-Callen-

  I can’t help but berate my sister in my mind. I get that flying is fun, but what in the name of common sense possessed her to go out on distant joyrides skirting dangerous regions! My indignant anger at her nonsensical decision aside, I didn’t hesitate at all breaking into the gate guardhouse. Up the stairs I went, ignoring the surprise calls of the soldiers below. Bursting into the on-duty knight's office only to find it empty.

  “Callen! What are you doing? You can’t just break. . . .” The soldier chasing me broke off his rant as I wheeled around to face him. My expression must have conveyed just how urgent I felt the situation was.

  “Where’s Dad? I need him!” The man pauses at my demand but quickly replies.

  “Sir Marek is on a patrol; he should be south of the river checking the road to Woodside.” Woodside was the closest town to ours and one of the few locations willing to venture into the forest and visit us. Since we have a contingent of knights posted in our village, it wasn’t uncommon for us to send teams along the road to make the journey easier. However, that meant Dad was gone for the next two or three days.

  At this point I forced my way past the guard and headed to the hangar I had at home. Dad wouldn’t be back in time, so I prepped the previous generation of glider to make it out there. I had more mana than Callia, so I could move faster, but even then, I don’t think I’ll make it before it gets dark out. As I set up for takeoff, Reesia strapped herself into the seat beside me.

  “It’s Callia, isn’t it? I’m going.” With her firm declaration, I simply nod. My multi-person gliders were still prototypes, but I still had my personal glider in the void, and I could use it to make short hops on the route back. I fed my mana into the glider, and the turbine started pulling us off the ground.

  I reached out to Callia to check her status and was passed back images of her ‘shelter,’ though I suppose stealth was a more solid defense than anything else in the short term. I have her pass over her flight path to me so I can follow it to her. I pushed the glider and briefed Reesia as we drifted across the terrain.

  As we got closer, I lowered our height to make us less visible from the Fallen Woods. I begin to reach out to Callia so she can signal us but immediately am flooded with a jumble of memories. The most important of which was her reaching her limit and falling unconscious. It's then that over the rush of winds I hear the pained roar of a bear.

  I push the glider to its limit and activate the crash shield, blasting our way through the foliage into the woods below. Just ahead I see a bear thrashing about, blinded in one eye by an arrow and another sticking to its eyelid.

  “Brace!” I warned Reesia as I drove my glider like a battering ram into the unprepared bear. The shield hit its limit, and I heard the snapping of wood as we made impact with the bear. I jumped back to assess the situation, but Reesia pushed her position and clung onto the bear's neck, trying to ride it with her sword in hand.

  Ironically, despite having someone clinging to its back stabbing it, I was the one the bear noticed first. With a bellow, it charged forward, intent on mauling me. I’m all in pushing Mana Boost to the limit trying to duck behind the tree I am next to. My dive is barely fast enough, but not for long, as the bear wheels around to continue rushing me.

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  From the bear's back, Reesia has forcefully climbed onto its head, and I saw a glimmer of light flashing as she drove the blade into its remaining eye. I almost cheer, but the bear isn’t out of the fight yet. It violently shakes her from its head before launching itself barreling toward me yet again.

  This time, however, I have time to act, and while the bear flung Reesia from its head, I brought forth my Runic Mana Projection and condensed an orb of supercharged energy in front of me. I waited a moment for the orb to accumulate, and right before the bear trampled me, I released the energy, guiding it at the bear.

  A thunderous crack flung me backward, and the flash of light blinded me, and I struggled back to my feet. Spots danced in my vision, and my ears were ringing, but I stumbled forward just a bit before spotting the smoldering blade embedded in the bear's eye. The beast itself had been knocked back from the eruption that had struck it. The burn marks were concentrated on the eye that had been pierced by Reesia's sword. It had clearly conducted the lightning into the bear, wreaking all kinds of havoc inside the monster.

  The bear wasn’t important; instead, I stumbled over to the last place Callia had shared with me. In the uprooted tree I found the random tree bark-colored cloth, and pulling it aside, I saw Callia. She was ok; we weren't late. I pulled her onto my back and shifted over to look for Reesia.

  Reesia was still alive, just in a daze from being slapped off the bear. I reached down to help her up while assessing her condition. Broken bones, lots of bruising, but not in critical condition. Callia was similarly bruised but only had fractures in her shins. As for myself, ruptured eardrums are likely some level of eye damage, but I seem to have gotten off the luckiest. I don’t have much mana left, but Reesia has enough for me to treat her injuries.

  I look back over the wreckage of our fight, hardly believing we are still alive, but the Glider was absolutely trashed. There was nothing to recover there, and now it wasn’t just Callia stranded but the three of us. Well, I store our spoils in my space and brace myself against a tree. Climbing had always been more Sis’s thing, but I was good enough to struggle upward, and reaching the first branch, I flopped Callia down and achingly crawled back down the tree to try and lug Reesia up as well since she couldn’t climb, especially not in her condition.

  As we rest against the tree, a thought hits me. I just shot a bear with a lightning bolt! A hysteric giggle escapes my mouth as a sense of absurdity settles. If I can, I'll definitely find a way to preserve the head to show off when I’m older. After all, this was the first monster I had ever slain on foot, even with a generous helping of luck and support. Reesia volunteered to keep watch while I went limp against the tree, leaving tomorrow's problems for tomorrow.

  Mayor problems

  Mayor Hew had long made it clear any news involving the town's rising champions was to be reported to him promptly. When word reached him that not just Callia had gone missing but that Callen and Reesia had flown off towards the northwest in a rush, Mayor Hew knew that there was a serious problem. However, it was already too late to send a team in pursuit as support, but the later it got, the more his concern grew.

  When the sun set, Hew was already regretting his hesitation to send the patrol, but sending a team in the dark of night was almost certainly a suicide mission. Especially because nobody knew how far they had gone. The flying devices Callen had taken to popularizing were fast and, if reports were right, held significant range capabilities over travel by foot. Nervously he wiped the sweat from his head and waited for any news from the watchman, who had been alerted to pass on news of any sightings of the flying device.

  Morning broke, and Mayor Hew began to organize a team for search and rescue but was interrupted by a team of representatives from the new Baron. The men were only mere soldiers but were far from respectful, and the note they bore was even more outrageous.

  ‘The Baron Eldraine demands the surrender of Sir Marek and his family. They have offended the Baron, and will submit to his judgement, or consequences will follow.’

  Mayor Hew tried to wrap his head around the pretentiousness of this order. Port Town and all who served were technically under royal authority. While the Baron held significance over the nearby towns, he did not have the authority to strip the Port Town of one of its mandated knights, and even if the Baron had permission, he would need to replace the knight.

  Mayor Hew didn’t even bother seeing the men out, having the town guard toss them out the gates. There would undoubtedly be trouble later, but he was busy; his future son-in-law was missing, and this grandpa didn’t plan on letting Crescent’s heart break.