*SIGH* “Fine.” He said, dropping his pack and fishing out his soap. Clothes fell away and Prince Damron joined them. Hoxley was right, the water felt great. It felt good to scrub away the layers of baked on sweat from navigating the hot tunnels. Morell finished first. He dunked himself beneath the surface before swimming past the others and climbing out, shaking his hair and bouncing in place to get as much water off as possible. After that, he sat upon it and waited to dry a little more slowly putting his shirt and pants on. After him, Hoxley finished and climbed out, her hoofs clopping their new shoes upon the rock. She shook and shimmied as well before getting dressed and taking up her spear. The prince was almost finished when he noticed that Siouxsie was out in the middle of the pool. She floated with the water up to her chin, treading water and watching him as he finished.

  “Aren’t you done bathing?” He asked.

  “I am.” She said.

  “Are you going to get out, or are you just watching me?”

  “I’m not watching you.” She replied. “I’m watching my brother.” The prince turned to find Robert right behind him on the closest spot of the pool’s edge. Dimly glowing eyes beneath the shadow of the wide brimmed hat unnerving but tried not to show it. In the darkness of the night, Prince Damron saw that Robert had two differently colored eyes. One was a bright amber-yellow color while the other a cool light blue that seemed too bright to be natural.

  “Aren’t you going to bathe?” he asked the witch.

  “Probably. I always bathe last.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I do.” The eyes got thinner with a cold glare. “Wash your face and neck then it’s my turn.” Prince Damron watched Robert stand and walk over to Hoxley who said something the prince couldn’t hear. When they were done talking, the faun girl nodded. Soon enough, Prince Damron was done and got out he dried himself on the rock shaking loose as much moisture before getting dressed. To his surprise and delight he found the white blanket given to him by Bohga was still warm from the sunlight, very warm!

  Hoxley beckoned him to join her by the log away from the pool. He passed Robert who once arrived at the waters’ edge, finally removed his pointed hat and winklepickers. Beneath his dark cloak, his hands went to work unbuckling buckles and unstrapping straps. When he was done and the prince and Morell were away from the small pool Hoxley approached Robert from behind and took the cloak to fan it out like a blind. A mass of black clothing, to include the scarf he kept wrapped around his face, fell to the rock in a piled clump at his feet and he stepped into the pool where his sister awaited. The tranquil water rippled as waded out to her where she set to scrubbing him, only his head breaking the surface. Hoxley stepped away and folded the cloak before setting it under his hat and returning to where the pair of boys sat.

  “She bathes him?” Morell asked.

  “Siouxsie doesn’t have to but she chooses to.” Hoxley said. “She helps to wash the areas he can’t reach behind his back.”

  “Why all the secrecy? Why hold his cloak for him? The prince asked her. “We all disrobed in front of him.”

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  “It’s a sensitive matter, your highness. Believe me when I say it’s none of your concern. Let the twins be.” As sound came from the pool that wasn’t too unlike that of a cough. A small flash of orange light caught their attention and the three looked to see Robert’s hands sticking out of the water with a ball of fire floating just above his hand. Siouxsie placed her orange gel upon the fire and it went out, leaving the gel to glow as it had before in the caves, but at only a fraction of the luminescence. Siouxsie then sat the gel squarely atop her head and the two went back to splashing and even some hushed laughter.

  “Those two are strange.” He prince remarked before reclining and wrapping his warm blanket about him.

  “We’re on the trail again so we’ll have to take turns standing guard,” Hoxley told the boys. “And no one is going to doze off this time. Now that there are five of us, we each can take shorter watches and get more sleep. We are still being pursued so we have to keep our wits about us or we’ll get slit throats.” Morell placed a hand upon his neck and gulped loudly in fear. Before long, the pale pallor of Siouxsie’s form crawled out of the water to stand on the rocks at the edge. Her wet black hair hung down past her shoulders and obscured her breasts as she knelt down and donned all of her black garb. The glowing gel atop her head made her appear as a holy icon, the shadows bending and dancing as she moved. Once dressed, she plucked Robert’s cloak from his pile and held it wide as he stepped out of the water. He shook himself a few times to get dry the same as the others. Then the cross stitch of leather belts and buckles clicked their way around his body. The wind passed between them and an earthy, plant smell emanated from the witch boy. Morell and Prince Damron leaned and leered to catch a glimpse of the twins’ face.

  When the process was complete, Robert donned his hat again, the only part of him still visible were the mismatched eyes glaring sinister beneath the brim. Siouxsie blew across her gel and its light extinguished as before.

  “Good job, Pumpkin.” She whispered.

  “Poomp-kee” it peeped before she covered it with her hat. The two witchly shadows drifted closer to stand with the others.

  “We’re going to have to stand guard tonight.” She reiterated for the pair. “I’ll take first watch. Our blankets are white so we’ll have to trim some foliage to hide ourselves. We should take the limbs from overhead so if anyone comes near in the middle of the night, they won’t spot the areas we’ve trimmed. Would you two please fly up and send some full limbs down?”

  “We can do that.” the witches answered simultaneously. The pair took to their brooms and vanished into the treetops before ten large branches full of leaves came crashing down. Hoxley and the others arranged them in a circle which would be enough to hide them to anyone as close as ten paces. Once everything was in readiness, Hoxley gave the order they’d be taking throughout the night and the others cozied themselves into a circle beneath their magically heated blankets. The faun girl seated herself in the middle of the circle as they slept and listened to the sounds of the night. She thought of Bohga and hoped he’d managed to disperse the men outside his cave or escape altogether.

  As her night vision took hold, she scanned the woods for signs and sounds that might be a cause for alarm. For a while she listened to the night birds and the beautiful songs they sang. When her companions finally fell into deeper sleep, she listened to them breathe instead. The sounds they made were almost as comforting as those of her home on the plains. Long fingers reached into her waistband and produced the receipt shed taken from the prince. Owning it meant she owed him nothing and that she was free to separate herself from him at any time and leave the brat to fend for himself. The prospect seemed a welcome one, but for the life of her, she knew it was something she could not do.

  The night and changing of the guard came and went without incident. In the morning, after everyone had awoken and eaten a small breakfast from their stores, Hoxley pulled everyone to a circle to begin to decide on their best next course of action.

  “Where do we go from here?” Asked Morell.

  “The main roads will be watched.” Hoxley told them as she unfurled a map and revealed the landscapes between them and the western kingdom. “So, we have to stick to the wild. From here we’ll cross Everlight Desert.

  “Everlight?” asked the prince. “I’ve heard that place has become haunted with the angry spirits of the dead

  “I’ve heard that too.” Confirmed Siouxsie. “One of the scouts came back and told us that there’s a place where creepy voices can be heard whispering on the wind. And it’s not the fun kind of creepy, but the dangerous kind of creepy.”

  “What’s the difference?” asked the prince.

  “This is fun creepy,” she pointed a thumb at her brother. “Dangerous creepy is when a dark shapeless entity that should not exist in this world comes for you in the middle of the night, snatches you from your bed while you sleep, gouges out your eyes, cuts your head off, drinks your blood, eats the rest then poops out your bones in an unmarked shallow grave with the rest of its victims. That’s danger creepy.” The whites of Morell’s and the prince’s eyes almost doubled in size at her description.