Illusions proved to be more challenging and more taxing than Kailtyn could have imagined. They wore on her mind and her magic. Making a concise instruction helped conserve magic, but making clear and concise instructions that looked realistic was harder than it looked.

Kailtyn tried a lot of recoloring to begin with. Tables, clothes, her own hair. When she tried the last she found the best results fastest. She realized how well she knew her own hair and it gave her an appreciation for the depth she would have to achieve to make a real looking illusion. Turning her hair various unnatural shades became a fun addition to her daily magical practices. She found that lighter shades looked good with her pale eyebrows, but the contrast of black or deep blue provided an interesting take.

The first day which Javorora saw her with colored hair she had gone with a bright blue to contrast the green gown Master Garthis had given her. Javorora came in the door and screamed, “KAITLYN!”

The dryad raced over and climbed on a table to grab a handful of Kailtyn’s hair and smell it, “Are you sick? Cursed? Does this hurt?”

“Yes! Stop trying to pull my hair out!” Kaitlyn said.

Javorora stopped tugging, but didn’t let go. She moved it around and said, “How did you do it?”

“It’s an illusion,” Kaitlyn said, dropping the spell and her hair instantly turned bright silver again, “Master Garthis taught me the basics, and this is the only thing I’ve managed… though when you began touching it the drain was incredible. I had no idea touching it would make the illusion harder to hold. I guess because I instantly had to begin to mentally adjust what it would feel like to you and smell like…”

“It smelled like flowers,” Javorora reported, still looking at Kaitlyn with an odd look, “I don’t know how I feel about it.”

Kaitlyn looked at her friend in surprise. Javorora let got and crossed her arms across her chest, “Illusions are very advanced magic. Is Master Garthis sure you are ready for this? This is only the what… fourth spell he’s really taught you. Why this?”

“Well, partly to see if we can identify any illusions in the house,” Kaitlyn replied. “I’ve also been asking him for something more challenging…”

“Kaitlyn,” Javorora said with a surprisingly serious tone, “Illusions aren’t just more challenging, they are like master-level challenging. There are plenty of masters out there in world who avoid trying to build illusions, for a reason!”

Kaitlyn looked at her friend and then asked, “Why do you think I shouldn’t learn it?”

“Illusions are super complicated,” Javorora pouted. “You don’t need it.”

“I have to disagree,” Kaitlyn said gently, “as far as we can tell, the only one who is going to be able to undo my curse is me and it’s even more complicated than any illusion on me. So learning more complicated magic… I need this Javorora.”

Javorora pouted and said, “Don’t use illusion on me.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Kaitlyn admitted, “it’s either on or off. I’ll have to ask if I can make exceptions for specific people. And that will make it even more complicated you know. So far my hair is the only thing I’ve managed to even change color.”

“Show me,” Javorora demanded fiercely.

Kaitlyn picked up a wooden cup and began to build her illusion to turn it into metal. She intentionally stuck with a simple iron veneer, just the appearance of the cup turning into metal. Because there were no edges, it at least looked consistent without the weird, disconcerting and mind bending edges when she had tried to color the table. She frowned as she looked at it, it still looked unnatural and strange. She also couldn’t get it to stop feeling like wood. Kaitlyn wiped the spell and tried again, just making it look like paler wood. Even this looked unnatural, the grains were perfectly straight lines until she corrected for it.

She finally set the cup back down with a frustrated sigh and said, “That’s the best I could do… and as you can see, I’m not very good at it. Master Garthis told me it was hard.”

Javorora chewed on her lower lip and then slowly nodded, “Ok. Hair I can live with. Just… don’t try to trick me.”

“I would never,” Kaitlyn promised, “I would never want to hurt your feelings. No making you think you’re eating rabbit when I actually gave you fish or anything.”

“Now that would be an impressive illusion,” Javorora admitted.

“I don’t even want to try something that hard,” Kaitlyn admitted, “so I promise never to do anything other than my own hair and clothes without warning you that I want to practice with you.”

“I can live with that,” Javorora said. “Now, tell me how you are doing.”

“Let me check on my bread, I’ll bring out some tea,” Kaitlyn smiled at her friend.

Javorora’s visit wasn’t long today, but while she was still there Fapallo came in and placed his front paws on the bench next to Kailtyn. He whistled hello and let the two females continue to talk for a few minutes. Then he huffed slightly, the whiskers on his nose puffing out from his face.

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Kaitlyn looked at him and said, “What? It’s not like we’re gossiping, we’re discussing the merits of different mushrooms.”

“Yes,” he whistled back at her, “and I have something more interesting/important.”

“Is everything alright?” Kaitlyn responded in dragon, though she couldn’t entirely hide a concerned expression. A tightness in her stomach clenched as she looked as the dragon kind.

Fapallo grinned at her and said, “Ask nicely.”

“Well it can’t be interesting/important if you are teasing me,” she half-hissed, twisting the word to combine the two ideas. Linmell had explained the sound to her as originally meaning something like “either kin is coming or a delicious tender meal has been found” and the fact that it also often was used for “keep the kids inside so they don’t get eaten” did not help the meaning of the word much. Sometimes the intricacies of the dragon language could give Kaitlyn a headache if she tried too hard to delve into its complexities.

“I found a group of human merchants,” Fapallo reported, “and told them about the inn.”

Kaitlyn could only stare at the dragon in shock. She could still remember the last sound of humans, her ex-fiance and his favorite hunter trying to locate her. Either to kill her or torture her again and draw another unicorn so they could butcher it. Before the black unicorn found her. Before it killed Claus and his entire family.

Javorora’s hand touched Kaitlyn’s shoulder and she blinked, shaking her head to clear away the terrible last days with Claus. Fapallo looked crestfallen, in his case literally with his feathery crest of feathers. He whistled, “I’m sorry. I thought it would be a good surprise.”

“It… I…” Kaitlyn found herself without words. What would a human think of her here? She looked down at arms in dismay, covered in scars as they were.

She suddenly stood and hurried towards her room, Fapallo skipping with her and Javorora following behind. She went into her room and pulled out some of the linen Master Garthis had given her. Javorora asked from the door, “What are you doing?”

“I just… I don’t want them to see my arms,” Kaitlyn said. “I wish…. damn I wish I could make an illusion of normal skin on them. You would think that was easy, but it’s like pinning down a dragon with a butter knife.”

“You might draw more attention if you try to cover them,” Javorora advised, her tone worried.

Fapallo sat down and tilted his head to one side, “Mystery. You must either make it full mysterious or entirely ordinary. What if you made illusion amazing/sky-scape/off the horizon?”

“What was that last?” Javorora asked. Her understanding of the dragon language only covered basics.

“He thinks I could make an illusion that doesn’t try to hide that there is an illusion there,” Kaitlyn paused. “Make my arms so extraordinary that they might know it’s an illusion.”

“Illusions take power,” Fapallo added. “Anyone using illusion for simply nest-dander is power.”

Kaitlyn stopped and set the linen back down. She looked at the dragon and said, “You’re right, but I have to keep it simple enough not to drain me.”

“Bold/dangerous, beautiful, amazing/sky-scape/off the horizon,” Fapallo asserted. Her puffed his feathers grandiosely, “Worthy of dragonkin’s time.”

Kaitlyn laughed at his words and said, “You just like my rabbit pie you glutton.”

“That helps make you worthy,” his whistle was playful this time, “They are some ways off with horses and wagons. Hours? Sundown maybe?”

“Wagons?” Kaitlyn paused again. “Where the hell will I put wagons? I don’t have any place reasonable…. wait. I have an idea.”

Kaitlyn went out to the back and found Cilvic in the garden. She beckoned him over and said, “I need you and Fapallo to work on something, it’s a bit of an emergency.”

“Is everything alright?” Cilvic asked.

“Some merchants are apparently headed our way with wagons,” Kaitlyn said. “I want to drop the two trees on the left side of the house and remove the stumps. That should give them a place to park their wagons.”

“Ah, we did notice one of them was ailing and might need to be felled anyway,” Cilvic nodded. “Mistress Javorora, would you be willing to help as well?”

“No,” Javorora was pale, “I hate even watching you with that… awful cleaver.”

“There’s an ogre in the tavern,” Kaitlyn said, “I’ll ask him if he’d be willing to help. Don’t we have some more of the mead about to finish?”

“Aye, but it’s our last barrel until the next harvest time,” Cilvic said.

“I will find you another hive,” Fapallo offered. “This spring we can move them before they wake up.”

“No,” Kaitlyn said, “at least not now. I would feel better if you stayed nearby while these merchants are around.”

“How did you tell them about this place anyway?” Javorora suddenly asked.

Fapallo chortled and then half-chirped in a human language, “Food. Safe. Sleep.”

“Oh great, they are going to believe this place is some kind of trap for them to get eaten,” Javorora rolled her eyes.

“Not once they see it,” Kaitlyn said, “and all the more reason to show them good hospitality. Fapallo, you and Cilvic start on those trees. Javorora, go warn Zizla and Tatami please. I’ll go see if that ogre is willing to help out.”

The ogre was sitting alone near the fireplace in the center, working on a loaf of bread with some rabbit stew to the side. The flagon of ale next to him was about half full. Kaitlyn approached and folded her hands in front of her.

“Excuse me,” Kaitlyn said politely. The ogre looked at her and then took a big bite from the bread, showing more teeth than was truly necessary. She cleared her throat a bit and said, “I am the mistress of this inn and I would like to ask if you would be willing to render me some aid.”

“What?” the ogre half-growled.

“Will you help me,” she replied firmly.

“No. Eating,” he sniffed and took a swig from the tankard.

“I am willing to pay you for your time and effort,” Kaitlyn said, “I have a barrel of mead…”

“No drink mead,” the ogre huffed. “No work day.”

Kaitlyn twisted her fingers together to keep her frustration down. Fapallo and Cilvic could eventually clear out the large trees, but neither was physically large enough to move them in bigger piece which could be useful later.

“Mistress,” the only dwarf in the tavern called from somewhere behind her. He was sitting near one of the front windows, a portfolio open with drawings around.

Kaitlyn glanced at the ogre and then decided to go help the dwarf while she considered her options. The dwarf said, “Couldn’t help but hear you offer that fellow work. Is it something I could help with? I’m not doing anything important during my sun days.”

“Thank you, but what I need is raw strength right now,” Kaitlyn said, “And by that I mean someone who can move tree trunks as large as that ogre is.”

“I could do it,” the dwarf said, “Well, I could with a bit of help. You have a carpenter brownie right?”

“Yes….” Kaitlyn said.

“Excellent, we can do it then!” he jumped up, rifling through his papers until he found one he wanted and almost ran outside.