“How do you not know that?!”

“Stop acting like it’s common knowledge to say ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes! I still don’t think that I have to respond that way!”

“It is common knowledge! Regardless of what god or goddess you believe in, you are blessing the person so they don’t get sick! You just don’t want to be bothered to be polite, you-”

Whatever insult Ben had been about to fling in Spidena’s direction was cut off by her holding up her hand and stopping in her tracks.

“What? What is it?” he asked, completely unsuccessful in hiding his exasperated tone.

Spidena stared straight ahead through the trees, her eyes glimmering and rounding with awe and excitement.

“What? Did you find another mushroom?” Ben persisted sarcastically.

“Now who’s being rude?” Spidena sniped over her shoulder, her sights not moving off of whatever she saw in the distance as she walked forward. “And I already told you, those mushrooms are very helpful in moving your bowels in the morning. You’ll thank me when you get constipated from all the cheese you eat.”

“Spidena, I can promise you I will never ask for your help with my bowel movements.”

“We’ll see,” she scoffed while starting to jog toward whatever it was she had spotted.

“Mind telling me where you’re going?” Ben hollered, just before Spidena let out an excited gasp and started to run at full speed.

Dropping his head back and letting out a groan, Ben extended his legs even more to keep up with the witch’s awkward dash.

Spidena darted around a large rock, slid down a small hill, then Spidena tripped over a gnarled willow root, righted herself completely unbothered, and continued until she skidded to an abrupt halt. Doubled over, her hands on her knees, her face still lit up in a smile that exuded pure joy as she gazed up at what she had been bolting for.

Ben sidled casually over to her, his breath perfectly intact and his hands in his pockets. “You know… When we finish traveling together, you might want to think about going for more regular walks, or exercising, or both.”

Spidena couldn’t muster up a response, supposedly thanks to her raspy breathing troubles, and so she pointed in front of herself, and when Ben looked…

Despite having just done a cursory glance moments before and not noticing anything all that remarkable, he suddenly saw…

An inn.

A two story, tower-like inn, with soft curved peaks, a thatched roof, white washed walls that barely managed to peek out from behind the ivy, round oak windows, and a black chimney puffing a hearty stream of smoke.

“What the—there isn’t a road for leagues! What’s this doing here?” Ben’s attention fixated on the inn, its dark red door with ornate black hinges, the window boxes overflowing with forget-me-nots despite it still being too early for their blooms, the bench by the door…

“It’s a wink place!” Spidena exclaimed, glowing with happiness.

Ben’s brows lowered, and he turned with his mouth open, preparing to ask the obvious question ‘what is a wink place’, but Spidena bound ahead and knocked on the door.

“Oy! I don’t know about you, tall boots, but I don’t have the luxury of spending coin on a place like this!” Ben whispered urgently.

“You have tons of gold,” Spidena said with a laugh as she practically bounced on her toes.

“I need this gold for something. I can’t use it. And you know you’re supposed to just walk into inns, right?”

Spidena smiled without response, and just as Ben was about to continue arguing with his travel companion, the door opened, and there, was a woman.

Only… She wasn’t exactly a human woman.

She was exceptionally tall, and round, with long, thick dark chocolate hair that was styled with several small braids tied atop her head in a ponytail, dark skin, a gap in her brilliantly white teeth… And while all these things were very human, her pointed ears and the delicate lines of textured patches of her skin like oak bark that were not human.

She smiled down at the two of them, and perhaps it was the screaming yellow of her dress that clung to her body, but everything around Ben and Spidena felt brighter.

“Goodday, travelers! Welcome to The Fey Way!” the woman trilled musically, her cheeks aglow. “You are some of our first ever customers in this new business that will soon be all over the kingdom!”

Spidena’s jaw dropped in childlike wonder as the not-quite-a-woman stepped aside and gestured them in. “Would you like to come inside?”

Ben grabbed Spidena’s upper arm and yanked her back. “Is she a fairy?” he asked without bothering to lower his voice.

Spidena turned to face him, moderately disgruntled, but when she looked back at the woman who had greeted them she couldn’t seem to keep the expression in tact.

“No. She’s a nymph. Pardon his rudeness, he’s a seeb,” Spidena added the last part to the magical innkeeper.

“A seeb!” The woman gasped in astonishment, but then her eyes glittered like black beetle wings and her smile warmed. “My goodness. The two of you reek of big magic and you say he’s a seeb? You must have a story!”

Spidena had just about wrestled herself free of Ben’s hold when his grip tightened again.

“I thought it wasn’t safe to interact with fey people?”

Spidena, fed up with his persistent restraint, grabbed his hand and flung it off herself before rounding on him.

“Nymphs are absolutely lovely, and are only terrible if you are terrible!”

“Sprites can be a mite tricky,” the nymph innkeeper interjected helpfully.

“They can, but they are generally innocent. And fairies… their personalities are so atrocious they could be used as weapons against peoples sanities.”

Ben tried to take a calming breath before asking a question he dreaded knowing the answer to.“But they do and don’t exist I’m guessing?”

“Yes.”

“What about elves?”

Spidena tossed her head back and laughed, as did the nymph. “Please. Elves aren’t real.”

Ben closed his eyes and started rubbing them while Spidena and the nymph woman shared good humored glances.

“I would die if you had any fresh vegetables,” Spidena informed the innkeeper while marching into the inn.

“What about dryads?!” Ben hollered at Spidena’s back.

“Oh, those are very real. Do not upset a dryad,” the innkeeper answered Ben while welcoming him into the inn and closing the door behind him.

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“What happens if I do?”

“Well then I hope you don’t mind being a tree for the foreseeable future,” Spidena cast back while gazing around the inn.

The entryway hall had two long lines of hooks, with a rough woven mat under their feet, and walls the color of freshly churned butter.

It smelled of mouthwatering foods, like roasted meat, and baked potatoes. There was even a wafting aroma of something sweet… Perhaps a strawberry rhubarb pie?

It was even toasty warm inside compared to the somewhat chilly spring air outside.

“Do I smell chicken?” Spidena asked, taking in a big inhalation.

“You sure do, big magic!” The innkeeper laughed and tapped Spidena’s arm as she managed to squeeze by the witch and headed toward the of three arched doorways at the end of the hall before turning to the left one.

“Ah, my name is Spidena, and that is Ben.”

Ben nodded to the nymph he couldn’t stop gawking at, as she stood at least seven feet tall, yet was light on her feet and quiet when she moved…

“My name is Daffodil, but you can call me Daffy,” the nymph explained while her guests continued to marvel at the dining space they had just entered.

There were long wooden tables and benches polished to a shine, filling the room. A stone fireplace along the back wall already bright with crackling flames. And just beside it, was another door rounded at the top, with the same style of ornate iron hinges the front door of the inn had.

“Now, would you like a midday meal?” Daffy offered hospitably.

Ben tore his eyes from studying the room to look back at the nymph. “Er, I’m really sorry, but we can’t afford-”

“How much for lunch, dinner, and a night in an actual bed?” Spidena cut Ben off as she began rummaging around her bag.

“Well, you are a witch so either magic or coin.”

Spidena looked back up at Daffy with her eyes sparkling. “What kind of magic?”

“What kind do you practice?”

“She does spells, potions, and incantations,” Ben interrupted, making both Spidena and Daffy stare at him. “I know some stuff,” he said with only a mild note of indignation.

Spidena sighed and rolled her eyes. “You know what I’ve told you.”

“Three types of magic! You are a very well educated witch!” Daffy complimented Spidena happily.

“Thank you!” the witch returned, her oddly bouncy mood returning.

“I would really just need a spell to get out some unpleasant pests that have taken up residence in one of our rooms,” the nymph expounded hopefully.

Spidena slid onto one of the benches. “What kind of pests?”

“How about you go to see for yourself?” Daffy sighed while shaking her head. “They’re upstairs in room twelve. Second floor.”

Spidena, having just made herself comfortable on the bench, slumped her shoulders fractionally.

Seeing this, Ben took a puny bit of pity on her and volunteered to go look for her. Besides, if it was something like a possum or raccoon he could probably handle it himself, and he wasn’t fond of the idea that Spidena would create a spell that would pay for his own food and room. At least he assumed she was paying for him… He mentally kicked himself for not clarifying that.

“Room twelve you said?” Ben clarified, turning and heading toward the stairwell.

Daffy giggled. “That’s right. Give it a look.”

Ben nodded vaguely, waved his hand and set off with the hearty trudge of a man who had a task, wanted the task, but was pretending to not want the task.

*

“What do you have? A poltergeist?” Spidena speculated with a laugh burbling and warming her throat.

“Oh goodness, nothing as nasty as that! Just a bad seeb.”

“A bad seeb? You take seebs here even if they aren’t accompanied by someone like us?!”

Daffy laughed, and it was like pure magic. “Of course! They stumble into The Fey Way, pay us gold, and stumble out not quite certain this place was a dream or if they’d eaten strange mushrooms.”

Spidena’s bubble of laughter popped as she cackled. “A seeb doesn’t seem so troublesome. Why aren’t you able to kick them out?”

Daffy’s good humor faded a little as she let out a sigh. “This one’s been touched by an incantation. He was wandering around with his men—-they were all power punched if you know what I mean. Problem is, once whatever magic affected his mind started to wear off, his nasty self started to come through.”

Spidena chuckled, but it was far more subdued than before as a creeping suspicion rose up. “About The Fey Way… is it accessible just in a wink place? Or a magic whirl?”

“It is! What a clever witch you are!” Daffy’s musical giggle should’ve continued to be infectious and intoxicating… Except Spidena was starting to become more assured about what terrible pest may be plaguing The Fey Way….

“Do you happen to remember the name of this pesky seeb?” she asked warily.

Daffy’s eyes drifted to the ceiling rafters thoughtfully…

“Something that reminded me of ostriches…”

“What’s an ostrich– never mind. Was it Ostrig by chance?”

“That’s it! My wonder, do you also know divination magic?!”

Spidena didn’t wait to explain how she happened to accurately guess the name of Daffy’s problematic guest, instead she launched herself off the bench, intending to catch up to Ben and explain to him it was a terrible idea for him to look in on the pest, except she tripped and banged her shin.

“Godsdamnit,” she wheezed while sinking back to her seat clutching her leg.

Daffy watched in silence as her new patron waited for the pain to subside.

That is until Spidena tried to get up again.

“You and your man chop are fun. Anyone ever tell you that?”

Spidena looked over her shoulder with a clueless eyebrow raised. Her moment of distraction wound up being a problem as she then proceeded to stub her toe on another bench, and sent herself crouching into a whimpering ball.

Daffy rose gracefully from her seat, glided over to Spiden, and gently brushed her fingertips along the witch’s shoulders. “I’m sure he will do fine! It may even be better for one seeb to deal with another.”

Spidena tried to stand again, and was about to make a third attempt at going after her travel companion, when she heard the sound of a door opening on the floor above.

Freezing in place as her eyes snapped up to the ceiling, Spidena wondered if her peaceful rest day at the inn was going to last even one more minute let alone until the next morning.