I was grateful that the rest of the day was much less eventful after Mists tumbled off the horse. That is not to say it was totally peaceful. Faun did not seem to be able to cope with how close Michael and Leafia were becoming. Much to my disbelief the awkward gnces only grew in severity and frequency. Mist however did not seem aware of this and insisted on riding right next to Leafia.

  “The more I look at my reflection in the water the more I think that we look like each other.” Mist continued her constant stream of talking. “I think we must be sisters. I have never had a sister. What do sisters do together?”

  I could tell that Leafia was flustered but she was taking it fairly well. “I have never had a sister either so I don’t really know. I guess they spend time together.”

  “Doing what?” Mist inquired while bouncing causing a grimace from Gray.

  “I really don’t know.” Leafia shrugged.

  I had already heard enough of the conversation and decided to tune it out and spread my senses through the pnt life. There was a rather rge dead area not that far in front of us that I had to assume was a vilge. “It seems that we will be coming up on a vilge. We should probably stop-”

  “-I would love an actual bed to sleep in. I hope they have an inn.” Emily cut me off.

  “I have never slept in a bed. I wonder what it is like.” Mist bubbled.

  “You only sleep for a few minutes, what do you need a bed for?” Emily retorted.

  “I was going to say that we should stop before the vilge.” I mumbled to myself. But Emily was right, we should see if there is an inn to be had. It would be good for everyone except Faun and myself to sleep in a warm bed. And possibly Mist, but she still has had next to no luck drawing power from the environment. So I don’t think it will matter to her if she is in the vilge or not. Faun and I had both recovered enough energy that one night stuck in a stuffy inn would not hurt us. But that might make any more doses of medicine tomorrow an impossibility. I really hoped that we did not need any.

  It was nearly an hour ter when we rode into the vilge and to Emily’s delight there was a small inn near the center of town. Gray and Istan hopped off their horses, after helping Mist dismount (none of us were going to trust her alone on a horse for a long time) and headed into the inn. It did not take long for them to walk out of the inn. There was a sour look very clear on Istan’s face.

  “They only have three small double rooms free” Gray’s words expined Istan’s appearance. “But they did say we could use the dining room if we were willing to wait.”

  “I will use the Dining room,” Istan’s offer was slightly less than willing. I think he was looking forward to a warm bed. I do wonder if I should appud his galientry or bemoan his forgetfulness.

  “There is no need for you to sleep in the dining room.” I stated, trying to cheer him up.

  “I could not possibly make you-” Istan started, but this time it turned out that I was not the one needing to crify things.

  “-I think Faun and Laurel would be happier spending the night outside than in some small double room.” Leafia said with a smile. She clearly thought it was nearly as funny as I did.

  Istab mumbled something about proprietary, but seeing Faun and I both agree with Leafia’s words, Istan finally relented, saying that Faun and I could sleep outside.

  “Let’s go in and get some dinner and we can figure everything else out as we eat.” Emily said, clearly wanting to rest.

  “But you promised!” Mist cried out.

  “What” Emily looked in shock.”

  “You promised you would help me make something extra yummy for dinner.”

  Emily looked nervous for a moment before Leafia stepped in. “This is even better. What we will eat here is better than anything we could have made while camping. Think of this as an extra special treat.” Mist looked even more excited by this and quickly grabbed Emily’s and and pulled her into the inn.

  There really was not much to decide on the sleeping arrangement. Emily and Gray were Married and the other rooms were boys and girls. The only downside left to this arrangement was that Leafia had to share a room with Mist, who had decided that she is now Leafia’s sister.

  “We are going to stay up all night talking,” Mist bubbled, while bouncing on the chair at the dining table in excitement.

  “No you are not,” Emily sternly retorted, while pcing a hand firmly on Mist’s shoulder trying to stop the bouncing. This only served to elicit a giggle from Mist as she was now bouncing in much faster yet smaller bumps. “We are paying for this inn to allow Leafia to heal. If you want to be a good sister to her you need to let her sleep even if you only need a few minutes of sleep.”

  “Then what am I going to do for the rest of the night?” Mist whined, reminding me so much of Lillian’s daughter after we healed her.

  “You should meditate and try better to understand what your powers are,” I said calmly. “We know you have lost much of your control over water but have gained affinity to mortals. You need to try and figure out what this means.”

  “But that sounds so boring,” she whined.

  “You'd think for someone that was 100 years old you would act a little more mature. I think that body is affecting you,” Faun said quietly.

  Faun had been trying to make herself look smaller than she already was. She did not seem to like all the looks that she was getting. Her rge brown ears were constantly swiveling around like a nervous deer. She was wearing a ‘proper’ dress right now. In fact it was the one that I had given to Leafia on the way back from Yana after I decided that I no longer needed it. If it was not for those ears she would have looked like any other human. Though, I thought, much more attractive than any humans I had seen.

  I had a feeling that the constant swiveling of the ears was what was causing many of the people in the room to look at us. My birch bark ‘clothing’ was getting a lot less attention at least. But I knew from experience that telling my deer friend, who was nervous about all the attention she was getting, to calm down to reduce the number of people talking about us and looking at us was a fruitless endeavor.

  When our food arrived at the table I was a bit shocked when it included an actual cut of meat. That was something I had not seen in these small town inns. Usually the meat was in a soup or simir. I could only assume this was done to make more servings with less.

  The server had only just walked away when Faun took the meat from her pte and pced it on Leafia’s. There was a very quizzical look on Leafias face to which Faun responded, “Deer do not eat much meat, and-”

  “-I will take it.” Mist interrupted and started to reach her hand to Leafia’s pte, but it was quickly spped away by Faun.

  “And eating meat will help your body replenish its blood faster,” Faun continued while giving Mist a look.

  “I did not think deer ate meat at all,” Leafia said, while taking her knife in her hand to cut the meat.

  “Very few animals are true vegetarians. Animals need more to live than most pnts can give them. Many get what they need through the insects and stuff on the pnts they eat, but deer will intentionally eat small animals when they crave it,” Faun casually expined while eating the vegetables that came along with the meal. “But I have had too much meat tely.” There was a small shiver in her voice as I could tell she tried to shove some thoughts out of her mind.

  There was a sudden scraping noise and I saw Michael quickly dive forward. Leafia had been having trouble cutting the meat one handed and as she was trying to saw it the pte slipped and was about to fall on the floor. Michael’s dive had managed to save the food from the floor but had pced him practically in Leafia’s p.

  Leafia muttered a quiet, “thanks,” as she started to turn bright red while Michael pushed the pte back onto the table. At that point, Michael seemed to realize the position he was in as his face also started to turn red as he struggled to find a pce to put his hand while he clumsily sat back up. I guess he did not want to use her leg to stabilize himself.

  Was it that embarrassing to almost drop food on the ground? It had to be from the close contact, but I found it odd they would turn red from touching each other. They had been riding the same horse for some time now. How was this any different?

  After Michael sat back up he mumbled, “Let me help you with that,” And took Leafia’s pte, cutting the meat into bite size pieces. As the meal progressed both seemed to get more comfortable with this arrangement and soon Leafia was just eating the food off the pte in front of Michael instead of pushing the pte back and forth. This arrangement seemed much more pragmatic but I felt some more red cheeks would appear soon.

  Mist, unsurprisingly, had finished her meat quickly and was looking at Leafia’s pte longingly. I had only had a few bites of the meat to keep up appearances but it felt heavy and tasted bnd. Even for carnivorous pnts, cattle was way too ambitious. After eating the other parts of the meal I shoved my pte over to Mist who practically glowed with excitement seeing more than half the meat untouched.

  “Mist, you need to cut the food,” Emily practically cried, as Mist snatched the food off the proffered pte without passing under Emily’s knife like the first round of food did.

  “It tastes the same whether it is cut or not.” Mist managed around a rge chunk of meat that she had just ripped off from the remnants of my dinner.

  I wondered if I should take the effort to teach Mist some manners. But by the time that she stepped out of the pond again I had a feeling that everything I taught her now she would have to forget. Plus humans change too quickly to keep track of, who knows what would be considered acceptable next time I leave the pond. Though it might be worth teaching her to chew with her mouth closed if eating is a thing that Mist is going to continue back at the pond. I don’t care if it even goes out of style, chewing with your mouth open is just gross.

  While I was pondering the extent of manners that I should bother teaching to Mist I heard a small gasp from Leafia. I looked over to see her face turning red as I had predicted. “I did not mean to be eating from your pte,” she whispered quietly to Michael. “Um. Thank you for cutting the food.”

  Michael for his part managed not to blush but let out a small ugh that I think made Leafia turn even more red, “It was easier that way so don’t worry about it. And I would be happy to help any time you need it.”

  Their eyes locked onto each other for a longer time than I felt was normal. My attention was then pulled away by the scraping noise of a chair. “I am going to go to bed. We have an early start tomorrow,” Faun said abruptly, already making her way to the door.

  Something was off with my friend. I stood up too, and not thinking of anything to say just gave the group a little wave and headed to the door to follow her.

  “Mist, come with me for a bit, I want to show you something in my room,” I heard Emily say as I reached the door, followed quickly by an excited, “OK!” from Mist.