Waning shadows

“I’m actually doing… all right, I think,” he answered honestly for probably the first time in his life. He only ever made it custom to lie to Jensen if he knew he didn’t want to upset the boy, but right now… He didn’t have too much to be upset about. The war progress from the Mer had been delayed, his family was together, he hadn’t yet gone insane again… 

“How about you? How have you and the dwarf been?”

“That’s good.” Jensen watched at the king with a tiny smile on his lips and he had to admit, Gideon did seem to really be doing a lot better than he had in a long while. So that really was a good thing.

“Even you are a dwarf compared to me”, Jensen noted with a soft chuckle. But he knew his and Paige’s height difference was huge, but in a way he found it really cute. “She’s.. getting better. But me..?” He shrugged a bit. “Could be better, I guess.”¨

“If you’re gonna steal something at least make it worth while… and y’know leave the area.” She smirked. It wasn’t her cart, the wasn’t really her type of occupation. At least not apples. She was more interested in the jewels and such people of this land wore. It didn’t really suit a Natrix’s snake form to enjoy jewelry so a part of her enjoyed it just because it brought her further from the more savage and wild creatures her people could be. “Not that apples aren’t great… I guess… but c’mon. That’s not worth a fight over.”

Jensen raised his brow at the comment the woman gave him. He glanced at the apple in his hand and then at her again. She clearly didn’t recognise him, and maybe it was better that way. “I was actually trying to find the owner of this cart so I could pay for this”, he explained and looked around them once more before looking at the woman again. “You haven’t seen anyone, have you?”

Quinn looked up, closing the book as she did so. She let out a bit of a sigh feeling frustrated with her current situation. “If I’m totally honest. I’m not even sure myself. I have some plants, ones my mother plants and now they’re in season but the trouble is I can’t remember what they where called and I’m not sure if they’re looking right. Does that make sense?”

“I was hoping to could find them in a book, and get the name and more information.” 

Jensen listened the woman’s words and started to think. He knew a thing or two about plants and he had read a lot of books during the years, so maybe he actually could help her out somehow. “Maybe I can help”, he said after a short silence. “What does the plants look like? If they are something we have growing wild I might know what they are. Or just have seen them somewhere in general.”

Sebastian was hungry. He was always hungry. When you were a pirate in a land that didn’t want you around, it was hard to find a food source. He would work in order to earn money to buy things but nobody seemed to want to hire him. He was a pirate, after all, and by proxy he was considered a thief. So instead of trying to change people’s minds about who he truly was, Sebastian embraced the idea that people had. Today he had followed a man with a cart full of apples through the Woodland. Sebastian managed to convince him to go look in the woods for something before knocking him over the head. Just a light tap, really, the man would be fine in a few hours. But then Sebastian noticed someone else sauntering up to the cart, looking around. Sighing, Sebastian made his way towards the cart. “Looks good, huh? Well I hope you want to pay for that. I’m a busy man and I have to get my cart to town, if you don’t mind.”

It was weird there really didn’t seem to be anyone looking after the cart. Usually the person who owned such didn’t go far. But once there finally came someone talking to him about the cart Jensen found himself being a bit skeptical about this fellow. He wasn’t really dressed like people in the Woodland normally were, plus there was one little fact on the table as well.. “I haven’t see you here before”, he said as he kept on eyeing at the shorter male. Even though people might not have seen him -- or well, before he had became the king -- Jensen surely had seen others. He knew who lived in the Woodland even if he didn’t know their names, and he was quite sure this guy wasn’t from here.

@paigeofanewbook

Pretty much ever since they had lost Paige’s dad Jensen’s biggest worry had been Paige. Compared to her and his worry about her wellbeing was way more important to him than the merwar and things regarding to that. So maybe in a way it was extremely good thing Gideon had taken the crown back and Jensen didn’t really need to  think the kingdom that much. Though of course he still did, but Paige was still his worry number one.

Jensen made sure day from day that Paige was doing okay, that she had what she needed, tried to make her smile, make her day better and brighter. He was doing this so much he was forgetting to take care of himself. He even stayed up most of the nights guarding Paige’s sleep, making sure she got to close her eyes without a worry. But now all that was starting to act against Jensen. He wasn’t sleeping that much anymore and he was starting to fall asleep in every possible place without meaning it.

Aurelia adored the way the trees smelled and looked this time of day. The light shone on them in a way that she’d never expect. She wished she’d brought her sketchbook out here to draw designs, but hadn’t even considered it. Hopefully when she went home, she’d still remember this feeling. As she walked through the streets, she saw someone walking by one of the apple cats. Keeping a few steps back, the redhead kept her eye on him. When she saw what he did, she put her hands over her mouth, shocked. Moving toward him, she lifted up her hand. “Uh, sir… you can’t just… you don’t know whose apples those are. They might be for some event and now… their numbers are all messed up.”

It was odd there was no one around the apple cart. No one should leave a cart unattended like this. Jensen really would have to figure this situation out to have a talk with the owner, or maybe just make sure there would be an announcement later on. Like a paper on the wall of the library where everyone would see it or something. Because people really shouldn’t leave things like that, especially now that things weren’t that balanced in general either. You can’t abandon things just like that anymore like you could do back in the day. Jensen’s thoughts got distracted when he heard someone’s voice. He looked at the woman, then at the apple in his hand and then at her again. He had seen her before. Talked to her even? She definitely looked familiar. “I’m trying to find the person who owns this cart so I could pay for the apple. Have you seen them?”

“Yes.  This one is an alternate civilization, but I’m starting to think they may be aliens.”  He still wasn’t entirely sure, and that’s what made it so engrossing.  “I… maybe I should give mysteries a try.  Real life has just left enough unanswered questions that I don’t seek them out.” 

“There are always questions about everything around us and well.. I’m not sure is life ever supposed to be easy.” Jensen if anyone knew about the struggle of everything in your life and how it felt like right away when you felt like things were going well and you were happy something happened and things turned upside down again. “I’m Jensen”, he said, hoping this guy wouldn’t connect the dots of ‘King Jensen’ or ‘Prince Jensen’ or anything relating to that. Jensen wanted to be just Jensen for once.

Will relaxed when the other guy blocked the sun for him.  That didn’t stop him from pulling a face as he thought about how to describe what he’d been reading.  The stories his mother had told him when he was a child had seemed unreal, and he was here now and living in the land she’d described.  As a result, he didn’t believe in calling something fantasy.  Fiction had been as far as he wanted to describe.  “I guess maybe fantasy?  It doesn’t seem like stuff that could ever be real … but does anyone really know?” 

“Ooh, those stories. I’ve read some like that. Like space travels and aliens.” And if Jensen wouldn’t have seen Alice’s world there would be much more he would consider not being true -- cars, ships, things like that. “I usually end up picking one of those mystery novels. It’s always interesting trying to solve the situation before you finish reading it.” He also loved reading romance novels, but he surely wouldn’t be saying that to a stranger, because it was enough that few people knew about this tendency of his and had made few stupid jokes about it.

Will recognized the man, but only in that vague sort of way where he knew he’d seen the person before.  There was no context, no meaning behind it, and no instinctual feeling to provide any sort of guidance.  He decided to be at least approachable, even as he squinted into the sun a little.  “Um, short stories.  Fiction.  They’re really good.  Do you like that sort of thing?” 

Jensen honestly had no idea who this youngster was, other than he wasn’t a Wonderlander, so he had to be a Wanderer, but nowadays there seemed to be a lot of Wanderers around in general. When he noticed the guy was squinting at the sun Jensen moved a bit so his head would pretty much cover the sunlight so the guy wouldn’t have to look straight to the sun while talking to Jensen -- at least there was some use of his height in situations like this. “I read quite a lot and I’m always looking for something new to read. What kind of fiction are those stories in that book?”

“When the Princess gets hungry, one must provide for her no matter the hour, or else Wonderland might fall,” he joked. The king acted as though it were perfectly normal for him to still be taking care of her now that they were back in the Palace. And to Gideon, it was completely normal. Palace or cottage, servants or none, it was his responsibility to take care of the Princess and keep her as guarded from this sickness as possible.

Jensen couldn’t help but smile at Gideon’s answer. Cece had twirled her father around her little finger so tightly it was rather funny to watch. “Everything for the Princess”, Jensen replied and took off his jacket putting it on the edge of one of the nearby chairs. He looked at his father, thinking what he should say or should he say anything, but since they hadn’t really been talking much lately -- Gideon taking care of the mer situation and Jensen doing some investigation and Gideon taking care of his family while Jensen was taking care of Paige -- but maybe this morning they should just talk like.. like normal people, like a family. “How are you?”