Sariel leaned up with an audible sigh, disturbing Cody as she accidentally yanked the small furry blanket they'd been sharing. Cody scrunched up as the morning chill invaded his hearth, groaning in frustration when Hord'anne thumped into the small clearing, hooting with excitement when he saw Sariel awake.

"Good morning Hord'anne!" She cheered, looking down at Cody with a wide grin as he hid his face in his hands, trying to pull the little bonnet he had covered his fiery hair with over his eyes. "We should get breakfast Cody! My tummy's growling louder than Hord'anne!"

"Have fun," Cody mumbled, yanking the blanket back over his shoulders with a snug sigh.

Sariel passively left Cody to finish off his slumber, running over to Hord'anne and crawling up his shoulder to plunk down on it with a giddy cheer.

The beast almost bounced with her enthusiasm, thudding away to the random direction Sariel pointed in for their quest for food. When the silence fully settled, Cody perked up, rubbing his eyes in tired confusion.

"What shall we eat Hord'anne?" Sariel perused, holding her chin as the beast lumbered through the grass, relishing in the perfect chill that had settled with the dawn.

He stared at a family of singing birds, fleeing through the rustling trees from his gaze alone. They had already eaten some bird, so Hord'anne had his attention focused on a light breakfast. Like a seared rabbit and maybe a handful of nuts. Sariel on the other hand, was armed and ready to catch anything with a beating heart and enough meat on its bones to sizzle and crack over the fire, so she predictably leapt at the closest bush when it rustled.

Hord'anne grunted in surprise at her graceful descent from his shoulder, sniffing at the rustling bundle of leaves until Sariel poked out of it, a wriggly bright red lizard in her grasp. "Got one Hord'anne!"

Hord'anne snorted, his eyes twinkling with excitement at her catch, the rising smile suddenly dying as his simple brain recognised the creature. A nuttle. A no Hord'anne, you can't eat that, Nuttle. He sighed in disappointment, causing Sariel to tilt her head.

"Somethin wrong there Hord'anne?" She lifted the lizard up with a huge grin. "The more of these we catch, the faster that piece o' paper will let us into the town. I'm sure they got tons of food!"

Hord'anne's attitude sprang up again at her words. The town was packed with food. Livestock, firewood, and fresh delicious people. He snorted in excitement, smacking his tummy with a chuckling snort as Sariel snapped the lizard's neck and shoved it in his satchel.

"Now then Hord'anne." Sariel gave him a wicked smile. "Where to next?"

Just before the beast could point in another random direction, the two of them stopped at another rustle, larger this time. A glint of murderous excitement crept into Sariel's smile as she leapt at the bush. She saw the small boy huddled in the plant far too late as she landed on the innocent spectator with a loud battle cry.

"Watch it!" A spearing squeak of a voice yelped, the small boy wiggling under her hold and going redder by the second. "Yer fatter than my brother! Lay off me creep!"

Sariel didn't move, shooting Hord'anne a confused smile. "This ain't a lizard, that's real embarrassing, huh, Hord'anne?"

"You mean more embarrassin' than your face?" The boy spat, his mud brown eyes sharpened to daggers as he scowled at Sariel. "I told you to get off me!"

"Told me to lay off ya actually," Sariel hummed, the boy's repetitive order still failing to reach her head. "Sorry bout that, terribly rude of us. Were you sleeping?"

"Get off me!" The boy roared, clawing at the ground as he huffed for air, his arms flailing like he was trying to swim through the dirt. He moved to trying to elbow Sariel's leg instead, coming back with more scratches than success as his arm rubbed against the thick underbrush he had been using as a sanctuary seconds before the rude interruption. "You got a brain? Or are ya jus talking to get the air out of your head?!" The boy gripped a tree root jutting out in front of him, trying to use the anchor as leverage in sliding out from underneath Sariel.

Sariel chuckled at his antics, glancing at Hord'anne as the beast peeked over to poke at the boy's head in curiosity. He looked pretty tender, a bite sized snack to last him through the morning as they collected the last of the paper's demands. Sariel didn't seem to be on the same track as him though.

"Name's Sariel," she said, her voice carrying further than it needed to as the boy squinted at her. "That there's Hord'anne, he's a real sweetheart." She smiled as the boy relaxed his struggle, twisting his head uncomfortably to meet her gaze as he paced his breaths. "Say, you a villain too?"

"Huh?" The boy grimaced in disgust just from the sight of her, his eyes drowned in confusion as he tried to decipher half the things coming out of her mouth. "Name's Tim, get yer arse off me before I light it on fire you witch!"

Sariel gasped, the expected offense simply replaced by excitement as she pulled herself up with a victorious cry. "He's knows I'm a witch! I'm a warlock too! Hord'anne do ya think he's got some magic?!"

Tim watched her, wide eyed with fear as the colour ebbed from his flustered face. "You're a witch?" He shuffled away, pulling his knees up into a protective ball as he whipped a crude dagger from his belt. "Is all this your fault then?" The blade rattled in his grasp, his fingers almost too weak with dread to hold the wooden hilt properly.

Hord'anne growled at Tim's response, grabbing him by the back of his coat to lift the flailing and screaming child up, his arms whipping around as he blindly slashed the air in panicked terror. The beast didn't flinch at the shallow cuts the boy managed to land, lifting him high over his head to crack his mouth open with a curving and famished smile.

The boy shrieked, dropping the dagger and twisting around to cling to Hord'anne's hand as he sobbed for his life, the pitiful wails disturbing the singing morning birds. Sariel watched the scene unfold in silent curiosity, her head hardly reaching the conclusion that Hord'anne was about to have a snack, even as he lowered the child down until his leather wraps for boots were kicking at the beast's stretched lips.

That was, until a powerful voice boomed from behind them.

"Hord'anne!" Cody came bursting through the patch of trees, his voice a hoarse bark that cut through the child's wails and froze Hord'anne in his tracks. "What did I say?" He snapped at the ground for Hord'anne to drop the boy to safety, a cold scowl painting every inch of his face. "No children unless they're already dead."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Hord'anne let out a whining groan, dropping the child with a little toss as he landed on his butt, his arms limply strewn to his sides like a stringless puppet. He erupted into shaking tremors as the tears still silently streaked down his cheeks. Sariel immediately moved to the child's side, still watching him curiously as she tried to hand him a half dead flower to cheer him up.

Cody shook his head with a sigh, barely drawn to the sobbing child as he paced around the grass. "I turn my back for one second." He raised his finger, Hord'anne cringing under his scowl. "One second, Hord'anne!"

Hord'anne let out a defeated whimper.

Cody threw his arms up, his voice rising with burning irritation as he went off on Hord'anne like a scolding parent. "Not to mention the entire town probably heard his wailing! They'll have an army at the gates waiting for us now!"

"Not likely."

Everyone ripped their attention to the small boy, roughly wiping the tears from his cheeks as he sniffled to keep the pools of snot at bay. His voice was still a weakened and dry whisper from the strain of screaming as he looked up at Cody's confused face.

"Not likely at all."

Cody relaxed, his face softening as he stared at the child in prompting silence.

Tim tried to cough out the hard lump in his throat, sucking in a couple peaceful breaths before holding Cody's gaze. "You a Warlock, dirt face?"

Cody's nose scrunched in displeasure. "Dirt face?"

The boy nodded, a toothy grin creeping past the fear. "Ya look like yer covered in dirt, black as a dead firepit. Never seen no one like you."

"That's my skin," Cody spat, throwing up his hand to stop Hord'anne from closing in on the child. He scrunched his nose at the bright red sunburn on his freckled cheeks, noticing more exposure to the elements in the dirt smeared on his cheeks and arms, and crusting his hair that would have otherwise been gold as a haybale. " You look like someone cooked you over the fire."

Hord'anne rubbed his tummy in hungry dismay at the delicious description Cody had tacked on to the boy.

Sariel gasped. "You're both right! I didn't even notice!" She stared at her hands, flipping them repeatedly, then stared at her legs with a giddy smile. "What do I look like?"

"The rear end o' my dog," Tim retorted, quickly receiving a smack upside the head from Cody's small journal.

The child ruffled his hair, shooting Cody an accusing glare. "You do magic, dirt face?"

"Cody."

The child, far too small for his mouth jutted his finger over his shoulder to point at the town, the mysterious accusations still lacing his eyes. "You two do that to my home?"

Cody stared at the town, taking a moment to reflect on the boy's statement. "Do what?"

"Guess not then," Tim grumbled, rising to his feet with a weak wobble. His knees shook like jelly as he tried to take a step past Sariel, fear still clearly riddling his joints.

He dusted off his patchworked pants, only smearing more dirt on the stained fabric with his nearly blackened fingers. The child was almost feral in appearance, his hair matted with mud, and a fine dusting of dirt covering every inch of his skin, more clustered at his collar bone and knobby knees. He had seen some food, but certainly not enough for Cody to consider his complexion healthy. He flicked his dim eyes between the two again, stretching his bony arms with a sigh.

"You two travellers then?" He waited for a nod, going along as Hord'anne bobbed his head. "Wouldn't recommend stopping by the town, everybody's lost their flippin minds. Went outside yesterday and didn't get back in time before mah fake arse mum's shift ended."

"You don't know who's using magic on the town?" Cody replied, his voice deepened to a curious calm as he kept his distance from to child.

"If I knew, dirt face, I woulda stuck em with the stable's poo fork by now. That's the only way to take out horse skat." He searched the dry ground, finally bending over and picking up his small dagger to dust off with a scoff. "If y'all don't mind, I've gotta get back to Tarson's skat mother of a girlfriend before she grounds me fer getting stuck outside." Tim spat to the side, giving his pants one last scornful wipe before turning on his heels and slowly walking away while searching the bushes.

"We're trying to get into the village too," Cody called, stopping Tim in his tracks as he looked over his shoulder with scrunched disgust. "There's something we want in there."

Tim's glare softened. "The skatty magician?" He didn't even wait for Cody to verify his question, taking back his steps and standing a couple feet from Cody with a childish smile. "Everybody thinks it's my old man!" Tim's smile died. "I don't think it is... cause that'd mean I've got magic too... and I know I ain't a demon."

Cody's eye twitched, but he masked the displeasure, pulling the loot out of Hord'anne's bag to show off to Tim. "How many do you have?"

Tim's expression dropped as he watched Cody pile the catches on the ground. He pulled a few headless snakes out of his satchel, then a string of bright red lizard tails. "More than you."

Sariel looked between the piles, they had more.

Then again, she couldn't count. So she sealed her lips before protesting.

Tim squatted next to the pile, lifting one of the limp lizards with a grimace and motioning to its nub of a behind. "You need the tails... they usually fall right off when ya scare em. That's how I've been doin it."

"The tails...?" Cody's gaze fell to their stash of bright red lizards, only one of them still had the extra appendage, and it was the freshest with a snapped neck. He heaved out a sigh of frustration. "When I get into that bloody town, I'm levelling it."

Tim shrugged. "Jus don't touch my house, alright?" He parted all the scuttlesnakes from the pile, counting them with a growing smile. "We have all the Scuttles we need, just need a nuttle with a full functioning arse now."

Sariel whooped in excitement. "We're so close Hord'anne!"

Hord'anne grunted, his throat rumbling with a purr of excitement as he lifted one of the tailless nuttles.

"Yes, you may," Cody replied, smiling as Hord'anne popped the lizard in his mouth.

He collected the rest of the carcasses, glancing at the feeble boy with a welcoming smile. "Have you had breakfast?"

"Nah, but I aint eatin' that squirming crap." The boy sifted through a smaller pouch outside of his satchel, coming out with a handful of nuts and dried berries. "Brought extra mix."

As he munched on the tiny snack, Cody tossed Hord'anne another nuttle, searing the two in his hands with a small burst of fire. After handing one off to Sariel and watching her hungrily bite into it, he nibbled his own snack, inspecting the faint residue of magic still clinging to the boy.

He'd been exposed to it, but likely didn't have any himself.

Cody always found his gaze drawn to the thick fortress of a village when he contemplated his quest in slaughtering the protagonist. This time however, another idea crept into his mind.

He stared at Tim, his smile tugged downwards as the boy obliviously popped a dry berry into his mouth, chewing it for a couple seconds before his nose scrunched up and he spat it out, crossly muttering about his idiot of a fake mother who kept mixing the things in.

He was young.

Cody's frown intensified.

A young, brash, Caucasian child.

Cody lifted his chin with a cattish smile, his hungry eyes trained on the small boy as he couldn't hold back a wicked grin.

"What were you doing out here, if you don't mind my asking?" Cody started, his smile suddenly poisoned by caution as Tim snorted.

The boy flicked his gaze away with careless scoff, chewing the last of his snack with a sloppy gulp before wiping his lips. "Lookin for a way to break the curse on my town. Was gonna go to the next village over and find a beefy mercenary or somethin to help me out, but I dunno which way it is."

"Oh?" Cody lifted his eyebrows in mock interest. "So you're driven by a just cause?"

Tim cocked his head to the side, snorting in irritation at Cody's cryptic intent. "Whatchya mean by just?"

"You'd lay your life down to lift the curse of your town of course!" Cody burst, tightening his fists with an excited glint to his eyes.

Tim scrunched his nose in disgust. "Hell no I wouldn't! Look at me!" He motioned to his lanky body. "I'm barely in my teens!"

Cody kept his pose for a couple rigid seconds, his squint finally blocking enough of his vision for him to straighten with a defeated sigh.

He was certain Tim was the protagonist in this heaping pile of trash Alina called a story, but at his peak of tireless searching, it could have been Sariel for all he knew.

Cody shot her a squint, huffing out a sigh and staring at the village before she caught his look.

She wasn't the protagonist.

She couldn't even read.