"What if I was wrong?" Cricket asked, shifting awkwardly on the balls of his feet where he was crouched in the shadow of the squat building beside the witch's crooked shop.
"Do you honestly think that, or are you just bored?" Ignacia sounded bored too. Or maybe she was just tired of hearing him complain after three hours of sitting and watching as the witch's shop remained unchanged. No one had gone in. No one had come out. Nothing was happening! All right, maybe he was just bored.
"We didn't change anything today. We didn't talk to anyone different," he said instead of answering the question. Because he was not about to admit that he was in fact a five-year-old who couldn't sit still for more than a couple of hours without something to do, as he'd frequently been accused of.
"So, we could have waited to come here till closer to the time? Say in...three and a half hours?" Ignacia grumbled, her fingers drumming on the cobblestones underneath of them.
"Probably."
"Remind me to never let you plan out a mission again." Ignacia snorted, rising from the ground and brushing off the back of her grey-blue tunic.
"Rude." Cricket huffed. "Where are you going? We can't change anything. If we change anything the pattern won't hold, and I won't be able to guess the time. We could speed it up!"
"Relax. I'm just going to grab us something to eat." Ignacia patted his head. Cricket swatted her hand away, huffing. "You can handle one knight. I know you can."
From anyone else, the words would have been condescending (and maybe had she said them to anyone else they would have been too), but they weren't. There was confidence there. Ignacia, for all her blustering, and complaining, had never once doubted his abilities. She knew what he was capable of, perhaps better than he himself did. If she thought he could handle Yoshi, he probably could.
"All right." He nodded. "Bring me back something good."
"Yes, Your Highness." Ignacia curtsied, a laugh on her lips.
"Go!" Cricket snickered, tossing a pebble at her. She disappeared around the corner, and Cricket slid to his bottom on the ground. It would be a long couple of hours, he might as well get comfortable.
She returned about a half hour later with fresh baked scones, and some kind of goat cheese, then sat beside him without a word. By then Cricket had pulled his sketch book out, and started on the base of a portrait, mindlessly drawing the lines that would help him sort out where eyes and nose went. They ate in silence, every once in a while, glancing back to the witch's shop which had continued to be as stubbornly boring as it had been the last few hours.
"He can't be that good looking." Ignacia peered over Cricket's shoulder down at the sketch which had changed from a generic portrait into a drawing of the white knight at some point. He wasn't sure when, or even if he'd made that decision consciously, but what was done was done.
"What? No. He's not..." Cricket frowned down at the drawing. "You don't even like men."
"Doesn't mean I can't find someone objectively handsome." Ignacia shrugged. "And he is. Or at least this drawing is."
Cricket huffed, shutting the sketchbook and stuffing it back into his satchel.
"Oh, don't be like that." Ignacia leaned in to bump his shoulder with her own. "I'm just teasing."
Cricket grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and focusing on the shop again.
"Come on Cricky, you can't—"
"That's him." He cut her off, standing quickly. A white clad figure had appeared, ducking from an alley out into the open of the small courtyard in front of the witch's shop. He looked just like Cricket remembered. Broad shoulders set into a hard, determined line, face impassive.
"I rescind my original statement, he can be that good looking," Ignacia muttered under her breath just loud enough for him to hear.
Cricket rolled his eyes, bracing himself as he took long, quick strides towards Yoshi. He needed to stop him. He wasn't sure how, but he needed to. Maybe if he could just talk to Yoshi, get him to see sense. Surely as a knight, he had to be a sensible man.
Yoshi was drawing his sword, and Cricket couldn't have that. His strides quickened, turning into a run. Before he could stop himself, and think about what he was doing, he placed himself in front of the shop entrance, his own sword drawn. Yoshi lunged for him, white cloak turning into a blur as he swung his sword towards the obstacle barring his way (also known as Cricket). Cricket lifted his own, metal meeting metal in a loud clank.
"You're early," Cricket grunted through clenched teeth. "It's only 5, you're not supposed to show up till at least 6."
"Get out of the way, prince." Yoshi's face was set into a hard look. Eyes narrowed, and face alarmingly close. So close that Cricket could see specks of earth amongst the sunlight, golden brown grounding the brightness, and making it richer for it.
Surprise filtered in through the determination, but Cricket didn't lower his guard. Instead, he braced his foot, and shoved Yoshi back. Yoshi's gaze widened just a touch, before he found his footing again and lunged towards the door. Cricket was ready for him, knocking the strike aside, and nodding to Ignacia to take up his post as he backed Yoshi away from it.
"Out of the way."
"No." Cricket spun, thrusting forward. A smile twitched at his lips as Yoshi parried, swords singing. Cricket advanced, putting more space between them and the shop, taking them into the cobblestone street beyond.
"You are protecting the witch." Yoshi's lips twitched, wrinkled at one side. Cricket wasn't sure if it was confusion or disappointment he saw there, but there wasn't time to think about it.
"He's a child," Cricket answered the underlying accusation. He didn't need Yoshi to say it to hear it. His foot caught on a stone, stumbling back, and Yoshi took the advantage to push them towards the shop again.
"Dangerous." Yoshi growled, his sword swinging forward, and catching Cricket's bare forearm.
"Rude!" Cricket hissed. The blade left a thin slice behind, raw, and already welling with blood. It had been a long time since anyone had gotten a clean hit on him. "Impressive. But still rude to draw the prince's blood."
"The prince is protecting—"
"The prince is protecting a child!" Cricket snarled, his sword meeting Yoshi's again as the man lunged for him. Locking together to keep Yoshi from advancing further. "Children make mistakes, it's how they learn!"
"You are making excuses for him." Yoshi's face was so close now. Too close. Cricket could feel the knight's breath on his cheek. Bracing one foot on Yoshi's thigh he pushed off, flipping backward to break the hold. They were getting too close to the shop now, but Cricket wasn't sure if he could push Yoshi back again. He'd had the element of surprise before, that was gone now.
"I am making excuses for no one!" It was said on a hard breath, panting. It had been too long since Cricket had come up against someone other than Ignacia who could match him strike for strike. He really was out of shape.
"What of the people of Tochtli?" There it was. The accusation. The assumption that Cricket was picking sides. That he was making a mistake. That he didn't know what he was doing.
"I am protecting them too." Cricket brushed his sleeve across the sheen of sweat gathering on his forehead, falling into his stance again. He could feel Ignacia watching them, but there wasn't time to think about that. Not now. "He is a child."
"You are a child!"
"Okay, you know what? I tried reasoning with you. I'm done!" He lunged, sword flying, and just missing Yoshi's long white cloak as the knight spun out of the way. But Yoshi had taken the opportunity for what it was, braced himself against a nearby wall, and flipped over Cricket. Anger had made Cricket reckless, just as his teachers had always said it would, and provided Yoshi with the opening he needed. A mistake. One he couldn't afford to make, but had made just the same. If it weren't for the movement, for the rush of running to put his body between Yoshi and the door again, he might have stopped to berate himself for it. There would be time to toss and turn over that mistake later.
"What is going on out here?!" Abner shouted from where he was trying to peek around Ignacia.
Yoshi took the opening, and lunged for the child. Even with Ignacia in the way, even with Cricket racing to stop him, he wasn't fast enough. And the next thing he knew there was a flash of green, the sharp twinge of petrichor in the air, and the sound of a roaring ocean filled his ears. A tide of magic flowed from Abner, erasing first Ignacia and then the shop, and then the street.
"No! No! No! No! NO!" Cricket shouted, but it was too late, the magic had started. And all he had left was to grab Yoshi by the arm, and yank him away from the spell. To save them both from being dragged into the undertow. Yoshi followed, and they ran through the street, the tide of the spell chasing them. Only a step ahead of the rushing current of magic that filled his ears. He saw it, the edge, the line, the safety. He had to make it there. His heart hammered in his chest, almost blotting out the sound of the spell following him.
"This is all your fault!" Cricket growled.
Yoshi didn't say anything, but he kept up with Cricket. Just a few more feet, and they'd be safe. If he could get Yoshi out, maybe it would stop things from repeating. If he could...
Pop.
The magic hit the border just as Cricket stepped over the line. He turned back to yell at Yoshi, prepared to scream in the man's face, but he was gone. Swallowed up by the spell just as everything else had been. The town. Ignacia. Abner. The Inn. The smithy. The market. Jingyi, and his mother. Everything.
"Aaaaargh!" Cricket fell to his knees, and screamed to the sky, gripping hard at his hair.
He had figured it out. He knew what to do. He just... he hadn't been quick enough. He hadn't been smart enough. He hadn't...
He hadn't been enough!
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