Half Magic | Book 2

Ten: Mist in the Desert

I woke with the sun long since set. I yawned and stretched, only to be met with a peck on my cheek from Puko.

"Ouch!" I snapped. "Don't do that. Oh, what do you have there?"

I reached my palm out to see what Puko was carrying in his beak. He looked at me for a moment with his good eye, then dropped something wet in my hand.

"Ugh!" I dropped the half eaten lizard on the ground next to me, rolling off of my mat.

"Why would you bring me that?" I grumbled and walked down to the water to clean the lizard innards off my hand.

"Caw!" Puko dived back down and began eating the other half of his breakfast.

I sighed and dropped down to the water's edge, scrubbing my hand clean, then washing my face. The sky overhead was still thick with dust. I sensed something else in the air too, something like mist or fog but not much of it. I was surprised the little oasis water was enough to bring on any kind of fog since the desert was usually so dry. All it did was mix with the dust in the air and leave a gritty feeling on my skin.

"Good evening, little bird," Kai grinned nearby where he was putting together some kind of stew. "Nice of you to join us."

I shook the excess water off my hands and stood straight, coming over to see what he was cooking. "You could have woken me up. And don't call me that, Eb- someone else calls me that."

Kai shrugged and began dicing up a handful of jerked meat to put in the boiling pot nearby. "Suit yourself. You looked like you needed the sleep though. That Schula runs you pretty ragged."

I gave him a half grin and sat down beside him while he worked. "She doesn't do anything I haven't asked her to do."

"To what end?" Kai asked. "You don't act like a soldier, but you train like one. You're looking for the witches, and brute strength won't help you there if your deal goes sour. So why?"

I pulled my knees up to my chin, hugging my legs close while I looked out at the water. "I'll end up back in the Wyldes someday. Things aren't peaceful there like they are in Sulls. I train because I'm tired of being the weak one. I want to be strong enough to protect the ones I care about. I want to be strong enough to stand by someone's side. He... he deserves someone strong."

I reached up and brushed my fingers on the light chain at my neck, feeling the weight of the pendant rest on my skin below the tunic.

"Hm," Kai said as he stirred the food. "Well good luck then. I hope you don't need to use this strength you're after."

"Don't you need to be strong to live in the desert?" I asked.

"No, you need to be smart and fast," Kai answered with a grin. "There are warriors in the desert. The Khusru for instance, and the spear throwers of the south east. But the tribes value the wise and the cunning, because that is how you live with monsters as neighbors."

I shivered, thinking of the feeling that had followed me from Sulls. "You keep saying things like that, but you never say what is out here. What monsters exactly are we dealing with?"

"If we're lucky, none of them." Kai sighed and stopped stirring the food. "It's bad luck to speak the names of things you don't want coming after you. But trust me, if something comes after us I will tell you immediately."

I nodded and looked around us again. Had the fog gotten thicker?

"Hey, Kai," I started. "Where are Schula and Nassir?"

"They went for a small walk," Kai said, going back to stirring. "Something about feeling magic."

My back shot up straight and my eyes popped out. "Did they say they felt something?"