[France, somewhere in the countryside, 2020]

With a grunt, Joan triumphantly manages to yank out the rather stubborn weed from the dirt and catches herself from toppling backwards into the pile of weeds she had been uprooting from her garden.

"Now, to burn these things." She mutters as she gets up, hastily wiping her gloved hands off on the front of her jeans and carefully scoops up the weeds up in her arms and briskly steps out of the garden. She hears a happy moo and glances over her shoulder to see her new calf running towards her at full speed right towards her garden.

"Daisy don't you even think of trampling my potatoes!" Joan scolds as the calf immediately stops in her tracks just feet away from the garden. "Go around! Khalil make sure she goes around!"

The large grey and black draft horse that was grazing nearby lifts his head at the sound of his name and snorts, bits of grass falling from his mouth before neighing loudly for the calf to follow him to the other side of the garden before approaching Joan. The little white and brown calf gives a soft moo and gently butts the spellcaster's side with her head before trying to snag one of the weeds from the bundle.

"Oh no you don't! No weeds for you yet missy!" Joan scolds as she holds the bundle high over her head. "You are still in the nursing stage, go nurse from Lavender if you are hungry."

Daisy gave an upset noise and stamped her little hoof in annoyance, earning a snort from Khalil. "Seems like she is trying to throw a fit." He comments as the calf tries chewing on Joan's sweater. "I forget, do calves go through teething?"

"Of course they do! Daisy isn't old enough to start it yet!" Joan groans as she pulls the sweater out of the calf's mouth and grabs her bridle. "Okay fine, I'll feed you. Just let me burn this first."

As she was walking, Joan suddenly gasped and dropped her weeds, dropping to the ground and grabbed at her chest. This void feeling in her chest...

"Joan! Joan what's happened?!" Khalil asks frantically, rushing over to the fallen woman as she was grasping at her chest and struggling to breathe. "Joan!"

"D-douxie...Efla..." Joan manages to gasp before weakly trying to sit up. She feels a warm snout touch her ear before feeling Daisy's warm tongue licking her face. "It's okay...I'm fine..."

"Did something happen to them?" Khalil asks in alarm as he lowers his head for Joan to grab so he could pull her to her feet. "This...was this like earlier when you felt a void feeling in your chest?"

"I need...contact...get me to...water..."

"No, you need rest. We can contact them later." Khalil scolds as he kneels. "Climb on, I'll take you to rest in the barn."

"No, I need to contact them, something is wrong!" Joan protests as she tries letting go, but immediately grabs back on when she nearly falls backwards. The void feeling in his chest was fading away, but the sense of dread in her heart wasn't. "Take me to the barn, but let me contact Efla at least."

"Fine." Khalil mutters as she climbs onto his back and carefully stands. Daisy gives a concerned moo as she follows them towards the barn, avoiding the small flock of chickens that were pecking at the ground and some of the goats that started to follow.

Once inside the barn, Joan slides off Khalil, landing right in the hay pile before slowly walking towards a large barrel painted with various runes that was filled with water. She places the tips of her fingers on the surface of the water, softly murmuring and humming an incantation all too familiar to her and thinking of Efla. Mischievous grin, that annoying but endearing chuckle, everything about them that came to mind. The surface of the water glowed a soft purple color before a dark face with glowing eyes appeared in the reflection.

"Fef, where's Efla?" Joan asks her sibling's familiar. "I need to check up on them."

"Napping!" The large wolfhound yips happily as he pulls away from the reflection and comes back with a large toy in his mouth. "Come play? Please?"

"Not today, I need to speak with Efla. Like right now."

"I'll go grab them!"

Joan drops to her knees and leans against the barrel with a sigh. Okay so far Efla seemed okay, if they were hurt Fefnir would have been panicking and upset when he answered her. She'll have to contact Douxie after this to make sure he was alright.

"Joan? Where are you?" She hears a familiar voice ask but she was too tired to stand up and look into the water.

"Right here Ef, right here." She says as she lifts her arm up and waves her hand over her head so it could be seen over the barrel. "Hey did you feel off earlier? Like...something was pulled out of your chest?"

"Yeah, did you?"

"I did. Earlier this week I felt it, but this time it felt like my lungs and heart were ripped out of me all of a sudden. You think master Merlin and Douxie are okay?"

"Joan, Merlin is dead."

"WHAT?!" Joan is suddenly on her feet and practically plunging her face into the water. She could breathe just fine, this just allowed her to see Efla better. Right now her sibling seemed to be standing in some sort of kitchen that looked abandoned, Fefnir off to the side chewing on a large rubber chicken toy ignoring them while Efla stood in front of her, looking a bit tired and disheveled as she felt now. "Who told you he died?"

Efla bit their lip and looked away, not wanting to meet her eyes. "I don't know, but right now I think Douxie is in some sort of trouble. I'm going to go find him."

"I'm coming too, he's my little brother as well." Joan insists. "I'll just -"

"Joan, it's fine, I'll do this. Just keep an eye on your animals."

"Keep an eye on my animals, for ancient's sake Efla I'm not going to stay home and watch over my goats while Douxie is in trouble and you possibly get hurt! We promised we'd stick together if anything bad happened and to help each other out!"

"Well I insist on investigating this alone, you look like shit right now and I doubt you can even walk let alone run in your current state!" Efla let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of their nose. "Okay that came out harsher than expected, but you are in no shape right now to be chasing after Douxie. I'll go looking for him and update you whenever I can, okay?"

"You look like shit as well." Joan remarks with a roll of her eyes, earning a laugh from her sibling. "Fine, but update me every hour or two and contact me as soon as possible if you find him. If you do, bring him and Archie here, we are going to have a good long chat."

"Good, get your rest baby sister, you need it." Efla states and gives her a mischievous smile. "And I mean it."

"Big sister, you loon." Joan grumbles.

"Hey I'm technically older than you and Douxie by a few hundred years, so I'm actually the older one."

"I'm very tempted to strangle you right now."

"You can try, but you can't."

"I'm ending this call now." Joan mutters as she yanks her head out of the water, Efla's grinning face still on the surface. "Just contact me when you find out more of what happened to Douxie and Merlin."

"Gotcha! Bye!" And with that, their reflection disappeared from the water, leaving it empty.

"I forgot how exhausting either of my siblings could be." Joan groaned as she sat back down on the floor again and rubbed her temples. "Especially Efla, then again both of them are like walking headaches half or most of the time."

"Can't relate, I don't even have siblings." Khalil snorts before looking at her in concern. "So Merlin is dead, something is up with Douxie, what does this mean?"

"I don't know, but I'm gonna try contacting him later. I need a nap." The wizard sighs before flopping on her side. "Wake me up when Efla tries messaging me back, and make sure the cows don't knock over the fence again to run rampant in my flowers."