Chapter 5 #3
“You’re not missing out on much,” Calvin said with a laugh, even as his wyvern got pissed enough to breathe ice. It was way too easy to rile up.
“You’re brave, saying that out loud,” Kieran said with a grin.
Calvin smiled back. “Or just stupid. It’s going to be sulking for days.”
He turned slightly to get a better look at the house, and the movement must’ve brought his backpack into clearer view, because Kieran spoke up again.
“Ah, geez. Here we are chatting away, when I should be showing you to the campsite. Come on, follow me. It’s not far.”
Kieran led him down a fairy-lit path that wended its way through the forest, chatting all the while.
“So what brings you to Girdwood Springs, anyway?”
“Uh… it’s a long story,” Calvin said, trying to work out where to start. “I came up this way to go camping and let my wyvern have some free time, but, well, things didn’t exactly work out that way.”
He laughed, trying to sound offhand and probably failing. “This is going to sound ridiculous, and I know there must be some kind of logical explanation, but…” He sighed. There was no other way to say it. “I think I might’ve been cursed.”
Kieran stopped so abruptly that Calvin very nearly ran into him.
Oh, great. He thinks he’s stuck out in the woods with a lunatic. Not that I blame him.
Calvin opened his mouth to speak once more, but Kieran whirled around, his eyes wide.
“Cursed?”
He looked… well, not like he thought Calvin was a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
If anything, he looked excited.
“Uh, yeah,” he said noncommittally, ready to back down and pretend it was all a joke if he had to.
“I love curses!” Kieran said, before doing a double take.
Calvin did a double take of his own.
O… kay…
“I mean, I don’t love curses,” Kieran went on quickly. “But they’re definitely interesting. Half this town has been under a curse of some kind at one point or another.”
“Really?” Despite himself, Calvin found that he was being drawn in. Kieran didn’t seem crazy – or he hadn’t done so up until now, anyway – and Calvin had to admit that he was curious.
Going from not believing in curses to curses apparently being an almost mundane event was quite the change in worldview, and he wasn’t about to just believe anything that came out of Kieran’s mouth. But he did want to know more.
Kieran nodded. “Yeah, all kinds of weird stuff. Bad luck curses, being unable to shift, being swarmed by random animals… something about this town just seems to invite these things. But the curses always get broken in the end. We’ve got a one hundred percent success rate.”
“I see,” Calvin muttered. If Kieran was telling the truth, then perhaps he’d ended up in the best possible place.
It was a bit weird to be having this conversation while standing on a forest path in the dark, but Calvin supposed that it made more sense to talk about these things where no one else could hear them.
“What’s your curse?” Kieran went on, as if it was the most natural question in the world.
“I, uh, break everything I touch,” Calvin said, realizing how stupid it sounded. “Or everything that has to do with electronics, anyway. My car, my phone, my Fitbit – they all stopped working the moment I came into contact with them.”
Kieran whistled sympathetically. “Boy, that’s rough. No wonder you came here by foot.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “And you don’t know what caused the curse?”
“Kind of?” Calvin said dubiously. “It seemed so stupid at the time that I completely dismissed it, but now…”
Kieran looked at him expectantly, and Calvin sighed. “I was out hiking, and I put my feet in a spring to cool them off. There was a flash of light, and then –”
He felt like he was a kid again, standing in front of the teacher and giving a completely unbelievable excuse for why he hadn’t done his homework, but Kieran was just nodding along like it was the most reasonable thing he’d ever heard.
Calvin continued, “Then this glowing woman appeared and said that she was going to put a curse on me because I hadn’t paid her tribute or solved a riddle.”
Kieran’s mouth dropped open.
That’s it, Calvin thought gloomily. I’ve pushed it too far.
“A sprite?” said Kieran, his mouth apparently working again. “You saw a sprite?”
“A sprite?” Calvin echoed, confused.
He had heard of sprites – kind of – but didn’t really know much about them. Certainly, he’d only ever heard of them as a kind of fairy tale when he was a kid. He’d been under the impression that if they had existed, no one knew where they were now – or even if there were any still around.
“Where was this pond?” Kieran asked, suddenly looking very intense.
“Uh, a few miles down the mountain,” Calvin said, confused. “I started off on the Sudden Valley hiking track, but I took a detour along an overgrown dirt path that was almost invisible to the naked eye. The pond was down there.”
Kieran seemed to sag with… relief?
He must’ve noticed Calvin’s confusion, because he gave a small smile. “It’s just that I know a sprite that lives in these parts, but it lives farther up the mountain than that. And it would never curse anyone!”
This town just gets weirder and weirder, thought Calvin… but really, he was mostly just relieved. Not only did Kieran believe him, but he had an explanation.
“But what did she mean by wanting a tribute? And why did she want me to solve a riddle?” he said musingly.
“That, I’m not sure,” Kieran said. “Sieval – well, that’s my sprite friend, and honestly, that is probably a tale for another time – has never mentioned anything about riddles, or wanting tributes.
Tell you what – I’ll chat with Natasha tonight, and we’ll see if we can find anything out.
Maybe we can ask Sieval tomorrow if it knows what this other sprite might want.
Assuming it was a sprite, and I haven’t gotten ahead of myself.
We can catch up again tomorrow afternoon, if you like? ”
“That would be great,” said Calvin. “I’m supposed to be meeting my mate at the diner at ten, but I have no idea where that is. If you could point me in the right direction, I’d really appreciate it.”
“No problem – I’ll leave a town map for you under the B&B doormat,” Kieran said, as they started walking again. “I would offer to drive you there, but if your curse is as bad as you say, then I might ask you to keep away from my car for now, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Of course,” Calvin said with a smile.
“Wait – you said your mate is here?” Kieran said suddenly, and Calvin could tell that the curiosity was burning at him.
Ah. In the midst of his excitement at discovering he might have met someone who could actually help him with this curse problem, it had just slipped out – usually, he would have wanted Diana to be the first one to know what she was to him.
But he couldn’t take the words back now.
And perhaps Kieran might even have some advice for him.
“Yeah, I met her for the first time a few hours ago, and promptly broke her A/C,” Calvin grimaced.
Kieran winced sympathetically. “Ouch. That’s rough.”
“Yeah. But she took it surprisingly well. She was the one who invited me out for breakfast.”
Kieran raised an eyebrow. “That’s definitely better than I would’ve expected. She must really like you.”
Calvin’s heart did a happy little flutter. “I hope so.”
“Is she anyone I might know?”
“Probably. I think so.” He considered for a moment. “But I might keep that to myself for now, if that’s okay. It’ll make it easier for me to slink away in disgrace if I mess it up.”
Kieran grinned. “Understood. But I’m sure it’ll work out.”
“Here’s hoping.”
They emerged into a large clearing surrounded by enormous oak trees, the soft glow of the Milky Way tracing its eternal path overhead. A couple of tents were already set up, but there was plenty of room for Calvin to stake out a quiet corner of the area for himself.
“Showers and toilets are over there,” Kieran said, pointing. “Set up wherever you like.”
Calvin nodded. “Thank you,” he said sincerely. “For all of your help.”
“Think nothing of it,” Kieran said.
Calvin waved goodbye, then got started on setting up his tent. He really wanted nothing more than to have a shower and go to sleep… but he had a feeling that sleep was going to be the last thing on his mind.
My mate, he thought, and smiled helplessly. I’ll see her again tomorrow.
Really, morning couldn’t come soon enough.