Part 1: Untitled Novel, Day 19 - Words to Go: 12,109

Part I

Kiffen made folded cups out of the same leaves that he'd wrapped the fish in. The leaves held together nicely when folded, quite resilient. Goldie was surprised. Kiffen led her to a spring which flowed out from under a tree just a little ways into the forest. The water was cool and sweet. She sat by the stream and drank her fill.
"Alright. I've showed you where to get water and the Sylphs brought you plenty of fruit to eat. It'll last you quite a while. I could be gone several hours depending on how far I fly before I find Floyd. Got it?" Kiffen asked, pointedly.

Goldie nodded.

"You know how to get back to the campsite from here?"

Goldie nodded, again, but less confidently as her eyes darted back and forth between the spring and where she thought she'd entered the forest.

"OK. Well, show me the way back to the campsite and I'll be satified that you're not going to get lost while I'm gone." Kiffen growled. He didn't give her any indication of where to go, but she was pretty sure they'd entered the forest from behind the tree that the spring was under. They'd had to skirt the tree to see the spring. She led the way back around the tree and tried to keep track of her steps as she made her way out of the forest. She skipped up to the top of the hill and walked straight to the campfire. It wasn't much a fire at the moment, more like glowing embers. Kiffen's dragon breath had eaten away all of the wood in the fire till the rock was sitting by itself in the middle of ash and a few stray sticks, which were mostly charcoal by now. A few wisps of smoke still rose from the glowing spots.
She wished she could at least call her Mom on the phone, to tell her she was OK, so she wouldn't be worried.

"Kiffen? Is there any way to call Floyd? Like, at home we have phones to call people."

Kiffen growled. "Out here, the only way to send a message would be by Sylph."

"Why haven't we done that then?" Goldie cried with her eyes wide. "We should do that right now. How can I get a sylph to come here?"

"Sylphs aren't actually good messengers. They like to alter stories to make them more exciting. They tell untruths."

"Oh," said Goldie. Her shoulders drooped. Well, at least Kiffen was going to look for Floyd. He could fly pretty fast. He could probably fly around the whole land in seconds! That would be awesome. Goldie wished she had wings. She could go with him.

"I'll get some more kindling and relight the fire, so you have that in case it gets dark." Kiffen left and returned with a lot more wood than Goldie had expected. "If the fire starts to get low, pile some more of this on it, but don't put too much on or you'll smother it before it lights. I'll be back eventually." And with that, he spread out his wings and lifted off the ground as he flapped them. Goldie guarded her eyes as he took off. The wind from his wings had kicked up a lot of dust. She watched as he dove into the river valley and then followed the river north. He disappeared behind a group of trees before long.

Goldie crossed her arms over her chest and turned around in circles. She wished she had a blanket, just for the sake of feeling comfortable, like she could be warmer if she wanted to, especially after waking up cold this morning. She eyed the forest, then the river, then the little patch of flowers. When she was satified nothing was coming out of the forest to get her now that the big, scary wyvern wasn't around to protect her, she laid down to look at the sky for a moment. The suns were just cresting the sky and shadows were long. The spot were she was at was a bare spot in the middle of a lot of trees. So, she was surrounded by trees on this side of the river. She sat up again because the sky was too bright to look at, plus it wasn't that interesting during the day. The only thing it had going for it was the second sun. That was what made it interesting. The hot white light did add a sort of dream-like quality to this place.
She couldn't really tell what was on the other side of the river because the hill on that side was taller than the one on Goldie's side. Plus, it was much steeper and muddier than her side. The path to the river was just really grassy, but it seemed pretty easily accessible. If she wanted to go down there. She didn't, really, though she did wonder if the fairy curse would protect her from drowning.
She didn't know how to swim.
She was intensely listening to everything about her. A breeze blew across the long grass. It waved and bowed and stood again, tall and quivering. The sound it made when the wind blew across it was a drawn out, "shhh." The wind was blowing through the trees behind her and actually making quite a ruckus. The trees cracked and swayed. The rushing water in the river. She imagined she could hear the gurgling of the little spring in the woods, but she knew she couldn't. She recognized another noise in the midst of the symphony of nature and turned to look at the forest once more.
"Shuh, shuh, shhh, shhh. Shuh, shuh, shhh, shhh." The pattern repeated and the noise got closer with each repetition. She searched the grass for movement and finally found the source of the noise, something was snaking its way through the grass toward the campfire. Without taking her eyes off the tell-tale grass, Goldie stood slowly to her feet and walked carefully to the opposite side of the fire, so there was something between her and whatever was coming toward her.
She knew she wouldn't get hurt by whatever it was because of the fairy curse, but that didn't keep her from shuddering in suspense of what might pop out into the open in a few seconds.
She gritted her teeth as the thing got closer and closer. The good news is it was a small thing. At first, she thought maybe it was a huge snake since it was so low to the ground, but then she realized that the grass would be parting in a much bigger area because snakes are so long, the grass would take forever to return to its original grassy position. The grass was very flexible, making way for people and/or things to walk through and then going back to their old ways when the person or thing had passed. Agreeable grass.
She couldn't help but scream when the grass-disturber finally made its appearence in the open area of her campsite. And, she couldn't help but scream again when she realized who it was. She squealed with delight and burst into tears all at the same time, so on the outside, it sounded a lot like she was drowning a pool of her own tears and was happy about it. Gurgling and sniffling and laughing all at the same time as she ran over and dropped to her knees in front of the stray cat. She grabbed him and snuggled him close as he struggled to get away from her.

"Kiffen just flew out to look for you! Oh, I'm so excited you found me, we thought you were lost forever. We didn't know how to find you. Kiffen said that you could have popped out of the exoderrick door at any place in this world! Oh, I'm so happy." Goldie was practically yelling her words as she squeezed the cat close.

"OK, OK. Put me down, now! We have some things to talk about."

Goldie released the cat from her arms and stared at him in shock. He sat down not far from her and started fussing over his messed up fur. She hadn't exactly heard a voice but she knew that Floyd was speaking to her. It was like Floyd had passed a thought into her mind, but there wasn't a voice. It was like she was reading his mind, but only when he wanted her to. Could it be that she could understand him now? Had she been blessed with the gift of understanding cat language? If so, when?

"Do I have to talk out loud to you?" she asked him. "Or, can you understand what I'm thinking?"

Floyd twitched his ears back and forth, like he was listening to something in the distance for a moment. Kiffen had said that you had to read the signals that the cat was giving in order to understand him, but this was purely mental. It had nothing to do with his movements. Maybe Kiffen and Goldie had different gifts, somehow?

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