cozytober2024: 4. The Slight Smell of Smoke in the Air
Asteria had second watch tonight. It was cold and dark and she fed more wood to the fire, letting her senses spread across the campsite and out into the forest. Asteria was a skilled mage, maintaining an awareness like this for a few hours was simple. However, it still became very boring very quickly.
They were just a day out from the next city; monsters tended to avoid more populated areas. The only thing they had to fear now was pixies playing not so benign tricks on travelers. She had already shooed them away from their food stores twice. She had a fondness for the things, even if most found them to be colorful pests. There was just something enchanting about the tiny little laughter that rang out around them, clear as a bell.
A particularly brave green one landed on her foot and stared intently at the fire. She gently nudged it back against her foot when it reached for the flames. It pouted up at her and made some indignant huffing noises. Asteria called the magic of the stars into her hand and let a handful of bright sparks lazily hover over her palm. The pixie gave up its fascination with the campfire for this new, shiner attraction. It batted it's thin, delicate hands at the sparks, watching in merriment as they bounced around her palm. She smiled and changed the color of the sparks from white to blue.
The pixie let out an excited trill, attracting another bluish-white pixie, who plopped down in her hand and waved it's little arms at the lights around it. It waved it's arms so much that it fell over backwards, causing the green pixie to laugh so hard it slid back down Asteria's foot onto the ground.
Just then, the fire let out a particularly loud crack as one of the logs shifted and the mellow smell of a burning campfire brushed her nose again. The pixies were gone in a moment. Asteria let the lights in her hands dim and resumed her vigil. Her companions were sleeping deep, knowing that the very stars themselves blessed them this night. Asteria was a powerful mage, and nothing in this forest could harm them.
