Here's the result in three parts.
Part I
Kiffen had lit a little bonfire for Goldie before he left in search for food. He said they'd be able to cook their food on it if he could manage to find some fish in the stream they'd made camp by. Goldie could hear him splashing around but couldn't see him out there in the dark. The funny thing about the sky was that there wasn't a moon. That wasn't that horribly strange, since on some nights there wasn't a moon in Goldie's sky, either, but Goldie wondered if there was a moon at all here. It'd be strange if there wasn't but not unacceptable. The colors that danced in the sky were a lot like what she imagined the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis were like only even better. She'd only ever read about them in books.
Goldie watched the smoke from the campfire rise into the air. The wind changed directions a lot. She'd heard the saying 'Smoke follows beauty,' and she supposed the smoke couldn't decide what was more beautiful - the sky, the meadow, the other side of the meadow. Now, the smoke was blowing toward her. She could smell the smoke, but it didn't make her lungs sore or her eyes water, like it normally would in her world. And, then she noticed the smoke was bouncing away from her, as if there were was a wall of glass between her body and the rest of this world.
She reached out to try and touch the smoke but it shied away from her hand. Force field? Spatial disturbances? Weather patterns? FORCE FIELD? Why would there be a force field protecting her?
The crackling in the fire seemed louder than it had before. She realized it was because she couldn't hear Kiffen splashing around in the stream anymore. Goldie stood up from the ground. And turned to scan the forest for any signs of Kiffen. The sparkle of fire reflecting off of his chest plate. The light from the fire only reached so far until everything turned to shadows. Even the color lights didn't light the earth much more than a half-full moon would in the night at Goldie's house. With the fire so close, Goldie had troubles with her eyes adjusting. Maybe it'd be better if the fire wasn't lit. It would be hard to recognize a predator stalking her if she couldn't see past the light of the fire. She had second thoughts, though. What if that "predator" was actually Floyd and he was following the light of the fire to find Goldie and Kiffen. She didn't want to hinder his ability to find them in the dark. She hoped they found him soon.
She heard the swish-swish of feet walking through grass and skirted the camp fire to face the sound. She pressed her hands into her pockets and held her breath as the large figure approached, even though she knew it was probably Kiffen, she'd been scaring herself by thinking about predators. In his own way, Kiffen was probably a predator. If he'd caught any fish, it meant he was a predator to the fishes. She stared through the smoke. Her hand closed around the compact in her pocket. It felt warm. Probably just because it'd been up against her skin for so long. No need to worry about it.
Kiffen entered the light and the fire reflected in his chest, tumbling and dancing it's way around the silver surface, like his belly had been literally lit on fire as he moved into the light. Goldie breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her hands from her pockets. The compact came with her hand. She enclosed it between both of her hands and then started to turn it over and over as she watched Kiffen prepare the fish.
"Why do we even need a fire?" Goldie asked. "Couldn't you just blow some fire on the fish and cook it?"
Kiffen shook his head. He was creating fillets with his sharp claws.
"My breath is too hot for fish. It'd burn it to a crisp in less than a second." Kiffen glanced at Goldie and then double glanced when he noticed she had something in her hands. "What do you have there?" he growled.
It was the only way he talked since he turned big. Goldie knew that but somehow it sounded more threatening than usual.
Goldie moved the compact behind her back. "It's nothing. Just a mirror I had in my pocket. I was playing with it." She put it back in her pocket as Kiffen eyed her suspiciously.
"Where did you find the mirror?"
"I just found it beside a bed." Goldie sat back down on the ground and scooted closer to the fire. It'd grown chilly out.
Kiffen snorted and went back to what he was doing with the fish.
"I miss Floyd, Kiffen." Goldie crossed her arms over her chest and leaned her face in close to the fire.
"I didn't want to say this before, Kid," Kiffen grumbled. "I'm beginning to lose hope. Like I said, he could be miles away."
Goldie sniffled. She was trying her best to be brave, but she didn't expect that going on a fairy hunt would leave her without one of the friends she had brought along with her.
"Isn't there any way we can find him?" Goldie she was rapidly blinking her eyes, keeping the tears at bay. Maybe Kiffen would just assume it was the smoke. Not that she hadn't cried in front of him before. In fact, her tears seemed to be the catalyst for his rapid growth spurt.
Kiffen put a large rock on the fire and let it heat up for a few minutes before laying the fish out on top of it where it could cook without getting too far into the far. He moved so gracefully, it was like he'd always been large.
When he was done careful wrapping the fish fillets in large leaves - "They'll help the flavor," he said because Goldie stared at him as he was doing it - on the stove rock, he spoke.
"In the morning, I will take to the skies in search of Floyd if you will stay here for the whole day until I return. How does that sound, Kid?" He had curled up his tail and sat upon it just like he did when he was tiny up in the secret room.
Goldie sniffed, again, and nodded in the affirmative. "I miss him. And, I miss my mom," Goldie pulled her knees up to her chest and laid her head on top of them and cried for while.
Kiffen didn't seem to know how to handle crying children, so he let her alone to get it all out while he prodded the fish fillets. Goldie didn't look up for a while, in fact, she practically fell asleep lying there with her knees curled to her chest. She was imagining Mom tucking her into bed at Aunt Wilma's house. She'd never spent one night away from her mother before. Every night, Mom would come into her room and instead of reading a book to her, she would let Goldie tell her a story before bed. She'd say her prayers and Mom would tuck her in tight and kiss her on the forehead. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to sleep without that.
"Kiffen?"
Kiffen growled in response.
"I'm cold."
"Move closer to me. I'm like a walking fireplace."
Goldie slid a little closer to Kiffen and watched the fish cook in the fire. When the smoke blew toward them, it seemed to hug up against Kiffen, but still, it wouldn't touch Goldie.
Suddenly, Kiffen was staring at her.
"What is that?" he said, in a confused tone. She could see inside his mouth when he spoke. She'd never noticed he had a forked tongue. Probably because she'd never been tall enough to see it before. "What IS that?" he said again. He leaned forward until he was down on his hands and knees and his nose was nearly pressing against Goldie's face. He brought one of his sharp claws up to Goldies head.
"What are you doing?!" Goldie screamed and pushed his claw away. Well, she didn't really push it away, because her skin didn't make contact with it, but the force field did. It zapped and sizzled against Kiffen's claw.
He pulled his claw close and looked at it intensely, then back at Goldie who had jumped away from him and was cowering just beyond the opposite side of the fire. Kiffen continued to study his claw. Then stared at Goldie again.
"You have a fairy curse." he said to Goldie.
"How'd you get a fairy curse?" he whispered, looking at the ground.
"Where did you say you found that mirror you were playing with, again?" Kiffen asked, as gently as he could. In an effort to calm her nerves and his own, he carefully sat back down on his tail and stared into the fire as if her answer was of no consequence.
"Uhhm," Goldie tried to clear her mind and think back. What'd he just ask? The mirror.
Kiffen twiddled his claws and stared into the fire while he waited for her answer. "Ho hum," he said. "What a nice evening it is."
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