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[hearthwarming]

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📖 somnus

[hearthwarming]

( from here! )

I, um... I mean... I'm a witch-in-training, right?

[ Perhaps it's a bit of Oriphi's own insecurities coming into play, here, but she can't help but feel that modifier of "in-training" must be there for a reason... narratively speaking. ]

I don't know if my... mentor, if they've taught me the kind of magic that lets me lift bovine curses...'

[ There's a beat before she pipes back up, as though she's just had some kind of revelation. She's really not doing the "taciturn" aspect of this role any good. ]

Unless... This must be some kind of test that they're giving me!

[luciing]

[ He appears to notice her prompt, and he works with it. ]

A test indeed, and one you must not fail for all of those within this demesne. [ If he is aware that he is putting more pressure on her, it doesn't show.

They pass into the outskirts of the village as he speaks, where pastures and fields of flowers line the dirt road. There are sheep, goats, and horses in various paddocks, but no cows yet. ]

You are blessed with magic. Others are without.

[hearthwarming]

Oh... Of course.

[ So much responsibility and pressure... Although she doesn't really give off the demeanor of someone who performs well under stress, the fact is that Oriphi actually thrives under such conditions. Her life has been one very long period of extreme pressure in the months leading up to waking up in this dream realm, after all, and it's in that time period that she has begun to truly come into her own, realizing the extent and capabilities of her magic.

Perhaps she can draw on some of that experience, in this story. She pauses in their tracks for a moment and closes her eyes, taking in the sounds and the smells of the countryside and pastures and flowers around them, and drawing in a deep, steeling breath. ]

Okay... I can do this. We just have to find the cows! It's too bad that you're not as tall as you usually are, huh... Otherwise I could have stood on your shoulders to look out, or something...

[luciing]

[ If Somnus has anything to say on the topic of his height (or lack thereof) as a not giant suit of armor... he doesn't show it.

Fortunately for them, and as if on cue, they find the cows. Most are thin, wasting away in their pasture despite ample amounts of green around them. Perhaps the curse has made their appetite vanish, ensuring a miserable existence. They are not here to determine the origins of the curse, but merely to undo it.

Somnus steps towards the corral to inspect the animals. ] Should this curse extend to the other livestock, or to fields themselves... Very few will survive this winter.

[ He turns to face her. ]

It is your time, fledgling witch.