Ellie felt like she was sitting in an interrogation room. The two police officers, no, Ralf’s parents sat in front of her—their faces stern as they stared at her drawing.

Ellie gulped as she stole a glance at them.

‘So, who’s gonna play the good cop and bad cop?’ her thoughts wandered. She shook her head and dispelled those thoughts. The act as an innocent and ignorant child must go on.

“I’m sorry, but am I in trouble?” Ellie asked softly.

Astrid stirred. “Oh dear, no, you’re not in trouble.” She glanced at Osmond. The latter gave a slight nod.

“We just want to know more about this symbol,” Astrid’s voice shook a little but gradually gained stability as she continued. “It’s really interesting and we want to know where and how we can find it too.”

As if on cue, Ellie put on her figurative acting hat. She told them the story that she made up while she was lying in bed the night before. The story goes something like this:

Ellie and her (non-existent) parents were travelling to meet relatives in Asger when they stopped at a town, Reigar. As they were about to check-in into the local inn, they saw a group of travelers passing by on horses.

It was then when Ellie saw the insignias on the scabbards of their swords. Thinking that the insignias looked special, she told her parents immediately. After the travelers left, her parents rushed to a secluded corner. Before she understood what was happening, there was an explosion and she somehow ended up in the snow plains where Osmond had found her.

A long silence followed. Ellie’s heart pounded in her chest. She had lied through her teeth. Did it work? Did they believe her? She was not sure.

“I see…” Astrid finally uttered two words after sighing.

“What’s wrong?” Ellie tried probing.

Astrid sighed once more.

“Ellie dear, you’re a smart girl, so I’ll be honest with you. Those men are dangerous. Your parents probably knew it and were about to get away from them.”

“Dangerous? Why?”

“... to put it simply, they’re from an evil organization. They perform evil acts and harm people. Wherever they go, death follows.” Astrid was grim.

Ellie gulped. Indeed they were evil. The Six-Starred Wolf organization was one of the antagonists in her novel. They were notorious among mages.

“Ellie, do you have magic?” Osmond asked.

“Um… no…?”

How could Ellie have magic? She was just a normal human living in a normal world before transmigrating to this world—her novel.

“Osmond, it must be the device that she mentioned. The… uh… computer.”

“Right, the device that uses lightning energy.” Osmond nodded. “They are known to collect unique talents and artifacts and conduct experiments on them,” he clenched his fists.

“The group of men that you saw is most likely the hunters of the organization. Their presence always means danger and bloodshed,” he added.

Osmond exhaled and smiled as if to reassure his wife and Ellie.

“Alright kid, don’t worry about it. I’m sure we will find a way out of this mess.”

He clasped Ellie’s small shoulder with his big hand. “For now, I’ll need your help to accompany Ralf, alright? Don’t let him get out of your sight.”

Ellie nodded solemnly. However, she was rejoicing and whooping internally.

‘I did it! They believed me! They didn’t even ask where I’m from! Hmm, aren’t they a bit careless though?’

It seemed that both Osmond and Astrid were too disturbed by the appearance of the insignia that they forgot to ask about Ellie’s origin.

“I’ll call for a meeting with the elders.” Osmond got up and left through the door into the snowy outdoors.

*****

A village meeting was quickly organized. As per Osmond’s request, Ellie accompanied Ralf while the adults in the village convened. The atmosphere in the village was tense.

“What do you think is happening?” Ralf asked nervously.

“Hmm… I don’t know.”

The fact was, Ellie did not know how to answer Ralf’s question. She was the reason for the current situation. Seeing Ralf’s puppy-like eyes, she relented and decided to tell Ralf the truth.

“Remember the picture I drew, about the wolf with six stars?”

Ralf nodded.

“Turns out that they’re really bad people and a lot of people are going to get hurt and die.” Ellie explained as a matter of fact.

Ralf’s eyes widened. “Are they coming here?”

“Yes.”

“Then what should we do?” Ralf whispered.

“Best choice? Run. Just run like there is no tomorrow,” Ellie gave a wry smile.

At their current strength, they cannot defeat the hunters from the Six-Starred Wolf. Astrid and Osmond were the only mages in the village but they were outnumbered. Besides, if they could defeat them, why would they hide in such a secluded location in the first place? Nobody knew the hunters as well as Ellie. She was the one who created them after all. They were meant to destroy the village.

“Where should we go?” Ralf asked again.

Ellie pondered. She had thought about this the night before but could not find an answer. They could hide deeper in the wilderness and cover their tracks. However, there was a problem. The hunters would not stop their pursuit until they achieved their goal. This was where it got frustrating. How did the hunters find out about their location? If Ellie knew their exact methods, she could have devised a countermeasure.

When fleshing out Ralf’s backstory, she did not think too much about how the hunters found out about their location. It was a convenient plot device. Was it bad writing? Not according to Ellie. There was simply no need to think about the reason. Ellie felt useless as the author of the story. What kind of author doesn’t know their own story?

‘Hold on,’ Ellie thought.

She remembered that in the later chapters, Ralf had found out that they were actively searching for humans with natural powers like Ralf and had kept them captive. People with natural powers can link their senses. The organization must have made use of this ability to track down Ralf.

‘If that’s the case, it’s almost impossible to escape indefinitely.’

“Ellie?”

Ellie stirred from her thoughts. She smiled. It was almost impossible to escape, but they could fight back. There was a powerful wizard that resided in the capital. Common folk did not know how to get in touch with him, but that was not the case for Ellie. Finally, her identity as an author was becoming useful again.

“Don’t worry. We will find someone to help us,” she smiled.

The day passed by slowly but it was eventually twilight. Only then did the adults return to their lodgings.

Astrid and Osmond’s faces were glum. It seemed like the discussion did not go particularly well. They gathered the children and sat down together around the table in the main room of their house.

The fire crackled in the silence as both adults formulated their thoughts into words.

Osmond spoke first.

“Ralf, Ellie, we have to pack up and leave this village immediately. The latest we must leave is in 3 days.”

Ralf was silent. Ellie nodded. She had expected it to be so.

“Huh, you children are really calm about this aren’t you all?” Osmond was bemused.

“Ellie told me that the men she saw were dangerous and that we needed to run away.”

“Right, Ellie told you.” Osmond nodded towards Ellie and continued, “I guess I should tell you children the truth, now that it has come to this…”

Osmond took a deep breath.

“Ralf, you know that your mother and I are mages. We aren’t really powerful, but you were nature’s blessings to us when you were born. This means that you are blessed with the world’s natural energy.”

“Natural energy?”

“Yes, remember when we told you not to move objects without touching them?”

Ralf nodded.

“That’s one of the perks of natural energy. You are in tune with the world and can use its energy as you wish.”

Ralf’s mouth formed an ‘o’ as he listened to Osmond. He then frowned.

“Are they coming for me?” he asked cautiously.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Osmond said as he stole a glance at Ellie.

Ellie was alarmed. ‘They’re not blaming me aren’t they?’ she thought. ‘I’m just a normal civilian that got caught in the cross-fire, okay!?’

“Ellie, I’m sorry but you’ll have to come with us,” Astrid said.

Ellie was puzzled for about a second. Why would Astrid be sorry? Ellie was rejoicing internally. She wanted to leave this village as soon as possible. It was her intention all along!

Her confusion was soon answered.

“We would love to look for your parents but we can’t afford to do so now. The villagers…” Astrid paused.

“They’re not willing to take you along to look for your parents.”

“I understand,” Ellie said with her head lowered.

In truth, Ellie did not care. Her parents did not exist anyways.

“If they would at least take you to Asger,” Astrid sighed in exasperation.

Ellie pondered. Would it be better if she left for Asger? It would be much safer for her, but Ralf and his parents will be in danger. The hunters would definitely track them down. She was the only person who knew how the hunters hunted and could therefore effectively evade them. She was confident with Astrid and Osmond’s abilities as mid-tier mages.

It was not even two full days that Ellie had grown attached to Ralf and his parents. So much so that she was willing to change the whole story of her novel just so that they could avoid suffering.

“So where are we going?” Ellie asked.

Osmond and Astrid were silent.

“We could go to the capital,” Ellie suggested.

“The capital? Why?” Astrid was surprised.

“Uh… we can ask for help from the mages there. There’s a powerful Archwizard.”

“Of course, there are many powerful mages in the capital. But why would they help us?”

“It doesn’t hurt to try. Besides…” Ellie fidgeted. She was not sure how to put her suggestion into words. She finally decided that being straightforward is the best approach.

“I know how to get the Archwizard to help.”

Astrid and Osmond gasped.

“You do? You can’t mean—the Archwizard Shakma?” Astrid said in shock.

Ellie nodded and pursed lips. Her heart was thumping against her chest again. It seemed that her heart did that a lot when she told half-lies.

The couple was speechless.

“How—who are you, exactly?” Astrid narrowed her eyes.

There was no fool-proof lie that Ellie could come up with. If they were to travel together for a while, her lies would eventually be unraveled. It would not reflect well upon her integrity.

“I… I can’t tell you. My mother and father forbid me to tell anyone.” Ellie fidgeted in her seat and clasped her hands. Her head faced the floor. She hoped that they would believe her despite withholding the truth.

Seconds felt like eternity and the silence was deafening.

“We understand,” Astrid’s voice finally sounded.

Ellie lifted up her head. “Really?”

“Yes, we understand that some mage families have their secrets. Especially the higher echelons.” Astrid smiled wryly.

“H-higher echelons?” Ellie blurted out in shock.

‘How did they come to that conclusion?’ Ellie complained in her head.

“Why, did I guess wrong? It wasn’t hard judging by your connections and the advanced magical device you mentioned,” Astrid explained.

“But you believe me? The words of a stranger?”

“Hmm… you can call it intuition. Mages rely a lot on it. Besides, we think you’re a sweet child and don’t intend to harm us,” Astrid beamed as she pinched Ellie’s cheek.

Ellie was dumbfounded. However, she was not sure if it was from the major misunderstanding or them trusting their so-called intuition. Anyways, Ellie was not in the mood to correct them. She was content as long as they trusted her.

“Alright! We’ve decided then. We’ll go to the capital,” Osmond nodded and declared.