Once I turned five, old enough to speak to my liking and could walk no problem on my own, came the time when Mother finally let me go with her to town.

Theo ran ahead until Mother told him to stop and wait for us to catch up as we traveled along the dirt road. Father didn’t accompany us, busy working. He worked as a craftsman as well as lumberjack, proving my initial impression of him accurate.

Theo giddily darted back to us. “Race me! I’ll give you a head start.”

Mom chuckled as I booked it, running past Theo and laughing hysterically as he called me out.

“Hey! I didn’t say start yet!” he protested as he chased me.

He caught up and passed me, grinning wickedly.

I ran until my breaths became ragged and a stitch ached in my side. I enjoyed having so much room to explore. Before I had fully recovered, my energy returned with the desire to dash after Theo.

As my feet sped up, I thought of Mom and glanced back at her in the distance. I cupped my hands around my mouth and called to my brother, “Theo! You’re too far ahead! You win!”

He came to a stop and plopped down on the grass on the side of the road, palms down behind him to rest. He pointed down a branched-out path to a cabin. “That’s where Elliot lives.”

I frowned at the house. It was made of the same wood as ours. The same wood of many trees I had seen around here. It looked bigger than our home though, having a second floor. “That’s nice.”

“You don’t like him?” Theo asked, confused at how that could be.

I made my way towards him to wait for Mom. “He’s mean. But it’s okay that you’re friends with him.”

“He’s not that bad,” Theo said. I stopped by him and waited for Mom to catch up. Theo glanced at the distance between her and us before launching up and towards Elliot’s cabin.

“Are you not coming with us?” Mother shouted.

“I’m just saying hello!” Theo yelled as he ran with all his might. He pounded on the door as I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest. I wore a pink dress with white leggings underneath and black shoes with buckles on them. They weren’t new. They were from Elliot’s older sisters who had outgrown them. If they came from someone else, I wouldn’t be sour about it.

Elliot had to be the one to answer the door. I turned away from them to wait impatiently for Mom to get over here so we could move on.

“You’re going to town? MOM! Can I go to town with Theo?!” Elliot yelled back into his house.

A woman that looked a good decade older than my more youthful parents stepped outside. “Theo, you are going to town? Alone? Or is that your sister? Where’s your mom or dad?”

“Mom is slow, but she’s coming,” Theo said like he found her trailing behind hilarious.

“Well, we don’t want to burden her with three crazy kids,” Elliot’s mother said.

I scowled, offended I got lumped in with that description, but I didn’t want Elliot coming so I respected her common decency.

Mother reached where I waited on the main road and waved to Elliot and his mother. “We’re just going to let Maddie see around town. If Elliot agrees to behave, and you don’t mind, he can come.”

I restrained a groan, but not a grimace.

“Okay. Elliot, you need to listen to Susan and be on your best behavior,” his mother told Elliot as he ran over to us with Theo.

“I’ll be good!” Elliot promised his mother, happy for an outing with his friend.

We moved onward, Theo and Elliot racing ahead to specific trees to wait for us before darting to the next spot. They chatted enthusiastically about monsters they wanted to defeat as they waited for us to catch up.

“Do you want to turn back, come another day?” Mother asked me.

I schooled my grumpy expression. “No. I want to see town. I just thought it would be only us going.”

“It would be rude to turn him back now. Why don’t you like Elliot?” Mother asked in that tone of an adult talking to a kid. I had mostly gotten used to it, but from time to time still rubbed me the wrong way, like now for instance.

“Sometimes you just don’t like people. He doesn’t like me either.” I raised my chin. “But I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”

Mom chuckled at my bravado. “Hopefully you can make friends with kids you do like.”

The thought excited me. Sure, their intelligence and magic skill would be below my own, but friends meant more chances to go out and explore. I didn’t want to release this opportunity of freedom and knowledge.

“I’ll make friends with nice kids. Hey Mom, how far is town?”

“It isn’t very far. Tired already?” she asked.

“No. Not yet. But I’m not racing anymore.”

We rounded a turn and the trees came to an end several feet ahead before it became more sparsely wooded. The path led to a cluster of buildings, a small town.

Theo beat Elliot to the end of the forest and found a stick. Elliot grabbed one of his own and they swatted them at each other like swords.

When we reached them, they tossed the sticks back to the side of the road and walked alongside us rather than continue racing.

“I can’t wait until we can fight monsters! With our magic it will be so awesome!” Theo enthused.

“Not just monsters. We’ll fight those nasty Lystrandians too.” Elliot pounded his fist into his palm. “If they come looking for a fight, we’ll teach them who’s boss.”

“Yeah! I’ll set them all on fire and you’ll drop them from a hundred feet in the air!”

“It won’t be that easy because they have magic too. They’ll be trying to set you on fire or drown you,” Elliot said like a know-it-all. Is he why Theo sometimes used that same tone?

“Why do you want to fight so badly? You’ll get hurt and you’ll hurt other people who probably are just following orders and have families waiting for them,” I said.

I got three very different looks at that. Theo scowled, Elliot became pensive, and Mother looked awed.

“My little peacemaker.” She ruffled the top of my head. “I’m proud of you, seeing a bigger picture like that. But sometimes fighting is unavoidable. We have to protect ourselves and our homes, so fighting bad monsters and people that want to invade us is necessary at times.”

“But it’s sad, people dying,” I said. I got to soak in the awkward air I created for ten whole steps before Elliot broke the tension.

“Is this your first outing? You never leave the house,” he asked me.

I glanced at Mom but answered for myself. “Yes. Because I didn’t want to leave until now. There was no reason for me to.”

He gave me an odd look, but I stuck with my reasoning.

I noticed a good number of the buildings spaced around town were bigger than our cabin as we approached. There were some cabins here, but there were also stone and brick homes too. Most of them were two stories and some were three.

There was no gate wall. No sentry keeping track of comings and goings. It seemed a cozy enough town with trees and vegetation around. To my dismay I spotted no sign of a castle.

As we entered town, people waved to us as they went about their business. A woman with a cloth tied around her head swept dirt out her front door while a man and woman worked in a garden in their front yard.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite little beansprouts. Little Maddie is finally paying me a visit? I’m ecstatic!” Grandpop sat on a swinging bench on his porch.

“Hello Pops,” Mother said as we stopped outside his thin, two-story, stone home.

“Hello Grandpop.” I gave him a shy smile. Despite the years of not leaving the house, extended family had visited from time to time. I had been on best behavior as Mom fretted while Dad kept her from freaking out. The fault for me staying home until now rested on my shoulders as my parent’s wanted to shield me from getting found out for being so unnaturally gifted.

“You’ve gotten so big! Have you grown since the last time I saw you?” Grandpop grinned with all the love of a grandparent. He patted the swinging bench. “Come sit by Grandpop.”

I stepped up onto the porch and Grandpop lifted me onto the bench. I set a hand on the side railing as he gently moved the seat back and forth.

“So, what are you all doing out here today?” Grandpop asked.

“I wanted to visit town and see you.” I gave him a smile.

“Oh!” He chuckled as Theo decided to clamber up between us. Grandpop waited to see if Mom or Elliot wanted to join. Upon a shake of Elliot’s head and Mom staying put, Grandpop used his feet to push us back into motion. I thought of parks and swing sets. Did those exist here?

Grandpop chatted with us for a while, before saying, “You’ll have to stop by the shop. Your grannie will be sad she missed you,” Grandpop said.

“What shop?” I asked, looking to Mom and Grandpop.

“Your grannie works in a shop that sells lots of things, like bowls and plates, as well as blankets she makes. I think you’ll like it there,” Grandpop answered. “I should probably let you go now. I’m sure there’s more that you wanted to do than visit me. But Susan,” Grandpop addressed Mother. “You’ll be bringing Maddie to lunch this Azuria Day instead of your husband staying home to watch her, won’t you?”

Mother looked to me and I could see her reserve. “Yes, I think she can handle it this year.”

“Great.” Grandpop stopped the swing and Theo hopped down as Grandpop’s hands reached for him. He continued on to set me down. “I’ll see you two in a few weeks then. Be good beansprouts, will you? Listen to your mom and dad, and be nice to each other. Okay?”

“I’m already doing that. I’m so good.” Theo stood next to Elliot, who had been glancing around all this while in the clear awkwardness of not having signed up for this family reunion. “And Maddie’s the best. She’s amazing and great at keeping secrets.”

My eyes slightly widened and Mom forced a laugh. “We’ll see you later Pops.”

“Ah, all right. Maddie? You’ll have to share a secret with me later.” He winked and I gave him a close-lipped smile before heading off with the others.

I liked him, but doubted I could tell anyone my secret. Even if they meant well and loved me to death, all it took was one person telling another before things got out of hand. I didn’t know much about the magic tower, but I was pretty sure I would grow up without my family in exchange for being tutored purely about magic.