Rina sat staring at the moon through the open window, The breeze was cool and slightly moist, to her sleep was typically non-existent. A necessity that only applied to creatures that didn’t derive sustenance from other life-forms. She crept out of the bed and walked to the window. Being on the second floor, underneath was hollow, this amplified her high-heel feet every step.

She looked out the window, against the black horizon she saw the glow of the city in the distance. Closer, within the vicinity of where she could reach, she saw the area of the livestock and several service buildings of the farm. Oh, how she would love to sink her teeth into that unique creature. She paused for a moment and gave it a thought. Everyone is sleep. She could slip in butcher the animal, steal its magic come back and kill everyone before the sun would even have risen.

She jumped into the window sill, using her arm to keep her within the frame she scanned for a landing. She sniffed the air. A familiar scent came to her. It was faint, but she believed it to be the lair of the goblins. There was no doubt the wind was carrying that exact smell to her. To hell with her plan, she jumped from the second floor onto a random location. Her feet dug into the soft dirt, upon impact she left a crater with a 2-foot diameter. She sniffed the air once more. The magic was coming from the north, in the exact opposite way of the farm. She ran in that direction. In the time that she was away from the area, anything could have re-inhabited the cavern.

She passed trees, she passed bushes, she trampled rocks, and she only stopped for a snack twice. The path wasn’t the best. Magic was like smoke, it wasn’t a straight line or a general location. It was a formless, intangible entity that twisted around objects, lingered at dead ends and pooled up in all the wrong places.

She came to the clearing exactly at the mouth of the cavern, it didn’t have any other magic signatures other than the one that she already picked up on. All the dead goblins that were killed around the area still were there, a little more maggot infested but still untouched. Behind her, she could hear a mild rustling. She looked only to find a silent forest. Whatever the creature was, didn’t have very much weight to it. Probably a stray wolf coming to get a free meal.

She ignored the small fry outside and went in.

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Without the shaman blocking her internal radar, and the lack of uninvited guests made the navigation a breeze. In nearly no time she was at the chamber again. Any goblins that had been in here was either killed by the two knights or had fled.

Right there in front of her was a hole, a hole filled to the brim with magic. So much that it was visible to even the naked eye. She dropped to her knees, everything about this was intoxicating, she was getting drunk just by the aroma alone. Everything moved in one color; one continuous color...All of them at one time. Her kaleidoscope vision was like euphoria she was almost one with the magic. She began to feel herself move but at the same time, she had no idea which direction. It felt like she was going up...or at least sideways. She felt great. She closed her eyes as she felt like she was sinking.

Piercing the darkness was a little boy,

“Big sis!” He cried. He ran to the edge of the pool. “Sis!” He cried again.

He had heard the crash from outside his window from her landing. When he saw that it was her he chased after her. It wasn’t the best idea for a little kid to go into the forests at night, but damn did he love his ‘big sis’ so he disregarded his own safety.

He peered into the reflective pool. He could see only his reflection. He waited a while for her. He’d sit at various ends of the cavern until she would emerge.

Only she hadn’t. But what did come was the tears in his eyes.

He sat fetal position and sobbed, sobbed for the one he saw as family. The tears dripped to the ground from in between his legs.

In between sobs, he could make out a faint scratching sound. Looking he saw a pair of claws, they tore up the dirt leaving small trenches before they hooked solid enough material. He positioned himself to get a good look at whatever or whoever would come out from the pit.

The first to appear was the silvery-white hair, the next was the most shocking. The devoid-colorless eyes gone, it was replaced with a band of what looked like obsidian.

She rose out of the pool, she had none of the clothes on her that she had previously but he body was covered in a protective chitin. She looked directly at the boy. For some reason this chilled him to the bone, he turned to leave. But he was too slow. She closed the gap between the two by the time his brain even sent the signal to his legs to stand.

She grabbed his neck and suspended him in the air. He began to choke. Then he heard the rapid movements of air being displaced behind him. What he heard filled him with hope.

A familiar voice. “Drop him.”