To Be Determined

Chapter Twenty: Oceans and Trees

The icy wind felt as jagged on my cheeks as the rocks that filled the inoperable beach. I pulled my jacket tight against my body and stared out into the sea from the comfort of my back patio. It was an especially gusty day, a storm is threatening to blow in from the west, directly over the large body of water. Belladonna rests next to my leg, not impressed by the chill in the air.

After the dust had settled, Iliad and I had decided that we would move to Beechhaven. Property value on the shore had tanked after the corpses started floating ashore. Of course, that changed after an anonymous source tipped off the police about the organization in Springdale. As it turns out, mob bosses had been using the people who could not pay them back, as well as common criminals to feed its citizens. It was an entire scandal, but after the bodies had ceased to wash ashore the property value shot back up again.

Their population is high enough that they have operable clinics despite the magic population being skeptical of our form of medicine. Despite that, people still needed bones reset, they had heart attacks, they took preventative medications, and as Iliad has found there is a real need for mental health intervention. He has focused more on psychiatric medicine, working alongside general physicians and therapists to improve the lives of others. He is happy with work in a way that I have not seen before.

The sunrise was beautiful. All shades of yellow and orange, even peach blended to make a picture-perfect sky. Now the sky filled with the dark clouds that rolled in from the other side of the world. I hear the glass door begin to slide open from behind me. My heart races as I flip around, only to see Iliad peak his head through.

"Is this what you do all day? Stare forebodingly at the sky and dream about me? Count the seconds until I am in your arms once more? Write, or perhaps improvise a soliloquy or two while staring into the receding tide?"

"Is that what you do when I'm away?"

"Well no, I am a busy man, you see. I do not have the time for such pleasantries."

"Apart from two call shifts a month you work 8-4's. That's pretty standard."

"Yeah whatever, I brought you some of those muffins that you like."

"Well, why didn't you open with that?" I push my way past him and head straight for the kitchen island where a dozen glazed orange sunshine muffins await. Bell seems relieved to feel the cut of the icy wind be replaced by the warmth of the house. Iliad chuckles a little and grabs the half-gallon of lactose-free whole milk from the fridge as I take a huge bite out of the first muffin.

"You know what you remind me of right now?"

"I swear to whoever is listening if you remind me of that one time that you caught me eating a rotisserie chicken with my bare hands in my parked car then I'm going to throw this muffin at you."

"Okay never mind then." He holds back a smile. He pours a couple of glasses for us and grabs his muffin. It looks much smaller in his hands than it does mine. "Is your brother still coming over for dinner tonight?"

"It's a waxing gibbous moon tonight isn't it?" I bend down and offer a bit of muffin to Bell. Since it is not a delicious cricket, she snuffs it.

"I have no clue, whatsoever. That isn't something that people typically think about regularly. I have no idea how you keep up with this stuff."

"It's easy, the best night to begin an adventure is during a new moon on a clear night, it's like a fresh beginning of sorts. So about eleven days after a new moon is a good breaking point for an adventure."

"Well okay then." He says with the finishing bite of his first muffin.

"Fine, I have it written down on a calendar, are you happy?"