Zoe Reed - Breaking Legacies

“Are you the Will-o’-the-wisp?” I whispered, poking it with my finger. It was warm, and more solid than I thought it would be. The energy floated into the air a couple inches, and then shook up and down in confirmation. “Do you belong to the witch in that cabin up the hill?” This time side to side in a no. “Are you hiding from those men?” Again up and down. I put my hand out hoping to hold it, but when I did, it retreated. “It’s alright,” I assured it. “I don’t want to capture you. I’m not interested in treasure.”

This time I set my open hand on the ground, and waited until the blue wisp decided to put itself in my palm. Eventually, it did. It was vibrating rapidly, something I assumed at first was on account of its being a ball of energy. But it was inconsistent. Vibrate, stop, vibrate worse, stop. Like it was shivering. It was just a little blue glow, but in an impossible way it was kind of cute.

“Are you cold, tiny ghost?” Again the orb completed that up and down nod. “Albus could keep you warm until those men are gone,” I told it, and then added with a chuckle, “he drools some.” That adorable bell chime of laughter, and I couldn’t help but poke it again in an attempt to tickle it. “You’re a happy thing, aren’t you, Little Will-o’?”

More delicate chiming, and to escape my wiggling finger, it floated again into the air. Chuckling to myself, I once more rested my head against my folded up arms, and scooted closer to Albus for warmth of my own. I couldn’t continue my search for the princess tonight. I was too tired, and with those men out there it was too risky to leave the glacial caverns until morning.

I’d been lying there for a minute before the Will-o’-the-wisp decided to wedge itself between the crook of my arm and my neck. What with the ice on every side of me except for where Albus was, I couldn’t complain about the additional warmth of the affectionate blue orb. So I made sure to pull my hood over to the side to cover up its glow, just in case the men went by again, and then I fell asleep.

I woke the next morning to a cold wetness on my face. It wasn’t the first time Albus had licked me awake. “Stop it,” I mumbled with my eyes closed, raising a hand to push him away, but his head wasn’t there. I started to roll over to investigate, but I rolled onto something warm, and that let out a pained squeak. Then I tried to push myself up off the warm squeaky thing, and ended up bumping my head on the icy ceiling above me. “By the gods,” I groaned, wiggling myself out of the crevice.

Albus scooted out after me, and right after him, that little blue glow. That’s what had made that sound, and after I rubbed out the spot on my head, I bent over to pick up the energy. “I’m sorry, Little Will-o’. Did I hurt you?”

It lifted itself into the air, moving side to side. “Good.” I smiled, dropping my arm to let it hover before me. “Thanks for keeping me warm. You should be safe now, I think the men are gone.”

Pulling my hood back over my head, I started for the entrance of the cavern with Albus at my heels. It wasn’t until I could see daylight clearly that I realized our new friend was following too. “Don’t you have a home to go to?” I asked the blue glow. “Or a treasure to guard?” It answered in the negative. “Well,” I mused, “I’m looking for someone, if you’d like to help.”

When the wisp gave me that up and down nod, I started up the hill. At the top of it, I put my thumb and index finger into my mouth and let out a loud, shrill whistle. I did it again after a few seconds, and I could hear the faint thud of Brande’s hooves in the snow. One more hoot was all it took for the horse to find me.

“Hey, old boy.” I greeted him with a pat on the neck, and checked him over to make sure he’d survived the night just fine. While I did, I heard a happy hum, and when I looked up, my new friend was nuzzled into a perplexed falcon’s breast feathers. “You like birds, Little Will-o’?” I laughed. The wisp must have been embarrassed, because it retreated immediately. “That there’s Maddox,” I told it, so it wouldn’t think I was upset about it disturbing the bird. “She belongs to the princess. That’s who I’m looking for.” Will-o’ made a noise that sounded like shocked curiosity. “Last night Albus and I tracked her to a witch’s cabin. We lost her, but I have it on good authority that she’s heading south.”

The blue glow fell to the snow. It worried me for a moment before it started rolling around, and I realized it was drawing letters. I was impressed that it could write, but disappointed that it wasn’t helpful. “I’m sorry, tiny friend.” I strode over and scooped it off the ground while my cheeks tinted. I don’t know why I was embarrassed to admit this to a ghost. “I can’t read.” Then, thinking it was trying to tell me something informative, I asked, “Have you seen someone that looked like a princess?” Will-o’ shook side to side. “You sure? She’s very beautiful. With brown hair, and sparkly blue eyes.” And I pulled up a sleeve of my tunic and coat, “Darker than me, too.” Again, a negative shake. “That’s all right. We’ll find her.”

Before continuing our search for the princess, it was important we had a proper breakfast. I didn’t have time to set traps, hunting could take hours, and I wanted to save the dried food I’d brought for an emergency. While I considered my options, my eyes wandered to Maddox, and I grinned.

“What would the princess say,” I began to ask the bird while I unwrapped its leash from the saddle horn, “to get you to bring her a rabbit?” At the word ‘rabbit,’ the bird’s head twitched, as though it recognized the sound. “Is that it?” I asked with a chuckle. With the bird in my hand, I threw it into the air, shouting as it took off in flight, “Rabbit!”

I watched Maddox soar beyond the tops of the trees. In the clear blue sky, she circled, round and round for minutes. Soon enough, she tucked her wings into her sides, and with her beak pointed toward the ground, she dove. I watched the sky for a couple minutes more, but the bird didn’t appear.

“You think she’d keep it for herself?” I asked Albus, and began a search for any dry wood.

It took a while before I’d gathered enough and put it in a pile, and then I pulled out my flint rock to start a fire. I had it blazing by the time I looked up again, and Maddox was in the sky, once more soaring in circles. I huddled near the flame, Albus and the wisp at my side. We sat like that for a little while longer before something hit Brande’s saddle, and there was Maddox, a brilliantly fat rabbit clutched in her talons.

“You queen of a bird!” I praised, standing to retrieve the hare. “You see that, Albus?” I asked the dog, and mumbled ‘thank you for your sacrifice, may your spirit rest within me’ before I began to skin my meal. “If you could do that with deer, then we’d be dining fat every night.” I made sure to reward Maddox with some of the meat before I cooked it. “And half for you, you spoiled hound,” I said, tossing half of the rest to Albus. “I imagine you’ve been grazing on plants all night,” I said to Brande while I stuck my portion of meat on a stick to roast in the fire. “With that gut, I reckon you never have problems finding food.”

At my last comment, the blue glow made that chiming laughter sound, and I couldn’t help but giggle at myself. “Do I talk too much, Little Will-o’?” The wisp had been hovering near the flames, and, worried it might be freezing, I motioned it over and then set it in my lap, where it would keep us both warm. “It gets lonely while I’m always out hunting,” I admitted. “Albus and Brande make decent company. They don’t argue with me.” When I said that, Brande huffed, causing me to chuckle. “Well, Brande’s got a bit of an attitude, but between you and me,” and I leaned closer to my new friend like I was relaying a secret, “he’s not the favorite anyway.”