Marie pulled a pouch out of her pocket and opened the top. She pushed on the bottom of the pouch until the medal peeked out of the bag. Last night, Marie had moved the medal over to the pouch Adrian had found in the house. It had become necessary after she was forced to dispose of her jacket. The material had absorbed too much miasma.
“Missing something?” There was another brief magic signal. It was closer, maybe twenty feet. She waited, listening hard, to see if there would be some other kind of response. Nothing. Marie put the medal back in her pocket as she kept an eye on her surroundings. They were being extra cautious but something must be keeping them here. Easier to avoid a Guardian if you stayed out of their way. Marie had their magic tool but it wasn’t like they couldn’t make another. It was dangerous to make one, let alone two but if they cared about the danger, they wouldn’t have made one, to begin with. So what was keeping them here?
“What are you doing?” She turned. Adrian leaned against a tree, studying her. How long had he been standing there?
“Looking around.” Adrian scanned the area as he walked over. He stopped right next to her before he took a defensive stance in front of her. Marie quickly applied a barrier to him before searching the area. There were several magic signals headed this way. She reapplied the protection against scent based spells. The signal stopped and now their enemy was staring at them from the edge of the forest. Eight bucks surrounded them.
The deer directly in front lunged forward and reared up. It kicked at the air as the other deer moved in. There were too many for her to use the release spell on at once. She would need to incapacitate them first. Adrian swung her into his arms and jumped back out of the way as two of the deer came charging towards them.
“Do you have something that can put several of them down at once?” Her sleep spell was one option but it wasn’t a very good spell. If she tried to send it towards the deer, the effect would lessen depending on how far away they were. That’s why she normally touched people when she used it.
Wait. Maybe she did have something.
Marie quickly looked the area over. There might still be one left. Her eyes quickly scanned the area. There!
“I need to be on that side.” Marie pointed to the other side of the clearing. The item she needed was at the edge of the clearing. He jumped over debris while avoiding the deer. Adrian slid to a stop right where she needed him to. The deer were still keeping a good distance away. “Put me down.” His eyes narrowed but he complied. “I need some time but I have something.” He nodded before putting himself between her and the deer in front of him.
One of the deer threw themselves into the barrier and bounced off. The buck shook itself before it repositioned itself for another attack. Since their attacks weren’t that strong, it should be a while before they even cracked the barrier. She was more worried the deer would severely damage themselves before that happened.
Marie yanked the flower out of the ground, spraying dirt. She quickly wrote out the spell and activated it. She had only seen it clearly once but she was confident she’d remembered it. Now she just needed the deer to get as close as possible. She dropped her barrier and waited for the first deer to attack.
The wait wasn’t long. Several of the deer had stayed beside her, despite being unable to reach her. A buck lunged at her. She stepped back and narrowly missed the antlers. The other deer near her inched closer and circled her. Marie tried to keep the three of them in her sights but they weren’t moving in the same direction. A buck lunged towards her again. She stumbled backwards to avoid it. Marie felt a sharp pain as the other deer slashed her across the back of the arm. She staggered forward.
“Marie!” Adrian scooped her up and jumped out of the reach of the deer that surrounded her. He moved back but the deer he had been facing moved in. They were soon surrounded again. The deer pressed their antlers right up against his barrier. One of the bucks stepped back. The deer scratched at the ground before it charged towards the barrier. A foot away the deer slowed and dropped to the floor.
One by one the deer collapsed. Once all the deer were knocked out, she stopped the spell. Marie didn’t want to end up putting the two of them to sleep. Just because they were protected, didn’t mean they wouldn’t get affected eventually.
“Put me down.”
“Not until you heal yourself.” Marie frowned but closed her eyes and sent magic to her arm. He set her down and she went around dispelling the mind control on the deer. She turned and found Adrian standing there with his arms crossed, a frown on his face. “What was that?”
“I just used the same spell the sorcerer did.” She held up the hand that was holding the poppy. The red flower had lost a few of its petals but it was mostly undamaged. Once she started the spell, she just needed to wait for it to fill the area with enough smoke to put the deer out. Marie quickly disposed of it before she dusted her hand off. It was better not to leave this lying around.
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Was he talking about her barrier? It wasn’t a big deal. As long as she had magic, any wounds she got could be healed.
“I wanted them to get closer.” The closer the deer got, the more they would inhale the scent and if the barrier kept getting activated then the scent would have continuously been cut off. The spell would have taken longer to take effect if she’d kept the barrier up. He scowled as he looked away. “I’m going back. What are you going to do?”
“We still need to talk.” She figured that’s what he’d say but she’d still been hoping he would just leave her alone. He took her offered hand and a moment later, they were standing in the room. Her stomach growled but she ignored it as she went to the table.
“When was the last time you ate?” Marie looked at him sideways.
“Does it matter?”
“We should take this conversation over to Leon’s house.”
“Why?” Did he want to include the dragon in her investigation as well? He smirked.
“I can make something while we talk.”
“I’m fine.” She didn’t need him to cook for her. One person helping her was already more than she wanted. Marie just wanted to give him the information and investigate the rest on her own.
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