Ginelle could see through the desperation in the town people’s eyes that whatever was ailing their children that to make them wait until her next visit might be a death sentence, so she decided to remain in town for the night. She left the supplies gathered from the shop in the room she rented at the local inn, and then walked around town with Garrak. The big wolf escorting her from house to house as she healed every child that was sick with this ailment. Usually, Ginelle would be spent after one or two heals but the dragon tooth was amplifying her powers so much, she was barely breaking a sweat and was able to heal every child that needed her help that night. As the night went on, Ginelle couldn’t help but make a startling discovery; only the kids were falling ill. Not a single parent, teacher, or any adult had come down with this disease: just the children. After healing everyone that needed her help, Ginelle started to wonder how this could happen, and discovered that all of the ill children attended the same school on the other side of town. She asked the townsfolk to show her to the school so she that could look around. When the arrived at the school the door was still locked.
“Where’s the teacher?” the shopkeeper asked.
“We can’t find her.” Other townsfolk called out.
“I can handle this,” Ginelle said, as she used a fire spell to shatter the door handle and break into the school without their help. She slowly walked into the school and started to look around. The moment Ginelle had stepped inside, she felt something she was sure only a witch could sense. She walked around in search of the source and eventually found it underneath one of the desks. There was a totem, a rather odd looking one lying on the floor. Ginelle picked it up and proceeded to walked back outside.
“I believe that I’ve found the source of your problem,” Ginelle said, holding up the totem.
“What is that?” one of the mothers asked.
“It’s a totem,” Ginelle answered.
“What’s a totem?” Another of the mothers asked.
“A magical item,” Ginelle explained, “There are good and bad totems. Some totems protect people from bad things while others are the source of someone’s pain, like a curse. Considering that all the kids were getting sick, it’s clear we’re working with a totem that is cursed.”
“Who put that in there?” the shopkeeper asked, “Another witch?”
“Possibly,” Ginelle conceded, “But wizards, and even shamans have been known to use totems as well. We can’t assume it was a witch.”
“How do we get rid of it?” another concerned parent asked.
“First we have to remove this totem from town,” Ginelle suggested, “I will take it away from here and try to destroy it. It would be best to do that away from town because I have no idea how it might react and to avoid anyone else being harmed by its destruction.”
Ginelle returned to her room at the inn to rest for the night. Garrak helped himself to the bed and laid down as the young witch placed the totem on the desk in the corner of the room and looked at it for a while.
“Do you know how to take care of it?” Garrak asked.
“Not exactly,” Ginelle honestly replied, “Margorie showed me how to increase or decrease a totem’s power, but we never covered how destroy it. I’ll decrease its energy for now and when we get back, I’ll try to find something in the spell book. There should be something in there that can help me destroy this pesky little thing. And I’ll make sure we do it from a safe distance from both the town and our new house as a precaution.”
“That’s a good idea,” Garrak said, laying his head down. “I don’t want to get sick like those kids did.”
“The totem was instructed to target children,” Ginelle said, thinking about it. “Whoever did that is cruel person that I do not want to cross paths with anytime soon.”
“Don’t worry if we do,” Garrak said, with a bit of a snarl, “I will rip his arms off for you and for harming the children.”
Ginelle used a spell to lessen the totem’s power and decrease its ability to harm people or make the kids sick. Lowering the totem’s ability would be enough to buy the young witch enough time to take the totem back to the mountains where she could try to destroy it. With the totem powered down, Ginelle crawled into bed beside the big wolf, and fell asleep. She awoken several hours later to the sound of a rather large crowd gathered outside the inn where Ginelle was staying. She looked out and there were at least a hundred people gathered and all talking amongst themselves. Ginelle was worried there was something wrong and she quickly gathered her things and went downstairs to see what the commotion was.
“Is everything alright?” she asked as she came out of the main door.
“My gosh, yes!” a nicely dressed man said, as he even gave out a rousing chuckle. “My name is Randor, and I’m the mayor of this fair town. Are you the witch that has been healing our sick children?”
“I am,” Ginelle said, “I’m Ginelle. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine; I can assure you.” Randor said as he gave the young witch a respectful bow. “We are all here to see you off to wherever you’re going next.”
“It’s not far actually,” Ginelle honestly admitted. “I took residence at an old, abandoned house at the top of the valley. I was hoping to stay there a while and maybe settle in if I could.”
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“The house up on the hill,” Randor said, “You mean old Bradson home! That place is a little run down.”
“Not anymore,” Ginelle corrected him, “I took care of it. I just came down for supplies and then intend to return there.”
“I see,” Randor said, “Well we might be able to help you with that.”
The mayor moved out of the way and behind him was a wagon, and inside the wagon was a trove if supplies. It looked as if they had emptied a few shops to fill it up. Ginelle looked at the wagon and was in state of disbelief.
“Is this for me?” she asked.
“It is,” Randor confirmed, “This was donated by everyone here in town and it didn’t cost anyone too much. Everyone just chipped in with what they could, and it all just added up. The shopkeeper said you need supplies, so this was the least we could do to thank you for saving our children.”
“I didn’t do it for a reward,” Ginelle said, “But I am grateful.”
“We were wondering if you needed a horse to pull this for you,” Randor offered as he didn’t know what her mount could do.
“I’ll be alright,” Ginelle said, “My companion should have no issues pulling this up the valley.”
The townsfolk waved and even clapped as Ginelle and Garrak walked out of town, showing their appreciation for her efforts. While she was confident Garrak could pull the wagon full of supplies, about halfway up the valley, the big wolf needed to take a break.
“I’m sorry,” The wolf apologized, “I have failed you.”
“You’ve done your best, but I have the power to help you.” Ginelle said as she dug into some of the supplies and pulled out a small cake. She enchanted the small cake to make it energize the wolf and give him all the energy he needed to pull the wagon the rest of the trip up the hill.
Yet there was another surprise waiting for them when the reached the house sometime around high noon based on where the sun was. Not only was there a horse waiting outside the house, but there was a pony pulling another wagon parked beside the horse. I appeared someone was occupying the house that Ginelle and her friends had rightfully stolen. Ginelle dismounted from her wagon and started to walk up to the front door when a young man only a few years older than Ginelle emerged from the house. He stopped walking and looked right at the young witch.
“What are you doing here?” the young man asked.
“I live here,” Ginelle said, “What are you doing here?”
“You live here?” The young man repeated.
“This house didn’t clean itself,” Ginelle snapped back, her voice as sharp as a whip. “And unless you want my wolf to rip your arms off…”
“Wait, you have a wolf?” The young man asked.
“He’s pulling the cart,” Ginelle told him, “We just went into town to fetch supplies and here you are taking over the place.”
“My uncle built this house,” the man countered, “He was the man that deserted it for various reasons. My name is Angus Bradson, and I inherited it from him when he died, which makes this my house!”
“Is that so?” Ginelle asked.
“That is so,” Angus said, “So let’s try this again; who are you?”
“I’m a witch,” Ginelle answered, “Would you like me to prove it by hitting you with a fireball?”
“Hold on,” Angus said, holding his hands up. “Are you the same witch that healed all the children in the village below?”
“I might be,” Ginelle said, as her tone went down a bit. “How do you know about that?”
“I was in town to visit my little sister and my niece before coming up here.” Angus answered, “My sister told me her daughter has fallen ill, so I brought medicine from the city to help her. But when I arrived early this morning she was doing alright. They said a witch had healed her, and while normally I wouldn’t believe such nonsense, I couldn’t deny what was right in front of me. My niece wasn’t sick anymore and neither was every child in town thanks to you. That was an amazing thing you did last night.”
“Thank you,” Ginelle said, as she extended an open hand to him. “My name is Ginelle.”
“A pleasure to meet you Ginelle,” Angus said, shaking her hand. “So how long have you been living in my house?”
“I arrived only a few days ago,” Ginelle answered, “I was running away from the royal army of Herrshira.”
“Herrshira?” Angus said, thinking about it. “How did you get past the highly guarded check points and borders to get here?”
“I had a ride,” Ginelle said, “I was able to avoid them.”
“How did you know this house was abandoned?” Angus asked.
“A friend noticed it,” Ginelle said, “And since it was deserted, he thought it would be a nice place to hide away from those looking for me.”
“Did he now,” Angus replied, thinking about it. “Do you cook?”
“I do,” Ginelle said, even smiling. “Before I came here, I worked at a logging camp dining hall, feeding over a hundred men three times a day.”
“That’s impressive,” Angus said, “So if we share this place, since there are plenty of rooms to share… you do the cooking, and I could do the hunting and other manly chores?”
“That sounds fair,” Ginelle said, “but you can’t use the living room.”
“Why not?” Angus asked.
“Cause that’s his room,” Ginelle said pointing at the big wolf that had pulled the wagon right up to the porch at this point.
“Oh my,” Angus said, as he had never laid eyes on a wolf that big before and here was Garrak, who was as big as a horse and pulling a wagon.
“Who is this fool?” Garrak asked.
“Be nice,” Ginelle said, smoothing the wolf’s fur. “He apparently owns this place and is nice enough to allow us to stay.”
“Hang on,” Angus said, “You can talk to him?”
“I can,” Ginelle said, “My mentor taught me how to speak to all sorts of animals. They can come in handy if you’re nice to them.”
“That’s unbelievable.” Angus said, “I never knew witches could do that.”
“There’s a lot of things we can do that we don’t let outsiders know about,” Ginelle said as she gestured to the wagon. “If you help me unload these supplies, then the sooner I can start making supper.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Angus said as he walked over to the wagon and started to pick stuff up out of it. “Where should I put them?”
“Leave them in the kitchen and I’ll sort through them,” Ginelle answered, “These were all donated by the town as a token of their appreciation.”
“They are a nice bunch down there,” Angus as he walked the first arm full of stuff into the house.
“I got that impression,” Ginelle said, as she started bringing boxes into the house as well.
“What are we going to have for dinner?” Angus asked as he kept working.
“I’m thinking about it,” Ginelle said, “But we might have to wait until Ruki returns to see if he caught any fresh meat in the wild.”
“Who’s Ruki?” Angus asked.
It was at this point where a loud roar filled the air, and the red dragon swooped over the house and sailed off in another direction.
“That’s him right there,” Ginelle said, smiling at him. “He’s my dragon.”
“You also have a dragon,” Angus said, as he watched the thing fly away. “He’s not staying in the house too, is he?”
“Heavens, no!” Ginelle said with a laugh, “But he is nesting close to here in case I needed his help. You’re lucky I got here first, because he might have thought you were an intruder.”
“And that’s how you got here,” Angus said as he was putting it together. “You rode that dragon across the borders to avoid the blockades!”
“That is correct,” Ginelle said, “And I’ll introduce you to him later, but right now we have a wagon to unload. So, back to work!”
“Oh, right.” Angus said, as he forgot about the wagon for a second. “Sorry about that.”