The people started corralling chickens and other livestock, as well as money, gold, and jewels to give to the monstrous mamono. The mamono would take their possessions and place them in a large stack. Occasionally someone would bring him an offering he didn't like. In one such case he kicked the man who brought it into the mud. People kept filing in, bringing gifts of money, crops, jewels, and livestock. He took them all. Again, someone brought him something he didn't like. From a distance it looks like it was a chicken with a deformed wing. The Mamono was so offended that he pulled a jagged looking sword out of his belt and looked as though he was about to run the woman through. Olivia’s blood boiled. She stepped out into the street and shouted, “Stop!” Her cry echoed through the village and it got the attention of the three rampaging mamono. The woman, who was surely about to lose her life, used the distraction to escape, which only made the mamono more angry that they were now denied the thrill of a fresh kill.

“Who is this girl?” The chief mamono asked and laughed, “Is this your warrior, Bramblebrook?”

“My name is Olivia Powell, I am a mage, and I will defend these people!” She said, sounding very grown up.

“Olivia, what are you doing?” Charlotte asked in a nervous sing-song type of way.

“Well, am I the chosen one, or not?” Olivia asked.

“I guess we’re about to find out…” said Charlotte. The Mamono spoke.

“And I am Gorek! I am the last thing you shall ever see!” He drew a large war hammer that was resting on the back end of the boar and dug his heels into the beast’s side so that it lurched forward and started to charge towards Olivia. Olivia mustered all of her strength and threw her empty hand forward, not sure what would happen. Suddenly large thorny vines burst out of the ground and began wrapping themselves around the boar and choking it. It stopped the boar so fast that Gorek flew right over the front of him and landed in the mud in front of Olivia. He stood up, and was visibly annoyed by this turn of events.

“I’ll smash you, girl!” He said. He swung his hammer up over his head, but Olivia was ready for it. Or, at least, she thought she was ready for it. She threw her empty hand out in front of her, thinking something similar would happen to Gorek as had happened to the boar, but nothing came. Gorek smiled and began to swing his hammer down onto Oliva. Without thinking Charlotte grabbed the long curved elvish looking blade from the blacksmith’s table and threw it at Gorek. It struck him clear through the neck before he could bring the hammer down to squish Olivia. He stumbled backwards and dropped the hammer which landed on his own head. Charlotte sat in shock and awe at what she did, but walked over to the fallen mamono and pulled the sword out from the wound, put her foot up on the monster’s chest, and held the sword high in the air.

“We’re both chosen ones!” She said gleefully. The other two mamono saw what had happened and began to retreat as human archers and guards started flooding the streets and taking aim at them. Charlotte cleaned the blade, well, cleaned isn’t the right word as it didn’t seem like anything could get clean in Bramblebrook, but she wiped the blade on the ground and returned it to the blacksmith. The young man took it in his hands, looked at the fallen mamono, looked back at Charlotte and handed it back to her.

“You keep it.” He said, “Looks like you earned it.” Charlotte’s eyes got wider than Olivia had ever seen. The blacksmith handed her a scabbard and a belt to carry it on and Charlotte wore the blade proudly wherever she went. Charlotte and Olivia were so surprised at the turn of events that they didn’t notice the crowd forming around them. Once they started hearing the commotion they looked around and realized that they were the center of attention.

“Oh, uh. You’re welcome, everyone!” Charlotte shouted, placing her hand on the hilt of her new blade.

“Welcome for what?” Shouted a villager, “They’ll just come back in droves! You’ve killed us all!” The crowd started murmuring in agreement. The girls were taken aback. They hadn’t expected this. It didn’t even occur to them that this would be viewed as an attack against the mamono and that they would come back. A few villagers were trying to support them, but more and more the majority of the crowd was against them. The crowd kept growing and soon turned into a mob. Someone threw what looked like a cabbage right at Olivia’s head. The blacksmith grabbed them both by the arms and pulled them into his smith.

“Escape out the back, leave this town, and don’t come back.” He said, “The people of Bramblebrook are anything but forgiving.” They didn’t argue, they just nodded and escaped out the back which put them a few hundred meters east of the path to the mountain pass. The blacksmith was able to redirect the mob’s energy to fortifying the village for the coming mamono attack which gave the girls ample time to escape. They ran for the foothills as the sun started to set and cast it’s usual pink and purple shadows onto the clouds. They decided to camp in the foothills for the night, although neither of them were tired, but it was getting cold, and they were hungry. The girls gathered some wood to make a fire but then stopped and remembered that neither of them knew how to make a fire.

“I think you rub two sticks together, right?” said Charlotte.

“I think it’s a bit more complicated than that…” said Olivia.

“Why don’t you make some fire with your powers?” Charlotte asked. Olivia felt self-conscious but decided it was worth a try. She held her hands out in front of her facing the wood and said, “Please, please, please, please, please” She shut her eyes tight and concentrated. Suddenly a gulf of flame came out from her palms and managed to light some grass and small twigs. Charlotte screamed with delight and then said, “Quickly! Blow on it?”

“What?” said Olivia, “I don’t want to put it out!”

“No, it helps it catch!” said Charlotte, so they both got down on their hands and knees and gently blew on the tiny flames to help them grow and catch the bigger fire. They didn’t have much to eat, just whatever was left from their lunches in their backpacks, which was just a granola bar for Olivia and some Fishy crackers for Charlotte, but it was enough to take the hunger pains away. They curled up together in front of the fire with their backs against a tree. Olivia and Charlotte were good friends.

“You know what you need?” Charlotte said.

“What?” Olivia asked, humoring her. She was fairly sure a joke was coming.

“You need a Yoda.” She said.

“A what?” Olivia asked, confused.

“A Yoda. From Star Wars.” Said Charlotte as if that was the most normal thing in the world to say. “You need a Yoda to your Luke, a Hamish to your Katniss, a Gandalf to your Bilbo. You know, a Yoda!”

“I guess.” She said. “But where would I find someone who could teach me? I don’t trust Uncle Jethro or anyone in my family who serves the Dark Mage. I’m not even sure I trust my dad after he kept this from me for so long.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll find one.” Said Charlotte, “After all, you’re the chosen one.” She laughed.

“You gotta stop with the chosen one stuff, it’s going to get us killed. There is no prophecy. I’m not chosen, I’m just unlucky.”

“Unlucky, how?” asked Charlotte.

“I just want to go home.” she said, “I miss my bed. I miss my dad. I don’t want any of this.”

“Well, whether you want it or not, you’ve got it. Which makes you chosen in my book! And now I’m chosen too! Did you see me throw my sword?”

“That was pretty epic.” Olivia said. They chatted like this for hours, warming themselves by the fire before they fell asleep.

When morning came they were both pretty stiff and sore as you are when you sleep on the ground with a lumpy backpack as your pillow. They stood up to stretch and yawn and make all kinds of waking up noises when they realized there was a good sized pheasant on a spigot above what used to be a fire. It was cooked thoroughly and was ready for eating, which was good because they were famished from yesterday's activities and the not so great dinner they had for themselves. Olivia and Charlotte walked slowly and cautiously towards the fire pit looking around as they did to see if anyone was there.

“Can we eat it?” asked Charlotte.

“I guess so…” said Olivia. “Why would someone cook it on our fire and leave it here if it wasn’t for us?” They took the spigot off the stand and looked at the meat like it was the Holy Grail. They hesitated at first until Charlotte took a big bite out of it, and once the first bite had been taken it seemed to make all the subsequent bites okay. The girls worked that bird down to the bones, still chatting as they ate.

“We need to figure out our game plan.” said Charlotte with a mouth full of pheasant.

“Right.” said Olivia, taking another bite. “Do we keep going up into the mountains? Or head back and travel in the opposite direction past Bramblebrook?”

“I think we stick to the mountains. I saw a few houses higher up on the foothills, they might have some information.” Charlotte said.

“Right. Probably shouldn’t reference the Dark Mage anymore, that seemed to get us in trouble.” said Olivia.

“How’s the battery on your phone?” Asked Charlotte.

“Almost dead.” she said, “So no more pictures for reference.”

“Who do you think gave us this bird?” Charlotte asked.

“I don’t know, but I hope they keep it up. I don’t know the first thing about hunting.” said Olivia. Once they had all but demolished the pheasant they stood up and started trekking farther into the foothills of the mountain. They were several hundred feet up in the air by now but the twin peaks of the enormous mountain still towered above them. The mountain pass presumably took them between the peaks and was a trading route for the villagers in Bramblebrook to whoever lived on the other side of the mountain. Charlotte walked with her hand on the hilt of her sword and drew it periodically to swing it around or to cut down a low hanging tree branch that was in their way. They walked for about two hours and then they stopped dead in their tracks when a large boulder hit the ground and exploded right in front of them. They turned around to see two lumbering ogres (or what they assumed were ogres, they’d never met one in real life before) walking towards them, one of whom was picking up another boulder and lifting it over his head. The ogres were tall, probably 10 or 11 feet each, it’s hard to tell from the ground. They slouched and had long arms that seemed to drag and sway as they walked. They had large noses, crooked yellow teeth, and a mop of tangled hair on their heads.

“Who told you that you could take our pass without paying tribute first?” Said the one ogre as the other threw his stone again narrowly missing the girls. He either had very good, or very bad aim depending on if he was currently trying to kill them or not.

“I said,” started the same ogre as before, “who told you that you could take our pass without paying tribute?”

“I’m uh, very sorry!” Olivia started. “We didn’t realize that this pass was protected by such uh, distinguished gentlemen like yourselves. What would we have to pay for safe travel?”

“Two sheep and two goats or we wrecks and eats the lot of yas.”

“But, we don’t have any sheep or goats and no way to get any…” said Charlotte. The ogre shrugged.

“Then we wrecks and eats the lot of yas.” The other ogre picked up another boulder and threw it right to where Charlotte and Olivia were standing. The girls dove out of the way just in time for the huge rock to explode against the ground on impact. Olivia scurried behind a small rock formation and ducked down so that the ogres couldn’t see her. Charlotte booked it to a nearby tree and climbed up into the leaves, hoping they would provide her with adequate cover. The ogres split up to more effectively terrorize the girls, the one who made the threats ran after Olivia and the one throwing the rocks ran towards Charlotte, still cowering in the tree. The first ogre wrapped his massive arms around the rock formation hoping to catch Olivia but she ducked and rolled out of the way just in time. Meanwhile, the second ogre was busy shaking the tree, hoping Charlotte would lose her grip and fall out. Charlotte suddenly had an idea. She reached for her sword and drew it as she jumped off of the branch she was perched on, and landed square on the arm of the ogre. She had it in her mind that she would run up his arm and stab him in the neck with her sword, but as soon as she landed the ogre reacted the way you might if a spider or some other creepy crawly thing jumped out of a tree and landed on you. He shrieked and quickly brushed her off, sending her flying into the dirt.

“Creepy little thing!” he said. He looked over at his friend who was still lumbering around trying to swat at Olivia, who was skillfully avoiding each blow. The first ogre was now on his knees trying to catch her in his hands like a cat hunting a laser pointer dot. The second ogre looked back towards Charlotte, who had dropped her sword when she fell, but now had it back in hand and was charging towards him. He quickly wrapped his massive hands around the trunk of the tree where she had been hiding and ripped it out of the ground with a belaboured grunt. He was just about to swing it at her, which would have done considerable damage if it had hit her, when he was suddenly surrounded by a crimson aura and instead of swinging at Charlotte, flung the tree over towards the other ogre, striking him in the head and cracking the tree in two. Olivia rolled away again to avoid the oncoming barrage of splinters and branches. The second ogre, confused about what was happening and still bathed in glowing red light raised his hand up, made a fist, and began punching himself in the face, knocking out some of his own teeth, and stumbling around disoriented from the repeated blows to the head. He did this until he collapsed and passed out.

“What. is. Happening!?” Charlotte said completely perplexed. They heard the sound of scraping and dirt falling down the rocky craig above them, so they turned their attention towards it and saw a young woman, or what they later learned was a young woman, it was hard to tell at first, sliding and quickly climbing down the rocks towards them. She jumped when she was still about 7 or 8 feet from the ground and landed in a crouched stance to absorb the impact of the fall into her legs. The young woman stood up. She was wearing a cloak and a face scarf which she removed.

“Hi.” She said. “How was the pheasant?”