Book 2 - Heat
'I am being watched!' That was my first thought as I woke up. I felt the warmth of Amy's leg, which was now across mine, and knew she was still next to me. Was there somebody else in the room? I cracked open one of my eyes, slowly, trying to spot whoever or whatever was staring hard enough at me to make me feel their presence. I couldn't see much without moving my head but the room wasn't that big and nothing popped out at me. I slowly moved my head to face the door. It was the only other place I could think of that a person might look in on us from. It had an old fashioned, to me anyway, skeleton key lock. Most locks in this world seem to be that type, so it didn't set off creepy vibes when we came in. Still, somebody could look through it if they wanted to.
My hair must have tickled Amy's face, as I turned my head, because she moved her hand to bat it away and I felt her stir next to me. When she let out a yawn, I thought I heard somebody move down the hallway. Her hot breath against my ear and the sound of her waking up distracted me enough, that I couldn't be sure. She cuddled into my warmth for a second and then I felt her stiffen as she realized what she was doing. She quickly untangled herself and shifted as much as she could, away from me.
I could see the tops of her ears, that were poking out between her messy hair, were still a rosy pink when I got out of bed. I couldn't blame her. If I woke up cuddling a man, in my last life, I would have be mortified. Now? I had no idea. After all I had been through in the last year my view on who I was and how I defined myself had become blurry. I guess, in the end, I just wanted to find somebody that loved me. I missed that feeling. The fact that people kept trying to rape or kill me didn't help. 'Still, I shouldn't push my desire for affection on somebody that saved my life,' I thought as I stealthily looked at Amy.
I changed us into our bunny forms and we quickly got dressed. My plan was to work all day on raising my 'Spell Crafting' skill after grabbing breakfast. Amy said trouble was going to find us and I wanted to try and avoid it if I could. Not showing our faces in a town full of dungeon explorers and guards was the first step of my plan.
"Alice, when did your tattoo change?" Amy's question broke me out of my reverie. When did it change? I hadn't noticed it until the fourth day on the boat. It wasn't like we could take baths or showers on it, so I was clothed most of the time. When I did change, it was quick since there wasn't a lock on the door to the room we had used.
"I am not too sure but I think it was on the night of the castle fight. It's the only thing that makes sense." I traced my fingers along the darker fur that outlined it. The trees of the tattoo now didn't show the two lush crowns. Now it more looked like the "artist" wanted to show the four seasons. The tree on my right started off barren of foliage while the other side was full of budding life, like it went from winter to spring. There were even leaves in mid-fall showing autumn.
Amy missed the changes to my crystal and I pointed it out to her. Maybe she had a better idea about it. She was smarter than me in certain areas and I trusted her. The crystal now had two distinct sides. One side was a bright gold and shined like the sun while the other was so black that it seemed to eat the light around it. If you looked really close there were two slivers separating them. All the green and amber had been compressed and now looked like thin strips that circled the crystal. My fur did nothing to hide the crystal at all and it looked more like a decoration. The fact that she notice the tattoo and not the crystal meant she saw it before we shifted forms.
"Any ideas?" I asked after she was silent for too long. She was staring at it and would occasionally poke me. Considering where it was located, I figured I would stop her before I got too excited. The feeling of her finger ruffling my fur was nice though. I was lightly tapping my foot as her finger moved back and forth trying to see all the details. I suddenly thought of something and dropped my spells. As I turned back, the desires that had begun to take over my thoughts faded away. It was like I had stepped into a cold shower. I cursed my stupidity for not remembering that rabbits were always in heat. Were Foxes? I had no idea. I barely knew about rabbits and that was only because some students had made a big deal out of it in class. There was a girl with buck teeth and some of the boys used that to make fun of her until a few of us put a stop to it.
"Nothing that makes sense. If the colors represent magical classes, which would make sense, considering what I have seen you cast, then the gold would be your life magic, the green is druidic, and the amber would be your summoning. It is this black one that is the problem. If I am not mistaken, that is corruption magic. It is also called wild magic because it can be used to boost every other magic with unknown consequences. There have been studies on it but they were deemed to be too dangerous to continue. There has never been a documented case of somebody containing it like this. It normally mixes with the person's magic and then distorts it and them. I suppose, it could also be really strong shadow magic. It's hard to be certain without a lab and equipment to test with." She didn't seem concerned. If anything, she looked at me like an interesting experimental subject.
I coughed to break her out of her thoughts and said, "Well, so far I seem normal. Let's go get breakfast before we are too late for it." I recast Masquerade on us before we went up. There weren't many people around. It was close to ten so I expected the people had either moved on, gone to work or shop to kill the time as they waited for the next boat. I found that both Amy and I had pushed any meat to one side of our plate. The vegetables tasted better. The meat left a weird taste in my mouth to the point I soon just found myself avoiding it. Since we were pretty isolated I filled her in on my idea of staying in the room all day.
She was ok with it. I think she wanted to observe me. I was like a new interesting puzzle that she hadn't figured out yet. I ignored her quirky nature. It wasn't like I was normal either. We finished eating and I went to talk with the lady that had given us the rooms to set up lunch and dinner deliveries. It cost us a bit extra but she promised to personally bring it to us. She wouldn't meet my eyes as if she was guilty of something and I figured her creepy man was the peeping tom from this morning. I would remember to stuff a rag into the lock once we got back.
***
"Where are you going, Gideon?"
"Lucas, she saved my life. You heard the report. She might have been spotted and I am going to return the favor. Cover for me with father. It isn't like I ever wanted the throne if you cannot. Some people are worth protecting and I feel Alice is one such person."
"I understand. Here take this," Lucas finish before tossing Gideon a heavy pouch of coins. "You might need it if you plan on getting her over the border. I already removed her wanted status in the Adventurers' Guild, so they should not be a problem and you might be able to get her a higher status as a member there and use that to get her over the border instead of bribes."