Of Magic And Monsters

2. Of Misfortune and Happenstance

Chapter Two

Of Misfortune and Happenstance

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"Five dollars says I kill him on my first shot." I aimed my knife, which I'm sure was way to rusted, at the uneven level of river water. Those little fishies were toast. Well, they would be once I learned how to start a fire.

My stomach growled, egging me on. I aimed my knife, ready to throw that thing with the grace of the gods, but a noise startled me to jump. Momentum, that blessed physical variable, causes my entire body to slam into the cold water. Charles, a silver coyote, helped me out with his teeth. I narrowed my eyes at the bush.

Charles did the same. He thinks he got his paranoia from me. I beg to differ. Before he can complain about said problem, I snap my fingers, causing the two of us to disappear from the world.

The invisibility trick I mastered worked wonders when we were trying to remain hidden, which was often. It did, however, drain my physical energy and rendered me useless after overusing.

Trotting out of the bushes was a deer. I scoffed at our overreaction.

"Boo!" I screeched, causing the deer to trample about, trip over itself a few times, and dash back into the forest.

I could never envy a deer. They were too fragile. The ultimate prey, as I called them. They shit out fear after a big meal, then they became the big meal.

Charles trotted beside me. We walked alongside the river in hopes of finding some source of living space. The craving for a nice juicy burger increased my crankiness. Hanger is a thing, and it is dangerous.

"We'll make it big someday, Charles," I rambled with my head in the clouds and my arms spread wide. "I can see it now; CC an Charles, the Great Magicians take on the world." I sighed heavily, running my fingers through his fur. "That's how it is, buddy. You and me against the world."

Of course, that was my dream. To one day make it big, revelling in the money. Having too much that I can't even keep track of. Even so, there was one thing that I needed to do before I settled. One thing I had been preparing myself to do for years.

I spared a quick glance at Charles. He was the only one who knew about my plan. Call it suicide, but it was the only way to come at peace with what happened.

At first, I was okay with killing that werewolf. As it turned out, it wasn't just a random kill. The werewolf that had attacked us was an assassin. For some reason, somebody wanted my friends, or more specifically, Rory, dead. I wanted to find out why that was.

I knew of one wolf who probably knew all of my answers. Was I ready to face him? If I could ask Marie Curie, she'd say hell no. First of all, he thought I died alongside Rory and Kim. That little tidbit needed to stay a fact.

After hours of walking through the forest and complaining about hunger, we saw it. Through a break in the forest, I saw the sweet sight of industrialized pavement. Excitingly, I sprinted for the end and burst out of the forest, inevitably tripping and falling into a ditch.

"Where the hell did this come from?" I hollered to nobody in particular. Grumbling curse words that would make a trucker blush, I pulled myself out of the ditch to face a convenient store on the other side of the road.

I narrowed my eyes at the sight. It was an isolated place. A single slab of road went long and far both ways. Beyond the convenient store was nothing but freshly cut grass and, eventually, what looked like an ocean.