Laurel’s POV

  It was sad to see Leafia struggling this morning but so far this afternoon was going a little better. I could tell Leafia was not thrilled about riding with Michael but she was no longer falling off the horse. I was not sure if her hesitation had more to do with her pride taking a hit about not being able to ride on her own or embarrassment at being that close to a man. As we stopped that afternoon Michael was eagerly attending to Leafia’s needs. “Here let me open that pack for you” or simir could be heard often.

  “We should be getting back on the road again in ten minutes,” Gray said after the horses had been watered and given rest.

  I opened my eyes upon hearing Gray’s announcement to see Leafia struggle to get up with Michaels help. I had been resting under a dormant beach tree trying to get a little strength back’’, but once again dormant trees did not have much strength to share. Leafia and Michael made their way over to where Emily was nearly wrestling with Mist to make her cover all her legs with her skirt. I was on Mist’s side in this argument so I was not about to come to Emily’s aid despite her pleadings.

  “Emily, can you give me a hand for a little bit?” Leafia asked after they arrived at the tussle. From the look in Emily's eye I could clearly see that she was the one that thought she needed the help. Leafia seemed to understand her look and said, “Mist, please show some restraint with my skin,” Emily started looking triumphant, Mist would not ignore her older sister, “At least keep your knees covered. You will get too cold otherwise.” Emily’s face quickly fell hearing Leafia asking for so much less than was expected, but I noticed that Leafia had a smirk as she turned slightly away from Emily. It lifted my heart to see her able to joke.

  “I can help.” Michael started to say only to be cut off with a strong “No!” from Leafia. Even from the back I was able to see by the red of Michael’s ears that he realized why he should not be asking.

  The embarrassment of Michael led to awkwardness as we continued on after the break. One of them would start turning red every time they touched each other. Which was quite often since they were riding the same horse. Well they should be better tomorrow. I also hope that once Michael and Leafia settled down Faun would stop gring at them. That seemed just as much of an overreaction as Michael and Leafia. Was it just an animal thing?

  Turns out that I was wrong and the next day was not better. If anything it was even worse. By the evening Faun was not even speaking to anyone. By the end of dinner I had had enough of Faun’s tantrum and dragged her away.

  “We need to talk.” I said once we were out of hearing range of the others.

  “No.” This was starting out so well.

  “Fine, if you are not going to talk you have to listen.” I let out a big sign as Faun weakly tried to fight against my grip. Faun knew that she could never beat me in a contest of strength so I hoped that her heart was only half in it and not that this was the extent of her strength right now.

  “I know Michael and you had that fight back at that fort, but we are going to be traveling together for another week or so, can you please not make it harder than you need to.”

  “You don’t get it.” She said weakly.

  “Then tell me.” I pleaded.

  “It just… Hurts,” she said hesitantly, “I don’t like seeing him with someone else.”

  I waited for a minute to see if anything else was coming but it did not seem like Faun was going to say anymore. Unfortunately I think Mist was the only one traveling with us that would be less helpful than me in this situation. But I also knew that Faun was not about to open up to someone that she just met. I needed to remember that she knew Emily for less than a week. “I, um, … Well.”

  It was Faun’s turn to sigh. “You are so hopeless when it comes to emotions.”

  “Pnts don’t need them,” this was already a conversation that we have had many times in the past.

  Faun did not try to talk about it any more but I did grab her hand as we slumped down to lean against a tree and release our consciousness as we have done on so many nights together over the years. I knew enough that just being with her was the best help I could be right now.

  Breakfast turned out much better than dinner. Well not the food, I did not try any myself but since Emily had Mist help make breakfast as a way to ‘keep her out of trouble’ I could not think it was an improvement. It seemed odd to me that she was so insistent on the proper way a girl should behave. She was raised by a dryad for several years, I could not see Willow teaching her to be like this. Willow had always been so flexible. Maybe it was because of the years she spent with her Father. But watching Mist try to cook seemed like enough distraction for Faun that she was joining us in conversations again this morning.

  It was not much ter of a start than normal this morning, which was either because Mist was a better cook than Ivy was or Emily had gotten better at teaching spirits how to cook. Not that it was a skill that I thought would ever need to be developed, seeing as even animal spirits did not have a need to eat. But it seemed Emily still had one thing in mind before we started out for the day.

  “Mist, I think Gray needs a break from riding with you,” Emily announced, “His muscles are getting really tired from helping you these st few days.”

  “...” Gray had opened his mouth to refute her statement but the look from Emily was clear, even to me, that he should not argue this point.

  “Can you ride with Ist-”

  “-No” I said ftly. I was not going to let Mist ride with Istan. He has stopped worshiping me outwardly but I still see him longing to build a shrine anytime I, I was going to say sneeze but I don’t sneeze. And that instinct of his has only gotten worse now that Faun and Mist were with us. Having him ride with Mist would only make things worse. And I was not prepared to have that conversation with his wife. I got that Gray was married but his wife was right here.

  “Fine.” Emily sighed, “I think it would be a good chance for you to try riding by yourself.” I am not sure that this would really be helping Gray at all now since now he would be forced to walk. I did not think he was up to walking all day with the horses. But as far as I was concerned this was an issue between Gray and Emily. So as long as they don’t slow us down too much I was not going to say anything.

  “Oooh, That sounds fun!” Mist said, running up to the horse she had been riding. Luckily the horse had started to grow used to Mist’s antics and was only a little spooked at having Mist run up to her and did not try to kick her. Mist tried to hop herself onto the horse, but her ck of skill and strength combined with the nervous animal made that an impossibility.

  Well that was not a big deal. Mist was not the only one that needed help onto the horses. Leafia still had not figured out how to mount with only one hand. I was sure she would be able to do that once she got her strength back in a few weeks but that would have to wait.

  I have to give great credit to Mist’s horse. It was faithfully following Gray who was walking next to it holding the reins and ignoring whatever Mist was telling it.

  “This is boring,” Mist said after not even ten minutes of riding. By this point she realized that the horse was not listening to her and that she could not go running off. Knowing her, this was going to be the first of many times she said this. She did not even st a minute before she said “How do we make this go faster”

  “You should start slow when riding a horse”, Gray said, clearly just as bored as Mist was.

  “You did something with your heels right?” Mist mumbled to herself.

  It took a second for Gray to process what Mist said. “No, don’t do that” Gray quickly said, perking up and trying to get a tighter grip on the reins to control the horse. But it was too te as the horse reared after a strong jab from Mist’s heals.

  The world seemed to slow as I watched Mist fall off the back of the horse. I stretched out my powers to the earth trying to find some seeds but the path was barren. I tried to draw on more power to grow the grasses on the verge to catch her. But trying to grab my thin strand of power I was able to build back up so quickly felt like trying to push a rope.

  In the end I was helpless as I watched her crash into the ground. “Mist are you alright,” I called as I started to run towards her. It seemed that she had managed to curl up into a ball before nding which meant that her head did not hit the ground. But bright red blood was already flowing from a rge gash in her arm where she nded on a rock.

  “Get me a canteen.” I shouted at Istan who was the closest after Gray who was still struggling to get the horse under control.

  Istan practically jumped off his horse canteen already in hand. By the time he made it to Mist he already uncorked it and started pouring it on the wound forming a puddle of blood and water on the ground reminding me of that horrible day.

  “No hand it to me.” crying I reached up and pulled it out of his hand. I squeezed two fingers into the neck of the cantine, using a little of my power to deform my ‘bones’ to fit in the fsk. I filtered the water through my body. I had to hope that the medicine I always gave to animals would work on her. She even had red blood like animals so I had to think there was enough in common. Since it even revitalized pnts I had to think it would work.

  “It hurts,” Mist wailed, “Why does it hurt?” Her cries were loud, unused to the pain that she could now experience with a physical body. This was likely a first for her.

  I pushed the medicine as far as I dared risk it right now. Even this much had taken a notable percentage of the power I had built back up. This winter was hard on me, the sky was overcast not letting me grow my own energy and there was so little energy for me from these dormant little woods we have been riding past.

  “This is the best I can do for now,” I knelt over Mist, who was still crying from the pain. “You need to drink it.”

  Through the pain Mist managed to take two swallows before she spluttered and coughed. “This is the worst thing I have ever tasted.” he hands spshed into the small red puddle still on the ground.

  “It is medicine, it is not supposed to taste good.” I could not help rolling my eyes at her.

  “Couldn’t you make it taste more like Emily’s stew?” Mist compined, as I pushed the cantine back towards her mouth. Though I did look up to see a slight smirk on Emily’s concerned face. I pouted slightly at this, I did not feel it was fair to be comparing the taste of my medicine with Emily’s cooking. At least not today, I spared almost no thought on how the medicine would taste. I was in a bit of a hurry and did not have the time or energy (mental and spiritual) to make it patable.

  Reluctantly she took a few grimacing sips. After looking at the wound on her arm slowly starting to heal I said, “Take one more drink. It will prevent you from any serious harm.”

  “But it tastes so bad,” she cried again.

  “You can not help cook if you are injured like this,” Emily persuaded. I noticed Emily’s eyes fall down to the gash on Mist’s arm and the slight smile at Mist’s antics on her face fell. “I am sorry. If I didn’t insist on you riding on your own you would not have gotten hurt.”

  Mist looked up at Emily a little confused, then a smile came over her face that I wanted to say I knew too well. But this was the first time that I had actually seen it. I have just been imagining it for the st hundred years. “Then can you make something extra yummy to wash the horrible fvor out of my mouth.”

  I could tell that Emily knew Mist was trying to manipute her but it seemed to be sufficient recompense and forgiveness to satisfy both of them. “Sure,” Emily said with a smile. “You can help me make it.”

  Mist’s hand stopped pying with the puddle of bloody water she had been absentmindedly pying with and looked into Emily’s eyes. After half a second Mist squealed and hopped off my p and dragged Emily off to start making a fire. “It is not time to eat now. We still have to ride further before we stop to eat.” Emily called restraining Mist.

  I would have rather had Mist rest longer but I know there was no getting her back. It would either be cooking or riding so she could start cooking sooner. Trying to change where she was directing her attention was like trying to deflect a river. I was left looking down at my arms with Mist’s blood contrasting my green skin.

  Why was her blood red? I could see Faun’s blood being red but Mist’s should basically be water. She was a water sprite just a few days ago. I wish I could figure out what really happened to her. I am grateful that she is fine but why.