Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound ✓ [when the moon lies]

Ch.15: Shadows Over Fields

Edited: May, 13, 2020

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Galag took Pinti to a field that overlooked a grove of trees and flower fields. It seemed like Ulk Pyne went on forever. There were swaths of forest, field, and flower beds over and over like many blankets on top of each other.

"Don't be worrying about anything being complicated. It'll be easy for you to catch on, I'm sure," he said with a smile and took off his cloak. He unbuttoned the cuffs of his sleeves. Loose at the edges, they almost hung over his hands. He shook out his arms and rolled up the sleeves.

"Are you ready? Here we go," he said in a cheerful voice. Then he made a swift waving motion, muttered one thing she couldn't catch, and disappeared.

She blinked at the spot she thought he was. When she pawed the air, she felt nothing. He had just been right there. It was like he had stopped existing but then he called her from behind and appeared again.

"The Forest Crup has all sorts of ancient magick flowing around it. Very deceptive. Things called Impossibilities happen there where, in the real world, they wouldn't because of scientific reasons and the laws of magick. That one I just did is invisibility but of the physical as well. You could walk through me although both of us would feel something rather uncomfortable." He shuddered with a chuckle.

"Invisibility is the most common in the Forest Crup." He smirked. "You didn't hear me go behind you at all, did you?"

Pinti shook her head. "But if I tried really hard, I could probably smell the..." She sniffed the air. It was already scentless magick. She frowned.

Galag shook his head. "Sorcerer magick doesn't always use potions, just like the Forest Crup." He walked to a tree and broke off a branch. "Here, let me show you. Come closer," he said, and she joined him by the tree. She immediately recognized the sweet nectar and fruity scent of the peach tree.

"And what can you do with that?" She was expecting something very convenient when Galag just shrugged.

"Just a staff that can grow roses on a peach tree if you want for whatever reason. You'll need to constantly recharge the magick with the same concoction though. It's called 'looping', but we won't get into that."

She jumped backwards when he lit it up into flames and in an instant, it turned to ashes. With a snap of his fingers, the ashes vanished. Her heart thumped against her chest reminding her how Sorcery could very well be quite destructive, too.

"What you need to do is capture the part of magick that has no recognizable scent. Get rid of the scents, all of them, and find the missing piece." He disappeared again. "Oh, and I'm also floating above the ground so you can't tell where I'm standing." His voice sounded like it was all around her.

Alright, She slowed her breathing, I'll do this. She closed her eyes. Concentrate, Pinti, She told herself. Concentrate on the scents. What do you smell?

It was the fresh grass and the dank earth. These scents were the strongest as they often were after the first sunlight of the day. The peach tree was the strongest so she moved away and found other sweet nectar scents—flowers, some with a fruity scent she could not name. It was like apple pie and buttery caramel mixed together in a delightful concoction.

Concentrate Pinti, what do you smell? Pinti opened her mouth to catch more scents through the scent gland on the roof of mouth. She had to find all the scents before she could even begin erasing them all.

A breeze passed below her nose and tickled her ears, but she kept her clutch on all the scents she could identify. She soon lost herself in a maze of scents. Plants, trees, soil, wildlife lurking beneath the dirt and underneath stones that lined the way to the log house. Her sense of smell traveled to the ground on which she stood and found even her own scent which she rarely smelled despite it being herself—a lavender tinted citrus like sweet, fresh oranges reflecting some of the shampoo from this morning and some that was her own.