Something Wicked This Way Comes

Chapter 35

Tessalia frowned, watching her sibling lead the mortals into the forest. She was confused by Rook's instruction to call on the King's Guard within the hour. What exactly did they have planned?

***

Jim stumbled over a root, nearly dropping Douxie. Mama chittered at him, and offered her tail for support. Jim was not one to look a gift dinosaur in its serrated mouth, balancing himself with one arm as Harley's motherfucking t-Rex helped him across the uneven ground. He was almost to the other side of the moss patch when Douxie's body spasmed again, causing Jim to stumble and fall to his knee.

"This isn't working for me," he gasped, laying his brother down for a moment.

Harley back-tracked, walking unafraid beneath the tyrannosaur's gaping mouth, towards Jim. "Well, we can't drag him."

"No," Jim agreed with a sigh, dragging a hand over his face. "We can't."

Harley chewed his lip, then sat down across from Jim, gazing worriedly at the still unconscious wizard. "Do you think we're close?"

Jim looked around, only seeing dense jungle. "I really don't know, kid."

Harley sighed, rubbing his shoulder where the drude had bit him. "I could go ahead with Mama? See what's out there, and then come back?"

"Harley, I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Jim, what's going to hurt me out here when I have a dinosaur?"

Mama made a rumbling noise of agreement.

Jim sighed again, knowing this was really the only way they could possibly know which direction to go in. "Fine." He said. "But stay with her, and if you run into anything you know you can't handle, come right back."

Harley gave a mock-salute and got to his feet. "Aye, aye captain." He walked towards the giant lizard, clearly intending to just head into the jungle on foot, but she stopped him with her nose and lowered to the ground enough for Harley to climb on her back. Which he did, extremely enthusiastically, giving Jim a wave as Mama turned and stomped into the trees.

Jim shook his head, glancing tiredly around the area. The unicorn had been coming and going as they'd traveled through the night, and now it was nowhere in sight. Which didn't really mean it wasn't nearby, just that Jim couldn't see it.

Beside him, still very unconscious, Douxie shuddered, magic sparking between his fingers. This is how he'd been since the attack last night. Jim didn't know if he was even going to wake up. He didn't know how drude wounds worked, or if this was even because of it. Aher's warning about Douxie accepting his fae heritage kept ringing in the back of Jim's mind. Douxie had to accept what, and who, he was before they saw their friends again. Before they could even leave the island.

Across the clearing, bushes quivered. Jim shot to his feet, glaives forming in his hands. He relaxed, slightly, when he saw it was just the unicorn. The great beast of the forest trotted towards him, eyeing Douxie in concern.

"Yeah buddy, I know." Jim sighed, willing the glaives to disappear back into his armor. "I'm worried about him too."

Unicorn snorted, tail flicking back and forth. It walked a little further towards them and laid down, watching the treeline. Jim sighed, taking it as a sign that the horned horse intended for them to stay here through the night. Over the last few hours, he'd learned to read the unicorn's body language and general expressions. Maybe this was the same way Harley always seemed to know what Mama was thinking.

Jim took a breath, sitting too. He resigned himself to sitting and waiting for Harley and Mama to get back. He sat and waited, and just... waited. Slowly he realized he was a twenty-two year old man waiting for his thirteen year old friend to get back from an emergency reconnaissance mission with a dinosaur.