Hope

“Exhibit A,” Cheddar spoke with one toe raised. “You were exhausted. Thus, you were hallucinating.”

Lief scowled in response.

“Exhibit B,” Cheddar continued, leaping from one book to another as he approached the table. “You were out of hearts. Thus, you were hallucinating.”

Lief slumped on the chair, kicking some of the books on the floor.

Cheddar cleared his throat. “Exhibit C, if…and a huge IF by chance your heart did beat, what makes you think it was a love potion? Human girl makes tons of potions. You have seen her stash yourself. Besides, there’s also a chance it’s not even a potion.”

“My heart beat,” Lief finally answered. “It could only be a love potion.”

“Then that also means human girl is a descendant of that witch?”

“It’s a possibility. I checked. The Dariens seem to be a really old family.”

“How old? 500 years?”

“There’s no way to check that. There are no existing records dating 500 years ago.”

“Oh yeah. You had the records center burned that one time.”

“It was an accident,” Lief countered sharply.

Cheddar shrugged. “But then again, records aside, human girl’s love potions are all failures, remember. You’ve seen it yourself, Human. Her potion’s effects don’t last long. It can’t be that love potion.”

“I know that. But what if it’s not yet that potion?”

“What do you mean?”

“She calls them trials. Not the final one. What if…she’s getting there?”

“If…Again,” Cheddar stressed, “if…”

Lief huffed.

“Exhibit C is nothing but a huge if.” Cheddar pounded his paw on the floor. “Assumption. Theory. Possibility. Guess. No clear evidence or proof. So…we go back to Exhibit A. If not A, then B.”

Lief rolled his eyes.

“But hey, Human, now that we’re having this discussion, I can’t help but wonder, are you perhaps—” Cheddar jumped on the table, his fluffy tail wagging off some books to make space for himself. He sat, studying Lief with his big orange eyes, his head swaying left and right.

“What?” Lief asked, annoyed.

Cheddar pointed a toe at Lief. “Are you by chance…feeling hopeful?”

Lief stared at Cheddar. His mouth opened slightly, but he could not find any words to retort. An emotion that he thought had long faded with time…Hope.

***

Hope. He was feeling hopeful. That was the most absurd thing Lief had heard in ages. He just spent last night thinking about what Cheddar said, and he spent all morning devising plans on how to steal love potion from his story’s main character, no less. So no, he was not hopeful. Not—at—all.

Lief facepalmed. What is happening to me?

Lief’s thoughts were disrupted by the sound of loud chewing, and Lief turned sharply at the opposite end of the long dining table. Cheddar was sitting comfortably with his hind legs crossed on the table, nibbling on a large piece of meat.

“Thishh…ish…good,” Cheddar mumbled, taking a huge bite off the meat.

Lief looked down on the untouched plate of freshly grilled lamb chops in front of him. The meat looked lovely, but he had no urge to take even a single bite.

“Give it to me, if you’re not going to eat it,” Cheddar said.

Lief sighed, pushing the plate. It slid on the table towards Cheddar, who quickly reached for the meat.

“I mush…shay…” As Cheddar spoke, bits of meat flew off his mouth. After swallowing loudly, he continued, “That Morris human kid is still miles away from his father. But he can cook a very mean meat. I like that human. I should let him pet me one of these days.”

Morris Saunder was their designated cook. Ages ago, Lief gave Morris’s great, great, great-grandfather a large amount of gold to fund their family diner, which was then about to go bankrupt. In exchange, the family was to be Lief’s official cook, preparing him three meals a day, with no questions asked. The arrangement had been going on quite well. The Saunders had proven to be a bloodline of good cooks, and Morris and his family were tight-lipped.

“So back to that issue…” Cheddar said, licking his paws as he lay back flat on the table, his stuffed belly on full view. “Are you really going to do it, Human?”

Lief didn’t reply.

Cheddar burped. “Don’t blame me if you end up draining all your hearts.”

Ignoring Cheddar, Lief ran through the plans in his head once more.

He could only teleport to places he had already seen. The Book so far had summoned and sent him to the following places: the garden outside the Dariens’ dining hall, the greenhouse, the veranda of Aine’s workshop, two shops that Aine frequents in the business district, and her friend Cistine’s garden. Among these five places, Aine was most likely to bring the love potion to three of them. Lief once saw Aine presenting her love potion to Cistine, Aine made potions in her workshop, and surely, she brought love potion whenever she had a suitor to meet in the greenhouse.

Well… Lief thought. Let’s start with the easiest one.