She lifted her own mug to her mouth and took a sip. She gestured at me with her raised elbow. “Lemongrass and mint, today. It’s good.”
I nodded slowly, watching her. Her green hair was weaved back into a tight braid, keeping it off her face and making her pointed ears more prominent. She also had a light cloak tossed over her shoulders, but where mine was brown, hers was a soft lilac color. Underneath, I could see the crisp white fabric of a tunic peeking out, as well as a long flowy skirt. Her eyelids were dusted with something shimmery. Crystal powder, maybe?
“Try it.”
I nodded again, but I slowly lifted the mug to my mouth, slow enough that she could stop me if she was joking. She didn’t.
I sipped the tea gently to avoid being burned. It was delicious. It tasted green, light and refreshing. The heat was a nice contrast to the cool morning air.
We sat in companionable silence for a while, watching the critters scurry by as we drank our teas. I pondered how she was going to ride a horse with a skirt and corset on, but I didn’t dare voice the question out loud. Surely, she had her ways.
The fluffy white cat I had seen around town sat across the park, perched on a bench. Watching. Its tail swished idly back and forth.
Kizzi pulled out a pouch from the bakery and reached inside, silently handing me a muffin with berry jam on top. I accepted it hesitantly. She scarfed her own muffin down with gusto, getting crumbs everywhere, which she idly brushed to the ground. Asquirrel ran between her feet to collect the crumbs. She sat perfectly still so as not to disturb the small critter.
I resisted the urge to bend down and attempt another pet. I enjoyed my muffin at a more leisurely pace, purposely dropping crumbs so the squirrels would come nearmyfeet instead.
Kizzi’s eyes flitted to my hands. “Your burns healed pretty nicely, didn’t they?”
I nodded, setting my breakfast aside and spreading my fingers so she could see my palms in their entirety. “They did. Not a single scar.”
“Wow,” Kizzi said appraisingly. “Not too bad for an apothecary witch.”
I cracked a smile. “Not too bad indeed. I didn’t even have to bother Velline at the healing clinic.”
She smiled back. “She wouldn’t have minded, but I’m glad we were able to take care of it.”
I nodded in agreement. “What do you say? Are we ready to start this journey?”
She stood, gathering our mugs and hoisting her bag onto her back. “I’m ready, let me just drop these mugs off and then we can head on our way. Hopefully they have two good horses at the stables right now.”
They did not have two good horses at the stables right now.
There was only one, and it was… scraggly. Tiny and brown and barely larger than a donkey. It looked like it would struggle to carry Kizzi—my weight would probably be enough to snap its poor back.
“Are you serious?” I asked the stablemaster—a fae man that looked to be around my age, just past his thirtieth year. “This is it?”
The man nodded. “This is it. Quite a few folk are traveling right now. The other horses are out on their journeys.”
“Moonvale really needs more horses,” I mumbled under my breath. Louder, I said, “Can it even make it through the Barren Lands? It looks fragile.”
The Barren Lands were the harsh, uninhabitable stretch of desert that separated Moonvale from the other towns in the realm of Aldova. The Barren Lands were dry, leeched of every ounce of magic. Legends described the Barren Lands (once known as The Wild Lands) as a thriving oasis, full of unique critters and the most beautiful foliage in the whole realm. When the Old Gods abandoned the realm so many lifetimes ago, they destroyed the magical soul of the oasis, leaving us with a desolate and deadly landscape.
“Um… maybe?” the boy said hesitantly.
“Maybe! I don’t feel great about that answer.” I sighed in exasperation.
“You are quite big… this horse usually carries smaller folk.”
“I can tell! It’s practically a mouse!”
I glanced at Kizzi to find her a few paces away, covering her mouth with her hands and trying to stifle her laughter. She was shaking with the effort. I glared at her.
“Oh, wait,” the man said. “I have an idea!” He bolted from the stables and around the back, disappearing from view.
Kizzi’s laughter slipped free with a wild, choked snort.
“You shut up!” I griped. “It’s not my fault that the only horse here is the size of a squirrel!”
