The Prophecy of Five

I: 7 :I

Claudia

"Are we there yet?"

"If you ask me that one more time I'm gonna leave you for the next wild animal to find." Claudia said, annoyed by her brother's constant complaining.

"Well excuuusse me. I was perfectly happy staying behind, but you insisted I walk back to the castle with you." Soren retorted.

"Well I don't want to be alone when I have to tell dad we failed to bring the princes home! Besides, I'm not the one who lost a fight with a rock."

"Hey, That rock had help!"

They had been walking for a few days now. They would've been home by now, expect Soren had to stop every now and then so he could rest his back. Claudia was just happy to see him move again, even if that meant listening to him complain AND his terrible poems. Whenever he wanted to say one, she threatened to leave him behind and that shut him up for a while.

"I don't get it." he said. "We should be able to see the castle from here. We've been walking forever."

"We would be home, but someone forgot to tie up the horses and instead went off to fight a dragon." Claudia said, glaring at her dork of a brother.

"Yeah you're right. That's my bad."

They walked in silence for a while after that. It was starting to get late so they decided to find a place to camp out for the night.

They found a gathering of trees near a river and started setting up their camp. Soren was no help, obviously, still recovering from his fight with the dragon. He went to lay down on the grass while Claudia prepared some food. She went to the river and started looking for some fish to catch. Magic just made everything easier. Thinking about hunting the fish with dark magic brought up her memories of healing Soren. The poor deer she had to kill in order to save him, the white streak in her hair, a reminder of the innocent life she had taken.

But I had to. I couldn't have just left him like that.

She turned to look at her brother who was examining his wounds back at their camp. Her magic had sped up the healing process but he was in no condition to go into Xadia to find the boys. Claudia knew she had failed her mission to get the egg back, but she wasn't willing to give up her brother for some stupid dragon. Even if that dragon was really, really cute and made her heart melt.

She returned to the camp with a few fish and some herbs. Soren had started a fire and was laying out his sleeping bag.

"Wow. Look at you. Doing the things and stuff." she said sarcastically.

"It's a lot more comfortable than the ground."

That was true. Claudia had enchanted his sleeping bag to help him heal. She also made both sleeping bags super comfortable.

They ate the fish and proceeded to get some rest, leaving the fire going to ward off any unwanted visitors.

We should be home tomorrow night at the latest. Then you just have to deal with dad. She thought to herself, gently drifting off to sleep.

-----

They awoke bright and early the next morning, ready to continue the trek home. Claudia had, unfortunately, run out of hot brown morning potion a few days earlier and was prone to being super irritable. Soren knew this and stayed quiet for the first few hours of their walk. She appreciated the silence. They were walking along the river, knowing that they would eventually come across the royal winter cabin and from there they could find the castle. It was almost noon when they reached the cabin. Expect the front door was now open.