Julius and Ramona returned to the boarded-up house as night came. The building was surrounded by large spikes of ice. Landmines, both magical and mechanical, were littered around the house. Two large werewolves in military fatigues and armed with flamethrowers patrolled the perimeter. Finally, one of the werewolves in human form sat on top of the large three-story building in the center of town with a sniper rifle.

Julius, Ramona and Dick sat inside the boarded-up house with the crazy man sitting in the corner muttering.

"Are we really going to need all this?" Ramona asked, concerned.

"Probably not," Julius said. "If Mr.Crazy over there survived whatever killed everyone in this city. Then we should be able to handle whatever it is without these defences. However, if I'm wrong, then these defences could save our lives. And if I'm right and we didn't need these defences, then it's still good exercise for when we do need it."

Julius took out a knife and began to carve out runes onto the inside of the house's walls.

"What are you doing?" Ramona asked.

"I'm carving a runic ward around the house. It's the usual stuff anti scrying, temperature control, protection from evil, that sort of thing."

"Can you teach me?" Ramona asked, clearly excited at the idea of learning more magic.

Julius frowned for a moment before answering.

"Not today," Julius said. "Runes are a complex advanced form of mana manipulation. It's the kind of thing you spend years learning how to do. There is a simplified form of runes called glyphs. However, you need to have better control of your magic before we can dive into glyphs. Funny story I actually learned about both glyphs and runes from a rune crafter I met during the London blitz. Richard, a wonderful man, made the best-mashed potatoes I've ever eaten. The man could have been a chief if he had survived the war.

"I thought you were in Paris during the Nazi occupation.' Dick said

"I mostly was, but we had a runic gateway to London, supplying the resistance with weapons and intelligence, stupid things wouldn't stay on for more than a minute, and the Nazis bombed the London side while I was still in the city. I was stuck in London with no way back for almost six months. I spent those six months with Richard, trying to get that stupid gate to work. He really was a fascinating gentleman ahead of his time. He really hated the Nazis almost as much as I did." Julius remembered fondly.

"You were alive during world war 2?"

"And world war 1, world war 2, Vietnam, Cuba, the Egypt revolution, the Greek civil war. You live long enough. You end up having a pretty interesting life." Julius muttered as he craved another rune into the wood.

"How did you live for so long?" Ramona asked.

Julius flinched as Images of his past flickered through his mind, things he wanted to forget and things he would never forget.

"Vitamins," Julius lied coldly. "I take lots of Vitamin C, lets me live forever. Hey, I still haven't taught you anything about magic, have I?"

Ramona blinked at the change of subject, but a smile quickly broke out on her face as she realized where Julius was steering the conversation and didn't try to stop him.

"Um, no, are you going to teach me now?!" she asked, excitement literally dripping from every pour of her being.

Julius smiled as he pushed those memories as deeply as possible as he focused on Ramoan.

"Magic is about mana control and intent. You ben your mana into a specific shape to apply a specific effect. So for your first lesson; this is a training wand for children. If you press the button, the wand will draw out mana from your body. It won't do anything other than create some pretty lights, but it will help get you used to the feeling for when you want to start doing your own spellcraft."

Julius pulled a simple wooden wand out of his coat and handed it over to her.

She snatched up the wand and pressed the button. Instantly she felt something leaving her body. On the end of the wand, a small blue thread began to emerge, kinda like how toothpaste would look when squeezed out in zero gravity, only it was blue and ethereal. Her eyes lit up with wonder as she cradled the wand like it was her lost child.

"I'm just like in Harry Potter, this is so cool!!" she squealed in pure bliss.

"Yeah, now focus on the feeling of the wand pulling mana out of your mana pool. This is the most important part of your training.

"Sorry, you want me to pull whos it out of my whats it… what?" Ramona asked, confused. "Also, how does this help me do magic?"

"To do magic, you have to tie the mana, the actual stuff we use to cast spells into a knot. But before that, you have to learn how to pull out the mana before you twist it into a knot." Julius said, getting into his role of teacher.

"Oh, so it's kinda like balloon animals?" Ramona asked innocently.

Julius sputtered. "No magic isn't like … hmmm. Actually, I can't find a reason why that's a bad example. Fine magic is like balloon animals, and you need to learn how to inflate the balloon before you start twisting it."

"Alright," Ramona muttered.

"Now, this is very important, don't try and experiment with your mana, and don't create anything if you do it wrong. The mana will just explode, and you'll injure yourself. You are to only learn how to pull mana from your body. Do you understand?"

"Yep, ill be fine," Ramona said as she started to play with threads of mana.

"Alright, head on outside. We don't need you underfoot. When you get used to pulling mana from your body, come back, and we can go over your next lesson."

"Uh-huh," Ramona said distractedly.

Julius smiled as Ramona wandered outside, already trying to and failing to touch the thread of mana.

"That is so cute," Dicks voice cut into Julius' good mood like a hot knife through butter. Julius turned to see Dick giving him a shit-eating grin.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"You know you really missed your calling. You should have been a teacher." Dick teased him.

"Shut up," Julius shot back.

🜄🜍🜗🝂🝊🜕🜚🜪

Ramona spent nearly two hours outside the house, playing with her magic while the werewolves patrolled around the house, paying her no mind. Julius remained inside, trying to gather more clues from the crazy man's ramblings. She wasn't sure which of them was crazier, Julius or the crazy guy.

Ramona played with her wand, feeling the power within her response. It was definitely an odd feeling. she could feel a lump of power, mana, in her body. The wand pulled out a minuscule amount of power from that lump, just a tiny string worth that flowed out of the wand. It was exhilarating, and she wanted more.

She pushed on the lump, on the magic inside her, trying to pull out the pool of power inside of her and impose it on the world. The mana inside her started to move, and the string that the wand produced grew thicker and thicker. She felt powerful, she felt …

BANG!!!

The wand exploded. Ramona was showered with splinters as the wand ruptured from having far too much mana forced into it.

"Ouch," Ramona squeaked as the splinters left tiny cuts across her skin.

At that moment, when her mana was simply moving around her with no direction, Ramona instinctively wished her skin was tougher, and her mana responded.

She felt a pleasant heat wrap around her skin as the mana rippled over her. She watched in mixed awe and horror as her caramel skin darkened and took on a more wooden texture.

Ramona stared at her body in shock. What the hell had she just done to herself?! Was this permanent?! Should she go get Julius? What should she do? She finally settled on not panicking in front of everyone.

She poked her skin. It felt off, not wrong, just different, like she was touching wood. But it didn't hurt. She tried pinching the skin but found her skin didn't just look like wood; it felt like she was trying to pinch a tree. She was interpreted from her musings as the crazy man screaming out in fright.

"There’s no hiding! There's no hiding! There's no hiding from them!"

The shutters rattled as the wind started to pick up, and the trees pecked at the side of the house. Ramona looked up, her magic completely forgotten as storm clouds approached and the sound of the thunder drew closer.

Then a howl ripped through the night, followed by barking and whimpering. Ramona immediately realized it was coming from the cute sled dogs; something must have happened to them. She walked off to the barn where they had stored the dogs.

Her every step was echoed by the soft crunch crunch of the snow, the crackle of lighting, the howl of the wind, and the cry of the dogs. Ramona crept her way over to the door of the barn, which was rattling and shaking violently as if there was something on the inside pounding on it.

Bang, BANG, BANG!!!

Ramona carefully lifts the latch unlocking the door, and several of the dogs bolt out of the barn running towards the woods and are gone.

Inside, the high-pitched whistling noise that bugs made became all-encompassing. Ramona turned on her flashlight inside to see one of the dog's bodies on the floor. Several insects were moving over it, eating the while it was still alive. They were some bizarre type of bug that had a strange form, like fungus with multiple sets of wings. they flew unlike any insect Ramona had ever seen before. The insects, if she could even call them that, were taking bites out of the body of the dog, yapping up the blood swarming upon it like locusts, and they were ripping the flesh right from the bone.

Ramona felt her heart drop into her stomach. Her inside churned at the sickening sight before her as she felt her dinner come back up.

🜇🜑🜛🜥🜹🝍🝕🝡

Julius walked out of the boarded house, he was tired of being cooped up, and he needed a smoke. Taking out one of the larger cigars he favoured, he lit it with a simple application of magic. He was just puffing up when he noticed Ramona was missing.

"Where's Ramona?" he asked one of his wolves.

"Eh, some of the sled dogs were barking earlier. The girl ran off to investigate."

"You let the rookie go off alone?!" Julius asked, enraged.

"Uuuuuum," the werewolf hemed.

For a brief second, Julius considered just shooting the man. It would be so easy, But he disgraced.

"You're going back to basic training when we get back," Julius stated.

Julius turned to go after Ramona but stopped as heard something. The sound of the oncoming storm started to change. it was clearer, and he could hear a heavy hum, almost like the plague of locusts he had dealt with back in Egypt.

"What's that sound?" the wolf asked as he rested his hand on his gun.

"Get everyone back in the house!" Julius ordered as the realization of what was coming hit him.

Julius was about to follow up on his orders when Ramona ran around the corner, racing to them at a full sprint screaming at the top of her voice in a full panic.

"GET BACK IN THE HOUSE. GET THE FUCK BACK IN THE HOUSE. DON'T BE OUTSIDE!!!"

As Ramona sprinted towards them, a black cloud passed over the town, blocking out the moonlight and the stars until there was only the black. The swarm descended on them. Instantly Ramona was overtaken by the swarm, disappearing under a cloud of black as the insect swarm attacked.

The werewolves howled in pain as the insects began to feast on them like a pack of flying piranhas.

"Dick, get all the wolves inside and lock the doors!! NOW!!" Julius screamed as he dived into the swarm, looking for Ramona.

The disturbing locusts landed on Julius' body and painfully bit down into his flesh before immediately dropping dead as they sampled his highly toxic biology. Even with the locusts dropping dead, Julius quickly found himself covered in his own blood. Any exposed flesh was bitten into with an unnatural ferocity.

"Ramona!! Ramona!!" Julius called.

But she didn't answer.

Julius stumbled forward, searching for where he thought she was based on where she had been. With every passing second, Julius felt his hope for finding her alive getting smaller and smaller.

Just as he was about to give up and head back, the world exploded around him. Blood-red vines lashed out wildly, slaughtering the insects and sending Julius crashing into a house as one of the larger vines slammed into his chest.

Julius failed wildly as he pulled himself from the wreckage of the building and stopped, stunned at the scene in front of him. The wildly thrashing red vines were accented by purple-white flowers spewing a powerful neurotoxin into the air. The bugs that had been attacking them were dying by the hundreds, and at the centre of the murder plants was Ramona curled up into a ball as the plants slaughtered her enemies.

"Corpse Blooms and Blood Vine," Julius muttered, recognizing the horrific combination of plant magic.

Blood vines liked to grow out of living creatures and then tear open the flesh of other organisms before implanting more blood vines in their victims. Corpse blooms, on the hand, were flowers that bloomed out of dead bodies and produced a number of deadly airborne paralytic neurotoxins. They would paralyze them, victims, for hours before the poison eventually cut off their ability to breathe. Together they became something akin to a natural disaster.

The Locusts seemed equally aware of how deadly the two plants were as they immediately flew as far away as possible as blood vines tried to rip them out of the sky and eat them.

Any of the Locuts that somehow avoided the vines dropped out of the sky from the poison and were eaten more slowly.

The only reason Julius was even alive was his biology and training as an alchemist. gave him immunity to most poisons.

Shortly after the plants stopped slaughtering the bugs, they started to slow down. Without any new victems they had nothing left to fuel there slaughter. Almost a minute later the plants started to wither and wilt..

Now that the blood vines weren’t trying to kill him, Julius moved to retrieve Ramona. His heart was heavy as he prayed that she had somehow survived her experience with the bugs.

The bugs took that moment to turn right around and charged at Ramona.

"Oh shit," Julius swore as he shot towards the prone and bloody form Ramona Vasquez.