In the Margins

     Should she go back and get reinforcements? Surely this was too much to expect one person to deal with alone!

     …No, this was her responsibility. She'd agreed to it. She couldn't just quit like a coward now because things were hard. She sighed, flapping her arms at her sides and rocking her torso. She needed to calm down.

     Almost on impulse she looked upwards, towards the specks of starlight visible through the forest canopy. It was a matter of seconds for her to find her favorite constellation- a pair of semi-circles that created the sun shape of The First to Rise. It was one of the brightest constellations in the Neopian sky, and this close to the Neopian equator it was best viewed in the months of storing to running, after which point it would mostly vanish over the southern horizon. She held a paw up to the sky, making a V shape with her thumb and forefinger. If she pointed the shape at the First to Rise and faced north, she should be able to spot the Wave along the line from her thumb-

     A screech pierced the air, and the draik's shoulders hitched up at the shrill noise. She impulsively flattened her ear-frills and brought her wings up around her head to block the noise out, but it lingered in her ears like a nagging echo even after the physical sound had stopped.

     Shoot, shoot- is someone in trouble?

     The Draik staggered to her feet, pulling her bow from the quiver and stringing it. She looked around frantically, trying to work out what direction the scream had come from. She'd been too addled at first to pinpoint it, and panic sent her heartbeat thrumming in her chest as she cursed every wasted heartbeat she should have spent flying to the rescue-

     Another shout, this one of pain. The Draik jerked her head towards the noise, pulling an arrow from the quiver and putting it to the string. Then, she leapt into the air, and flapped her wings faster than she could ever remember having done in her life.

     *

     Tavasz had never ventured this close to the edge of the Haunted Woods before- there was really no reason to. While the northern woods had some settlements along the outskirts, the area near Neovia and the Deserted Fairgrounds had no such points of interest. Which was fortunate, because if there had been any villages or towns nearby, they would have been squashed when Faerieland crashed. Frankly it was only by the narrowest of margins that the floating city hadn't landed on the wood itself.

     She pricked her ears, listening for any nearby petpets or monsters. This close to the edge there might have been birds other than Crokabeks and whoots even, which would be a novelty.

     But there was no noise, except for the usual chorus of the night insects. She sighed, rubbing a thumb along the crescent moon charm at her neck pensively. It might better serve her to head to Neovia actually, and find a hunter there. She was many things, but an expert tracker was not one of them. Even the spells she knew for locating someone at a distance required having something that belonged to the person in question, as a foci for the magic. As it was she was just going to end up walking in circles looking for this mystery ranger, and wasting precious time. Course decided, she turned back towards the Woods.

     Her only warning of anything amiss was a flickering of darker shadow against the night. Then, before she quite had time to turn and see what it was, the blot shot forwards, lunging up out of the ground to slash at her arm with immaterial claws. Tavasz gave a sharp cry of surprise, staggering backwards just in time and firing off a bolt of magic at her attacker.

     Her blow hit home, smacking into the center of the black mass with an explosion of violet sparks that made it recoil. Tavasz lifted a paw, casting a pale lilac mage light that illuminated the stand of trees and finally gave her a good look at her adversary.

     It was, to her consternation, exactly what it had looked like at a first glance- an amorphous black mass, indistinct in form, with two bright scarlet eyes. As Tavasz watched, however, she saw more eyes manifesting out of the trees, leering at her- and at least one point of bright golden light amidst the hoard.

     Creeping shadows? Seriously? They're being driven out of the deep woods too?

     She gritted her teeth, making her fur and cloak billow ominously and casting purple firelight up from her feet. "I am not one you should trifle with," she warned. "Back off- I won't say it again."

     The creeping shadow she'd struck with her magic hissed, slinking backwards, but if anything it seemed like the others were drawing closer. Tavasz tsked, gathering her magic into her paws. So it would be a fight then.

     Sure enough, the creeping shadows surged forwards, a tidal wave of blackness closing in on the Lutari on all sides. She crouched, a bubble of magic forming a shield around her. The shadows impacted the shield, clawing at it with their makeshift hands, but they were unable to break through. Tavasz smirked, lunging to her feet and spreading her arms out sharply, so that the shield ballooned outwards and exploded. The shadows were sent flying every which way, hissing in fury.

     Tavasz took a step towards the nearest, meaning to capitalize on her advantage, but she hadn't noticed that one of the monsters had taken refuge in her shadow. As she stepped forwards under the glow of her magelight, a pair of clawed hands reached up from the blackness in the grass at her feet, and she yowled in pain as the sharp appendages dug deep into her leg.

     "Get off me!" she snarled, glaring daggers at the thing. But she couldn't strike it with her magic without damaging her own limb, and it only responded by digging its claws deeper and hissing viciously. She tried to stagger backwards, yanking her leg to free it from the monster's hold. Unfortunately, the other shadows capitalized on her distraction, surging forwards once again. One hit her in the middle of the chest, sending her careening backwards to land on her back with a winded, "Ooof!" Another wrapped itself around her other leg, effectively pinning her to the ground. She strained against the weight of the shadows, but more and more were dogpiling her, covering her mouth so that she couldn't scream, couldn't breathe-

     A flash of something shiny darted across her field of vision, and one of the shadows on her chest recoiled with a squeal of pain. Her arms now free, Tavasz lurched her paws up, digging her talons into the shadow on her face and yanking as hard as she could. It popped off with an unpleasant squelching noise, and she breathed in a sharp, relieved gasp of air. Another shiny object sailed past her, and another shadow hissed and detached from her- this time she looked towards it swiftly enough to recognize the fletching of an arrow sticking out of its mass.

     "Hey!" a voice Tavasz didn't recognize called out, and she looked up towards it. Perched in a tree high above, she saw a white and pink shape almost glowing in the dark- a Valentine Draik, a drawn bow in her hands. "Get away! Quickly, before they regroup!"

     Tavasz didn't need a second telling, kicking the last of the shadows still clinging to her feet so it snarled and let her go. Then she lurched up, staggering away from the sludgy pile and towards a thick knot of bushes where she could hide. Once the Lutari was clear, the Draik shot another arrow. As if it were guided by magic, this one too hit home. But the creeping shadows were rounding on this new adversary, surging towards the tree.

     The hedges closed around Tavasz, and she ducked low to completely conceal herself. Judging that she had enough space now, the Lutari turned around, gathering her energy around her body like a veil. Unlike the Werelupes, who would be able to smell and hear her no matter what she did, these cretins she could fool with her translucency spell!

     She just, you know, needed to be careful not to get herself shot with one of the archer's arrows while she was mostly invisible.

     The Lutari darted through the brush, adding to the effect of the spell with the cover of the forest foliage. Through the trees she could see the creeping shadows writhing amongst each other at the base of the archer's tree. Every few seconds one would start trying to claw its way up, but the Draik kept up a steady rain of arrows forcing them back again. Then, one of the things seemed to try to hurl itself straight up in the air, and while it didn't get high enough to actually strike the Draik, it did rattle the branches, forcing her to crouch down and grip on with her free hand to keep from falling.

     Tavasz could see them start to surge forwards, capitalizing on the moment of weakness. Gritting her teeth, she cast the shield spell again, creating not a bubble this time but a disc around the trunk of the tree. The blot of shadows impacted the shield at full force, sending them tumbling back down. The shadows hissed and seethed, several of the individuals breaking away from the group to look for her again.

     Tavasz glanced up at the Draik, and to her alarm she saw that the other Neopian wasn't standing back up. She was still crouched, her eyes squeezed shut as if against some sort of vertigo. She was holding the branch in a death grip with one hand and wrapping her tail around it to keep steady.

     The Lutari clenched her teeth, looking down at the shadows. She had to get rid of them, now. As her eyes flitted amidst them, trying to figure out what to do, she caught sight of a flicker of gold- the banded one.

     That's it!

     Tavasz made a slashing gesture, sending a ribbon of purple fire from her talons towards the glowing ring. It flared, sparks of light energy lashing out as if in protest to the touch of the dark magic, and the banded shadow spasmed with a screech of pain. The others all converged on the call instinctively, only to recoil as the light energy burned them as well.

     First lesson any dark mage learns, Tavasz thought with a grim smirk. The closer you get to the light, the longer a shadow becomes, and the darker the room, the brighter a light shines. Light is not the dark's superior- they feed each other!

     Finally, unable to take the onslaught, the shadows turned and bolted away, out of the range of Tavasz's magic. As the last of them vanished into the trees, the Lutari risked a glance up at the Draik. She'd curled her wings over her… ears? But as the yowls of pain receded she was relaxing once more. For several heartbeats the two Neopians stood, panting. Then, with a sigh of relief, Tavasz dismissed her concealment spell. "Thank you, I-"

     She didn't get the chance to finish her statement, however, as the Draik abruptly swayed, eyelids fluttering, before toppling out of the tree entirely. Tavasz yelped in surprise, flinging a paw out to cast a slowing spell that caught the Draik just in the nick of time. A mist of blackish-purple energy set the stranger down gently, and she groaned, shaking her head as she struggled to sit up.

     "Hey, hey, don't pass out, all right?" Tavasz called, jogging over to her and kneeling at her side. "I'm many things, but a healer isn't one of them. What's wrong, are you hurt?"

     The Draik blinked owlishly, and up close Tavasz could see deep rings of fatigue underscoring her eyes. She huffed softly, replying, "I'm not at my best, but I'll live." She turned in Tavasz's direction, though her eyes listed off to the side somewhere, as if she were only half engaged in the conversation. Her voice flat, she demanded, "What are you doing here? These woods aren't safe, surely you know that."

     There was something coldly accusatory in the draik's question that got Tavasz's hackles up. Again with this surely-the-bright-pink-Pet-isn't-from-the-Woods garbage! Tavasz clenched her hands into fists and lurched to her feet. "All right, look you cheeky brat- I appreciate you helping out, but you can dial back the attitude. I live here, for your information. So I will thank you not to talk to me like an ignorant adrenaline junkie looking for cheap thrills in the most dangerous forest of Neopia."

     The draik recoiled, her eyes widening and wings mantling defensively. Then she bit her tongue, making a soft noise of frustration.

     "Okay, okay, hold on, let me start over," she said. "I'm sorry, I wasn't- I didn't mean to come off as rude. I just… do that sometimes. I know I sound… blunt or dry or whatever else people are always saying, but I don't mean it. I'm autistic- that's just how I talk, all the time."

     "I… oh," Tavasz felt her face heat, and she flattened her ears with a wince. Way to go, idiot. Open mouth insert foot, isn't that how it goes?

     She swallowed hard, doing her best to look contrite. "N-no I'm… I'm the one who should apologize, I overreacted. That was just…" she sighed, muttering reluctantly, "a sore point for me."

     The Draik exhaled slowly, her shoulders untensing with obvious relief in spite of, yes, a notable lack of affect in her expression. "So… you're a Woodlander?"

     "Mm-hm," the Lutari confirmed. "I know I don't look it, but candy colored Neopians are actually pretty common in these woods. I'm called Tavasz."

     "I guess that makes some sense, candy does go with Halloween," the Draik mused, rubbing her eyes. "I'm Cleo- I'm not from here, I'm from Faerieland."

     "Aaaah," Tavasz's ears perked up. "You're the ranger that the Werelupes mentioned, aren't you?"

     "I'm the what now?" Cleo looked wearily up towards Tavasz with a flicker of what seemed like consternation in her face- but a moment later she laughed, and Tavasz realized it must have been amusement. "I didn't realize my reputation preceded me. Who'd have guessed monsters were gossips?"

     "They aren't, usually," Tavasz replied, smirking in reply. "But when a lone warrior starts handing half the Haunted Woods' trash to them, it gets attention."

     The Draik shrugged, her eyelids drooping. "Just doing my job."

     Her head lolled on her shoulders, and she jerked up again, eyes snapping back open. Tavasz tsked softly. "Well, Cleo-from-Faerieland, you have my thanks for saving my butt, so let me repay you by helping get you to the nearest village. You look dead on your feet- apparently fighting off every monster in the woods is beyond even your legendary stamina."

     "No, I… I can't," she slurred. "Not with all these monsters. I have to-"

     She moved to stand, but her knees immediately buckled and she fell down on all fours again. Tavasz impulsively tried to catch the draik, but she flinched at the contact of the lutari's hands and Tavasz drew back again. "Right, right, sorry, autism, my bad. But seriously, like this? You're just gonna get yourself hurt. I don't know what it is you think you're accomplishing out here, but-"

     Tavasz broke off as, the last of her strength clearly abandoning her, Cleo's body went ragdoll and she passed out. A jolt of panic shot through the lutari and she gingerly rolled the draik over to check her for injuries. Thankfully, however, there didn't seem to be much worse than some scratches.

     But if she's been fighting every monster that's passing in this direction… no wonder she'd be exhausted.

     Tavasz gave a soft, frustrated exhale out of her nose. This lead, it seemed, was a dead end. Whatever Cleo was up to here, it seemed now to be largely circumstantial to whatever was driving the monsters to migrate out of the woods. She didn't act like someone with a cunning master plan; she acted like a Brightvale University student who was trying to cram for exams by slamming enough energy Achyfi to achieve planetary orbit. Pushing herself so far past her own endurance was the exact opposite of productive if she had some elaborate endgame.

     You didn't last long in the Haunted Woods by trusting first impressions, so Tavasz knew better than to let her guard down based on one brief exchange. But for the time being, it seemed like she was back to square one.

     "Still, I do owe you for coming to my rescue," she mused, flicking an index finger and lifting the Draik on a fluffy amethyst cloud. "Come on then- there should be a doctor in Neovia who can get you fixed up."

     And… maybe this could work to Tavasz's benefit after all…

     *

     For the first time in weeks, Cleo wasn't waking to the itchy prickle of sticks and leaves under her scales. She was lying on her stomach, the soft-yet-firm sensation of sheets and a mattress underneath her and her chin cushioned by a feather pillow. Still three quarters asleep, she impulsively reached out her arms to hug the pillow, reveling in the cloudlike softness and almost sliding back into a doze.

     But then a voice gently called out her name, jostling her into wakefulness. The Draik lifted her head, wincing as the motion pulled the scratches across her back from her fight with the Black Pteri.

     "Ah- I'm sorry dear," said the speaker who'd called her. Cleo finally spotted her, a brown kacheek wearing a Neovian style garibaldi shirt and headband emblazoned with a red cross. "I didn't mean to wake you if you were still asleep. How are you feeling?"

     "I…" the Draik was badly confused, that was how she was feeling. Where was she? How had she gotten here? "Who are you?"

     "You can call me Aurora," the kacheek answered. "I'm a doctor. You're in Neovia, if you were going to ask about that next. Our local friendly vagabond, Tavasz, brought you to my doorstep last night. According to her you've been single-handedly fighting half the monsters in the woods- your injuries certainly looked like it before I cleaned and bandaged them!"

     Tavasz- now memory hit Cleo like a tidal wave. The fight with the creeping shadows; a conversation held in the half-delirium of exhaustion; losing consciousness.

     No, no, nononono, how long have I been out, how many monsters have gotten out of the Woods?

     The Draik lurched up, hissing as her injured back protested, but managing to swing her legs around and hop out of the bed. Aurora made a small noise of distress and reached out towards her, but Cleo siddled away from the contact with the ease of a lifetime of practice.

     “I know you're going to tell me I need to rest and recuperate," she said grimly. "I can't. I have a job, and it's important. Thank you for tending to my injuries, but I need to go, now."

     "Miss Cleo, really," Aurora started to object, but Cleo wasn't listening. She was looking around the room for her weapons. Someone had taken her sword, buckler, and the quiver with her bow and arrows, and she couldn't go back out into the forest without them. Yet as she looked around the room, she could only see the bed she'd been sleeping on, a desk with bandages and a bowl of something that smelled of aloe, and a lamp in one corner. The lamp wasn't presently lit- a window off to the side was streaming late morning sunlight. So it had at least been a few hours. That was bad.

     "-going to strain your injuries and just open them back up again," the kacheek was saying when Cleo turned back towards her, and the draik winced.

     "Look, I understand your concern, but it doesn't matter. I'll heal, eventually, one way or another. Now, where is my gear?"

     Aurora blinked, frowning. "Gear? I… there was nothing on you when Tavasz dropped you off."

     Cleo's frill drooped. But that would imply…

     "I thought I heard voices in here," a familiar voice remarked, and Cleo looked sharply towards the doorway. The familiar bright pink, sugar speckled face of the Lutari Tavasz was leaning in through the open door.

     "Tavasz," Cleo said grimly. "Do you know where my weapons are? Did you steal them? Pawn them?"

     "Direct little thing, aren't you?" Tavasz mused. She reached under her cloak, and a moment later held up a small object in her claws. It was a perfect copy of Cleo's bow, carved by the hand of Aethia herself, but in miniature- small enough to fit between Tavasz's thumb and forefinger.

     Cleo gawped at the tiny bow in Tavasz's hand, flabbergasted. "What… what did you do?"

     "Shrunk it," the Lutari said, quirking a brow in an expression that might have been mocking, or casual, or smug, Cleo could never tell. "We need to have a talk, and I figure you can't go running off into the forest to fling yourself at the monsters flooding through it without your weapons."

     The draik's mouth opened and closed soundlessly as she struggled to figure out what to say in response to that. On the one hand, she was absolutely fuming at the cheek of this lutari, stealing her weapons and tampering with them with magic. On the other hand, she couldn't deny that Tavasz had a point. As things currently stood, if she went back into battle she was going to end up in exactly the same situation again, or worse.

     Finally, she gave voice to a scream of frustration, flapping her wings as rapidly and hard as she could. Aurora and Tavasz both startled backwards, but a moment later Cleo was able to give a final, frustrated huff, and sit back on the bed.

     "Fine. Fine. What do you want to talk about?"

     Tavasz hesitated, and the doctor brooked, "Are… you sure you're all right, Miss?"

     "I am now," Cleo said, though she wasn't sure "all right" was the right way to describe it. She felt better now, less tense now that she'd expressed some of the anxious energy, but she certainly wasn't happy. "I think I'd like to talk to Tavasz alone, though."

     Aurora hesitated, looking nervous, but after a moment she reluctantly nodded and left the room. Tavasz stood aside to let her pass, then walked in and shut the door.

     "Listen, I'm not trying to make you angry," she said. "I just… you were being unreasonable."

     "I'm doing my job and trying not to get in trouble for neglecting it," Cleo fired back. "I was never given any sort of rules for how to handle 'this is more than I can manage alone' or 'I'm injured and I need to rest it off,' so."

     "Job?" Tavasz echoed. "What job? What kind of heartless prat gives you a job that involves risking your life fighting monsters and doesn't allow for 'gee that's likely to get my employee hurt, they'll need to recover when that happens.'"

     Cleo winced, flicking her fingers rhythmically. "I… was one of many students studying the arts of war under the Battle Faerie. There are a lot of us, mostly members of the Faerieland military, but some promising students from other places too. When Faerieland crashed we started having problems with monsters from the Haunted Woods wandering across our borders. She asked for a volunteer from among her students to be stationed at the perimeter of the Woods indefinitely to stand guard."

     "And… you volunteered?" Tavasz pressed.

     Cleo looked down at her lap. "Something like that."

     The Draik half expected Tavasz to pry, but after a moment's silence the Lutari shrugged. "All right. Either way, I think 'you can come home and recover if you get hurt' is probably one of those things that just goes without saying, you know?"

     "I… yeah, of course," Cleo agreed, though her voice sounded unconvincing even to her own ears. Was it? She was never sure about this sort of thing, and she despised all of these stupid, unspoken rules and exceptions that everyone else seemed to take as a given. She didn't want to get in trouble or look negligent by leaving when her direct orders had been to defend Faerieland with her life, indefinitely. But was she expected to understand that she could leave her post to seek help?

     Would it kill people to be explicit about these things?

     Tavasz raised a brow, seeming as unfooled by Cleo's tone as the Draik herself was. But after a moment, she shrugged. "So- if you've been there for a while, fighting to defend Faerieland, I assume you've noticed that recently there have been a lot more monsters sniffing around than normal?"

     Cleo finally looked back up, dryly retorting. "You carried me here after I passed out from exhaustion. Do I need to answer that question?"

     Tavasz tilted her head, eyes narrowing. "Was… that sarcasm?"

     That startled a laugh out of the Draik, and she rolled her eyes. "Yes, that time I was being snide on purpose." She leaned forwards with her elbows on her knees, steepling her fingers in front of her nose, "You stole my weapons and are holding them hostage after I saved your life, I think I'm entitled to be miffed at you."

     "Okay, point," Tavasz replied, shrugging ruefully "Counterpoint- would it not better serve your purpose to do something proactive about all those monsters?"

     Cleo let her arms drop, frowning slightly. "What do you mean?"

     "I mean, these monsters aren't amassing at the edge of the Haunted Woods coincidentally," Tavasz explained. "I mentioned last night that some Werelupes told me about you, yeah?”

     “I was wondering about that, admittedly,” Cleo mused. “You were just… having a casual conversation? With Werelupes?”

     “They’re not completely without reason,” Tavasz replied with a shrug. “And these ones had much bigger fish to fry than me. They told me that something has taken up residence in the deepest part of the Woods, and it's driving all of these monsters to flee towards Faerieland. That's why there's been so many monsters around here lately."

     The draik's eyes widened with horror. "That's… not good. Wait, is that what the glowing golden bands are about? A lot of the monsters I've fought in the last couple weeks have had them."

     "Got it in one," Tavasz replied with a broad grin. "Something or someone has been setting those things out like snares. They hurt anything of dark magic that touches them- and I think it goes without saying that just about everything in the woods has some level of dark magic, ambiently, just by being here."

     "To what end?" Cleo asked anxiously. "There has to be some reason to be doing this, aside from pure cruelty."

     The Lutari's eyebrows shot up, and she said, "You think it's cruel? These are monsters who are the main targets."

     "I… well yeah," Cleo replied defensively. "Their nature is opposed to mine, but they can't help that any more than the stars can stop their seasonal parallax in the sky."

     Tavasz blinked, her brow squashing, "What's a para-" She visibly brought herself up short, shaking her head. "You know what, nevermind. I guess I'm just… surprised. People from outside the Woods aren't usually so open-minded."

     Cleo didn't respond to that, looking down at her lap again. When it became clear that she wasn't going to answer, Tavasz cleared her throat. "Anyway… I bring all this up because I've been looking into the issue. It isn't just a problem for Faerieland, the local Woodlanders are anxious too. We're used to dealing with one or two stray skeletons or spyders, but this is way beyond our usual."

     "That makes sense," the Draik agreed. "And?"

     "And I was hoping you might be willing to lend a hand."

     Cleo blinked in surprise. Then she sighed, shaking her head. "I have my duty, I can't just-"

     "Your duty to protect Faerieland," Tavasz interjected. "Isn't this doing exactly that? You'd just be cutting off the problem at the source, instead of treating the symptoms and exhausting yourself to little point."

     The Lutari folded her arms, looking away. "And… I can't do this alone. You saw me last night- I'm a dark mage. Whatever's doing this is using very powerful light magic, and just touching it burned me. But you're not a creature of these woods- it shouldn't hurt you. Please, Cleo- please?"

     Cleo bit her lip, torn. The point was a valid one. There was nothing in her instructions to allow for this sort of proactivity, but maybe this was a time to assume one of those extenuating circumstances they'd been discussing earlier. She clearly needed to do something different, because if she kept on as she'd been all she'd get out of it was more injuries and exhaustion, and probably monsters sneaking past her to get to Faerieland.

     And, a softer part of her realized, if these monsters really were being driven out by something that was hurting them, maybe they didn't deserve to be treated like enemies to be met with a volley of arrows.

     "...Fine," she said finally, hopping off the bed and walking towards Tavasz. "But before we go haring off into the forest for who knows how long, we need to find someone to keep the border safe. I can't just leave it unprotected."

     "All right, that's fair," Tavasz conceded, a grin splitting her face. "I'm sure we can find someone to help out with that."

          "Are you?" Cleo asked dryly. "My impression was that most of the residents of these woods aren't exactly the helping sorts."

     "Look, contrary to popular belief, Woodlanders aren't that bad," Tavasz shot back, folding her arms. "Edna just sends people after her groceries, Ilere is a hermit, the wanderers are actually very open and neighborly-"

     "And Eliv Thade? Balthazar?" Cleo pressed. Tavasz sighed.

     "Eliv Thade is just a cranky old ghost who's bitter he couldn't solve a simple anagram and decided to make it everyone else's problem. The worst he does is dump you in his basement for a bit. Balthazar… yeah, Balthazar is a cold hearted jerk, no ifs ands or buts. I'm not saying everyone here is a misunderstood puppyblew- just that it isn't going to be as impossible as you think to find someone sympathetic enough to watch out for Faerieland while we're busy."

     Cleo frowned slightly. She still had her doubts. The idea of leaving her station without permission on its own set a gnawing pit of anxiety and dread in her gut. But if Tavasz was right, and there was a greater scope problem that needed to be resolved, the sooner it was addressed the sooner she could get back to her normal routine.

     …And it might be nice. Not being alone for a while.

     She snorted, shaking out her arms and wings. Punching the Lutari in the shoulder, she added, "Before we do anything else, you need to give me back my weapons."

     "Right, right," Tavasz agreed, waving a hand dismissively. She snapped her fingers, and suddenly there was a flicker, like a heat haze, and all of Cleo's weapons appeared, strapped around the lutari's back. Cleo recoiled, gaping, and Tavasz laughed. "I didn't actually shrink anything- I'm not that strong a sorceress. Dark magic is best at deception and misdirection, so I just put an illusion charm up to look like a tiny version of your bow, and hid the real weapons behind a veil of invisibility."

     The Draik shook her head, holding out a hand for the weapons. "Too clever by half, as my dad would say. All right then; how should we get started?"

     To be continued…