Chapter 2

***

Danica would be the first to admit that Blue Leaf Village was not a very creative name for a village. But what it lacked in imagination, it made up for in its accuracy.

The majority of the trees in its surrounding forest had blue leaves. And the trees had the most vibrant flowers she had ever seen. They were almost the same shade as her eyes!

She would have loved to pick them and maybe put a few in her hair or something, unfortunately, the trees had a sticky orange sap that made people very itchy. The sap didn’t make her itch thankfully, but accidentally spreading it to others was more than possible.

She had only made that mistake once. Her dad had a most noticeable rash for days. She’d felt absolutely horrible about it for weeks.

“Halt! State your name and business!” A commanding voice shouted at them from the gate.

“Horva, you have known me my whole life. You know who we are.” Papa sounded exasperated. I peaked around the edge of the cart, looking at the tall lanky old man in cobbled-together leather armor, his spear was well taken care of at least.

“No exceptions, Carl!” He thumped his spear on the ground. ”Now, tell me your names and why you have come.”

“Alright, my name is Carl, and this is my daughter-”

“Hi, Horva!” She called with a wave from her spot in the back of the cart.

“-Danica. We’re here to sell farm goods. Now, can we go in? Or do you need to search the cart too?” He asked sarcastically, Danica could hardly contain her giggles.

Horva grunted, nodding to himself as he stepped aside. “You may go.”

“Have a good day, Horva!” She smiled at him as they passed through the gates.

“Don’t cause any trouble while you’re here little miss.” He grumbled through his bushy white beard.

“I won’t!” Danica promised the silly old man.

The headsman of the village was quick to greet them and show them to a spot where they could sell their crops.

Despite Blue Leaf being the closest to our farm, we always visited them last. It wasn’t out of any sort of malice, just simple logic. The bigger villages saw far more traffic from merchants and such, so they could afford to be pickier with what they bought from us. This meant that they needed a larger inventory for them to pick from.

But since Blue Leaf was by far the smallest of the villages in the surrounding area, they were simply happy someone came through their village at all. So the same potato that would have made the other villages sneer, would be happily bought and consumed by Blue Leaf, at a slightly discounted rate of course.

They sold them the dregs of their stock sure, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Blue Leaf got decent quality produce at a reduced price, and Danica’s family got to successfully sell their entire supply.

As Blue Leaf was so small, it wasn’t any surprise when within a half hour word had spread of their arrival. Within the hour, anyone who had the coin to spare and was in need of food stuffs visited the cart. After the initial flood of potential buyers, the father and daughter duo just stood around the cart waiting for any stragglers.

Danica was mature! Danica was older now. She had willpower! A little bit of boredom was nothing! She could handle-!

“Dani, you can go play now.” Papa patted her vibrating shoulder encouragingly.

Danica was free!

She shot away from the cart like an arrow from a bow.

“Remember to come back before sundown!”

She didn’t bother responding verbally, only waving an arm back in confirmation. She had a friend to catch up with!

It took Danica more than a few tries to finally find her friend, they were standing by the river, half-heartedly throwing stones into it.

“Morgana!” Danica shouted when she finally found her. The purple-haired teen spun around in surprise, a wide excited smile blooming on her face. She held her arms out, gratefully accepting the tackling hug that knocked her off her feet. They ended up rolling across the tall grass of the embankment, giggling.

“Danica, when did you arrive!” The older teenager said breathlessly.

“Not too long, like two hours, maybe?”

Morgana frowned, apologizing. “Darn, I must have just missed you then. I came out here right around when you arrived.”

“It’s fine.” She waved away the apology. “We would have been busy with customers anyways.”

“So how are things with you? Anything interesting?” Morgana asked from her place next to her.

“At the farm?” She wrinkled her nose, “Nothing ever happens at the farm.”

“I heard that you guys got attacked by goblins before though?”

She snorted, “Yeah, before I was born. I haven’t seen a goblin in my life.”

Morgana shuddered, “I have, it was disgusting. Small like a child, but with wrinkly green skin like an old man. And it had eyes like a goat.”

“Really? Where did you see it!?” Danica asked with wide excited eyes. “That sounds so cool!”

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Morgana sent her a sharp look. “Cool? Danica, they were trying to climb the village walls and kill us all in the night. One of them made it to our door before dying.”

“Oh.” She said awkwardly, continuing in a much meeker tone, “Yeah, I guess it’s not cool. My bad.”

She sighed, “It’s fine.” Shaking her head she continued, eager to get off the subject. “So how long are you gonna be around for?”

“It’s a bit too late for us to head back home now. So we might end up staying the night in the Headman's home.”

Morgana’s eyes lit up, “That would be great! Oh! Maybe your dad would let you sleep over at my house? I know Mom would love to have you over.”

Danica squealed in excitement at the prospect. Her Dad would definitely say okay! “Yeah! That would be amaz- EEP!” She let out a startled squeak as she felt her body begin to lift off the ground.

Morgana cocked her head, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” She blurted out, her heart racing under her friends' curious gaze.

Thankfully, Morgana didn’t appear to notice how her prone body wasn't quite touching the grass. Nor did she notice how Danica’s fingers disappeared all the way down to the last knuckle in the dirt, clutching desperately at the network of grassroots.

“Huh, well how about we go ask now? That way we can plan the rest of the day out?”

“Uhh, sure, just uhhh, you go on ahead? I’ll catch up in a minute?” Sink! Sink! Sink! C’mon, stop floating! She was the furthest thing from being happy at that moment, yet her body stubbornly refused to return to the dirt.

“Okayyy?” Morgana trailed off, giving her an even queerer look before walking off.

Eventually, after another half minute of panic, her body abruptly dropped. She slowly loosened her death grip on the grass. Danica took a moment to calm her pounding heart. That had been far too close.

Her Papa did indeed end up agreeing to her staying the night at Morgana’s house. They stayed up long into the night, giggling and whispering to each other under the cover of darkness.

Saying goodbye in the morning sucked, but Danica persevered.

“So, did you have a good time at your friend's house?”

“The best!” She went on to excitedly recount what she and the older girl had gotten up to. Her father was a great listener.

***

“How did you-” Papa’s voice cut off abruptly, “Never mind, I really don't want to know.”

Danica sheepishly and belatedly put the axe head with its shattered remnants of a handle behind her back. Maybe if he couldn’t see it anymore he would forget about it?

“You’re carving a new handle, ya know that right?”

“Yeah.” She said despondently.

They walked in silence for a bit.

“So, how did you do it?”

“Thought you didn’t wanna know?”

“Changed my mind.”

She groaned, “If you must know, I was trying to chop down a tree.”

“Well, I sorta figured that much.” He laughed.

“Yeah, well, I wanted to see if I could chop it down in one hit.” She could already feel her cheeks reddening.

His only answer was a belly deep laugh. He even oinked like Ser Baconsalot.

“Laugh it up. It’s sooo hilarious.” She huffed.

“Sorry,” He said between peals of laughter, “It’s just-” His shoulders shook as he tried to get his words out. “I’m just imagining the face you must have made when it exploded!” His lips wobbled uncertainly before he lost his composure again.

Danica walked faster, determined to leave her still chuckling father behind.

***

The Winter months were always interesting to her. Unlike her family, she never really got bothered by the cold. She could feel the difference between hot and cold of course, but it just never hurt like how her parents had often described it. She had once gone an entire week in the winter with nothing but her drafty summer clothes, and she hadn't even shivered once.

They still made her wear more layers, though it was mainly for appearance's sake than anything. And also her Mama said that she didn’t want her building a bad habit and forgetting to wear clothes that fit the weather.

When she got outside, she quickly went to work with the shovel, clearing the snow from the door. Pushing all the gathered snow into one big heap, she started patting it down with the flat of the shovel, shaping and compacting it into a rough ball shape.

Danica gathered two smaller piles of snow and similarly condensed them.

Taking a calming breath, she envisioned her last name day, when her parents had surprised her by sneaking Morgana’s family over to the farm while Danica was busy.

Gradually, she could feel the shift take shape, it started from her chest, a humming warmth that expanded until it felt like her skin was merely a tight-fitting glove for the buzzing heat. Then her stomach seemed to lurch ever so slightly as her feet began to leave the ground, and a swirl of snow followed her gentle ascent.

Slowly, still concentrating hard on that happy memory, she gripped the second ball of snow. When she began to lift it, the added weight made her precariously wobble for a moment before steadying. The sudden surge of relief actually served to make her more stable in the air.

So very slowly, she floated her cargo to the first ball. Placing it on top of the first, bigger ball of snow.

At the same glacial start-and-stop pace, she floated over to the last snowball and repeated the process, placing it on top of the second one. When nothing fell off or came apart, she did a happy little jig in the air, visibly rising even higher. Now she just needed some pebbles for the eyes and mouth.

The sound of clapping behind her made her fall from the sky with a startled squawk.

She glared half-heartedly at her smiling parents looking down at her. “You scared me!” She complained, taking her father extended hand.

“We didn’t want you to lose your focus. Good job on the flying! You’re really getting the hang of it, pretty soon you’ll be up there with the birds!”

She smiled kicking and scuffing the floor bashfully with her back foot. “I dunno about all that.”

“Nonsense!” Mama scolded her sternly, having none of her daughter's lack of confidence. “You’ve been working so hard the last few months. I know you’ll master it eventually.” She continued in a much more playful tone, “And when you do, you’ll take me up first right?”

“Hey!” Her father interjected, trying his best to sound angry, but the amusement in his eyes took all the heat out of his tone.

“First come, first serve.” Her Mama stuck her tongue out at him, causing Danica to let out an honest laugh. The sight of her mother doing something so silly almost made her begin floating again. She was quick to push down the warmth, only flying when she wanted to was key to her training.

“Sure Mama, when I master it, you will be the first person I give a ride to. We’ll go touch the clouds together.” She promised her Mom.

“I look forward to it.” She said primly, all the while sending her husband a challenging grin.

He just held his hands up in surrender. “You can get the first ride.” His brown eyes glittered with warmth. “Seeing you two have fun is more than worth it.”

Danica watched curiously as her Mom stared at her father, a strange expression flickering across her face. The confusion quickly turned to one of revulsion when she saw her lean over and kiss Papa on the lips.

“Ewwww!” She stumbled away from the gross display.

“Oh hush, you should be happy your parents love each other so much!” Her mother snapped at her.

Danica made gagging noises, then ducked to dodge the sudden snowball hurtling towards her head. She stared at her Mama wide-eyed, so distracted that she didn’t dodge the second snowball by her Papa. The cold impact sent her into motion, quickly scooping up her own projectile.

An hour later her cold, half-wet, and half-frozen parents marched into the warm confines of the house. Danica worked quickly to get blankets for them.

Jason was only too happy to jump into the cuddle pile they made on the couch.