PENUMBRA (how the flowers grow)

8. Mistletoe

"Affection, obstacles to be overcome, surmounting difficulties"

Tuluvey's back smarts, but in a somewhat pleasant way, the kind of ache that tells you just how hard you've been working. His head is fuzzy in that way that prolonged use of magic will do to a person. He dumps the bucket of fish out into a clean crate and puts his hands on the bucket, taking a moment to reinforce the spell with his magic on it. This particular spell is meant to keep things fresh. All he has to do is dump water and the fish in it. He couldn't cast this spell himself, but giving more energy is easy enough.

He hears a soft grunt and looks over as Sabina carries another crate into the kitchen. She pries it open and dumps the fish out into the charmed bucket. She sits on the crate and yawns.

"That's the last of it," she says.

"Ugh, good. We're going to be smelling like fish for longer than I'd like."

Sabina laughs softly. Gemma, the human woman who hired them, comes into the kitchen and looks at the crates and sighs.

"Oh, thank you two. This has taken a lot of work off my shoulders, that's for sure. I don't know what Ron was thinking, bringing back so much fish. Sixty-seven crates!" Gemma paces the room, muttering.

"It's no problem," Tuluvey tells her. Sabina echoes something of the same nature.

Gemma's son and daughter peek in the room before scampering off to do whatever it is two seven year old kids do. Gemma calls them back and pulls a sweet out of her pocket.

"Go find Atailya and ask her if she wants to buy some fish," she directs.

The children take their payment and run off, laughing. Tuluvey smiles. Sabina scratches her head.

"I can do the last one," Gemma says, looking a million kinds of relieved. She reaches into her apron pocket and pulls out a small velvety bag. "You two go have a nice dinner now. Thank you again."

She smiles. Sabina takes the bag of coin and Tuluvey wishes Gemma a lovely evening as they leave her soup kitchen. Outside, the sun is getting ready to set, but the sky hasn't started to change colors yet. The spring air is the perfect balance between warm and cold.

"How do you think Ron got that many fish?" Tuluvey asks. "He couldn't have possibly caught all those fish from the Rosin."

"Maybe he fought a river creature and all of those fish came out of it," Sabina suggests.

Tuluvey laughs. "There's no way Ron fought any sort of beast and won- no offence to Ron. I bet he bought a magical fishing rod from some sketchy witch."

"They'll have fish for life."

"That's truly the dream."

Sabina smiles. Tuluvey grins.

They go back to the tavern they've stayed at since they got here a few days ago and pay for some dinner. The tavern is noisy this time of night, as folks are starting to get drunk and have a break from whatever they did during the day. Tuluvey suggests going to eat in their room, and Sabina readily agrees.

They sit on the bed across from each other, various kinds of food spread out between them. Tuluvey takes off his shoes and Sabina begins unlacing her boots. He sits crisscross on the bed and Sabina follows suit. She pokes at the fish Gemma cooked for them with a fork, separating it into little chunks.