“But the berries were too sour! Do ya know what sour tastes like?” Vila asked. Despite Vehyr’s taskmaster-esque style of assignments, Vila managed to visit regularly. Whether or not she managed to complete the work is a wholly different matter.

  “So true Vila, so true. Oh, if you knew about sour candy, I know you’d get a kick out of it,” I replied.

  “Hmm, maybe I can bring-” Vila’s voice came to a screech.

  “Vila?”

  “Sallix, two little kids just jumped out of the clearing!” she whispered, her voice sullen and filled with urgency. “There’s a lot of blood on them…I’ll be right back.”

  “How couldn’t I hear them?” I asked.

  “Cause they were like mice! I could barely catch on to what they were saying too. The wind told me bits and pieces,” she yelled back.

  Haunt moved on top of me. His fangs rested at the top of my leaf. “She would be a bad spider,” he mumbled.

  “Yeah, but she makes for a great fairy don’t you think?”

  “Many things hunt in there. What is hunting those kids?” Haunt replied. It would be na?ve to think we’d find another friend. But first, we must save them.

  Vila can take care of herself, right? I can’t lose her. The next few seconds were deafening. No, Vila is an immortal fairy, she can handle herself.

  “Incoming!” yelled Vila. Two minuscule thumps rocked the side of my stem. Both had faint mana concentrations. Bits of blue mana waved like candles in a storm. One barely had any left, it was the final embers of a dying flame.

  “Food?” asked Haunt.

  “NO, NOT FOOD,” we shouted.

  My roots running along the surface were being watered with a metallic liquid. Blood. There were too many questions to ask right now. Let’s run through them.

  “Haunt, what do you see?” I asked.

  “Two prey, one weak, both good meals.”

  “…what else is there.”

  “Wolf. Too big for me. Only mother can hunt. Biting bug.”

  “Okay, go see if you can bandage the kids.” Haunt’s abdomen went into action—bursts of silk filled with obsidian motes of light wrapped around the larger kid.

  I prayed to Nyla that we would never meet this ‘mother.’ I needed to help Vila, but my mana sense only stretched two meters ahead. I lifted the few roots I had around us in a defensive enclosure. Two strands bound themselves into a tight knot in front.

  “Vila, gonna need some vision here!” I yelled.

  The view opened up in front of us. Vila’s frazzled green hair was dodging a hurricane of teeth. A trail of blood was dragged from the forest to where we were. A boy was collapsed beneath us, his face pale. What would have been blonde hair was faded and caked with mud. Beside him stood a girl, his sister? Her face was shaking, with tears running down her face. Haunt continued the binding.

  The wolf continued biting at Vila. Despite its best efforts, every time its jaws managed to clasp around Vila’s dress, the wind carried her away. After the fifth failure, the wolf angled its fangs towards us and charged.

  “Sally, I can’t distract it anymore. It’s coming your way!” shouted Vila.

  “Moving to a new home now,” said Haunt.

  “You sit your web spinner down right now and get ready to bind this thing,” I replied.

  Beneath the bounding silver fur, a glimmer of red crystals was bounding towards us. Hundreds of burnt lion’s manes were a testament to the practice I undertook. I readied a firebolt.

  As the wolf continued charging, a burst of flames roared through the air and rammed into the wolf. But it missed. The wolf jerked back and dodged to the right, leaving a smoulder of embers on the ground. Its eyes darted between us and the children. Its head lowered and resumed the charge.

  “Try again Sallix!” Vila screamed. Haunt was still busily binding the boy’s wound close. With each new round of treatment, a smaller dose of blood clawed through the silk. I couldn’t rely on him yet.

  Three new magic circles jettisoned out of me. Vehyr’s words boomed in my head. Multiclassing is the symbol of an experienced mage. The more casts you focus on, the more unstable the concoction and the greater the risk of recoil. Perfect. They didn’t need to last or be maintained much. The moment the pustules threatened to burst, I sent them soaring towards the wolf.

  The wolf tensed its legs, ready to weave through the barrage once more. But it only had one choice left. Daggers of fire rained to the left, right, and behind it. It bounded forward, right in towards a knot of roots hidden among the blades of grass.

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  With a jerk of the bound strands, its paws slammed into the wooden tapestry. The wolf careened over and slid across the ground, crashing right beneath me. The girl screamed, dragging her brother away from the scene.

  “You better be done!” I yelled.

  “You inconvenience me,” Haunt replied. He began spinning his web across its legs, scurrying around like a crazed junkie. Snarls pierced the air. Incisors attempted to close around Haunt, but he maneuvered through the massive canines as he scurried along.

  “Good job team, keep on going!” cheered Vila. Please stay down. Whatever roots that were lying near the surface slithered across the writhing beast. The miniature root hairs struggled to pierce the thick hide.

  Haunt had one final gift for his Christmas wrapping. His curled fangs arched in the sunlight. The beams reflected those obsidian veneers. In one fell swoop, his pincers pierced the side. He scurried back on top of me. The wolf remained struggling in the silk prison.

  “Will that venom kill it?” I asked.

  “Unknown. Wolf big. Venom for small prey. Maybe,” he replied.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  A snap echoed through the clearing as Haunt’s webbing came undone. The wolf began gnawing through my roots. Its teeth were miniature chainsaws tearing through. Its pupils were fully dilated, and streams of saliva coated the ground behind us.

  As the final roots were coming undone, putrid thoughts tore apart my insides. What if I just let the wolf eat them? It’s not interested in plants anyway, right? I just got my second chance. I’ve done enough, Haunt has done enough, Vila has done enough. There will always be deaths wherever you go.

  But I remembered limbo. That cold plane of nothingness. Would they be lucky enough to be claimed? Or would they suffer from being consumed? I don’t have a say in these kinds of matters. I have a duty to Nyla, everything else is secondary to the mission.

  “Get away, we not tasty, very bitter!” cried one of the kids, “light lady, please help!” The girl was shielding her brother’s body away from the wolf. Her breathing was intermittently interrupted with hiccups drowned by tears. It was a miracle how her legs still stood with death snarling in front of her.

  “I can’t, that wolf is part of the forest! Distractions are already pushing the limit,” screamed Vila.

  The final bits of defence were being strewn about the floor. “What do,” asked Haunt. His legs stood upright, poised for another attack.

  Fuck it. I didn’t live again for this. I’m a monster, but I’m not a monster. As strand by strand came undone, the wolf lunged towards the brave girl standing behind me. I maneuvered my body in front of its jaws. The fangs sunk through my outer bark, deep into the heartwood. There was no pain, only the sound of running water as sap bled out. It struggled to unwind its jaws from the bruised pulp.

  “Why is my home stupid?” asked Haunt.

  “It’s in perfect range now,” I spat. Whatever mana was left raged against the wolf. Beads of fire pelted the wolf as more and more teeth unhinged from my side. Pieces of burnt fur and flesh flaked to the ground. The leaves I had needlessly slammed against the wolf. They probably didn’t do much. A furled leaf against thick hide had only one outcome. Who cares?

  With wanton abandonment, Haunt leaped onto the burning wolf. His fangs repeatedly pierced the wolf. Whether any venom remained in his glands was unknown.

  “Sallix!” screamed Vila. She flew next to me as the wolf fully unhinged its jaw. “I knew it, I don’t care if Vehyr chews me out!” she shouted. A ring of light coalesced in Vila’s palm. A mana circle ten times what she had ever shown us before was wielded in those tiny hands. The wind was sucked in from all directions. Pieces of grass that were disturbed during the fight were sucked into the cyclone.

  Vila’s hands balled into fists, I could faintly see green liquid leaking from her palms. The wind concentrated into a giant hand. We stared up looking at Vila’s creation. Tsunamis of wind beat against the outline, forming veins across the surface. The wolf struggled to move away, Haunt’s venom was kicking in. Its hobbled movement could not escape the anger of this fairy.

  As she raised her arm, the rage of the wind rose with her. At this moment, the anger of the heavens roared above us.

  “Haunt, hunker down,” I yelled. Silk scaffolding was pasted behind me.

  “Leave us be,” she screamed. She pulled her arm down. The heavens came crashing down. The hurricane palm slammed into the straggling wolf. Its legs buckled underneath the weight. The wolf barred its fangs towards the wind but was promptly barred shut.

  Its legs gave out. Its entire body was suffocated against the ground. The palm did not falter, continuously digging the body deeper into the soil. Blood sputtered from its eyes and mouth. Then she let go.

  Fur, broken teeth, and the floating blood suspended in the air rained down on us. What was left of the meadow was a palm-shaped indent and a fur pancake. The former wolf was now a circle with four stick legs poking out. It would have been comical if not for how horrific the blood spatter was.

  “Sallix, are you alright?” whispered Vila. She gently floated in front of us, her smile was gently plastered along her face. Her hair was once again a bird’s nest, I’ll have to blow it dry.

  “Are you okay? Vehyr’s not going to punish you is she?” I asked.

  “Worry about yourself first,” Haunt replied, crawling out of the hidey hole he made

  My stem was barely holding itself together. Fluid rained out of me, whimpering into the soil. First a squirrel and now a wolf? Come on Nyla, give me a cool animal death by phoenix or dragon.

  “Oh no…please, please Sallix…please, please…” begged Vila.

  “Home can’t leave. Must repair home now,” said Haunt. Webbing spun around my broken mast. The binding unwound as the sap soaked through each layer.

  “I think you’ll have to find a new home,” I replied. Waves of fatigue were washing through me.

  “Not an option. A new home is more effort. Using the reserved web,” he replied. More webbing wound around me. Was it even worth it?

  “A-are we safe?” rang a voice behind us. The girl walked towards our washed-up trio.

  “You should be,” I replied. Every syllable beat more sap out of me.

  “Just hang on Sally, I’m casting a mending spell on you,” she cried. The touch of a gentle sunrise emanated from her hand.

  The little girl held one of my leaves. “Thank you, thank you for what you did for me and Jaja,” she cried. Her legs fumbled like a house of cards to the ground.

  Haunt and Vila were trying to say something to me. Their voices were lullabies to my fading mind. Vila began casting more spells on the children. Who knows what they went through? They should be with adults…I guess we’re all making the best of what we have.

  One last push. A leaf wrapped around Haunt, another with Vila.

  It was my limit. I lost consciousness as the first energy from her spell flowed.