We forged ahead until dusk, the oranges and pinks of the setting sun breaking through the trees like watercolors. I only nibbled on a bit of chocolate the entire day, did not talk to Hesper at all—thankfully—and was exactly one more minute away from pulling out my hair and running naked into the woods at the intrusive thoughts of being killed in my sleep tonight. The logical part of my brain told me,Moss Wood is safe, I might as well be sleeping in my cottage tonight, but Ludwig’s stories of shadows and chasms and other unnamable horrors were taking up residence and drowning out my sense of reason.
I’d fallen into a wickedly awful mood by nightfall. Warty crawled into my pack, which now felt like a huge boulder on my shoulders, and I was prepping to throw the nearest rock at Hesper’s head when she stopped in a small clearing. She placed her pack on the ground. Our camp for the night.
The ground. Surrounded by a canopy of trees. Lovely on any day other than this one. Hunger gnawed at my insides and into my sanity.
“Stay here,” Hesper whispered and disappeared into the trees.
Excellent. Whatever terrors lay in wait could come and get me right here, right now.
This is why I’m always partaking in tiny sustenance throughout the day. Three meals are simply not enough. If I don’t feed the monster within me, it rages and makes me into an impetuous, whiny imp.
An ominouscracksounded from behind me, and I jumped back against a tree. Moss Wood was home to mostly woodland creatures; everything was fine. Anothercrack, this one echoing eerily into the silent wood.
Everything was not fine.
I threw my pack to the ground, stuffing the seed pack into my bodice and grabbing the only weapon I’d brought with me: my knitting needles. I held them feebly out in front of me, scanning the tree line for any sign of the attacker.
“Having fun, princess?”
I yelped and fell onto the ground. Hesper appeared from behind the tree I’d sequestered against.
“Don’t scare me like that!” I screamed. Hesper put a finger up to her mouth, motioning for me to be quiet. And I should have, but I was hungry and not thinking clearly. “You”—I pointed an accusing knitting needle up at her—“you just left me out here in the woods and then snuck up on me. What do you expect me to do?”
She stood over me now, two dead rabbits in one hand, her crossbow in the other. I hadn’t even noticed she had them until now. How had she already hunted and killed in the mere moments she was gone?
“Look, princess, I got you dinner, okay? Maybe that will put you in a better mood. But let me tell you something.” She straddled my legs and squatted, leaning in close to my face. “I’m the most dangerous thing in these woods.” Her eyes dropped to my mouth and then back up to my gaze.
I gulped.
“Do you know how to start a fire?” She released me from her straddle, but I stayed on the forest floor, dazed and slightly aroused but ignoring it as I do most unpleasant things.
“I do,” I replied curtly.
“Then make yourself useful and get one going. I’ll prep dinner.” She said itsohappily. Like we were on a damned adventure for leisure out in the woods.
“Make myselfuseful? Asshole,” I spat.
She ignored me.
Warty crawled back out of the pack and sat atop a mossy rock, a giant cracker held between his paws. I got the fire blazing in no time, feeling slightly proud of myself. The kindling was damp because everything in Moss Wood was slightly wet, but I made do anyhow, letting a little bit of my magic dry out the grass into hay. I might as well use it before I lost it entirely.
Hesper set up the dinner-cooking station: two sticks, a piece of string, and a pot hung in between. My stomach growled loudly, and I gave due thought to gnawing on the pot.
“I see your magic is still working,” Hesper said as she laid the rabbits in the sizzling pot.
“We are still in Moss,” I replied curtly, poking at the heating embers.
“And the difference between you having magic and not having magic is a matter of a few days’ journey?” she asked, eyes still on the rabbits.
“Yes.” I poked the embers too harshly, scattering a few to the wind, their spark snuffed out. “And before you ask, ‘How do you know?’ I have experienced what it feels like to walk out of Moss and know my magic bottomed out.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“You’ll just keep asking me even if I don’t.” Her wicked grin was answer enough.
“Whenever I traveled to Idle Woods to retrieve the pine for the Celebration, I would pass the sign saying that I left Moss and this sensation of emptiness would creep in. No matter how hard I tried outside of Moss’s boundaries, I could neverget the magic to do anything. Once I saw the sign that told me home was near, my magic filled up again.”
Hesper remained quiet, flipping the sizzling rabbits over.
