Mel crossed her arms, chewing her bottom lip in thought.

Shane came up and clapped her on the back. “Damn, Mel! You were a stone-cold killer. That dude looked like a mob boss and you acted like he was some snotty schoolyard bully.”

“Because he was,” she said absently. “The environment changes, but the boy doesn’t.”

“He really was a mob boss?” Bernard whispered, studying the forest. He probably didn’t even realize he had his bow in his hands, an arrow loosely nocked, pointing at the ground.

At least his hands aren’t shaking, Mel thought.

“We should set up some defenses though,” Sabrina said. “They don’t look like the type of people to let something like this go.”

Mel shook her head. “No need. They aren’t coming back.”

“You can’t be sure,” Maddie said, looking at the woods as if expecting an army to come charging out.

“He’s scared,” Mel said, turning back to look at them. “All bullies are. They know their thrones are built on the flimsiest of foundations. He won’t threaten his status or power by coming after us. He knows he’ll lose too many men, but worse, the humiliation would affect morale. They’ll know he can’t crush his enemies or protect them.”

Bernard nodded. “It’ll foment resentment and discord. Especially if he’s not established as a gang leader yet, or whatever he calls himself.”

“He said ‘family’ so I’m going to go with mafia,” Mel said. She tapped her foot in thought. “He’s used to getting his own way, but when faced with a predicament like this…he’ll be smart. Eventually, he’ll be an issue. By then, we’ll be back up on the plateau and far away from him. It won’t be worth the trouble to find us.”

The others exchanged looks.

“What?” Mel asked.

“Nothing,” Sabrina said, forcing a smile and grabbing at Mel’s hands. “We’re lucky to have you here.”

“Well, I found this place, so technically, they found us because of me.”

“We would have been dead without you,” Maddie said, putting a motherly hand on Mel’s back. “Even if we weren’t, I don’t think anybody would have wanted to go through the dark forest. We don’t have a lantern like you, or torches or anything. It’d be safer to camp out in the fields, and that’d make us much easier to be seen.”

Mel agreed, but she still couldn’t help but feel angry that this place seemed sullied somehow. She knew in her bones that they wouldn’t come back.

Warren was a bully, but he didn’t seem like an idiot. He understood that the price he would pay to exact petty vengeance would be too high. Like any businessman, he wasn’t willing to pay the price.

He would be back, but Mel would find the entrance to the plateau long before they were strong enough to have an overwhelming force.

I could go after them. They’d have good equipment. Food and resources we could use. Warren has a title I could take. My guess is still that it’s one that reveals people’s classes. I don’t know how else he knew.

She paused. Am I really entertaining the thought of that?

If Mel was being honest with herself, she did want that title.

It would be easy. She could track them, but now they were seven instead of just four. Mel chewed on her lip, unsure of what to do.

Apparently, she missed something being said because Sabrina was waving her hand in front of her face.

“Hm?” Mel asked. “What’d I miss?”

“We were asking if you were sure we don’t need to worry.”

Mel looked over her shoulder, then back at her friends. She nodded. “I’m sure. They would have to be suicidal, and you don’t plan an empire by being suicidal.”

“You think he’s really that egotistical?” Nathan asked.

“The only jabs he responded to were ones aimed at his sense of self,” Mel said. “I’d say he thinks he’ll be some sort of Emperor or worse.” She shook her head. “Tyranny is so basic. Why don’t they ever think up something more interesting?”

Maddie shrugged. “Men.”

“Damn right,” Nathan chimed in. “What? I’m #MeToo!”

Mel rolled her eyes. “If you want to leave, I’m cool with it, but I don’t think they’re going to be dumb enough to waste anymore time with us. Though I don’t think it’s a bad idea to keep up the watch rotations. You were able to let me know something was wrong more than a mile away.”

“You heard that?” Maddie asked, surprised. “Finally seems like a good use for my Sonic aspect.”

“Do you think they noticed what you were doing?” Mel asked.

Maddie shook her head. “They seemed confused by the noise, but nobody suspected me.”

“Good.”

Looking around, Mel had to resist the urge to find a more defensible place. This had been a stroke of pure luck to find, but it was only defensible against stupid, wandering monsters.

Any creature–or person–with brains would easily find them. The pond was surrounded on all sides by forest, and there was no means of egress or ingress that she could turn into a chokepoint.

All this passed through her head in a fraction of a second, coming from a different life that she only remembered in bits and pieces. She knew that her past self would never have picked such a vulnerable location.

Little wonder you were discovered. You’re camping out in the open without a shred of–

Mel shook her head to dispel the thoughts. It wasn’t productive to chastise herself. Now more than ever, she needed to find the plateau.

“I’ve got a monster nest to take out before I can range farther,” Mel said. She noticed with a sinking heart the way everybody flinched, as if they feared she was about to ask them to join her.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

She had hoped that their fear of fighting would have diminished over time. Mel realized that she had to let go of that hope. She couldn’t keep hoping that they’d shrug off the trauma and suddenly want to partake in all the wonders of this new life.

They missed the stability of their old home.

A stability I never had, Mel thought to herself. It was little wonder she was so at home fighting and killing monsters. She’d been doing it–or training for it–most of her life.

Mel couldn’t help wishing one of them was like her. Somebody that could keep up with her. Somebody she could trust to watch her back.

It was lonely at times, but at least she had a group of friends to support her back at the base. She could use that. They could make food and help repair her equipment when she came back. It wouldn’t do much good while she was in the midst of a monster nest, but it was better than being utterly alone.

I don’t know if I can handle that isolation.

Despite that, she turned and started heading back in the direction she had come from.

“Where are you going, Mel?” Sabrina asked, a small tremor in her voice.

“Back to handle the groles,” Mel told her. “Remember the thing you saw the other day up in the tree?”

“The lizard gorilla thing?”

“That’s the one.”

Sabrina shivered and hugged herself. “It’s getting kind of late. Shouldn’t you wait until tomorrow?”

Mel looked up at the sun riding high overhead. She looked curiously at Sabrina, noticing things she hadn’t before.

The way the woman stood, the way the others watched the woods, their eyes flicking back and forth.

They’re scared. They want to be protected from the horrors of the night, even if they don’t know it.

Mel forced a smile. “You know what? You’re right. I should wait until first light.”

A tiny spark of resentment flared in her for a moment, but she quickly tamped it down. It wasn’t their fault that Mel wanted to vent her frustration on some monsters.

If they weren’t broken, they would have proven far more formidable to Warren and his mob bros. Instead of four on one, it would have been four against six. Even seven against six would be too much for cowards like them to stomach.

As it was, Mel was somewhat surprised she had managed to get him to back off.

She hadn’t been bluffing. She would have gladly skewered those jackasses without a single worry about herself. However, she knew that her friends would be the ones to suffer.

Their unwillingness to fight back would have marked them as easy leverage if a fight broke out. Mel wasn’t sure what she would do if one of them was taken hostage, and she didn’t want to find out.

Luckily, Warren didn’t want to find out what would happen either.

I wonder if he’s curious which one of us would win in a one on one, Mel thought to herself as she turned her attention back to the group and the discussion they were having about dinner.

“I swear there are catfish here!” Shane was saying.

“We don’t exactly have nets or fishing poles. Do you remember how hard it was to get the few fish we already have up and drying?” Nathan said.

Mel’s gaze fell to the pond, watching a chubby fish dart beneath the calm waters. Another swam in its shadow.

“It’s easy to go catfishing,” Maddie said.

Everybody looked at her.

Mel smirked. “Yeah? Did that a lot, did you?”

Maddie turned beet red, but she didn’t back down. “Not that kind of catfishing! I mean getting catfish . You find their hole–”

“ Go on ,” Mel said, showing intense interest.

The older woman threw up her hands and stalked off toward the water. “I’ll just show you!”

Mel couldn’t help but laugh.

Maddie rolled up her trousers and waded into the pond. “And for the record, it’s not called catfishing, it’s called noodling , but I knew you’d make fun of it–stop laughing!”

Mel was nearly doubled over in a fit of giggling. “Seriously? Noodling. Who came up with that?”

“I don’t know,” Maddie said, grumbling. “Listen, you find the hole the catfish is hiding in and block it with your legs like this so it can’t get past you.” She awkwardly shuffled forward. “Then you stick your fist in…”

Mel leaned over to Sabrina, missing the rest of whatever Maddie had to say. “Not letting that happen without a lot of lube and until at least the third date!”

Sabrina’s ears turned red as the sunset. “Mel!”

Mel let out another peal of laughter.

“Hah!” Maddie said, pulling out a large flopping catfish by the gills. “See? I told you…wait, why are you all laughing now?”

Another burst of laughter rippled through the group as Maddie waded toward them and dropped the large wriggling catfish onto the stones far from the water.

Nathan chopped down with his sword, cutting off the head, still chuckling. “Sorry, Maddie. That was really informative.”

Maddie put her fists on her hips. “Children. All of you.”

“Guilty!” Mel said.

They ate well that night. The catfish had to be at least 20 pounds or more. Mel wished they had some bread crumbs or batter to fry it, but searing it over the coals wasn’t too bad either.

Unlike all the other catfish Mel had ever had in her life, the earthy, muddy taste that usually filled her mouth on top of the delicate meat was nowhere to be found.

“Huh, this doesn’t taste like dirt!” Shane said, giving voice to Mel’s thoughts.

“Score one more point for magic,” Mel said absently.

“Is that why?” Shane asked, curious.

Mel nodded and swallowed another bite. “It is. You can think of magic as a sort of reality sandpaper. It sort of…smooths out the rough edges, makes life a lot more livable for those that need to live it.”

“But it also creates horrors,” Sabrina said quietly.

“So does technology,” Mel countered. “What? You think you weren’t being spied on twenty-four-seven? I’d rather have to fight a few monsters with magic than to see ordinary people turn into monsters in their little social echo chambers without it.”

It seemed no one else echoed Mel’s feelings on this matter.

The rest of the day and night was quiet and somber. Clearly, they would gladly take the world they knew to the one that was before them. Mel didn’t agree, but she couldn’t fault them for it.

Change was hard.

And it’s going to get harder before it’s done, Mel thought to herself as she took the first watch of the night.