Page 22 of Ruins of Magic
“Don’t!” a small voice yelled.
Arion stopped midway to his mouth.
“What?” he asked.
“Excuse me?” Valaria asked.
“We didn’t say anything,” Garron confirmed.
“You didn’t?” he asked, looking around the cave.
It didn’t take long to spot the zanzar hiding near the wall of the cave.
“Do not eat that, your highness, for it is poisonous,” the zanzar said.
Arion nodded to him. “Thanks,” he murmured. “Don’t eat these, they’re poisonous,” Arion told the others.
“How do you know that?” Garron asked.
Valaria was searching in the direction Arion had been looking. “Over there. I see him,” she said excitedly. “Was he talking to you?”
“Yeah,” he admitted.
“Who?” Garron asked squinting his eyes to see out into the dark beyond the light of the fire. “Oh wait. I see it! Is that a leprechaun?”
“A leprechaun? A leprechaun? Why I ought to shove my boot right up his rainbow for that,” the zanzar began to fuss.
Valaria went over and picked up the statue while the zanzar continued to complain and tell the differences between gnomes and leprechauns. She placed him close to the fire. His face morphed into a scowl.
“Is he frowning at me?” Garron asked.
“Um, yes. Please don’t call him a leprechaun again. He doesn’t like it.”
“It’s just a statue,” Garron argued.
“No it’s not. It’s a zanzar,” Valaria corrected and the seemingly hard statue’s face morphed into a smile.
“Her, I like,” the zanzar told Arion.
“Me too,” he confessed.
“You too what?” Valaria asked.
“Nothing.”
“Are you really talking to that thing?” Garron asked.
“Of course he is. And it’s not a thing, Garron. He’s a cave gnome, a type of earth genie. Humans only ever see them in their statue form, but our druid here is born of magic too and can actually communicate with him.”
“Okay, that’s pretty cool,” Garron admitted.
“According to this zanzar, that berry I almost ate, the blue one, it’s poisonous.”
“Thanks for keeping him safe,” Valaria whispered to the cave gnome seconds before she kissed the top of his head.
“I really like this one,” he said again and even in his statue form the zanzar’s cheeks turned a rosy red.
“My friends and I are still hungry. Can you tell us which ones of these are safe to eat?” Arion asked him.
