Meriel looked around again, feeling his heart pumping blood, feeling cold sweat running down his back as panic overcame reason. The monster market was the last place he’d trust a child to go without a guardian. By all means, it was all just poor people trying to get rich around, and a pretty girl with red hair would sell well in the other countries, lest they changed more than he’d thought in the last century.

  It was hard, but slowly, he took in deep breaths, trying to calm himself and try to sway his mind from the worst case scenario. Maybe she only saw something interesting and ran away?

  Mary was an energetic child, prone to doing stupid things, but she was an orphan who spent a considerable amount of time on the streets. She knew how to look after herself. Again, Meriel clicked his tongue at his failure to teach her any spells. Finding Elsa was important, but he’d have to stop forgetting his apprentices.

  Looking around, he opened his third eye, searching for any mana fluctuations. If she had gotten surprised by someone, she’d probably intake some mana by reflex, leaving a space of mana where she’d been.

  But Meriel could not see such a thing anywhere he looked, bringing the worries up once again.

  “Can’t you cast a spell to track her down, somehow?” Ziggy asked.

  If only it were that simple. “No. Or yes, but not in this situation. I can cast a spell that will bind an object to me, giving me the option of knowing where it is whenever I want. The problems is that I haven’t given either of you anything like that.”

  “But you said you knew where I was when I stayed outside of the city!”

  “As you said yourself, there’s a strange connection between you and I. A permanent summon with a connection to my mana heart. But Mary is a human, and the only connection we have is that I got her into the damn academy…” Meriel shook his head, and decided to ramble no further. Lamenting over his failures or the inadequacies of magic wouldn’t find Mary.

  But something else could. “Ziggy. Can you transform back into the dragon? I think you should be able to smell her, right?”

  Ziggy’s ears perked up, and he nodded slowly. “Yes, I should be able to. All of you humans have a very specific smell, did you know that?”

  “Ziggy, focus.”

  “Sure, I can. I smell better when I’m in my dragon form. A LOT better. Must come from my dragon genes.” He looked around, seeing the crowd around them. “Transform here, though? You sure, after all your hiding identity talk?”

  That much was true. Meriel glanced about, and soon found what he’d need. A two story building with a flat roof nearby, taller than all the surrounding buildings. He pointed with his finger. “There. We’ll look from there.” He glanced about, and found a shopkeeper that seemed at least somewhat reputable.

  “Hey!”

  The man looked up from his table, apparently inspecting his own wares. “What is it, young sir?”

  “I need these animals looked after for a short while!”

  The man seemed offended once he registered what was asked from him. “I am no guard to look after animals. I sell trinkets. Now, either buy some, or—”

  Tiring, meriel quickly threw a big nugget of gold in the man’s direction. “I have another one like this. Take care of them, and they are yours. But tell anyone of what I gave to you, and I will take it back.” Hopefully that would be enough to keep the man quiet.

  Satisfied, Meriel turned away, and began running after Ziggy.

  Ziggy nodded as he saw Meriel was done, and began running again, stupidly fast, so quick in fact that Meriel lost him for a second on the short path towards the building. He caught up, looked around, grabbed Ziggy around the waist with his good hand, and cast a spell under them.

  [Wind Gust - Level 68 - Activated]

  They shot into the air, angled so they fell onto the roof with a soft thud. Hopefully the residents didn’t hear something that would arouse suspicion. Meriel let Ziggy go, and he wordlessly began walking forward. Immediately, Ziggy began transforming, and his true form saw the light of day once again.

  Meriel hadn’t even realized, but he missed this version of Ziggy. It was a familiar sight, after so many years, and though he liked talking to the dragon, there was something comforting in seeing his beast form once again. The dragon began transforming first by soft crunching sounds coming from all of his limbs, and the arms unnaturally shifted to a different shape as Ziggy prepared to become quadrupedal once again.

  His gray skin started growing scales, leaves emerging from between them once again, growing with a strange sound akin to skin being pulled slowly on leather. Meriel fought the urge to look away, but he remained looking.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Does… does that hurt?” He asked once Ziggy was finally transformed completely. “Also, did you grow in size?” Surely Ziggy wasn’t this large the last time he transformed. That was only a week ago, yet he already seemed to grow a good lot. How was that possible?

  Ziggy shook himself, and looked at Meriel. It was harder to read his expression now, but he still recognized that deadpan look. “Ah. You can’t talk now. Got it.” He looked around, still doing his best not to lose himself to panic, and then back at Ziggy. “Well, can you find her?”

  But Ziggy was already at it.

  He had his eyes closed, and sniffed the air in all directions. First he sniffed the air from where they shopped at, but he shook his head a moment later, and continued sniffing in the other directions. Meriel couldn’t do more than just to watch and hope he’d give them some directions, and that made him even more nervous then before.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Ziggy’s head went rigid, and his eyes locked in one direction. That was all that he’d need.

  Meriel stood on the edge of the roof, trying to see where Ziggy was looking, and for few moments, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. But then, focusing harder, he finally saw.

  “That wagon? Is that what you’re sensing her from?” Meriel asked, looking at Ziggy, who already began transforming back into his elven form. After a few moments, and several cracks of Ziggy’s jaw, he was already back to talking.

  “That’s where her smell is coming from, yes. I also tried using the third eye, and saw that the mana from around the wagon is going inside quite a bit.”

  Meriel’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say more. Seeing something like this from such a distance was truly amazing. “Let’s go then. No time to waste.”

  They both descended from the building in a similar manner as they ascended, and then began quickly walking towards the general direction of the abductors.

  The streets were, of course, busy and there were many people about, making Meriel groan internally. He only wished to save his apprentice. Hells, he had not expected it from himself to care this much, but he really liked the little lady, no matter how much of a nuisance she was at times.

  Ziggy slipped past Meriel, and moved forward, his slighter frame and height allowing him to slip past the people more quickly. They should be near the intersection where they’ve seen the wagon any second now.

  “There!” Ziggy half-shouted, and Meriel hurried up even more, shoving the people out of his way when needed. It was a normal wagon, not unlike the merchant ones from his own era—wooden wheels, no ornamentation, and a white tarp to hide what’s inside. Meriel needed to see nothing more.

  This close, he saw what Ziggy mentioned about the mana as well; it was indeed swirling, and going inside in small gulps.

  “Hey, stop that wagon right now!” Meriel shouted as he finally got near, and closed the distance. The horses in front stopped in the very same moment, and two men jumped down from the front. The tarp of the wagon opened as well, and two others stepped out, holding wooden cudgels in their hands.

  Meriel gently pulled Ziggy behind him, meeting the eyes of the others.

  “What is it, man? You got a problem with something?” One of the crooks said, and though his tone was similar to the bandits outside of the city, their looks told him that these weren’t just come common criminals. They wore the same kind of leather vests, and they all had a red headband wrapped around their biceps, giving them the look of someone from a gang.

  Organized.

  “I ask that you let my apprentice go.” Meriel said, watching them closely.

  The men looked in between each other, giving themselves that all-knowing smirk. The people around, sensing what was about to go down, gave them wide berth now, and proceeded to leave Meriel, Ziggy and the four men alone.

  No sound came from the wagon itself. Mary was either unconcious, or tied down then.

  “I’m afraid I don’t know wh—” The man in front began saying something in that sarcastic tone of his, but Meriel was not going to play these games. There were a lot of people not that far away, and surely someone lived in these buildings around, so killing them was out of the question.

  But he didn’t particularly hide the fact that he could use magic anyway. He stepped forward, already chanting the short incantation, and placed his hand on the face of the man talking to him, taking him by surprise.

  [Burning Hands - Level 72 - Activated]

  Meriel had to focus more than ever to only take in a small amount of mana into his heart for this spell. Using any more than the tiniest of his ability would burn the man’s head off.

  Immediately, the man began screaming as a short burst of flame erupted in his face, and the other three stepped back. They all gripped their cudgels even tighter, and nervously looked between each other.

  “Now, again. Hand me my apprentice. A red haired girl, about twelve years old.” Meriel ordered, letting the screams of anguish add weight to his words. “Do that, and nobody else has to get hurt.”

  They once again looked at each other, but the sight of the man who finally stopped screaming, and instead held his face as he cried on the ground, seemed to convince them. One of them dropped his cudgel, and walked inside the wagon, soft clinks of metal meeting metal following soon after.

  “We should kill them.” Whispered Ziggy, and it was the first time Meriel noticed the unhidden rage in his gaze. “Did you see?”

  Meriel raised his eyebrow. “See what?”

  “I saw Mary, but they had more than that. Three other kids, at least. All knocked out.”

  Meriel’s stomach twisted, and in just that moment, the man walked back outside, holding Mary in his arm, gently. Meriel, not letting his eyes wander, picked Mary up, and checked her all over.

  She seemed to be okay, just a surface wound here and there. The four men began hastily walking away, not saying a word more, but Meriel followed them with his eyes as they disappeared behind the next corner.

  Ziggy was childish sometimes, but he had the gist of it this time around. These men didn’t deserve to just get a burn. Hurting little children? Probably selling them to slavery? The Lavarza Kingdom would do without people like these, and that wasn’t even taking his personal feelings of rage into account.

  He wouldn’t let this go.

  Milestones:

  Ratings (Bonus chapter): 122/125

  Patrons (3 more advance chapters) : 18/20