Thea and Wilky returned to the camp soon after and along with Casey, prepared to move on in their journey. At first it seemed there was going to be a debate about what to do with Helewis, but it was soon agreed (this meaning that Casey declared it would be so) that Helewis would accompany them as their prisoner until they got to Lorea where they could turn him in. This would keep Helewis from reporting back to Draegon or following them, and it would protect Helewis from Draegon's wrath, for there would be sackan to pay if he found out Helewis had failed.

Wilky, however, knew none of this. In her mind, he was simply a neutralized threat of some sort, relating to Thea and her well guarded secrets. Helewis seemed nice when he wasn't dangerous, and it was kind of funny to see him bickering with Casey, a fairly common spectacle.

The group travelled for a full day, a day in which Wilky had the opportunity to admire the flat plains of Kown which she chose not to take, because she was too tired and miserable to admire anything. They were about halfway across Kown but already, Wilky was exhausted from walking so far along with practicing magic.

When they stopped for the night under the cover of a small forest, Wilky voiced her desire to buy horses to make the journey less tiring.

"It would also be much faster," she added.

"I know a place we can stop," Casey put in. "I think it's a good idea, though I'm not sure we'll be able to afford four horses- Helewis wouldn't even be able to ride by himself, since he's still a prisoner."

Helewis growled. "I've said it before Caster, let me go and I'll side with you three. Dra- ah, my previous employer was much too mixed up in dark magic for my taste anyway. Shrik tends gets weird around dark magic, y'know the deal. I only did it because I needed the money, and he was willing to pay a pretty price."

"Language, Bronsky boy." Casey said, mockingly stern.

"Stop calling me that!" Helewis growled.

"Would you prefer Louey?"

"So you're saying we could get two horses, then?" Thea cut in. Wilky, who had been looking forward to more bickering from the two guys, was disappointed by this but happy with the progression of the conversation.

"Exactly," said Casey, turning away from Helewis. "Two horses instead of four. You two can ride, right?"

"Yes, of course," Thea said quickly.

"Sorta?" Wilky questioned. "I mean, I've ridden a horse before, but I'm not super good at it. It's been a while. I'm sure I'll figure it out! Thea can show me!" She looked over at Thea, who shrugged. "Just like you promised to teach me to fight with a sword..." she added, grinning. "Could we do that now?"

"It's getting dark," Thea commented.

"So better do it soon! Please?"

"You're asking a lot here," Thea grunted. "I was being generous to let you come along."

"Pleeeeeease? What if something attacks us and I don't know how to fight it?"

"You don't even have a sword. You have a staff and you're training to be a witch."

"True," Wilky agreed. "But I still want to know how to fight with a sword. What if my staff breaks or gets lost or something? I lose things a lot."

"Come on, Thea, you did promise," Casey pointed out. "Just real quick. Show her the basics."

Thea frowned in his direction, then climbed to her feet, looking to Wilky's hopeful face. "Let's move away from the camp a bit so we don't kill someone."

"Okay! Can I use your sword?"

"I doubt you could lift my sword off the ground. You can use this stick." Thea leaned over and picked up a stick off the leaf covered forest floor, about the length of a sword. She handed the stick to Wilky and drew her own sword, arms quivering with the effort of lifting it. Why had she promised to do this? Wilky would know right away that she was faking it all, though the fact that Wilky hadn't noticed anything yet was quite strange to say the least.

"Ok so first, you have to get a good grip on- Wilky?"

Thea turned back to her student, only to find that WIlky had vanished.

"WILKY!" she yelled, beginning to get worried. "WILKY, WHERE ARE-"

"RAAHH!" Stick flailing, Wilky leapt out from behind a nearby tree.

Thea, startled, dropped her sword, (which thankfully didn't chop off her foot) and stumbled backwards a few feet.

"Don't do that!" she barked, picking up her sword again. "You wouldn't do that with a real sword, would you?"

"If you were an enemy, I would." Wilky pointed out.

"Pretend it's a real sword, and I'm not an enemy!" Thea exclaimed, her heart pounding. She had been genuinely scared.

"Oh. Ok. Sorry."

They began. It was awkward at first, as Thea tripped over her words and attempted to make it look and sound like she was an expert at this sort of thing. Miraculously enough, Wilky seemed to buy it all, and it seemed that she was even having fun.

"Thank you so much!" Wilky said once they'd finished. "I know you don't like me and you don't like that I'm asking for so much, but I really appreciate everything. I promise, I'll make it up to you!"

Thea watched her skip back towards the camp, stick discarded somewhere in the forest. She sheathed her sword and followed, her arms aching from the exertion, and feeling guilty in too many ways to count. There were so many lies... and on top of that, Wilky didn't seem to question her one bit. There was definitely something strange about her, Thea decided. Something kept her from questioning things. That, or she was just obnoxiously optimistic about everything. Still, Thea felt like she was taking advantage of a weakness, and after being victim of such actions in the past, wanted to change her ways. Maybe she'd talk to Casey about it, to see if he had noticed anything weird.

When she returned to the blazing campfire, Thea found Helewis curled up on the ground, asleep. Casey sat cross legged nearby, his spellbook open in front of him, and red sparks trailing from his wand as he waved it and muttered spells under his breath. Wilky crouched by him, enraptured by whatever he was doing.

The strange thing about this picture was that Helewis currently had green hair, and Thea was fairly certain that this was in some part related to Casey carelessly flailing his wand all over the place.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Casey's head snapped up, a startled look on his face. "Just practicing magic. Can't let myself get rusty."

"Why is his hair green?"

"Just practicing. Besides, I think it's a good look on him, don't you agree, Wilky?"

Wilky giggled, glancing over at Helewis. "I like it."

Thea rolled her eyes. "Change it back," she sighed.

"Awww, come on! He hasn't even seen it yet!"

"I said change it back!" Thea snapped, a bit too loud, for she woke Helewis. Casey and Wilky both watched him carefully as he shifted in place, then sat up, yawning. Both were dangerously close to bursting into uproarious laughter.

"Could you all be a little quieter," he groaned, before noticing the expressions on Casey and Wilky's faces. He frowned. "What?"

"Casey turned your hair green," Thea told him. "And I was telling him to turn it back!"

"Caster!" Helewis growled, though there was an underlying tone of amusement.

Like a breaking dam, Casey and Wilky burst out laughing. Helewis awkwardly tilted his head back, trying to catch a glimpse of his green hair.

"Caster, change it back!"

"Are you sure you don't like it?" Casey asked, stifling his laughter. "Are you sure you wouldn't want it pink? Or-"

"Normal hair color, if you please," Helewis said flatly. Casey sighed and waved his wand, speaking an incantation, and Helewis's hair faded back to corn colored blond.

"Now, we're all going to sleep." Thea stated firmly.

"Yes, mother," Casey said, a stupid grin still plastered on his face.

"You can be really strict sometimes," Wilky told Thea quietly, as they all settled down to sleep, and Casey carefully packed his book and wand away. "Helewis having green hair didn't hurt anything."

"You know I don't like magic," Thea replied, dousing the campfire and stamping out the remaining sparks. "It's not a game, people can get hurt!"

"Casey knows what he's doing though!" Wilky argued. "It was only a joke!"

"I don't care! I'm in charge here, and I don't like jokes and magic, I don't care how harmless they seem!"

"There's a lot you're not telling us," Wilky said, narrowing her eyes, and suddenly losing her friendly demeanor, becoming, for a brief second, almost intimidating.

"Y-yeah," Thea stuttered, startled. "Maybe another time, I'll tell you everything."

"Really? That would be great!" Wilky brightened very suddenly, like the sun emerging from behind gloomy storm clouds. She sure was a strange girl.

"I'm not promising anything."

Wilky smiled and nodded. "I know."

Thank you so much for reading, and as always please leave a vote or a comment if you enjoyed!  You guys are fantastic! <3