Shard

  Covered by his illusion, Niphru carefully headed east towards the woods, following the trail. As he traveled, he occasionally jumped up into the air to get a better look over the tall grass, but did not see any sign of a human along the path he was taking.

  Upon reag the lumberyard, he made himself visible again and ran towards the overseer, quickly reag him and reying, “I was sent by Amilya, Norma mad and attacked her, then attacked the eastern gate guards and fled. One of the guards said he ed mana stones and is turning himself into a monster, so we o get you out of here and ihe walls.”

  “That damn fool… I hought he’d go that far. I suppose you are right,” the overseer muttered. He then turned and hollered out, “Alright everyone, finish your current tasks and gather up!”

  Turning back to Niphru, the overseer tinued, “Did you spot Norman on the way here?

  Shaking his head, Niphru replied, “No, I didn’t see him anywhere along the way. Do you have any ideas where he might have gone?”

  The overseer sighed, then said, “Well, Norman lived on the north-eastern edge of the farms, so he may have gohere. In that case, we should probably head around the southern side of town aer from the west to avoid running into him. Do you think you could scout ahead of us to make sure we don’t run into him?”

  “Sure, I’ll wait outside the camp while you get everyone anized,” replied Niphru, before he turned and followed the path a short distaoward the vilge.

  A few moments ter, the overseer led the workers out of the camp, and Niphru led them to the southwest, avoiding the main trail towards the vilge. The travel was uful until they got he vilge, where Niphru spotted Norman uselessly attag the eastern gate with a scythe.

  “Go ahead and travel around the southern edge and take the western gate, I’ll deal with the madman,” Niphru told the workers following him, before rag towards Norman.

  Niphru jumped up above the grass to get a better view, notig several lines of wood chips iween the vilge wall and the watchtowers. Additionally, it appeared the guards had retreated from the watchtowers; nor were ahe outside of the gate. He assumed this was to keep them safe from the crazed man.

  Carefully keeping to the dense grass, Niphru avoided the lines of wood chips that would take away his cover, and approached close to Norman before ying down on the ground. Reag as far from himself as he could, he realized his range had improved signifitly. He quickly thought back to when he had run to get Monti while leaving his foxfire behind, perhaps that had helped, he sidered.

  Shaping his illusion into a copy of himself, he had it let out a scream and jump in the air while running in a circle. After a few seds, he heard a shriek e from the wall, and, assuming Norman was chasing it, had the illusion start running towards the forest. A few seds ter, he stood up and began heading after the illusion to keep within range of it.

  A short while ter, he stood on his hio peek over the grass, and saw Norman was focused on the illusion, fag away from him. Hopping up into the air agai a better view, and slowed his illusion down to help keep Norman chasing it. As they ran, he occasionally had the illusion jump up and yip to taunt the madman further.

  Ohe illusion reached the forest, he had it run out of sight and scream again, before dissipating it aurning to hiding himself, then turo head back to the vilge.

  Upon arriving at the vilge, he saw one of the towers had a guard in it again, and the two guards were back outside the gate. As he approached, they opehe gate for him, shouting out their thanks.

  Arriving back at Amilya’s house, he entered and saw Amilya sitting down, with Monti still present but resting. “I brought the workers back, and had them go around the south side of the vilge while I drew Norman away from the eastern gate. Is there anything else I’m needed for?” he queried.

  “Not that I think of, perhaps join Dawn in practig magic a bit more? Oh, wait, you should try to draw mana from some of the smaller mana stones. We are likely going to use up all the ambient mana, so you will o be able to resupply yourself from the stones,” Amilya replied, getting up and carefully walking to the tainer. She grabbed a small pouch that was ying beside it, then filled it up with a handful of mana stones.

  She beed Niphru over, thely tied the pouch around his neck as he stood on his hio keep her from having to bend over. Nodding at the pouch, Amilya briefed him on how to use them, “You o keep a bit of mana in order to use these, as you have to push your mana into the stohe to pull back what is withione. So be careful not to use too mubsp; Unfortunately, though you restore your mana, it doesn’t help with the mental strain from casting, which will keep building up.”

  Amilya waved at the door, finishing, “Now go ahead and go practiore, we don’t have too much longer.”

  Niphru o her, and headed to the door, watg her carefully move back to her chair and sitting down as Monti stood up auro heal her further. Guessing that Dawn would be back at the hill to the west, he headed there, finding his guess was correct.

  Dawn was standing in the ter of an area of upturned dirt, with a hoe ying to the side, surrounded by small fmes darting around. As he watched, half the fmes suddenly reversed dire as the other half shot outward before spiraling babsp; He noticed her shoes and socks were singed, and began to worry as the fmes smmed into the ground around her.

  Unlike he feared, the fmes didn’t harm her, nding just far enough away to avoid toug her. Without opening her eyes, she spun, a ring of fire f where her hands passed, then densing into a dozen balls of fme. Throwing her hands up, the fmes gathered above her, merging into a single rger ball of fire. Snapping open her eyes, she flicked her arm towards another patch of bare dirt, the bolt of fme flying towards it before detonating just above the ground, leaving a crater several feet across.

  “That was amazing, Dawn!” Niphru excimed, startling her and causio jump, as she had not seen him standing to the side.

  After rec from her fright, Dawn rao hug him, remarking, “I’ve been trying hard to make sure I help and protect myself! I don’t know why, but fire almost seems like a part of me now, while ic is very difficult pared to it. Maybe it is because of our bond?”

  Niphru sidered this for a moment before deg it wasn’t important, then replied, “I don’t know, nor do I think it is terribly important, as long as nothing harmful happens. How about we both practice together? Maybe I learn some of your ricks.”