5. Flowers, herbs and the smell of the sea

Nova did not know how to react so she simply stared at the ceiling, ignoring Fluvius who was just centimetres away from her face. Her cheeks were pink and her mouth shut tight as she started counting the lines the wood on the roof had.

Fluvius got annoyed by her playing dumb and got even closer to her face, his leg sliding between hers. She was trapped between his arms and she knew she had to stop him.

Nova opened her mouth to tell him to move away, but as soon as she mouthed the first letter he lowered his head even more, kissing her cheek and then getting off the bed. Then he started laughing.

She looked in his direction confused.

"You don't have to be afraid of me stupid. I'm not gonna do anything you don't want."

She noticed her face was not as flushed anymore and got up sitting on her bed next to him.

"On a more serious note," he said "how are you feeling?"

She looked down at her feet, saw the wound, which had stopped bleeding and then got up. She walked towards the window and stared at nothing, just looked forward, not knowing what to feel or say.

"I, for the first time in my life don't know what to say. Like should I worry? Will mother find a way? Will she not? What happens if she doesn't?"

She started walking back and forth inside her room, anxiety finally creeping up.

"Well I don't know much about curses, but there's always a way to break them right?" Fluvius asked.

"I think so, I don't know."

Before any of them said another word, the door flew open. Valeria rushed in and got close to Nova.

"We're going out, I need to find the flower you described."

She said nothing more and walked out again. Fluvius and Nova both started to go after her.

"Will we walk there?" Nova asked, her leg throbbing a little.

Valeria looked down at her leg, noticing the bandages were not there, also the wound looked in better condition that before. She threw Fluvius a dirty look, knowing fully well that wolves' saliva could be used to heal wounds faster. She took her wand out and cast a spell. Bandages appeared again and rotated around Nova's leg.

Then she answered. "You are not in good condition to walk, and now you can't use a broom anymore. Hmm..." she looked again in Fluvius' direction. "You, dog, you carry her."

Fluvius nodded, clearly annoyed by her tone and nickname, he wanted to call the green witch a lizard, but Nova would not like that and she was the main worry he had.

He removed the skirt he was wearing and stood naked before shifting, both Nova and Valeira looked away in the process, Nova from embarrassment and Valeria from disgust. Soon after he had shifted Nova got close to him, touching his soft black fur before she got on top of him. He licked her hand when she was getting up and Valeria grabbed her broom. Then they set off in the direction Nova motioned.

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They reached the part of the forest where Nova fainted and started looking on the ground, trying to find an orange flower. But it was no where to be seen. Nova and Fluvius continued looking everywhere they could when Valeria got to her feet.

"I don't think we will find it anytime soon."

"Does mom know anything about orange flowers?" Nova asked, since Olivia was a nature fairy.

"No, she did not, in fact she went to the fairy village to ask but has yet to return so there's nothing we can do."

As they discussed Fluvius continued looking around smelling different flowers and herbs, looking for anything uncommon. Then his ears perked up and he looked towards them, but they paid him no attention. He growled, but Nova and Valeria were still discussing, he decided to shift to be able to talk to them.

Fluvius' bones started cracking and they looked at his direction, he got up on his two legs and started talking.

"I can smell the sea. I mean not quite but it's uncommon smell for this part of the forest."

Valeria looked into his eyes, while Nova was looking in the opposite direction.

"Do you think we can use that smell as a lead?" Valeria asked.

"Perhaps, maybe it will lead to nowhere but it's the only uncommon smell around."

"Then let's go."

After that Fluvius shifted again, getting quite annoyed by the fact that he had to, if the two of them could understand him as a wolf things would be way easier. Nova got on top of him again and he started following the faint smell.