Love and Other Magical Adventures

thirteen

I was saved by Feebur, who woke up and leapt into my lap with a chorus of joyful noises before running around the fire several times and off into the bushes. His trilling let us know he was near the creek we'd settled by. "Foolish thing," I said affectionately. Crickets serenaded us with the tiniest symphony, and there was nowhere I would rather have been.

She was amused too. "He is a delight. I have grown very fond of him."

"Ohh, so it's Feebur you're staying for," I said, her hand in mine making me bold. "I see."

"He's on the list," she said with the cutest smirk, her thumb tracing mine. "But he's not at the top." She squeezed my hand and let go, taking up her knife again.

I smiled gleefully to myself and had an idea. Two, actually. "Do you want some hot chocolate?"

"The answer to that will always be 'yes'," she assured me. "Can I help?"

"No, you keep doing the art thing; I've got this." I fumbled in my other-dimensional room until I found the ingredients and put them in a small pot on the fire.

"That's another thing I find it hard to get used to," she told me, watching my hand seem to turn invisible again as I reached in now for the cups.

I laughed, pulling them out. "I know, it's strange. But incredibly useful." I stirred the melting candy into the coconut milk, which was kept in small sealed cartons and didn't need refrigeration.

"It's amazing. Is it common among your people to have such a thing?" She moved the knife out of the way as Feebur reappeared and rushed into her lap.

I submerged a chunk of dark chocolate with the spoon. "I'm the only one, and nobody else can access it, which is a fact Grimmer will never get over," I confided, because it was funny and true. He had tried many times, as had others, but nothing happened. "I found it by accident when I was six or seven, and it's always been there since. I can't see into it, though, so it should definitely be a little more organized," I admitted. "Or a lot."

She blew wood dust off her creation, her every movement graceful. "That smells so good," she said of the cocoa as I poured it into the cups, floating the marshmallows to the top. She took hers from me. "Thank you."

An owl hooted nearby, a hollow and forlorn sound, and she shivered a bit. "Are you cold? I can mess with the temperature."

"I have a better idea," she said, scooping Feebur up and depositing him in my lap so she could go to where she slept. She returned with her soft blanket, tucking half of it around me and the rest around herself, snuggling back up to me.

"That is better," I said in an astoundingly even voice, considering I was now fully, deeply, entirely in love with this breathtaking person. Knowing I had a chance, more than a chance it would seem, just hit different. Like I could allow myself to be excited about it, to really consider it as something stronger than a possibility.

Zynayda's face appeared in my mind's eye, sinking my heart a little.

She would want you to be happy, Grim sent me sleepily, picking up on it. Which by the feel of it, you have accomplished at the moment.

Go back to sleep, I returned. I'm cultivating my soon-to-be relationship with hot chocolate and midnight confessions. But thanks.

As you were, he returned, rolling over and diving into slumber.

"I was thinking," I started, worried now she might think it dumb. "I could turn off the translator charm and you could teach me some of your language?" The charm made it impossible to truly hear the actual words being spoken in another language.