He let out a gasp as the squeaking cry was cut short by its cruel destination.

The sizzling pop the fire made sent a shiver down his spine, and the way Sariel casually dusted her tunic and sat back down only stoked his fears.

"That..." Cody said, pointing at a stray wing that had landed on the hot stones. "Is a- was a fairy."

Sariel stopped, looking at the sizzling campfire. "That's a fairy? I seen plenty of those then." She replied, letting out a gasp of excitement as she held up her finger to pause the conversation. She pulled her bag close, shooing away the crow as it pecked at her sleeve. "Been buzzing at me all day, hurts when they poke ya." She gripped a stick jutting out of the bag. "So I made this."

Cody sat aghast as she pulled the contraption out of her bag. A foraged stick a little bigger than her forearm, with a crude paddle fitted to its top, spread wide and made from tightly woven grass. It looked far from deadly to someone Cody's size, but judging by the amount of residual magic spattered across it, it had recently sealed the fate of a hefty number of Klare Blume.

"Works great!" Sariel continued, oblivious to Cody's horror as she did a practice swing and it cut through the air with a sharp whistle. "Was callin it a fly swatter, but since you're saying them flies are fairies, suppose we can change the name to a fairy swatter."

Hord'anne grunted curiously, daintily pinching the fairy swatter between his thumb and index to copy Sariel's movements.

Cody stuck up his hand when Hord'anne tried to offer it to him. "That is... so..." He paused, staring at the residual magic dripping off the swatter. Something felt odd as soon as she slam-dunked their ill-prepared guest into an inferno. His heart had sped up. Fear at first, but now, a curiousity. The same curiousity he had felt from his goddess. Had this woman walked into a fairy domain with the sole goal of pissing them all off? Why? Had she no shame?

Preying on the weak like that was a horrible thing to do.

He stopped, processing his feelings. It was a villainous thing to do. Not quite his style, he liked the thrill of a fight and jeering banter, but who was he to judge? A smile touched his lips. "So... Evil."

Sariel's smile grew with his. "You like it?"

"I love it." Cody replied, his excitement quickly deadpanning as he motioned to the quiet woods. "But they'll probably try to kill us while we sleep." He shifted his hand to his spell book, tapping his nails on it with buzzing excitement as he met Sariel's gaze. "Unless..."

Sariel nodded, grabbing her bag and springing to her feet. "We leave!"

Cody watched her stamp out the fire, confused more than ever before. He exchanged a look with Hord'anne, the beast gulping down the last bit of deer bones piled around him before hurriedly rolling to his feet. He sighed at the signal to get going, strapping his spellbook back to his side, and coming up on Sariel's side to fight his case.

"We're not going to..." he waved his hands nonsensically, trying to pluck the rest of his sentence out of thin air. "Kill their leader if they have one? Light the whole domain on fire?"

Sariel considered his ideas as she twirled the fairy swatter in her hand, or at least, pretended to. "Very good point Cody, be a shame if anybody else got stung by the little buggers... But what if we gotta come back here for a bath?"

"I mean, that seems unlikely..."

"Be a shame too. Fire is a real dangerous thing. My village was burnt to the bone a few days back, hate to see it happen here too. Poking fairies aside, it's nice to look at." She smiled, stopping to prick a little white flower from a stone-edged flower bed. "Promised Maddison I'd be at Bervolt by next mornin' too."

Cody pondered her reasoning, "So that's your tactic." He said, "Nonsensical violence. You kill a bunch of them like an angry, merciless god, and never give a reason. And then you vanish, maybe to return, maybe not. But you leave an awful, sinking fear with them that they will pass down for generations. That is incredibly cruel. Genius!"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Hord'anne grunted in agreement at the praise for their new companion.

Sariel bounced her head from side to side, she didn't quite know what Cody was talking about, but he was very passionate about it. Hearing people happily yammer on about this and that always excited Sariel. Whenever she met people like Cody, she would come out of those conversations with a new discovery or exciting story to tell her friends. Although he looked quite different from the few strangers that would pass by her village with a story or two, Cody had that same tone to him.

She turned to him, content with his excitement. "You like talking, Cody."

His shoulders sank a bit as he awkwardly looked around. "Oh sorry... I guess I didn't have to explain it."

She punched his shoulder, earning a small squeak of pain. "Don't you worry none about it, I like talking too! Been travelling the better half of five days with Maddison. He don't talk much unless I tickle him real hard with conversation." She jutted her thumb at the bird on her shoulder. "His friend Crow talks more than him."

"That's his?"

"His friend, right you are. No kebabs out of this meaty boy, but he's a sweetheart."

Cody paid Crow a friendly smile, flinching away when the bird tried for another peck at his ear. The familiar wasn't hers, and yet it had stayed lively despite being hours away from the caster. Holding a spell like that was a fair feat. This Maddison fellow was seeming like quite the spellcaster to Cody, and while the crow's ill manners did put him off a little bit, Sariel's friendliness was something he would be banking on if he wanted to meet them. If they planned on attacking Bervolt, there was no harm in taking notes.

And so began their journey. Sariel hummed a repeating tune as she tried to balance on Hord’anne’s shoulder. The beast had been insistent on offering her a ride, and she was getting used to sitting like a little parrot as they exited the manicured forest.

She had set out a small hand-drawn map to point out her destination. A larger town that Cody had avoided on his journeys south. People didn’t take well to Hord’anne, and he didn’t have the energy to fight them off when he had to keep on his toes and save his energy for Alina’s next orders.

But Alina had been vague in her demand. Follow her. That was as direct as it was ambiguous in its intentions. He would have to wait until morning to hear her next words, if she had any. The crystal had energy too, and he had exhausted it with his constant panicked pestering.

They reached the edge of the woods, evening encroaching upon the foothills below them. The town, a speck on the horizon, was distinguished by a pointed tower with bright orange shingles that sat inside of it. An easy marker. If they travelled through the night, they would be there by sunset, as Sariel had been rather vocal about. It would have been a lot easier with a teleportation spell, but Sariel cocked her head with the familiar look of confusion when he asked if she knew one. He couldn't use his spells, he hadn't stepped foot in the town, and it was far from a stone's throw away.

Cody pulled out his spell book, about to cite a spell that would at least ease their travel downwards, when a light lit the parchment.

Sharp, bright, and golden as it danced across the black ink. He ripped his attention from the words, gazing out at the golden light that shot into the sky. It had come from the general vicinity of Bervolt, rising like a giant arrow and bursting into a million shimmering splinters that flew out in the shape of a soaring bird and withered into the sky.

Sariel gasped with delight at the show, pointing it out to Hord’anne who was just as enamored by the twinkling lights.

Cody stood with a new sense of unease.

It was so far. He couldn’t see the magic beyond its visual effect. But it wasn’t one made to harm.

The size of it meant it was likely prepared in a magical artifact, and the way it lit up the sky demanded attention from all around.

“What do you suppose that was?” Sariel piqued. “I’ve seen streaks in the sky before, but they’ve never come from the ground like that! Do you think it will happen again?”

Cody stared at the silhouette of the town, brow furled. “I don’t think it will…”

Sariel hummed with disappointment. “Well, we could ask em to do it again when we get there. That bird was real pretty.”

Cody nodded, barely listening to her words as he thought. The spell was either a signal to attack, or it was an SOS. He wasn’t in the business of saving souls, it was bad marketing on his part. But, he wasn’t against taking notes. Whoever spurred the need for that spell could very well be a villain to observe and learn from. People watch. He looked up at Sariel. "Would your friend Maddison be at Bervolt by now?"

She frowned, tapping her chin and counting her fingers. "Maybe if he got Horse to run like those others we met." She kicked her feet out, a smug look flashing across her face, "But Horse makes awful noises when he sits on him too much. Same noises the Bristlebacks would make when I tried ridin em, Medila was never fond of that."

"Well, then I suppose we should make sure we catch up." Cody smiled. "The morning is more than doable."

"Danger!" Crow shrieked, startling the group as the bird dived from the sky and landed on Hord'anne's other shoulder. It looked down at Cody, shuffling its feet to turn its head and lock one beady black eye on him. "Groooup?"