While Wolf and Coal worked on the spell, Amanda spoke to Cat.

They went over the events of the day and finally Amanda asked, “Why do you think Coal’s here?”

“He doesn’t want to lose his precious powerful firestarter. It’s like running into a burning building to save your car?” Cat explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“That second part makes no sense to anyone except you, Cat,” Amanda replied.

“If my garage was on fire I’d go in to get my car out.”

“I know you would, but no one else would.”

“I put a lot of work into that car.”

“Cat, only an insane person runs into a fire to save a car.”

“You underestimate how fast I am.”

“You underestimate how fast fire spreads.”

“You underestimate how much Coal values those flames.”

They were quiet for a moment as they watched Wolf crushing some cuttings with a mortar and pestle, then Amanda tried again. “You really think that’s why he’s here?”

Cat shrugged. “That or he’s after something. It’s quite the coincidence him showing up when we’re here though. He had to have known... or maybe he’s being helpful in the hopes you’ll end up owing him a another favour, which brings me back to my first point.”

“He hasn’t asked for anything yet.”

“No, not yet...”

As if on cue...

“Cat,” Coal called at them from over by the table. “We need a pint of your blood.”

Cat raised an eyebrow at Amanda.

“Absolutely not!” Amanda replied to Coal with a fierce shake of her head.

Wolf turned around. “We need it for the spell.”

“No,” Amanda repeated.

“It won’t work without it.”

“Do you want to find Sirius or not?” Coal added.

That gave Amanda pause.

Cat raised an eyebrow at Coal and Wolf. “A pint huh?”

“You can have my blood,” Indi offered.

“It needs to be Cat’s,” Coal replied, not taking his eyes off Cat.

Amanda frowned. “Because she’s a relative or because she’s a dreamwalker?”

“The former,” Coal answered. “It makes it significantly stronger.”

“Technically, it’s possible both help in this circumstance,” Wolf added. “Although the best would be some from Sirius or Kass.”

“Well, does it need to be a whole pint?” Indi asked.

Wolf nodded.

“But she’s pregnant!” Indi reminded them.

Amanda looked at Cat questioningly, a pitying empathetic look in her eyes. Cat got the message, it was her choice. “Fine,” Cat agreed.

“Is that safe?” Zephyr asked.

“The body can lose a pint without feeling it,” Wolf replied. He then spoke to Coal. “I don’t have syringe though.”

With the flick of his hand Coal summoned him one, along with some rubbing alcohol, cotton pads, a tube for the blood to flow through, and a tourniquet.

Amanda watched with an annoyed look. “What, do you just have a pile of blood drawing equipment stashed somewhere for when you need them?” she asked with a slight bite to her tone.

“Something like that,” Coal replied simply and politely, taking no note of her tone.

“I mean,” Zephyr spoke again, “Is that safe for someone who’s pregnant?”

Indi nodded vigourously in agreement with his question as she looked on worriedly.

Coal offered Cat a stool to sit on.

“It should be fine,” Wolf replied.

But there was a measure of doubt in his tone. Amanda could hear it clearly, and yet she stood still and said nothing. She crossed her arms. What was one small risk for potentially two lives saved? Doubt niggled at the back of her mind but she stayed with her decision.

Cat held out her arm.

“When was the last time you took blood?” Amanda asked Wolf.

Wolf met her eyes. It had been awhile he had to admit but he hadn’t forgotten how. “Not that long,”

“I can do it if you want?” Amanda offered. She’d decided if she was going to be party to this she might as well take some responsibility. She was well practiced with drawing blood from the horses.

“When was the last time you took blood from a person?” Wolf asked in reply. It was a fair question and Amanda hesitated.

Cat rolled her eyes. “I don’t have a preference, one of you do it.”

“I’ve got this,” Wolf reassured Amanda in a gentle tone.

He sounded confident enough so Amanda gave a nod.

“It’s just a pint,” Wolf added with a friendly smile.

Cat watched him as he tied a tourniquet on her right arm and then swabbed her skin with the rubbing alcohol.

To the end of the syringe he connected the rubber tubing. At the other end he slotted the small tube into the pen. There was a gap around it so it needed to be held in place.

“You’re drawing it straight into the end of the pen?” Indi asked. “That doesn’t look big enough.”

Coal smiled at the question and nodded at the setup. “Watch, you’ll see.”

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“Hold this,” Wolf handed Indi the pen with the tube connected. “Keep it upright and tell me if it gets too full.”

Indi did as she was told. “Is the blood the ink?” she asked as she studied the pen closely.

Beside her, Zephyr also peered at it curiously.

Cat rolled her eyes and managed to make herself look bored.

Wolf met Cat’s gaze. “Ready?”

She gave a short sharp nod. She watched as he punctured her skin with the needle and the blood began to flow. The whole drawing blood process took several minutes. No one spoke for most of that time.

As Cat watched her blood flow into the end of the pen she wondered how Wolf would know when to stop. She could sense Coal standing behind her left shoulder. He’d taken a step closer when Wolf had started the blood draw. Probably worried she was going to pass out. Cat thought of her unborn child. A healer she’d met recently had said it was a girl. Cat wondered what she would look like. Would she have black hair like her mother, or brown like her father? Would she like cars like Cat or the outdoors like Baz. Would she fear water or would she love it? Would this blood donation hurt her? Cat hoped not. She was afraid of having this child. She wasn’t sure she’d make a great mother but despite that she was surprised to find that she wanted her and that she already loved her. All these thoughts chased through Cat’s mind in an almost overwhelming way. She had to remind herself to stay calm.

Wolf studied her face. “Are you alright?” he asked.

Cat nodded, afraid if she spoke she’d give her thoughts away.

“What do I do once it fills up?” Indi asked, looking worriedly at the pen which had already sucked in a lot more blood than it looked like it could hold.

“Just pinch the tube,” Wolf told her. “Or give a yelp, and I’ll do it.”

Indi nodded.

Wolf watched the end of the pen now anyway, given that it seemed to be flowing steadily and had been for sometime. He didn’t need to watch Cat anymore since both Coal and Amanda were standing behind her in case she passed out. Besides she seemed okay. It was hard to tell. He moved his fingers closer to the pen, ready to cut off the flow. He had made a rough estimate of how long it would take and he felt it was almost done.

Indi yelped as Wolf pinched the tube and pulled it out right on time. “Wow,” she remarked, impressed at the accuracy. From where she stood she could smell the blood. To her it had a faint fruit smell, like sweet plums. The whole time she had been thinking about food and wondering what the blood beneath her nose would taste like. It was much easier to ignore it when it wasn’t right there. She bit her lip. Best not to mention any of those thoughts out loud. She was happy once Wolf finished removing the needle and took the pen away.

“You’ve got a lot of blood in the tube,” Amanda noted.

Cat could hear Amanda behind her, closer than she had thought she was. It was probably a good thing. For the last couple of minutes she’d started feeling faint and nauseous. She hadn’t wanted to stop and waste the first several minutes though. Some spells required relatively fresh blood to work well. Her skin felt cool and she was sure her pallor was suitably pale. Wolf did frown when he glanced at her face before he removed the needle but she figured looking pale was probably to be somewhat expected. But as Wolf turned his back and dealt with the tubing the edges of Cat’s vision grew spottier and spottier. She closed her eyes and focused on the feel of the material of her dark jeans beneath her palms. She felt almost short of breath. She knew if she was calm the feeling would go away eventually. Whatever happened she must not fall off the stool.

“It’s for the map,” she heard Wolf say.

Cat felt a small hand on her right shoulder. “Are you alright?” Amanda asked .

Without turning around Cat nodded but did not reply. When she opened her eyes she found she could not see.

But she still had her other senses. She felt Amanda squeeze her shoulder gently before removing her hand. She could hear the splash as Wolf poured blood onto parchment and she could smell the iron it added to the air. That last thing did not help. She felt another hand, this time a larger one on her right shoulder, and pushing at an angle she hadn’t expected.

“Hey!” she heard Coal exclaim and then Cat felt more hands on her. Amanda grabbed her other shoulder to hold her on the stool. Realising she’d overbalanced, Cat leaned forwards so her elbows rested on her thighs, her head dropped forwards, weight over her feet until she could get a better feel for gravity.

Without taking her hand away she felt Amanda crouch down next to her. Amanda put her other hand on Cat’s hand and squeezed gently.“You alright? Feeling dizzy?”

Cat nodded.

“You wanna lie down?”

Cat shook her head.

Amanda stood back up but kept one hand on Cat’s shoulder.

“Do you want some food Cat?” Indi asked as she knelt down in front of Cat putting one hand on each of Cat’s knees.

“I’ve got an orange and some muesli bars,” Zephyr offered as he handed Indi one of each.

“Great idea.” Indi turned to take them.

Cat groaned. She hated people fussing. She opened her eyes and was both surprised and relieved that her vision was back. She sat up slightly.

Amanda peered around at her from the side. “You good?” she asked as she studied Cat’s face.

Cat tried not to move too much least she get dizzy again. “Gimme a sec.”

Indi handed her and orange and a muesli bar.

“You might want to cut if for her Indi,” Amanda told her as she handed Indi a knife.

Indi took the knife and looked at it momentarily surprised. It was a decent flick-style dagger, smooth edged with a worn wooden handle. The initials A.B. were engraved into the side.

Cat snatched the orange. “I can cut my own damn orange.” At the look of surprise in Indi’s eyes she softened her voice and gave a friendly smile. “Thanks,” she added more kindly and sincerely.

She felt Coal move away. “Is it working?” he asked of Wolf.

“I don’t know.” There was a hint of worry in Wolf’s voice.

“What’s it supposed to do?” This time the question came from Zephyr.

Cat sat up straighter and watched them trying to work the map, while she ate the orange.

Amanda stayed beside her, although she eventually did drop her hand away.

On the table Wolf adjusted the position of the pen. It was vertical, poised in the centre of the parchment. The parchment itself was blood soaked. As they watched the pen started to draw, but it was chaotic. It would go one direction and then another. It scribbled all over the parchment but nothing on the parchment changed.

“The blood on the parchment should form a map and the pen should draw us a line showing where to go,” Coal explained.

“A 2d map?” Indi asked.

Coal nodded.

“We’re going to waste the blood,” Wolf mumbled. He started to reach for the pen.

“Wait!” Indi exclaimed with a sudden burst of enthusiasm. She reached past Wolf, grabbed the parchment and turned it on it’s side.

The pen fell to the table with a clatter. But the blood on the parchment started to shift. It absorbed itself into the fabric. Strong dark blood red lines snaked out, forming what looked like the vertical structure of a house.

“Well, blow me down,” Wolf remarked. Then he reached for the fallen pen. “Angle the map, so it still has some gravity.”

Indi tilted it slowly, watching as the lines shifted again, becoming squished. “I am a genius after all,” she replied with the pride that comes with solving a hard problem.

“A good spell would keep that pen on the page,” Coal said.

“Yeah, well all the good spells get locked away by the sorcerers. They’re no bloody good at sharing. Not the most practical of people either.” As Wolf placed the pen on the page it slid down towards the lower end. He frowned. “Tilt it the other way.”

Indi did as asked. The pen traced a new line to the other side of the page as the old line vanished into the page.

“Well we know they’re down,” Amanda remarked.

“What happens if you tilt the edges and hold the middle flat?” Cat asked. In the minutes since eating some food she already felt a lot better. She got to her feet and took a corner. Coal grabbed another and Indi moved around the table so Zephyr could grab the last one.

“Like this.” Cat held her corner with one hand and then poked a point further in from underneath the sheet so that the inner section was higher than the corner. The others did the same. The edges of the map that were folded down showed lines, while the flat centre was completely blood covered. It was dry rather than wet and slightly faded than it had been.

“How long does this last?” Coal asked.

“Not long enough,” Wolf remarked. “That’s weaker than I thought it would be though. Some of your ingredients might be a bit old.”

Wolf placed the pen in the centre of the parchment again.

The pen moved south towards Coal, who raised an eyebrow.

“It’ll be easier if we’re on the lower floor,” Amanda said. “You were down there before right?” she asked Wolf.

“That’s not going to be the most straightforward thing,” he replied.

“Why not?”

He thought back to the wendigos, the water, and the lack of light. That last one wouldn’t be a problem with Amanda but other two might be. Cat wasn’t going to want to go swimming. To be honest, most people shouldn’t want to go swimming in that water, but it was the wendigos that were a bigger issue. Maybe Amanda’s fire could solve that problem as well though. “I didn’t really get a great look at the place, but there didn’t seem like there was much in the way of structure down there. It was a bit rundown.”

“You mean the rest of this house isn’t?” Cat asked.

“There might be some swimming involved,” Wolf added, more to shut Cat up than anything else. It did the trick.

Amanda gave him a bewildered expression. “Swimming?”

He nodded once. “Basement’s flooded, and... infested with wendigos.”

The only one who didn’t look worried now was Coal. He was lost in thought. “Where did you come up from before?” he asked.

Wolf pointed in the direction away from Coal.

Coal nodded. Then he pulled an axe out of the air.

Amanda’s jaw dropped but before she could say anything, Coal handed Wolf the axe and nodded at the floor. “Get chopping. We don’t have much time before that map runs out and I don’t think Cat’s up for another donation.”

Wolf took the axe. Instinctively everyone took a few steps back.

Wolf stared at the floor. He stared at the axe. He shrugged, and took a swing.