Walking through the Wild Thicket with someone they barely knew is a bit awkward. Haze doesn’t appear to mind at all. She hums a happy tune, not apprehensive at all about Ward.

“So….what is your relation to each other?” Ward asks, expression uneasy. He looks expectedly at Nova.

“We’re sisters,” Nova answers sharply, not liking his behavior at all. “Oh that makes sense.”

“Excuse me?” His face pales a bit. “I just meant that to two seem so close. That’s all.”

Nova doesn’t believe that for a second. “You mean that the fact that we are sisters must be the reason Nova trusts me, a witch,” Haze states rather joyfully as if she is conversing with a friend.

Nova refrains her chuckle when his color worsens. He frantically waves his hands in front of him. “No! I didn’t mean it like that!”

“You can stop your worrying. Haze wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Nova explains to this obviously judgmental boy. Why can’t they just ditch him and go to the Princess? She’s seriously considering it.

As they silently stroll, she notices him linger just a step behind them. It makes keeping him in her sight a tedious task.

“Do you not know what way you’re going? How did you expect to get back to the Princess with a cure if you can’t, you know, get back?” Nova knows she’s being rude but she can’t help it. That’s a lie she can, but she won’t. Not when it comes to her sister.

“As I said before, I am desperate. The royal family has exhausted all other options.” So, using a witch is the last option. Typical.

She stops and faces Ward. Haze keeps skipping ahead. “If you can’t even trust Haze enough to walk side by side with her, how will you trust her to heal your princess?”

“What does my trust have to do with anything?” Ward asks, deviating away from her question. “It has everything to do with trust. Here’s a Witches 101 lesson. Witches need trust for their magic to work.”

“Trust? Why would a witch need trust?”

“It’s the basis of our abilities,” Haze answers. She opens her mouth to say more but then looks to Nova who shakes her head.

Nova doesn’t want to reveal all about witches to Ward. Who’s to say he doesn’t try to use that information against them?

Ward would lose his mind if he knew that a handful of witches don’t need trust if they have genuine self trust. Most don’t have that.

“It’s getting pretty dark,” Ward changes the subject, his head tilts up towards the evening sky.

“I’ll go get firewood!” Haze offers and goes about her normal routine like they aren’t traveling with a suspicious knight.

Once she is gone, Nova and Ward are left to just stare at each other. “So the princess is sick?” She asks, breaking the awkwardness.

He lets out a shaky breath, “Yes. She has some sort of persistent illness. It keeps her bedridden. She coughs up blood on particularly bad days.”

“Are you seriously just a knight to her?”

“She’s my best friend. My father was a high ranking royal official. When he died, the king and queen took me in. Made something of me.”

Nova feels herself soften slightly. “I’m sorry. It must feel like you are losing someone else.”

Eyes misty, he nods. “If she dies when there is someone that can heal her, I would never forgive myself. I don’t care who it is as long as Aziza lives.”

She can feel herself nod in agreement with Ward. Maybe he isn’t so bad.

Just as they begin to bond, a rustling from the bushes behind them. In a flash, Nova has a dagger out. Ward steps next to her, his sword ready.

Into the light came a tree. An enchanted tree with sharp sticks and moving roots as legs.

“Is that normal?” Ward whispers. “Yes and no. The Wild Thicket is unpredictable, but this is probably another witch’s work,” she says, keeping her dagger up, pointing it at the foliage.

“We might be close to another witch’s territory. The tree is mostly likely a protector.”

“So it’s dangerous?”

“It can be.”

Everyone stands still for the next few moments. Nova eyes the tree’s roots, thinking if it goes to move, it would have to move slower first.

That is a mistake. It lunges forward enough to catch Nova on the hand with its long limb. She yelps and almost drops her weapon. Ward pulls her back as they both retreat a couple of steps.

The tree advances towards them, its branches swinging. Ward uses the length of his blade and cuts off one of its limbs. A booming cry startles Nova. The tree feels pain.

With another heavy branch, it manages to knock him to the ground.

Preparing herself to fight, she aims her dagger, but she doesn’t have to.

A purple mist covers the tree, and it embeds itself back into the ground, becoming a completely normal plant.

“Haze?”

“I go away for five minutes and you get yourself into trouble,” Haze teases, swirling her fingers in the air, leftover mist falling to the ground like rain.

Ward recovers from the tree attack rather quickly. “That was amazing! What are witches not capable of?” He asks.

Even with their newfound, tentative understanding, Nova is still leery. “Haze, be careful.”

This doesn’t appear to offend him in the slightest. If anything, it does the opposite. “People are afraid of witches because witches have an antiquated stereotype. If they knew more about them, they would get to see you. It’s the unknown that scares people.”

He must have noticed their hesitation in answering.

“If you would let me learn more about witches, I will document it. Spread it around,” he promises, eyes wide and earnest.

Nova and Haze share a look, before she nods. “Ok. Where should I start?” Haze questions. Ward grins widely at them both.

“The beginning.”