6. Feya
Feya
Whether it was the addition of hallowed springwater to Sona’s potions or the imports of experimental injections, Perri did one day start to look like himself again. His color returned, as if overnight, and his movements became less labored. Finally, it seemed, Perri was healing.
Still, there was something about Perri—something beyond the sunken eyes and lingering gauntness of his body—that had yet to return to normal.
Today, that much was apparent.
His voice, which had never been raised in anything other than excitement, bellowed “Go away!” through a cracked door when Flora and Noec asked if he wanted to have a little picnic out in the meadow.
“We’re worried, right?” Flora asked as they made their way down the rocky path, Marco trotting at their heels.
“Always are,” Noec replied. “At least he seems like he’s up and moving today. All we can do is wait, and be there when he wants us to be.”
Flora nodded with a sigh, gazing off into the fiery yellows and reds of autumn. She heard a rustle in the trees, but as she peered into the shrubbery, she saw nothing but weeds and buzzing dragonflies. Quiet now, they continued on.
“I’m starting to miss Nia, too,” Flora thought aloud after a moment. “Who knew being a princess meant having the duties of a princess.” Nia’s visits had become few and far between, and her guilt was visible in her eyes every time she did find time for them. Especially when she looked at Perri.
Noec huffed a laugh, responding, “I guess you’ll be stuck with just me for a while.”
“God help me.”
On the path behind them, they heard a low, guttural hiss. Marco was behind them, fixated on the treeline, his tail flicking nervously and his ears flat to his head.
“Come on, Marco,” Noec begged. “I’m not rescuing any rodents today.”
They continued on their way, but Flora couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling. The woods seemed too quiet, too still. Flora gripped the basket in her arms tightly.
“Marco?” she called, realizing the cat was no longer following behind. “Where’d he go?”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Noec assured her, but she saw how his grip tightened on the strap of his leather bag. He felt it, too. Flora shook the anxious feeling away and turned back to the path, where the opening to the meadow and Lunara’s Spring waited just ahead.
They laid out a blanket beneath the bright red foliage of an oak tree and began to inspect the contents of the basket, which Elia had thoughtfully packed for at least three.
They munched quietly and listened to the hum of the waterfall, having grown immune to the sight of the ghostly forest atop it.
The uneasy feeling remained in the pit of her stomach, but after thinking on it, Flora sighed deeply to herself. She knew exactly what it was.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she admitted to Noec as the sun began to set behind the trees. “When, all at once, we’re not young anymore. When Nia’s too busy running the Asilian Realm to visit, and Perri’s…” She paused and sighed. “I just don’t know what I’ll do without you all.”
“You’ll have me, won’t you?” Noec replied.
“I... I don’t know,” she said, catching a hint of concern in his eyes as she said it. “Maybe you’ll be off doing whatever,” she said, gesturing out toward the world.
“Maybe.” Noec paused, then grinned at her. “I suppose you’ll just have to be off doing ‘whatever’ with me.”
Flora sighed, but she couldn’t return his smile. The waterfall beyond the meadow glistened, and Flora could feel her childhood slipping through her fingers. Even when the others had long since moved on, Flora would still be trapped right here—tethered to Lunara’s water.
“Hey,” Noec prodded gently. Looking back at him, she wasn’t sure that he had ever looked away. “You’ll still have me.” He met her with a slight smile, though in his eyes was a melancholy something as he fixed his head toward the meadow.
Noec could always stay positive. It never really mattered what about.
It could be pouring freezing rain, and Noec would still stop to marvel at the way the water beads and trickles off the leaves.
She had seen it, and she couldn’t be more jealous of the way his mind worked.
He didn’t need good things to keep him warm, because he himself was sunshine in a bottle.
Noec cleared his throat and looked away. “Is Sona still—What was it? Is she still… ‘gatekeeping’ all the Sleepwalker lore?”
“Yup,” Flora replied.
“Well.” Noec shrugged. “They can’t keep us in a bubble forever.”
Flora sighed, hugging her knees. “Right.”
There was a rustle in the trees to their right, and they glanced sharply toward the noise.
Flora blinked. Crimson leaves floated to the ground, but beyond them was nothing but a still and empty darkness.
“So…” Noec began tentatively. “What else do you think Sona knows?”
Uncertain, Flora thought for a moment. “She acts like she knows nothing,” Flora said. “But I think Sona knows everything.”
There was a second rustle. It was more drawn out than the first, starting and stopping as though a small creature were grappling with death. The sound sent chills through to Flora’s toes.
Something was there.
From the shadowy thicket on their left, a fluffy white paw reached out from the greenery.
“Marco, you little fluffball,” Noec said with a relieved laugh. With a vicious squeak, Marco pounced, batting at Noec’s shoelace. “Off on another adventure, I guess.”
Flora gripped her chest. “Jesus.”
Marco meowed demandingly, and Noec patted his head. The cat rubbed himself against Noec’s leg, flopping to the ground in a big stretch.
“Nice of you to join us,” Noec said. “Now that there’s food involved.”
Flora chuckled, watching him as he scrunched Marco’s little face and grinned.
For Flora, that would have been a sure way to get a finger chomped.
But Noec was every animal’s favorite human.
Cats, horses, and even Perri’s goats—the whole gang of mean-mugging mobsters—became all sweet and docile when Noec walked by.
Flora exhaled an audible scoff.
“Something wrong, Pixie?” Noec inquired as Marco nuzzled as much fur onto his clothes as possible.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Flora replied with a flicker of a smirk. “You’re just… a breath of fresh air. It’s nice. Being your friend.”
“Oh,” he said, and it was a simple answer that left her more uncomfortable than anything. After a weirdly long moment, he added, “I like being your friend, also.”
“Well,” she began, “that was convincing.”
He chuckled. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m a bit distracted today.”
“A lot going on,” Flora noted.
He nodded. He met her eyes for a moment, his mouth moving like there was something else he meant to say. But he didn’t, and he instead bit his tongue, swallowed, and opted to keep things as awkward as possible.
“Oh, come on,” Flora groaned, which only ignited him into laughter.
“What?” he chuckled.
“I’ve known you for how long? You’re being weird.”
“I’m just enjoying the beauty of nature,” he grinned. “Maybe you’re the one being weird.”
Flora glared daggers at him. But, like a mirror, he flared his eyes and stared right back. After a long, wide-eyed battle of forced eye contact, they both cracked and sputtered into laughter.
Noec sighed, rocking his head back with a soft grin. “You’re my breath of fresh air, Flora,” he said to her. “No way I’d be laughing today if I didn’t have you here.”
She smiled, but it was a bittersweet feeling lingering in her chest. She felt like she should hug him or something, but… well, now she was being weird.
He raised a brow at her, then scooped up Marco and plopped him into her lap. Flora huffed as Marco rolled off and swam back, meowing in protest as Noec began to pack up their things.
Flora tried to enjoy their last few moments in the meadow. But what she felt instead was like a premonition of grief.
This was the end of an era.
Noec didn’t know that she knew, but she knew. How he’d been receiving those envelopes every other month, stamped with the red seal of Asilia. He didn’t want to be a soldier, he said. But Noec was always a shitty liar.
He was an Eldon, after all. The calling was in his blood.
It was in the way he grinned at the prospect of adventure, and it was in the way he clung to that dagger like it was a piece of him.
He never spoke of the letters, but Flora saw the way his eyes lit up when he saw the city on the horizon.
Sooner or later, she knew he would answer the call.
Noec would start a family and build a life that made these little childhood friendships trivial.
And while he was out doing whatever, still, Flora would be right here.
For just another fleeting moment, Flora took in the colorful glimmer of the mist from Lunara’s Spring.
“Please,” Noec begged Marco, who had turned to gnawing on his ankles for attention. Marco rolled away and grumbled as Noec gently pried the blanket out from under him.
As Noec was placing the folded blanket back into the basket, he paused. “Maybe you’re right,” he said. “I have been weird.”
“I was just messing with you,” Flora responded. “You’re being fine.”
“No, Pixie…” He rubbed the back of his neck, and there was a tinge of anxiousness in his eye. “Flora. There’s actually… something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” He paused, looking down. “Something I’ve meant to tell you for a while now.”
Flora blinked, a sudden tightness in her throat. “What’s that?”
“I’ll tell you…” he began, though a slow smile crept across his face. “But you’ll have to beat me this time.”
Flora raised an eyebrow and readied herself.
“Red fence post!” she hollered, diving to her feet before he could get a head start.
Noec cackled evilly, holding the basket above his head as he ran. “I ate way too much to be doing this,” he laughed as their shoes hit the overgrown stones. “But I’m still gonna win!”
Flora giggled as she tried not to trip on the uneven road. She picked up speed, grinning at the road ahead. But there was someone else on the path.