As the first hints of light began to peek through the dense foliage of the forest, Fay began to let her body relax. The Whisperwoods weren’t the most dangerous place in the local area around her home, but it still was dangerous if one wasn't careful. But the predators that lurked in the dense forest were all nocturnal, and with morning approaching, they would be retreating soon enough.

  The blonde smiled as she ran a finger gently along the spine of her familiar. Dove had spent the first half of the night staying awake and alert, letting Fay sleep. After some time had passed, the hawk woke Fay, and she took over the night's watch to allow her familiar to rest.

  It was a strategy that the two had used plenty of times in the past and had all but mastered. It wasn't like her father would have let her out on a hunting trip alone if he hadn't known for sure that she would know how to stay safe.

  She'd left her family's home in Helstrum nearly three days ago. A day and a half of traveling at a swift pace, aided by her magic, and a day spent hunting for some Direwolves worth grabbing. A good Direwolf pelt could sell for good money.

  It was the sort of trip that she'd taken multiple times over the past few months, so she expected that it would go the same as every other hunt. But then she'd stumbled upon a young man from the other side of the Mirrors and saved his life.

  Finding Lucas had been a stroke of luck, just like she'd told him. If she and Dove had been even a minute later, Lucas would have been dead and Fay would have found nothing but a cooling corpse.

  But finding Lucas came with its own difficulties. He knew nothing of magic and was apparently born to Ordinary parents. While it wasn't unheard of, it was incredibly rare for someone from a completely Ordinary family to awaken their magic. The gift of magic could skip a generation or two, but it usually showed itself within a couple generations again or died out completely.

  Most of her watch was spent quietly thinking about what she would do. She'd only just met Lucas, but Fay had already promised that she would take him back to his own home. Lucas had seemed like a good person so far, and she had no reason not to help him when he clearly needed it. She could have let him go back home immediately, led him back towards the Mirror he had come through, but she knew that he would regret it.

  Magic was amazing. And it was a gift that anyone who had it deserved to understand and enjoy. If she let Lucas go back home, he never would have been able to come back across the Mirrors safely.

  So, she had a month. A month to get Lucas to the point that he could safely defend himself from Direwolves and make the trip from Helstrum to the Mirror nearest to his home. It was a crazy feat to consider, and she knew that Lucas was going to have to work incredibly hard to do it. Luckily, Fay also knew that she wasn't alone. Her parents would be able to help Lucas, and she was sure they would after hearing what he'd been through.

  The sound of movement pulled Fay out of her own thoughts and drew her attention towards the young man in question. Lucas hadn't woken up yet, but he was shifting and twisting in his sleep. And based on his expressions, the dreams he was experiencing weren't pleasant. Once again, Fay was tempted to wake Lucas up.

  It was far from the first time she'd seen Lucas stirring in his sleep. Throughout the couple of hours that she'd been awake, she'd seen signs of Lucas having bad dreams multiple times. He hadn't awoken, thankfully, but his dreams seemed less than pleasant. If it wasn't for the fact that Lucas needed his energy, she would have woken him up. Though, he looked a bit cute when he was sleeping peacefully.

  But unlike the last few times where Lucas had stilled and managed to sink back into a restful sleep, this time Fay watched as his motions became more jerky and violent. His expression shifted to a grimace and Fay could hear his breathing quicken in the quiet air.

  She wanted to let him sleep, but whatever bad dreams that Lucas had been experiencing had clearly turned into nightmares. Fay could only hope that Lucas wouldn't be mad at her for waking him up.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Trees flew past in a blur as Lucas ran. He sprinted as fast as he could, his lungs burning with the effort as he tried to escape. But no matter how fast he ran, how far he traveled, he couldn't escape.

  Behind him, Lucas could hear those terrifying howls. But more worrying was the sound of panting and growling dangerously close behind him. Lucas knew those sounds well, and he knew exactly what he would see if he looked back.

  He didn't know how long he had been running, but he'd long since given up trying to call for help. Fay was nowhere to be found and even Dusk was gone. Calling for them only wasted precious air that he needed to keep running.

  Lucas was all alone, fleeing for his life. And he knew that he couldn't keep running forever.

  A stray root was what did the young man in, catching his foot and sending Lucas tumbling down a steep slope. His fall only ended as his back slammed against a tree thick enough to stop him.

  When the world stopped spinning long enough for him to actually see straight, Lucas felt his heart stop as he saw a massive Direwolf snarling and lunging at him.

  Lucas…

  Time seemed to slow as it got closer, his eyes taking in every agonizing detail as he realized that he was going to die.

  The sharp claws cutting through the air, waiting to rip him apart. The long, deadly fangs that would rip his throat out.

  … Lucas!

  Those heartless, toxic green eyes glaring at him with complete and utter hatred.

  … LUCAS!

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Lucas jolted awake with a start, panting and gasping for air as he shot up. It was only Fay’s quick reflexes that kept his head from smashing into hers.

  “Lucas, calm down! It was all a nightmare!” Fay shouted, gripping Lucas’ shoulders firmly and gently pushing him back down against the ground as he thrashed.

  As Lucas came back to consciousness fully, the first thing that he saw was the bright green eyes looming down on him from above. For a moment, his heart stopped, and his breath caught in his throat as he waited for the horrid jaws to close around his throat and kill him.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  But then he noticed the difference, that the eyes gazing down at him weren’t the same caustic green orbs full of violence and death that he’d been so badly haunted by. They were green like shards of emeralds, and full of concern and worry. It took his panicked mind a couple seconds to grasp it, but quickly enough, Lucas realized that it was Fay looking down at him and not a Direwolf.

  He felt stupid for having mistaken her for one of those monsters. The blonde’s eyes were beautiful and full of life in a way that the Direwolf’s eyes never could match.

  Seeing that he’d stopped thrashing, Fay slowly let go of Lucas and took a step back. With her no longer pinning him down, the young man pushed himself up onto his elbows and did his best to avoid Fay’s worried gaze.

  “Are you alright? You started thrashing suddenly in your sleep.”

  The concern in the blonde’s voice just caused Lucas’ cheeks to heat up with embarrassment. He didn’t want to seem so fragile and weak in front of someone as strong as Fay had shown herself to be.

  “I’m fine. It was just a bad dream,” Lucas lied.

  Fay looked like she wanted to say something, and for a moment it seemed like she would. But instead, the blonde stopped herself.

  “Well… I’m here if you want to talk about it.”

  The following few minutes were filled with silence as Fay tended to the fire, feeding the flames a bit before going for her bag. When she pulled out some more of the tough, yet tasty jerky that she’d given him the previous day during their breaks, Lucas’ stomach swiftly demanded food.

  “So,” Fay spoke up as the two ate. “I forgot to ask yesterday, but how old are you?”

  “I’m eighteen. My birthday was yesterday. Why is that important?”

  Fay seemed surprised by Lucas’ response, much to Lucas’ confusion. He didn’t think he looked too much older or younger than his age.

  “Oh wow. I guess you got really lucky,” She replied. When she saw the confusion etched on Lucas’ face, Fay quickly continued. “Sorry. Magic tends to awaken in people at different ages, but usually around fifteen to eighteen years old. There’s been times when someone younger than fifteen has awoken their magic early, but no one has ever awoken magic after their eighteenth birthday. For some reason, that seems to be the cutoff.”

  “Oh. Is that a bad thing, then? That I got my magic basically on the last day that I could have? Also, when did you get your magic, then?” Lucas asked.

  “No, no, it’s not a bad thing. Like I said, it was lucky for you. Not everyone ends up awakening their magic, even here. As for me? Well, I got my magic a few months after my sixteenth birthday. I turn eighteen later this month, so I’ve almost had my magic for over a year and a half, now,” The blonde explained.

  “How does that work, exactly? Having magic, I mean,” Lucas asked. “You said it makes us stronger and faster, but that can't be it, right?”

  Fay coughed into her hand, trying and failing to hide a laugh. “Oh gods, no. There's so much more to magic than that. Magic is only restricted to your imagination, creativity, and your magical capacity. Affinities matter, but they're not absolute.”

  Seeing that Lucas was already opening his mouth to ask a question, Fay grinned and continued. “Affinities are what we call the magics that a person is most gifted with. They're the type or types of magic that a person can learn and use most easily. It's possible to learn magics from outside of your affinity, but it's way harder to do as our magics prefer to be used and shaped into the form of our affinities instead.”

  “So, what are your affinities, then?” Lucas leaned in as he asked, hoping to see a bit of magic.

  “I've got two affinities. Wind and Speed magic are what I ended up with.”

  As Fay spoke, she held her hand up and Lucas watched as the wind picked up. It took a few seconds, but he could soon see a spiral of air held in the palm of Fay's hand, like a tiny tornado.

  “It's not the flashiest magic around, but it's a good one. One day, I'm going to be able to fly, too. I just need to get better first.”

  The way Fay explained it, and the sheer hope and joy that the idea of flying brought to her face even caused Lucas to smile.

  Now Lucas was getting excited himself. “How do I find out about my affinities, then?”

  “The best way to do that is to find a resonance stone. They're magical creations that were made to help people find out what their affinities are. Before they were created, it was a lot harder to find out what magics someone had an affinity towards.”

  Fay hopped to her feet and grinned, offering Lucas a hand up. “Lucky for you,” she added as she pulled him to his feet. “The town I live in has a resonance stone that you can use. Should be easy.”

  “Seriously?! Just like that?”

  “Yup!” Fay chirped. “Most towns and cities have a resonance stone that can be used by the public. So, as long as you don't try to damage it or steal it, nobody will have a problem with you using it. It's what they're meant to be used for, after all.”

  “Now come on, we're up a bit earlier than I'd planned for, but if we get moving, we can make a lot of progress today. If we keep a good enough pace, we can probably get back to town by late tomorrow afternoon.”

  If it wasn't for how physically good his body was feeling, Lucas would have dreaded the idea of another whole day of traveling. But the magic in his body seemed to help and Lucas also wanted to see more of the strange, magical world he'd stumbled into.

  “Oh! And before I forget, let’s get rid of this.”

  Fay was quick to move to Lucas’ right side; her gaze focused on the gauze wrapped around his arm. The fabric, tinted green from the potion she had used, had darkened further with his blood. But it didn’t look like the blood was fresh.

  “It looks good. Glad to see the potion worked.”

  She then started to unwrap the gauze. Lucas would have protested, if not for the fact that his arm didn’t even hurt much anymore. In fact, as he thought more about it, the wound hadn’t hurt at all ever since Fay had wrapped the potion-soaked bandages around his arm. The reason why seemed obvious when the blood-soaked fabric was pulled away, revealing a healed arm with no wounds in sight. Though, a closer inspection revealed that where the wounds had been, the skin looked raw and red.

  “Just be careful,” Fay warned him. “A day is usually long enough for a good potion to heal a wound like that. But you should still take it easy with that arm for a bit longer.”

  Fay acted like it was normal. Lucas, on the other hand, was stunned. “This is insane!”

  “Nope,” The blonde grinned. “That’s just a normal potion. If you want to see something insane, you should see the high-quality stuff.”

  With his wounds taken care of, the two were ready to go. But before they could get moving, Lucas was stopped by a tug at the leg of his pants. Looking down, he was amused to find Dusk gazing up at him with large, pleading eyes. A small whine came from the fox and Lucas chuckled. He had an idea what the little fox wanted

  “Alright, come on, you,” He laughed, leaning down and grabbing the fox in his arms. Once he was standing up straight, Dusk happily scampered out of his arms and settled herself around his neck, draping her body across his shoulders while her tail fell across his chest.

  “I've known you for a day and I can already tell you're gonna be lazy,” Lucas joked as he tried to pet the fox. His response was a playful nip at his fingers that just made Lucas laugh even more and caused Fay to giggle.

  Turning to the blonde, Lucas could see that she already had Dove in her arms. The hawk was awake but seemed content resting in Fay's arms.

  He gave Fay a nod. “Let's go.”

  “One second,” Fay interrupted, turning her attention to the still roaring campfire.

  Lucas watched as the blonde focused for a few seconds, a hand outstretched towards the blaze. Then, before his eyes, Lucas watched as the flames rapidly shrank and died. It took Lucas a few seconds to piece things together and realize that Fay had pulled all the air out of the fire to extinguish it.

  “Ok, now we can go. I can't wait for you to see Helstrum. You'll love it!”

  The two set off at a quick jog, with Fay setting a steady pace that Lucas knew he could keep going for quite a while. The soft, early morning light flickered through the trees, slowly providing a bit more illumination to the dark, dense forest.

  “You said your other magic was Speed, right? So does that mean that you’ve been slowing down a lot for me?” Lucas couldn't help but ask after a few minutes.

  His only response was a burst of laughter from Fay as the blonde began to speed up and pull ahead of him.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~