CHAPTER Five

Mallow's screams ripped me from a deep sleep. Everything around me was dark. The sunlight fighting through the canvas ceiling was only enough to hint at the edges of my environment. The blanket's weight, which the previous night was comforting, was now confining. I muscled my way free of the prison of pelts. My hands hit the curtain, billowing fabric giving way. Light flooded into the carriage. I was blinded. I jutted my head out.

The set-up she had made last night had been dismantled. The blanket was rolled up and tied. The tent cloth folded likewise and set on the ground next to it. The three poles hadn't moved from their hiding spots in the mud.

I heard Mallow shriek again. I spotted her hopping around on one foot nearby, swearing.

"Frigid misery!" She clenched her heel and scowled at the ground in irritation.

"What's wrong, Mallow?"

"I need shoes!" she yelled back at me, swinging. She scanned the ground suspiciously.

"What?" It was too early for nonsense. "Mallow, why are you screaming?"

"Because." She lowered the foot she had been clutching to the ground cautiously. "I need shoes."

I rubbed my eyes, flicking away the sleepy debris.

"I stepped on a bug," she hissed.

"I'm sure the bug came out worse from the conflict," I said, consoling her. "How badly could it have hurt you?"

She hobbled over to the carriage and lifted her leg. The heavy foot landed next to me. There was a puncture on the bottom of the padding. Blood dribbled out, the silvery substance mingling with the dirt caked there and forming a foamy brown.

"Yeah, if it'd been a spider or a worm or something..." She huffed. "It was a Kobeetle, though."

"Where is it now?" I glanced to the left and the right, my neck hurting with the quickness I had snapped it from side to side.

"I killed it. It couldn't handle my weight..." Mallow pointed, and I followed her finger. Amid a clump of grass, shimmering in the sunlight, was the ruined carcass of a Kobeetle. Its notched legs splayed out in a halo around it. "Still, if I would have had shoes..."

Kobeetles were nasty little bugs. Mallow's thick soles could handle pretty much anything. She'd been walking barefoot everywhere for years since she could no longer fit in the carriage. The magical Kobeetles were just smart enough to pick up debris on their shells, like broken tips of spears, shattered glass, or even toxic spores. If you stepped on one, not only would you be guaranteed to suffer, but the little critters released a sound that sounded like laughter to alert the others to swarm.

Even though I hadn't heard laughter, I clambered out of the carriage and began to get Flatchert and Gourd together. They were grazing in a meadow within my sight line, so I had to shout for them before they trotted over. Mallow, usually useful, leaned against a tree. She kept her hurt foot cocked up at the heel, so the wound didn't touch the ground. Waves of dissatisfaction emanated from her, but with the risk of the Kobeetles swarming, I didn't have time to humor her.

"Mallow, come help me," I demanded. Mallow scooped up her remaining poles and attached them to the side of the carriage. Limping, she shook out her improvised canopy. She beat the blanket she'd ruined in the mud against one of the trees.

"Why couldn't the stupid thing run under my foot last night?" she mumbled. "It would have been healed by now."

I wanted to stop and wrap Mallow's foot, but the sound of dozens of tiny, high pitched wheezing voices convinced me we had to get going. I urged the drowsy horses onwards, and we left our sad, little campsite behind.

On the road I could outpace the Kobeetles or anything else that might prove to be a threat. Mallow, still sore, was slower than usual beside me. She wasn't ranting in complaint every few seconds, but instead simmered like a pot above a fire. She didn't act hungry and her hair was a somewhat-brushed sheet of yellow-white behind her in the breeze. She had woken up in a good mood. She had been going about her morning routine before the encounter with the bug. It had plunged that mood into sullen territory.

"I wonder why the sorcerers made Kobeetles in the first place," I said aloud, knowing any other subject would be moot with the pain still fresh stinging in her body.

"Because sorcerers are frigid icicles, why else?" Mallow swore. "All the magical creatures are stupid. Kobeetles, or those wintery shadow slinks who are always marking me with their scent when I'm trying to sleep in town," Mallow swung and punched the air. "Augh, if I could just catch it in action, just once, I'd hit it so hard its tail would fall off."

"Ah, Mallow, shadow slinks don't know what they're doing. They're just cats that are usually invisible. It's not their fault that they keep musking you....or peeing on you. I'm still not clear what's happening there."

"Don't worry dad. I wouldn't kill it out of hate. I'd kill it in one hit; clean, instant, no pain," She said this, but her words dripped with malice.

"That still sounds pretty harsh of a penalty for following their natural instincts," I said, not overly fond of the idea of my Mallow beating up helpless stray animals.

"It's not a punishment. I'd... I'd have a pair of mittens made out of the pelt. See? No malice. All for a purpose. Professional, even."

"The mitten story might hold up, except I'd never be able to find them, since shadow slinks are invisible unless in direct light."

"They'd be like any other pair of mittens you've ever owned," Mallow said, and humor colored her tone. We'd spent many unwarm seasons together. She'd often laughed at how susceptible to the elements I was, and yet how poorly I kept track of my warming accessories. Despite her smile, I was still unnerved by her random hatred toward the shadow slinks. She was usually just annoyed by them.

"The logic is sound after all." I rubbed my chin. "Still, I bet the logic for making the shadow slinks in the first place went something like that. 'You know I love not having mice, but I hate seeing a cat glowering at me all the time. Oh, I know, let's make it invisible. What could go wrong?" I tried to bring her to her senses without attacking her immediate judgement.

"Cats or no, I hate them. I hate all the magical creatures." Mallow crossed her arms over her chest. "Just versions of something we already have with useless powers."

I didn't say anything. It might have been easy to point out that Moon Giants were magical creatures as well, since their components were used in underground potions and enchantments, but it wouldn't improve her mood. Besides, being compared to a Kobeetle would make her angrier. Something else was bothering her. More than just hurting her foot or getting peed on by stray animals.

Time slipped by like a river current, different, passing, but hard to measure. I had moved into a state between attentiveness and mental wandering when Mallow's voice broke the silence.

"In the next town..." Mallow began, glancing down at me even though I was seated high in the carriage and she was walking. "I want shoes."

Snapped back to the present, I determined by the sun's progress across the sky it had been two hours since we'd talked.

"Well, we have more than enough coin," I said. She pouted at her toes, her gait still off-balance. I considered the one actual potion we did have, a healing salve for battlefield wounds. I could give her foot a dab of that and she'd be all better. But... she'd heal naturally anyway, not worth wasting the coin.

"Yeah, enough money, but never enough time," She emphasized, throwing her arms out in front of her. "We need more time in the next town, Dad."

"You mean because you need them custom made?" I asked. I leaned over the carriage and glanced behind us at the long, empty road. Then I scanned the horizon ahead of us. We weren't in trouble now. "You know, I could always wrap your feet in bandages... here, stop and I'll do that right now..." I motioned to halt the horses.

Mallow sighed, as if she was being ignored. She sat down in the grass off to the side of the trail, I dismounted from the carriage. After digging out our healing kit, I cleaned the wound with booze, slathered it with a medicinal salve I'd mixed earlier that month, and then wrapped it up. I was an expert at bandages after so many years of helping her dress. She didn't wince now, the initial shock of the pain being over.

"But... shoes are... sort of civilized, aren't they?" she asked, leering down at my own boots. I'd gotten this particular pair about two years ago from an Avalon's estate sale in Ekonaor. I'd picked up a good number of empty bottles, many of which had previously contained perfume. The boots were my favorite find from the sale. They screamed 'flashy', which is what I needed when I was pitching my wares to the unsuspecting townsfolk.

"I suppose..." I said.

"Like... yours do more than just protect your feet," she said. Oh no, not this conversation again. "All those buckles, and the red leather accents... and they're longer than they need to be."

"They only come up to my knees to keep the mud out, Mallow," I replied. I clipped the bandage into place and then pressed on it to make sure it wouldn't slip.

"They're not for walking in mud. Otherwise they wouldn't have those gold accents on the clasps," she said. Well, that's true. I always had Mallow carry me through the mud. Still...

"What do you mean, more time?" I asked. "I'm sure if you ordered before we sold the potions, we could pick the shoes up on the last day before the potions were supposed to be take effect."

"I want... to order AND pick them up... before we tell anyone why we're there," Mallow said.

I balked.

"Mallow! You know that could be half a month." I protested.

"And you just said we have more than enough coin," she retorted. She stood up, towering above me in her sun-dried clothes, the dirt falling off in dry flakes like a dry snow. "What, you can't wait more than two weeks to rip someone off?"

"Time is coin, Mallow," I argued. Mallow shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Coin isn't everything. Couldn't you... couldn't you... just wait... for me? For my sake?" she asked. I got up myself, though the action was much less intimidating, and regarded my Moon Giant. I tried to think of a way out of this that would make us both happy. I searched my mind for a way to convince her my strategy was her strategy, but with her losing this argument so many times before, I realized that all my diversionary tactics had been run through long ago.

Finally, I conceded that this one would have to be written up as a loss.

"Fine," I consented, crossing my arms over my chest, mirroring her. "But it has to be a bigger town, okay? None of these tiny burgs."

"Well of course," Mallow said. "I want a good pair of shoes. Something pretty. Made by an expert."

"I thought they were going to protect your feet," I protested.

"They'll do both. Pretty and powerful, like me, right?"

I rolled my eyes and heaved myself back onto the carriage's bench.

"Right," I said.

Mallow's broad mouth screwed up in a frown and her eyes scrunched.

"What? What is it?" I asked her, but then realized I hadn't needed to. Seeing her awkward step from side to side told me all I needed to about what was wrong.

"I need to go. Wait here for a second." Without waiting for my permission, she walked off into the woods.

I peered back toward the road and took this chance to pull out my map. I searched it for the upcoming cities. Maybe we could order Mallow's boots in one city, then hop to a neighboring city to sell our things, and have the boots delivered to a city still after that, keeping one step ahead of the customers the entire time. Or we could go back to the city we ordered from and then sell potions after picking up the boots, then move onto the third city with two cities profit jingling in our coin purses...

It was perfectly natural to hear hooves on the road, the metal hitting dirt thudding with the musical jingling of the saddle. The rider's clothing, even voices, more than one, talking to one another, wasn't anything that alarmed me; I was deep into investigating the map. It was when the hooves grew close and then stopped, that I realized I had made a mistake.

I lowered the map. But by then it was already too late. The horse had come far behind the men that I had assumed were riding them. Now they were on the ground around the carriage, swords drawn.

This wasn't an ambush or planned; couldn't have been. These men were going along their way, saw an unarmed, unaware old fool like me, and decided my boots were flashy enough to be worth robbing. They didn't even bother with masks. Their bland and unremarkable features were weathered by the sun and wind beneath the wide brims of their hats.

"Hello gentlemen," I said as I folded the map and tucked it into my sash. I willed myself not to be angry at Mallow for leaving. This never happened when she was around.

"Morning," one of the men said, lowering the sword he had pointed at my midsection. "Beautiful sash there, not much deep red dye like that around here."

The one on his right raised his blade. The lead bandit, as far as I could tell, took off his hat and bowed. "We're here to take everything you own, and..." He paused and sneered over his shoulder. "What do you think, boys? Should we stick him up a tree or shred him to ribbons?"

"I hear it's very in vogue for bandits to let their victims escape unscathed this season," I suggested, with a knowing smile to the lead bandit. He laughed, and the others in the group did too. Good, so they were playful. Playful could either mean a lot of agony or a lot of bought time.

"Oh yeah?" the lead bandit asked. "But wouldn't that mean you'd go tell people about us?"

"Oh yes." I nodded emphatically. "I would. I'm a salesman, you know."

"Really?" the lead bandit asked, rolling his shoulders.

"I'd spread the reputation of the most handsome bandit in all the land. You'll become such a legend that you needn't even journey far. People will come across you and throw gold at your feet."

"Uh, sure. But you ain't throwing no gold," the lead bandit said, his eyebrow quirking in suspicion.

"That is because you are mere man and not yet legend."

"Uh-huh..." I could tell by the disinterest that overcame his eyes that I'd gotten too clever and lost him. I swallowed, and like I knew he would, he lifted his sword again.

"I think I'm fine being a mere man," he said. He lunged forward, and his men swarmed toward my seat. I rolled backward, moving away from the attack. Now I was inside the carriage. I knew I had about ten seconds before they either stabbed through the fabric or fifteen before they came through the flap on the back. I wished they would chose the flap, otherwise I was cursed before my plan even got started.

Without seeing what I grabbed, I snatched a handful of potions from the boxed-in shelf I had them in. I moved again, throwing open the back flap.

A saber tip quivered near my nose.

"Stop!" I screamed. I received a slice across the shirt for my insolence, but I held myself steady besides a hiss of pain. The tip only cut my skin, and I was used to being somewhat roughed up. "If this drops, we all die!"

The sword hesitated, and the bandit holding it pulled back his hand a little. He studied me through his good eye, the other clouded by cataracts. I noticed the old lines in his face.

"Whaddya mean?" he asked. The others formed a semicircle around him and eyed the crystalline bottle in my hand. I glanced up to see which potion I had decided to gamble on. Ah, a good one. A dangerous looking one. It was an unnatural brilliant green. In it swirled odd sparkling fragments.

"This is..." I thought for a split second. I usually pretended my elixirs were of the fortune and well-being variety, not the kill-you-dead kind. Still, how hard could it be? "The Innocuous Toxin! When it touches air it becomes a deadly cloud of poisoning mist that will cause your heart to seize in your chest and your eyes to shrivel in their sockets!"

Three of the bandits in the back defected, running away.

"You didn't say he was a Potioneer!" one of them wailed.

"This is suicide," another added. They were soon little more than blurry shapes on the road, shrinking beneath the summer sun. Their boss swore at them, but he could not break from attending to me. Now there were only four of the bandits left. If I had been a man with less practice, I would have burst into uncontrollable laughter. However, my skills being formidable, I managed to contain myself. I cleared my throat.

"They were wise," I began in a grave voice. "They know the value of their lives." Oh, a rhyme! That helped me sound like I spent time around sorcerers. Maybe it'd be enough to convince him...

"So why don't we kill you and take the potion with everything else?" the bandit asked. I pretended to drop the bottle. Three of the men recoiled, shielding their faces. I held the potion steady, rising back to my full height afterward and tilting my head back as I regarded the leader.

"Do you trust your reflexes to catch it before it drops? Before you die?" I asked. The bandit leader jerked his head toward a skinny member of his team, who stepped forward, trembling.

"I can kill you, and he can catch," the lead bandit said. My left leg shook inside of my boot. I only had a few seconds. Was he serious? Was this a bluff? The bandit slammed his fingers onto the back of the carriage to hoist himself up. He thrust his sword forward with the momentum. I could smell the days old sweat as he moved through the air toward me. He would skewer me if I tried to run. He was faster than me.

I twisted my body and slammed the bottle into the side of his head. The fluid in it, while not magical, was noxious. He sputtered as the alcohol mixture stung his eyes. He fell back. Two of his men caught him, including Skinny who had been assigned to catch the potion. I ran back through the carriage. I heard the last one following me. The bandit shouted after me to wait so he could kill me cleanly.

I struggled for my feet not to get caught on the furs in the bed of the wagon as I moved through the small cloth tunnel. I stepped onto the bench, the sunlight hitting and exposing me. The carriage shook beneath my feet as the bandit who had followed tripped over the blankets inside and went crashing against one of the walls. Shattered glass tinkled amid the writhing blanket sounds.

I leaped down, hitting the dirt.

I hesitated for a second, thinking of cutting the horses loose. I kept running. These men were bandits, not barbarians; it was unlikely they'd decide to kill valuable steeds. I heard their footsteps behind me as they came around the carriage.

A quick glance over my shoulder confirmed there were only three of them. I felt a second of smug satisfaction at how badly I'd messed up their leader. You didn't need magic to make a guy bleed from his face, just some luck and an object that shattered into hundreds of painful little pieces.

A few of the fragments that had flown off were embedded in my hand, but I resisted tending to my own stinging skin as I ran. Now at a safe distance, and knowing the bandits were gaining on me each second, I opened my mouth and screamed.

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAHLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"

"Dad?" Her burly voice shouted back. The men behind me slowed a step or two to look toward the sound of her voice. One of them chuckled.

"Bad move. Now we'll take your girl and your carriage!" one of the bandits taunted. It was Skinny, not trembling now that the Innocuous Toxin was proven bogus. I heard the trees tops shuffling. I spotted Mallow emerging from them before the bandits did and stopped cold. It was cocky. It was reckless. But totally worth it to see their faces. Eyes went from narrowed arrogance to rounded shock. Hands dropped weapons to rise up and clutch at bottom jaws, covering mouths speckled with golden teeth.

"Oh." I smirked. "I'd love to see you try."

Then they screamed. Mallow swung into view as her long legs crossed the road. One hand swung down and grabbed Skinny. Now, Mallow was not so much bigger that she could lift a man in her hand and eat him whole. But... she was big enough to be terrifying. Her powerful arms curled, the natural muscles bulging, as she threw him into a treetop several yards away.

He landed with a flutter of leaves and a scream. The other man tried to run, his legs becoming twisted beneath him as he tripped into the dusty road. A cloud formed around him with the impact.

Mallow stepped up to him and kicked. The uninjured foot slammed into his soft stomach. He went flying the same direction as his friend, his bandanna fluttering like a proud flag in the wind. He even landed in the same tree and I heard double screams as they collided.

"Pretty impressive, huh?" She grinned at me. "Too bad there's not a job like that. Kick stuff at other stuff."

"Yeah—" I peeked sidelong in time to see the leader of the bandits approaching. He pulled a knife from his belt and then stopped. I smirked at him, since he was too far to stab me and wouldn't dare get closer with Mallow here.

He let the knife fly with a quick throw. I jerked to the right, but too slowly. The knife cut across my shoulder. I cried out and fell to one knee.

"Dad!" Mallow shouted. The knife landed in the dirt. She ignored it, grabbing me off of the ground.

"Mallow, careful!" I said. "He's still attacking!"

Her arms were full. The fearless man staggered forward, the blood from where I hit him still dribbling down his face, one eye closed. I hoped he would never be able to use it again, the frigid icicle. He threw a second knife. It lodged itself into Mallow's thigh, and she flinched.

"Mallow, put me down," I said.

"Then he might hurt you." She took a step forward. I saw her face scrunch in agony as the muscles moved around the blade embedded in her.

"Mallow, please!" I said.

"Listen to him, lost Giant," the bandit taunted. His voice was tight and strained. The whites of his eyes were huge with fear, and they bulged as he forced himself not to retreat. "Those might be his last words, after all, and you'd like to honor them, wouldn't you?"

Mallow set me down. I thought she had submitted to the bandit's request. She lunged forward and swinging one of her colossal arms, knocked the bandit back on the road.

I heard a sound. Cloth smacking against itself. Glancing up, I saw a white banner peaking above a hill down the road, the silver thread glinting in the sunlight. It was an Avalon patrol, sent out to stop bandit incidents like the one we were currently embroiled in. They were coming this way, but not knowing of the battle, too slowly. I needed them here now! I could get help, get us healed, put these men away without us having to kill them. I hurried over to the horses and undid Flatchert.

"Mallow, I'm going for help!" I'd stay and finish the fight, but what good could I do? Mallow said nothing. I heard that all too familiar growl rumbling beneath her chest. The man was shouting something from his position on the road. She stalked toward the man, her injured leg half dragging in the dirt. The man, his own bones injured, struggled to pull himself back. I threw myself atop Flatchert, saddleless and slippery. I had no time to equip her. With a swift kick, and trying to ignore Mallow's increasing growls and the man's terrified, defiant shrieks, I rode toward the flag.

(( A/N: Enjoying the story? Can't wait for the next part? Consider purchasing the paperback edition at my CreateSpace website: https://www.createspace.com/5621397 or in ebook format here: //amzn.com/B01FSPZK42

Next week the next chapter will be serialized. Also, we broke 400 total views on the tale today! I'm so happy! I hope those people checking it out are finding Azark, Mallow, and the rest to their liking. Also, thank you so much for all of the lovely comments. Even the critical ones have been very thoughtful and fair, and I really appreciate the high quality feedback I've been receiving. ))