Tale Of The Half-Blood Wizard

"Usually they just take 1 or 2 coins for 1 person, simply because we are not counted," Mickey explained that quietly.

At around 10pm, the caravan owner came toward us who were at the far end of the group, he gave us one thick blanket, "Before 1am make sure you are awake," He said.

I could not comprehend what he told us. I was confused.

"Actually this route is quite dangerous, looters and robbers roam a lot at night. Although you have paid us, I cannot guarantee your safety," he pointed to the woman who was holding her baby, "I have to take care of my wife, so you must take care of yourselves," the he left us.

"I will stay up this night. We will arrive to that place tomorrow afternoon anyway," Kerberos volunteered himself.

I felt something wrong with my body. During my staying in this dimension, I did not feel sleepy even a bit. I could not sleep at all. Besides that, my food intake was less than usual.

I was just tossing and rolling in the caravan until I felt so much bored. I pepped ouside the wagon, and I saw Kerberos was running here and there with some people who were in charge that night.

…

Something made me alert, I felt hot weather was coming from far distant. Something coming closer to us, I got up to find Kerberos.

"Something is coming," I said fast, "Something is heading to us," I wondered what possessed me, I told that to Kerberos beyond my consciousness.

Suddenly Kerberos expression changed in alert. . He barked so that all people in caravans went out to meet us.

"I want 3 men to follow me!" He gave ordered. His body changed into his real figure instantly.

I went back to the caravan where Mickey and I stayed, then I prepared myself.

"What is the noise about?" Mickey was awaken by that noise.

"Someone is following us," I replied shortly. I was pretty sure of myself.

"What?!," His expression was panicked. "How can a wizard reach this place?! " He asked. At the same time he signaled to the stone birds perching on the caravan's roof to get ready. "Where are they?"

"I felt something behind us, b..." when I was about to Mickey in a bit detail, I heard rocks were falling down. Mickey commanded 3 stone birds to look for Kerberos.

The land we stood on was shaking, too. The caravan owner asked us to go inside the carriage and the horses were spurred to run faster. Several times the wagon was dragged or even rolled aside to avoid the falling rocks. I kept thinking about Kerberos, how was his condition at that moment.

A light glided over on top of the mountain slope far behind us. Not long after that Kerberos flew off from the rubbles, carrying three caravan men in his mouth, one of them was suffering from burnt.

After the rocks stopped falling, the caravan owner pulled aside the caravan to rest. Kerberos took them down. I could see that one of them was having quite serious burnt injury.

"Fire balls, but I have no idea where they were from," Kerberos answered our curiosity about who attacked us that caused someone was seriously injured.

In no time, 3 stone birds sent by Mickey flew back.

"I asked them to tear down the hillside to block the road," Kerberos looked panicked. "It looked like they have active limits," he sighed, "One of them chased me, but suddenly it was just gone. Perhaps, that one crossed over an area outside the control of its master," he explained.

"I never knew robbers used fire balls." Said the caravan owner. "They usually rob our merchandise but hardly kill the merchants," it was obvious he was confused. His eyes looked somewhere far behind us, to the road that was blocked by the falling rocks. "It seems we need to find other way. I will also tell my friends not to use this route anymore." After saying it he looked at us carefully, "Is it you that they are after?" he suspected.

"Sir, we don't have any problems. They are after us not for the goods we are having, but our life," Kerberos answer made that man's eyes wide opened in disbelief. "Someone certainly just learned the trick. Fire balls are used to kill someone," He explained.

After giving some treatment to the caravan man, we decided to continue our trip. It was just after dawn and it looked like we would be a bit late to our destination

...

"Kerberos, did you tell the truth?" I was curious.

"Miss, I lied to them," I thought so, too. "The fire balls were after us. They were from the wizard of your father. If I had told them the truth, they would not have sent us away," what Kerberos said was true, and I would not take that risk, "Haven't you smelled this since this afternoon?" Kerberos distracted my concerned. He sniffed everything in our caravan.

"What do you smell?" I was bewildered.

"I have smelled for some time, and it was pretty disturbing," Mickey replied. "I guess all the men in this group knew this, but they chose to stay mute," It was ambiguous statement.

"What are you talking about, please?" I still did not get what Mickey was trying to tell us. So did Kerberos

"Tha, where are we going? Please recall it!" instead answering my question, Mickey threw a question back.

"Barones church," I still did not know where the question led me to, while Kerberos was sniffing something.

"What is it there?' Mickey wanted to trigger me.

I was really confused, "Fire Lily," I replied shortly.

"Smart girl," Mickey mocked me, "What is that lily for? There are 2 functions, first is for Zarina so that she will give you one wish, and the second you can give it to Manji for…" he paused a second

"To give you one life," Kerberos answer still gave no clues to what kind of smell they talked about.

"Tha, in this caravan there are not 8 people including you, but there is 1 more human," after that reply, I tried to remember their number, "Have you ever seen the baby in that woman arms cried?" that question from grey tubby cat slapped my consciousnessse, the baby was calm, very calm. The face of that woman looked pale and sad. Her eye bags were black, her hair and the clothes she was wearing was so untidy, "I think they used very fine mummification techniques so that even in nearby you cannot smell it'" The explanation from that cat confirmed my gauge. "I did not really have trouble, only suspected it. The baby is too quiet

Before I brought up my mind, Kerberos jumped out of the caravan and he changed the shape. He asked me to jump on his back, leaving Mickey and the stone birds with the merchants. "The cat will come after us," he said lightly. "I know the way to go there so we will be there first and try to keep away from them," he warned me before we continued our journey.

We flew on different route from the one the merchants took, avoiding other merchants riding the caravan. We glided calmly.. Kerberos, who usually did not allow anyone ride on his back, asked me to ride on his back and took me away.