As night fell, they sat around a roaring fire. While Zoey and Barley were spearing fish, Lily had taught Ian how to make a fire using just pine needles and some twigs. It seemed really easy when she did it, but when Ian had attempted to, he had gotten three splinters before giving up. Lily had shrugged, saying "It takes some practice." Ian couldn't agree more. They had ended up lighting the fire using Ian's magic. Barley and Zoey had returned at sunset, bearing gifts of bloody, impaled fish. Lily quickly gutted, scaled, and deboned the fish, leaving 12 chunks of meat to cook on the all stuck the meat on the roasting sticks that Zoey dug out from underneath the blankets in the cave. Ian set his fish about a quarter of the way into the bright orange flames.
"Never gonna cook that way," Zoey informed him. She had hers roasting right next to the burning logs. Ian moved his lower, trying to cook it as well as he could. It wasn't turning out so great, though. When he pulled it out, the outside was burnt black, but the inside was still a fleshy pink. He stuck it back in, trying to get some edible meat out of this. Lily pulled hers out, and it was cooked perfectly. She bit into a chunk, and Ian watched, mouth watering. Barley's didn't look half bad either. Ian checked his meat again. The outside was covered in crunchy black char, and the inside was white. He decided that was the best he was gonna get.
Using his teeth, he pried a bit off the stick. It was steaming hot, and it tasted burnt. But the whit meat fell apart in his mouth, with a flakiness he previously did not know possible. It was positively delicious. When he ate it all together, the char lended a nice crunch, and the white part made it smooth and- Ow. That was a bone. Grimacing, Ian pulled the flexible, clear annoyance from between his teeth.
"You missed one, Lily."
"I probably missed more than one. It's kinda hard to debone fish."
"Oh. So I could potentially run into another one of these suckers?"
"Yep."
"Great."
Snarfing down the rest of his fish(Thankfully, he didn't hit another bone), Ian stood up and retrieved Zoey's book from the cave. Walking back to his seat by the fire, he flipped to the back cover, and stared at the symbols.
"Barley, come here." Barley licked his fingers, and sidled over to Ian. "When was the last time Ezpar the Forgetful was recorded in our world?"
"Nearly two thousand years ago. Hey guys, do you know anything about Albert Hoffheiner?"
"He was our great, great, great, great, I-don't-know-how-many-greats grandfather on our mom's side. The book was passed down our family line," Zoey, who had asked her father many times before who wrote her fairy tale book, had finally gotten an answer out of him. "Our mom gave it to us 5 or so years ago."
"Where was she last night?" Ian inquired. Zoey trained her gaze on the fire. Lily paid no attention, sharpening her spear.
" We haven't seen her in nearly five years." Zoey looked around furtively, then whispered "I think Dad killed her." At this Lily rolled her eyes.
"Dad didn't kill her."
"Then what happened to her, Lily? All I know is one day Mom gave me her fairy tale book, and the next day, she was gone! Dad didn't even notice for a week!"
"Well, it was Dad. The drunken idiot who didn't even buy us clothes. He didn't notice when Mom disappeared because he never even cared." Zoey curled in on herself. Ian saw a tear glistening in the corner of her eye, between the crook of her elbow and her glasses frame. Suddenly she stood up.
"I'm going to set up the beds." She sprinted to the hole and dove in. Ian and Barley glanced uncomfortably at each other, then went back to skimming the slightly inaccurate fairy tale book. Lily snapped her knife closed with a sharp leaned her spear up against the tree with the other three, and held her hands over the fire in an attempt to melt off the sap. After a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence, she said "Sorry."
"For what?"
"For...you know...that."
"It's fine."
"It's just that you guys are super nice, and our life is messed up, what with our dad dead, and our mom missing. I didn't want to be weird around you."
"Our life is pretty weird too, you know," Ian said.
"Yeah!" Barley added. "I mean, how many people get to meet somebody 16 years after their death?!" Lily looked up from the fire, a look of intense confusion gracing her face.
"Say what?" Ian elbowed Barley, glaring at him.
"Uh, our dad died before I was born," Ian explained, "-but he left us a visitation spell, which we used to meet him 3 months ago. It was strange, to say the least." Lily tucked her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around them.
"I'd give anything to see my mom again. But I don't even know if she's dead. In fact, I just want to know what happened to her." Lily stood and stretched. "Night, guys."
With that, she was gone, down the hole. Ian and Barley were left around the glowing embers. They sat in silence. Then Barley said "Ian. Look." He pointed to the sky. Ian looked, and saw the night.
"There's only one moon!"
"Yeah."
"It's...kind of beautiful."
"Yeah…"
"There are more stars here."
"I didn't notice that."
"Maybe it's cause we live in a city, we don't see all that many stars." Ian slid off his rock, and lay flat next to the dying ashes. He looked up, staring into the glowing swathe of the sky, teasing them with their light so high above their heads. Barley joined him, and they lay there for an hour or two.
Finally, Ian decided he wanted to go to sleep. He picked himself up off the ground, brushed dried grass and dust off of his flannel shirt.
"Let's go."
"You go. I want to watch a little longer."
Ian shrugged. He hopped back in, finding Zoey and Lily snuggled up on one side of the cave, and a stack of four quilts on the other. He took two, lay one down, and rolled up the top to act like a pillow. Then he sat down and spread the other on top. Ian had left the hole open for Barley, and through it he gazed at the iridescent stars until his eyes drooped and he fell into a long sleep.
…
Lily was running. Fast. All around her was nothing but tall grass, speckled with flowers. Pumping her legs harder, she flew without a thought as to where she was. Mile after mile, she never seemed to tire. She felt the soft greenery beneath her feet as she pounded it down. She continued to sprint until it was all she could think about. All she knew. The sensation of the wind blowing her long blonde hair behind her filled her with a feeling of bliss that enveloped her heart until she popped. It gave her energy, and she ran faster than before. All of the sudden, a gaping maw of a gorge opened up before her, and she was unable to slow down. She went straight off the edge.
Lily pinwheeled her arms, trying to keep balanced. She fell and fell and fell until the blackness enveloped her. Her hair floated up around her. She finally felt the effects of her limbs were weights, pulling her faster to her death, and she felt so very tired. Invisible strings pulled her eyelids down, and she was still falling when she blacked out.
Lily blinked her eyes open. It was dark inside the cave, but she could still see Zoey's peaceful face, sound asleep. Her little sister's curly black hair was trapped beneath Lily's arm, so she lifted her arm, and gently brushed it back. Lily tucked the blanket in around her, and silently crawled ouside. She was met with a navy-blue, almost black sky, studded with silvery stars. A lump was right next to the fire. She ventured closer, and discovered that Barley was spread-eagled out on the grass staring at the night sky.
"Hey," he greeted her. She acknowledged him with a nod, and sat cross-legged next to him. She had barely settled before he asked her "How long have you guys been coming here?"
"Since I was ten."
"How old are you now?"
"Fifteen."
"How did you climb a sheer cliff with a five-year-old at the age of ten?"
"How do you know Zoey's age?"
"Oh. Uh…" Bar;ley sounded very uncomfortable. Inwardly, she laughed at his struggles. "Ian and I hid in your closet when you said she was ten."
"Last night?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"We landed there."
"Landed...there? In our house?"
"Yeah. We didn't get to choose where we touched down."
"Oh…"
"So...How did you climb a sheer cliff with a five-year-old?" Lily shuddered, remembering the night she thought they were leaving for good.
"I told her to hold on tight, and she did."
"You climbed a cliff with Zoey on your back at ten years old? That's insane." Lily bristled at his criticism.
"We had to leave. At that point, staying was more dangerous."
"Cause of your dad?"
"Yeah. He had seasonal affective disorder, and became an alcoholic to cope. It was really bad during the summer. He drank more and sometimes beat us. In the winter he could be pretty nice, but that summer was almost a matter of life and death, because our mom wasn't there to calm him, pull him back from the edge. Over the years we've stolen countless household items and brought them here, but he never noticed."
"How'd you find this place?"
"We followed the brook to the waterfall, and climbed the cliff there. Then we walked the length of the cliff until Zoey fell through the cave ceiling." She chuckled at the memory. Zoey had been pretty angry. Until Lily followed her down there and they realized they found their hideout. "We were badly unprepared, and we only managed surviving two months before we had to return. Every summer since, though, we've been staying here. We've picked up a couple of new talents, and learned a lot about surviving in the wild from library books. It's much better than being beaten every night and having to clean up vomit."
Barley pushed his torso up from the ground, and sat cross-legged, facing Lily.
"I wonder…" he started, before standing up and grabbing Ian's staff from where it stood with the four spears. He walked back. "Stand up," he told her. Confused, she did as he asked. He thrust the staff into her hands, and she shot him a puzzled look. "Point this at the fire pit and say 'Flame infernar!' Make sure to really mean it."
"Why?"
"Just try it. I have a hunch." Lily shrugged and pointed the staff at the pit.
"Flame infernar," she said, kind of halfheartedly. Nothing happened. She looked back at Barley.
"I said, say it like you mean it!" Lily refocused her attention on the firepit, aimed the staff, and once more:
"Flame Infernar!" Once more, nothing happened. Lily saw Barley visibly slump, even in the dark.
Suddenly, a rush of heat surged through Lily's body, originating in her heart and radiating out towards her fingertips. She strengthened her grip on the staff, and aimed it at the pit. The dead ashes glowed briefly, before dying out once more.
Shocked, Lily dropped the staff and held her hands out over the pit. She could still feel the heat as it dispersed into the air.
"Did-did you see that?"
"Oh my gosh," she heard Barley's whisper.
"How did you know?"
"What?"
"You said you had a hunch! How did you know that I could have magic?"
"Well, I didn't know, but I thought that Hoffheiner had to know Elvish to translate the book into English, and the only way to know Elvish in this world is from Ezpar when he came to this world nearly two thousand years ago. I assumed that the Elvish language had to be passed along a family line, just like your book. So since Hoffheiner was related to you, and had to be related to Ezpar to know Elvish, you had to have at least a little bit of wizard blood in you. It was a long shot, but I thought it was worth a go."
"This is insane."
"Yeah."
"How am I supposed to tell Zoey? Hey Zo, I have magical powers! Guess what? We're also part elf!" Lily held her face in her hands.
"Maybe let's not tell the others for now. At least not Zoey. Not yet."
"Does she have magic?"
"I don't know. I'm still kind of confused by the fact that you do. The elven blood should be super diluted by now. I'm fully elven with a wizard for a dad, and I don't have magic. You having magic is like a one in ten thousand chance."
"But she might?"
"It's extremely unlikely. But yes, she might."
"Will we test her tomorrow?"
"I honestly have no clue. We'll figure things out as we go." Lily felt uneasy. She didn't know what would happen when Zoey found out, and if she would be jealous because she didn't have magic, but she was too tired to care anymore. Exhausted, she reentered the cave, and tucked herself under the two blankets she and Zoey shared. She heard Barley drop down, and do the same with Ian, who was softly snoring. Lily tried to sleep, but didn't achieve rest until the nuthatches and the finches started their songs early in the morning.