Dara took a flying leap over the snoozing dog as the monster tried to take her head off.

“Blast it, Kid!” Millie shouted.

“I can’t!” Dara said, rolling under a garden table as the white creature struck down. “It’d set the neighborhood on fire.”

Who has that much paper mache for a hobby? She wondered.

The app had flagged reports of a strange , white creature. It hadn’t flagged reports of someone building paper mache monsters in the park, or the fact that somehow the spirit or elemental had inhabited one.

Then the table went flying across the back hard, and Dara shrieked as the paper mache monster opened its mouth, balefire glowing within and roared.

And under the influence of the spirit, those paper teeth would be as strong as steel.

Dara snapped a word, and one of her foci flared as a roaring wind took the golem and hurled it across the yard into an ornamental planter. The discordant sound of chimes echoed through the air as it struggled out of the remains, and then…

Wait, Millie is spraying it with water?

But she was, the older woman wielding a hose as she played the spray over it. It turned to her and roared.

“Millie, what are you doing?”

“Wetting it down!” Millie shouted, keeping the hose fixed on to the creature. “Now blast it, blast it!” She squawked and dove to the side, barely avoiding a slash from a set of claws but…

The water is sinking into the paper. It might be hard, but it’s not waterproof. Dara nodded, and sent another blast of wind at the golem. It roared and charted her, water dripping off of its form.

“Kid, Kid!”

Dara ignored Millie and called another one of her foci, and moments later, a blazing ball of fire was growing in the palm of her hand.

“Dara!”

Dara didn’t do anything until the spirit was looming over her, then gestured, and sent the ball down its gullet. It did nothing for a moment, shrieked it’s body swelled, steam and flames escaping from the shredding paper, and then…

BANG!

Charred and steaming pieces of paper were floating in the air around the backyard. A dog started barking from several blocks away.

Dara fell on her ass in the wet grass and shook her head, as she saw a gleaming fragment laying in the midst of the ruined lawn.

“Right.” Dara said. “Here we go.” She pulled out a bottle from her pocket and breathed on it, sigils appearing on the glass. Reaching down, she picked up the gleaming shard and put it into the bottle, quickly capping it.

“No more spirit problems?”

“No.” Dara sighed. “Good thing it was paper. This would have been a lot more difficult if it’d been a more conventional heart.”

“Truckosaurus?”

“Don’t even joke,” Dara said. She looked around. “Right, we need to get back to the car and undo the working.

“Yeah. Now this place is where a sleep spell works… but ah, what would happen if the house had collapsed.” Millie asked.

Dara groaned. “Spells aren’t…” She paused. “Okay, not all spells are mechanical. They’re not like say, a chemical reaction. Nobody stays asleep if their life is in danger, and so the sleep working can’t force them to stay asleep.” She shrugged. “That’s why we had to wait for this one, it’s not like the spell I was thinking of earlier. This working only causes people to sleep if they were already thinking of it.”

“So everyone turned in early. Nice spell.”

“Yeah. But let’s go.”

“Yeah,” Millie said. “But keep your costume on. Don’t want anyone to get a view of us in their camera.”

Dara stared at Millie who was wearing a pink balaclava with cat ears on it. “Like you?”

“Hey, if you’re going to disguise your look… why be boring?”

“Right. Let’s go.”

----------------------------------------

Getting back to the car took a little while, heading down the bike path that ran through the green belt.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Fewer cameras here. Milly shook her head. She’d told Dara, but she didn’t think Dara quite understood, not really, just how many security cams there were lying around these days.

Someone saw us, bigger than hell. But there hadn’t been any other choice. The moment Dara had picked up the spirit, she’d also picked up that it was probably hostile, and they couldn’t risk some guy walking out to see why his dog was acting up.

“So, where did this piece come from?” Millie asked.

Dara frowned as she walked by Millie, the dim light casting her face into shadow under her hood. “I’m not certain. It might have been been lost in the dirt, and when I came through it was charged. We saw the other paper mache monsters… If kids had been doing this, telling stories, the gem shard might have been picking up on that, and then with the infusion of power…”

“Great.” Millie muttered. “So hopefully none of the pieces are under the house of a mass murderer.”

“That might not cause an issue—it’s both numbers and length of exposure, coupled with…” Dara paused, staring at Millie. “Right,” she continued, “Hopefully none of them are located under the house of a mass murderer.”

“Good.” Millie walked up the steps to the street, and looked both ways. Their car was there, and nobody seemed to have bothered it. “Do your magic.”

Dara walked to the front of the car and breathed on the hood. Moments later, a complete circle appeared, sigils glowing a soft blue under the moonlight. Dara put her hand out, closed her eyes and the circle blazed up and then faded.

“Right, everybody is sleeping normally, now,” she said.

“Good. Now let’s get out of here,” Millie said. Dara nodded and with a word her disguise vanished, her hair fading back to its normal blue color, while Millie pulled her balaclava off. “I’ll change when we get home. I chose these clothes to be boring.”

Dara just shook her head as she buckled in. “Can we drive a little slower than normal?”

“Until we get to the freeway? You bet. I don’t want to get pulled over just as someone calls in a prank involving a bunch of paper and a M80.”

“Good.” Dara said as she double-checked her seatbelt, twitching as Millie started the engine and pulled out into the deserted street. It didn’t take Millie long to get out of the neighborhood, pulling out onto Harbor Boulevard. At this time at night there were only a few cars on the road, including a police car. Millie tensed, but the cop didn’t glance at them as he passed them.

Granted, the sound of an M80 isn’t exactly rare in California…

“So, when we get home, I’ll put the gem in the repository,” Dara said. “After that, maybe I can try and see if it can power the compass, and finally get it working.” That last was a near snarl.

Ms. Top of her class doesn’t like failure. Who would have thought it?

“But there’s a problem with that,” Millie said. “It is… two-thirty, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you have class at ten in the morning. Think you’d better get some sleep?”

“Sleep, but I have another piece of the crystal!”

“Is it going to walk away tomorrow?”

“I… no.”

“Summon up the hosts of hell unless you work on it tonight?”

“No!”

“Then you shouldn’t miss your first day of school,” Millie said.

Dara evidently had nothing to say back to her, because she just leaned back in the seat and folded her arms.

“Don’t pout. Wizards don’t pout.”

“Why not?”

“Hell if I know. Let’s get some take out so you can eat and get you home.”

Dara didn’t say anything, but she didn’t look quite a mulish.

“Besides,” Millie said. “Maybe some time out will give you some insight on why your compass isn’t working.”

“Maybe,” Dara said, and then just stared out the window.

Must be really upset, she’s not even panicking at my—the car shooting by Millie was followed by an involuntary shriek from Dara—nope. There we go. She's panicking.

Millie just chuckled as they drove down the 22. Hopefully by the time they got home, Dara would be panicked out enough to get some sleep…

----------------------------------------

Later that night, the house was quiet. Dara lay in bed, staring out the window at one of the street lights. Unlike back home, it wasn’t enchanted fire, giving both light and heat when it was cold, and yet not hot enough to burn.

No, it was powered by electricity, and Dara was only now getting used to the way light just stayed… the same.

They don’t have anything like the Festival of Dancing Fire. Dara remembered the last time she’d attended it, the initiates and students showing off their spells, fire leaping and dancing, turning into strange colors and sending lovely smells into the audience, ranging from the scent of a homey fire, to exotic scents that made one think of far-off lands.

They didn’t have anything like this here, although Dara had never seen anything like the “fireworks” the local amusement park launched.

She’d never really cared about the festival, not since she’d started school, but now remembering it…

Dara bit her lip.

Will I ever see it again?

And tomorrow was college. School.

I don’t need to go to school. I already have a school and I need to get back! Dara pulled the covers up to her chin.

She knew what Millie would say. No, she knew what Millie would do.

Start making chicken noises. Dara hadn’t understood until Millie had explained it to her.

I am not a chicken! Or a coward! I’m just…

“Worried.” Dara muttered. It was one thing to take a tour of the school, another to go there when it was full of students. What if she gave something away?

What if…

Dara closed her eyes. It didn’t matter. She’d just have to…

Stick it out. Besides. There was new stuff to learn. And she didn’t have to get involved with anything else.

Right.

Dara rolled over on her side. That was what she’d do. She didn’t have to get involved…