Magic

A New Beginning

"All right, wake up you three!" Grydda's booming voice practically shook the earth and woke me right up. The wagon had stopped just outside the forest we'd been traversing for the last three days. Ilpa was stretching out her back, emitting a high pitched squeak. Miraculously, Belbi was still asleep, resting against my shoulder. I nudged him awake and climbed out of the wagon after Ilpa, while Belbi just hopped right out onto the round. We joined Grydda and gazed upon the unfortunate sight that was our apparent destination.

You've got to be kidding.

The four of us stood there in front of what was essentially an oversized shack. Shutters were hanging off the mostly broken windows, the vines that had grown along the front and the side had withered ages ago, the porch was sunken in, and half the house honestly looked moldy. After living in basically a mansion, saying this house was a major step down would be an understatement. I looked over to Ilpa, whose pointed ears were drooping while her hands were covering her nose in disgust. Evidently her elven sense of smell was allowing her to pick up some stench I couldn't detect. I'd never been so grateful to be human.

"Eugh, it smells like an entire army died in there!" she squealed into her hands, clutching her nose tighter. "Miss Grydda, couldn't you have found some place that at least smelled nicer?"

Belbi piped up in disagreement, swishing his tail in excitement.

"Uh-uh! Belbi like it! Smell nice like homeplace!" His rabbit-like face beaming with joy.

I looked over to Belbi and chuckled a bit. "Belbi, you grew up next to a swamp."

"In swamp!" Belbi corrected, jumping up excitedly, making his fuzzy ears flop about as Ilpa groaned.

"That makes it worse!" she complained, and at this point I had just started laughing at the two of them.

"That's enough, you two!" Grydda finally spoke up. She turned to the three of us, the motion causing her thick gray curls to bounce. "Magic folk on the run can't afford to be picky! After those ridiculous Hunters ran us out of the village, did you think we'd be living in the lap of luxury?" She snapped at them, making them cringe a little bit. "Now, the both of you unload the cart while I take a look inside. Farrin, take Dromber to the stable around the back." She spun on her heel and began walking up the stone pathway, her footsteps accompanied by the sound of her wooden staff tapping the ground.

"Yes Ma'am." The three of us said in unison. I turned to the other two, who looked pretty deflated from their scolding.

"Well, get to it, guys. Unless you want her to yell at you again." They both looked at each other worriedly and started taking our luggage out of the wagon, while I unhitched Dromber's harness, grabbed her bag of food, and started directing the large boar to the back of the house. As I walked away, I overheard Ilpa and Belbi's conversation.

"I don't get why she's more angry at us than Farrin. It's her fault we had to leave."

"Nuh-uh! Hunters! It they fault! They mean!"

"She used magic in public, Belbi. The Hunters wouldn't have known about us if she just-" My annoyance got the better of me and I cut her off.

"I can hear you! How about waiting until I'm out of earshot before you start gossiping about me?"

Ilpa got flustered and huffed. She was about to respond but she stopped and indignantly went back to her chore.

I turned away and muttered under my breath. "Little brat." Dromber snorted and nudged the back of my shoulder as if she agreed with me. I smiled and scratched at the top of her head. "At least you're fun to be around." She let out an almost conversational grunt that made me giggle. "Yeah, I guess Belbi's not too bad. He snores though. A lot." I said, jokingly. I observed my surroundings as I made my way to the back and saw that we never actually left the forest. We were in a particularly large clearing, but it was evident we were still surrounded by trees, judging from what I could make out in the distance. We really were isolated.