In the middle of the night, a scream of terror sounded from Bewr’s tent. The group quickly ran out of their tents and saw their snow-covered campsite surrounded by three large, vaguely humanoid, shadowy shapes.

Kirel, realizing what was happening, shouted out. “The girl’s manifesting!”

Bewr ran back into their tent while shouting out. “I’ll try to wake her up.”

Rikel scrunched her face in confusion. “What does ‘manifesting’ mean?” she asked.

Lelwyn shook his head. “Now is not the time for explanations; battle awaits!” he ordered.

Rikel nodded and drew her sword. “What are are we facing here?” she asked.

Kirel butted in before Lelwyn could start another lecture. “In short: these are literally the girl’s nightmares.”

“Got it!” Rikel acknowledged. “Lelwyn, give me some light so I can see what I’m doing. Kirel, keep them from surrounding us. Don’t worry about destroying any of them, just keep them in front of me,” she ordered before rushing in.

Lelwyn quickly cast a light spell while Kirel put up a wall of lightning around most of the camp. Bewr came out of the tent and started casting curses on the shapes. “She’s not waking up; we’re going to have to kill these things,” she explained. “And be careful not to harm the forest in any way!” She added, suddenly remembering the elvish laws.

One of the shapes moved towards Rikel while the other two entered the opening in Kirel’s magical wall. Rikel ducked under the first, clumsy, attack and cut the shape horizontally into two.

The two pieces fell to the ground and moved towards a different nearby shape. The shapes merged together, causing the remaining ones to get bigger.

Rikel spun in and kicked one shape while stabbing the other where a Human’s heart would be. That shape then melded into the final one, now almost eight feet tall.

The final shape grabbed Rikel by her shoulders and lifted her into the air. She kicked at the shape with both feet, causing it to drop her onto the ground.

Kirel held out his hand. “Stay down,” he shouted while casting an ice spell at the shape, freezing it in place. Bewr then lifted the shape into the air with her magic and slammed it into the ground, shattering it. As the ice rapidly melted, no signs of the shapes remained.

Bewr stuck her head inside the tent and came back out. “She’s sleeping peacefully now,” she reported. “It’s over.”

Lelwyn and Kirel ended their spells as Lelwyn addressed the group. “This excitement aside, do your best to rest; we still depart at daybreak.” The others nodded and went back to sleep.

As Bewr started taking down her tent in the morning, the girl woke up. “Hello?” the girl greeted with a small voice.

“You’re awake!” Bewr shouted, happily. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Better than before,” the girl answered with a shrug. “It’s ‘Bewr’ right?” she asked. At Bewr’s nod the girl continued. “Nice to meet you, Bewr; my name’s Telina of the family Durana,” she introduced herself, holding out her hand.

Bewr shook the offered hand excitedly. “Telina, it’s really great to finally get to meet you,” she said while still shaking the hand. “We should probably head out so I can introduce you to the others.”

Telina laughed. “Are you going to let go of my hand first?” Bewr blushed and stopped shaking her hand.

As the two of them left their tent, Bewr joyously called out. “Everybody! Come meet Telina Durana!” she shouted.

Telina started blushing and made a clumsy attempt at a curtsy. “Hi,” she said while giving up on the curtsy and giving a small wave instead.

Lelwyn smiled broadly at Telina. “Greetings, fair Telina! You appear in far better spirits than yesterday!” he observed unnecessarily.

Rikel joined in the conversation. “I guess killing those shadowy things helped,” he commented.

At Telina’s confused look, Bewr leaned over and whispered to her. “You manifested in your sleep,” she explained simply.

Telina’s blush deepened as she hid her face in her hands in embarrassment. “I manifested?” she cried in disbelief. “I haven’t manifested since my ninth harvest!”

Kirel raised an eyebrow. “You manifested at nine years old? About what?” he queried.

Telina started to calm down and answered. “I was exploring the attic of my family’s estate and saw this huge rat that was almost as long as my hand,” she explained. Before anybody could point out the obvious fact that this was the normal (possibly even small) size for a rat, she continued. “It was huge to my younger self,” she clarified.

Lelwyn stopped the budding conversation. “While I’m heartened to see young Telina on the mend, we must hasten to Midway.; their blight will hardly wait for us to engage in idle banter. You are welcome to join us,” he added to Telina.

Telina smiled brightly. “I was heading back home anyway! I mean, I used to live in Midway. Point is, I’d love to come with you; thank you so much!” she yelled the last part while pulling Bewr into a hug.

Bewr hugged back briefly before putting her broken down tent into the back of the cart. Lelwyn and Kirel, long having finished packing, got onto the cart to leave as well. Rikel mounted her horse and the group continued on.

Telina tapped Lelwyn’s shoulder. “I just want to make sure I’m remembering your names correctly,” she told him. “Your name is ‘Lelwyn’ and he’s ‘Kirel’ right?” she asked. At Lelwyn’s nod, she continued. “And the knight is ‘Rikel’ and the horses are...” she trailed off. “I never did hear you call the horses by their names.”

Rikel turned back. “They’re rentals; if they even have names, we don’t know them,” she explained.

Telina pouted. “That just won’t do!” she objected. “Let’s see...” she tapped her finger to her chin. “The knight’s horse has white fur around his legs. I’ll call him Snowhoof!” The others all shrugged. “And I’ll call this little lady… Silreth!”

Kirel leaned over and whispered in Telina’s ear. “We don’t really care what we call the horses; we won’t see them again in a few weeks anyway, sorry.” Telina turned to him and stuck out her tongue.

Bewr started laughing. “Don’t make me separate you!”

Lelwyn, laughing along with the others, started handing out food. Telina took a sniff of the food and grimaced. “Is this meat real or conjured?” she asked.

Kirel huffed. “Conjured,” he complained. “We ran out of real food days ago.”

Telina gave a sigh of relief before starting to nibble on the food. “Elves don’t like to eat real meat,” she explained. “Or any food that requires the death of a plant for that matter.”

Bewr took out her journal and wrote into it. “I never knew that!” she exclaimed, happily. “I need to write this down in case we ever need to offer elves food in the future,” she finished while putting her journal back in her bag.

Kirel finished off his food and turned to Telina. “Speaking of names, I’m guessing that ‘Jolen’ was the name you gave to the wolf we found next to you.”

Lelwyn glared at Kirel, “your tact is wanting.”

Telina sighed. “It’s okay,” she assured Lelwyn. “He was named after my younger brother; Jolen was the only one from our village who didn’t treat me like a pariah just because I had a human mother. He was the one who wrote to me about the blight; it’s why I was coming back.”

Lelwyn smiled at her, “this is fortuitous indeed. The Order of the Golden Shield sent me and my friends to offer aid to your home.”

“I studied Summoning more than Healing but I’ll help out however I can!”

Kirel got a proud look on his face. “I met Tirledus!”

Telina looked at him skeptically. “You met Tirledus?” At Kirels nod, she continued. “Tirledus, the longest serving member of the Mage’s Council, the hero of the Mage’s War? That Tirledus?” she clarified.

Bewr put her hand over Kirel’s mouth. “Don’t do the whole story again,” she lamented. “We’ve all heard it more times than we can count. Here’s the short version: Kirel was on his way to talk to one of his teachers at the same time that Tirledus was leaving; they didn’t even exchange a dozen words. Hardly as impressive as he tries to make it sound.”

Telina giggled. “Thank you for the short version, Bewr.” She turned to Kirel. “I can believe that version of the story happened. Did the three of you meet at the Academy?”

Lelwyn nodded his head. “Aye. Though Kirel was a year our senior in studies.”

Telina saw something on the side of the road and jumped out of the cart, running into the tree line.

Rikel dismounted her horse to follow. “Telina!” She shouted. After a few feet, Rikel saw Telina glaring at a small cottage with animal skins drying on the banisters. “Are these the same poachers who,” Rikel struggled to find her words, “attacked you?”

“Yes,” she answered bluntly. “Though not in the way that you mean. Well, they tried to but Jolen was able to stop them before they were able to get to that part,” she added reassuringly.

Rikel nodded to the cart. “Get the others; we can make sure this never happens again!”

Telina ran back to the other while Rikel drew her sword. After Telina explained to the others what was found, the mage trio got off the cart to help deal with the poachers.

When the four of them reached the cottage, a poacher was aiming a crossbow at Rikel, who had her hands raised. “He ambushed me,” she grimaced.

The poacher saw Telina and leered. “I recognize you, girl! Did you decide to come back so that we could finish what we started last night?”

Telina turned to the side, raising one hand towards Rikel and the other behind her. “Last night you caught me by surprise and I was scared. Today, neither is true.” As soon as she said that, Rikel vanished and reappeared behind Telina.

Kirel quickly raised a barrier of lightning as the poacher fired his crossbow at the group. The bolt reflected off the barrier and bounced into the trees.

Rikel and the poacher quickly grabbed their weapons.

Before any of the others could cast any spells, Rikel was upon the poacher and they were locked in melee. He tried to crush her with an overheard strike. She sidestepped the swing and cut off his hands at the wrists. He held the bloody stumps to his body. “I surrender!” he yelled.

Rikel slipped behind him and stabbed him through the back. “Well, I don’t accept your surrender.” She quipped. “Let’s go!” she ordered. “The others are likely still inside!”

While Rikel drew her sword from the dead poacher, the four Mages ran to the door of the cottage, Telina getting there first. As Telina swung open the door, a crossbow bolt flew from inside right through her neck.

Telina fell to the ground, blood pouring from her neck. Lelwyn bent down and started casting spells on her. “Pursue the brigands!” he ordered. “There is no aid you can render to me at this time,” he continued.

The other three carefully stepped around before rushing ahead. As they turned a corner, they saw the remaining two poachers snap a stick into two before vanishing. Bewr groaned in frustration. “How can a trio of poachers possibly afford a teleportation snapper?” she asked. “Oh, Telina!” she cried before breaking down in tears.

Rikel tried to calm Bewr down. “Just how expensive are we talking, here?” she asked.

Since Bewr was crying too much to be coherent, Kirel answered the question. “A thousand times your pay for escorting us would be considered ridiculously cheap.”

Rikel bent down to help Bewr up. “We should get back to Lelwyn and Telina.”

Kirel helped Rikel carry Bewr as they returned to the entrance to the cottage. There, they found Lelwyn weeping over Telina. “Her injuries were beyond even my skill,” he explained. “There was naught I could do aside making her passing less painful.”

Kirel grasped Lelwyns shoulder. “Did she have any final words?” he asked.

“Nay,” he shook his head. “The damage to her throat was too severe for her to have even the comfort of parting words. Pray tell me the other two have met their end, at least.”

Kirel shook his head. “They somehow managed to get their hands on a teleportation snapper.,” he explained.

Lelwyn hung his head in sorrow. “Let us be off,” he ordered in a dejected tone.

Bewr pointed at Telina and used magic to lift Telina’s remains into the air. “The least we can do is take her body home,” she sobbed, levitating her into the cart.

The three mages somberly got onto the cart and covered Telina’s body with a conjured sheet. Once secure, Kirel picked up the horses reins. “Let’s go, Silreth.”

They reached the village of Midway that dusk. As they entered the village, Lelwyn introduced himself. “My name is Lelwyn,” he started. “I have been sent by the Order of the Golden Shield to offer aid against the blight rampaging your village. Also, please inform Jolen Durana that we must have words with him as soon as possible.” One of the elvish guards ran off while the others remained behind.

A short time later, a well dressed elvish woman approached them. “I am Mayor Tethith,” she greeted. “Your offer of aid is gratefully accepted. Please follow me to the Hall of Healing,” she ordered with an outstretched hand motioning inward towards the village.

The four followed the Mayor to the Hall of Healing, drawing the cart behind them. Once there, Rikel stayed with the cart outside so Lelwyn could start treating the ill while Bewr started casting spells on one of the patients. As she saw the results, she grew more and more frantic. Lelwyn saw her agitation from the other side of the room and left one of the patients to walk over to her. “What vexes you so?” he asked.

Bewr forced herself to breathe deeply in an attempt to calm down. “I used Nertel’s Method for determining spell characteristics,” she rasped out, “This isn’t merely a disease; a necromancer cast a growth stasis field curse on this village!”

Before Lelwyn could react, an elf entered the room and introduced himself. “My name is Jolen; I was told you wanted to speak with me,” he bowed slightly in greeting.