Dreams of Stars (A Once Upon a Time/Jiminy Cricket fanfic)

Dreams of Stars Part 8

  As the sun rose, Kaelin continued forward across the moor with Archie on her shoulder. Now that they had a certain objective, her sense of urgency was stronger than ever, but so was her hope. If she could just find Four Feet, they could make it.

Despite this determination, by the time the sun was high in the sky, Kaelin was exhausted. She stumbled over every patch of heather, and she was so thirsty.

"I wish I could carry you," Archie remarked.

Kaelin giggled.

"No, I really wish I could do something to help," Archie insisted, "But—why don't you take a short rest? Look, there's a brook up ahead with a small tree beside it. You can rest under the tree and take a drink. We'll still make it."

Kaelin agreed. She forced herself to go the rest of the way to the tree and collapsed in its shade. Archie hopped down from her shoulder. Crawling over to the brook, she took a long drink of the cool water, then sat back and pulled the bag off her shoulders. She took a braeburn apple mottled with yellow, orange, and red out of the bag and offered it to Archie. "Would you like some?" She had eaten an apple the day before and had one left in the bag.

"Oh—no thank you. I'll just eat grass," Archie replied hurriedly, plucking a blade of grass from the ground and nibbling at it.

"Come on, I know you want some," Kaelin said with a grin, "I bet it would be a special treat for a cricket." She took a bite out of the apple and then set it in front of him. "See? Now there's a corner for you to eat from. You're small, anyway. You won't eat too much."

"Well, if you insist..." Archie said. He dropped the half-eaten blade of grass on the ground, hopped up to the apple, and started munching on one of the corners formed by Kaelin's bite.

Kaelin curled up in the grass and watched him for a while. After a few minutes, she said, "You're really cute when you eat."

"Wha—?" Archie fluttered back from the apple, flustered. "Well, I-I, uh..."

"What's wrong?" Kaelin laughed.

"No one's called me 'cute' before," the cricket said, "And I honestly never expected that word to be applied to me."

"Well, you should have expected it, because you're a very cute cricket," Kaelin declared.

"Thank you?" Too taken aback to continue eating the apple, Archie plucked another blade of grass and chewed on it. Kaelin finished the apple, eating everything but the stem. She was terribly hungry, she realized, after so much walking and so little food. She was also getting to be very sleepy since she had stayed up all night.

"Do you think it would be all right to take a nap?" she asked Archie, suppressing an enormous yawn.

"I believe so. The stars won't be out until tonight, anyway, and maybe we'll dream up a way to find Four Feet."

That was enough for Kaelin. Lying down beside the tree, she hugged Archie to her like a little doll and closed her eyes. She was asleep instantly. Making himself comfortable with his chin on her shoulder, Archie went to sleep as well.

~~~

By the time they woke up, the sun was beginning to set. Kaelin leapt abruptly to her feet so that Archie fell off her shoulder and hit the ground with a bump. "Oh no!" she cried, "It's already evening! We have to go." She seized her bag and started wading across the creek.

"Wait!" Archie exclaimed, shaking the sleep out of his head and brushing down his coat, "Wait—I'm coming!" He fluttered up and landed on her shoulder.