August 10, Summer, year 20
I wonder what Skye's going to tell me tonight. I slept late, but I still don't feel like I got enough sleep. I should have come home and napped, but first Muffy wanted some help, then I had to go and check for early windfalls from the fruit trees…
Man, this makes me wish it was winter again! At least then I managed to get plenty of sleep, even if I was bored out of my mind.
Claire had the sneaky feeling that there was something about this day that was important to Skye. So she'd spent a bit more time at the Dig than she'd originally intended, looking for a simple silver bracelet that would go with the one he already wore, as well as polishing it to a mirror-like shine.
"I almost wish I had some paper to wrap it in," she sighed. "But this will just have to be good enough. I'll have to thank Ruby and Griffin later for making all this. They probably never thought I'd use it for a midnight picnic."
And she chuckled.
Celia, worried about Claire, had gone to the best cook and the only brew-maker in the Valley and asked for their help. Because of this, Takakura had carried up a basket of the best energy restoring foods and drinks that both could produce, and told her that she ought to be getting more rest if even they could tell she needed it.
Claire had laughed sheepishly and accepted it without question. It would prove very useful now, as food would help keep the conversation going. Because she had a lot of questions she wanted to ask, and she wasn't going to stop until she got some answers.
She wondered briefly if she shouldn't try to look nicer, but she had to admit—if only to herself—that Skye had seen her at her best and at her worst, plus there was no way she could mimic Muffy's skills with makeup. Besides, why shouldn't she look like who she was?
Still, her hair could use a good brushing…
Annoyed with her own vanity, Claire tied back her hair in a pair of braids before leaving her home, basket on one arm and bracelet tucked into her pocket. She'd locked Puppy inside, instead of letting him follow her. As much as she liked her little guard dog—and she could remember Skye's amusement upon playing with the dog ball as well—this wasn't a time for games.
Despite the fact that it was slowly getting dark, Claire felt nervously conspicuous as she wandered towards the Goddess Pond. All it would take was the wrong person spotting her to cause problems. Thankfully, her paranoia was unfounded, and she made it up to the Spring with more than enough time to spare.
Which gave her more than enough time to try and organize her thoughts into coherent questions. Since the previous night, and the subsequential reading of the journal that Winny had leant her, things had begun to rattle around in her head.
If Skye was one of the Moon People, why was he down here? From what she'd read, the palaces on the moon were a glorious sight to behold, filled with wonders that few mortals ever got the chance to see. Why would someone leave something like that?
And what was up with that bracelet?
She huffed out a sigh, and forced herself towards calmness. Staring at the waters of the pond as the moon started to rise helped, even if the lingering day's heat didn't.
Claire drifted into a meditative state, thoughts slowly coming up to the surface and arranging themselves neatly, like books on a library shelf. Which reminded her that she needed to have Takakura take back the books she'd borrowed from Mary's library the last time she'd gone into Mineral Town… In this state, her thoughts turned towards the curious actions of the bracelet.
She could see it clearly in her minds eye, the beautiful glass-green of the strange central stone, the rainbow of colors the rest of the gems made in the silver.
"If you keep summoning it, it's going to burn a hole in my pocket," came Skye's amused voice. "And probably leave an imprint too."
Claire jumped, and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly as Skye took note of the basket, raising one silver eyebrow at her in question. It almost made her too nervous to give him the new bracelet—though admittedly new was a relative term—but after plucking up her courage, she offered it to him.
He blinked, them smiled a touch ruefully.
"I should have guessed that you would figure out it's my birthday," he said, slipping it on. "Though I must admit I didn't really think you would."
Something in Claire went limp with relief. His birthday! Well, no wonder it had felt important!
"Uh… lucky sixth sense," she blushed a little bit. "And the food was donated. Celia thinks I haven't been sleeping enough lately."
Which was true, but she was stubborn. Sleep could be caught up on when wintertime rolled around, because there would be very little to do in the winter beyond fishing and mining.
Skye gave her a wry look, but she ducked her head to ignore it, and started unpacking the food.
"Who was it from?" he asked, settling down comfortably on the grass.
"Griffin and Ruby. Best in the Valley for food and drinks, though," and her eyes narrowed slightly, "you've probably already figured that out from the thieving you did at the Blue Bar."
He chuckled, not repentant in the slightest. Claire huffed slightly, but couldn't quite keep a smile from tugging at her mouth. There was silence for a few minutes as they ate and drank, before Skye looked up at her again, raising an eyebrow.
That was all Claire had been waiting for.
"Tell me about the bracelet," she said firmly. "What is it, why did it do that to Win and to you, what is it for?"
She would have kept going, but Skye held up a hand.
"The bracelet is, as your friend the Witch Princess surmised, an artifact of the People of the Moon. From the gems and designs, it looks as though it was used in rituals for growing the flowers to attract the Swallowtails like you so wish to do. But that's not all," and he held up his hand again, to keep more questions from spilling out. "It was also used in rituals meant to calm restless souls and send them on to their final resting place. It was part of a set actually. Two wrist bracelets and two ankle bracelets connected to clothing the spell-master wore… It was sort of like a large sack with designs sew in for channeling magical power."
He took a quick sip of the fruit juice—it was wonderful—before continuing.
"Because it's been buried for so long, it was completely drained of the magical energy that it needs to function properly, and so when you revealed it to your friend, it tried to suck away all of her magical power. Since she's almost completely magical, the result would have been her death, and likely your own had I not managed to find you in time."
Claire had turned pale, and he reached out a hand, lightly touching her cheek in worry. She reached up and gripped with surprising strength, blue eyes fearful as she looked at him
"What did it do to you?"
"It recognized like for like, and I allowed it to draw on my own magical abilities to spare the pair of you. I also had to get it far enough away so that it wouldn't be able to harm you, just in case my own magic was not enough."
True, he had remained tangled with the bracelet's inner workings for longer than he'd meant to be, but the result was the quenching of the bracelet's insatiable magical draw, and the cessation of danger to all living beings.
"Why did it do that?" Claire asked, voice low but insistent. "I mean… why you? Are you really…?"
The question hung in the air between them, and Skye had a feeling that what he said now could either break a tenuous budding relationship, or grant it deep roots. What was more unnerving, was that he wasn't sure what he wanted to happen. A girl like Claire, who was both open and secretive, hadn't ever been what he'd had in mind for a human friend. Or for someone who might give him more.
Though admittedly, he'd never stayed in one place long enough to make human friends. The emotion of love was so strange…
He looked her in the eyes, and nodded slightly. Slowly, a smile spread across her face, warm and soft.
Skye was trusting her with a secret that he'd told no one else in all his time on the earth, and that more than anything else made her heart light. After a minute Claire released his hand, feeling a little more settled.
"So if you're one of the Pom, why are you down here?"
Skye blinked, then started to snicker as he translated 'Pom' to 'People of the Moon.' Claire had the grace to blush, and crossed her arms almost defensively.
"It's not my fault that your title is a mouthful," she grumbled.
"Yes, I know," and he was unable to stop his laughter, "but 'Pom' makes us sound like a type of canine!"
Claire thought about it, and had to agree. It wasn't going to stop her from using it though, since it was less wordy. Well… his laughter might stop her, since she couldn't get a straight response out of him when he was like this.
With snubbed dignity, she got to her feet.
"If you're not going to be serious anymore, I may as well go and get some sleep," she huffed, propping her hands on her hips.
Skye tried, he really did, to smother his amusement, but in the end Claire just packed up the basket and left in a huff of annoyed amusement.
"'Pom,'" the thief continued to chuckle as she disappeared around the edge of the hill. "What a girl… No one else would be so brave…"