An hour later, Lily still had not moved. She wanted to make sure she had memorized every little aspect of these circles before she headed out to finish her work for the day. She would definitely be experimenting with these more when she got home. Maybe she could draw them out in a notebook?

She had also started to suspect she knew why this spooky spot didn’t house an anomaly. Or rather, she thought that she had been wrong about that. Because when her everburning flame got close to the puppy, it definitely grew larger. Only a little bit. It was subtle, so she didn’t notice it at first. But, after some experimentation she was pretty sure.

She didn’t see a circle around the dog or anything like that though. So she wasn’t entirely convinced. Maybe an anomaly had happened to the dog. Like an alteration spell, or a buff, or… she glanced around. A protection spell?

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you like, fireproof?”

The puppy stared up at her, panting slightly. Well, that was one hypothesis she wasn’t about to test. Still, what should she do? On the one hand, she wanted to learn everything she could about this stuff. On the other hand, she really didn’t want the responsibility of an animal. Well, she didn’t have to make this choice right now. She could go get her chickens and cows, and then decide whether or not to circle back for the dog. Yeah, that makes sense. No use dealing with a puppy all day if she didn’t need to, and it’s not like the puppy would likely go anywhere.

So, she started back to her car. The puppy followed her. About thirty feet outside the circle she turned and glared at it.

“I’m not taking you. Go back. Stay. Shoo!”

She turned and started walking again. The puppy followed her.

“Fine, is that how it is?”

Lily broke into a run. She ran as fast as she could. Immediately she realized this was maybe a mistake. Her body was still pretty weak. But she could out run a puppy right? Lily could not outrun a puppy. She got to her car, taking gasping breaths, and immediately doubled over. The puppy was sitting by the front door by the time she reached it.

Lily took a minute to catch her breath, glaring at the little dog. It wagged its tail. Lily spoke to it through gasping breaths.

“Well, I’m not taking you with me. Just because you made it here. You little wretch.”

She opened her door and got in, closing it behind her. There was a whine from outside the door. She started the car. There was a louder whine from outside the door. Lily carefully pulled away. She glanced in her rearview window. The dog followed her, running as fast as it could.

“It’ll stop and turn around. Any… second now.”

The dog did stop. It sat in the road, and looked so, absolutely, heartbreakingly pathetic.

Lily pulled into the ranch and found a good place to park. It didn’t look too fire damaged. Honestly, Lily was more excited to look into magic right now than collect animals. But, the animals were time sensitive. Magic… probably wasn’t.

“Come to think of it, where am I even going to put chickens in this car…?”

She looked over her vehicle. It wasn’t small, but having a bunch of live loose chickens in here sounded a little scary. Maybe she could find cages around here or something?

Bay, sitting in the back seat, caught her eye. He looked smug.

“Oh yeah, laugh it up buddy. I’m the one who has to clean you up if chickens poop on you, so you better be hoping I’m less tired tonight. You could at least give me some symp–”

WOOF!

Lily yelped. The puppy in the seat beside her, carefully buckled in wagged its tail.