CH 229: A Night by the Fire
That day of travel slowly crawled by. Claire was still thinking about their morning and the ceremony they attended. It tugged at her emotions for the rest of the day. It made it hard to concentrate on much else; she was even distracted from Toni’s cuddling. By nightfall, it was better, but Claire was still somewhat distracted.
Ursa went searching for wolfsbane, while the rest of the party sat around the fire. They sat in silence after dinner. Some were thinking about the funeral this morning, while others thought about their next fight. They were about to face more bandits, more women who likely kidnapped boys. Before they knew it, Ursa had returned with the wolfsbane.
She held it over the fire and chanted a prayer to her Goddess. There was a wisp of a lavenderish purple that blew upwards, then the entire flame changed color. Ursa chanted one last prayer, then the fire went out completely. The ashy smoke smell was replaced by a sweeter scent.
Ursa let out a deep exhale, looking more exhausted than Claire had ever seen. She shakily sat between Hannah and Claire. She leaned against Claire and slowly caught her breath.
“Magic isn’t my strong suit,” Ursa whispered between shaky breaths. She slowly shifted to lie in Claire’s lap, while Hannah pulled the Ravian’s legs up and onto hers.
“Same, sister,” Hannah chuckled as she adjusted Ursa’s legs. The two let Ursa rest while they waited.
“So like, are wolves just going to show up?” Elsie broke the silence after a moment.
“Yes.” Ursa gumbled.
“Are they going to be hostile?” Elsie pressed further.
“Probably.”
There was a brief silence before Elsie responded. “What the fuck? Are you going to do some-”
“Relax.” Ursa cut her off. “I was kidding.”
“Oh,” Elsie paused. Then she chuckled to herself. “Sorry, not a big fan of wolves.”
“Oh yeah?” Ursa groaned.
“Was scared of them as a kid,” Elsie continued. She didn’t notice Ursa was already drifting to sleep. Jasmine was trying to get the fire started and was in the way. “There was a pack that used to roam by Restol, and my mom told me stories about how bad they could be. She traumatized me.”
Ursa didn’t respond to Elsie, she was already snoozing in Claire’s lap. Claire just laughed softly before responding. “I remember that. You wouldn’t go near the forest afterwards.”
“Mhmm,” Elsie smiled brightly. “It was the one time Ana had to coax me into doing something. She just had to chase after you.”
“H-hey,” Ana tried to shush her sister.
“Ana. You are literally her lover,” Elsie pulled away from her sister’s attempts at silencing her. “She should hear about how much you liked her.”
“Yeah but…” Ana tried to think of some sort of counter, but she couldn’t. Her face, had it been lit, was burning red. “It’s embarrassing…”
“I get that, but you are lovers now,” Elsie said smugly.
“O-oh yeah?” Ana stuttered out. She did have one thing she could use. “Wh-what about your c-crush back then?”
That stopped Elsie cold. Jasmine got the fire started, illuminating the women around the fire. “Um, Ana. That was years ago. N-not some crush I kept for years.”
“That’s not true,” Ana pushed closer to her sister. “Y-you’re just better at hiding it.”
“Are we going to stop them?” Toni asked innocently. He was in Lily’s lap, watching them intently. “Seems like a serious fight.”
“It’s sisterly bickering,” Lily smiled. “Let them be.”
“Yeah, master,” Hannah nodded. “It’s hot.”
“Are you sure?” Toni asked as the twins flipped. Now it was Elsie trying to cover Ana’s mouth. “It’s getting physical.”
“Yeah, that’s why it’s hot,” Hannah said, licking her lips. “Could use Elsie's punishment to force her hand.”
“Do not!” Elsie cried out.
Ana broke free from her sister’s grip with Hannah’s distraction. She didn’t even hesitate. “It was Jasmine.”
“No it was not!” Elsie shrieked. “Do not listen to her.”
“She did!” Ana laughed. Claire noticed she was laughing differently, like with more confidence. “She reminded Elsie of a character. A moody loner from her books.”
Jasmine raised one of her eyebrows and thought back to herself as a teen. She smiled and glanced at Lily. “Was I a ‘moody loner’?”
“Do you even have to ask?” Lily chuckled.
“It was a phase,” Elsie insisted. She stopped wrestling with her sister and fixed her appearance. “I had a crush on the character, not you. Do not get confused.”
Jasmine got up from the fire. It wasn’t often she got to tease Elsie like this. “Aww, really? You didn’t like me at all?”
Elsie had to confront her past feelings while Jasmine approached her. She knew what Jasmine was doing, what she was about to do, but she couldn’t speak. All Elsie could do was gulp.
“Sh-she’s panicking,” Ana laughed. She inched closer to her sister, capitalizing on the situation. “Her thoughts are all scrambled.”
Hannah leaned over to Claire. “This might be the first time I’ve seen her speechless.”
“It’s happened once before,” Claire bit her lip. “It’s rare, but it happens…”
“Ana, please,” Elsie whimpered. She couldn’t stop staring up at Jasmine, who was now in front of her. The assassin moved closer to the older twin, then sat in her lap. Jasmine looked down at her while straddling Elsie.
Jasmine bit her lip, “Am I still a ‘moody loner’?”
“Uhh, maybe a little…” Elsie mumbled.
Ana moved closer. “Tell her ‘her eyes remind you of the sea.’ It was her favorite line.”
Jasmine chuckled softly. She looked deeply into Elsie’s dimly lit eyes for a moment. “Your eyes are very blue. If I’d ever seen the sea, I bet it wouldn’t be as blue.”
Elsie didn’t respond verbally. That line still had a special place in her heart, and she couldn’t respond. But Ana could.
“She really liked that,” Ana whispered to Jasmine. “Her thoughts just stopped.”
Jasmine chuckled. “Yeah? Maybe you should give me more lines from that book. I like Elsie when she’s like this.”
“N-next isn’t a line,” Ana smiled at Jasmine. Then she glanced at Claire. “Claire did it before. D-dipping her.”
“Oh, I guess she was pretty flustered back then,” Claire laughed.
Claire remembered their first date and dancing with her in her living room. It was simple, yet so effective for Elsie. Her reminiscing was interrupted by Ursa stirring in her lap. She glanced down at Ursa, whose eyes were already glowing red.
“Shut up,” Ursa said coldly.
She got to her feet quickly and looked towards the forest. Jasmine jumped off Elsie and looked towards the forest. Elsie was still reeling from the teasing, so it took her a moment to recover. Claire and Hannah stood to follow Ursa when the first wolf appeared from the forest.
Ursa took off her shirt, then her pants and shoes. She threw them back towards Claire and Hannah, who caught them. Then she transformed. It was the first time Hannah and Toni witnessed it, so it was a shock for them.
There was a brief silence as Ursa’s white wolf form approached the lone wolf. The two sniffed at one another while its pack peered from the shrubbery. The sniffing and pacing went on for several seconds before the wolf bowed its head. Ursa, in turn, bowed her head as well.
The rest of the wolves slowly approached Ursa and surrounded her. She didn’t seem in danger, so Claire and Hannah relaxed. They watched the wolves mingle with Ursa, unsure of exactly what was going on. They were communicating, but humans couldn’t understand it.
The party sat back down to not spook the wolves while Ursa conversed with them. Jasmine was the only one still standing, just in case. Ursa turned towards them, nodded her head, then followed them into the forest. The entire pack dispersed, leaving the Scarlet Seraphs in shock.
“Should we go after her?” Hannah asked, breaking the silence.
“I don’t know,” Claire admitted.
“We should let her be,” Lily said. She held Toni tightly as she spoke. “Ursa can take care of herself. And, the wolves didn’t seem hostile towards her.”
“True,” Hannah relaxed. “We’ll have to wait for her to get back before we leave.”
“Um,” Elsie spoke up. “I’m going to sit in the carriage.”
“Scared?” Jasmine asked. There wasn’t any hint of teasing or anything in her voice, just concern.
“A little,” Elsie admitted. “Those were closer to the wolves mom told me about. Ursa’s form… I guess I see it differently.”
“Okay, Hannah, you okay taking her spot for watch tonight?” Jasmine asked.
“Course,” Hannah smiled at Elsie. “We’ll make sure nothing gets you.”
Elsie wasn’t expecting them to be so accepting of it. She was expecting some more teasing, but this was nice. “Thank you.”
Hannah just shrugged her shoulders. “You're welcome. Toni, wanna join her inside?”
“Yeah, I know a very nice song that will help,” Toni said, standing up from Lily’s lap. He held out his hand to her with a bright smile, “Come on!”