1. The Moving Restaurant

Dilova ran the most unpredictable restaurant in all of Somnia. You didn’t know when the food was ready, you didn’t know what it would cost, and you didn’t even know where to find it.

Still, she was overloaded with customers, especially since the Loveline blockade was lifted. Made a real show of it, the gods, they did. Few animals—this included Dilova, whom had always kept up her friendship with Cosmo—knew it had actually been a disaster out of their control. A disaster with a silver lining.

She grabbed a few more nuts and threw them straight into a temporary forest fire. In her mind, a countdown started. Humming to herself, she flew away, collected more nuts and leaves, served a slab of meat to a grumpy wolf, and came back in time to collect her nuts. The fire moved on shortly afterwards, as if satisfied with a roasting well done.

She was right on top of the old Loveline, near the new town they called Amor. At least, at this point in time. She always had to keep following the fire, wherever it went.

As one of the first birds, she didn’t mind. She could fly anywhere with ease. It was her sick father, lacking proper wings, his mind broken long ago, that made travel cumbersome.

Fortunately, her regular customers paid well for the food. Some with word of mouth, attracting new customers, half of whom would undoubtedly end up in the wrong place as her restaurant had already moved. Some paid with exotic food from the new continent called Garda. Dilova tried some herself, but usually gave her gifts a trial by fire. Over time, she’d grown a deep understanding of which foods liked being heated and which resisted by simply turning to ashes.

Money hadn’t been invented yet, dear reader, so everything was either a gift or a trade. And to Dilova, the greatest gift was a story that might spark something inside her father’s mind. Repair it, if such a thing was possible.

Now a group of deer warmed their antlers around a spontaneous fire. Black garments were thrown on their back, covering most of their body and face. Dilova could not tell if they were merely carrying a merchant’s supplies or they purposely tried to dress in the most suspicious way possible.

A large specimen covered in black stripes nodded to Dilova, then told a bone-shivering tale.

“Deer deer my tale. It was not far away from here. Two daughters were born to a firebird, twin sisters so beautiful and strong it wasn’t fair. All who passed by told them so, their beauty and health radiating clearly. But when you hear such godly words, for years since you were born, you grow an arrogance that might cost you dearly.”

“Deer deer,” said the others in unison.

The narrator sipped his tea, which hadn’t been intended as such, but, well, Dilova still couldn’t predict exactly where the fires went or how hot they ran. She did stop worrying, though, that they would spread and burn down the Forest of the Fallen. As quick as they came, every fire also vanished without a trace.

Dilova had seen some of those firebirds when flying amongst the highest clouds. The Chiefclouds with the biggest mouth, openly talking of kicking the gods out and ruling Somnia themselves. She could believe this tale about their arrogance easily.

“And so the twin firebirds grew older, and for a time all was well. Their wings were strong and carried them, on travels all around the world and back. But time, well, it comes for us all. At least, Ardex has made it so. And so their health started to fall, their beauty a memory of long ago.”

A new fire suddenly erupted behind the grumpy wolf. He yelped, rapidly gulped down his final piece of meat, and ran out of her restaurant. Dilova merely trotted over and used it to cook a slab of meat that someone had paid her this morning.

Yes, Ardex had changed the rules not long ago. The place was overcrowded. Living eternally, he realized, was not natural. Suddenly, you could die of old age, and to make matters worse, Ardex had decided on a different lifespan for different creatures. Firebirds don’t get old, by god’s feathers, they don’t.

“The sisters searched far and wide for a remedy, a cure. Until a sinister sorcerer slithered into their nest and proved too tempting a lure. They offered a magic, special magic, very rare. They only needed to say a word … and the sorcerer would fix their age forever, changing no more, right then and there.”

“Deer deer!” All customers in her moving restaurant were listening now and reacted in unison, basically saying “we want more”.

Dilova’s breath caught. Many of the tales told turned out to be true. Perhaps some facts were overblown, perhaps the narrator gave themselves a more heroic role, but the basis of the story was always the result of a real experience.

Fix your age? Keep something the same, forever?

She tried to keep listening, but her father stirred and groaned. He lay on a bed of feathers and leaves, on a scattering of ashes from yesterday’s spontaneous fire. Dilova had never seen a fire return twice in the same location, at least not in quick succession.

Today had been a good day. Father had seemed … almost back to normal. Even now, he stood up on his own, hugged Dilova with powerful arms, and listened to his reflexes jerking him away from hot flames. Those reflexes certainly hadn’t worked every day, and she still felt guilty about the many burns father had suffered.

“Aren’t you forgetting to take the meat out of the fi—” started father with a grin.

“Ssh. Ssh!”

Fortunately, the deer had burned his tongue on the accidental tea and took a while to continue.

“The sisters needed no debate, no time for doubt or delay. They cornered the sorcerer the very next day and demanded they’d forever keep the sisters as beautiful, young and strong as they were that very day. And so the sorcerer nodded and started his spell …”

“And then?” Dilova said loudly, barreling into their inner circle.

The narrator’s face became a blank, neither happy nor sad. “The sisters always thought they were identical twins, but that was merely the outside, not their inner soul. One sister waited patiently and got her wish, and you can still see her fly today, graceful and whole.”

“And the other?”

“Stop interrupting him!” said another customer.

“The other sister restlessly stepped as the sorcerer spoke, a thorn lodging into her feathers, breaking her ankle for good measure. By the time the spell was done, her fate was sealed. She’d forever suffer incredible pains that would thus never be healed.”

The restaurant fell silent. Nobody even reacted to one fire flaring as high as the tallest tree, turning the slab of meat inside it completely black and inedible.

With a softer voice, the man finished his story. “You can still see the second sister today, of course, but only if you look below. She cannot fly only crawl, she cannot think due to pain, and it will eternally be so.”

Dilova gulped. She looked back at father, who scratched his head, eyes glassy and unfocused. Improvement, that was. The first step to a functioning mind was listening. Keeping your eyes open and keen to understand.

Was this the best day her father was ever going to have? Wouldn’t he only get worse as he grew older?

“Who is this sorcerer? And where are they?” she asked in a commanding voice.

The deer grinned. All fires had gone out by now, moved on to another part of the Forest of the Fallen. The darkness made their grins extra menacing.

“Don’t even think about it, deer deer Dilova,” said the narrator.

“Deer deer!”

“Don’t want to lose you too,” he said as he tossed the rest of his steaming tea into the bushes. “In a few weeks, we’ll be traveling back through the Loveline again. And we’d like you and your restaurant to still be alive then.”

“It would … no, don’t assume … it is …” She looked back at father again, then whispered: “It wouldn’t be for me.”

With all the heat gone, the customers left. The restaurant had to move again.

“No,” said the deer at last. “Look at me. Look at the scars on my face, the blackened stripes on my back. Even I would not be able to live with myself if I gave you that cursed information.”

Cursed? Dilova saw the greatest gift she’d ever been given.

She would discover this sorcerer, wait until her father had a perfect day, the healthiest and most lucid of all, and keep it that way forever.