Blades

Tw: Talk of death and murder

Roman woke up early the next morning, which was surprising because of two reasons.

One, because he was sure that it had been long after midnight when he had fallen asleep and two, because he hadn't expected to actually survive falling asleep in this forest.

He sat up, ignoring the pain in his neck for now, and scanned the small clearing.

Patton was curled up tightly under one of the blankets, still sleeping.

Logan was still asleep as well, with his blanket wrapped around him and his book bag serving as a makeshift pillow.
Roman was pretty sure that that couldn't be very comfortable.

Virgil was slumped against a tree, his lantern lightly in his grip. The flame was yellow now, but still not the colour a flame was supposed to be.
Roman wondered if there was any pattern or reason to the colours or if they just changed because Virgil had felt like enchanting a lantern at some point.
He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask the mage but after the way he had reacted when Roman had asked about the mage responsible for the mess that were these Islands he had decided to be more careful with them.

There were no other living beings on the small clearing they had chosen to sleep in.

Roman let his gaze wander towards the shadows of the trees.

Five red eyes stared back.

They blinked individually but Roman could make out the shape of the creature.

It had one small head, with its eyes scattered across it as if someone had dropped a handful onto it with little care for how they landed.
Its torso looked human like, if you ignored the many arms on its back.

Roman felt frozen in place.

The creature blinked again. This time in a different order.

Roman blinked.

The creature lunged.

It crashed against an invisible wall and snarled loudly.

Roman stumbled backwards.

What the hell?!

The creature growled and clawed at the air somehow unable to come closer.

To his feet Roman could hear Logan and Patton begin to stir.

"Mhm," Virgil mumbled suddenly standing next to him. "It's been a while since I've seen one of those."

"What is that?!" Patton exclaimed and scrambled to his feet, the moment he saw the monster.

"I call them Karen, cause they're hella annoying," Virgil yawned seemingly unconcerned. "No need to freak out. She can't get through the barrier anyway and she only eats plants. Used to be a bumblebee."

"That thing used to be  a bumblebee?" Logan asked wide eyed.

"But bumblebees are small," Patton whispered, " and fluffy and adorable and peaceful and..."

He trailed off.

Virgil shrugged.

"The curse just brought out the worst in everything affected."

Roman hadn't believed that the Cursed Islands had used to be beautiful until this point. But if that curse had turned a small insect into the terrifying thing infront of him... what had it done to the Islands themselves?
And what had it done to the people who had lived here?
Why would anybody do something like this? What kind of monster had the mage been who had corrupted this place and created this death world?

Roman felt sick.

"We should get going," Virgil snapped him out of his thoughts. "It's no good to let yourself empathize with them. Believe me, it'll destroy you."

The prince forced himself to look away from the no longer bumblebee and instead focused on the mage. Virgil somehow looked even more tired and the question why he was living in a place like this came to mind again.

But he didn't ask.

They ate, packed up their things and left the clearing behind.

"Have you ever seen a cursed human around here?" Logan asked after a while.

Virgil only shook his head.

They walked in silence again after that and the need to say something burned on Roman's tongue like acid. But he couldn't seem to find anything appropriate or interesting enough.

The tension grew worse.

"Are there any bridges around here?" Patton suddenly asked, shattering the silence like a dropped plate.

Roman could have kissed him.

"Not really," Virgil said. "There are only a few safe ones left, but that shouldn't be a problem. Why?"

"I don't like bridges," the baker admitted. "They're scary."

"Have you crossed them often?"

"No. Not really," Patton leaned his head to the side slightly. "Actually never, before this journey. But by now it has been three times I think. Right?"

He turned to Roman.

"Yeah. Two bridges on the way to D'cal and one to get here," he confirmed.

"What about you?" Virgil asked, dark eyes focusing on Logan.

"This is my first time outside of Natica in general. I never had the opportunity to cross any bridges before, so I've only been over one."

"You're from Natica?"

"Yes, I am."

"Is it true that mages aren't allowed there?"

"Well, yes. Mages already are very powerful people and given the access to the library they could become unstoppable."

Virgil bit his thumb nail.

"You're aware that if a really powerful mage wanted to visit your little library there wouldn't be anything you could do to stop them, right?"

Logan frowned at the question:" What do you mean by that?"

Virgil gestured at the forest around them with the hand that wasn't holding the - by now dark purple - lantern.

It was answer enough.

"'Even a powerful mage can be killed with a silver blade'," Roman recalled what his father had told him a thousand times when he had been younger.

Virgil frowned at him.

"Silver is for monsters," he said.

Roman shrugged.

"It's a sallerowan saying. I didn't make it up. I know that silver is used for killing monsters."

"Would you use silver to kill me?" Virgil asked seriously.

Roman blinked in surprise.

"Your sword is silver, isn't it?" the mage added.

"I don't see why I should kill you in the first place!" Roman exclaimed. "And even if I had a reason, I wouldn't use silver! You're no monster!"

He wasn't sure if he imagined it or not but he could almost hear a "Good to know" coming form the mage.

"Your sword is silver?" Patton asked, clearly trying to change the direction this conversation was going.

Again Roman had the overwhelming urge to kiss the baker's perfect pink lips.

Again he resisted.

I wanted to put some things into perspective about the curse. The whole 'how would you kill me' just kinda happened.

As always, feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling errors!

Have a nice (gay) day!