After a few minutes of silently sitting on the bed next to Mercy, Mallory entered.

“They’re here,” Mallory said. “It sounds like you should meet them.

“Are you okay after yesterday?” Mercy asked.

“If I want to know if I’m okay, I ask myself one question,” Mallory explained.

“What’s that?” Mercy asked.

“Am I alive?” Mallory gave a huge grin.

Mercy rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She couldn’t hide her grin completely.

They followed Mallory up to Jon’s room. Even as they walked up the stairs, Jon could hear a huge thud hit the floor of his room.

When they entered, two figures were standing in the room that Jon had never seen before.

One of them was a woman. She had white feathers with red marked ends that covered her arms, legs, and sides, as well as her temples and parts of her face.

Next to her was a guy who Jon thought was really overdressed, but also looked kind of cool. He wore a brown leather jacket with a huge collar that was stiff. His pants were also brown and incredibly baggy, and he had on heavy boots. He wore a leather helmet that couldn’t hide the parts of his black hair that wanted to show themselves, and he had goggles that sat on top of his head.

The most impressive thing was his backpack and the gun that he held with both hands. His backpack was a large box with funnels sticking from the bottom, and there was a large tube connected to the bottom of his gun.

It looks like a blunderbuss... It definitely wasn’t. Whatever came out of it also seemed to come out of the backpack.

“It’s my girl, Genevieve!” Mallory ran up and hi-fived Genevieve hard before they both did a chest bump.

They then gave each other a warm hug.

“Nice to see you too, Mallory,” she answered.

They pulled apart. Mallory then also gave an extended high-five sequence with her partner.

“Hestatham, my man!”

“What up, Mallory?” They finished the sequence and also gave each other a hug.

Mallory turned back to Jon and Mercy.

“Jon, Mercy, meet-”

“Yeah, I know,” Mercy had already approached Genevieve to shake her hand.

“Nice to gain your acquaintance.” Genevieve shook firmly.

“How did you guys get here?” Mercy asked.

“We flew. Mallory left a marker for us on the house.”

She then went to Jon and shook his hand.

Jon was astonished. He had expected the others to be more like Hector and less like Mallory. It seemed like Hector was in fact the minority.

Jon had just finished shaking hands with Hestatham when Hector barged through the door.

“Mallory! I heard that the others-”

Genevieve ran up and hugged Hector.

“Hector! You’re here! I missed you!”

Jon saw in Hector's face a mixture of annoyance, embarrassment, and disbelief. He didn’t return the hug.

“Yes… Yes!" Genevieve, it’s nice to see you… You too Hestatham.”

Hestatham saluted. “Boss.”

“I’m not the…” Hector sighed. “What do you have?”

“Both me and Genevive traced the concentration of the mana over in that direction.” Hestatham had pointed towards the forest that settled outside of the farm border.

Oh no. Of course, it had to be in that forest. Well, Jon supposed that whatever was in it couldn’t be scarier than what had come out of it.

“Can’t you detect manaflow?” Mercy asked Mallory.

“Can’t you?” Mallory retorted.

He laughed at Mercy’s unimpressed sigh.

“Honestly, Genevieve is a species of people who have stronger connections to mana through their bodies, and Hesthatham’s workbox can also trace the flow of mana.”

“My workbox.” Hestahm pointed to his backpack.

“Workbox.” Jon nodded.

“Compared to them, I’m just a peasant who kneels down in front of the mana gods and begs them ever so slightly for their benevolence,” Mallory explained.

“Don’t listen to him! He’s a genius!” Genevieve patted Mallory on the shoulder.

“Enough of this!” Hector yelled. “What’s over there?”

“...Something big mate.” Hestatham shrugged. “That’s all we can tell.”

“And everyone else is still away?” Hector asked.

Genevive nodded. “Yeah. They’re still with Graves.”

Hector crossed his arms. “We don’t have much time. Are you guys set? I wanna leave as soon as possible.”

“I can leave whenever,” Genevieve said. “Getting there will take up some mana, but I’m sure it’s fine.”

Hestahtam nodded. “I don’t suppose there’s any amount of manaroot of the following around here. Graves had plenty.”

“Oh ho ho!” Mallory cried. “You’re gonna love this place.”

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After some explanations and more greetings, Jassiter and Vel had brought up more crops for Hestatham’s box. Jon and Mercy watched fascinated while Hestham and Vel discussed what was going into the box next.

“This will burn incredibly well! I didn’t know there were so many variations!” Hestatham commented.

“Yeah, well, there aren’t. Me and Dan grow’em all. We’re so abundant I get to mixing and matching in the back.” Vel chuckled. “One time, I made all the carrots turn purple because I planted my crops too close, and Jassiter threw a fit.”

“Why would I eat purple carrots when I didn’t plant purple carrots,” Jassiter said. “It doesn't make sense. If it doesn’t go into the ground purple….”

“Do you have to use mana to fly?” Mercy asked Genevieve.

“Nooo… I mean, yes. It uses mana. But that’s natural. It doesn’t cost anything. However, if I have to carry two grown men across a large snapping death trap, it’ll definitely cost me.”

“Guys, I want to go soon,” Hector said. “We don’t want to wait 'til sunset. The caiman-”

“Hector, it’s not even noon," Genevieve huffed. “You’re always so serious. That’s why we love you, though.”

“Yeah, well, I just don’t want anything to happen to the farm,” Hector said, “That would suck, you know?” He crossed his arms and looked away.

“Let’s get out of here before Hector breaks down from trying to share any feeling that’s not anger or disappointment,” Mallory teased.

Jon looked at his mother and father.

“You’re going, aren’t you?” Jassiter asked.

Jon was surprised. He hadn’t thought of it.

“You have a look in your eyes you never had before,” Velvet explained, “You look like you have you want to go for once.”

Jon slowly nodded. “Yeah…”

“Come back to us, or I’m gonna go get you back myself, and embarrass you in front of all your new friends. And the caiman.”

Jon couldn’t say anything. He just went up and hugged his parents

“That goes for all of you!” Vel said.

“Roger!” Hestatham saluted again.

“Alright. Hestatham, take me and Mercy,” Hector said. “Genevieve-”

“Got ya, boss. Come on!” Genevieve grabbed Jon by the arm.

“Shouldn’t we switch it up to a long ranger, a close ranger, and a flier?” Mallory asked as he presented his arm to Mercy.

“I just wanna drop in there and kill whatever it is as soon as possible,” Hector said. He looked at Mercy for confirmation.

“Right.” Mercy nodded.

“We’ll meet up at the forest edge,” Hector continued. “Then you can help us afar. Hestahtham?”

“Right.” Hestatham looked at Mercy. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” she answered.

With a nod, Hestatham put on his goggles and wrapped his arms around Hector’s and Mercy’s.

Mercy gave Jon a sad look.

Jon nodded.

Hestatham squeezed his glove.

Purple energy immediately started rushing out of the funnels of his backpack.

“I like the purple,” he said before the three of them blasted out through the window. Jon could see the purple trail behind them as they flew ahead to the forest.

“I’m not as dramatic,” Genevieve explained, as they closed up to the window.

Jon gave one last sad grimace to his parents before he looked back into the window.

He suddenly felt a strong tug on his arm.

He was lifted into the air immediately. The ground underneath him shrunk as he got further and further away from it.

At a point, he could see the caiman shifting aimlessly among the giant multi-colored crops. They still looked a little scary, but they were much more like beasts that you didn’t want to disturb, rather than a force of raging destruction.

Flying through the air felt like making one giant leap into the air. Now, as Genevieve carried him through the air, he was just waiting to land. He didn’t know how soft the landing could be.

They followed the trail of purple smoke in the air. The forest started getting closer and closer.

“Are they going inside the forest?” Genevive called out. “Are they crazy!”

“Hector wants to kill something!” Mallory called through the rushing air.

“I’m gonna land outside the forest!” Genevieve said. She suddenly changed her flight path to a dive.

Jon’s heart felt like it had been left behind in the sky above him. He felt a real fear of being thrust into the ground hard.

“Feet!” Genevieve called.

Feet? The dive quickly changed into a soft descent. Genevieve was now upright, floating casually towards the ground.

Jon made sure his feet were under him as they landed into a jogging finish.

Genevieve reached into her fanny pack and pulled out a gem like Hectors, except, it was green.

The gem glowed and then fizzled.

“It’s out of juice,” Genevieve said. “We won’t get any until we return home.”

Her eyebrows squeezed together in worry. “I hope Hector has a sound plan.”

“He always has a plan,” Mallory responded.

“A sound one.”

They all looked at the forest.

“I’ll watch from above,” Genevieve said. She flew into the tree branches.

Mallory looked at Jon. “Gun?”

Jon drew his blunderbuss.

“Perfect. Watch yourself.” Jon nodded, and he and Mallory entered the forest.

The forest had lots of weird noises that Jon didn’t recognize, but after the aimless snapping of the caiman last night, he was happy for a change of pace.

Also, once he got used to watching his step, walking through the forest was actually kind of fun.

“So, Jon,” Mallory asked. “I heard you can use mana now.”

“Maybe,” Jon said.

“It’s the gun?” Mallory asked.

Jon nodded.

“Awesome. Where’d you find it?”

“Someone gave it to me.”

“That’s killer! Someone gave you that?”

Jon nodded. “Yes.”

“...I want to know how it works,” Mallory said.

Jon raised the gun.

“Not now!” Mallory raised his hands in defiance, “but, I would like to study it some more after we've stopped everyone from being eaten."

Jon held to gun out to Mallory.

“...Really?” Mallory took it. “Huh. That usually doesn’t work.”

“What do you mean?” Jon asked.

“Take this gun back before it kills me.” Mallory quickly held it out to Jon, who took it.

“...How does it work?” Jon asked.

“I don’t know,” Mallory said. “How does it work?”

“...I pull the trigger,” Jon said.

Mallory nodded. “You pull the trigger. For now, that’s all that matters. I can get into the whole whatnots and whodingers later but-”

“Guys!” Genevive waved from a tree not too far away. Up ahead, Jon could see that it lined up with other trees at the end of a clearing.

Jon and Mallory made their way over. Genevive landed on the ground to meet them.

“There’s some weird mana stuff going on,” Genevive mentioned. “I noticed it outside of the forest, but inside, it’s empty.”

“If that’s the case,” Mallory said, “they’re probably using the mana to drive the caiman away from the forest.”

“To destroy the town?” Genevive asked.

Jon didn’t like the sound of that.

“...It’s a bit reckless to use that much mana for,” Mallory explained. “And why would you destroy a whole farm?”

“Resources. Farmers are valuable resources, aren’t they?” she responded.

“...Yeah. If you were invading, sure. But it’s a pain in the ass to get here. And you would want to use farmers. Not kill them. Sorry, Jon.”

Jon understood. It was the nature of things.

They slowly made their way to the trunk of a large tree, using that and the bushes to hide behind while they observed the clearing.

In front of them were three men.

One of them stood tall with his arms crossed. He had a large upper body, and he wore what Jon could only describe as worn-out clothes. His face had several scars, and he had a scowl that pierced Jon’s sword. On his back was definitely a sword.

At first, Jon might have said that the man reminded him of Hector. Now, it reminded him of Hector’s sister.

Except that Jon didn’t think that Hector’s sister would hurt him.

On the floor was a man sitting cross-legged with an open book on his lap. His eyes were closed like he was concentrating. He wore robes like Mallory, except that it was black with lines of red that traced the sides. He also had long flowing blond hair, something Jon hadn’t seen on a guy before. Underneath his legs were a glowing circle, much like the one Mallory had the day before.

Standing next to the swordsman was another man in a robe, which was red. He had short hair unlike his compatriot, and there was a glowing circle under his feet.

“Jon…” Mallory tapped Jon on the shoulder, grabbing his attention.

“So, that guy, sitting down, he’s a sorcerer,” Mallory said. “He uses a book to channel his mana. If you take the book away… I don’t know what it does but it’ll make our lives easier.”

Jon nodded.

“The other guy, he’s probably a wizard, like me. Uses mana without a book. I don’t know what type of mana he uses, but…”

Mallory shrugged. “Shoot him too.”

“You think the swordsman is a mana user?” Genevive asked.

“His face is too ugly. He probably stands in front of people before he stabs them.”

“What are they doing?” Jon asked.

“...I have no idea,” Mallory said. “I just wish I knew where Hector was… is that Hector?"

Hector walked proudly across the field, making his way towards the men.

“I command you to stop what you’re doing!” Hector called. He drew his sword.

“What!!!!!!” Mallory ducked into his robes to hide his scream.

He pulled his exasperated face out of his clothes. “Okay. New plan.”

“What’s that?” Genevieve asked.

“We stop Hector’s golden ass from getting killed.”

The three of them went back to watching the scene unfold.