A Wicca's Tale Book One: Beautiful Magic

Festival

Chapter Four: Festival

I felt awful. My head hurt and my mouth was as bitter as poison. Ugh, I thought, What died in my mind? I slowly opened my eyes and took in the light of the room, it was about noon, I estimated. I looked down at the bed and nearly had a heart attack. Luna’s face was only a little away from mine and she was breathing softly into my hair. I sat up quickly to get away from her and, in the process, jostled the bed. Her eyes snapped open. He groggily rubbed them and looked at me.

“So, you’re awake,” I said sleepily even though I knew I had woken her.

“Stop shouting!” she croaked clutching her head.

“Luna, I’m not shouting I’m whispering. Geez, you really can’t hold your liquor can you?”

As she sat up, she looked at me and her mouth dropped open, “Why is your shirt not on?” she asked blushing ferociously and averting my eyes.

“It got hot in the middle of the night so I took it off,” I said, “I hope it doesn’t bother you.”

“No, its ok.” she mumbled and winced. “Why does my head hurt so much?”

“You drank a lot,” I said, “the alcohol affects your head. If you don’t drink light enough, you get a killer headache the next day. Luckily enough I have enough exposure to alcohol that I don't have one.” I got up off the bed and started searching for her shirt and shoes. “Here’s your shirt,” I said tossing her the over shirt she'd worn the day before.

“Thanks,” she said and then quickly looked down at herself. “Wait, didn’t you stop me from taking this off last night?”

“Um, yeah, about that,” I said flushing slightly. “Like I said, it got hot in the middle of the night. You woke up, started complaining, and then when it didn’t get any better you started taking off your clothes. I stopped you before it got too serious but, you fell back asleep without putting the shirt back on.”

“Oh,” she said looking confused. Blushing again she pulled the shirt over her head. “Sorry, I don’t remember that.”

“It’s fine,” I said, “I rather you didn’t remember it actually. I said a few choice words that might’ve offended you.”

“Still,” she said tugging on the shirt. “Sorry, it won’t happen again. I barely remember anything from last night.”

“Really? Not even the women that were so obviously attracted to you that I had to step in with a variety of weapons?”

“I don’t recall a variety of weapons, but I do remember something along those lines.” She stood up and pulled the covers off of her legs then yelped and pulled them back. She was beet red as she looked at me. "Where. Are. My. Pants." she said staring at me with murder in her eyes.

She wasn't wearing pants! I didn't remember her taking those off, not that I would've minded but---

"Where have you put my pants you low-life bastard," she snarled.

"Calm down Luna," I said turning away from the bed and her accusing face, "I didn't take them, you probably kicked them off in the middle of the night without me noticing." Quickly I spotted them on the ground not far from the bed and handed them to her. "There, I told you I didn't---."

"Oh, just turn around Gabriel," she said rolling her eye. I obliged and soon heard her leave the bed and walk over to the basin to splash some water in her face. As soon as she was done, she said,  “Hey, isn’t there an ale festival in town today?”

“Yeah,” I said, “but you’re definitely not going. You had way too much last night to even think about---“

“No,” she interrupted again, “but this would be a good chance to see if people think I’m a boy.”

"I think that was proved last night with those girls," I said, "They thought you were a boy. If any of the townspeople think you’re girl, there might be something wrong with them." I remembered vividly the way they had stroked our legs and whispered lustful things in our ears.

"Ha-ha." she said sarcastically. "We're going to the festival. It would be a good cultural opportunity for me anyway."

I sighed and put my hand through my hair. It would be a good idea to test out her disguise in the day-light especially since we would be mingling through people a lot now. "Fine," I said, "It's your funeral, but if there's even the slightest hint of trouble, we need to skip town."

"Agreed. Now could you please get me some wormwood?”

“Wormwood? What do you need that for?” I asked innocently, as if I didn't know the answer already.

“To cure my headache,” she said. “If I mix it with some other plants, I could get rid of the headache and make it so that if I drink more I won’t wake up with another.”

“Nice,” I said. “When you’re finished, could you give me some?”

“I thought you said you didn’t have a headache.”

“I lied.”

The festival was a noisy, crowded place. There were at least three times as many men as women and all the women there looked only like they wanted to be there to ‘save’ a drunken man. As Luna and I walked through the crowd, she nearly got knocked over five times, and each time I had to reach out a hand to save her. “You need to be more careful,” I said. We had only entered the festival five minutes ago and already I could barely hear or see almost anything.

“Sorry,” she replied, “I’m just looking around. There must be at least ten times more people here then in my town back home.”

“Wow, you really have never left home have you?” I asked while pulling her aside to one of the tables set out on the grass.

“Well can you blame me?” she said glancing around at the crowd, “There’s way too many people here. The size of it is…suffocating.”

I stared Luna, I could see what she was talking about, but knowing everyone in your villiage could have extreme consequences, as if I didn't know. “So what exactly are we doing here?” I asked.

“I am pretending to be a boy and gaining experience from watching you.”

“Why? So you can have another hot date?”

“No”, she said glaring at me, “So we can avoid the Fraters de Fax. Actually, I want you to warn me in case the girls are here. I don’t really want to run into them again.”

“Well then why the hell are you here!” I exclaimed. “You know they’re going to be looking for you!”

“True,” she said, “But this time I’ll be prepared to---“

“Luke!”

We turned around and saw Dido. “Uh, hi.” I said trying to hide my scared expression.

“Adamma, Erica, Lucile, Clarme! Come here!” Dido grinned and started to run. She threw her arms around Luna's waist and hugged her. “I knew you would come to see us!” The other girls appeared around the corner and began to advance.

Adamma walked uncomfortably close to me. Like Dido, she hugged me a little too tightly. I could feel her breath stir my hair and her hands slide down a little from my waist. “We didn’t think we were going to find you girls.” I said.

“Uh, yes,” Luna said detangling herslef from Dido. At this Erica grinned a little and slunk a little closer to her.

“So good to see you in the daylight, Gabriel.” Clarme said. She walked past Adamma and went to my other side hooking her arm through mine.

I swallowed and tried to smile, “So shall we take a tour?”