Love and Other Magical Adventures

twenty four

Sayid had an almost serene look on his face. "Oh, it worked," he said, surrounded in bright orange amazement. "I feel...better." He half-laughed, making Feebur purr louder. "When you've been hopeless for so long, it's hard to recognize hope. Words cannot express my gratitude."

"I'm so glad," I said, yawning. My ability to stay awake was waning. But miraculously, I didn't feel any different. "No seizure maybe," I dared to say aloud.

Both of my companions were quite relieved. "You're amazing," Sylvie said, kissing my cheek. "What you do is so important."

Grime was elated as well. He had seen the downfalls too many times and hated it maybe even more than I did. This is excellent. You did so well controlling it too. Have to find you a cookie or something.

Sayid jerked his chin up a little. "Which one of you made me come down from the railing?"

Grim gave him a lazy, smart ass salute. "You're welcome."

The boy was solemn. "Thank you, for though it was strange to experience, you saved my life this night."

Despite himself, Grim was touched, though he tried not to show it. "I don't like standing in the rain," he said haughtily by way of explanation, though of course it had been more than that. "And watching people die ruins my appetite."

You are the absolute worst, I told him. "Ignore him," I said out loud, though the boy didn't seem offended.

Thank you.

"C'mon, you're mostly asleep." She pulled me to my feet and led me to our tent, the front of which was missing as she didn't like being confined. When we had a need for privacy it was easy enough to open the roof and put up a front wall. She tucked me in and lay next to me, snuggling close with a happy little sigh. "Amazing," she said again.

I was half asleep, my mind on Sayid. I wonder if I can heal this for him too, I sent to Grimmer, who of course knew what I did. I didn't speak to Sylvie about it as it was not my business to tell. 

Not tonight you can't, he half-scolded. Go to sleep. But yes, I believe you can.

I believed I could too.

The next morning I was back to normal, and the whole thing left me absurdly pleased. Avoiding seizures would make our lives so much easier. I tried not to get too excited, however, in case it was a fluke or something. 

It's not a fluke, Grim butted in, as if he had any idea.

Oh good, I didn't realize you were able to see the future, how convenient this will be for us.

He made a face at me. Yeah, yeah. Just wait and you'll see, I'm right. As usual. 

Oh please.

I rounded up some fresh clothing and a spare length of cloth for Sayid, which I figured he needed. When he took the bundle from me he held the extra fabric up for a moment, then met my eyes. I smiled a little and busied myself with other things while he changed.

There were thorned bushes nearby covered in tart purple berries that none of us knew the name of, and they picked a large bowl of them while I fried up some corn cakes. Feebur had gobbled down his fill at dawn and whatever agreed with him usually did the same for us so there was little trepidation on our parts when it came to eating them. 

We spread them over the warm, sweet bread and had a leisurely breakfast in the cool sunshine, Feebur racing around to beg bits off us. We were packing up an hour later when Sylvie nudged me and jerked her head toward the boy. "He doesn't know if he's coming," she said in a low voice, and indeed he did look apprehensive. "Is he coming?

I realized we probably should have addressed that with him. "I figured he was," I said. "Hey Sayid, you're coming with us, right?  For a while at least?"

His face lit up, and he looked at Grim in his dragon form. "Can you carry all three of us?"

Grim turned to give him such a scornful look it was surprising he didn't feel it. "I'm a dragon, you know." Lords have mercy, he sent me. What's a guy gotta do around here to get a little respect. 

You'll live. "He can carry much more than us," I assured Sayid. "As for our flying arrangements, Sylvie sits behind me and when we fly we're pretty close together; where would you prefer to be?" I had a pretty good idea of what his answer would be and I was not wrong.

"I'll be first, if that's okay," he said as expected, and we were on our way.

a/n Hey everyone, I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Thank you for hanging in there through the slow updates. I really appreciate your support and interest.