Everlast: Story of the Horizon

Chapter Five

The next day, we all felt tired. The night before was far more eventful than we were used to. Of course, we'd been helping set up for the feast so our energy levels had already been pretty worn down. Even Eve and Ezra, who were normally morning people, had a hard time getting up.

Grandma Esmie tried for a good ten minutes to rouse me from my sleep, but ended up using the smell of food. (That almost always worked. Trying to master magic burns calories!)

She must have noticed something wrong because she kept asking if I wanted any hail berries. Normally she reserved those for her pies or drinks.

After scarfing down my breakfast and tying back my mess of red hair, I ran off to find my friends. We'd planned to meet by the water this time, rather than outside of the barrier. With people running around the village today, it would be harder to sneak off than normal.

When I got there, Ezra, Blaine and Eve were all waiting, feet dipped in the water.

Eve's hair was tied back like mine, not much effort behind making it look good. Ezra's hair was haphazardly brushed back which didn't look bad, but he put a lot less effort into it than normal. Blaine's hair was too short to be much different, but I could swear his shirt was on backwards.

"I'm not sure I even really slept last night." Blaine said, dark circles under his eyes to prove his point.

"It was kinda hard for me." Ezra sighed, rubbing his shoulder.
"That thing gave me a decent bruise. Not comfortable to lay on."

I walked over, pulling their attention from the conversation.

"Oh, good morning, Jay!" Eve smiled as brightly as she could, but even she looked tired from the night before.

"Morning." I replied with a small grin and plopped down between Eve and Blaine.

"You sleep okay?" Ezra asked, looking up at me with hazel eyes.

"Eh, sure. After I actually passed out." I shrugged.
"It was hard at first. I was too wired. After that, Grandma Esmie had a hard time waking me up."

Blaine snickered and Ezra chuckled.

"You always were a pretty heavy sleeper." Ezra teased.

My cheeks puffed and I could only imagine how red I was.
"Shut up. I'm not that bad."

"Maybe not, but there were a few times you almost slept as hard as Blaine."

"Hey!" Blaine protested loudly, only for moments of silence to follow.
"Okay, yeah. I like to sleep."

I had to fight back a snicker at Blaine's reaction. Ezra and Eve both just grinned. The banter helped to ease ourselves after last night.

"So, anyone know where Raven is?" Eve asked, looking to me.

I shook my head and shrugged.
"I didn't see her on my way here. She might've stayed up too late reading again."

At least, that's what I'd hoped. Whatever attacked us last night made it hard for all of us to sleep.

"Yeah, we'll let her rest. Tonight is the feast, after all." Ezra stretched his arms over his head, letting out a yawn.

"No need." A voice piped up from behind.

Looking back, we saw Raven walking out from the trees. She looked tired, like the rest of us, but a little more put together than we were.

"I didn't sleep. I was trying to find any sort of text that would tell me what that thing was." She said while taking a seat in the grass on the other side of Ezra.
"No such luck."