Lady Of The Ice And Wood

Chapter 7: Eilywig

Lily woke up with a groan. Her head was pounding and she felt as if she was sick. She tried to sit up and look around at her surroundings but found that she didn't need to. She was sure she was in the room she was given in the Wood court again. How did I get here? Lily didn't know. I thought I was visiting that old Elf? And then it all came back to Lily. How she was supposed to be The Catalyst or whatever. How she was a hybrid half-ice half-wood Elf. "At least now I know why water always freezes when I touch it and why I can talk to animals," she muttered to herself. She tried to get out of bed, but she was so weak from the shock that she could barely move her limbs. A moan escaped her lips, and suddenly, Jack was barging into her room.

"Lily! Lily, are you okay?" He quickly ran over to her and felt her forehead. "Your temperature is completely normal. Tell me, where does it hurt?"

Lily giggled at Jack's worried face. He was usually such a calm, goofy guy. His worried expression made Lily laugh so much, that she nearly rolled off of the bed. "Jack," she managed to gasp out between laughs, "You know I can't get sick. I've never been sick in my entire life, remember?"

Jack wasn't laughing. He looked at her with such a grave expression, Lily had to stop laughing. "You might never have had a cold before, but you can get sick from other things than cold. Besides, it's not like you're immortal. You could get killed, you know."

"What do you mean, get killed, silly? I wasn't in any danger."

"So then explain to me why you fainted on that chair with tears still falling down your cheeks."

Lily couldn't meet his eyes. She had been warned not to tell anyone. She wanted to tell Jak, she knew she could trust him with her life. But there was still a nagging part of her brain that told her she should keep it to herself. "Well...That old Elf was telling me a sad story. So I fell asleep to the sound of his voice." It was a terrible lie, and she knew it. Lily had never needed to lie to Jack before, her closest friend. She felt horrible, but she was scared of what or who could be spying on her, listening in on her and Jack's conversations. For all she knew, Nathaniel was in her room, staring at them while he was invisible.

Jack looked at her, concerned. "Lily, you know you can tell me anything right? Whatever it was, you can tell me. And if you want help killing the old fart, I'll help you."

Lily looked away, and muttered, "Yeah. It's just...Nevermind. Tell you some other time."

"What is it? You can tell me. We have lots of time."

"Tell you another time. I promise, okay?"

"Fine. But I'm not leaving you until I know you're okay."

Lily rolled her eyes at Jack, and with a smile, she said, "I'm starving. Let's go get some food."

They spent what felt like hours to Lily roaming the castle corridors of the Wood court. The twisting corridors looked all exactly the same, and Lily could almost swear they passed the same corridors several times before they finally reached the kitchen.

The kitchen was enormous, with marble floors and counters, and wooden refrigerators. It positively gleamed because of how clean it was. The aromas wafting from it was so delicious, Lily walked straight into a chef working there.

"Oops! Sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you!"

He chuckled, and said, "It's fine, it's fine. How about you taste test some new recipes for me to apologize? And you too, boy."

"Yes, please!" Lily and Jack cried in unison. They were whisked into the kitchen, where they were given purple pancakes, fist-sized boiled eggs with a red yolk,  spotted blue mushroom soup, and much more unnameable foods. Lily and Jack ate as if they had been starved for weeks; each dish was more delicious than the last. They ate until they could eat no more, finally stopping after a good forty-five minutes.