Chapter Fourteen

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Chapter Fourteen

"So, like I was saying before, Skeptic's Stone is really, really interesting," Gil rambled as he stirred their evening meal.

The four unlikely companions were all sitting around the campfire, feet sore and eyes heavy. But while Norrin had nodded off almost before his bottom had touched the ground, Clueless couldn't tear her eyes away from the steaming pot of meat and beans that was bubbling over the fire. A thin line of drool was running down her chin, but she couldn't bring herself to care. It had been sooo looong since she'd had anything to eat. As confused as her feelings were about Zave right now, she had to admit that he'd at least fed her twice a day, every day.

"Like, you'd think the fact that it absorbs magic would make it interesting enough," Gil went on excitedly, either not knowing or simply not caring that nobody was listening to him. "But there's more! I've been researching it whenever I get the chance. Not that there's a lot of books out there about magic eating rocks, you know? But from what information I have managed to find, I think that it might actually have been the lapis philosophorum written about by Zosimos of Panopolis in 300 AD!"

"Fascinating," Ember said, dryly.

Gil snorted in laughter. "Lapis philosophorum of course being the philosopher's stone to the improperly educated. Right, Angel?"

Clueless' stomach growled. When was the food going to be done?

"Uh, Angel?" Gil repeated.

Ember kicked her.

"What? Yes, uh huh!" Clueless blurted out. Right. Her fake name. She had been forgetting about it all day, to Ember's increasing irritation. "Can we eat now?"

Holding the spoon delicately between two fingers, Gil scooped up a bit of chili and brought it to his lips. "Hmm, yes, I think that should do it." He banged the spoon on the side of the pot. "Come on, gather round, friends o' mine! Dinner bell's ringing!"

Norrin opened his eyes, grumbling, but his expression brightened somewhat when he was handed a bowl of the spicy brown muck. Gil offered him a spoon, but Norrin had already scooped it up in one hand and was licking it clean.

"I guess that's, uh, one way to do it," Gil said. "Are you sure you don't want some hand sanitizer or something first, though?"

Norrin lowered the bowl. "Is that food too?"

"No, it's—"

"No," he said, and went back to eating, slurping the meaty goop off each finger.

Shrugging, Gil served Clueless next, and she eagerly accepted both the bowl and the spoon. Fey had taught her how to use silverware. Of course, that had been almost a week ago, and less than a day after Awakening, so her head had been filled with more important things than proper human dining etiquette. Things like being able to talk, Zave, talking, and talking to Zave. But she was sure a simple concept like this was well within her skillset by now.

Oh really? the voice in her head asked mockingly. Are you sure about that…Clueless?

Clueless hesitated. She wasn't stupid. She wasn't! But Stupid was essentially her name, and Zave had given her that name. Did that mean she was stupid? Ember obviously thought she was. But Clueless was starting to understand that just because someone said something, that didn't necessarily make it true. Like when the fox-walker had said that her name was Angel. Clueless was still struggling to understand that one. Even if she were to accept that lies were things that people told now and then, she couldn't quite wrap her head around why they would want to do so in the first place. Were they trying to turn talking into a bad thing?

That was a puzzle for another day, though. Turning her attention to her dinner, Clueless scooped a heaping spoonful of the chili out of her bowl. Then, holding the spoon like an ice cream cone, she began to lick the chili off of it.

That's how Fey had taught her to do it, right? Judging by the way Ember was glaring at her, maybe it wasn't. Then again, Ember tended to glare at her no matter what she did, so who could say for sure? Once her spoon was clean, she helped herself to another scoop.

"And one for the pretty lady," Gil said, handing a third bowl to Ember.

Ember bristled at the compliment. She glared at Norrin, as if expecting him to snap Gil's twiggy arms off for daring to call his girlfriend pretty, but he was too focused on eating to even notice their exchange.

"Come on, it's good!” Gil insisted. “I made it with love!"

Ember bared her teeth at him. "I would rather die than eat that garbage!"

"Okie dokie!" If Gil was offended, he didn't show it. Clueless expected him to keep the bowl for himself, but instead he handed it to Norrin, who was already licking his first bowl clean. "Anyway, we should all go to bed early tonight. We'll need to get an early start tomorrow if we want to catch up to the thunderbird."

"I told you, we're not catching up to it!" Ember snapped. "You are taking us on the fastest route out of this forest without running into it again!"

Gil's eyes widened in surprise. "But…how are we going to kill it if we never see it?"

Ember was on her feet in an instant. "You're sick, you little freak! How can anyone be so obsessed with killing an innocent wild animal?"

"It's not an animal," Gil said. Clueless set down her spoon in surprise. Something in his voice had changed when he'd said that. Not much, but at least some of his childish naivety had suddenly disappeared. "It's a monster."

Even Ember seemed taken aback. "It…that…the word monster could just as easily be used to describe someone who wants to kill living things for fun!"

"I'm not killing it for fun," said Gil. "Did you look at that city you were hiding in yesterday? The thunderbird did that, and it killed everyone living there. That's what makes it a monster. I just want to keep that from ever happening again."

Ember sputtered for a few seconds before finally sitting down with a huff. "Well, you can kill it by yourself. This isn't our problem!"

And just like that, whatever darkness had come over Gil dissipated, and he beamed at them again.

"Before we go to bed, though, we need to think of a team name!" he said, looking like a completely different person than he had been a moment ago. "I'm thinking…Team Beans! Because, you know, we just had chili, and chili has beans in it. And it rhymes!"

"I am not," Ember snarled, "going to be part of something called Team Beans!"

"I'm open to suggestions."

"Oh, oh!" Clueless put her hand in the air before realizing that she didn't actually have a name in mind. "Team, uh…Spoon!"

"Any votes for Team Spoon?" Gil looked around hopefully. To Clueless' surprise, Norrin actually raised his hand.

"Norrin!" Ember snapped. "Don't dignify this!"

He lowered his hand.

"Are you going to vote, Ember?" Gil asked brightly.

"No, I'm not going to vote!"

"Okay, then it's one vote for Team Beans and two votes for Team Spoon." He grinned and shook his fists above his head. "Team Spoon wins!"

"Yay!" Clueless cheered. She wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, but it felt good to know she had won…whatever this was.

"Good job, Angel!" Gil congratulated her. "I'm glad at least some of us are getting into the spirit of things!"

There it was again. Angel. Clueless paused for a moment to think.

"Well, I," Ember snapped, "am joining Team Going to Bed."

"I knew you'd come around!" Gil exclaimed. "But we already voted, so—"

"Norrin, Angel, get some sleep before this moron drives me insane!"

Norrin obeyed, getting up and gathering a moderately sized pile of leaves, which he promptly collapsed on. Gil produced a sleeping bag from his supplies, humming to himself as he unrolled it.

Clueless was still thinking.

Ember had stepped away from camp to relieve herself. With that done, she laid down next to Norrin, snuggling up against his much larger form. Setting her bowl and spoon down next to the fire, Clueless walked over to them.

"Ember?" she asked nervously.

Ember's eyes snapped open. "What?"

"I…need knowing…" Realizing that this might have been the most complicated thing she had ever said out loud, she concentrated on finding the right words. "My name…you say Angel. Am I…Angel now?"

Ember was on her feet in an instant, and she grabbed Clueless by her shirt and pulled her close, her eyes blazing with anger.

"We're only calling you that because humans aren't named things like Clueless!" she whispered, her voice so low and dangerous that even Clueless could barely hear her. "I'm not going to give us away because you have a stupid name. But as soon as we've gotten away from that little twerp, you are never going to say the name Angel again. And if you do I'll rip your freaking eyes out! Understand?"

Clueless nodded mutely.

Ember threw her on the ground. "Good. Now get some sleep. If you slow us down even a little tomorrow, I'm leaving you behind!"

NEXT CHAPTER: 2/12/2025