Wizard's House

[wizardseason]

"Hey"

The Wizard greets the evil-allured knights the same way every night, with the same word, while casually sitting on the steps of the porch outside of her little home. The building looks handmade, like it was built by people who cared about the place they were going to live. Surrounding it on all sides are fields as far as the eye can see. Vegetables of all kinds, with fruit trees and bushes placed throughout the landscape. Closer to the home are bigger trees, willows and others, providing shade from the strange three suns above. Wherever this is, it isn't the world that the knights know.

Plunged into the ground a mere few feet away from the steps leading up to the home is a handwritten sign that states the following:

Knight Rules:
- Tell others if you want
- You can't reveal others
- The world ends this year

Comments

[wizardseason]

"Year forty-one, twelve new knights, one new princess."

As she says it, she shuffles off of the path and into the fields, starting to roam through and look through the various vegetables. She turns an eye to look up towards Haizea, seeing how she took the news.

"Just like last year."

[tropicalstorm]

She keeps her cool, but she feels triumphant. She doesn't care if the world was meant to end or anything like that, from the start her goal was always to get through this alive and get back to her kids and her gang; her family. Things live, things die, this is the nature of the world. But she won't let anyone who she's vowed to protect die by her own hand.

But again, she better make sure.

"Then what's the deal with the sign saying the world ends this year if it doesn't have to? Or do you just put that sign up every year and hope it'll be true this time?"

[wizardseason]

Perhaps soon the Wizard would share the things that could put Haizea's life at risk. But she seemed so determined to be good that maybe it wouldn't be an issue.

"I haven't changed it in forty years." She answers simply, turning back to the vegetables and plucking one that has some golden marks along the sides of its yellow surface.

[tropicalstorm]

She's satisfied with all the information she's managed to get so far, she feels like her path is pretty clear. Who cares if she got picked as an evil knight? Her goals are unchanged, she still plans to fight the monsters, kill them all, keep everyone else alive and get home. Then things can go back to normal and she can ignore all this shit all over again.

"Well, I guess there's something to be said for persistence. Maybe one of these years it'll happen," she says lightly.

[wizardseason]

The Wizard slowly moves back over to Haizea, offering the yellow vegetable out. Its gold sides glint appealingly in the sun.

"Maybe." She echoes the word, but her voice sounds hollow. Like she's exhausted.

"Forty years is so many. Too many."

[tropicalstorm]

To her utter frustration, she feels a pang of sympathy. She's heard that tone of voice before and it makes her want to get the Wizard somewhere safe and make her rest.

"It is," she says softly as she takes the vegetable. She turns it over in her hand once or twice. "What is this?" Honestly, Haizea doesn't know a whole lot about plants, but she's never seen anything like this at the little corner store market she frequents.

[wizardseason]

Rest would be nice, but it wasn't possible. It hadn't been possible thirty nine years ago, and it wasn't possible now.

"A grindyen." She answers, slowly moving past Haizea now that she's taken it. "Take a bite."

If Haizea dares to take a bite, she'll find that the texture inside is like that of a nectarine/plum. Incredibly juicy just below the skin of it, but the flavor is somewhere between a carrot and a sweet potato. Strangely sweet but savory, but very, very soft. Honestly it was probably a fruit, but there's no seed in the middle.

[tropicalstorm]

It's maybe her sudden unwelcome sympathy for the Wizard that gets her to first sniff it, and then gingerly take a small bite. Fuck, it was good.

"Mmm," Haizea says as she chews, then swallows. "It's good. I don't think I've ever tasted anything quite like it."

[wizardseason]

"They're a favorite of mine. They never spoil, either." As she says it, she's stepping back up on the path and looking around.

"What do you want in all this, dragon knight?" She turns the tables, turning to look into Haizea's eyes again.

"Only survival?"

[tropicalstorm]

She continues to eat the grindyen, only stopping to lick the juice off her hands. When the Wizard asks her question, she pauses, one finger still in her mouth as she thinks.

"What else could I want?" she finally replies.

[wizardseason]

Benefits of a seedless treat: No part of the grindyen was inedible, so there'll be nothing left when Haizea's done with it. For now, the Wizard shakes her head in response.

"Knights have wanted for many things." She glances up towards the sky, remembering the ones she'd heard.

"Some possible. Some impossible."

[tropicalstorm]

She finishes off the grindyen and looks at her hands, almost a little surprised that there’s no stem, core or pit to dispose of. What a good plant!

Before she replies to the Wizard, she sighs and puts a hand on her hip. “If I’d been picked as a Knight 25 years ago, I’d probably have something I wanted. But at this point, I’m happy. I have people who I care for that care about me, and I have the means to look out for them. I just want to survive and I want to make it home,” she says and pauses before continuing.

“I guess the only impossible thing I want is for all of us to make it home safely, all the Knights and the Princess. It’s never happened before so people say it’s impossible, but, well, I’ve done a lot of things that people said were impossible. Why stop now?”

[wizardseason]

It's the best plant. If the Wizard had her way, it'd be grown everywhere for everyone. It was also great sauteed and put on top of just about anything.

"It's not impossible." She gives a reassurance because it's true. Technically, the knights never had to die. It just happened, or someone made it happen.

"I hope you get what you want." She offers with a slight smirk again, bringing a hand up to stifle a yawn.

[tropicalstorm]

“Good to know,” she murmurs. She’s a little surprised at the Wizard’s reassurance? But she’s starting to think that a lot of things she once thought about the Wizard might not be quite right.

“There’s another thing I’d like,” she says, impulsively. “I’d like you to get some rest.”

[wizardseason]

"I can't." Her answer comes without hesitation, but not emotional as she says it. Just like someone correcting a fact, something that should be known.

"Unless he's dead." She clarifies.

[tropicalstorm]

"And if he's dead, then the world ends," Haizea says, a slight question at the end of that statement. She's pretty sure, but who fuckin' knows.

She seems uncomfortable. The Wizard isn't anything like she had thought before all this, and she's angry at herself for feeling literally any sympathy towards her.

"Maybe we can figure out a way for us to both get what we want," she mumbles, not really thinking this is possible.

[wizardseason]

"Exactly." She answers. If he's dead, the world ends, and then she can rest. It's that simple.

"I hope you find a way." She offers, emotionless. If Haizea and the other knights could find a solution that'd be particularly incredible, honestly. It'd been too long and she'd tried so many things.

Maybe this year would be different.