Aura

  ***

  “Is she still mad?” I asked my husband.

  Exiting what was supposed to be our private tent, I managed to catch a glimpse of the kid. She was hiding under our table with several bnkets making a small nest for herself. She was facing away from the door, so I could only imagine the same displeased look on her face that she had at the river. In fact it was probably worse since after all I did force her to come back here instead of staying in the hole she called home. Sighing, Bke looked at me.

  “She won’t talk to me.” He said. “And whenever I mention your name, she tells me to tell you to ‘go suck a lemon’.”

  “This is exactly why I don’t want kids.” I sighed.

  “Tell me about it.” He nodded.

  Today was unproductive. For me at least. All we found out was that the kid lived out here by herself for multiple months, barely survived, found some magical ore, and a nearby river that some of our mages can use to transport water. That being said the path, if you can call it that, was difficult to pass when using spells, so we’ll need to have some people clear it up. If today were a normal day, finding a source of water would be a big deal, but my main concern was that of the child. Just who was she? We know next to nothing about her. Even her name is a mystery unless we take her word of having three names.

  “What should we do?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” Bke sighed. “We should leave this to the professionals.”

  I frowned. As a group of mercenaries, we aren’t exactly known as the best people. I thought about it before, but I don’t know if I want to ask for advice from people who actually carry their children on their back when getting into drunken fights. Looking at one of the fires, I saw some parents throwing their children to each other over the fmes. Being babies, I don’t know if they enjoy that. Should I stop them? As I was pondering that, I heard something moving inside my tent. Me and Bke gnce at each other. What is she doing now?

  Peaking through the door, Bke sighed. At my questioning look, he opened the fp all the way. Looking inside, I saw the kid’s feet moving under the wall of our tent as she escaped. I sighed. This is going to be annoying. Not because she’s a fast runner, no she relies on a walking stick after all, but because I feel as if this is going to be a continuing issue. Walking to the side of the tent, we saw her, not sneaking, but stumbling towards the horses. Is she going to try and steal one?

  Sharing my curiosity, Bke and I stayed quiet, simply watching her. The horse that she was approaching, looked at her curiously, but didn’t seem armed. Odd. She was looking at it’s hooves. No, that was wrong. She was looking at the grass it was standing on. Crouching down, she took a handful of it and stuffed it in her mouth.

  ““Stop!”” Me and Bke shouted at the same time, running to her.

  “!?” She looked at us armed and quickly started eating more of it.

  This idiot! That grass is poisonous! Not even the animals eat it! Even the horse looked at her shocked. Reaching her side, I grabbed her hands to stop her and Bke tried to force open her mouth.

  “Spit that out right now!” Bke said.

  “!” She resisted with all her might, swallowing what she could.

  This kid is going to die! That grass is a fast acting poison that is used in some executions back in the kingdom. Does she hate us so much that she would rather die? Hearing our shouts, some of the people nearby ran over.

  “Get one of the mages!” I instructed. “This idiot just ate the poisonous grass!”

  “!?” The kid suddenly went rigid in my arms.

  Oh gods it’s happening already!

  “Poisonous?” She looked up at me in confusion.

  Or not…?

  “You- You’re alive?” I asked. She should be bleeding from every pore by now. How is she alive?

  “I’m alive…” She slowly turned to look at the grass still clutched in her hand. “It’s not good?”

  “No, that is poisonous.” I said, opening her hands to drop the grass.

  Her eyes remained on the grass with a puzzled look on her face. Lost in her own thoughts, several of the mages quickly ran over ready to treat her.

  “Is this poisonous?” She asked, pointing to the grass.

  “Yes.” Bke nodded. “It’s very poisonous.”

  Hearing that, as well as seeing all the people gathered around, she started to look concerned. How did she not know this? Wait… Don’t tell me...

  “Have you been eating this?” I asked.

  “Yeah…” She nodded.

  “For how long?” I asked, fearing her next words.

  “Since I got here…” She said.

  “…” We looked at her in quite astonishment.

  This kid has been out here for twenty weeks and has been eating poisonous grass since day one. How is she still alive? I gnced at the mages, and one of them started chanting a healing spell. She survived this long, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

  Evelyn

  ***

  Wow, am I lucky! It turns out that the grass that I’ve been eating was poisonous this whole time! Anyway, after that revetion, I was brought into a tent with lots of cots with many doctors looking at me. Also, these people can use magic! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen magic properly being used, and this is the first time I’ve seen healing magic. Wow, it’s really shiny and gold, but like a bit more yellow than gold. I should ask them about it when I have free time.

  Because of the whole grass eating fiasco, I’m spending the night here. Lots of people came to visit me, so that’s nice. Some even brought me bacon! The mean dy stole it all though. But it’s the thought that counts. Sitting on the edge of one of the cots, I swung my legs back and forth admiring my new clean self. After they made sure that I wasn’t going to die, the doctors cleaned me off using one of their spells, and one of them even cut my hair for me! It’s shorter than I would have liked not even reaching to my shoulders, but it’ll grow back. One thing that I noticed was that it was a lot darker than I remembered…

  Oh! Also! I’m getting new clothes! They didn’t have anything that fit, but one of the soldiers here worked at a clothes shop and said that she can make me some new clothes. Okay, she won’t actually make them from scratch, but rather modify some other clothes that they have. Regardless, it’s a lot better than what I’ve been using. Standing at the entrance of the tent, I saw one of the doctors talking to the mean dy. Well, she did stop me from eating poison, so she can’t be too mean. Though she did break her promise, so I can’t exactly trust her… I wonder what her name is anyways?

  “It’s by the gods' grace that she’s even alive.” I managed to overhear.

  Wait, that's it! That’s the reason I’m not dead! The healing I get from the moon goddess as her magical girl! Not only that but that was the reason why it’s so hard to transform! All of my magic was being used to keep me alive! Oh I’m so stupid! I should have realized this sooner. Okay, well the good thing is that I now know that I’m resistant to poisons. I look out the door and see the sun setting. If I can go outside, I’ll be able to transform again and maybe my legs will stop hurting! For this marvelous discovery, I thank the moon goddess. I like to think that even on another pnet with different moons, she is smiling down on me.

  …

  Right before the sun set, my dinner was brought to me in the tent. As expected, it’s small. It’s some sort of sandwich. No, with the bread it has, it’s more like a burger. A burger... When’s the st time I had one...?

  Sitting in my hospital bed I heard a knock and turned to see a woman, with jet bck hair in a bck suit, who gave me a warm smile. It wasn’t quite like one a mother would give her child, but something close to it. Seeing it puts my heart at ease…

  “How are things going?” She asked me, repcing the flowers which had started to wilt. “Everyone treating you well? Getting tasty food?”

  Looking at that vase, it was one of the many gifts I had received when I was first put into this room. Unlike the others, this gift was the only one that remained. The only one that I have actually been using. Not only that, but every time the flowers were repced, I couldn’t help but appreciate it that much more.

  “Food aside, everything is great!” I told her.

  That wasn’t necessarily true. Not many people visit me as often as she did. Who was she anyways? I’m sure I’ve met her before though I just can't seem to remember when. Hearing my compint, she lightly ughed and pulled a chair to my bedside.

  She took a seat and said, “I’ll try to sneak a burger in here for you next time.”

  “You do that.” I smiled.

  I’m not sure why, but I felt as if I could believe her words. Even before our greetings were over, I couldn’t help but feel excited for our next visit.

  With her smile fresh in my mind, I didn’t realize when things turned blurry. Even as my tears fell and soaked into the bread, I could only think of that smile. My heart ached at just the thought of her, and even as my past memories started to fade, she remained clear in my mind. She makes me feel this way, and I don’t even know her name.

  Picking up, what is probably the closest thing this world has to a burger, I took a bite. It was dry, but that didn’t matter. I remembered the time when I was sick in my bed and she was there with me. Back when I was still able to walk, she went with me to the garden. The sudden rainstorm where she covered me with her coat, and the times she brought me books to read and movies to watch.

  By the time I had realized it, I was watching my hands collect my tears. I don’t want to have to expin myself, let’s just go to sleep. Though I pnned that, I id down and covered my face with my bnket. After all, every time I closed my eyes, I still saw mom and dad…

  …

  Alright! A brand new day! Being sad is sad, so let’s not do that. No more tears! Having just woken up, I sat up in the cot and saw that there were no doctors nearby. Do I need to stay here, or can I leave? Maybe I should try my powers? Ah! That’s right I stayed inside all night out of the moon light, so they probably didn’t charge up. Dang. Oh well. For now, let’s go get some food.

  Carefully moving my bnket to the side, I let myself off the cot and grabbed my walking stick. Getting to the door fp, I poked my head outside. Taking a quick gnce around, I didn’t see my main enemy. The mean dy. What’s her name anyway?

  Taking cautious steps outside, I took note of my surroundings. It seems like I woke up te. Everyone is already moving about, and I can’t smell any cooking going on. So I must have missed breakfast. Feeling slightly bummed out, I decide to head to where I know there's food. As I walked to where the horses were kept, a few people gave me some worried looks, so I smiled and waved to them. Seeing this, they seemed to be put at ease.

  It took a few minutes but I eventually made it to the horses. Gncing at the grass, I found myself tempted to have another handful, but let’s not do that. Heading to a covered wagon filled with boxes and bags, I climbed up into it. Not as hard as I thought it would be. Anyways, once I was inside, I headed to a bag that was bulging with spherical objects. Opening it up, I reached inside and was gd I was right. It seemed like there were some nice red apples in it. Lucky me. Taking one, I started happily munching away on it. Looking to see what else was here, I opened a few more bags. Ah. This one had some, like oats in it. Might as well try some. Crunchy. Let’s have some more.

  Ah! Mr.mouse! Away with you! I punch him and he stopped moving. Munching on another handful of oats, I can’t help but look at mr.mouse. I wonder if he tastes like mr.rabbit?

  “What are you doing?” A voice called out to me.

  Looking up, I saw a woman looking into the wagon at me. I gnce at the oats in my hands and mr.mouse on the floor. Knowing that I shouldn’t feed people raw meat, I hold out a hand of oats for her.

  “Want some?” I asked her, taking another mouthful of my own.

  “Come here.” She sighed.

  Ah! It looks like she does want some. Let’s get a big handful for her! Doing just that I crawl to her on my knees.

  “Put the horse feed back.” She said, rejecting my kindness. “And close the bag while you’re at it.”

  Well, that’s rude. Putting it back, I tie the bag closed and put mr.mouse in my belt bag for ter.

  “Drop the mouse.” She ordered.

  “No, that’s wasteful.” I told her.

  I’m not going to throw away perfectly good food like that.

  “We have enough food.” She sighed. “If you’re hungry just ask for some.”

  “Ask who?” I ask curiously.

  “Just ask anyone.” She said. “Anyone will bring you food if you ask.”

  Wow! I must be like a V.I.P. or something! Putting my new found knowledge to use, I decided to ask her.

  “Can I have food?” I asked with hopeful eyes.

  She sighed. “Come here.”

  Doing so, she lifted me out of the wagon and set me on the ground. I grab my walking stick and follow her as we move towards the main camp. As we did, We passed a rge group of people who seemed to be getting ready to head out of the camp. Many of them had rge headed spears and the others had bows along with swords. As I was admiring one of the spears, the woman guiding me pced a hand on my shoulder to stop me, and faced me towards the crowd.

  “Everyone, can I have your attention.” She said, more ordering than asking.

  Seeing them all turn to me, I gave a polite wave which some of them returned. Once all of their eyes were gathered on us, she spoke up.

  “Let it be known that if this kid asks you for food, you are to stop what you are doing and take her to the mess hall.” She said. “The reason I say this is because I just found her eating the horse's feed.

  “It was crunchy.” I informed them.

  They looked at me with pity. Is it not supposed to be crunchy?

  “Not only that, but-” She reached into my pouch and pulled out mr.mouse and showed him off. “She was saving this for ter.”

  “That’s mine you thief! Give him back!” I tried and failed to recim him.

  Ah, there is a commotion. What? Winter is coming and I need to be prepared. Ah, I’m being scolded.

  Grayburne