Thorn and Sir Adonis were complete opposites. Cassie could tell that Thorn absolutely couldn’t stand the knight in painfully shining armor (Couldn’t they do something about that? They could cover it with mud to keep it from blinding passerby or something). She didn’t think Adonis was smart enough to hate Thorn after the fair lady declared that he was her property. Instead, he tried to treat Thorn like the help, which did nothing to help Thorn’s already sour disposition. Cassie grinned cheerfully, skipping to keep up with Thorn.
“Do you have to skip?” Thorn, ever the killjoy, asked.
“You have a much longer stride.” Cassie replied, “You’re like a foot and a half taller than me. I skip to keep up.”
“Well maybe you should switch with horse boy over there.”
“He is a steed and I am a man!”
“Debatable.” Thorn snapped. Adonis glanced down at the ground sullenly in response.
“I like skipping. Cassie replied, “Do you think anything plot relevant will happen today?” It was after a few days of travel that something happened in the books and movies. Usually, they skipped over the small repeated details like urinating in favor of the action to save words or screen time. It was also boring to note in exact detail how they ate the same thing twice a day. It was just easier to say “They ate purple fowl often because it was common in the region and easy to catch.”
“Sorry?”
Cassie blinked, realizing she just said that out loud, “I was narrating.”
“Well you can keep that to yourself.”
“Does this happen a lot?” Adonis asked.
“No.” Cassie said at the same time Thorn said “Yes.”
“Way to be supportive.”
“I don’t need to be supportive. I’m keeping you alive aren’t I? That should be enough for you.”
“You could be nicer about it.”
“And you could use a bath.”
“I’ll have you know that we both should.” Cassie crossed her arms."You probably haven't bathed in years!"
"And I won't start now!" Thorn replied bitterly.
“It’s impolite to speak of the fairer sex in such a manner.” Sir Adonis interjected.
“She’s not the fairer sex, she’s the load.”
“I resent that.”
“Fine. She’s the little monkey I keep to amuse myself.”
“My purpose! At last!” Cassie frowned, “I don’t know how I’m getting home though. That’s a problem.”
“How did you even get here in the first place?” Thorn asked.
Cassie went through the events leading up to waking up in a fishy dungeon. Nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary. She shrugged and starting humming a pop song her sister made her listen to a week before waking up in a different world.
Thorn rolled his eyes. “So you don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Did you already forget what we were talking about?”
“Oh right. I dunno.”
“Are you a sorceress?” Adonis asked, his hand going to his sword.
“NO.” Thorn and Cassie spoke at the same time.
“I think that’d be awesome though, don’t you think?”
“If you want dark spirits plaguing your soul for all of eternity, go ahead.”
“Hmmm—“
“No, Cassie.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“You didn’t have to.”
“I was just—“
“You were just considering it. Just like you considered poking the plant that could eat you alive after I told you it could eat you. Or when you wanted to see what was inside of the purple hippo or when you wanted to—“
“I get it! No sorcery! Sheesh. You never let me do anything fun.” Cassie sighed, “I wish I had a plan.”
“—You have no idea how much I wish you had a plan too.”
“Then why don’t you just make a plan?” Adonis asked from horseback.
Thorn blinked, “Did he actually say something smart?”
“It’s possible.” Cassie replied, “What would you do, if you were me, Adonis?”
“Well, you are in a new land by designs that were obviously not your own so first I’d try to see who brought you here. I’m assuming it’s the now dead sorcerer. The next step would be to try to find someone who can send you back—so going to Jaybride is a good first step for me—I mean you.”
Cassie and Thorn looked at each other and then looked up at Adonis. Thorn cleared his throat. “That’s a little vague.”
“But it’s a plan. We go and find another magic dude or lady.”
“It’s still vague.”
“You’re only mad because you didn’t come up with it—“ Thorn stopped abruptly and by the law of inertia (and not paying attention) Cassie was still going at the same speed they previously held, and couldn’t prevent herself from slamming into his back. “Omph. What is it—“
“Shhh.” Thorn hissed.
Cassie literally bit her tongue to keep from retorting. There was no time to run, hide, or do much of anything resembling self-preservation before her vision blackened and she was removed from that world altogether. She found it all very inconvenient, as she was missing the action and had no idea if Thorn and Adonis would actually be able to remove her from danger. Cassie would like to think that she was an independent spirit. She blinked, her eyes opening to a watery world filled with red slowly spreading through the water. She opened her mouth and tasted blood, yet she wasn’t afraid. She blinked again and found that she was sitting in a classroom, watching as Mr. Pendleton wrote on the whiteboard.
She rubbed the pain in her elbow, turning to glare at Elton. He was a bit of a snot but she could always count on him to wake her up when she dozed off during class.
He slid a note over the joint desk. It made a rustling sound, almost like the noise she heard in the woods before she lost consciousness (woke up?) and found herself in the classroom.
“You didn’t wake up for a while. Where did you go?”
This bothered Cassie. Her dream was still fresh in her mind.
“Where else? Cloudcuckooland.”
Elton snorted, shaking his head. Cassie suddenly felt very uncomfortable and got up to leave.
“Where are you going?” Mr. Pendleton asked.
“The restroom.”
“Without permission? Joanna just left.”
Cassie ignored him, walking out the door and down the hall. As she washed her hands, she realized she had done this before. It wasn’t the fact that she had gone to the school restroom before, because it would have been absurd if she hadn’t, she had literally had this conversation word for word. When she returned to the class, Mr. Pendleton would ask her an incredibly difficult question and act a little miffed after she answered correctly. She sighed and walked back to the class.
The question was asked.
The question was answered.
Cassie fell asleep again.
She woke, blinking up at Thorn and Adonis dumbly. “What did I miss?”
“Goblins. Nasty buggers. Thorn took you on his back but I would have certainly helped carry you—“
“Shut up.” Thorn snapped, the words falling out more like a growl. “You were out for about a minute. Tell me how long has that been on your hand?”
Cassie pondered this for a moment. “It seemed like longer.” She looked at her hand, “Oh my God—what’s this?” The black spider like mark on her palm, spreading like a disease was a little worrying, even for her.
“It seems that touching the bright fly did have an effect after all. We should probably take you to a healer. You might be dying slowly after all.”
“It seemed hallucinogenic too.” Cassie giggled, “Never mind, I think I want to keep it—“
“This isn’t a game anymore.” Thorn took her hand in his and traced the long black spidery lines that went up her arm and followed her veins, “We need to find out what we are dealing with, quickly.”
“I concur.” Adonis decided to take that moment to speak.
Cassie giggled, “Concur—like conquer. Get it? Get it—it’s a pun—pun—punny—“
She briefly thought that Thorn would likely get a bruise from the number of times that he hit his face. It certainly wasn’t healthy.
ns 15.158.61.51da2
