I couldn’t see where it was that I stumbled, I could only feel the objects from one of the shelves falling on top of me as I stumbled backwards into the kitchen and fell flat on my back. Damn you, you stupid little light drone thing, get the Hell away from my face! Every time I swatted at it to get it away it just came back, and it was so bright that I could still see it through my eyelids. The best I could do was to roll over and keep my face pointed towards the floor until my eyes adjusted enough that I could make out the blurry shapes around me.

“Kayrux, what happen- Gah! What is this light?”

Raevu, I can’t see you, but I would really like it if you could do something to help me here. I managed to peek from under myself and see her by her yellow color against the red wall. I motioned towards the drone multiple times and made a grabbing gesture, and somehow she seemed to see it through the brightness above me. Hold on, why is she sprinting at me? No, don’t dive tackle it!

“Don’t worry Kayrux, I catch it!”

She caught it, but unfortunately there was somebody currently lying where she would be landing. Good job, but I really don’t think that using me as a crash pad was the best approach. She slowly crawled off of me and moved to the side, but the spots in my vision kept me from seeing her all too well as I rolled on my side. Even with my eyes closed I could still see a big spot there in my vision as if I’d stared directly into the sun. Shit, I hope that isn’t permanent.

“This thing very stubborn, won’t… stop wiggling! Agh, it really want to get to you! No! You! Will! Stay!”

There was a clink followed by a thump from where she was talking from, and when I peeked my eyes open I saw her sitting there with a light shining out from under her. She’s using her body weight to keep it from reaching me, and even that is not working too well as evident by how she’s slowly sliding closer. I’ve got to do something about this evil silver device before she gets flung off and I get hit in the face by it. Even through the blurry splotch in my view I pinpointed the entrance to the hobby room, and in a mad dash managed to cross the room before a sudden yelp of surprise from behind me rang out.

I’d just ducked around the corner of the room when something hit the wall behind me with a loud crash. I dared to open my eyes again, but it seemed the persistent glowing disc had missed the doorway and was somewhere on the other side of the wall. I let out a sigh of relief and dropped to the floor, which caused a horrible scraping sound from the other room. No doubt about it, that was the disc scraping along the wall to track me. This thing was persistent!

Raevu came into the room with her hand shielding her eyes, and upon seeing me rushed over and knelt beside me.

“Kayrux, are you okay? What is that bright thing?”

My hand fumbled blindly on the table beside me until I found the slate, and through the spokotch in my vision I managed to convey an explanation.

“Eyes hurt, am okay. Glow device. Made too strong. Don't know how to stop it.”

Raevu read these words and began to anxiously nibble at her claws, then her eyes lit up as she had some kind of epiphany.

“We put it in bucket! Cover light until it run out of magic!”

That might work, but if it's really pulled towards me strong enough to make all that racket against a rock wall then it's undoubtedly going to be impossible to pry by hand. The only way for us to cover it would be for me to step out there with her and let it orbit me again. Ugh, if only it would stop following me, that'd make this so much easier. I looked to Raevu and nodded in agreement, then she helped me to my feet so we could approach the door.

I could still see from the intense shadows being cast that the disc was right around the corner, which meant that as soon as I entered the room it would come flying at my head. Hopefully if I duck it will clear my head without giving me a concussion, or worse kill me, then Raevu can toss the bucket over it. I braced myself for the worst, then with a silent wave for her to move ahead of me I rolled into the room with my head between my knees and wrapped in my tail to absorb any of the impact coming my way. I kept myself ready for impact even after I heard the wooden thunk of the disc being caught, then eventually unfurled to see what had happened.

Hovering by the wall was an upturned bucket with a massive beacon of light shining out from under it. Raevu stood beside it and tugged at the handle of the bucket, but the damn thing remained at my eye level. Seriously? You're going to stop chasing me but you won't stop floating? As this thought crossed my mind the bucket dropped to the floor, launching the brilliant silver disc free and into my sight again. Stop glowing!

I peeled my eyes open again, and to my shock the room had returned to normal darkness. Wait, was I controlling it the whole time? I'd lost sight of it when it clattered off, but maybe if it were levitating in the air it would be easier to spot. Okay, float! The silver disc rose from out of the main eating divot until it was at eye level, eliciting an exasperated scoff from me. You’ve got to be kidding me.

I pinched at my sore eyes and groaned again while Raveu poked and prodded at the flying saucer. Okay, let’s think for a moment Kayurx: why is it obeying your thoughts? Most plausible answer is because it’s my enchantment made by my hands and infused with my own blood, which sorta makes it an extension of myself in some magical way. Crap, does that mean the drone I, uh, ‘borrowed’ is actually connected to the person who made it? Probably not since it doesn’t turn on unless someone actually connects to it, and for everyone else you have to say the words out loud to get it to work.

My current concern wasn’t so much on how I was controlling it, but how it was so strong. If I had to guess, it seems that the potency of the mana saturation is directly linked to how much power it’s able to put out at any given moment. A glance at the silver scrape marks on the wall confirms that this had to be the case in regards to the ‘follow’ enchantment. Oh crap! I ducked my head just in time to hear the silver disc fly above me and enter a dangerous orbit around my head until it settled to dangling in the air to my left.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Raevu was fortunate enough to be off to the side when I had mistakenly turned on the homing death device, and was now staring at me with pure terror in her eyes. If she weren’t covered in scales, she’d probably be a white as a sheet from the scare. Alright you metal menace, stop floating and stop following so I can destroy you. The disc did just as my thoughts said and dropped right into my waiting palm. One step back into the hobby room allowed me to cast the diabolical disc upon the table and collect my slate from the floor, then I was back in the main room with Raevu so I could explain what that thing was.

“I am so sorry for all of that. I was just trying to figure out enchantments and wound up making that awful thing. Don’t worry, I’m going to dismantle it once I figure out how to make it less dangerous. Thank you for helping me catch it, even if it could have been turned off the whole time. I didn’t know I was controlling it at the time, but now I know.”

Raevu read my words, then replied with a sweet little smile.

“I… you not need ask for forgiveness, I just got scared of it when it move fast. If Kayrux okay then I not worried anymore.”

Her expression changed to a ponderous frown as she looked at the clock on the wall.

“Still, Kayrux manage to make very strong enchantment item in very short time. Have heard from others that this thing is normal for you and sometimes goes wrong. Vimna say you do things like this many times, and once even burn hole in wall doing something like this. Am glad it not happen like that did.”

Hey, that kind of comparison is unfair! I’ve worked really hard to improve so I wouldn’t cause any unintentional damage. I rolled my eyes and shook my head slightly, but I couldn’t deny that she was right. I’ll just choose to ignore the fact that little Vimna was gossiping about the one time I tried offensive magic without any sort of guidance or information to work off of. Raevu’s little nudge to my arm got my attention again, and all I could do was smirk as she chuckled at my pouting face.

All of this experimenting with magic has left me hungry, and it being a chilly and rainy day has me in the mood for something soupy. I used my slate to explain to Ravue what I wanted to cook, and I even offered to do all of the cooking so she could relax for a bit. She turned the offer down initially, but once all of our veggies and meat chunks were tossed into the pot there was only the job of living stove to be filled, and unfortunately Raevu had neither electric runes or dragon fire at her disposal. This left me sitting on top of a crate hugging the soup pot while Raevu went back to the hobby room to get some of the extra furs for warmth.

She came back with a decent sized bundle of them, as well as the awful hovering menace. My questioning eyebrow raise was met with an unexpected explanation.

“I think keeping this one might be good plan. Maybe discover some way to make it less strong but keep all of the magic it has inside. Is like other things with Kayrux and smells like very powerful thing, so maybe it have purpose not seen yet.”

She turned it over in her hands a few times, then she turned it so she could read the enchantments on it.

“Float.”

The disc responded by jumping into the air and staying at her height. Oh, this is interesting. She looked to me for some kind of clarification, but all I could do to answer was to shrug and tap at the soup pot currently in my lap. Craning her neck so she could read the words on the underside, she read another word aloud.

“Follow.”

It jerked to the side slightly, then it began to slowly orbit her as she stood before me. Both her face and mine became smiles as she wandered the room with the palm sized saucer hovering just behind her. Any change in her elevation would also translate to the disc as well, but when she crouched below it there wasn’t any change. Guess it uses where the operator is standing as a point of reference then. Good to know.

She looked at the bottom of the disc again, but her brow furrowed as she looked at the third enchantment. Oh right, that one’s written in english, ao she won’t know what it says. Good thing too, because if she says the activation word right now she’ll blind herself. This did not stop her from running down the list of every possible word she could think might work.

“Light. Shine. Sunlight! Uh, Bright! Magic light? What word is this?”

Thankfully she looked to me for the answer, which allowed to to wave her closer so she could read a message I had written.

“The word is ‘glow’, but please don’t look at it when you say it. Here’s a different idea, what if you told it to stop floating and walked away?”

A curious light shone in her eye as she turned to face the hovering metal behind her.

“Stop floating!”

There was a ding as it hit the floor, but rather than flying off or clattering it instead just sat there on its thin side. Raevu took a step away, causing the disc to roll towards her like a wheel before it fell over and skidded the rest of the way. A few more steps confirmed that it was just going to drag itself towards her no matter what, and even being dropped into the bucket only made it louder. The same went for any number of furs placed on top, any sort of obstacle placed before it, or any kind of incline it had to scale.

At one point the silver disc got caught on the edge of one of the wall alcoves, causing it to jiggle angrily as Raevu got farther away. She turned around just in time to see it slip free and hurl itself at her, hitting her flat side on her tail. She yelped in surprise, then in a fit of frustration picked it up and tossed it, which only made it fly back at her and hit the floor by her feet. I couldn’t help but chuckle at her silly display, which only succeeded in making her blush and change her plan.

“Float, stop following me.”

The disc obeyed, allowing her to seize it and lightly shove it my way. I was sitting on top of a crate at the time, which put the approaching disc on a direct intercept course with my neck. Soup pot block! The disc spun off and plinked off of the wall, then rolled along the rounded shape of the room until it drifted above one of the shelves. I wonder…stop floating. There came a small thunk as the disc shut down and landed between the jars and bags below it.

That’s cool, but I’m not going to think about what it means that I can override my own enchantments if someone else is using them. Right now it’s soup time, and luckily it will work as the perfect apology for laughing at Raevu. Powering down my low output magnet runes and popping the lid off of the pot greeted me with some kind of dish that I will boldly claim to be the in-between of beef stew and southern chili, made using things that are definitely not ingredients used for either. Well it smells good at least, so maybe it’ll taste good too.

Three bowls later I decided to call it a success. Raevu accepted the dish as my way of saying sorry, then proceeded to eat seven bowls of it before flopping in the main pit with one of my books. I guess the tea and cookies from earlier were not enough and the weather’s cold air must be making her hungrier than usual. Can’t blame her, even I’m a little surprised with how much I ate. Damn, and we still have so much left over, and I’d hate to have to put it all in the rubbish bin.

A sudden change in the amount of magic from outside drew my attention. Someone was casting some kind of spell and was making their way towards the door. For a split second I thought it was some kind of attacker, but the shape and size of the flow was so familiar that I couldn’t help but smile as I recognized the owner. The sound of sloshing water and sizzling came from outside, then the sound of heavy footsteps. Door will be opening in three…two…one…

The door popped open as a large red kobold stepped inside with steam rolling off of his shoulders. I waved to Humey as he lumbered inside, and upon seeing me he cycled from surprise and confusion, then to thinking for a moment before circling all the way back around until he was happily surprised upon seeing me. His eyes fell on Raevu, who was also waving a greeting, and his smile widened even more.

“Oh, hey you two! I didn’t think anyone would be here today. Did something happen with the scribe hall?”

Raevu answered from over her book.

“Nothing bad, just Faerkurch having hall checked for leaks. He fears water getting inside precious books!”

Humey snickered at her comment before his nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath of air. I couldn’t help but notice that he also stuck his tongue out ever so slightly as he sniffed his way into the kitchen with me. His eyes settled on the pot currently in my hands, and before he could even as I was already holding it out for him to take. He signed a silent thanks as he took the pot and shamelessly began shoveling it directly from pan into mouth. While he was busy devouring the leftovers I went ahead and wrote him a question to answer in between bites.

“How about you, something happen with the mines?”

“A lot. Mmm, this is good. I’ll tell you all about it in just a minute. Right now I’m starving.”

Right, right, big man means big appetite. We’ve had this conversation before. While he enjoys his chili/stew hybrid dish, I’m going to crash next to Raevu and give my eyes some rest.