We had been traveling for a few days now. Lucille explained to us that, while our little skirmish with the king was fun, there was a higher chance of finding a magical being somewhere else. It had taken us off track. We had almost reached another town, a curious waterfront by the a lake. It was named Doughla, hard to pronounce I know, and they were famous for their waffles, according to Lucille.

"So we go in, restock, maybe get a waffle, or two, then head out. No lolly gagging, no funny business, no getting arrested for treasonous crimes we didn't commit." Ren commented, mostly talking to himself.

"Correct." I agreed.

"Don't get involved with any witches." Lucille suggested. "Nasty business those witches."

We were following a dirt path through a lightly treed forest, with a small creek inning to our left. It was a merry path. Not at all like the place we spent the night yesterday. That was a nightmare.

    We had also discovered that Ren's curse appeared to be going in and out of existence, annoyingly. Sometimes everyone could see him, like on our little journey to the king's palace, other times even I was having trouble hearing what he said. I was just about ready to scream at the universe to decided wether or not they wanted him to stay or not, indecisive people were very annoying.

    "I could personally do with a waffle right about now." Ren sighed, rummaging through our nearly empty food bag.

    "Well you're in luck." I replied as we breached a hill and looked down upon the city.

    Half of it looked like it was float out over a huge lake, the other half nestled safely on land. We continued walking until we came to the gates. We walked through them, I noticed Lucille looked a little more translucent than usual. She could become invisible to whoever she wanted, I learned, when we had passed someone of the road once. Another thing about Lucille, when she introduced herself as a spirit, she meant it, she didn't have a normal, deer shaped shadow, her shadow was the shadow of a human. Specifically, woman who had died, she never told us anything about her previous life.

    "Oh, look, Waffle Cones, Waffles Bagels, Waffle de Extravagance. Come on Galia we have to try one of these shops!" Ren begged, falling on his knees in from of me and flopping around like an undead salmon.

    "Okay okay, you have five minutes, don't use all our money. I'm going to find somewhere where someone can tell us about a powerful being to break our curses." I offered, gasping as he hugged me and ran off, shrieking.

    I shook my head at him, then bundled up all of my hair and forced it under my cool three cornered hat. I spotted a tavern across the boardwalk and heard my sandals clunk against the wood as I began to walk out onto the water half of the town.

    It was a normal looking place called L' Oiseau de Feu and I walked right in, perfectly aware I was to young to drink. There was a bar, with drunk men and skinny baristas, people challenging each other to duels, throwing darts, picking their teeth with knives. It was pretty full. I glanced around the selection of humans until I spotted something very peculiar. There was an old woman with knarled hand and a wrinkled face, she looked almost exactly like the witch she had met. I frowned and walked towards her.

    She turned around before I even introduced myself and I caught sight of her hideous pale blue eyes, milky white, and sightless.

    "You gaze upon my face in horror young one?" She asked, patting the empty seat on the bench next to her.

    "I'm sorry Madame." I didn't know why, but I liked this woman better than the first witch I had met.

    "It's all right I get it all the time. There's a question upon your lips, free it." She commanded.

    "I have a curse that needs removing, do you know anyone or anything that can help me?" I asked, not surprised in the slightest she knew why we were here, but this was not a woman I had met before, she was a different witch.

    She cackled and grinned. "Give me your hand."

    I held out my right hand palm upwards and she clasped it in her cold dry hands. She held it for a few minutes before letting out a huge guffaw, laughing and laughing like whatever I had just done was hilarious.

    "Oh my, oh my, oh my. Celeste has really put some work into this plot! Ha!" She snorted.

    "What did you say?" I ordered, my heart freezing up again at the mention of her name.

    "Unicorns my dear. There is only one creature strong enough to break this curse, and that's a unicorn. You must continue on this path, go to Feudra Valley, that is where the unicorns live. But I dare say you won't want their help!"

    She sorted again, I blinked in confusion, suddenly feeling light headed.

    Then she was gone, just like that. It was as if she was never there.

    "A unicorn." I mumbled. "Shouldn't be that hard." Then I left L' Oiseau de Feu.

    Ren was waiting for me where I left him, his arms full of several waffle delicacies, and his mouth covered in different syrups. he was smiling like a lunatic, and I dreaded the next few hours spending time with him on a sugar high.

    "Did you spend all of our money?" I accused, shaking my finger at him.

    "Nope, most of it was free, apparently if you're not a native, they will give you free samples. I had some crazy food in the last five minutes. What about you,, did you find out where we need to go next?"

    Lucille appeared to me suddenly, I jumped.

    "Yes actually, I talked to another witch-"

    "Galia!" Ren nearly dropped all of his stuff. "Did you listen to anything Lucille said, you can't just talking to random witches! Last time we got arrested."

"Okay, first of all, that was a coincidence. Second, I know exactly where we need to go, a place called Feudra Valley, to find a unicorn." I replied, crossing my arms.

Lucille shivered. "I know some unicorns who live there."

I gestured to the winged deer. "See, Lucille agrees with me."

Ren snorted.

"It's not a very safe place to be right now, but I suppose it's the only way. I can lead you there." Lucille offered, and started walking out towards the city gates.

"What does that mean?" Ren asked.

Lucille didn't answer him. He sighed, and we started walking with her. Lucille was a spirit, we couldn't force her to do anything.

"Do you want to hear about unicorns, children?" She asked us, changing the subject.

    "Yes." Both and Ren and I said at the same time. He looked at me and blushed, shrugging, I scowled at him.

    "They are very powerful creatures, they look like horses with horns on their foreheads, the horn is how they channel their magic. If anything were to happen to it, it would corrupt the magic of the unicorn. That is why they live alone from other creatures, and are very solitary. Usually they are very kind, and will heal people if asked. They can break any curse, with time, heal any wound, and purify any object. Sometimes they use special thing to strengthen the spells they cast, like enchanted rocks, flowers, or liquid. They will definitely be able to help you."

    Ren blinked. "And they'll just help anyone?"

    Lucille shook her head. "Only those pure of heart can find them, those with darkness inside them will stumble around the forest forever looking for the unicorns."

"And they live near Feudra Valley?" I asked.

Lucille nodded. Ren rubbed his forehead as if he was getting a headache.

"That sounds familiar for some reason, but it hurts my head to try and remember."

"Maybe you used to live near there." I shrugged.

"Don't stress yourself, we have a long walk ahead of us. We'll reach Dreyer's Country by evening." Lucille announced.

I nodded, Ren handed me a waffle, I munched on it apathetically thinking about how the witch had mentioned someone named Celeste, and how she had kept laughing at me. I hated when people knew things I didn't.

Ren had gotten quieter. the name Dreyer's Country kept echoing back and forth in his head. The migraine he was devolving got worse. Even stranger, his heart ached. There was something about the name Dreyer's Country that made his insides scream with longing.

He walked with growing dread as the sun climbed higher in the sky.