It’s not that I didn’t want to talk more about the Unicorn and what it showed me, I just didn’t know what else to say. Besides, my friends were very excited to get to a local village called Nahenburg. Brede was almost hyper and it was adorable. Apparently he really wanted to see his wife. I didn’t suggest any books and neither did they so we mostly just talked as we walked. You can say a whole lot of words without really saying anything at all. It was ok though. We were all trying not to think about spiders and snakes. Plus, today was going to be fun.

  Fields of wheat were the first things that told me people were near. I don’t know how to feel about that. Brede and Agnar are great but everyone else I’ve met lately has attacked me. Not that I was holding a grudge. I’m going to keep my necklace on for sure. There’s a stone wall outside of the village with a woman leaning against it like the coolest kid in school. She was short and wide like Brede. Other than that, they weren’t very similar. Her hair was orange and pulled into a ponytail that stopped at her shoulders. Her skin was closer to my brown than Brede’s gray but still didn’t look quite human. She was also muscle-y. Like super muscle-y. Pick up a car muscle-y. I had to inspect her.

  Level 0 Dwarf

  Level 25 Master Monk of the Stone Fist

  HP: 384

  Whoa. She's totally out of Brede’s league. She might also actually be stronger than me. Actually with that class she has to be, right? And faster. So I don’t have to be bait anymore! That’s probably rude though. Maybe she doesn’t want to be bait. I smile at the thought of her making Agnar be bait. He doesn’t get hurt of course, just runs away. Oh great, now I’m smiling at nothing, she’s going to think I’m an idiot. She smiles as we approach her.

  “Well now, what have we here? You two run off in the middle of nowhere and tell me to meet you here and come back with a kid. What kind of hairbrained scheme has my dear uncle talked you into this time dear?” She says to Brede, then she looks at me. “Hello pretty little lady, I hope my boys have behaved themselves. I’m Sofia, it’s nice to meet you.”

  I take her hand and squeeze it just tight enough to be confusing. It was time to enact Agnar’s secret plan. A secret I’ve been keeping for days. A secret worth another sword lesson. “Hello Sofia, I’m Marie. Don’t worry they’ve been great. They only lost me to a witch for a little while but she had a fluffy kitty so that was alright. And really the burns from that coal man healed right up like Brede said. He was right. I should have been paying attention instead of worrying about my hair being on fire. You have to pay attention when you’re the bait. But look, Agnar salvaged it.” I fluff my hair that now only goes down to below my ears.

  Her face twisted into several very funny looks. First was the smile staying when her eyebrows went up. Then they came back down and she scowled at Brede and Agnar, but she still forgot she was smiling. The smile finally turned into an open mouth. I just wish I could have watched Brede at the same time, but that would have let the cat out of the bag.

  Brede started talking fast, “Wait a minute now, I was against you bein’ the bait but you said I was too slow and fightin’ somethin’ above my level. And you was all burnt and worryin’ about your hair before the trap was done, the Waldschrat even had to go finish it off.”

  Now she looked really mad.

  “Are the two of you out of your damn minds? What in the frozen hells were you thinking using a little girl as bait? She got badly burned? A witch kidnapped her? Where did you even get a little girl? I have half a mind to beat one of you with the other. You better start explaining right fucking now.”

  “Uh oh,” I said.

  “What is it honey?” She asked.

  “You said a no-no word.”

  And that’s as far as the joke got. Agnar started laughing and I couldn’t take it any more. Brede looked confused and then mad. “I said the two of you were gonna send me to an early grave, I didn’t mean at the hand of my wife.”

  “Brede what the hell is going on? Why did my uncle turn into a giggling child along with this one.” She looked like maybe Agnar did stuff like this a lot. He totally did, I know it.

  Before Brede could answer, Agnar asks, “is there anyone close enough to use Identify?”

  “What? Uh, no. I think everyone is still in for lunch,” she says/

  “Darlin’ listen, she really is a little girl, ok. She just had a real rough time since the System started so go easy,” Brede says.

  “What are you talking about?” She asks.

  “Can I take off the necklace now?” I ask.

  “Yeah, go on,” Brede says.

  I take it off and look at Sofia. Why is my heart pounding so hard? I guess I feel kind of bad playing a trick on someone I don’t know. I might be scared she won’t like me. Why did I let Agnar talk me into this again? Right, sword lesson. Come on lady, say something.

  “Whoa,” she says.

  “That’s what I was thinking when I saw you!” I burst out. Why did I say that? That was so lame. She’s going to hate me.

  “Well I see why he didn’t make you let him be bait. You could probably beat both of them up yourself.”

  “As long as I can use my magic they don’t stand a chance. If I have to use my sword Agnar says I’m more dangerous to myself.” Oh my goddess Marie, stop talking.

  “Well it’s about time we had someone else with some sense around here,” Sofia says. “I think you and I will be great friends.”

  I’m floating. OK I’m always literally kinda floating thanks to Mana Walking but I mean the other kind. She’s so nice. Maybe she’ll teach me how to punch and stuff. “I’d like that,” I say.

  The road into town is cobbled. I learned that word after calling it bumpy pavement. The houses are a solid orangeish brown color, Brede tells me they’re stucco covered stone and the roofs are clay tiles. I’m learning a lot today. There’s like twenty or so houses separated down three roads. There’s also a few other buildings that aren’t houses. One has a big chimney and smells like bread, I don’t have to be told that’s a bakery. There's also a large wooden building with two floors. It has a sign hanging with a symbol that looks like a diamond sitting on top of half of another diamond. Apparently that’s the Inn that Sofia is staying at.

  Brede and Sofia are walking in front of me and Agnar holding hands. I try to pay attention to them instead of the people staring at me as we walk. No one looks mean or anything, I think they’re just not used to seeing kids. My necklace is back on so it definitely isn’t my level. Brede seems different with her around. He was always nice but he’s been like a kind of strict teacher while Agnar has been like a fun uncle. He’s had a smile on his face ever since Sofia stopped being mad at our joke. She even laughed about it after they told her the whole story. They left out who my godmother was. Brede said I could tell her later if I wanted to when we were away from the village.

  Sofia said lunch was on her, then she said it was “offered freely and with no obligation.” I didn’t know that was an option. I jokingly offered her a hug “offered freely and with no obligation.” I was happily surprised when she took me up on it. Wow, she's strong. I can’t wait till we can fight together. I manage not to blurt that out, but it was close. She gets us all beef and vegetable stew with a piece of buttered bread. I’ve read enough now that I know kids are supposed to hate vegetables. Not me, it’s nice to eat something that isn’t meat or dairy. The bread is fresh too, so it’s better than what Brede had by a lot. Not that I’m trying to insult the eggs and cheese and bread from Brede but it was definitely traveling food not sit down restaurant food. We start chatting as we finish eating.

  “So I guess now we have to figure out how to get Marie into Ingenburg,” Sofia says. “Sneaking her in won’t work, she’s too cute to go unnoticed.” I can feel my face heat up a little at that. “Her godmother could get her in but I assume there’s a good reason she can’t be here?”

  Brede and Agnar just nod at her.

  “Actually, I have a plan,” Agnar starts to say.

  “I have an idea,” Sofia says at the same time. “Sorry, go ahead uncle Aggie.”

  “Uncle Aggie?” I mouth at him.

  “The two of you are drive me nuts aren’t you?” He asks.

  “Serves you right,” Brede says.

  “Alright, alright I did that on purpose. It does serve you right for that shit earlier. What’s your plan Agnar?” Sofia asks.

  “Ooh a no-no word,” Agnar says right before getting hit in the chest with some bread crust. “I missed you too, niece. My first thought was that we help her to slay some monster that would make us instant heroes. You know for a day or two at least. No way will they turn us away if we show up with the corpse of something that actually threatens them.”

  “You say that was your first thought, have you changed your mind?” Sofia asks.

  What? Did I mess up or something?

  “Now I think we help her become a hero and then add her permanently to our team. She attracts monsters better than anything I’ve seen and they never expect her power.”

  “I think that’s asking a lot, Agnar. She’s just a kid, we can’t expect her to fight just because.” She looks around and leans in whispering, “Just because she’s powerful. Come on, she can’t know how dangerous it can be or really understand the consequences.”

  Excuse me? “Hey!” I say.

  “She killed a redcap and we couldn’t have taken the Kohlenmann without her. Not to mention the way she played that risk. She needs some training but she’s smart and fearless. You’re not really thinking about how her stats change her situation here.”

  “I don’t care if her stats are twice mine, she’s a little girl and putting her in danger is wrong. I kind of understand you guys making the mistakes you made on the way here but I’m not going to let you put a helpless kid in danger because you think it’s convenient.”

  “HEY!” I say louder.

  “Helpless? She could kill the three of us where we sit if she wanted. She snapped a Redcap’s neck Sof. We haven’t even told you about all the fights she had before we got there,” Agnar says, getting louder.

  “And you think I didn’t notice the missing fingers? She’s clearly out of her depth. The fact that she’s a better fighter than you two doesn’t really mean all that much. I said no, and that’s the end of it,” Sofia yells back.

  “Hey dammit!” I say slamming my hands down on the table. The boards making up the table splinter and my hands go through it. I’m too mad to even stop. “I’m right here, stop talking about me like I’m not. I agreed to fight the Tatzelwurm and if that means I have to go find it myself then I will. Brede and Agnar said I was a team mate. Not a little kid. Not helpless. I survived for months by myself in the woods with no one else. I don’t want to go back to being alone but I’d rather do that than sit here and have people act like they can decide what I’m going to do without me.”

  Sofia scrunches her eyebrows. “Marie, I’m sorry. That was inconsiderate of me. But you don’t understand how dangerous what they’re suggesting is. This thing wipes out entire villages. When you’ve seen death like I have it changes things. You’re smart, no one is saying you aren’t but you’re still a kid. You shouldn’t be making decisions like this.”

  Well I’m not worried about impressing her anymore. This is the angriest I’ve been since I don’t even know. Before the momma pig. That takes a little bit of the fire out of me but not all of it. No. I’m not going to be treated like this. She doesn’t understand so I’ll have to make her.

  “I thought you would understand. You’re an orphan,” I say. I feel a little bad about saying this but I'm going to tell her the truth. “Your mom’s gone and your dad’s gone but you didn’t get to know them. I’m sorry you didn’t. I knew mine. And I knew my brother. They died right next to me and then I was saved because the System threw me into a tutorial in front of someone who couldn’t watch me die no matter what it cost me. What it cost me is being a kid. I don’t get to go to school and play with my friends and worry about growing up. There’s some thing out there playing with me like a toy and trying to make me fit in their story. I don’t get to not make these choices. I have to get stronger, I have to get so strong they can’t mess with me anymore. And then I met Agnar and Brede and we laugh and joke but I know they’re worried about me. I get that you’re worried about me. You can’t protect me, if you want to help me then help me get stronger. Please. Because if you don’t I’m going to go do it myself.”

  I look down at my hands and the table. The elf lady who served us looks terrified. Dammit, not again. “Brede, what will it cost me to get you to help me fix this table?” I ask. I look at the elf lady and say, “Ma’am I’m so sorry, I’ll fix this. Do you need me to do anything else to make it ok?”

  That seems to snap her out of it. “No, that will be fine. I will have to ban you from the inn for a period of one year. Sorry, that's the rule for breaking our furniture, though it’s usually meant for drunks and not unruly children.”

  I just nod. “I understand. Sorry again.”

  “You can help me in the forge when we get into the city. I know you ain’t supposed to do future favors but I hope you’ll stay with us anyway.”

  “That rule’s not for friends,” I say. “No problem.”

  “Wait Brede,” Sofia starts, “You’re not gonna really charge her are you?”

  “We promised we’d treat her like a partner honey, it’s only fair.”

  “No, I mean this is my fault,” she says. “I was being inconsiderate. Marie, I promise I’m listening to you now. No one is making decisions without you but can we at least talk about it?”

  I want to be mad still. I want something or some one to be mad at. I didn’t want to say all that. I didn’t want to think all that. I hope Hecate doesn’t take it the wrong way. I am thankful. I just miss my family. And somedays. Some days I don’t know if I still want to be here. But those are the bad days. The ones I don’t get up. That’s not all the time.

  “It’s not your fault Sofia,” I say quietly. “Yeah we can talk about it but you need to know. I’m not scared of fighting. I like to fight, when it’s a real fight. I wasn’t scared of that coal man, I was mad I couldn’t punch him in the face.”

  She hugged me and I let her. I even hugged her back. No tears though. I held onto that anger, I can’t go crying every time I get upset. I have to keep moving. Getting stronger. I’m so tired of getting emotional all the time. I know I can’t be a robot but I feel like I’m constantly swinging between angry and happy and sad. Agnar said I was bad at just being, did he mean this too?

  Brede was able to get some lumber and fix the table without me. He promised I’d work off the debt in his forge. That wonderful sneaky man. He’s offering me a free lesson in blacksmithing. I don’t know if they think I don’t notice when they do stuff like that but I do. I’m gonna pay them back too. Since we were kicked out of the inn, or I was anyway, we’re standing outside the wall trying to decide where to go next.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Do we even know where the Tatzelwurm is?” Sofia asks.

  “I’m certain we can find out,” Agnar replies. “If we go somewhere it’s been we can probably find something to do a tracking spell with. Marie’s already proficient with those, and her patron goddess doesn’t seem to mind helping her out. I’m surprised though, I assumed you would still be arguing against it.”

  “I intend to, but I’m just trying to think practically. If Marie runs off and tries to find and fight it herself I don’t think the three of us are going to stand by and do nothing. But I’m also trying to be fair. You say you’ve seen something to make you think she can take one, what if you showed me that? Maybe that would change my mind too.”

  “Do you know where another monster is?” I ask. This is perfect. I don’t want to fight with her anymore. I’m kind of embarrassed about blowing up like that. I think I had to though or she wouldn’t have believed me.

  “As a matter of fact I do. The villagers have been talking about a Nuckelavee since I got here. They’re worried about what it will do to their crops. They were about to send someone to the city for help when I offered to take care of it. I kind of forgot to tell you in all the excitement.”

  “So you want us to go after the beast?” Brede asks.

  “No, if Marie is everything you insist she is, I want to see her take it out. If she can take on the Nuckelavee by herself I can see how she fights and determine what kind of chance we have against the Tatzelwurm,” She says. “What do you say Marie? Fair?”

  “Absolutely,” I blurt out. Calm down Marie. “Will you tell me about it or do I have to do my own research?”

  “No reason to handicap you anymore. I’ll tell you about it on the way. There’s a lake nearby and it’s been seen there multiple times.”

  Awesome!

  *****

  Nearby turned out to be a three hour walk. That gave Sofia plenty of time to make the Nuckelavee sound as scary as possible. Marie from a year ago would have had nightmares forever. Now it just sounded nasty. It was a centaur with no skin (ew) that spread disease and rotted crops. It would also attack and trample anyone that got in its way. Even though it had a human or maybe elf top half it was apparently just some kind of unseelie animal. The unseelie court wasn’t bad or evil or anything, it just had most of the Fae that refused to join the Seelie court. Sometimes it was stuff like redcaps that were evil, and sometimes it was just people who didn’t want to serve Titania or Brigid. Brigid was apparently like Morrigan on the Seelie side. Sofia says I’d get along with her. I guess they’re kind of like sisters who respect each other but do their own things.

  She asks me to tell her about my parents. She tells me about Beri, who she considers to be her mom. She says I’m kind of wrong because Beri is the only mom she ever knew. She says she doesn’t know what it feels like to really lose her parents and she’s sorry. I guess I didn’t think about it like that. She tells me she has to talk to Brede but there might be another way to get me in the city. She doesn’t want to get my hopes up though. Brede shakes his head no and just mouths “later” to her. I want to ask but I know sooner or later one of them will tell me.

  The Nuckelavee is disgusting. Like I knew it had no skin but it makes me hate that I know the words “oozing” and “puss” and “gangrene”. That last one scared me when I lost my fingers. We’re pretty far back, far enough that I leave distance on when I used Advanced Identify.

  Level 23 Diseased Nuckelavee

  HP: 850

  Distance: 593 feet

  Low level, ok hp. Definitely want to keep it at range. I do not want that thing touching me. The others go stand in front of a couple of trees and just watch it. I’m still watching too. The problem is it’s not really doing anything, just kind of galloping back and forth in front of the lake. OK, time to get above it. I do my jump and catch myself trick with Mana Walking a couple of times and Sofia just watches me. Pay attention to the skinless centaur Marie. Focus time.

  I get almost directly over it before it notices me. So much for a surprise attack. It starts rearing back and stomping. This is what she wants me to kill to prove I can take the Tatzelwurm? OK, I guess. Scales of Ma’at lands on it while it’s rearing up and when it hits the ground its legs sink into the ground almost to the knees. Voltaic Railblaster shoots 4 shells. They hit so fast the sound runs together. WHACK ZA-CRACK. The shells hit hard enough it knocks the things legs out of the ground. This is too easy. Ready for more shots? I take aim and it opens its mouth. Green and brown gas pours out of its mouth, surrounding it. The gas coming out reminds me of the steam when the coal man fell into our trap. That’s a lot of gas really fast. It doesn’t hide it very well though. I shoot 4 more shells.

  As soon as the shells get to the gas they pop. The lightning ball expands ZAP, but it’s not big enough to hit the Knuckelavee. That’s ok, I know about gas, a lot of time it’s explosive. I use Flame Magic to shoot a firebolt at the gas. Instead of exploding a bunch of gas surrounds the fire and it goes out. Thanks to the coal man fight (and homework) I know it just took all the oxygen away from the fire. It really shouldn’t work like that though. Must be magic gas. I use my Advanced Mana Sense and can tell there’s a lot of mana in that gas. Maybe this won’t be as easy as I thought.

  I open a Waterfall above the monster and it just gallops out of the way. It’s slowed though. The gas follows it, but it’s even slower than the skinless centaur. I check it’s HP, still over 500. I did some damage but it learned how to block me pretty quick. I gotta be faster. New Waterfall makes it run and I shoot off another shell. I guess it knows it’s coming because it opens its mouth and gas blocks my shot again. ZAP. The gas is fast but some of the lightning hits it. Oh great, a whole 15 health points gone. I should have shot it the first time I used Waterfall. I wasted my chance. I run in a circle coming closer to the ground. I have an idea.

  The Nuckelavee runs at me. I have to time this just right. I pull my sword out and make my mana gauntlet, switching my blaster to my right hand. I take Scales of Ma’at off of the Knuckelavee as it gets closer and it out runs the gas cloud. This seems to make it more determined to get to me. It’s almost there when I take a step forward. Basic Spark Step. I push it pretty hard, getting all the way through the charging monster. I turn and swing my sword. Goodbye arm. It held it up to stop me as it turned and I cut through its wrist and then below its shoulder. I cast Scales of Ma’at to make myself lighter and jump, firing two shells from Voltaic Railblaster as I fly up. He was trying to hit me with that breath and doesn’t adjust fast enough to block the shells. WHACK ZACRACK. Between my movement skill, the lost arm and the shells he’s right above 200.

  Wait, why did Sofia move closer? Maybe it was hard to see what I was doing. Still too dangerous to be over here if you’re not fighting. I move away from her and shoot some firecrackers near the Knuckelavee to get its attention. I didn’t need to, it seems pretty much obsessed with me now.

  It’s shooting that gas out and all of it moving towards me. I still have more than half my mana, I think I know how to end this. I stop using Scales of Ma’at so I don’t waste mana. The Knuckelavee is standing where I have mana moving the gas around. I use Psychokinesis to make a blaster directly under it. I shoot a shell from the sky while I’m running to distract it. As soon as it starts breathing more gas I fire 4 shells from below it and then 4 more as soon as I can, casting Scales of Ma’at at the same time to make it as light as possible.

  It works. The creature is knocked off of the ground and almost floats up as the shells hit it. WHACK ZACRACK WHACK ZACRACK. Wow that’s getting loud. My ears are still ringing when I get the System message. I make sure to get back on the ground and away from the gas before I check it.

  Level 23 Diseased Nuckelavee Defeated

  Experience Rewarded

  Still no level up? Well it was a lot lower level than me. I’m glad, I was running out of ideas. Fighting that thing if it was at my level would probably suck. I’ll have to think of better ways to fight something that can stop my lightning later. The others are coming towards me so I just wait on them. The gas is going away so I don’t have to worry about that.

  “Wow Marie, great job,” Agnar says, “You really could have just taken that redcap yourself, huh? That thing didn’t even touch you, people will be talking about it for a long time.”

  “That was a good fight young ‘un,” Brede says. “I thought it had you there when your shock bullets didn’t work.”

  “Wasn’t it?.” I said, grinning. I was happy with the fight but I was waiting to see what Sofia thought.

  “Well you handled that better than I could have imagined,” she says. “You are much higher level and it seems like that was a good match up. Something is bothering me though. The Kohlenmann put you down for two days. This thing never even touched you. So the real question is, can you take a hit?”

  I hold my left hand up as an answer. “I finished this fight.”

  “I’m not attacking you Marie, I don’t mean can you take pain, clearly you can based on what you told me about the Kohlenmann. I mean what happens when something big and strong takes a swing at you?”

  Oh. I bring up Hexagon Buckler on my right arm. “Hit it,” I say.

  “Are you sure?” She asks. “If it breaks I’m probably going to hit you.”

  “Yeah but I have more health than you do. No way are you going to kill me with a single punch.” What is it going to take to get her to stop treating me like I’m weak?

  “Ok,” she says. She takes a wide stance. The ground around her back leg sinks as she swings. CRACK, her fist sounds like a gun going off. A real one like dad and Benji used to hunt, not one of the ones on TV. Her fist hits my shield faster than I can see and a third of my mana disappears but it holds. Oh boy do I not want that to hit me. She leans back to do it again.

  “Wait! I don’t have enough mana for another one,” I say.

  She stands up straight. “Really? I figured you had at least 400 or 500 mana.”

  “I have over 600, but I haven’t recovered all of it yet because I turned Scales of Ma’at an Mana Walking back on. Also it took almost 200 mana to block that. I never block like that, I always try to deflect the blow. It would be stupid for me to fight you head on like this, I would try to get away as quick as I could.”

  “You can’t always get away though. I’m sure you could do that thing where you turned into lightning and step through me but I bet I could grab you before you could get away.”

  “You don’t want to grab me,” I say.

  “Marie,” Sofia says, “I get you’re higher level than me but I’m pretty sure I’m faster and stronger. I don’t think you want me grabbing you. You won’t get away.”

  “I wouldn’t be the one trying to get away. I can show you if you think you can handle it.” Dammit, why do we keep arguing?

  She grabs me by both arms. “What do you do now? I’ve heard about your headbutts and I don’t suggest it. I’ll regret saying this I’m sure but my head’s a lot harder than a night hag’s.”

  “Are you ready?” I ask. “I’m going to do it for 3 seconds, unless your health goes down too fast.”

  “Uh, sure, go ahead,” She says.

  I activate Pyrrhic Circuit. One Second. She tries to pull her hands away but can’t. I can tell she’s freaking out a little. Then she starts squeezing. It’s uneven, I can tell she’s having a really hard time but it hurts. So I pour more mana into the skill. Two seconds. Both of our health pools are dropping but it’s almost nothing to me, I can recover in a few minutes. Like I’m starting to get used to it. Three seconds. I stop the skill and she pulls her hands back. 50HP. I could have made it more.

  “Ow, dammit. Don’t say no-no word,” She says glaring at Agnar. “OK you shouldn’t use that on the Tatzelwurm unless you absolutely have to. And you need some kind of mana shell to stop the gas from getting in your body. And I’m the bait, no arguing.”

  “You’re onboard?” Agnar asks.

  “I’m tentatively onboard,” she replies. “Damn Marie, remind me not to make you mad. Instead of hurting one of us let me just ask you, what are your weaknesses?”

  I’ve had a lot of time to think about this, so it’s easy. “My aura sucks so I’m not very good at feeling attacks with mana. I’m fast but not as fast as someone like you or the lynx that took my fingers. It snuck up on me and was too fast to completely stop. It did die eating them though. I kept them hoping there was a way to put them back. My mana manipulation could be a lot better. I have to fix problems with the way it flows in my body. Flying stuff can be a problem, I can change the weight of me and other things but if you’re strong enough it doesn’t help as much. You’re right, I can’t take a lot of damage. I have to dodge. That’s why I train with Scales of Ma’at to raise strength and dexterity. I should actually be pretty close to getting a point in those. Either today or tomorrow.”

  She bows at me. “Marie, I'm sorry for treating you like a kid. I’m even more sorry that’s something I have to be sorry about. Will you forgive me? I can’t promise I won’t mess up again or that I won’t care but I’ll try to treat you like an equal.”

  “OK,” I say. “I forgive you. Are we gonna fight a lot?” Oh my goddess Marie, why did you say that?

  “I think we’re going to fight like family,” Sofia says.

  “I’m pretty sure if you hit me when I wasn’t expecting it you could, like, make my head explode.”

  She laughs, “Let not find out.”

  “Yes, please,” I say.

  “I’m pretty sure you could just shock me to death.”

  “Let’s not find out.”

  “Yes please,” She says.

  *****

  The search for the Tatzelwurm had to wait till the next day. We made a litter for the Knuckelavee and dragged it back to Nahenburg. I didn’t get unbanned from the Inn, which we all thought was unfair. It’s fine, they sleep in the Inn and I use my tent. Sofia offered to stay with me but then I showed her the tent and she said it was nicer than her room.

  It’s been a while since I was alone for very long. I can’t sleep at first so I try to catch up on some homework but it’s not holding my attention. So I start working on the stuff blocking the mana in my shoulder. It starts to really hurt after a while but I take it as a challenge. You think you can stop me pain? I’ve been skewered, set on fire, and had my fingers chopped off. Oh boohoo my shoulder hurts.

  I do stop after a while, not because it hurts too much, but because it finally made me tired enough to sleep. I have an old nightmare, but it’s a little different. I’m back in the car, tree limb through my stomach. The hand I’m holding isn’t Benji though, it’s Agnar. His face is loose and his mouth is open. His eyes look like glass marbles and his hand is like ice. My parents aren’t in the front, it’s Brede and Sofia. They look as bad as Agnar does. I keep reaching for my mana but I can’t get a hold of it. Something lands on the hood of the car. It’s a big hairy spider. It starts tapping on the windshield with its front leg. The car is shaking. The windshield breaks and the car falls. It’s like I can feel the ground below us coming up to get me. I wake up before we hit.

  I get dressed and open my tent to step outside, Sofia and Brede are standing there. I catch the end of whatever Brede is talking about, “...way she’ll say yes. I don’t think you realize what you’re askin’ of her.”

  “Uh, hi,” I say with a yawn. “Sorry, were you guys waiting on me?”

  “Yes. Well no, we’re not in any hurry, we just wanted to talk to you in private,” Sofia says. “May we come in? It’s about what I was talking about maybe having another way to get you in the city.”

  “Oh, sure,” I say stepping back inside and holding the way open.

  They both step in. Sofia looks like I feel. Nervous. She keeps rubbing her fingertips on her palms. “Morning, Marie. I don’t know exactly how to say or do this. So there might be a way for you to come into the city without fighting the tatzelwurm. Not that we can’t later, it would give you more time to train on the weaknesses you laid out for us. I mean we could probably take it now. Maybe. But I would feel a lot better if we trained together as a team first. We have some other friends who could help too, so it wouldn’t just be you and me and Agnar. I’m sure you agree Brede probably should sit this one out.”

  “Honey, you’re ramblin’,” Brede says.

  “Right, I just,” she turns to Brede. “Help me?”

  “Alright Sof. Marie this is a real offer, and we both mean it. We ain’t just tryin’ to think of ways to get you in, or tryin’ to treat you like a kid. This ain’t even just Sofia’s idea, I had a similar one a ways back. No matter what you say, we're your friends and we ain’t gonna take no offense. We’d like to ask if Sofia and I can adopt you. You’d be our kid in the eyes of the Fae and could go anywhere you wanted. You don’t have to answer right now, just think on it.”

  I pulled the chair from my desk out and sat down. Adopt me? Like Brede and Sofia would be my mom and dad? The thought made me sick. Not because I didn’t like them, or care for them but the idea of calling someone else mom or dad was just wrong. It hasn’t even been a year. Plus there’s no way Sofia wouldn’t try to rush things. I just knew it. She’d try and make decisions for me as a parent. Maybe not at first. She’d try and respect my decisions like she promised. This wouldn’t just be a trick to get me in though. She wants to be my mom. Or maybe she wants to be a mom and here I am. That’s a mean thought, but she doesn’t even know me. This is so unfair. I’m either going to do something I don’t want to do or hurt people I care about. I know which one it's going to be. Which one it has to be.

  “No,” I say.

  “You don’t have to decide now,” Sofia says.

  I walk over and throw my arms around her. “I appreciate you for caring about me. I can’t Sofia. It’s not even been a year. I’m not ready for this. I’m not ready to let them go.” Dammit Marie you’re crying again. I feel Brede move and hug me too. “I appreciate you Brede, for understanding.” We just stay like that for a little while.

  “Too bad you can’t become like my big sister or something,” I say when we pull apart.

  “Hahaha my mom would probably adopt you without question, but I don’t think that’s what you meant,” Sofia says. She had been crying too. I didn’t mean to make her do that. “Can you forgive me for asking?”

  “You don’t need to say sorry for caring,” I say. I had a thought. “We could be blood sisters, actually we could all do it. Where’s Agnar? He’ll be mad if we leave him out.”

  “What is that?” Sofia asks.

  “It’s a blood pact. I did it with my friends Cindi and Mia. We cut ourselves and mix our blood and make a pact to always be family no matter what. You can’t break a blood pact,” I say. We had too. I left out the part where our parents got mad at us for “playing with knives” and we all got grounded for like a month. That wasn’t the important part.

  Brede just sighed, “I’ll get Agnar,” he says leaving the tent.

  “I thought there wasn’t much magic on your side,” Sofia says.

  “It’s not about magic,” I say. “It’s about making a promise and caring about each other. Breaking the oath would mean being cast out of the group.” I feel silly talking about it. I’ve been through enough and read enough to know this is kid’s stuff. I know that in my head. But my heart tells me I’d still kill for Cindi and Mia. That promise meant something. I felt bad but I was a little hesitant to do this with Sofia. We’d basically fought since we met, but we were fighting over her caring about me and that makes a difference. Brede and Agnar I was completely ok with, and they loved Sofia so I would too. Besides all she did was make me mad, Agnar actually made me cry when we met. Like, sad cry.

  Brede came back with Agnar.

  “What’s this I hear about blood oaths and secret siblings?” Agnar says.

  I start explaining it and he stops me. “I’m messing with you, I’ve seen It. Only issue I have is that the three of us are already related. So if you make a pact to be family with one of us it will go for all of us if we agree. Which we do. So maybe pick one of us to make the oath with and the other two will contribute blood. What do you think?” I kind of understand what subtlety is. It’s like saying something without actually saying it. I don’t think him continuously looking between me and then Sofia counts. She cried for me, she was willing to try and be my mom. I can do this for her.

  “Wanna be sacred sisters forever?” I ask.

  She’s clearly trying not to cry, “Yeah I really fucking do.”

  I make a mana knife and she lets me cut her hand and mine. Agnar and Brede drip some blood on the cuts. We hold our hands together. “I, Marie, promise to be your blood sister forever. This is a sacred oath and if I break it then I die.”

  “I, Sofia, promise to be your blood sister forever. This is a sacred oath and if I break it then I die.”

  Mana flows through my arm and into the cut. I can feel the cut closing. There’s a light between our hands. I didn’t actually think anything would happen. I guess this is a real spell? Well good, I meant it. The light fades and we both just kind of look at each other.

  Sofia lets go of my hand and looks at hers. “Do you think?” She starts to ask. Then she reaches in her pocket and pulls out a purple ribbon. “Here you go Marie, why don’t you put this in your hair.” Weird, why is she walking around with ribbons in her pocket? It is my favorite color though. I take it and tie up my hair.

  “Thanks, Sofia,” I say. Oops. I know I probably slipped up with Brede and Agnar a couple of times. They’ve kind of let it go. Oh well I doubt Sofia will hold it against me. I wait for them to say something.

  “Family doesn’t count favors,” Sofia says. Wait what?

  “Does that mean it really worked?” I ask.

  “Just like magic,” she says.

  “So I can thank uncle Aggie and Brede?” I ask.

  “You brat,” Agnar says. “I guess you can.”

  “You’re very welcome,” says Brede.

  We stay in the tent for a little while, just being family. Making jokes and telling stories. I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time. I don’t know where I’m going. I really hope that it leads to more of this. I still want to fight and get stronger. I’m still going to kill that snake and stop the spider. But this is what keeps me going. Even if it never lasts long enough.