Evelyn

  ***

  Day nine of our little camp and the st day of it, although I would have preferred it if it had gone on longer. Also I am kind of tired! I’ve been on night watch for the past two nights, and I’m starting to understand why that's a punishment. If I was normal, I would probably be apologizing to Aura right now, but we both know that I’m not. Two days without sleep is nothing!

  “Are you okay?” Nicole asked.

  “Everything is great!” I said.

  “Are you sure?” Chloe asked. “You look tired.”

  “When’s the st time you slept?” Olivia asked.

  “Oh, you know…!” I said. “Where’s my spear?”

  “You’re holding it.” Charlotte said.

  Looking at my right hand, I saw my bag with everything inside it aside from my spear.

  “No I’m not.” I said.

  “Your other hand.” Chloe said.

  Looking at my left hand, I saw my spear.

  “Oh.” I said. “Maybe I am tired?”

  “I’m sure you’ll find a way to sleep on the carriage.” Charlotte said.

  “By the way, where is that bird stalker of yours?” Olivia asked.

  “Bird stalker?” I asked. “I have a stalker?”

  “The Raven.” Chloe said.

  “Oh.” I said. “Wait, do you mean The Raven, or that raven that was following me around?”

  “Are they different?” Chloe asked.

  “Well, The Raven is The Raven, and the raven is just a bird.” I said.

  “I have no clue what that means.” Charlotte admitted.

  “It means don’t worry about it, now let’s go!” I said.

  “Nothing gets you down, huh?” Olivia asked, amazed.

  “Nah, even I get sad at times.” I said. “Like this one time, I wanted some cookies, but there were like no cookies and I had to like go buy the stuff to make them and it got too te when I got home and I like, didn’t have enough time to make them before bedtime.”

  “Why didn’t you ask one of your servants to make them?” Nicole asked.

  “Why did you go out shopping for ingredients instead of sending a servant?” Charlotte asked.

  “Why didn’t you have a servant buy some cookies?” Olivia asked.

  “Please tell me you at least had someone accompany you when you went out shopping.” Chloe said.

  “Oh no, they are like, far too busy taking care of the residence to bother with cookies.” I said. “And I can like, do some shopping by myself.”

  “…” Charlotte looked at me with a worried look. “This is a shot in the dark, but how… How many servants are at your residence?”

  “Um, I don’t know?” I said. “Like seven or eight?”

  “Eight!?” Chloe asked, armed.

  “Just eight?” Olivia asked worried.

  “Surely you’re only talking about those who personally take care of you, correct?” Nicole asked in disbelief.

  “I keep telling them not to.” I sighed. “I mean, I’m like not a kid. I can bathe and dress myself. I can like do my own hair and like everything else! I don’t need to be treated like a baby.”

  “I have people bathe and dress me and do my hair.” Charlotte said.

  “I do too.” Nicole said.

  “Same.” Olivia nodded.

  “Yes, that’s quite normal.” Chloe said.

  Continuing along this path will only result in my destruction. Let’s change the subject.

  “It’s such lovely weather we’re having.” I said.

  “Ah, she ran away.” Charlotte said.

  ““She ran.”” Nicole and Chloe said.

  “She really does run.” Olivia nodded.

  I’ve been found out. Regardless, our pleasant little conversation continued as the other students cleaned up their own little camps. After a week in the woods, and a few extra days, we were finally going to be headed back. Given that this pce had a bath house, all of the students had cleaned up yesterday, so let’s hope that we don’t get dirty until we get back to the carriages. Especially since there are no repcements for the “Clean” enchantments I had… Still, I need to thank 38 for all the repcements she carried with her for me. Especially the one that hides my eye and hair color. That’s a life saver when others can see me. I really should like give her some cinnamon rolls for that!

  But before that, there was something else I needed to do, rather there were some people that I needed to talk to. And luckily they were heading my way right now. Inspecting the students as they packed up, Aura and Bke were heading in our direction. I didn’t get to interact with them much outside of dinner, so I’m gd that we get to at least have a proper goodbye. Seeing them coming, my friends took a step back to give us some privacy.

  “Hey Aura.” I smiled.

  “Hands up.” She said in a commanding tone.

  Lifting my hands all the way up, Bke threw aside my cloak and Aura searched me. How nostalgic!

  “Which of these are yours?” Aura asked, taking three hatchets from me.

  None of them were, but let’s not worry about that.

  “Didn’t you put yours in your bag?” Charlotte asked.

  “I don’t know what you're talking about.” I said a bit too quickly.

  “When did you have time to take those?” Olivia asked.

  “Seriously, what were you going to do with these?” Aura asked, handing my spoils to Bke.

  “Hatchets are useful!” I said, free to lower my arms.

  “Did you even use yours once?” Chloe asked.

  “Well-” I hesitated. “No, I don’t think I did…”

  “I suppose that means our pn worked.” Bke nodded satisfied.

  “Pn?” I asked.

  “Given all the nobles here, we expected some to hurt themselves if they had to cut their own firewood, so we made sure that they didn’t need to.” Bke expined.

  “Thank goodness for that.” I said. “I like, wasn’t looking forward to it.”

  “If you weren’t willing to do it, I don’t think anyone would.” Olivia said.

  “I’d much rather use the spark rocks for a short time.” I said. “They’re like so much more convenient.”

  “You mean the highly explosive Magic Ore?” Aura asked.

  “It’s not that explosive.” I argued.

  “You don’t have any on you, do you?” Bke asked.

  “No, I couldn’t find any in time.” I lied.

  “That stuff is a serious hazard, don’t py around with it.” Aura said.

  “I know, I know.” I sighed.

  I really hope that they don’t look inside my bag. My cinnamon buns, and other contraband materials, would be at risk.

  “Just in case, let me check your bag.” Aura said.

  “Do you trust me so little?” I asked.

  “How many times have you stolen knives?” She asked.

  “‘Stolen’ is like such a loaded word.” I said. “All of them were given back.”

  “By me, after I confiscated them.” She said.

  “So, what you’re saying is that you took them from me?” I asked.

  “Don’t try to turn this around on me.” She sighed.

  “How many knives did you steal?” Charlotte asked.

  “Knives were like super valuable to me back then.” I said. “They were so much better than using stones or sharpened wood.”

  “I could imagine.” Bke nodded.

  “Yeah.” Aura agreed.

  “Hey, quick question.” I said, changing the subject. “What ever happened to my house?”

  “That hovel?” Aura asked. “When we left it was still standing. Not sure how it’s doing now.”

  “Really?” Olivia asked, amazed.

  “Given how you described it, I figured that it would have colpsed by now.” Nicole said.

  “It certainly didn’t seem like it would st.” Chloe said.

  “I mean like, for a shelter it was pretty good. It kept me warm and dry for months.” I said.

  “Given the freak weather out there, I’m sure that it was useful.” Aura said.

  “Yeah, it was good against the wind and rain.” I nodded.

  “Caves would do that.” Bke agreed.

  “Well, regardless we’ve taken up enough of your time.” Aura said. “You got everything packed up? Are you forgetting anything?”

  “Double and triple checked.” I said, patting my bag. “We’re all good.”

  “Good to hear.” Aura said, patting my head. “Don’t do anything risky and try to stay safe.”

  “Obviously.” I said. “Just who do you think I am?”

  “Someone who hunts boars with only a knife.” She said.

  “How did you manage to kill it anyway?” Bke asked. “There was only one wound on it.”

  “I used magic.” I said.

  That much is true, although it was a creative use of dark magic if I do say so myself. To make a long story short, it chased me up a tree, I gave it a seizure, and when it was down, I used a rock to hammer my knife into its spinal cord, and it died. The hard part was dragging it back. Luckily some of the enchantments that 38 gave me helped, but it was still a chore.

  “I honestly don’t know how holy magic can cause that.” Chloe said.

  “It was challenging.” I lied. It was actually super easy by making illusions with dark magic, but let’s keep that to myself.

  “If anyone could figure it out, it would be you.” Bke said, taking his turn patting my head.

  “Yep.” I said.

  I couldn’t help but feel proud at that. But let’s keep things civil. This continued on for a bit, but eventually the time came. With the rest of the css packed up, we were called over and took our leave. Waving them goodbye, we headed back to the wagons. With the noticeable increase in the Shadows in the area, everyone talked about our time here. However the Shadows weren’t the only ones near us without anyone knowing. Flying above us was Angelica, invisible and soundless to all but me. As it turns out, I CAN turn her invisible! With my experimentation of dark magic when I was looking for a fox, I learned how to do this.

  The spell is a bit taxing, but according to Angelica, I have high amounts of dark magic to spare! But I can only use this when I’m awake, so we’re going to need to find another solution. Maybe some enchanted tool? I’ll see what uncle can find. But regardless, after a long and eventful trip, it was time to go home. Given that it was the end of the school year, I didn’t expect anything else to happen. Just some tests and then our actual vacation! Although I suspect that I’ll be busy… Oh well! Soon it’ll be time for Melody to get back to work!

  Grayburne