Alone in her quiet,undisturbed corner, Kamilah closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair, trying to ignore the multi-pitched blur of voices in the Quester's Rest.
For The Almighty's sake! Why were mortals so noisy? They constantly chatted and chirped like a bunch of crazed magpies with an attention problems. Not unlike the Celestrian youngsters.
Ah, the Observatory. A small smile appeared on Kamilah's face as she recalled her bittersweet memories. She remembered how she and her friends Jessica and Samuel were the life of that place; always jumping around and singing their hearts out. Now, ever since she had fallen from the roof where Yggdrasil stood, all that uncontrollable delirium seemed to slowly ebb away. How she longed to be back home. . . The Celestrian found herself dozing off.
She felt something nudge the palm of her hand."Hey, Kamilah! Don't go to sleep in a room full of drunks, okay? That's a really bad idea. Hey, wake up!"
The girl snapped open her eyes, seeing her wolf Counterpart staring back up at her with wide orchid eyes.
"Sorry Abigail," Kamilah reached down and gently stroked the wolf in between the ears. All Celestrian had animal partners that were called Counterparts. They are born right alongside their Celestrian's birth, and vanish into stardust at the same time their Companion dies. They assisted their Celestrian in many ways, such as watching over their assigned Village while their Companion sleeps.
Abigail was a good friend. She always stayed by the girl's side and gave her some advice, but there was just one problem with lugging around a talking wolf: She. . . well,talked. This was a problem because apparently mortals think that talking wolves are weird.(Come to think of it, there weren't any talking animals in the Protectarate.[Or at least, she hadn't seen any yet.])
Kamilah had to tell Abigail to keep quiet around mortals after the incident with King Schott. Almighty help them, that was more terrifying than the time Aquila had ordered her to fly sixty laps around the Observatory as punishment for teasing him about hid "little crush" on Columba.
It happened after the King explained the situation with the Wight Knight terrorizing the village and demanding for Princess Simona to be delivered at Loch Ness.
"What a bastard," Abigail sighed to herself, shaking her head. Then, King Schott just stared at her for what seemed like an eternity until Kamilah butted in, gave a painfully forced chuckle, and told him that she was practicing her ventriloquism.
Thus the sad tale of why Abigail must hold her tongue. Truthfully, getting the wolf to shut up wasn't a problem; getting her to talk was an impossible feat that no one, not even stern Aquila, could accomplish. She would always nod, shake her head, roll her eyes, or shrug her shoulders. It was kind of a miracle Abigail knew how to talk at all.
"Kamilah! Fancy seein' ya here!"
A cheerful voice came from the middle of the room. The two looked up to see Patty walking toward them with a huge platter held over her head. The woman gave Kamilah a glass of water (For the Celestrian absolutely despised beer after the incident with Tymothy, Aquila's Counterpart. But that is a whole entire new story. . .) and Abigail a quick pat on the head. "There's my favorite lil' life-savin' pooch, eh?" She laughed. The Counterpart whined and cutely nuzzled the palm of her hand .
"So whataya' doin' here, sittin' 'n a lonely corner all by urself?" Patty told Kamilah. "Don't ya have some flirtin' to do?" The woman asked, flashing her a cheeky smile.
Kamilah gazed at the water distantly before exchanging glances with Abigail, then shrugged. "I don't flirt." She simply said.
Patty's smile faded. "Oh." Then she padded over to a nearby table and dragged over a chair and sat herself down. "Well, 'least let me sit 'ere. No 'un's gonna sit alone in my Inn." After a while her smile returned. "Ya' sure ya' don't wanna flirt? There's some fine-lookin boys sittin' there." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder to a group of young men Kamilah's age sitting at a table behind them. Patty was right. They were quite handsome―
No! No, no no. She was not getting tangled up into mortal life. If Aquila was watching her, her fate would be worse than flying through Gleeba's fierce gales."Yes, I'm positive."
Patty shrugged."Oh well. Ya' know, when I was 'ur age, I firted with at least thirty boyza day. No kiddin'."
Those poor, poor boys. . . "To tell you the truth, Patty," Kamilah sat up, (proud that she was finally saying something more than three word sentences today.) "I don't have time to flirt with boys. I have other things on my mind ."
The woman raised an eyebrow."Hm? Like what?"
"For one, I need to find people willing to help me fight the Wight Knight―"she instantly wished she could her take her words back. She hated admitting helplessness. "I mean―uh. . . just ignore that!"
"Ya' need people?" Patty's voice began to raise her voice. Several people nearby turned their heads.
Patty, shut up! Shut up! "No, of course not. I'm perfectly fine on my own. Just a slip of the tongue―" The owner didn't stop to listen. She suddenly pounced up onto the table and yowled at the top of her lungs.
"Hey! Gal's and guys! Kamiles here's needs someun' brave and 'elp 'er fight the Wight Knight!"
Everyone, even the drunks(who had been there since the crack of dawn) looked up to see who dared to challenge the mighty bastard. Oh, Almighty save me.
Patty jumped up and down, waving her arms in the air while doing so. "Come on! Any volunteers? Anyone'll do now! Don't be a bunch 'o cowards!" Then, with a smug smile, she leaped down and ran over to the counter where she usually was.
For a moment, there was a pressuring silence as the Celestrian and the mortals stared at each other. Abigail, trying to look like a "normal" wolf, began to scratch her ear intently with a hind leg.
Then, from the back of the room a voice rang. "Girl, this true? You really going to fight that man?"
Kamilah exchanged glances with Abigail once again. The she-wolf gave her a nod of approval. "Go ahead," she whispered softly.
Taking a deep breath, the Celestrian answered."Yes. I am."
Laughter exploded in the room. The noise of mortal's voices was no longer a multi-pitched blur. Instead, it was an organized chorus of cruel interlacing pitches, set with a rubato tempo. Kamilah's morale was instantly crushed, and Abigail visibly winced. Warm tears of hurt rose to her eyes but she fought fiercely to hold them back.
Suddenly, a voice from the center of the room stopped the sadistic chorus of laughter as if it had swiftly shaken a baton, commanding them to stop.
"I don't think she's crazy."
The room fell silent once more. Kamilah looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young man stand up from his table, recognizing it as the one Patty had pointed to earlier. She couldn't believe that she had thought they were handsome heartbeats ago.
The boys looked at the one standing with wide eyes. "Jayden have you gone hooting mad!"
Jayden ignored them and walked toward her. As he edged nearer, Kamilah could see his features more clearly. He was handsome. Very handsome, in her opinion. He made the other boys at the table seem like nothing. His steps were soft, but she could hear the gentle tempo they were making. The symphony of the room was temporarily put into a period of rest.
When he reached her, he smiled gently."My name is Jayden. May I have the privilege of knowing your name?" His deep peridot green gaze was intently fixed on Kamilah's turquoise blue eyes.
"Kamilah," she replied. Finally she tore her eyes away from his gaze and focused onto a table leg not too far away. Although she wasn't looking at him, she could feel Jayden's burning gaze on her. Her heart began to race. Summoning all the courage she had, she risked a peek into his eyes.
