After an awkward farewell from a now-sober king, Britina and Prunhiline set off on the road home, while Britina was glad to be returning, she decided the trip back would be good for some much-needed discussions.

"Dear love?" Britina called, pulling Prunhiline's focus away from her intense squirrel search.

"Hmmm," Prunhiline murmured, still on high alert for her arch-nemesis, the squirrel.

"You mentioned something about a curse," Britina said.

"Ah, yeah," Prunhiline said, giving up looking for her nemesis and finding that the clouds were pretty this time of day.

"What curse?" Britina asked more sternly than she had intended.

"Ah, well, you see." Prunhiline said, "I may have a little curse placed on me."

"How little of a curse?" asked the mage.

"Oh, you know, just a little one." Prunhiline held up her fingers to indicate the curse’s supposedly insignificant size.

"Ok, then what kind of curse?" Britina asked, getting frustrated with the conversation.

"Oh, well, it's a curse of chaos," Prunhiline stated.

"Chaos?" Britina repeated, her tone sharpening.

"Yeah, you know. Chaos. If something can go, you know, differently, then it will." Prunhiline said, almost embarrassed.

"What?" Britina blurted out.

"Ok, let me explain." Prunhiline began, "It happened when I was a kid."

---

"Hey Prune Juice!" Shouted a young girl as she ran towards her friend.

"Ah, Finny, I hate that nickname!" Prunhiline pouted.

Finny and Prunhiline were both thirteen, and both reached six feet tall. It was the annual meeting of the tribes, and being of age, they were both to be included in the ceremonies. Finny was training to be a shaman, and Prunhiline was training to be a hunter.

"This will be the best year ever!" Finny shouted as she and Prunhiline hugged.

"Yes! I can't wait to go on the big hunt this year." Prunhiline said.

"Me too!" Finny exclaimed, "I've been practicing the blessing. One day, I hope to be able to do it like my grandmother."

"Girls!" Prunhiline's mother called, her tone firm. "Stay close! The ceremony is about to begin."

"Ok!" the girls shouted together.

"Let's go explore the caves again?" Prunhiline suggested.

The girls laughed as they ran several miles from the camp to the caves. For the plainspeople, several miles was a simple run. Fortunately, they made it to the caves when the storm hit.

"I thought it was going to be a clear day?" Finny said.

"Me too, but don't worry. We can stay here until the storm passes." Prunhiline said.

What the girls didn't know was that this storm wasn't a typical storm. It was brought about by the storm gods, who were fighting over who was better at creating the most damaging storm on the plains. The plains people were caught off guard, but they were always prepared. Unfortunately, Prunhiline and Finny were not prepared. The storm raged, and midday turned dark as night. The girls found some dry wood and, true to their survival training, made a fire in the cave.

"I found some blueberries by the cave entrance." Said Finny, handing a handful to Prunhiline.

"Thank you. I'm staved," Prunhiline said.

"The storm should have passed by now." Finny said, "Something feels wrong about this."

"Ah, don't worry, Finny, it's just a summer storm. It'll pass, and we will run back to the camp." Prunhiline reassured her.

When night fell, the fire in the cave barely kept back the darkness. The girls huddled near it for warmth and safety. They kept their spears near them but had explored the caves for many years and knew nothing lived there. Unfortunately, that was not true this year. Several men had gotten lost on the plains and found the caves, but they were not of the plains and didn't know how to survive. They became angry and began to fight; one of the men killed the other. In desperation, he ate his companion but soon died afterward. His spirit rose in torment as a Wendigo.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The howl was fierce and wild. The girls jumped to their feet and held their spears at the ready.

"I smell children," Came a growl from the back of the cave.

"I am Prunhiline of the Plains, slayer of, uh... chipmunks," she faltered.

"Chipmunks?" Laughed the Wendigo.

"I am Finny of the plains shaman and defeater of, well, nothing yet," Finny said.

"And a shaman," The growl was amused. "If I eat a shaman, will that cure me?"

"Cure you of what?" Finny said, "I can help if you are hurt."

The monster laughed, "No, child. I am cursed. I died after eating the flesh of another man."

"Wendigo!" Finny hissed.

"What?" Prunhiline whispered.

"This is bad. He ate human flesh before he died, and now he's a spirit that craves it," Finny said.

"Children would be a good snack," the Wendigo hissed.

The storm raged as lightning flashed. The wind had picked up to the point that even as far in as the girls had gone into the cave, they could feel it. They couldn't go out, but they couldn't stay.

"Finny," Prunhiline whispered, "Do the blessing."

"What?" Finny shot back, "I can't. I've only practiced it a little bit."

"Doesn't matter. Do the blessing, and we will make our stand here." Prunhiline said.

"Ok," Finny began to sing-song chant that the shamans did for the blessing of the hunt.

The Wendigo roared; the chat had caused him pain. "Shut up!"

Finny began to falter but continued. Prunhiline hefted her spear and prepared to defend her friend. Finny began to cry, and her words started to slur.

"What are you doing?" Screamed the Wendigo.

"Stay back, monster!" Shouted Prunhiline.

The next roar from the monster causes Finny to scream in terror. Her words became jumbled. She threw her hands out and shouted, "Hear me, oh great gods, bless this warrior."

Finny didn't know that she had mispronounced the gods' names. This wouldn't be an issue, except she had called out the names of the chaos gods, and they were happy to answer. Prunhiline felt a jolt and a surge of power.

The Wendigo burst from the darkness, and Prunhiline shouted, raising her spear. The Wendigo misjudged his leap and bashed his head into the stone ceiling. Howling with pain, the Wendigo rolled around on the cave floor.

"Blast you, foul children," The Wendigo said (actually, dear reader, he used very foul language, but this isn't that kind of story).

"We haven't done anything!" Prunhiline shouted indignantly.

The Wendigo roared, leaping again. He kept the leap low but didn't get the range and landed in the fire. He howled again, running around. His white fur was on fire.

"The blessing is working!" Prunhiline shouted.

But Finny knew something was wrong. The whispers she heard were not of the gods she had heard before. They seemed amused.

"I will eat you both!" The Wendigo shouted again. He leaped towards the girls, but as he did so, he lost his footing and landed hard on the rock floor. At that moment, lightning struck outside the cave. The rumble started low but began to get louder as the girls saw the ceiling start to give way. They ran out into the storm.

"There they are!" Shouted a man. The girls saw their fathers running to the cave entrance.

"Wendigo!" Shouted Finny.

"Where?" Finny's father shouted over the storm.

"In the cave!" Shouted Prunhiline.

They looked back to see the cave had collapsed.

---

"Prune juice?" Britina giggled.

"No, no, no," Prunhiline said, her face scrunching in mock indignation.

Britina laughed, "So you were cursed by accident. Seems like something you are good at."

Prunhiline laughed, "Well, I got way better at it."

"What happened to Finny?" Britina asked.

"Oh, she got into a lot of trouble. She wasn't supposed to try to bless for many years." Prunhiline said.

"But if she hadn't, you both would have been killed," Britina said. "Doesn't seem fair to me."

"Oh, they scalded both of us for going to the caves. And Finny had to do extra chores, but they didn't do any harsh punishment." Prunhiline said. "We are still best friends, and she's excited to meet you when we visit my family."

"Ah, yes, uh," Britina said. "So, any more secrets, dear love?"

"Nah, you know about the romance novels," Prunhiline said, looking around for any spies.

"Ah, well, I guess it's my turn to be honest with you," Britina said, "I, uh, um, wrote my mother and told her about us getting married."

"Oh, that's great!" Prunhiline said. "When?"

"After it happened," Britina said, looking embarrassed, "I had her promise not to tell anyone else."

"Ok, but this is a good start," Prunhiline said, not understanding why things needed to be a secret.

"And, she said she did so well on her last book, she wanted to give us a present," Britina said.

"Oh, well, she didn’t need to do that. Her book was great, especially the part where the vampire and the ghoul," Prunhiline began enthusiastically gesturing but was quickly cut off.

"Dear love!" Britina shouted, "Please, I don't want to know what my mother writes." Britina took a breath, "She bought us a house."

"What?" Prunhiline said.

"She bought us a house, and I moved our things to it while we were on our mission," Britina blushed. "Uh, sorry. I should have said something earlier."

"Uh, ok," Prunhiline was speechless, "I thought we would find a way to stay at the capital. How did she get a house for us there?"

"Oh, well, it's not in the capital proper, but close by," Britina said.

"Where exactly?" Prunhiline pressed, suspicious.

"Uh, outside the capital," Britina said.

"Oh, well, that's not too bad." Prunhiline said, "Riverport? I know you love the water."

"No," Britina said, looking up at the pretty clouds.

"Uh, Hills Borrow, I uh, that would be ok," Prunhiline liked flatter land, but it was still open space."

"No," Britina said, "They explicitly said we couldn't move to either of those places. You know, for reasons."

"Sure, the reason being me," Prunhiline grumbled, "So where did we get a house?"

"Land of the Oaks," Britina said.

Prunhiline laughed, "That's a good one, Bri. You had me going."

"No, dear love," Britina said, "We have a house waiting for us in Land of the Oaks."

"But Bri, they call it the Weirdo Wing," Prunhiline whispered, incredulous.

"I know, dear love, but it's the only community that would accept us," Britina said with a shrug. "It can’t be that bad," Britina said optimistically.

Somewhere, the chaos gods chuckled.