RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and y-Six - Dawn of a New Day

  “Wake up!”

  I blinked as I sat up in a vaguely-familiar bed. “Huh?” I asked.

  Amaryllis was above me, talons on hips and frame bent so that her face was close to mine. “I said wake up, we o start getting ready.”

  “Huh?” I gnced around. My inn room was still dark, the only light ing in from some nterns in the main room. The world outside the window was that blue-bck that the sky took ohe sun was sidering ing up. “Wha’ time’s it?”

  “It’s time for you to get up a ready,” Amaryllis said. “The summit is today.”

  “But it’s still dark out?” I asked. The fusion of sleep was wearing off, only to be repced by other, new fusions.

  She sniffed. “Obviously. e on, we don’t have all day!” With that she stomped out of the room. A moment ter I heard her telling Awen to wake up from the room over.

  Yawning so hard my jaw ached, I stretched my arms out over my head, then shifted so that I was sitting on the edge of my bed. I was very muht-eyed and bushy tailed. I was more... blurry-eyed, and my tail was sleep-squished.

  I stood up, ran my hand through my hair--which was getting pretty long, I’d o see about cutting it--then I stumbled out of the room and into the main lounge area. The desks covered in Amaryllis’ papers had moved; so had all of the papers stacked on them.

  Amaryllis stepped out of Awen’s room looking like she was caught somewhere between smug and nervous. “Hey, Amaryllis,” I started. “When did you go to sleep?”

  “Sleep?” she asked.

  “Amaryllis, you did sleep, right?”

  She huffed at me. “As if I had time for something like that. Do you have any idea how much work there is left to do still?”

  “But you need sleep,” I said.

  “I sleep ohe summit is over. And it will be over soon,” she said. “Why aren’t you dressed yet?”

  I gnced out of the window. “Because it’s still nighttime?”

  “Hmm, yes, you might get your dress dirty. No, wait, you could just it off! That’s no excuse! Go get dressed Broccoli.” Amaryllis scurried off to her own room, the door clig shut behind her.

  I turo find Awen leaning against the doorframe of her own room. “She’s lost her mind,” Awen said.

  “Maybe the stress is getting to her,” I said. It wasn’t quite an agreement, but it wasn’t far from one. “I’ll ambush her with a hug once she’s out of her room.”

  “I think she needs more than a hug,” Awen said. “More like a vacation, and maybe a few days of sleep.” She yawned, and I suspected that she wahat for herself too. “This is way too early to be awake.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I think you go back to bed for a few minutes. Get a few more winks in before we really do o get ready. I’ll talk to Amaryllis.”

  Aweated. “I should probably be there too,” she finally said with a sigh. I could tell she’d really rather go back to bed too, but Awen was a good friend, and good friends could put sleep aside for each other sometimes.

  I knocked on Amaryllis’ door twice. “Amy?” I asked.

  “Are you dressed already?” Amaryllis asked. She opehe door, then stared at me and Awen. Both of us were in our usual sleeping clothes. “Did you fet where you put your outfits?” she asked.

  I shook my head, then stepped into the room. “No, we’re, uh, staging an intervention.”

  “ you do that tomorrow?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said. I walked up to Amaryllis and caught her a hug, ohat Awen joined in on a moment ter. It didn’t st all that long, Amaryllis was too nervous to appreciate a good hug. “Are you okay?”

  “I'd be better if you were dressed and ready,” Amaryllis said with a huff.

  “I know. I promise I’ll get dressed right after this. But, uh, we’re a bit worried.”

  “Well, so am I,” Amaryllis said. “This is big. Really big, Broccoli.”

  “And it’s a lot of pressure on your shoulders,” I said. “But, uh, I think you’re taking on a bit too much of that weight all on your own.”

  She glowered. “Well, then take some of it for yourself. I wouldn’t be this stressed if you were up and ready already.”

  “Uh,” I said. “Amaryllis, it’s very, very early still. Like super-very early. Even if we were all dressed and ready to go, we wouldn’t have ao go to, not for a few hours. I think that maybe you’re trying to overprepare.”

  Awen nodded. “My uncle used to tell me a lot of stories about his adventures. And sometimes he’d tell me stories of other adventurers and explorers. Some of them used to be super meticulous. They’d scout ahead a lot, bring lots of equipment, and tackle every challenge very carefully. Uncle said that they were some of the very best explorers out there. You remind me a bit of those.”

  “Thank you, I suppose,” Amaryllis said.

  “Uncle also said that they tend to get iheir heads as soon as things don’t go acc to pn, and things never go acc to ph live with Broccoli, we both knons don’t work out the way they should.”

  “Uh,” I said.

  Amaryllis sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Maybe I’m slightly--very slightly--too nervous about today for my own good. You give me an, if you want.”

  I ughed as I gave her another, eveer, hug. Amaryllis saying that meant that she really wahe hug, I figured. “So, we go back to sleep now?”

  “Oh, it’s probably too te for that,” Awen said. “Besides, the sun is ing up.”

  I gnced out of the window, and saw that Awen was right, the darkness outside was lightening up. Not quickly, but it was undeniably getting brighter. In a few more minutes I bet the world would be all blue, and then the sun would be properly on the horizon and everything would e awake.

  “Whehe summit start?” I asked.

  “Teically at noon,” Amaryllis said. “There’s the opening statements, then a lun before the mai begins. So we o be there at least an hour before noon.”

  “That’s plenty of time to get dressed. What else do you o prepare?”

  Amaryllis gestured vaguely in the dire of the living room. “I should practice my speeore. Also, getting a refresher on all the things I o know wouldn’t hurt.”

  “Fihen,” I said. “Awen and I will get dressed, then we’ll go have breakfast together, then we’ll head over to the summit and you practice your spee the way over.”

  Amaryllis nodded. “Fine, fine.” She took a deep breath a all out at once. I made sure to give her a st squeeze to help get the st of the stress out, like toothpaste at the end of a tube. I would make tea in a moment. Something to calm her down and keep her awake.

  I let go, then rushed bay room. We didn’t bring a lot of luggage with us from the Beaver Cleaver but I did have a few things. I really had to get around to buying more outfits, as it was I had exactly two things I could wear, my armour and the one fit I’d gotten for that ball in Fort Sylphrot. A girl ought to have more than two things she could wear.

  ing magic was making it too easy not to bother having any ges of clothes.

  My dress was less a dress and more of a suit, with flowy pants and a nice blouse and a well-tailored jacket. It made me look very adult and serious. It even had a hole over the bum for my tail!

  A knock at my door had me boung over to open it. Awen was standing there, with a ptter in one hand. “I’ve got some makeup stuff,” she said. “Did you wao help you with yours?”

  “Uh, sure,” I said.

  I didn’t have anything like that. Then again, adventuring didn’t usually require much by way of makeup, and besides I was never great at using that kind of thing. At most I liked using lip balms because the fvoured ones were tasty and they were ni the cold.

  I sat down in front of a little vanity in the er of the room, and Aweo work attag my face with powders and creams. She didn’t say anything, so I figured she knew what she was doing. The e, some ten mier, was quite nice. “It looks like I’m blushing a little,” I said, peering into the mirror.

  Awen nodded. “Putting makeup on you is just so easy. You have the Adorable skill, right?”

  “N-yes?”

  She shook her head. “And you don’t even want it. You know, you’re very silly, Broc.”

  I pouted. No. I pouted prettily.

  Awen rolled her eyes, theured out into the living room. “Amaryllis is probably ready by now, I still o get into my own dress. Want to go distract her while I get ready?”

  “Sure,” I said. It was better than talking about Adorable. I really had to get my hands on one of those chivalry skills so that I could transform it into something more useful.

  I helped Amaryllis--who had ged into her own ball gown, which was quite pretty--pack up her notes in a satchel. Then I spent a couple of minutes ving her that we didn’t every history book and all of the notes she made, especially sihey’d fill up three or fgage bags and be hard to carry with us.

  “I’m ready,” Awen said as she stepped out of her room. She’d done something with her hair, stig it up in a ring of braids around the of her head.

  “Oh, you both look very pretty,” I said.

  “Awa, don’t say that,” Awen said. “Do we knoe’re getting to the summit?”

  “Of course we do,” Amaryllis said. “I had the innkeep reserve a carriage for us. We’re not going to walk across the city dressed like this.”

  “It wouldn’t be too bad, I don’t think,” I said. “I could keep things .”

  “Sure, but think of the message it sends. Besides, I’m stressed about this enough, I don’t o be stressed and exhausted at the same time.”

  I gave her an, because hugs were free to give, and then grabbed her by the talon. “Breakfast first.”

  “I’m not hungry,” Amaryllis said.

  “Then it’ll be a light breakfast for you. But you don’t want to be hungry on stage, and you don’t want your tummy rumbling during the summit. Oh, and you’ll want to use the bathroom before you start your speech.”

  “I take care of myself, Broccoli,” Amaryllis said.

  “Sure,” I replied.

  Awen and I still dragged her over to the inn’s dining room where we got a quick breakfast. Mostly it was fluffy pancakes and a bunch of fresh fruit with some sugary sauces to dip them in. Light but sweet stuff.

  Once everything was eaten up (we made sure Amaryllis had a few bites) and I sprinkled some ing magic around to keep hands and talons , we headed all the way downstairs where a member of the inn’s staff had us wait for the carriage to be prepared.Amaryllis paced bad forth, of course. Eventually she started to mutter her way through her speech, with Awen and I listening and tellihat she’d do just fine.

  Soon enough we were led up onto a carriage behind a pair of big horses, and we were off to the summit.

  Everything was going to be just fi least, that’s what I kept telling my nervous bird friend.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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