Chapter 4

Carter led Ellie to a board, now Ellie has played plenty of video games, she knew how a bounty board worked. Carter led her through the basic bounties, but he wanted a bit more.

“With your help we could take down some powerful beasties, maybe go after a molehorn or two?” Carter said.

Ellie was still confused, but understood what he was talking about. “Molehorn? Is that some kind of monster in this world? I’m going to get so confused when traveling across dimensions.”

Carter nodded, “As you should. Yes, Molehorn’s are monsters and potion brewers will pay good money for good Molehorn recipe parts.” He pointed to a paper that read, ‘Molehorn recipe parts needed’ He smiled, “We hand 'em in, we get paid. I’ll help you home.”

Ellie nodded, “Alright, classic RPG video game stuff. Got it.”

Carter looked at her, “RPG video game? What is that? I know what a video game is, but what’s an RPG one?”

Ellie sighed, “Role playing game, that’s what it stands for.”

Carter nodded, “Alright then, well the Molehorns live in the tunnels up north. A bit of a walk, but we’ll be fine.”

Elline nodded, “Do we get rides or something? What do we get?”

“Nothing, we go and fight them and bring back parts.”

“Alright then.” Ellie said, “Let’s go then”

Ellie walked slowly, trying to not use too much energy. She knew she’d be needing it, as they walked she saw a few other adventurers and sometimes even monsters. She remembered the two kids fighting the monsters and wondered if that would be her, shooting blasts to annihilate her opponents. She continued on with this thought, and walked quickly. Eventually they got to a forest side.

Carter stopped, and Ellie stopped behind him. “Have you ever seen Draconics?”

Ellie didn’t even know what that meant, “Like dragons? There are dragons here?”

Carter nodded, “That’s what I thought.” He walked into the woods, Ellie was reluctant but entered in after him. 

Carter made a light to light their path, and soon enough he stopped.

Ellie did as well, “What’s wrong?”

Carter looked into the forest, “We’re being stalked.”

Ellie looked into the forest surrounding them, Ellie started to get so scared her body was starting to pull on Carter’s magic.

“Hey.” He said, seeming to feel her pull.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to.” She looked at the forest, and then summoned a light of her own. Then a strange floating beast appeared in the forest, “Um, Carter.”

Carter turned around and pulled out a longsword, “What is it.”

“I don’t know, but look. The eyes.” Ellie pointed to the two floating eyes in the forest.

Carter looked to where she was pointing, “What eyes?”

“You can’t see them?” Then Ellie felt a magical pull from the eyes, a deep hiss filled the forest around them. Ellie used her powers to pull the being’s magic into her, and extinguish it’s very being. The beast appeared in front of them as a ghost, and it looked at Ellie with fear as she pulled on its magic. Ellie felt one last fearful moment then the spirit dissipated. Ellie felt its magic fill her and a new magic was able to be used.

“What was that?” Carter asked.

“I don’t know, I felt a magic of some kind around me, a new one. So I thought it was cool and I did what I could do with you. I absorbed its magic, being a creature of magic it was dispelled.” Ellie didn’t know how she knew all of that, but she did.

Carter slowly nodded, “How do you know that?”

Ellie shrugged, “How should I know, it was like second nature.”

Carter turned again, “Alright, let’s go, quickly. You probably can’t absorb all creatures like that.” Carter started running.

Ellie started to follow, but heard a voice. ‘Your an interesting one. I’m Anna.’ Ellie  decided to shake it off and ran after Carter.

Once Ellie had caught up with Carter she was out of breath again, and looking around for water or anything. Then she saw Carter in a combat stance.

“What is it now?” She asked.

Carter looked from one side to the other and sighed, “You're going to be meeting a Draconic.”

Just then a giant winged lizard-like creature appeared from thin air, Ellie screamed. Then ducked behind a rock.

Then that voice came again, Anna. ‘Well this is no fun, if you're gonna use my magic do it. Let me fight this thing.’

Ellie was just thinking how different her day could have been going, school work, classes, this was not what it was supposed to be. She turned around and let Anna out, sending a soul to fight for them, and Anna sure did fight. She was in a new form, maybe it was just Ellie but she looked quite different. Either way she was biting into the monster in front of them quite well.

Carter on the other hand was stunned, “Isn’t that the ghost that just attacked us?”

Ellie nodded, “Ya, here's a note. When absorbing the magic of a creature make sure to not absorb the spirit energy of them.”

“Why?” Carter asked.

“Because you get them stuck with you until you get the spell to let them out.” Ellie said back. Ellie lined up a perfect shot of the dragon, who was now fading into camouflage and real life. Then shot a blast of pure soul energy, the bolt hit directly. The dragon stopped and fell to the ground, totally asleep.

Anna came to look at the dragon, ‘Ha ha. Who’s the scariest monster now!’

Not questioning it, Ellie turned to Carter, “What now.”

Carter looked weirdly, “We kill it.”

“We what!?” Ellie yelled. Anna came to float next to Ellie at this point, making Ellie a bit uncomfortable but she didn’t say anything.

Carter nodded, “Ya, it’s still alive. We kill it, then we harvest its parts.”

For some reason Ellie turned to Anna, “Is he serious?”

Anna nodded, ‘He is definitely serious about killing the monster.’

Carter looked weirdly at Ellie, “Why are you talking to a ghost?”

“Anna’s cool, and much more humane than you.” Ellie said.

“Ellie, ghosts don’t talk.” Carter said.

Ellie looked at Anna, “Can only I hear you?”

Anna nodded, ‘You absorbed my magic and soul, I couldn’t talk to anyone before. Now I can talk to you.’

Ellie threw her hands in the air, “You know what, just go to roll with the punches. We aren’t killing this dragon!”

“Why not?” Asked Carter.

Ellie looked at him, “Because it’s a living creature!”

“That can get us money!” Carter said.

“And that’s worth the death of an innocent creature!”

‘Your smart Ellie.’ Said Anna.

“Not now Anna, no offense.” Ellie said, Anna had nothing in return.

“So what do we do with the creature then?” Carter asked.

“We leave it here to live! Any creature with a soul should have a right to live! Killing a creature is controlling them, and isn’t that the whole thing you were talking about. Control is bad.” Carter was frozen, “Say something!”

“No.” Said a voice from behind her, “Control is the only way the world can go on.” Ellie turned to see a bunch of people in white clothing, and she was pretty sure they weren’t there for hunting practice.