So Wholesome

"The day will be saved by it dying." - 13 hour clockwork soldier

"Alright," the stranger sighed, "what's with the orange peels?"

I was laying some fragments of orange peels out to dry for black gold and others near some potted carnivorous plants that needed to be fed.

"Black gold," I said as I pointed to the ones drying on the sunlit stone. "Plant food." I pointed to the other peels that were already attracting flies.

"I thought that those plants didn't like any nutrients in their soil," he remarked as he gracefully draped himself across a fallen log in the shadow of a large maple. "And I though that you hated potting plants."

"They don't. But they still need food, just not food like the others." I sat down not too far from him, in the shade too. "I don't like potting plants but a kid asked me for a plant that wasn't like any others."

"So, obviously, you chose..." he propped himself up, "what is that, anyway?"

"Dionaea. A fly trap." I cast my gaze back to the potted plant that just caught a decent size fly. "I had to do a lot of trading to get a hold of that plant."

"If it was such a hassle to get, why did you?"

"The kid was curious about the world outside our boarders." I looked him dead in the eyes and told him, "Tell me how I could have said 'no'." I settled in a position similar to his. "When I see the kid again, I plan on giving it to him as a gift."

After I said that, he settled back down on his log, lost in thought.

"Tobias," I sighed.

"Yes, my king?"

"How long do you think we can honestly hold out for him to come home?"

"We're beyond that point, my king. The plant and animal mages are doing what they can to help."

I nodded. I'm tired and I know I can't rule without my brother to help me.

The ocean hissed and fizzed as it was slowly approaching high tide. It was freezing out but I just needed time to think.

Out further by the ocean, I could see some aquatic fae sunbathing. Their clothes very closely resembled how the beach and ocean looked at all times. The girls were in dresses while the boys were in suits.

This is one of the times I wish that I could be as carefree as they seem.

I'm not shirking on my duties, I just get tired of what inevitably comes during the night.

Speaking of the night, it was approaching and I had to go leave.

The young mage whimpered in my arms when the first soldier passed by our hiding spot. It had been awhile and I'd have to be careful not to overdo it.

Taking a calming breath, I pulled her closer to me and pulled the light from the area, bathing our spot in shadow.

A few men stopped and started going over the area. The metal in their shoes and legs were deafeningly loud.

I tugged the mage closer to me still. I could feel her erratic heartbeat as we waited for our fate.

They had moved to another section of the surrounding wooded area before they were suddenly called back to where they came from.

When they were gone, I allowed the mage to go.

"What caused them to go back?" she asked me.

How could I answer? I had a feeling I knew but didn't want to scare the poor girl.

"They might be getting ready to rotate the guards," I offered, "and they might be the replacements."

She seemed satisfied with my answer.

"Come on, we're almost to the capital," I encouraged her, not so subtle about the change of subject.

My highwayman and I started picking out way through an abandoned fishing village. The snow piled up was ridiculous, so much that some buildings were almost completely buried.

The sound of noise of something walking on snow made him freeze.

A clockwork soldier meandered its way around a building a little further down the lane.

"Maybe we shoul-"

"Excuse me!" I called out to the bypassing clockwork soldier.

It stopped and clicked as it turned to face both of us.

"Which hour are you?"

It clunked and clicked over to us.

"I am hour eleven," it informed me.

"Do you have anything to report?" the highwayman questioned it, his hands clasped behind his back.

The clockwork soldier gave a long spiel and all the while, the highwayman was scribbling down something. He always kept up with hour eleven.

"Thank you for your report but I need you to stay for a moment," my highwayman replied as he glossed over his notes.

"That's a bad word," I meekly pointed out one that always meant bad things.

He sighed out an agreement as he made circular movements around some markings he made.

The clockwork soldier chirped when the highwayman addressed him.

"Hour eleven, do you have access to the king at any moment?"

"When I am not active mostly but, yes, when I am active."

"Alright, I have a response to the king's proclamation."

“I thought the goddess of love would look…different.” The wrinkled old woman waved a dismissive hand, leaned closer, and smiled. “You are thinking of my daughter, the goddess of passion and romance. Dearie, I am the goddess of LOVE.”

"How did you find me?" I slurred, the cold freezing me from the inside out.

"I followed the trail you left," he answered before he gestured somewhere behind him. "Come here," he groaned as he picked me up.

I clung to him like burs on bark animals and other people wear. He wasn't much warmer than the elements we were stranded in but he was an improvement.

"Did you know that you are bleeding?" my stranger asked me, taking me somewhere.

My mind was too fuzzy to completely understand what he was talking about.

"But you're not bleeding," I blended my words together, after I have him a quick once over as best as I could. Why would he ask if I knew he was bleeding?

"Well, hypothetically if I was a mage like you, I thought you would know how to slow the blood loss down?"

My upper canopy hurt. Why was he asking such difficult questions?

"You would need something to slow it down," I mumbled as I tried to clear my thoughts. "Before that, clean the wound."

He settled me down on a fallen log and then started rummaging through his bag. When he faced me again, he had some white strips and a dirt colored bottle.

"Try not to scream, okay?" He looked back up at me with his cyan colored eyes. His scar on the lower part of his face were sharply contrasting from the fire's light.

Wait. Why was there a fire? Where was the fire?

The sharp jolt that assaulted my left limb was enough to make me cry out in surprise. He didn't let up, if anything, he pressed harder. The cloth he was using was starting to turn green, the color of my sap, at the edges.

I stayed quiet like he asked but when he was done, he pulled a mat made out of pine branches, covered it with some furs, placed me on the mat, and then covered me with the remaining furs.

"Don't worry, I'll keep watch. You rest," he answered when he saw me looking at him.

The last thing I felt was my stranger running his branches through my hair before I fell asleep.

Author's Note- I have never experienced either but I am trying to write a character who is suffering from at least enough hypothermia for the mental fog but not bad enough for a doctor and blood loss. But then again it might be mild hypothermia and the added blood loss might create the mental fog.

"No! You let him go, Drosera!" I commanded the larger than usual plant. It was taller than the highwayman and rivaling some trees in height.

"Do you know just how long I've been starving?" The Drosera nymph demanded. "Then, along comes something that I can finally eat."

"You can't eat him! Let him go!" I repeated my demand. My throat hurt like it was roughly rubbed against an oak tree's bark.

"Am I supposed to feel tingley?" the highwayman asked as the Drosera's tentacle wrapped itself tighter around him.

"How much food do you have on you?" I asked my highwayman. How could I let him die when we've gone so far already? But I also didn't know how much food he had stored away. If it isn't a decent amount, then he might starve later.

"Enough to feed this thing," he replied in a vague way. There were seedlings of worry but other than that he was sure in his choice.

"But-"

"Dump the contents out of the side that is furthest from me," he instructed while he gestured to his bag.

As I did what he ordered, I wanted to believe that there was another way. But we hadn't seen any animals since we entered the bog.

"Let him go and I'll give you three pieces," I bartered, moving the three largest pieces forward.

The nymph hesitated. It burned energy it needed to catch him and now I was asking it to burn more.

"How much energy are those worth?" it asked in a cautious tone.

"At least half of what you'd get out of him."

"I'm starting to feel a serious tingle right now and I don't like it," he called.

With great effort, the Drosera let my highwayman go. As I had promised, I gave it the three pieces of meat.

"I still feel a tingle. Is that normal?"

"Go to the creek we saw a few miles back and at least rinse yourself off. The acid is still trying to eat you," I instructed him.

Without a word, he left me with the nymph.

The tall sprawling; towering bookcases of the library never made me feel confined, trapped like it did with others.

I selected some children's stories, some I'd promised to churches and orphanages while others were meant to be a surprise to the children.

After I got the books I needed and headed outside, I was blinded for a moment before my vision cleared. It was around midday and I knew that I was moving a bit more sluggish than I would've liked.

I shrugged those thoughts aside and made my way to keep the promises I made.