Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Six - Dawn of a New Day

“Wake up!”

I blinked as I sat up in a vaguely-familiar bed. “Huh?” I asked.

Amaryllis was above me, talons on hips and frame bent so that her face was close to mine. “I said wake up, we need to start getting ready.”

“Huh?” I glanced around. My inn room was still dark, the only light coming in from some lanterns in the main room. The world outside the window was that blue-black that the sky took on when the sun was considering coming up. “Wha’ time’s it?”

“It’s time for you to get up and get ready,” Amaryllis said. “The summit is today.”

“But it’s still dark out?” I asked. The confusion of sleep was wearing off, only to be replaced by other, new confusions.

She sniffed. “Obviously. Come on, we don’t have all day!” With that she stomped out of the room. A moment later I heard her telling Awen to wake up from the next room over.

Yawning so hard my jaw ached, I stretched my arms out over my head, then shifted so that I was sitting on the edge of my bed. I was very much not bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I was more... blurry-eyed, and my tail was sleep-squished.

I stood up, ran my hand through my hair--which was getting pretty long, I’d need to see about cutting it--then I stumbled out of the room and into the main lounge area. The desks covered in Amaryllis’ papers had moved; so had all of the papers stacked on them.

Amaryllis stepped out of Awen’s room looking like she was caught somewhere between smug and nervous. “Hey, Amaryllis,” I started. “When did you go to sleep?”

“Sleep?” she asked.

“Amaryllis, you did sleep, right?”

She huffed at me. “As if I had time for something like that. Do you have any idea how much work there is left to do still?”

“But you need sleep,” I said.

“I can sleep once the summit is over. And it will be over soon,” she said. “Why aren’t you dressed yet?”

I glanced out of the nearest window. “Because it’s still nighttime?”

“Hmm, yes, you might get your dress dirty. No, wait, you could just clean it off! That’s no excuse! Go get dressed Broccoli.” Amaryllis scurried off to her own room, the door clicking shut behind her.

I turned to find Awen leaning against the doorframe of her own room. “She’s lost her mind,” Awen said.

“Maybe the stress is getting to her,” I said. It wasn’t quite an agreement, but it wasn’t far from one. “I’ll ambush her with a hug once she’s out of her room.”

“I think she needs more than a hug,” Awen said. “More like a vacation, and maybe a few days of sleep.” She yawned, and I suspected that she wanted that for herself too. “This is way too early to be awake.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I think you can go back to bed for a few minutes. Get a few more winks in before we really do need to get ready. I’ll talk to Amaryllis.”

Awen hesitated. “I should probably be there too,” she finally said with a sigh. I could tell she’d really rather go back to bed too, but Awen was a good friend, and good friends could put sleep aside for each other sometimes.

I knocked on Amaryllis’ door twice. “Amy?” I asked.

“Are you dressed already?” Amaryllis asked. She opened the door, then stared at me and Awen. Both of us were in our usual sleeping clothes. “Did you forget where you put your outfits?” she asked.

I shook my head, then stepped into the room. “No, we’re, uh, staging an intervention.”

“Can you do that tomorrow?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. I walked up to Amaryllis and caught her a hug, one that Awen joined in on a moment later. It didn’t last all that long, Amaryllis was too nervous to appreciate a good hug. “Are you okay?”

“I'd be better if you were dressed and ready,” Amaryllis said with a huff.

“I know. I promise I’ll get dressed right after this. But, uh, we’re a bit worried.”

“Well, so am I,” Amaryllis said. “This is big. Really big, Broccoli.”

“And it’s a lot of pressure on your shoulders,” I said. “But, uh, I think you’re taking on a bit too much of that weight all on your own.”

She glowered. “Well, then take some of it for yourself. I wouldn’t be this stressed if you were up and ready already.”

“Uh,” I said. “Amaryllis, it’s very, very early still. Like super-very early. Even if we were all dressed and ready to go, we wouldn’t have anywhere to go to, not for a few hours. I think that maybe you’re trying to overprepare.”

Awen nodded. “My uncle used to tell me a lot of stories about his adventures. And sometimes he’d tell me stories of other adventurers and explorers. Some of them used to be super meticulous. They’d scout ahead a lot, bring lots of equipment, and tackle every challenge very carefully. Uncle said that they were some of the very best explorers out there. You remind me a bit of those.”

“Thank you, I suppose,” Amaryllis said.

“Uncle also said that they tend to get in over their heads as soon as things don’t go according to plan, and things never go according to plan. We both live with Broccoli, we both know that plans don’t work out the way they should.”

“Uh,” I said.

Amaryllis sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Maybe I’m slightly--very slightly--too nervous about today for my own good. You can give me another hug, if you want.”

I laughed as I gave her another, even better, hug. Amaryllis saying that meant that she really wanted the hug, I figured. “So, can we go back to sleep now?”

“Oh, it’s probably too late for that,” Awen said. “Besides, the sun is coming up.”

I glanced out of the nearest window, and saw that Awen was right, the darkness outside was lightening up. Not quickly, but it was undeniably getting brighter. In a few more minutes I bet the world would be all blue, and then the sun would be properly on the horizon and everything would come awake.

“When does the summit start?” I asked.

“Technically at noon,” Amaryllis said. “There’s the opening statements, then a luncheon before the main event begins. So we need to be there at least an hour before noon.”

“That’s plenty of time to get dressed. What else do you need to prepare?”

Amaryllis gestured vaguely in the direction of the living room. “I should practice my speech some more. Also, getting a refresher on all the things I need to know wouldn’t hurt.”

“Fine then,” I said. “Awen and I will get dressed, then we’ll go have breakfast together, then we’ll head over to the summit and you can practice your speech on the way over.”

Amaryllis nodded. “Fine, fine.” She took a deep breath and let it all out at once. I made sure to give her a last squeeze to help get the last of the stress out, like toothpaste at the end of a tube. I would make tea in a moment. Something to calm her down and keep her awake.

I let go, then rushed back to my room. We didn’t bring a lot of luggage with us from the Beaver Cleaver but I did have a few things. I really had to get around to buying more outfits, as it was I had exactly two things I could wear, my armour and the one nice outfit I’d gotten for that ball in Fort Sylphrot. A girl ought to have more than two things she could wear.

Cleaning magic was making it too easy not to bother having any changes of clothes.

My dress was less a dress and more of a suit, with flowy pants and a nice blouse and a well-tailored jacket. It made me look very adult and serious. It even had a hole over the bum for my tail!

A knock at my door had me bouncing over to open it. Awen was standing there, with a platter in one hand. “I’ve got some makeup stuff,” she said. “Did you want me to help you with yours?”

“Uh, sure,” I said.

I didn’t have anything like that. Then again, adventuring didn’t usually require much by way of makeup, and besides I was never great at using that kind of thing. At most I liked using lip balms because the flavoured ones were tasty and they were nice in the cold.

I sat down in front of a little vanity in the corner of the room, and Awen went to work attacking my face with powders and creams. She didn’t say anything, so I figured she knew what she was doing. The end result, some ten minutes later, was quite nice. “It looks like I’m blushing a little,” I said, peering into the mirror.

Awen nodded. “Putting makeup on you is just so easy. You have the Adorable skill, right?”

“N-yes?”

She shook her head. “And you don’t even want it. You know, you’re very silly, Broc.”

I pouted. No. I pouted prettily.

Awen rolled her eyes, then gestured out into the living room. “Amaryllis is probably ready by now, I still need to get into my own dress. Want to go distract her while I get ready?”

“Sure,” I said. It was better than talking about Adorable. I really had to get my hands on one of those chivalry skills so that I could transform it into something more useful.

I helped Amaryllis--who had changed into her own ball gown, which was quite pretty--pack up her notes in a satchel. Then I spent a couple of minutes convincing her that we didn’t need to bring every history book and all of the notes she made, especially since they’d fill up three or four luggage bags and be hard to carry with us.

“I’m ready,” Awen said as she stepped out of her room. She’d done something with her hair, sticking it up in a ring of braids around the crown of her head.

“Oh, you both look very pretty,” I said.

“Awa, don’t say that,” Awen said. “Do we know how we’re getting to the summit?”

“Of course we do,” Amaryllis said. “I had the innkeep reserve a carriage for us. We’re not going to walk across the city dressed like this.”

“It wouldn’t be too bad, I don’t think,” I said. “I could keep things clean.”

“Sure, but think of the message it sends. Besides, I’m stressed about this enough, I don’t need to be stressed and exhausted at the same time.”

I gave her another hug, because hugs were free to give, and then grabbed her by the talon. “Breakfast first.”

“I’m not hungry,” Amaryllis said.

“Then it’ll be a light breakfast for you. But you don’t want to be hungry on stage, and you don’t want your tummy rumbling during the summit. Oh, and you’ll want to use the bathroom before you start your speech.”

“I can take care of myself, Broccoli,” Amaryllis said.

“Sure,” I replied.

Awen and I still dragged her over to the inn’s dining room where we got a quick breakfast. Mostly it was fluffy pancakes and a bunch of fresh fruit with some sugary sauces to dip them in. Light but sweet stuff.

Once everything was eaten up (we made sure Amaryllis had a few bites) and I sprinkled some Cleaning magic around to keep hands and talons clean, we headed all the way downstairs where a member of the inn’s staff had us wait for the carriage to be prepared.

Amaryllis paced back and forth, of course. Eventually she started to mutter her way through her speech, with Awen and I listening and telling her that she’d do just fine.

Soon enough we were led up onto a neat carriage behind a pair of big horses, and we were off to the summit.

Everything was going to be just fine. At least, that’s what I kept telling my nervous bird friend.

***