Each footstep sinks into the sand a little as Maury makes her way down the beach toward the green band in the distance. The cliff slopes down to join the rest of the ground as she walks and the ocean curves away. The carrot dowser points steadily toward the Northeast. There is no urgency in it's tug, so their next stop is some distance off.

Neumann sits quietly on her shoulder, and she can feel his eyes boring into the side of her head. When her feet are on grass again, she drops her bag and flops down on the non sandy surface. First stream she finds she is going to take a good bath. Get all this sand out of...areas. Her mind drifts, and sleep pulls at her, but her companion is determined to keep that from happening.

"So you think a human stole the carrots?" He asks in a not very thinly disguised accusatory manner. "They escaped the ogres and dumped all but two in that cave?"

"I don't care, Newfangled. I'm tired, let me nap."

"Neumann! Neumann!" His almost completely weightless body plops down on her chest. "The last two can't be far. Why are we stopping here?"

"Leave me alone!" Maury shouts, swiping the blob off of her chest. "I want to rest for a few minutes! I have been the one doing all the work here, I am tired! I just need a little bit of rest, and then we can finish this, and I can get the stupid money to pay for your stupid stuff, and I can go home and sleep on my stupid bed!"

"If it's stupid, then why -"

Lightning touches down in jagged lines as a wordless scream fills the space. Neumann jumps out of the way of the bolts that are hitting indiscriminately around them.

"What was that! Did you just try to electrocute me?"

"I didn't mean to," Maury whispers, rolling onto her side in a ball. "I just need to rest. Just... leave me alone for a few minutes, please."

She can feel his eyes on her again, but she ignores it and concentrates on soothing the magic around her. Behind cold stone walls it is so much easier, especially with all the dampeners the school has all over the place. The only reason she bothered to sign up there to begin with was to learn just enough to gain some control so she could do whatever she wanted with her life.

The tingling fades from her skin, and she breathes out a sigh of relief, letting herself drift off into a dreamless sleep.

*******

When she wakes up again, the sun has barely moved across the sky, but she feels much more grounded. Maury sits up with a groan, rubbing her still aching head. She wishes she paid more attention in horticulture class so she could go find something to make a good pain reliever tea.

No, that class was boring. If she had to take it again she would just space out again.

Still, she resigns to at least check out a book from the school library on the subject when she gets back.

Pack securely on her back again, she checks the dowser and grimaces before starting off once more. Barely a minute later, a familiar weight lands on her shoulder.

"Were you just going to leave me? Look, I'm sorry for making you angry. Don't just leave me near all those crazy people trying to kill each other!"

She glances at him from the corner of his eye. How did an almost amorphous blob manage to look disconsolate? And why was he concerned about staying with her?

"Oh, because he is waiting for me to turn him back into a human," she answers herself out loud. Directing her words at him next, "It won't be until after I graduate even after I figure it out. If you turn into a human while I am in that building, I can't vouch for your safety."

One extra soul won't be turned down by any student or teacher there. Stab, splat, bye-bye.

"I...yes but -" he sputters, jiggling in place. "You tried to electrocute me and then fell asleep! I was worried, you idiot! But if you are going to kill me then maybe I should leave!"

"Oh." Maury furrows her brows and purses her lips. "I'm sorry. I can usually control it if I concentrate enough, but I was tired, and I'm still hurting a lot."

Whether it is the apology or the fear that she might do it again, Neumann is quiet for some time. They finish crossing the expansive field, walking up a grassy hill and down the other side toward a dark, eerie looking wood. As they approach, they can make out tendrils of fog circling the bases of the trees, creating an all too uninviting atmosphere.

"Do we have to go in there?" He asks as they pause just outside the shadows cast by the woods. They can see the trees bordering it clearly, but everything past the front line is indistinct. "Wait, do you hear that? It sounds like crying."

Maury doesn't answer, looking down at the dowser bone that is pointing straight ahead. Directly toward the sound of distress. Two more carrots, she chants in her head as she steps into the shadows. The quickly vibrating bone and heart-wrenching cries lead them farther in, away from the bright sunshine and into the gloomy twilight beneath tree coverage so thick that sunlight will not get through.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"What...what are those?" Neumann asks a few minutes later when Maury suddenly stops.

"Those are traps. Bait has been set out to pull in bigger prey."

Hanging from the thick, sturdy branches of each tree in front of them are sacks made of knotted ropes. The cries and yells are coming from small faces pressed into the gaps in the traps.

"But, those are children in there!" Neumann exclaims, hopping high in the air to land on the closest trap. The little elf child within flinches back, but there is nowhere to go. So the movement just sets the whole thing swinging back and forth. "Maury, we have to set them free!"

"And how do you expect me to do that?" Maury looks around, counting how many trees have scared, squirming children strung from them. "I don't even have a knife to cut the rope for one, let alone six of these. Just give me a second to think."

"Use your magic! Lightning blade or something!"

"That's not a thing, idiot, and I can't control it so I could end up frying you both."

She walks in a circle, knowing she doesn't have anything in her bag that will help, so she will have to come up with something, some spell that can set the children free without hurting them. And she will have to do it before whomever laid the traps came back. Which, as it turns out, is far less time than she hoped.

"Eh, this is all we caught?"

Maury turns around, summoning one of her clubs with much more ease than she would have thought possible a week ago. Yippee. Four dirty, ragged looking humans are blocking the path that she and Neumann followed while looking for the sounds. The dowsing bone settles into a steady hover, pointing directly at the leader.

"A scrawny looking celestim and a ...is that a slime? Who keeps a slime as a companion?" The head of the group guffaws and the three spread out behind him join in.

"What are they talking about, Maurgeth?" Neumann slips in through one of the gaps and lands in the arms of the little boy inside, who hugs the slime as he looks out at the humans with terrified eyes. The other children seem to be holding their breaths, fear and sadness robbing them of their voices.

"These poop heads are part of a hunting group." She explains, shifting her weight onto her good leg. "They can't fight a full group of any of the other species, so they abduct children and use them as bait to pull in adults. The adults won't use magic since they will be scared of hurting the kids, and they will die easily."

"Better for the whole world if all of you freaks die, isn't it?" The leader asks with a big grin, gaping spaces where teeth have rotted and fallen out exposed. With a wave of his hand, one of the people behind him comes running forward with a yell, knife catching what little light there is as she raises it to bring down on Maury. A dodge and a bonk, and a small turnip lands on the ground where the woman last stood.

"Good job, Maury!" Neumann crows from his spot nestled between the two little arms.

"Shut up, Bob."

"Aww, come on, Maury, that one doesn't even start with an N."

A chorus of screams drowns them out as the remaining three pull out much larger, pointier weapons and brandish them at the purple celestim. But Maury's attention is not on them,it is on the tall, hooded figure that has appeared behind them. Something about it screams power, and her hand droops. If the humans have found an ally outside of their own species... she doesn't think her little vegetable trick can do anything to something that can make the air feel so heavy just by standing there.

"You," a voice calls out, deep and rich and somehow masculine, resonating through Maury's chest. Her fingers tighten on her club, but whoever spoke did not do so to her. The three remaining humans stumble to a halt before turning to face the (now obvious) intruder.

"You have taken our children," the voice continues, no movement ruffling the long cloak covering the figure from head to toe. A glow emerges from the opening, two slits like burning embers from within.

Maury feels her stomach drop to the ground. She releases her club, frantically pulling in everything she can feel around her, every bit of every element that is always playing along her skin. The glow from the hood flares up to rival the surface of the sun and Maury clenches her eyes shut and flings her magic out, whispering every new swear word she has learned from her slime companion these last few weeks. The world goes quiet, and after a moment, the air begins to become stale.

"You can let go, now," a voice whispers in her head, a fluttery tickle across her brain. Maury drops the bubble of magic from around herself. She opens her eyes and looks up to meet the two red, glowing eyes from within the hood, now only a few feet away. The humans lay dead on the ground, the area around them scorched and blackened just like the bones that are all that remain of them. Her hands still outraised, she looks around, relaxing when she counts six hard, swirling orbs of magic where each of the traps was. She releases the magic, dropping to her knees as she does so, almost not registering the cries of happiness that erupt from around her.

Pain radiates out from the knot on her head. Maury lowers it to the ground, wincing as Neumann lands directly in front of her and begins to squeal unintelligible words. "Please, Neumann," she murmurs, swatting ineffectually at him. "I need a minute."

Perhaps shocked by the correct name being said, he goes quiet immediately. When she opens her eyes again, she feels able to sit upright once more, shifting her weight around until her butt is firmly on the ground.

A group of children stand nearby, hovering as though their presence could help her. Little hands reach out and then drop down again, afraid to touch her, but she doesn't know why. Behind them, she can see the hooded figure reaching his hand out toward one last trap, the ropes fraying and dropping the bag to be caught by hands that reach out from within the fabric's folds. The newly released little person runs over to stand with the other children, looking down at her with wide eyes.

"Thank you for saving us," the little elf child she first encountered says, picking up Neumann and hugging him again. The other children repeat his words, soft voices whispering while big eyes stare.

"I wasn't the one who saved you," she responds, rubbing her head lightly.

Neumann looks like he wants to wiggle free, but perhaps he can see the little boy needs the hug, so he sits still. "What happened? Suddenly, you were gone, and we were inside a bubble, and all I could see were all these colors swirling around."

Maury chuckles, the noise dying as she sees the hooded figure facing her from just beyond the clump of children. The glowing eyes are gone , and she can almost make out the strong line of a jaw from within the shadows. "Well, it looks like we were all just saved by a dragon."