James laid on his back staring into the night sky, the encounter with the stirge fresh in his mind. The beasts were horrific. The swarm even more so—thousands of them flying together in a black funnel of death, the relentless beating of their wings like a jackhammer pounding into his skull.

Remembering the lone stirge fluttering above him, its snout inches away from piercing his neck, James felt thankful. Thankful for Berwick to warn him in the first place. Thankful that he found the knife before it was too late. Certainly things would have ended tragically if he didn’t have the weapon. Instead, he had his first kill. For that he was truly thankful, though the victory wasn’t without pain.

His right arm throbbed in the splint. It had felt better initially, but the pain never completely stopped. An ache remained within his bone. Or at least he figured it was his bone, having never broken one before; this was a new experience. Still, the pain wasn’t too bad despite the throbbing. The ache was dull and he would try not to complain. He wasn’t the only one in pain, after all.

Harley groaned in her sleep just a few feet away from him. Her eyes closed, she was positioned on her back, her chest quickly rising and falling, her face glistening with sweat—if she wasn’t in pain from her hand, then she was certainly in the midst of a fever. Her groaning had persisted for some time now; it was the sound that had woken James up from his own restless slumber. And how long ago had that been? Maybe an hour? He stirred, no longer able to lay still.

Moonlight through the hole in the canopy cast a dim white glow on the surface of their rocky haven. There was no more blue light—the pendant was safe inside Yoyo’s pocket. The kindling fires arranged around the perimeter were reduced to red embers, and the brush fire along the bank of the pond had burned out hours ago, leaving only charred sticks and gray ashes. The forest was silent in the absence of wind.

James wondered if the stirge would return. He would be ready if they did. Examining his knife beneath the moon, he eyed the blade that was now stained red. The blood was proof that he had taken a life. There was a certain pride he felt in the deed, though his actions hadn’t earned him any praise. No one even recognized that he had successfully recovered the pendant. Everyone seemed to be focused on what he should have done instead of what he did, like it was his fault for rousing the stirge.

Even Tena had scolded him once she was through cleaning Harley’s hand. That stung a bit. The way she said it so nicely made the scolding feel even worse—like he had disappointed her instead of making her mad. It didn’t feel like that was all she wanted to say either, that she stopped short of her full feelings on the matter.

James wanted to know the whole truth. Not knowing bugged him.

Luckily, Tena was the other one also awake.

Shuffling past a sleeping Yoyo, James crept toward Tena without making much noise. Chocolate was laying beside her, resting. It was the first time he had heard a goat snoring in his life. Tena didn’t seem to mind—she was humming the same familiar tune that she always hummed. There was a soothing quality to the melody that he liked very much. He sat beside her, a wool blanket draped over his shoulders, and listened.

“Is your arm hurting you, James?” asked Tena after several minutes.

James shook his head. “Not so much anymore, thanks to you.”

Tena nodded, then resumed her humming.

James kept his feelings inside, anxious about how to ask about the subject that bothered him. He decided to open with a less stressful topic—her humming.

“Is that song your favorite?” asked James.

Tena turned her head. “Hm—what song?”

“The one you hum all the time.”

“Oh,” said Tena. “I’m just thinking, that’s all. I think best when I hum.”

“I was thinking too, you know. About the stirge and everything that happened.”

“So that’s the topic keeping you up. It seems we are thinking about the same things.”

If they were thinking the same, then why hadn’t she recognized that he had recovered the magic pendant? Wasn’t the pendant the thing that kept them safe? He needed acknowledgement. “Did you know I recovered Yoyo’s pendant?” James blurted out. “I think that’s what kept us safe.”

Tena kept quiet, her expression doing all the talking for her. She seemed annoyed.

“Why are you looking at me like that!?” exclaimed James.

“The thing that kept us safe was your sister,” Tena said angrily. “Her quick actions chased away the stirge until the fire did the rest. We’re lucky that we’re still alive to talk about it, considering the myriad of things that could have killed us. Don’t you see that James? Don’t you see how your actions caused the event in the first place? You cannot expect praise for a mess that you caused. You must learn to control yourself.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

James frowned. Her statement was riddled with inaccuracies and misattributed credit. If that was what Tena thought was the truth, he no longer wanted to hear it. He crossed his arms and remained silent.

After a long pause, Tena continued, “I hope you aren’t too mad at me. I like you, James. I like how you’re kind and courageous, well-meaning and pleasant. But the silliness can be a bit too much and when danger is lurking about, you must learn self-control to stay out of trouble. Now I want you to try something. When you feel those impulses coming fast, remind yourself to stop and think. Even a second pause helps.”

James rolled his eyes, thinking that Tena was channeling his parents somehow, like the whole point of this place was to teach him a lesson. Even a million miles away from Risanburg, he couldn’t escape a lecture about his behavior. He kept his arms crossed and didn’t respond.

“It won’t be easy, but if you practice then it’ll get better with time. Take a breath before you act. Take two breaths. Hum if you must—that’s what I do,” said Tena. “Want to try it?”

Unable to tolerate the suggestion, James snapped, “NO!”

Chocolate stopped mid-snore and lifted her head. Hushing softly, Tena stroked her brown fur and calmed her back down. No apology came from Tena when Chocolate resumed her snoring. But James needed something instead of silence, so he sought an explanation.

“Why are you lecturing me, anyway?” said James. “Normally it’s Harley giving me the lesson.”

Tena didn’t speak immediately as if mulling things over, but eventually she answered, “I don’t say this lightly, James, but your sister is very sick. The wound on her hand requires care I cannot provide—perhaps no one can. What do we do if she cannot walk at dawn? What do we do if she is too weak to even speak?”

All the anger left James and worry rushed to take its place. Listening to Harley’s groans hadn’t been pleasant, but his guess was a slight fever at worst, not more than that. And for as long as he knew about the cut on her hand, he never imagined the injury would disable her completely. Tena’s words made sense and yet everything she said seemed confusing. He needed clarification.

“How sick is she?”

“I think she has blood poisoning.”

“Does she know that?”

“I think she suspects it.”

James nodded. It explained why his sister had been so scared, and hearing the potential ailment that Harley suffered from completely removed his prior feelings of pity, and shifted him to a new mindset of how to help. It also explained why Tena had been so truthful with him—so overbearing with her lecture.

“You need me to step up and be a leader,” said James.

“That would help,” she replied.

“I’m not trying to be a burden, I promise. I really do try to be helpful.”

“I know, James. I truly do. Like I said—humming helps me think. Maybe breathing will help you?”

Perhaps Tena was right. He needed to act less on his impulses and more on what the situation called for. And as for the current situation, he remembered Harley’s constant lecturing—reaching Cutter’s Gate was the mission. They needed to get there as soon as possible.

“When dawn comes, we’ll leave for Cutter’s Gate. Maribel’s house is close to there, right?”

“Yes—and I hope I’ll recognize things soon. It’s been so long since my father took me in his wagon. All I really remember is there being a big castle not far from her house, and of course the meadows near the peaks.”

“A castle?” asked James. “You never mentioned that before. Maybe someone there can help Harley?”

“Oh, I’ve never been there, though I once knew the name of it. My father said it’s someplace you pass but never stay. I suppose when you’re young, you just take those sorts of things for granted as normal.”

Big castles weren’t normal—not in Risanburg and not here either. James wondered how big the place was and how many people lived there. One thing was certain, they would have to stop there and ask for help. He owed it to Harley to try, and even if Tena hadn’t been there before, asking was always worth a shot.

“What’s the name of the place?” asked James.

Tena looked to the sky and began to hum softly, as if thinking deeply to remember. A gentle breeze tangled her curls. She stroked Chocolate’s neck as she hummed, then suddenly her curls lifted upward, and they didn’t come back down. Chocolate ears lifted up into the air, the blankets raised too, and even the tiny kindling embers were floating.

Gasping, James noticed his own hairs lifting toward the sky, the sensation as if he were weightless. It was a pull upward he couldn’t explain. He wasn’t floating like the embers, but he had the feeling he might be soon, and he flung his arm around Tena’s waist. Then, just as sudden as it started, the sensation was gone.

“What was that!?” exclaimed James.

Chocolate’s ears were flopped back down, the goat still snoring. Yoyo and Harley had slept through it too, though their blankets had shifted position, and the red embers across the rock were scattered as if they had been blown around by the wind. James released his grip on Tena, the look on her face one of shock. He knew in her eyes that she had no explanation.

“I don’t know what that was, but I hope it doesn’t happen again!”

His heart pumping, James laid on his back and stared into the night sky, half-expecting the sensation to return at any second. He opened his palms and held the rock. Once he felt confident that gravity would keep him grounded, he sat up to see if Tena had figured out what it was.

“It’s the strangest thing,” said Tena, fidgeting with her dress. “The name of the castle came to me right as my hair started to lift upward. The place is called Ezrazeit. Do you think it’s a coincidence?”