Part 2 - Untitled Novel, Day 18 - Words to Go: 15,824

Part II

Goldie watched him. Not quite believing his careless stance. Not after that strange display just a few minutes ago. She couldn't believe he didn't care what her answer was. Plus, he had said curse. A fairy curse. And, he seemed to be attributing the curse to her mirror, which she had only brought into the room with her, because she'd thought it was something a fairy might like. Plus, it was from outside this world. Why would the mirror be cursed? Maybe a curse wasn't as bad as it sounded. Then again, maybe it was. She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"What's a fairy curse?" Goldie stood to her feet and straightened her shoulders, trying to look less fearful. She'd not felt any reason to fear him before this, except, she supposed, when he became huge in a matter of moments. That was scary. She knew he wasn't actually threatening her and that he likely was confused and surprised by her bubble, but it caught her off-guard by a lot.

Kiffen gave Goldie a sideways glance and then moved his gaze back to the fire. He growled. Maybe it was actually a sigh. She knew he didn't like questions, but some questions needed answers whether he wanted to answer them or not.
The fire crackled, highlighting the silence. (Which makes no sense because fire crackling does not equal silence)

"A fairy curse is an incantation which is commixed with an object until the curse and the object are entirely one and cannot be separated. In this case, I think that object is your mirror."

"But, I picked the mirror up while I was still in my world. It wasn't even in the halfway world." Goldie pulled the mirror out of her pocket again and rolled it around in her hands. "How do we know if this is the cursed object?"

"Try giving it to me."

Goldie held the compact out to Kiffen, the jewels on the outside of it glittered in the fire. Glitter reminded her of fairies. She assumed that must have been the reason she'd picked it up in the first place.
Kiffen reached toward the mirror with his sharp claws. When he was within a couple of inches of grabbing it out of her hand, a ball of energy burst out of it and surrounded itself. It was protecting itself from Kiffen. The energy ball glowed in a rainbow of colors a lot like the night sky above them. Goldie tilted her head and stared at the bright light in the palm of her hand. When Kiffen withdrew his hand, the light disappeared, when he reached for the compact again, the same thing happened again, only this time the ball was slightly bigger.

"It's protecting itself from me."

"It's protecting itself from you? But why?" Goldie said, sliding the mirror back into her pocket.

"For some reason, it considers me an enemy." Kiffen reached up and scratched a spot near the orange mohawk on his head. "Sometimes when the curse is meant especially for one certain person, the cursed object may only allow the person it's meant for the carry it."

"The person it's meant for?"

"Goldie, it's not a bad thing. It's kind of like a shield. Like my breastplate. It won't hurt you. In fact, it might actually help you if you're ever in danger." Kiffen perused the colorful sky. "I think we should eat our fish and then should try and get some sleep. The double suns will rise within a few hours."

After dinner, Kiffen smoothed out some of the bare dirt on the ground, brushing away some stray stones and lay down on his side.

"What if I don't want to keep the curse?" asked Goldie.

"The only way you can get rid of it is to discard the object. As long as it is near you, it will protect you night and day."

"Huh," said Goldie. She'd drifted back around the fire. "Kiffen? Would you like me to tell you a bedtime story?"

"You may do what you like, I'm going to go to sleep no matter what."

"OK," said Goldie. "I will tell you a short one. Maybe it will help you sleep." She sat down next to Kiffen and began her story.

"Once, when I was very young, I met a little kitten named Tim. He was the nicest kitten I'd ever met and he had a best friend named Max, who was a rabbit. Although Max liked Tim's food quite a lot, Tim didn't like carrots. The two of them shared most everything, even the same toilet.
"One day, Tim got mad at Max for eating all his food and shut him in the bathroom closet. At dinnertime, Tim enjoyed his usual supper without having Max around to take it away from him. Tim ate and ate and ate all of the food until it was all gone. After he'd eaten it all, he lay on the floor for a long time because he could barely walk, his tummy was so round and full. 'Gosh,' said Tim. 'I wish Max was here to eat my food with me. I wouldn't feel nearly as sick.'
"When Tim felt better days and days later, he was finally able to walk back to the bathroom closet. But when he got there, he opened the closet and saw a gigantic hole had been gnawed into the back of the cupboard. Max had escaped! Tim stepped into the closet hole and was transported to a different place. It was not the house where he lived anymore. It was a big city with cars and people and smoke and lights. Tim looked everywhere for his bunny friend, Max, and finally after days of living on the street and not eating any food at all, he found him.
"Max was excited to see him. He said he'd waited for Tim for a long time at the hole between his cupboard wall and the big city, but every time he checked, the cupboard door was not open.
"Finally Max had decided to get on with his life and find a new home. Tim begged him to come back home, but Max said no. Tim wasn't very nice to lock him in the cupboard and he was afraid it would happen again.
"Tim said, 'Bunny friend, I could never leave you here in the big city alone. I promise to never keep my food from you ever again because I figured out that it is better to share your food with your friends than to have no friends at all and have a tummy ache.'
"Then Max agreed to go back with him to their house where they lived. Afterward, Tim always shared his food with Max and sometimes, when Max offered him a carrot, Tim would eat a few bites and eventually he learned to like them.
"The end," said Goldie, proudly.

Snort, growwwwl, snort, growwwl was all she heard from Kiffen. She must have put him to sleep with her story. She smiled. She didn't mind. She liked when Mom fell asleep while she told her stories, too, because that meant she'd done a really good job. A bedtime story must help you fall asleep or else it just wouldn't be a good bedtime story. Goldie lay between Kiffen and the fire and it was like she had a heater on either side of her body. It was very cozy. She fell asleep dreaming of Floyd. She prayed they'd find him before too long.

Click here for Part III.