“Why are we running back?” Mary asked. She was walking alongside Tafel, a plate of food in her hands. With every step she took, the ground underneath her shrank, her walking pace keeping up with the sprinting demon beside her. “Can’t we teleport?”

“If these sheep things are anything like those blood chimeras that I fought in a dungeon, which they seem to be, then they have some anti-magic properties built in,” Tafel said. She took in a deep breath through her nose before continuing to speak, her feet thumping against the ground. A fireball floating ahead of her illuminated her path. “If we enter a portal, and they cancel it before we fully exit the portal, what do you think will happen to us?”

Mary’s brow furrowed. “Our body ends up in two places at once?”

“That’s right,” Tafel said. “And that’s why we’re running.”

“Oh.” Mary munched on her food and swallowed. “Why can’t you use that offensively then? Have something partly enter the portal and then cancel it. Won’t you be able to cut off anyone’s limb like that?”

“It doesn’t work,” Tafel said. She ducked to avoid a branch and brushed aside a few vines with Chi’Rururp.

“Why not?”

Tafel turned her head towards Mary and frowned. “If I told you, would you be able to understand?”

“There’s no harm in trying,” Mary said. She swallowed and took another bite.

“I’m in the middle of a sprint! I’ll run out of breath,” Tafel said and took in another deep breath.

“You need to exercise more,” Mary said with a nod. “So, why can’t you cut off limbs by closing portals? Have you tried?”

“I have,” Tafel said and grimaced, ignoring the stabbing pain in her side. Why did Mary have to travel so far away from the group? “And it doesn’t work.”

“But why not?” Mary finished her meal and blinked at the empty plate. “Where do I put this?”

“Give it here,” Tafel said and grabbed the plate. She opened a portal beside herself and tossed it inside. “You see how slowly the portal closes? If you grabbed the edge of it and pulled, then it’d be open for even longer. It can’t cut anything.”

Mary furrowed her brow. “Then why don’t we teleport?”

“Because when you and other anti-magic-loving freaks break my portal, it shatters,” Tafel said. “Space doesn’t slowly mend itself, it destroys the portal completely as if it never opened in the first place.”

“Then if you create a portal, and I break it, won’t we be able to cut anything?” Mary asked, her eyes lighting up.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Tafel rolled her eyes. “You can already cut everything.” Her footsteps slowed down until she came to a halt in front of a clearing. Hoofprints covered the muddy ground, the undergrowth having been trampled and uprooted until the forest floor was just a layer of brown. A few trees had fallen, their roots exposed above gaping holes in the earth. Tafel increased the strength of her flames to cast light on a greater portion of the field. “What happened here?”

“It looks like hundreds of horses ran through,” Mary said and squatted, putting her finger on the ground. “See? Hoofprints.”

“Clearly, it was the sheep people,” Tafel said. “Vur didn’t sound very urgent, but he wouldn’t have even said anything to us in the first place if there wasn’t a problem.” She stepped past Mary and resumed her sprint, running on the destroyed forest floor. The sea of unearthed soil and overturned trees filled her vision. She had to turn her head all the way to the right or left to see any upright trees in the forest. “Just how many of them were there?”

“Could this be the ritual that the empire was preparing?” Mary asked. “They sacrificed their citizens and turned them into a sheep-human chimera. But why sheep? Are sheep strong? Why not wolves?”

“I can’t even fathom a reason to sacrifice that many people,” Tafel said and shook her head. She tripped over the lip of a particularly deep hole, but Mary caught her arm and righted her before she fell. “Thanks. Maybe sheep were the only animals that they had to work with?”

Mary released Tafel and gave her a small smile. “I just hope they’re kicking Vur’s butt,” Mary said. “He’s too arrogant.”

“Unless sheep can fly, I don’t think they’ll ever win against Vur,” Tafel said. “You won’t believe how great of an advantage being able to fly is unless you’ve flown yourself.”

Mary pouted. “When I find a genie, I’m going to wish I knew how to fly.”

“About that,” Tafel said. The two were still traversing the ruined forest with no end of the muddy fields in sight. “Can genies really grant wishes just like that? Isn’t that a bit too fantastical? There has to be some kind of cost, right? Otherwise, wouldn’t the demand for genies become so high that there wouldn’t be any more?”

Mary scratched her head and blinked at Tafel. “Can you say that again but slower?”

“Right,” Tafel said. “I forgot that you were the person who thought raising taxes would make your people happier.”

“At least I don’t turn my people into sheep,” Mary said and pursed her lips. “I think that makes me a good empress.” Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed Tafel’s arm, bringing the demon to a sudden halt. “Look. Ahead.”

Tafel grunted and rubbed her shoulder, her face contorting in pain. She squinted at the path in front of herself. There were still quite a few trees that were standing, but underneath them, there was a sea of red. The edges of the sea seemed to have noticed the light coming from her flames, and it rippled as the sheepmen turned around to stare at her.

“That’s a lot of them,” Mary said. She leaned over and took Chi’Rururp out of Tafel’s hands. “I’ll make quick work out of them.” She took in a deep breath and placed Chi’Rururp’s blade against her wrist. A green liquid leaked out of the sword’s edge, causing Mary to wince and pull her arm back. She wiped away the acid and slapped the flat portion of Chi’Rururp’s blade. “Don’t do that.”

“Sorry….”

“Don’t slap my sword,” Tafel said, frowning at Mary.

“It was his fault!” Mary bit her lower lip and pressed her wrist against Chi’Rururp’s edge again.

As she was about to draw blood, a high-pitched voice echoed through the night, “Baaa! Great leader! We, baaa, found them! The great leader’s, baaa, wives, baa, are here!”

Mary froze, ignoring the green liquid trailing down her wrist to her fingertips. “They can speak?”

“Great leader?” Tafel’s eyes widened. “Wives!? What do you mean wives!? There’s only one wife!”