Goldie and Betty hit the forest floor with significantly less grace than either Evan or Jenny, because neither of them had any real physical enhancement. They were durable enough thanks to their active nodes to take the hit, but it was still a jarring impact as they crashed into the ground.

“What just happened?” Goldie groaned, picking herself up.

“I would assume some kind of magical feedback reaction,” Betty said. “But I only know the bare basics of sorcery, and even then my education has been mostly geared towards training me as a summoner. You probably have more basic magical knowledge than I do, at this point.”

“Yeah great,” Goldie said. “Know what that's been worth? This.”

She waved her fingers and produced a swirl of sparkling motes of light in dozens of colors.

“It is certainly eye catching,” Betty said appreciatively.

“Yeah but it's not exactly super useful right now is it?” Goldie said.

“I do not see how it can be applied to our current situation, no,” Betty admitted.

“Right, our current situation.” Goldie sighed. “What the hell do we do now?”

“I assume we offer assistance.”

“Yeah but we just covered I'm not going to be much good at offering any assistance,” Goldie said. “Maybe I should head towards civilization. Get...help? Maybe I can call those magic cops who swept the whole Danny mess under the rug.”

“While I do not know our exact location the impression is that we are many, many miles from civilization. And any equipment to contact assistance would be...”

“Back at the cabin,” Goldie sighed. “With the killer elf.”

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“Perhaps my summons can hold off the elf while you contact assistance,” Betty suggested. “Either way, we should move back in the direction of the cabin.”

“I suppose you're right,” Goldie sighed. “Elves now. My life includes elves now. This is not how I expected to be spending the summer before college.”

“The sudden revelation of magic's existence has been an adjustment for everyone,” Betty admitted.

“And all because Anderman made a wish,” Goldie muttered.

“Do you resent him for it?”

“I mean, I kind of want to. But if I found a genie I'd have made a wish too, right? So I can get angry at him all day, but I'd have done the same thing. Maybe not if I knew there were going to be demon bullies and killer elves, but....”

“I am actually quite grateful to Kyle,” Betty said. “Despite our current predicament, I find most of the magic I have witnessed...wondrous. Not to mention that it began the sequence of events which brought me to Trevor. Not that I am defining myself by male attention, simply that Trevor was something that could not have occurred before the magical changes to the world.”

“I think he might have gotten around to asking you out anyway,” Goldie said. “But yeah I get it. Trevor isn't the point, the way your life changed is the point. But I'm not sure I wanted my life to change, you know? I had things pretty well figured out. And now I'm dating Evan. No one who has their life figured out is dating Evan.”

“I believe we are now deliberately failing the Bechdel test,” Betty said, and they both laughed. Well Betty's was more of a smirk, but still. After that they walked in silence for a while, through the waving branches of the woods.

“But since we have already thoroughly failed at Bechdel...”

“Sure, go for it.”

“Why do you think Trevor has not yet let lust overcome him?”

Goldie looked Betty up and down.

“No idea,” Goldie said. “I'm not a relationship expert. You two seem good together. Trevor's always been super popular, but that can be a problem by itself. Maybe he doesn't have any better an idea what he's doing than you do. I mean he hasn't had a girlfriend since he got here...maybe you're his first. But I dunno, I'm just guessing. Dating was not on my plan. Dating Evan is probably some kind of Ancient Egyptian curse.”

“Fair enough,” Betty nodded. “Of course if this were a novel, you would have had some advice. Some kind of colorful metaphor about muffins.”

Goldie stopped and blinked at Betty.

“Why muffins?”

“I do not know. But muffins were what came to mind when I thought about sage relationship advice from the more advanced, more popular girl.”

“Huh.” Goldie scratched her head. “I...cannot think of a way relationships are like muffins.”

“Warm and soft and you want to put your mouth...”

“I'm going to stop you right there,” Goldie held up a hand. “We're about to do the thing where you get weirdly sexual, and I'm kind of too lost in the woods walking towards a killer elf sorceress to handle that right now.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Betty said. “But I believe I had a point about lips on muffins.”

Goldie stopped and put her hands over her eyes.

“See when Jenny says stuff like that it's because she's from a hundred thousand years ago or something and doesn't know what she's saying,” Goldie pointed out. “But you always DO know what you're saying.”

“The world would be very boring if we were not all individuals.”

“When are we going to reach the cabin?” Goldie changed the subject as quickly as she could. “It feels like we've been walking forever.”

“That has been concerning me as well.” Betty peered out into the forest. “I was using a simple spell to guide us back, but it seems confused. And I also feel like we should have already...”

When Betty turned back Goldie was gone, and Betty found herself alone in the vast forest.