Mira walked along the rocky road silently. She paid close attention to Jonen’s breathing. When he drifted asleep, she relaxed and untensed her muscles. With him asleep, she could use her magic more freely. A smoky mist spread from her over the road as she concentrated on her surroundings. Just like the wraith, the mist calmly wafted above the ground.

It did its job: scare the lesser beings away to keep them out of danger.

Mira could feel the small, scurrying creatures running away from the road as the cart rolled towards them. Her senses heightened and she moved cautiously. She wondered why exactly she agreed to travel with the man. Her master ordered her to burn down the cottage and find him.

Though Mira logically knew that her master would disagree with her actions, there was nothing more than a mild tingle from her branding as she made decisions. Isaan would be furious if he found them, but she knew her master would command her to run similar tasks when they met again. She just wanted to do one good thing and help the kind knight. She did not want many things, but this was something she could hide easily if she found Isaan before he found her.

Mira let the dark mist guide her across the road as she pondered about Jonen. Why didn’t he remember her by now? She expected him to not remember her fully after a few months. All the books she read about memory loss said after eating a few meals, he could start to remember her. He had watched her continuously but had otherwise not tried to harm her in any way. She correctly remembered him as kind, but he was much less talkative than when they first met –which she appreciated.

Constantly slipping into conversation bothered her because he didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t answer most of his questions and did not trust him enough to answer others. Her master approved books on casual conversations to mimic, but none mentioned any scenarios similar enough to theirs for her to use. He seemed an odd mixture of bored, annoyed, threatened, and scared.

When Mira felt a large paw step into the mist behind them, she slowed the cart to a stop and waited. More paws stepped into the mist. Mira waited until she could feel its path towards them before jumping to the cart and crouching on top of a wooden crate.

Jonen’s eyes shot open when a low growl filled the air. He sat up and looked for Mira immediately. Panic spread over him when he couldn’t see her. He reached for the rusted sword on the cart when her small hand settled on his. He jerked to see Mira with a finger pressed against her lips. Her awkward perched angle confused him until she curled her finger. He leaned towards her after another snapping twig broke the otherwise silent night.

“We are being hunted,” She calmly whispered in his ear as she crawled into the cart over him, “Can you move under the cart?”

“What’s hunting us?” He tried to look around her, but she kept herself between him and the noises.

She grabbed his hair and forced him to face her and keep his attention on her. Jonen blinked at the gentle snatch.

“I need you to get under the cart,” Sher narrowed her eyes, clearly annoyed, “Do you need help or not?”

“I should be fine,” He shook his head, “What’s hunting us?”

“Something large,” Mira let go of his head, “There’s been rumors of isle monsters. I have not seen one in some time, but I want to be prepared.”

Jonen froze. He heard that isle beasts were spotted in eastern Zrud. He never expected to see one, let alone be hunted.

“Are we hiding until it passes?” Jonen looked over face for any sign of concern.

“I will be fine. I am more concerned it will grab you and run. I cannot leave my master’s things behind to chase after it.”

“Why would you say that?” His voice cracked in panic when a low growling sound crept towards them, “Never mind, I’ll get under the cart.”

“I want you to be prepared,” She cocked her head to the side as she stepped down from the wagon, “I will handle the beast when I find it.”

As Mira walked to a nearby rock, Jonen lowered himself from the wagon. She met his gaze and her amber eyes almost seemed to glow in the night. They nodded to each other before Jonen used his good arm to drag himself to his hiding place to obscure the beast’s view of him. All he could do was trust that the woman knew what she was doing. He watched as she perched herself on the rock as a bird would on a branch.

Mira waited patiently for the beast to take the bait. Jonen still smelled lightly of blood, like a wounded animal. When another twig snapped closer to the wagon, she mutely landed on the ground. As she protectively circled the cart, Jonen watched her transform from her icy stoicism to a hunched over, nearly feral woman. She frantically ran her hands through her sweaty and matted hair to poof it out and appear larger. Some of the smaller curls clung tightly to her face as her wild eyes scanned their surroundings. The worn strands of fabric on her tunic and stained pants looked more atrocious under the moonlight.

As the growls became closer, Mira bared her teeth and growled back. She dared it to attack her. Jonen did not understand what she was doing, besides egging the monster on.

When six pointed legs landed between her and the cart, Jonen manically gripped the wheel. The rusty sword lazily traced the ground behind Mira as she stalked around the beast.

A musky, stale breath sniffed at the cart above him. Jonen bit his lip before looking over to Mira. She grunted loudly to catch its attention. He watched the large, insect legs adjust to turn the creature to face her. They tapped against the ground as it rotated to view her.

The monster was a deadly fusion of a large insect and larger feline. A fluffy, pointed tail melded into a scaly thorax. Its long, pointed legs with grossly thick hairs clattered against the ground as the beast examined its new opponent. The feline shaped face was covered in dozens of spidery eyes and its large mandibles opened into jagged teeth. Its salivating mandibles clacked together before opening to growl at Mira. She cackled loudly at it in response

It was at that moment that Jonen inherently understood he was about to die.

He did not believe that there was any possible way this small woman, nearly two heads shorter than him, could use a rusted sword to slay that thing. It was larger than the cart, easily. He knew a monster like that could kill at least five men before they landed a killing blow.

Fortunately for him, Mira already knew she could slay this beast.

She erected herself to stand at full height. Her confidence bled into the air around her. The spidery cat-eyes narrowed and focused on her as she sneered. She knew she could easily slay the monster as the wraith, but it may be fun to try the fight in her own skin.

As her posture changed, the beast stepped curiously towards her. Jonen gasped as her foot swung around to kick the monster firmly between the clusters of eyes. It hissed and caught her foot in its mandibles. She laughed and grabbed one of them before bringing her other foot up to collide with the top of the monster’s head. It growled and released her foot. She flipped backwards, landed on her feet, and lifted the rusty blade to fight.

She bared her teeth and loudly growled at the creature, “Mine.”

The beast seemingly understood Mira’s intention and growled back. The long tail whipped around to collide with her torso. She ducked and spun inwards to strike the beast with her blade. A leg stomped to pin her to the ground. She twirled to the side, but the leg snagged the fabric of her shirt and ripped it.

“I only have another one of these,” She angrily told the beast, “Get on with it.”

It hissed back at her. She swung the sword at the beast’s leg as she concentrated heat into her right hand. If she timed it right, Mira could scare the beast off. She dodged each attack gracefully and met each one with a rebuttal.

Jonen watched as her off hand glowed. She dodged the biting and thrashing beast with a poise he never imagined her to have. He was thankfully surprised and grateful for his new life expectancy. Though, he still didn’t believe she could kill the thing.

When Mira slashed her blade towards the fleshy part of its thorax, the beast grabbed her arm in its mandibles. She smirked as the beast fell for her trap. Her glowing hand reached for a handful of disgusting fur on the creature’s face.

The horrendous screech echoed into the night as its face lit up. It dropped Mira’s arm and lowered itself to the ground to kick dirt into its flaming face. The thrashing knocked Mira’s sword away from her. Instead of retrieving it, she jumped upwards and slammed her head into a cluster of the creature’s eyes.

With its eyes burned, it stepped backwards to reveal jagged teeth. Mira responded with nonsensical yelling and grunts. She moved between the creature and the cart and scared it away from Jonen. He watched as she clapped her hands together and braced herself.

“I will make you leave,” She growled.

Mira knew she was too weak to track the thing down to kill it properly. She had to do something large enough to get rid of it. She forced all her heat into her hands to produce a large flames ball between them. Streaks of blues and white swirled around her as she concentrated on the heat. She slowly pushed her hands towards her abdomen to morph the wildfire into a ball twice her width. The ball launched towards the monster and the flames splashed over it like water onto a rocky beach.

Jonen’s eyes widened at the severity of the spell. He knew she was a mage but had no idea of her power. With Isaan being a famed flame elementalist, he wasn’t surprised she could cast simple spells involving the element. He just never saw a spell that large come from anyone, without a staff or wasn’t considered a master mage.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Mira craved the energy from the mask in her bag on the cart. The vigor from the wraith seemed endless. In her own skin, there was never enough mana. Her consciousness slipped away as the monster shrieked and sprinted off. Cold washed over her as she collapsed to the stone ground beneath her.

“Mira!” Jonen yelled as she crumpled.

He quickly crawled towards her. When he crossed the discarded sword, he threw it back towards the cart for later. His stitched arm ached as he made his way to her. When his hand grabbed her arm and felt her skin, he feared the worst.

Most elemental mages practiced carefully. They pulled energy from the environment and their casters. The cold night air around them gave the spell nothing to pull from but Mira’s own body.

He quickly scanned her over for any other-life threatening injuries. The slashes and puncture wounds from the short battle littered her skin –matching the already dreaded scars she had. He blinked as he realized the wounds had already started to heal. Jonen tried to shake her awake, but her body lay motionless next to him.

“Goddess, Vanora,” He propped himself up and pulled Mira towards him, “Give me strength.”

The stitches in his stomach and groin ripped open as he dragged her onto his lap. He wrapped his bad arm around her waist to keep her against him. His body shrieked from the pain as he slowly crawled back to the cart. The pain blurred his vision as he settled at the base of the wagon.

Jonen knew wouldn’t be able to pull her up there by himself. He clamored to his feet and grabbed a handful of blankets to drag them to the ground. He huffed and wheezed violently as he regained his breath from his frantic movements. He propped himself against the wheel and tried to feel for any pulse on her.

“She’s cold. Think, Jonen,” He whispered to himself.

He took his shirt off and pulled her against him. Mira felt icy against his chest. With the burning sensation on the reopened wounds, it almost felt nice. Jonen threw the blankets over them and held her closely to warm her up. He felt a warm wetness and put his hand between them. When he brushed against his stomach, he cursed and pulled back to see the blood oozing out of him and onto her clothes.

When he looked at the bloodstain on her shirt, he blinked as it disappeared. He lifted the back of her shirt and saw it spread across her skin until it disappeared. His eyes shifted wildly until he realized that her skin seemed to soak up his blood like a sponge. He placed a bloody hand against her bare skin and watched in horror as the handprint absorbed into her skin.

“Blood mage?” His hand shook, “She… she’s a blood mage?”

His vision blurred heavily –either from the revelation or from the excursion to pull Mira back to the cart. He gripped her tightly against him to try and warm her as he slipped into unconsciousness.

The next thing Jonen knew, whispers surrounded him. His eyes popped open in panic, and he searched for the sword. The cart was surrounded by feral looking men. He didn’t know why he was back on the wagon but grabbed the sword near him and clamored backwards. As he looked around the group, some of the men laughed and others just rolled their eyes.

An older man looked to him as he scratched his graying beard. He turned his head back to the group and spoke in a language Jonen did not recognize. His tone did not seem harmful or dangerous. Jonen looked around to try and see if Mira was nearby. When he couldn’t find her, he looked back to the man in front of the group.

“Merawl,” The man pointed at him then the cart, “Stay.”

Jonen sighed in relief when the man spoke some dwarven, albeit poorly and with an accent that made it hard to understand.

“Mira? She’s okay?”

The man replied with a grunt.

Jonen looked over the group and noticed all wore simple traveler’s clothes without any shoes. He winced at the thought of traveling through mountainous Zrud without shoes. Some of the men near him carried simple daggers tucked into their belts, but most carried nothing at all. If they knew Mira, then they probably weren’t the bandits she spoke of earlier. Did she trust them enough to leave him there?

He dropped the grip from sword and relaxed, “Do you know where she went?”

“Is hunt,” The man grunted, “Food.”

“Do you know when she’ll be back?”

The man furrowed his brow as he tried to think of the words to say. Instead, he shook his head and looked back to Jonen.

“Jonen,” He pointed to himself.

The older man followed suite, “Delpho.”

Delpho pointed to each man and said their names. Jonen nodded and tried to move himself to the edge of the cart. When he reached for the staff, Delpho placed a hand firmly against his chest.

“Merawl,” Delpho struggled to find the words, “Men stay.”

“She wants me to stay here?” He looked around and saw a small village further down the road from them.

Delpho grunted and twirled a finger to show he meant everyone, “Men stay.”

Jonen relaxed and looked past them to the small human village. The children babbled about in the unknown language as their mothers chased them inside tiny huts. Women gathered buckets of water from the well in the center of the huts. One girl in a tattered dress snuck around a group of women and children and strode up proudly to Delpho. The older man frowned and bent down to her level to talk to her. She cupped a hand over his ear and whispered something as her finger pointed to Jonen. The looming man grunted once before picking up the girl and placing her on the cart next to him.

“Daddy Delpho says you know Mira?” The girl smiled.

She was the first one he heard say her name as he knew it. And the first one that didn’t have a heavy accent. The girl, likely six or seven, swayed her feet from the wagon’s edge as she waited for him to reply. The bundle of black hair drew from her crystal blue eyes as she stared at him.

“Yes, I know her. We’re traveling together.”

“She’s near then!” Her gap-toothed grin made Jonen chuckle.

“She’s helping me get to the temple.”

The girls grin only widened as her head turned to Delpho, “That means I could go too!”

Delpho snorted at her, “Merawl.”

two bickered in the unknown language before the sassy child put her hand over her father’s face. He laughed and shook his head. She stuck her tongue out at the man before turning back to the half-elf.

“I’m Jonen,” He smiled back at her.

“Tella!” She held her hand out for an informal greeting, “Daddy Delpho runs the village. Him and Mama Reyla are my new parents.”

Delpho chuckled and replied to something the girl said. She giggled before looking back at Jonen. She stuck a finger on the insignia on his tunic.

“He wants to know what this means?” Tella’s legs swung from her seat on the edge of the cart.

“Oh, I’m a Travel Knight. I’m in a group of soldiers that helps protect people all over,” He smiled, “It’s my job to make sure people are safe, wherever I go.”

“Oh! That sounds like something Pallik would like!” She looked back to the group and parroted Jonen’s words in the language they understood.

“Pallik talk?” Delpho shrugged, “Merawl here. Maybe friend.”

Tella jumped from the cart and ran excitedly back towards the group of huts further down the road. A few moments later, she came back dragging another person. The boy was taller, perhaps in his teen years from the scattering of acne about his face. He had the matching inky black hair and crystal blue eyes of his little sister.

“Pallik! Mira brought a friend!” Tella clapped her hands as she excitedly pulled him towards the cart, “He’s a knight that travels like you want to!”

“Tella,” The boy rolled his eyes, “I said I wanted to travel with Mira, not some… guy.”

“Jonen,” He held his hand out.

The teen eyed him suspiciously before he waved a dismissive hand, “Pallik. Delpho, where’s Mira?”

“Hunt,” The man grunted, “Men stay.”

“She’ll be back soon enough, then,” Pallik grinned, “I can’t wait to see her.”

Tella said something in a teasing voice, but Jonen could understand what she said. Pallik’s cheeks turned red, and he chased her around the cart. The group of men laughed at Tella’s singsong teasing and Pallik’s attempts to grab her to stop. Jonen got the impression that this was a common occurrence between the siblings. Tella jumped onto the cart and slipped. As she fell, her foot struck Jonen’s ankle. He yelped in pain, and she stopped to look at him.

“Do you need healing?” She looked towards the splint and examined it, “This doesn’t look good.”

“Yes. We’re heading to the temple to get the healers to fix my ankle and other injuries.”

Tella looked up with a devilish grin as if a cat had trapped a mouse. Pallik and the other men laughed as Jonen wondered what she was staring at him for.

“Goddess help you,” Pallik laugh, “Did you anger Mira? Why would she bring you here?”

“Mira says I’m not allowed to practice on anyone but her yet!” Tella got to her feet and stomped over towards her brother, “She might let me, though!”

The color drained from Jonen’s cheeks. A mage that young couldn’t have any control over their power yet. He knew that firsthand. As her body grew, her magic would either strengthen or fade. Most mages didn’t start practicing until they were at least fifteen to have some resemblance of stable powers.

“I doubt she believes in you that much,” Pallik crossed his arms, “I mean, look at him.”

“Have you been practicing with your sword?” Tella stuck her tongue out at her brother, “I’ve at least been practicing on the animals!”

“Yes, and Ma’s cow still has a limp… And who am I supposed to practice with? Delpho? Mikel? I’m already better than everyone here!” He threw his hands in the air, “I hoped Mira would visit more after giving me the sword, but it’s been almost six months.”

The children openly bickering in front of everyone bewildered Jonen. Then, he realized that most of them probably could not understand what they were saying. Most sibling squabbles were cut short immediately in his village. Delpho, on the other hand, openly laughed with the others at the pair.

The older man spoke to them and swished his fingers back and forth. Pallik rolled his eyes, but the children took two paces from each other. Delpho walked up and playfully patted each of their shoulders before talking again. Pallik and Tella turned to bicker at each other more but were interrupted.

“You two are more trouble then you’re worth, apparently,” Mira’s voice came from the other side of Delpho, “You’re bickering in front of the whole village. What’s gotten into you?”

“Mira!” Tella shouted and ran to her with arms wide open.

Mira dropped what was in her hands before Tella slammed into her. Her dark cloak hid most of her sweat and blended her into the dark environment well. Jonen searched her for any sign of the previous fight. To his surprise, her shirt under the cloak was the only thing clawed open. How long ago had that fight been?

Tella wrapped her arms around Mira’s waist as the honey-eyed woman waited for her to settle down. Delpho bent an arm towards Mira. She grinned and wrapped her forearm around his before they shook them, much like hands. They said something in unison before she snatched the head of the monster and handed it to Delpho. Tella excitedly babbled away to Mira in the odd language as they walked back to the cart. The men began grabbing boxes from around Jonen and carrying them to the village.

“Where are we?” He looked to Mira, “How did we get here?”

“This is the crossroads village,” She responded, “The spell I used took more out of me than I thought. Once I warmed up, I woke up and walked here. I gathered them to move the cart.”

“Then… you went back and killed it?”

“Yes,” She scrunched her nose, “I burned its eyes, so it didn’t get very far.”

Jonen did not understand why he was the only one that seemed to think that was a bad idea. The men around them seemed indifferent on her dragging a monster’s head. It baffled him.

“Why would you go back to fight that thing? Do you know how dangerous that—” He looked over her before she rolled her eyes.

“I help them,” Mira gestured to the men carrying boxes towards the group of huts, “In return, they help me.”

“Help them?” Jonen looked around, “What exactly would they need help for?”

“Bandits, monsters, slavers,” She plainly stated before tussling the young girl’s hair, “If the army heard of an attack on this village, they wouldn’t dispense any troops or send anyone to help.”

“She saves the whole village!” Tella boasted, “She protects us from bad monsters like that one all the time!”

“A tale for another time, perhaps,” Mira chuckled, “It’s way pass your bedtime. Shouldn’t you be helping Reyla if you’re awake?”

The girl frowned, “I don’t want to help Ma. I want to heal his ankle.”

She cartoonishly matched the girl’s frown, “You haven’t been able to heal bone before. What makes you think I would let you try on him?”

Much like a child, she stomped around and mumbled under her breath. Mira ignored her completely before she walked to the cart and helped Jonen down. Pallik eyed him as Mira handed him the staff to brace himself with.

“Tonight, you can sleep in a bed,” She helped him take a few steps, “We’re staying with Delpho and Reyla.”

“You trust them?” Taken back by his own words, he explained further, “I mean, I’ve been traveling with you, and you don’t seem to trust anyone.”

Her face darkened as she stared towards the village, “Delpho knows better.”

“Why do you say that?” He limped beside her.

Mira looked to the group of men carrying boxes to the barn behind Delpho’s hut, “I gifted them things that they could never ask for. Why would he betray me when I could take it away in an instant?”