"Curtis, I am starting to get worried" said Stella as she paced around her office, while Curtis sat calmly on a chair.
"The girls have been gone for a while now, and they still have not returned yet" she said.
"I told you that it is too dangerous for them to go out there alone, anything can happen to them" said Stella
"Stella relax, they are perfectly fine, Annie has not contacted me yet" said Curtis as he looked at Stella, who he thought was worrying for no reason.
"It either means that they handled it and they are on their way, or they are in trouble, and I doubt that it's the latter" said Curtis
"Curtis you are being to far calm for my liking, your her guardian you are even supposed to be more panicked than I am" said Stella
"Stella you seen to underestimate them" said Curtis
"What do you mean?" asked Stella
"If you had a child what would you do?" asked Curtis
"Well I will shelter my child, and make sure that he/ she always feels loved and protected" said Stella
"It is true that love and sheltering in essential" said Curtis
"But are you sure that you want your child to be scared of every single situation, and come running to you?" asked Curtis
"No it cannot be done, you will not always be there to protect him/ her, regardless of how much you love him/ her" said Curtis.
"Love and sheltering goes hand in hand, with letting them learn from their mistakes, letting them fall so they can become stronger" said Curtis
"Letting them deal with situations on their own, and only when they call for your help, that you rush to their side as the supportive loving parent that you are" said Curtis.
Stella sat down across Curtis, the look on her face was sad, Curtis was right, Maddie and Annie could handle themselves and she was just overreacting.
Curtis had already thought of everything, who was she to come and ask him questions, when she had never had a child herself, she did not know how it felt to be a parent, it was easy for her to tell Curtis how to train Annie, when she herself had no experience.
"You are right Curtis, I am sorry" said Stella as she sighed.
"Look Stella, I understand that you only mean well, It is normal for you to worry about them, but trust me, I know what I am doing" said Curtis as he tried to console Stella.
It was no secret to him on how much she wanted to be a parent, but things just did not work out for her in that aspect. He knew how much she took Annie, and even Maddie as her own children, and her worry was understandable.
"I know Curtis, I know that you only mean well" said Stella as she smiled.
"And I trust you too" said Curtis
"If I had to suddenly leave for an important mission, there is no one else I would trust to look after Annie better than you" said Curtis as he smiled.
Stella laughed, here was Curtis who was in the body of a seventeen year old, telling her that he trusted her, it was funny, for those who didn't know what was actually going on this would have looked bizarre to them.
"Thank you Curtis, that means a lot to me" said Stella as she smiled.
"You are welcome" said Curtis as he smiled back.
"Well I think it's about time that we go search for Annie, Maddie and Matt" said Curtis
"Are you sure?" asked Stella
"Yes, they have really been gone for a while now, and it is about to get dark soon" said Curtis
"Okay then" said Stella
"You can come with me, if you want to" said Curtis
"Why not" said Stella
"Let's go" said Curtis as he stood up and walked out of Stella's office, with Stella following behind him.
...
"How much longer until we get back to the camp?" asked Annie
"We are close, just a few more minutes" said Maddie
"Ugh we better get there soon, my hand is getting tired from holding this position" said Annie as her hand was raised up in the air, so Matt would not be dragged on the ground.
"Oof that sounds horrible" said Maddie
"I would help you, but I'm still too tired from earlier" said Maddie
"Oh yes, speaking of earlier, what was that spell that you used to create the rope?? it was so cool" said Annie
"Oh that, it was a creation spell" said Maddie
"Oooh it's so cool, can you teach me how to do it?" asked Annie
"Sure I can" said Maddie
"Awesome" said Annie
"But a warning, you cannot just use it all willy nilly, it takes a lot of energy to use it, since you are literally creating an object" said Maddie
"In fact if not for the fact that I used it to create a simple rope, I would have passed out from exhaustion" said Maddie
"Oof that sounds serious" said Annie as she was now rethinking all her ideas of using that spell for some lazy things.
"Yes it is, so in reality you should treat that spell as a last resort, except you have some sort of god-like energy, then you can use it as much as you want" said Maddie
"Haha well we both know that I have none of that, so I will stick to last resort thank you" said Annie
"Haha" said Maddie as she laughed.
"Maddie don't you think that Matt should be awake by now?" asked Annie
"I also think so but he hasn't" said Maddie
"Well then we need to get Curtis to check on him" said Annie
"Look there is the gate" said Maddie as she pointed
"Ohh yes there it is" said Annie
Curtis and Stella were just about to walk out the camp gate, when to both their surprise, they saw Maddie and Annie, and Matt who was levitating and for some reason Annie looked filthy.
Stella rushed out to meet them, while Curtis remained calm and we walked towards them.
"Girls we were just about to come looking for you" said Stella
"What is wrong with Matt??" asked Stella as she saw how Matt was levitating lifelessly.
"Aunt Stella, we do not know, we just found Matt looking lost like a mindless zombie, and apparently he was enchanted, and now he's not waking up" said Maddie
"He's fine he's just sleeping" said Curtis as he touched Matt.
"Okay and Annie what happened to you?? why do you look like that?" asked Stella
"Ahh Aunt Stella, it's on word mud" said Annie
"Mud??" asked Stella
"Yes mud, I stepped in this strange mud that almost ate me, and hence why I am covered in mud" explained Annie
"Wait did you say strange mud?" asked Curtis
"Yes Curtis strange mud, as in it multiplied and behaved like it was alive" said Maddie
"Curtis do you know something about this?" asked Stella as she turned to look at Curtis.
"Let's go in first" said Curtis
"Annie you need to take a shower, and I will take Matt to his room" said Curtis
"Okay then do I drop him or??" asked Annie
"Not to worry I already have him" said Curtis as he was now levitating Matt.
"Oooh that was fast" said Annie
"Well I am going to take a shower" said Annie
"I will come with you, seeing that mud made me feel icky" said Maddie, and Annie looked at her with a "you better be joking, you were not the one in the mud" kind of look on her face.
"Gosh sheesh relax Annie, I'm just joking" said Maddie as she laughed.
"Ha, you better be" replied Annie as she walked ahead.
Stella looked at Curtis, and he gave her a "I will explain to you later" type of look.
"Let's go in" said Curtis.
"Seal the barrier" said Stella to one of the witches that was guarding the gate.
"Yes My Chancellor" said the witch as he bowed and sealed the gate as soon as Stella and Curtis walked in.