Hollington streaked across the room so fast, it was more like he teleported than ran. As far as Lemon could see, he was in one place, and then he decided to be somewhere else, so he was. And that somewhere else was directly in front of Lemon, a raised fist coming down to smash her into a pulp.

Except it didn’t touch her. It got within an inch of her fur, and then Hollington bellowed in pain and jerked his hand back. Small fires danced across his knuckles and he clutched at his burning hand with a grimace on his face. Lemon’s fur started to grow brighter, and Hollington leaped half way across the room, this time not so fast that she couldn’t keep track of him.

“So this is your trick? You think it will stop me? At best, it’s a delay of the inevitable. I will not be denied!” the vampire ranted.

Harmut blinked dumbly at Lemon, then looked over to Hollington. He started laughing. “Why didn’t you just do that from the start, Miss Lemon?”

Lemon let out a whuff and pranced a bit, sending sparkles of golden light rippling across her fur and out into the air. The more she focused, the brighter she grew. But she held her place, blocking the room’s only exit, and Hollington glared at her with hate in his eyes.

“Nemba, kill that dog,” the vampire ordered.

“Oh no you don’t!” Harmut shouted. He leaped to intercept his daughter’s wild rush towards Lemon and held her, kicking and thrashing, but not strong enough to break free. “Hurry up, Lemon. She’ll hurt herself like this.”

Lemon’s magic poured out of her, brighter and brighter until only the corner Hollington was standing in was cast in shadow. Nemba stiffened when the light fell over her, then collapsed into Harmut’s arms. Her chest started rising and falling again, and he clutched his daughter close, with tears running down his face.

He looked over her head at the Hollington, who was shielding his face behind his cloak. “What’s wrong, vampire?”

“This… isn’t… over,” he ground out through gritted teeth. The shadows cloaking him faded more with each second, and little tufts of fire ignited around him. The cloak went up in a flash, leaving Hollington’s pale skin exposed and blistering.

Darkness rolled across the room with explosive force, pushing out of the corners and lashing at Lemon’s brightly glowing fur. She was shoved backwards, forced to give ground as each wave of shadows crashed against her, but Lemon bared her teeth and moved forward again. As much as she wanted to race across the room and tear into the vampire, she was afraid if she left her position in front of the door, he’d find an opportunity to flee.

She needed Harmut to do something, but with his one hand useless and the other holding his daughter, he seemed to be out of the fight. If he didn’t break the stalemate soon, Lemon would run out of magic. And without her collar, she couldn’t tell him.

Another wave of shadows broke against her light, and Lemon’s legs shook. She looked over at Harmut and barked. Blinking, he looked back at her. She barked again. “What?” he asked.

Mentally, she prodded him, but he didn’t seem to be getting it. Another bark.

“What?” he demanded again.

The light started to fade, and Hollington’s posture straightened. Darkness surged up around him again, stronger now. Lemon growled and tightened up her focus, but she knew it was a losing proposition. If Harmut didn’t get the message soon, she’d have no choice but to charge at Hollington and hope to pin him down.

“Oh!” Harmut said. He laid Nemba down, scooped up his sword, and advanced on the vampire. Finally.

“Step into my reach and I’ll eviscerate you,” Hollington said.

“If you could, you wouldn’t bother warning me.”

The blade flashed through the air, and Hollington flinched back. Fire burst off his shoulders when he lost his focus on the darkness, and he cried out as renewed light scorched him. Harmut dodged between the open flames exploding out of the vampire’s body and slashed through an outreached hand. The limb went tumbling through the air to roll across the floor.

Hollington stared at it incredulously for a moment, then looked down at his new stump. “You… insolent little…”

Fangs suddenly bared, Hollington lunged forward and grabbed Harmut by the neck. Using a thumb and terrible vampire strength, he tilted the monster hunter’s head aside. “Your dog is weakening already, and your blood shall restore me to full strength.”

Just as the vampire’s teeth pricked Harmut’s neck, Lemon let out a final burst of golden light, strong enough to burn away the shadows and scorch vampire flesh. Hollington cried out, and Harmut’s arm came up to slash his silver-etched blade across the undead’s neck. An expression of pained surprise was frozen on Hollington’s face as his head rolled clear of his body. A moment later, it disintegrated into dust.

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Lemon’s magic ran out then, and the room plunged back into darkness beaten back only by the flickering light of their torch, cast away into the corner. Harmut staggered back over to his daughter and scooped her up, while Lemon retrieved her collar from a brand-new pile of ash where the vampire had been standing.

She gave it a vigorous shake to knock the heaviest clumps of ash off, then trotted over to Harmut, the collar still in her mouth. With her nose, she pressed up against him to get his attention? “Huh? Oh, let me just…”

It was awkward with his maimed hand, but he did eventually get the collar back on. Its magic reconnected to Lemon, and she let out a happy whuff. “That’s much better,” she said, tail wagging.

“How come you didn’t do that golden light thing earlier?” Harmut asked as he stood up, his daughter cradled in his arms. She hadn’t woken yet, but Lemon could smell all the bad and cold and hunger was gone now.

“I didn’t know it would hurt vampires until you started talking about daylight.”

“Seriously? Everybody knows that. That’s the first thing a vampire hunter learns.”

“Well, I’m not a vampire hunter. I’m a magic dog.”

Harmut laughed and shook his head. “Fair enough. Come on then, Miss Lemon. I know a certain mother back home who is worried sick about this little girl, and a whole town that will be relieved to hear the vampire threat is over.”

Together, they walked through the catacombs, now empty of the undead that had been animated by the vampire’s Bad Magic. Lemon would not say the place smelled good, but it was interesting instead of bad.

* * *

After they brought Nemba back, the whole town turned out onto the streets to celebrate. A healer looked at Harmut’s hand and announced that he could restore it to full functionality after he checked on Nemba. She was just tired from the whole traumatic ordeal, and he ordered a night of bed rest for the little girl.

Lemon needed another bath after the night’s excitement, and quickly found many humans willing to provide her with treats, pets, and whatever else she might ask for. They got her cleaned up, fed, and bribed her to show off her special vampire-slaying light for the whole town. Every time she did it, a new round of cheering went up.

The sun was just starting to cast the first morning shadows when the celebrations finally died down. Lemon went to sleep at the end of Nemba’s bed, with Harmut and Isana’s blessing. She woke up a few hours later about the same time as Nemba did.

Specifically, she woke up when the little girl wrapped her arms around Lemon and said, “Doggy!”

Lemon’s tail thumped against the bed and she licked Nemba’s face, sending the girl into a fit of giggles that summoned her parents to her bedroom door. “Good morning, sweetness,” Harmut said.

“Daddy!” Nemba disentangled herself from Lemon, hopped off the bed, and ran over to wrap her arms around his leg.

“Oof! Easy there. Your old man’s a bit roughed up from beating up that mean ol’ vampire.” He wobbled in place and looked over at Lemon and smiled. “Good thing he had some help, huh?”

“Good thing,” Isana said. “Though from what I heard, it was more like Lemon took care of the vampire and you helped her.”

“It was a team effort!” Harmut protested.

“Come on, ‘team,’ let’s get some breakfast.”

For Lemon, breakfast was a plate of porkchops, which might just be her new favorite thing to eat. While she was scarfing down her food, Isana said, “What will you do now, Lemon?”

“I have to get to Kapsulon. I have to deliver something to my master there.”

“Kapsulon, huh? That’s about a two day walk from here,” Harmut said. “Of course, a magical dog like you could probably make it faster.”

“I hope it doesn’t take that long. I need to get there as soon as possible.”

“Guess you’ll be on your way after breakfast then?”

Lemon gulped down another mouthful of meat. Fortunately, she could talk while chewing, so that didn’t stop her from answering, “I should, yes.”

“Don’t go, Miss Lemon. Stay here,” Nemba said.

“She has to, sweetness. But I’m sure she’ll come back to visit some time.”

“Yep!”

“You know,” Harmut said, “You could save a lot of time by going across some canyons instead of having to go around them or climb them. Why don’t you take that rope with you?”

That did sound helpful, but Lemon planned on taking the portal back home with her master. “Are you sure? I don’t know when I’ll be able to return it to you.”

“Don’t even worry about that,” Isana said firmly. “You helped save our little girl. A spare length of rope is the least we can repay you with.”

“Hey now, that’s my best rope!” Harmut said. He shook his head and told Lemon, “Don’t underestimate how useful a good length of solid rope can be. If you plan on going on any new adventurers, you just might find you need it.”

“Thank you,” Lemon said.

“And when you’re done eating, we’re going to work on your knot tying some more. That’s very important for successfully using a rope.”

“…Thank you.” Her voice was a lot more subdued that time.

“Now, I know you don’t have much time, so we’re going to focus on just a few specific knots that you should be able to do without thumbs. Come on, I’ll go over them with you, and once you’ve got the hang of them, I can give you some directions for getting out of the valley. From there, you just need to follow the road.”

“How long do you think that’ll take?” Lemon asked.

“Hour or so to show you what to do, save you six hours of climbing switch backs in the trails. Then a day or so on the roads. You should get there tomorrow afternoon at a human’s walking pace.”

Lemon wasn’t sure that would be soon enough, but if that was as fast as she could make it, then Hogarth would just have to wait until then. She’d done a lot of good work on this trip already, stopped Bad Magic three different times now. Or was it four? Lemon wasn’t good at counting.

“Okay, show me what to do?”

An hour later, Lemon had a coil of rope stored in her bag and stood next to Harmut at the edge of town. “You sure you’ve got it all?” he asked.

“I’m sure. And if I get lost, I’ll figure it out.”

“Good luck, Miss Lemon. Thank you again for everything.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll come visit again soon.”

“Please do. Nemba is going to ask about you every day. It’s not often you get to meet a magical dog.”

Lemon bade her farewells and, tail wagging, got back on the road.