Errant and Woody stood on a street corner. He held up his hands to frame the

surroundings. He turned in a circle to take it all in.

“He shielded it very well,” said Errant. He dropped his hands. “A casual look isn’t

turning up anything useful. Any suggestions?”

Woody sniffed the air. He turned his head, scenting the atmosphere with his nose. He

pointed at one apartment building in particular.

“Are you sure?,” asked Errant.

Woody sat and barked at him.

“No need for name calling,” said Errant. “I was just asking.”

Woody huffed on the insult to his nose that had been given.

“Fine,” said Errant. “I apologize for insulting your nose. I will never doubt its power

again. It is a mighty nose.”

Woody wagged his tail at the acknowledgment of his superiority.

“It is the biggest part of your face,” said Errant. He started for the building in

question. “It should be useful for something.”

He pulled his wand from its place in his jacket and let it hum. A door snapped open

in a wall. He smiled at the revealing of a secret passage.

“Secret room,” he said. He pointed the wand as he went to the threshold, letting the

magic disarm any possible trap that might be waiting for them.

He put the wand away when he was sure nothing would happen. He stepped inside

looked around at lines carved in a large room. Bass slept in the center of the circle.

He could stay there until their search was done.

Errant walked around. Charts on functions and processes hung everywhere. He

gathered it all up and stored it in his jacket. He looked at Bass when he was done. He

decided to leave the man trapped in his mind. It would keep him out of trouble.

He stepped out of the hidden room and closed it back up. You wouldn’t know a door

had been crafted into the wall, unless you were actually looking for it. He locked it

in place when he was done so someone would have to expend effort to get in. That

would alert him that he should come back and deal with whomever was trying to

break in.

“All right,” said Errant. “We’re done here until Bass wakes up from his dream

world.”

Woody barked. He was familiar enough with his wizard that would never happen.

When Errant put someone down, they stayed down.

“We still have the Alvas to find,” said Errant. “I wonder if we do that, the problems

in the city will go down to almost nothing.”

Woody huffed.

Once they stopped the Alvas, things had to calm some. The humanoid was handing

out magic left and right without a care of what he was doing. That had to be stopped

to prevent any more damage to the people living with the monsters being created.

They would have their familiar problems of people living together in a large city.

“We should check on Doreen when this is over,” said Errant.

Woody wagged his tail at that. The totem user had seemed afraid of her own shadow

until they had their little chat. Teaching her squirrel had given her some confidence

that she didn’t have.

And she would be facing other totem users in a tournament. It would be great if she

took the lessons to heart and did her best.

Woody would like another day lazing by the lake if he could get it.

“What is the next thing on our agenda?,” Errant asked.

Woody barked. They should check for the Alvas on the north side of town where the

good food was.

“You don’t eat,” said Errant.

Woody barked in disagreement.

“Seriously?,” said Errant. “When did you take a liking to cheese cabbage?”

Woody barked out an estimate of time.

“A thousand years ago?,” said Errant. “You don’t have a stomach. How are you

eating cheese cabbage?”

Woody sniffed his displeasure.

“It’s no use trying to put a better face on it,” said Errant. “You are a living statue.

Food requires something to break it down. You don’t have any of that.”

Woody disagreed with a sneeze.

“What do you mean you’ve been working on getting a stomach?,” asked Errant. He

paused in his walking search.

Woody looked away.

“I am your friend,” said Errant. “I don’t remember you saying anything about getting

a new body. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Woody barked at that.

“Yes, I would have helped,” said Errant. “You know better than that.”

Woody looked away.

“I get it,” said Errant. “You wanted to do it on your own. It would have been me

holding your paw if I had helped out.”

Woody chuffed at his assessment.

“How long have we been friends?,” said Errant. “A long time. I would have helped

you if you had said something. It’s almost trivial to give you real parts. I would have

made sure they worked for as long as you wanted them.”

Woody barked at that.

“I’m not a mind reader,” said Errant. “You have to state things you want.”

Woody growled.

“I know I have vast magic powers,” said Errant. “I don’t read minds. That would be

unethical.”

Woody barked.

“I know I have done some things,” said Errant. “That doesn’t make those things right

just because I decided to do them instead of letting anyone else do it.”

Woody made another noise.

“Abusing the authority of the Queen is a quick way to have that authority yanked.

You know that,” said Errant. “And it almost happened. They were talking about

reducing you back to sticks. I couldn’t let them do that to you.”

Woody rubbed against Errant’s leg.

Errant didn’t understand why his wooden dog would want more of a living process

since he ran on magic and always had. What good is a sandwich to a piece of wood

come to life? He decided those questions should be kept to himself for the time being.

It looked like Woody wanted to be a real dog after all the years they had traveled

together. How would that affect his immortality? Errant thought he could do another

immortality spell for him, but he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t supposed to hand that out,

even if the other person was his best friend.

He wondered if Woody wanted to go out on his own, maybe find someone else to

follow around. They had been together for a long time. He might be tired of

wandering around and fixing other people’s problems.

“Do you like this life we lead?,” Errant asked.

Woody looked at the knight. His ears pointed at his friend as he waited for a

clarification of the question.

“I mean, we do a lot of traveling and fixing things,” said Errant. “I could see it if

you wanted to settle down somewhere. I would still have to travel, but you could have

a place of your own.”

Woody whined.

“I know,” said Errant. He petted his friend. “I have been dragging you around for

a long time. I’m trying to say that if you need a break, I am willing to set you up

with a place somewhere so you can be lazy, or run around, or read. I don’t have a

problem with that. Doing the same thing over and over tends to lead to burning out.”

Woody barked.

“Yes, I will miss you,” said Errant. “You’re my best friend. Let me do what I can

about this Alvas, and then I will set you up somewhere.”

Woody placed a paw on Errant’s leg. He looked up at the human.

“You’re my best friend,” said Errant. He smiled. “We could be hanging out too much

together. Maybe a separation would do us both good.”

Errant rubbed his chin. Woody looked up at him.

“Who’s a good dog?,” he said. “Who’s the best dog?”

Woody took him down with a tackle to the chest. He hit the ground with a laugh.

Then he felt the pain of stone on flesh running up his back.

“Okay, Woody,” Errant said. He pushed the dog up with both hands. “You’re the best

dog.”

Woody bounded around. Then he settled on his haunches. He grinned with his tongue

hanging out.

“We still have work to do,” said Errant. He picked himself up. He wiped the dirt

and stains off his light blue suit. “Where would you be if you were an Alvas up

to mischief?”

Woody barked.

“Somewhere on the city’s north side?,” said Errant. “I like it. Let’s go up and look

around.”

Woody wagged his tail.

They trekked to the local train network and rode up as far as they could. Someone had

killed a death worm on the track, and the city was still trying to deal with it. Errant

shook his head at the news.

What was a death worm doing inside a city?

“Let’s have a look at this,” said Errant. “Maybe we can lend some magical muscle to

help out while we’re looking for our villain.”

Woody huffed at the idea.

“I know we can’t fix everything,” said Errant. “We’re just going to lend a hand while

we’re looking for our main instigator of trouble.”

They walked the streets paralleling the train tracks until they spotted the death worm.

The city didn’t seem to have made any progress getting it moved.

Errant paused when he was directly across from the bulk. He pulled his wand out of

his breast pocket and pointed it at the giant corpse. He snapped his wrist and a piece

of time wrote on the dead beast.

“That should take care of things,” said Errant. He put the wand away. “It’ll take a bit.

I can’t just throw magic around like it’s water.”

Woody sniffed the air.

“I put on a spell that slowly vaporizes the target,” said Errant. “It speeds up natural

processes. It’ll make the death worm break down faster which will clear the track

faster which will push the scavengers to eat their fill faster.”

Woody growled slightly.

“Of course it will stink some in the short term,” said Errant. “But it was always

going to stink. There’s no getting around that.”

Woody barked in disagreement.

“You’re just being contrary because you want me to get rid of the stink too,” said

Errant. “It’s going to stink. I thought dogs liked the smell of dead things.”

Woody howled.

“Stop that,” said Errant. “I was wrong. You don’t like the smell of dead things. I

know that now. It’s not my problem. I have other things to consider other than your

sensitive nose.”

Woody barked.

“That’s right,” said Errant. “I have other things to consider. I have a responsibility

to the Queen. If your nose is so sensitive, maybe it can sniff out our magic

distributing Alvas.”

Woody looked at him.

“I’ll understand if you can’t do it,” said Errant. “You’re not really a tracking dog.”

Woody growled and walked away.