My wish to you
Author's Notes
1510 words
Chapter 1
Woomy and Blahaj were picking up supplies at the general store when something caught Woomy’s eye.
“Oh, what a cute candle!” They walked over to it, checking the price tag. “Rather cheap too. Only…two per purchase?”
“Those ain’t just any candles.” the shopkeep said, sounding rather bored of explaining such mundane things. “They’re offerings for the wishing pond. It’s bad luck to charge pilgrims too much, but I can’t just give em all out for free yanno? Supplies are limited, especially this time of year.”
“Time of year?” Blahaj asked as Woomy carried the two candles to the front.
“Well, obviously this place ain't packed full of pilgrims now is it?” The shopkeep counted out the change and slapped it on the table. “Thank you kindly for your patronage, you lovebirds get on now.”
“Wait, just where is this wishing pond located?” Woomy insisted.
The store owner shrugged as Blahaj gathered all their things to sweep into a travel bag. “Dunno, the pilgrims always seem to know where they’re headed. Now get going, I won’t ask you again.”
Woomy laughed awkwardly and let herself be pulled out of the store by her lover. A door chime overhead announced their departure, but the street traffic drowned that out in an instant. Woomy glanced down at the two delicate candles in her hands, wondering about the wishes.
“Oh, the wishing pond?” Four laughed. “Folks come through here for it all the time, even off-season. I’ll show you how to get there, you don’t need foraging experience for it or anything.”
Woomy sighed quietly, relieved. Foraging was a dangerous thing to do even with a map. Blahaj elbowed Woomy with a smile, showing his sharp teeth.
“Nervous?” He teased.
“Shush.” Woomy elbowed him back, then turned his attention back to the immortal aphex. “We’ll both be going, if you don’t mind?”
“Not at all! Ah, but keep in mind that our foraging party leaves first thing tomorrow, and I don’t hang back if anyone runs late, AND I won’t go back for you if you wander off the path. Bring your own supplies, your best judgement and your own self preservation instincts. Capisce?”
“Sir yes sir!” Blahaj exaggeratedly saluted, and managed to get a humored snort and eyeroll from the aphex.
“As you were.” Four walked off to talk to the next group of aspiring foragers.
“You awake?”
“Hmh...Trying to sleep.”
“Sorry.”
“...Tell me.”
“Hm?”
“I know you. Something’s on your mind. Tell me.”
“I just…what do you wanna wish for?”
“Ah.”
“We’re coming all this way to have our wishes granted, and…well, are we supposed to not tell anyone? Is that bad luck or something?”
“...I haven’t heard anything like that.”
“Me neither!”
“...”
“...Should I say mine first?”
“Go ahead.”
“Mm…promise not to laugh?”
“I promise.”
“I was gonna wish that we die at the same time, so we don’t have to live without each other. But I was thinking, if you get sick of me you might not like that I wished that, so I was trying to figure out how to make the wish have an exception for that…?”
“I won’t get sick of you.”
“You sure?”
“Dear…”
“Hmmh…?”
“Don’t sound so worried, okay? I promise, I’ll never be sick of you.”
“Okay…”
“...”
“So what’s your wish?”
“That we would always be happy together, in this life and the next.”
“Aww!”
“If your wish gets granted, then mine will me too. See? I don’t break promises.”
“Woomyyyy!”
“Ahaha, stop, dear, oh this isn’t the place to get all sappy, we have to get some rest!”
Knock knock. “AY! Keep it down up there! We’re trying to get some shuteye!”
“Ah, uh, sorry! Sorry…”
“...”
“...”
“Is she gone?”
“Yup. We gotta shh.”
“Hehe. Gotta shh.”
“Shh.”
“Shh, love you.”
“Shh, love you too.”
Woomy gently carried one candle, and Blahaj carried the other.
The break in the treeline was evident, where the ordinary trees fell away from the soil saturated with magic. They were pink, the trees born in magic and dependent on it made a closed circle around a pond of mirrorlike crystal clear water.
“Anyone who wants to stop here, you’ll be heading back on your own.” Four proclaimed. “The rest of us are going into the Harrow. Keep your gear and your wits about you, if you brought a pet it better be well-trained or I’m eating it.” Four licked his lips, which many of the aphex in the group found very disturbing, and a lot of eye rolls from the other travelers, like the two toto.
Four’s party didn’t get very close, he instead pointed the others off towards what seemed to be a small coven of shrine attendants. They looked up at the party, seeming to be very familiar with Four’s entourage. Woomy and Blahaj seemed to be the only ones stopping off here for the day, so they excused themselves and approached the most senior looking shrine maiden, who seemed to be about middle aged.
“A bit early in the year for you guys.” The aphex commented. The other attendants went back to their cleaning and pruning, as if they weren’t here. “I thought the wishes were supposed to be made in time with the harvest season, or something?”
“Well, we’re not farmers.” Woomy said, feeling rather awkward and unwanted. “We’re, uh, newlyweds.”
“Ah, right, may the stone maiden grant you long lives and many children.” She seemed in that moment to take on some of the grandeur that Woomy had been expecting in their approach.
“Totos don’t really breed…?” Blahaj said, not quite picking up on the mood.
“Adopt or something, I don’t know!” She threw her hands up, nearly tossing her nail file into another attendant who had come up behind her.
“Uh, miss?” He bowed his head in respect and apprehension. “The pond is ready for our visitors.”
The maiden huffed and pointed down a path that led to the lakeside. “Yeah yeah, once you two have bathed, follow him down the path to get to the pond. Even if you’re not getting in the water, we can’t have you tracking harrow mud all the way in there.”
The baths were supplied by a stream of water that poured out from the lake. The facilities built around it to strain water and hang curtains for pilgrims to wash themselves in relative privacy were obviously meant for a much larger capacity than just two totos. Although, it seemed the maidens kept it in good use just by themselves.
An attendant had stopped by at one point to hand them both a pair of shoes that they would use to walk from the bath to the beginning of the path. There were a lot of them, organized into neat wooden cubbies. The attendant had sighed that they always ran out every year and always had pilgrims who stole or accidentally took them home. Woomy and Blahaj promised the sad little man that they would remember to give them back, and proceeded towards the path.
“Alright, now one of you needs to wait out here.” The maiden didn’t even raise her eyes from her deep concentration on filing her nails. “You can only go in one at a time, this isn’t a date spot.”
“Of course.” Woomy said, smiling. “Dear, which one of us should go first?”
“This was all your idea, so I think it’s only fair if you’re first.” Blahaj nuzzled his lover and patted her forward. “Besides, I don’t want my wish to come true before you make yours.”
Woomy nuzzled Blahaj back and began the small, quiet trek down the path to the lakefront.
The candle lit on its own with a blue flame.
Woomy had been told it would happen, but it was another thing for it to happen while holding the candle in a way that wasn’t as conducive to keeping a flame as far from one’s fingers as possible. Woomy may have almost dropped it. It wasn’t anything anyone else saw, so it was fine.
They padded to the lakeside and held the candle up to their beak. They whispered their wish to the flame, and lowered it to the water’s surface. Careful not to touch the water with their hands, Woomy placed the candle onto the surface of the water as gently as they could.
It didn’t send a single ripple across the surface, and there was no hint of a current, but it drifted slowly to the stone maiden all the same. Woomy watched it, silently pleading for it to disappear under the surface and be accepted by the maiden.
Woomy watched, and watched, and watched, it felt like hours they were standing there, straining their eyes to see the candle as it got smaller and smaller…
Plip!
It disappeared! Woomy tried not to make too much of a noise, but the stifled squeal she made was simply too sincere to be controlled. With a final, stiff bow to the maiden, Woomy dashed back up the trail to tell her lover that their happiness was secure.