She greeted him with a bright smile and a surprising question.

  “Heya stranger, wanna explore the festival with me?”

  Rowan decided to ignore the question of the pretty girl he currently had mixed feelings on and asked one of his own instead.

  “Don’t you have a fight to get to?” Yes he had been brooding for a bit, but the final match shouldn’t have happened yet since the team bracket was the last one of the three to have their fights.

  Alexandra snorted indelicately. “Nah, I’ve decided to take a page from your book and forfeit. Since there’s no point in trying to fight who I’m up against.”

  The boy raised a brow, what kind of monster was she matched up with that elicited that response? “Who were you supposed to fight?”

  “My older brother.” She said with a shrug. “It’s his last tournament in our age bracket, so my father was quite insistent that he be the one to win. We were supposed to ‘show the strength of House Petros’, but if it’s not a real fight I don’t see the point. Also I notice I’ve answered two of your questions yet you haven’t answered the first one I asked you.”

  The boy was conflicted. On the one hand he was still upset and hurt from his loss, and he doubted the majority of House Petros would take kindly to a random farm boy hanging around their House’s princess. On the other hand, he was a teenager and there was only one correct response when a pretty girl asked you if you wanted to do something together with her.

  “Sure, I’d be happy to accompany you.”

  Her face lit up at the answer, and the two of them began navigating the early morning crowds together. From what Rowan could tell, there had been a bit of a dip in activity towards the end of the night as people got some amount of rest, but with the arrival of dawn everyone seemed to be coming out in full force to find out who won the tournament and celebrate.

  As they walked through the crush of people Alexandra seemed to remember something, her eyes brightening in curiosity. “Right! I meant to ask, why did you forfeit? You had such a fire in your eyes at the start of the fight, but then you just gave up after a little taunting.” The brightness in her eyes shifted to a pout as she finished her statement.

  He looked to the spirit beast he was currently using to help himself walk. “I didn’t want my friend to continue to be pointlessly hurt when I couldn’t see any way to win.” At her confused look he elaborated. “You shrugged off my best attack like it was nothing, and if I had tried to go for a ring out you’d have just flown back in.”

  She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and Rowan did his absolute best to maintain eye contact. “How’d you know I wasn’t bluffing? I could’ve secretly been super injured and played it off like I wasn’t hurt.”

  He quirked an eyebrow. “Were you bluffing?” It would do a lot to soothe his pride if that was actually the case.

  She smiled back mischievously. “Who can say? Guess you’ll have to challenge me to a rematch to find out.”

  He laughed a bit at her audacity. “Maybe I will, once I’m all healed up.” He looked up at the sky in thought. Actually, would he have time? If they were to stay on schedule he had to start heading home in a couple of days. Summer was always a busy time for his family and every day he and Bough were gone was one where they’d be sorely missed.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  Something must have shown in his expression as Alexandra bumped his shoulder with her own as they walked. “Thinking of backing out already?” She taunted him with a smile.

  He returned the bump. “Nah, just thinking up strategies on how to win.” He jibed back.

  She snorted, but didn’t comment further as the two of them continued to explore the various festival stalls. They stopped and looked at most of them, with Alexandra buying some sort of scroll from one, and the both of them grabbing some delicious snacks from another. Though as time continued to pass Rowan had a lingering question that he felt compelled to ask, despite its potential to ruin the nice atmosphere they had going on.

  He scratched the back of his head nervously. “So not that I’m complaining or anything, but why did you ask me to accompany you?”

  “You’ve got a rough looking charm to you, stranger, and our fight intrigued me. So I want to get to know you better if I can.” She said rather bluntly with an amused and expectant expression on her face.

  The boy had no idea how his reaction must’ve looked, but whatever it was had Alexandra laughing her melodious laugh. He tried to ignore the burning sensation in his ears, and cleared his throat while he thought up a response.

  Eventually one came, though he doubted its quality.

  “I’d like to get to know you better too if possible.”

  She gave him a lopsided smile. “Then maybe we should actually introduce ourselves.”

  Rowan blinked. “The announcer said our names already, quite loudly I might add.”

  “And that’s not the same as a proper introduction.” Alexandra said with a roll of her eyes. “I was trying to be subtle by calling you stranger a whole bunch, but you haven’t noticed so I’m spelling it out.”

  Rowan grumbled a bit as he didn’t see the point, but there wasn’t any harm to it.

  “My name’s Rowan and this is my spirit beast Bough.” He decided to ham it up a bit and gave her an exaggerated bow which elicited a light tinkle of laughter.

  “Nice to meet you both, I’m Alexandra Petros. I’d bring out Meteoros, but they’re currently a bit mad at me for denying them a fight.” She had a slight grimace at the mention of the fight she had forfeited, but as she looked over to one of the nearby stalls her expression lit up again and she rushed over.

  When the young man and his turtle spirit caught up they saw her staring at a beautifully crafted silver hand mirror.

  Acting on impulse, Rowan went up to the man running the stall. “I’d like to buy that silver mirror for my new friend over there.”

  He was probably scammed on the price, but her bright smile was worth it.

  ***

  An older Rowan stared at the first gift he got for his wife, melancholy etched into his features.

  He looked at the sleeping form of his daughter beside him. When she had nodded off he had no idea, but he would be happy to repeat the end of this first part of his tale to her when she awoke the next day. Better to linger on the happy memories for now, he felt.

  He got up and placed the hand mirror in its proper place, then moved to pick up Willow to put her to bed.

  As he was about to leave his room a flicker of light caught his eye and he tried to look at its source, but found nothing except the silver mirror sitting there.

  He shook his head and tried to pass it off as the mirror reflecting the moon for a brief moment. As he placed his youngest in her own bed he had even started to convince himself that this was the truth.

  But for a second he swore he had seen his dead wife’s smiling face in the mirror.