Chapter 89 - Duck Duck Goose

My mind began hurting.

It was a combination of the difficulty of the spell and my lack of sleep. Honestly, my body was currently begging me for some rest.

...It seemed like this was going nowhere.

I should've followed Ned's example and got a little more rest.

Well... nothing was stopping me from getting some rest here, right?

My hand pushed aside the spell parchment, giving my head room to lie down. After a few minutes, sleep came naturally.

...

There was a light poking sensation on my arm, waking me up. My eyes fluttered open, taking in the blurry vision in front of me.

My head turned to the side. My eyes could make out a vague outline of Erin, while my ears could make out some muffled sounds.

"..."

After a few moments, my vision and hearing cleared.

"Jay! Are you coming to cook with us?"

My eyes blinked a few times. My head turned around to survey the surroundings. Alyx and Ned were standing behind Erin.

Although Ned didn't look the best, he had more or less freshened up back to normal. The only thing that indicated that Ned had stayed up late was the faint dark circle under his eye.

My lungs forced in a deep breath.

"Ah, yeah. Let's get to cooking."

Ned chuckled.

"Seems like we both needed a bit of rest."

Alyx flashed a cheeky smile.

"I suppose you weren't lying when you said that you were going to laze around the whole time."

I could tell she was joking, so I flashed a smile back. My left hand raised, doing the ok gesture, connecting my thumb and forefinger to make a circle.

"I am a man of my word, after all."

Alyx rolled her eyes.

"Oh really?"

I made sure to use an overly pretentious voice.

"Oh yes, that is exactly what my statement intended to conclude."

Ned let out a laugh. He matched my overly pretentious tone.

"You two speak boldly when Erin and I are the ones doing the cooking."

Erin giggled.

"Everyone helps how they can!"

Ned smiled gently.

"Yes, yes, they do."

With that, the four of us went to go cook some food. Like always, my mind attempted to imprint these techniques into my mind.

Though my confidence in cooking was still weak, I was willing to try it after a few more demonstrations.

We brought the dishes to the dining area and began eating leisurely.

Alyx put a fork into some vegetables, then paused. There was a contemplative look on her face.

"Say, where are Ela and Mildred?"

Ned lifted his head up.

"Ah, true. Where could they have gone?"

Erin tilted her head to the side.

"I'm sure they will be back soon!"

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Hmm... makes this palace seem even bigger with them gone."

Ned nodded.

"More empty, too."

Then he shrugged his shoulders.

"But hey, it's not too bad with the four of us here."

I nodded without much thought.

"Yeah, that's for sure."

Erin smiled.

"Hehe, that's all we need!"

Alyx smirked.

"I suppose."

We finished up not too long later. With not much else to do, we went back to the table with all the spells.

Ela and Mildred were still nowhere to be seen.

Like last time, I took the seat next to the spell parchment that said, 'Controlled Vines'. Erin and Alyx took the same seats while Ned checked out the ice spell.

This time, my mind and body were refreshed. The nap and food helped a lot.

My mind slowly imprinted the strange diagram. Slowly but surely, it was being memorized.

Using the cores as reference was a good idea, especially since I nearly got lost attempting to remember the chaotic movement within.

It was kinda like being in a nearly boundless forest. Ideally, I would have to pick a direction and stick with it, allowing me to leave. However, everything within the forest was randomly placed, making it hard to keep reference points of where I used to be.

Then came in the cores. They acted as though they were the sun. The sun would always travel in the same arc, and by following that arc, I would eventually make it out of the forest alive.

And make out of the forest, I did.

Finally, the strange diagram was just barely memorized. After my lungs forced in a deep breath, my mind hurriedly reviewed all of it to make sure I remembered it all.

The biggest thing that made this spell so difficult was that it didn't share the general structure that other spells had.

It was only after memorizing this spell did I realize this. For whatever reason, that general diagram was very familiar to me.

As for why I couldn't be sure.

My head lifted.

The room was much darker than I remembered. My eyes darted towards the palace entrance.

...It was night.

How long was I doing this for?

My eyes hurt. They were probably bloodshot. After rubbing my eyes, I used them to observe the rest of the room.

Ned, Alyx, and Erin were nowhere to be seen.

My nose sniffed lightly.

...There was the smell of food.

My head shifted towards my right. There was a fork along with a plate of noodles that had some vegetables and ham on top.

A bitter smile emerged on my face.

...They probably called out to me, didn't they?

After letting out a chuckle, my hand grasped the fork before shoving some noodles in my face.

I made sure to push away the parchment so that no stains got on it. If it covered the diagram, that would be unfortunate, to say the least.

The food was cold but still enjoyable.

My focus was more on eating faster rather than savoring it. Although the strange diagram was finished, that was only the beginning.

All of the convoluted ways the other spells were connected was another beast on its own.

Right when the last noodle was stuffed into my mouth, my hand pushed away the plate while my other hand pulled the spell parchment towards me.

While still chewing on the noodles, my eyes scanned over the diagram.

"Hey, Jay."

Right before my mind was absorbed by the spell diagram, my ears caught onto Ned's voice.

My head lifted.

"Ah, hi Ned."

Ned blinked a few times.

"Haha, you are still going at it, huh?"

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Time kinda just flew by, I guess."

Ned smirked.

"Do you enjoy doing that?"

My eyes glazed over.

Did I enjoy this?

My thumb and forefinger rubbed against my chin.

"...I think I enjoy it?"

Ned furrowed his brows with a smile on his face, making a rather strange expression.

"That's confusing. You can't even tell if you enjoy something?"

My shoulders shrugged.

"Guess I'm kinda crazy like that."

Ned chuckled.

"Anyways, we were planning on playing a bit in the courtyard. Why don't you join us?"

I nodded.

"Ah, that sounds fun. Why not?"

And so, I got up from the seat and walked to the courtyard with Ned.

As we went, Ned sighed.

"Ela and Mildred still haven't come back."

He tilted his head to the side.

"Well, at least not that we know of."

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Do you think there's something wrong?"

Ned laughed.

"Honestly, it's probably nothing. We are probably being paranoid for nothing."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess it's just the uncertainty of their disappearance that makes things weird."

I nodded.

"That makes sense."

We arrived in the courtyard.

The tree leaves along with the grass shone with a bright green, making the place feel a little lively. The flowers were a variety of colors, filling the place up with more variety.

...For some reason, this scene seemed strange to me. Though I couldn't put my finger on why.

Erin was holding onto Alyx's hand and talking excitedly.

"What about tag? It will be so much fun!"

Alyx smiled bitterly.

"Although this place is spacious, it isn't so spacious that we can tag. It will be rather inconvenient, to say the least."

Erin pouted.

"Mmm... then what is there?"

Alyx shrugged her shoulders.

"What if we play the one-word story game?"

Erin pouted.

"Mmm... I always mess that one up, you know that!"

Alyx chuckled.

"It was just a suggestion based on our environment."

Ned waved.

"Hey!"

He laughed.

"What about duck, duck, goose? That shouldn't be too hard for us to do."

Erin raised her hands in the air.

"Oh, yes!"

Alyx shrugged her shoulders.

"That sounds fine."

The corner of my lip twitched.

"Uh... what is that?"

Ned turned to me with surprise.

"Eh? You've never played before?"

An awkward laugh escaped me.

"Uh, yeah."

Erin tilted her head to the side.

"No way!"

Alyx sighed.

"Basically, one person is the 'goose' while the others are 'ducks'. The 'ducks' sit in a circle while the 'goose' picks someone to compete in a race. The winner becomes a 'duck' while the loser becomes the 'goose'."

....For some reason, my mind wandered when Alyx mentioned we would have to 'pick' someone.