Mikaya thought about what James had said. "Did you think we had something to do with what happened to the Harvest Lands," she asked.
"No. . . . Did you?" James responded.
"Of course not. We were there investigating the rumors, too."
Lina and James glanced at each other conspiratorially for a second, but Mikaya missed it. The fact was that they had not gone to investigate the rumors at all.
When James had regained consciousness in the inn, Lina had been staring worriedly at him.
"What happened?" she'd asked as he sat up grasping his aching head.
"They cold-cocked me," James replied through gritted teeth.
"Who?"
"One of those weirdos that fought against the gargoyles."
"What?"
It had taken several more minutes for James to explain what had happened, then he'd abruptly remembered what they'd been there for. "Where's the boy? Did he leave with them?"
Lina nodded. "Yes. I heard the one in green say they should go to the Harvest Lands. Some madwoman came running through town shouting that they disappeared."
Lina and James had never imagined that the rumors would be true. After all, hadn't they just come from the Harvest Lands? When they'd arrived there and seen the expanse of empty swamplands, Lina had begun to shake uncontrollably, tears welling in her eyes.
"This can't be," she'd said.
James had tried to comfort her, but then he'd seen the travelers—tiny specks in the distance—leaving the swamplands. The only reason he'd been able to spot the motion so far away had been because there hadn't been anything to block his view for miles. Plus, they'd worn brightly-colored clothing that contrasted greatly with the now dull, muddy surroundings.
"Lina, it's them," he said, pointing.
Lina sniffed and composed herself with the dignity befitting one of her age and status. She had cast a quick but powerful, blood-and-kin-calling locator spell. It had reassured her that the Harvest Lands, and the other Gatis were not gone. Her family was alive somewhere, and so were the Harvest Lands.
"Then we'd better hurry after them before we lose them again," she'd replied and started her pony galloping after the travelers.
Danny returned with the firewood, entering the cave and interrupting the conversation and thought process of his three companions.
Mikaya watched quietly as he handed the firewood to James, who sat by the fire continuing to clean the pile of fish.
James accepted the bundle, placing it to the side and throwing a few pieces of wood onto the fire, which rose up and danced around wildly, eager to consume them.
"Looks like the fire's about as hungry as we are," James said, smiling as he looked toward Lina.
The Gatis smiled and kept staring into the fire, cooking her skewered fish.
Mikaya couldn't stop herself from staring at the furry creature sitting across from her on the other side of the fire. In the firelight, Lina's stunning feline features were made more visible than they had been upon their initial meeting by moonlight.
Her gray fur was marked with black stripes here and there, and her little pink nose and white whiskers twitched in irritation as the smoke rose from the fire and wafted toward her face. Lina did not have hands, but instead held the stick—on which the fish had been impaled—with her sharp claws, balancing it with the pads of her paws.
Danny sat next to Elena and looked at her.
Mikaya was on the other side of Elena, and she turned to watch the boy.
"Is she going to be alright," he asked, concerned.
"She just needs to rest and replenish her magic," Mikaya responded.
"Replenish her magic?" Danny asked, not understanding what that meant.
"Yes. She really exerted herself today," Mikaya replied.
Danny understood this as meaning that Elena had tired herself out by using magic. In his mind, the understanding he received was that using magic was the same as physically exerting oneself. If you pushed yourself past your physical limits, of course you would faint from exhaustion. Satisfied, he did not continue to ask about it.
However, his understanding was not entirely accurate. Rather than exhausting her body, using magic was the same as losing blood. When a person was sick, some doctors would bleed them to remove whatever illness might be afflicting the body. As the person lost more blood, that person would weaken and could even die if they lost too much.
Magic was like that. If the person used too much, the person could die, the same as losing too much blood. Likewise, just as blood will regenerate and eventually replenish itself if the bleeding is stopped in time, magic would also do the same.
That's why inside all magical beings, there was a built-in safety mechanism to protect them. If a point close to that threshold was reached, the person would faint first. Then, the body would immediately start to replenish the lost magic. This is what had happened to Elena.
James stood from where he'd been sitting and made his way over to Mikaya with the fish he had gutted and cleaned for her before stabbing it with a long wooden stick.
"Here you go," he said as he offered it to her.
"Thank you," Mikaya said, accepting the stick and holding the fish over the fire in front of her.
James smiled and went back to the other fish to finish preparing them for the rest of the group.
Once Danny received his fish, he also thanked James and started to cook it over the fire.
By that time, Lina had already started to eat her fish happily. She reveled in the sweet taste of its tender white flesh and crunched contently on its crispy skin.
"How is it?" James asked, smiling as he watched her enjoy her meal.
"Mmmmm," she responded, chewing merrily.
Then, a low rumbling sound arose from her body. Lina's soft purring soothed the others around her, causing the stress of their earlier encounter to slowly seep away into oblivion and speeding the recovery of their tired, battered bodies as well.
James had two fish left to fix, his own and Yevad's. Looking around, James noticed for the first time that the man had not yet returned. He had gone out earlier to relieve himself, but a lot of time had passed since then.
"Is Yevad not back yet?" James asked.
Mikaya looked at the empty blanket a few feet to her left.
"Doesn't look like it. Maybe he's having trouble with his armor?" she suggested.
Knight's armor had its advantages in battle, but it wasn't the easiest thing to put on and take off.
Elena had to help Mikaya whenever she needed to apply or remove a plate of armor, and she didn't wear the whole suit like Yevad did. Only her breastplate and shoulder guards, or pauldrons, resembled what Yevad wore. For Mikaya it was easy enough to pull down her chain-mail pants, but Yevad was encased in plates of armor that covered his legs, back, and arms as well.
Yevad would have to remove his leg armor, which hung from a belt at the waist. Then he'd have to reattach it alone.
Before Mikaya could muse on this subject any longer, the person in question stumbled through the mouth of the cave and staggered toward his blanket.
Lina, Mikaya, Danny, and James all looked in Yevad's direction because they heard the clanking of his armor as Yevad moved unsteadily forward. Suddenly, he let out a gasp and fell straight to the ground with a loud thud!