Emily turns her head, watching as the blurry things quickly come into focus in her sight. She cocks her head to the side as she watches them creep out of the foliage, her hand stopping mid-tug as her eyes widen.

  When Emily heard that they were going to go up against pixies, she imagined the usual mythical creatures that her mom used to read to her during bedtime: Miniature people with bright wings, who flutter around and cause magical mischief to travelers and naughty children. If it wasn’t for the whole “mind mage” thing, she’d have been almost excited to meet some in person.

  But the little green things that she sees in front of her is nothing like the ones in her mind. They’re the same colour as the foliage around them, a deep green that blends in with the grass as they walk. They have spindly legs and arms that they use to totter towards the stocky swordsman and Tishia, their heads round and bulbous and seemingly too large for their skinny bodies. Their eyes are luminous green and round, similar to that rock golem that Emily ran away from all those days ago.

  They rock back and forth, tottering closer and closer to the group, more of them appearing out of the foliage and quickly surrounding the party. Emily looks towards Bill, unsure as to what to do, but preparing her mana anyways just in case.

  So far, she hasn’t met anything in this forest that doesn’t want her dead, after all.

  “Bill? Bill! Snap out of it!”

  Bill sinks to his knees, his back bent over as he lets out a whining sound, his face still buried in his hands. Emily reaches out and grabs onto his shoulder, shaking the man back and forth with more and more force.

  “Bill! Come on! I need to know what the hell we’re up against!”

  “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” Bill keeps saying, as he curls into himself, pressing his face against his knees. In the background, Emily can hear Tishia starting to wail, as the stocky man that Emily still doesn’t know the name of rolls on the grass in anguish.

  Emily lets out a sigh, standing up straight before reaching for Blue’s hood once again.

  “Alright… Come on, Blue. It’s hunting time.”

  She tugs it clean off, and Blue blinks his gorgeous namesakes as he adjusts to the sudden brightness. He tilts his head and looks down at Emily, clacking his beak twice in question at her.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead. There’s lots and lots of things for you to tear apart,” she says affectionately, as she holds a finger up in the air, deciding not to waste a second longer as the line of little green men waddles closer and closer to the group. Blue silently tracks the digit with his eyes as she reaches all the way up to her apex, her heart beating in excitement for what’s about to happen.

  Emily admits to herself, finally, that commanding a deadly creature is… Kind of fun.

  “Readyyyy?”

  Blue slumps down onto his butt with a depressed huff of air, before slumping down onto his side, his body floppy and overcome with melancholy so deep that only an Ostrich could understand its depths. Emily watches wordlessly as the big lug takes a deep, deep breath, his slender chest rising up dramatically before letting it out in a long, mournful cry that sends shivers down Emily’s spine.

  Emily lowers her finger slowly, disbelief written on her face.

  “You too, boy? What the heck is wrong with all of you?!”

  Emily watches the depressed ostrich for a moment longer, hoping against hope that he’ll snap out of it and go on his regular blood-chilling murder spree. But instead, the ostrich rotates its lanky neck until its head is chin-down in the dirt, clacking his beak once before letting out another cry.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Fine. I guess I’ll just sort it out myself.”

  Emily looks around and spots one of the pixies toddling up to the stocky swordsman… Jeff, Emily decides to call him, and takes aim, pointing a finger at the tiny little thing and tracking its movements for a second. Her hands glow brighter and brighter as the mana moves swiftly through their channels, all those hours of practice in the morning starting to pay off just a little bit.

  She releases the spell through her fingertip, a concentrated jet of air blasting out and piercing through the tiny pixie dead-center. It collapses to the ground, unmoving, a massive hole bored into it from the compressed air.

  Emily lets out a whoop of excitement, as she celebrates hitting her target dead-on. “Who can’t hit the wide side of a barn now, huh?!”

  But that excitement dies quickly as all of the little green things stop toddling in place and turn to stare at Emily. She feels a shiver run down her spine and widens her stance, suddenly wishing that she had something to press her back against.

  The little green men’s heads suddenly split in half, revealing mouths full of sharp, needle-thin teeth that glisten menacingly in the light. They let out a high-pitched screech that reminds Emily of a cricket, the sound piercing Emily’s ears painfully and giving her an instant headache.

  She sweeps her hand out and summons a blade of wind to crash into the group in front of her, the sharp wind gliding through the first wave of pixies like butter before smashing into the ground behind them with an explosion of dirt.

  And that was when all hell broke loose.

  The little green men immediately abandon their toddling, slow walk; instead turning to the side and cartwheeling faster and faster towards the humans in the center of the circle. Emily panics and sweeps out her hand in a wide arc, sweat beading on her forehead as she forces the mana as thinly and densely as she can. It whips out from her hand in a thin line, rocketing forwards at speed and slicing down a large majority of the pixies surrounding their back.

  She spins back towards her party in time to see one of the pixies reach Tishia, the little green thing turning its cartwheel into an impressive leap straight towards the lady. Emily quickly aims and fires in an attempt to hit it in midair but missing it by a hair, the wind bolt knocking it slightly off course but not enough to stop it from sinking its teeth deeply into her knee.

  Emily swiftly re-aims and shoots off another thin line of wind that smacks into the pixie and barely misses hitting Tishia’s leg, knocking off the pixie and tearing its teeth out of her skin with a ripping sound. Tishia barely reacts to what just happened, as she stares up at the canopy, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

  Emily sprints towards the pair and gets in front of them, sweeping out another long line of wind to knock back the army of green men rapidly approaching and grabbing her two party members in each hand. She starts dragging them back to Blue, glancing around and keeping careful track of the now-mostly-empty clearing she’s made in the foliage.

  She makes it back to Blue’s slumped form and stops dragging the pair, letting them slump down onto the ground in a depressed pile. Emily lets out a relieved sigh and wipes the sweat off of her brow, as she glances down at her hands and gauges how dim they’ve become.

  She hears a rustle from the foliage and feels her heart clenching, as suddenly, the people around her start to scream in pain and fear.

  Emily lets out a shriek of fright, not expecting that at all. She hears a rustle from the bushes across from her and launches a slightly-bigger-than-necessary wind blade into it, tearing the bush and whatever was within it to pieces. More green men start to cartwheel towards her at full speed, and Emily mows them down as they come, spending mana like it was going out of style and sweeping the foliage around her until she feels the deep-seated burning of mana burnout start to take root.

  She takes a breath and looks around herself, finding some little green men crawling across the ground away from her, their limbs sheared off and bleeding green sap. Her party finally stops screaming, falling silent and falling into a deep, deep slumber.

  All except for Blue, who sits up with a start, twisting his body until he can push himself up smoothly with his front limbs and looking around himself with clear, piercing eyes.

  Emily lets out a chuckle of relief as she sees Blue clack his beak in curiosity, pointing towards the rest of the pixies and letting out a breath.

  “All yours, boy.”

  Blue lets out a curious rumble towards Emily, as he slowly walks towards the closest pixie. He reaches down tentatively with his beak open and snaps it shut around it, lifting it into the air before gobbling it down his throat.

  He tilts his head to the side, thinking for a moment, and Emily wonders just what is going on in his head. Maybe he doesn’t like the taste?

  Blue clacks his beak and tilts his head this way and that, spotting the next pixie and sprinting towards it, swiftly snapping it up and gobbling it down.

  And Emily lets out a laugh, preparing her mana in the tip of her finger, getting ready to blast as many of them as she can.

  “Okay. Let’s see who can get the most of them before they’re all gone.”