Mythshaper

Chapter 23: Awakening

Once we returned, I handed the essence bead to Mum for her to deal with it. Her eyes narrowed as she recognised what it was.

She peered over me to look at Father. “A forest fiend, out here?”

“Leecher vines,” he said. “A lone one, from what I found.”

“Good thing you dealt with it,” she replied, “before anyone unfortunate stumbled upon it.”

Her gaze returned to the bead. “Now, what am I to do with it?” she asked, shooting a scathing glare at Father. “Mighty impressive of you to find the exact thing Arilyn would need for his awakening.”

Father averted his gaze. “He will awaken eventually,” he said. “Sooner than you imagine.”

Mum sighed, unable to deny his words. She knew Father hadn’t ventured into the wilderness with the intention of finding something that might help me awaken. It was merely a pleasant coincidence that he happened to be the one capable of finding the forest fiend and putting an end to it.

Her expression grew contemplative as she rested the bead on one of the flat stones. She had gathered and washed a few more to create a makeshift arrangement for cooking. I reckoned she was mulling over the benefits and drawbacks of letting me use it.

Her eyes returned to me. “Do you want to use it to awaken?”

“Only if you allow it,” I said.

Mother nodded before busying herself with other work. I turned to Father, who simply shrugged and began skinning the bird with one of his small knives. He was quite proficient at it, as I saw it. High points in Dexterity or Alacrity made anyone a master of any simple task they had performed a few times.