Causation

Danielle peered up at the stranger. Her ragged breath and pounding heart were the only noise she heard as he and his beast landed. The wind whipped Melorandious' hair back.

He hopped off the beast with ease. Red hair and pale skin were the first things she noticed as he neared. His hands raised, she saw his lack of height as he neared them. He looked to be the same height as she was, and Danielle was not tall.

It did much to ease her mind, as all the Aldlesian hunters had towered over her.

Melorandious noticed the bow he still had over his shoulder. He waited for the man to come closer, and wracked his brain on how to deal with his wyvern. The body didn't match the coloring. Which made knowing the breed hard and that made foreseeing how it would react difficult.

What bothered him the most was how the fire had been dealt with so quickly.

"Let me help you."

The stranger repeated his words, his tone gentler this time. Melorandious raised his hand, and Danielle jerked it down.

"He doesn't look like one of those hunters, Mel," she said.

Melorandious' eyes slid in her direction.

"And I don't think a hunter would come so close if they had a bow," she said.

Mostly, she did not want another fire on her hands. The stranger waited. He had stopped short ever since Melorandious raised his arm.

"Arrogance marks them as much as their armor does," Melorandious said.

Yet he relaxed. Neither one moved toward the other still. Danielle stepped around Melorandious and came forward. She held her hand out.

"Hi, I'm Danielle," she said.

The man looked at her hand and back to Melorandious over her shoulder. Keeping his eyes on the taller fiend's arm he shook Danielle's.

"Hello, I'm called Rubo," he said.

Danielle gripped his hand, her expression tired and worried.

"By help, do you happen to mean flying us out of this hell hole?" she said.

"Yes? Yes, I'll take you over to the Aldlesian—oh, I suppose from here it's the Lanazian border."

"Perfect," Danielle said. "Please help us."

She passed a glance to Melorandious, but he was already beside her.

"Yes," Melorandious said. "A ride would be appreciated."

"Then let's not waste time!" Rubo said. "Ber, bow down."

The wyvern kneeled, its front wings folding so that its saddle was reachable. Danielle stopped at the sight of them.

Maybe the jerk could be carried in its hind legs? She thought.

Rubo tugged at her bag over her shoulder.

"Give me your bags," he said. "I can tie them on."

"There's two seats," Danielle said.

"I'll sit at the front of the neck, you two use them," Rubo said.

Danielle pulled off her bag as Rubo pulled out a rope from a satchel. Melorandious held his bag as he watched the wyvern's tail. It snaked back and forth, agitated.

Danielle cautiously put her hand on the wyvern's shoulder. The scales felt warm and smooth. Once, as a child, Danielle had gotten to stroke a snake at a zoo. The scales felt as surprisingly smooth as that memory, but a bit more bumps.

A tentative step onto the winged arm. She didn't think it was the right way, but she couldn't see another way to get up it. The wyvern moved.

Danielle swallowed a scream, but it did nothing more than snort in her face. The warm air brushed past her harmlessly.

"Behave, Ber," Rubo said.

He was grabbing Melorandious' bag now. She hurried to pull herself into the saddle. Sliding into the molded leather was a much more relaxing experience. It separated her from the beast that was much more big and much more alive than she had been prepared for looking at it from a distance.

Well, tough. she thought.

The winged lizard was her ticket out of the fire, and even newfound fear and respect for it wasn't going to keep her from holding onto it.

Which meant she had to figure out the straps along the legs. Danielle tightened them according to her half-remembered rules of harnesses from camp. She felt Melorandious shift the weight of the saddle as he sat behind her. A fearful thought pounced upon her.

Does the place a person is sitting determine the driver?

She looked around at the saddle and saw only the shaping change so that would it fit the wyvern's back. There was no harness on the beast's head. There was no way she understood to control it.

Rubo jumped onto the back, his legs wrapped around the neck. A sharp whistle was all Danielle heard. Lurching forward Danielle grabbed the horn of the saddle in front of her as the back beneath moved down and forward. Only a few steps the wyvern took, but Danielle felt the forward arms direct the beast. Then it leapt.

Over the shorter tree tops in that one bound. As weight caught up, the wings spread out. Their first push brushed the branches. And this rhythmical rise and fall began. The sky behind them blew smoke at their backs.

Danielle saw Rubo's short red hair blowing into his face, as he held the neck of his wyvern with his hands, the neck pointed into a bobbing head. Short and long whistles were the only directions leading them.

She dared to look down.

Steadily climbing, the trees already looked to be held in one hand. Unlike the steady view of an airplane, the sight off the back of a wyvern jumped closer and farther.

It was horrifying how free it was. A slip in either direction would be death, but never had the sky felt so close. All around her like an ocean with only straps keeping her from it.

The wind whipped by them, drying eyes and quieting sound. Danielle's body relaxed. She'd been tense for so long that it ached to release it, but for the first time in a while, no new scares or tragedies arose. Having the bag off her back helped too, though its absence brought attention to how it had dug into her shoulder. Hours passed with her able to enjoy the sights. The sky cleared with the smoke getting farther and farther behind it.

Danielle risked turning her head to look back at it and saw Melorandious doing the same. He wore a frown with his attention elsewhere. Danielle turned away; her lifted mood soured. His hand still rested on her "borrowed" satchel.

I really need to start untying the many problems I'm in, she thought. Or I'll never get home.

At the Lanazian border tower, preparations for the fire were well underway. Noag kept creating copies on parchment that were constantly grabbed by volunteers. They in turn would stick these parchments to the trees on the border. The spell formed a small barrier of water. It would only slow down such a magically fueled fire. The parchment's poor connection to the tree would halve the efficiency of the spell, not to mention the multiple restrictions he had managed to place inside the small inscriptions to keep it from going wild. Still, slowing it down would buy time for the other mages of the towers to come up with a proper solution.

Maybe one that they should have come up with years ago, Noag thought.

He had been at for hours, his eyes red and bulging, and his hands shaking. Staring at nothing at all, he felt a soft touch brush his shoulder.

"WHA—at?"

"Noag, it's only me," Ioronia said.

A tall woman with thick black curled hair and dark skin that shone like pearls when the light touched it, stood behind him. She was dressed in a simple cotton dress, but her eyes betrayed no simplicity. Right now they looked at the old man with guised bemusement that did not get by him.

"Oh, you witch," he said. "If you think this is all so funny, why don't you come up with a way to stop a fire at the border? It's something a whole line of mages hasn't figured out yet!"

She smiled without malice.

"If you'll believe me, you've already outdone yourself Noag. I felt your experiment drain the force of the fire on my way here, to help you."

Noag stroked his brows. They were thin because of the repetition of this gesture. It took a few moments for his eyes to clear.

"Rubo?" he said.

His voice wavered.

"That I don't know," Ioronia said. "Did you drag Rubo into this again?"

"He quite literally volunteered," Noag said. "And if it worked, he might have single-handedly saved a majority of the Aldlesian's forests. Not that they'll show any gratitude."

"Single-handedly?" Iononia said. "My hands and yours are in this at least. At least my pinky anyways."

"Hmm, you didn't seem all that concerned when you scribed me about the source being a tree."

"What harm could a tree do?" Iononia said. "The wood would probably burn up and mar the sigil quickly enough."

"No, the spell would probably pull evenly across the tree, leaving the sigil ingrained into it as it burned potentially hundreds of years of mana from it!" Noag said.

Ioronia squinted.

"That is bad," she said. "If it's true. As long as the mana is draining out, we'll only get to guess. Why don't go and pester one of your guardsmen for something to eat."

"I don't need to eat," he said. "I need finish these inscriptions in case something else arises. Like someone inscribing a second tree. We still don't know why they did it."

Ioronia raised her hands.

"Fine," she said, "but I'll be back in soon to force water upon you if nothing else."

Noag grumbled and waved her away. She shook her head as she left. Stepping outside the tower into a small commotion. A green wyvern being surrounded by the guards. The rider leapt off the mount, easily clearing the wings. Standing up, they were a full head taller than the guardsmen, who both stood up spear-straight in response. The figure was garbed in the black armor of Aldlesian hunters.

Quite a target full black is in green, Ioronia thought. I suppose it must have some purpose, even if it's just to terrify the quarry. Or perhaps they are mostly nocturnal hunters. How brave.

"Bring me your captain!"

Ioronia was quite surprised that the voice was a woman, and young at that. The guards also stood in confusion. They were those doing their years for citizenship, they didn't even know who their captain was, although the men manning the tower had a captain that oversaw all the towers along the border. That Captain was likely reading reports from the mages in the far-off city of Ghella. Even if the men knew this captain's name, calling him over was nonsense. But one guardsman did sort through all the confusion.

"If you have something to bring to this tower's attention, we can get you our mage," he said. "We report to him."

She turned her head in the direction of the man.

"Mage?"

The scorn in her voice cut through confidence.

"I'll have to report to a mage?"

"If there is something to report to the tower, that would be the best way, yes," the guard said.

"Take me to your mage then," she said.

She pulled off her helmet, revealing blond hair sewn into tight braids on her head. Removing a helmet was usually a show of trust, but Ioronia had a small feeling this action from the young woman was filled with spite. The guards didn't move.

"I'll have to inform him first," he said.

They weren't unaware of her attitude, and had equal scorn of their own along with their recently bruised pride. They would drag out her time as much as possible. Ioronia approached the young woman, who caught sight of her as Ioronia approached.

"Ma'am, please step back," a guardsman said.

"I just want to put a face to our neighbors," Ioronia said.

The Aldlesian huntress's eyes passed over her like Ioronia was tableware. The guards shook their heads. Ioronia understood. She backed off.

Her curiosity wasn't worth antagonizing the situation further. Leaning against the tower, she watches the huntress brood in silence.

Noag came down, despite how that could be taken as a sign of deference. Knowing Noag, he likely went to meet her for the fresh air. The stood to attention, even as her face showed her dismay at this frail man.

"Say what you're going to say," Noag said.

She walked before him and saluted, Aldesian style, fist over heart.

"I've come to warn you that two dangerous demons have so far escaped our pursuit," she said. "They are likely headed this way. If you see them, we demand them to be handed over to us."

"Demons?" Noag said. "Certainly not creatures from the fairy tales? That is a major concern."

Natal's eyes twitched.

"No, the demons that magi gifted us," she said.

"Oh, fiends," Noag said. "I suppose if we catch sight of them, we could give you word of it."

"They're dangerous," Natal said. "They've killed Aldlesian hunters and were the cause of this forest fire."

Noag aimed a steady gaze at the hunter before him. He forced patience upon her with his moment of silence.

"It's not in the treaty," he said. "Perhaps you can suggest an edit of the terms at the agreed-upon date, but until then I am under no obligation to acquiesce to such a demand. I will take your warning into consideration."

She had nothing to say to that.

"Give our good hunter some water for her trouble," Noag said.

To her credit, the huntress was too disciplined to rise to Noag's words even as she was red in the face. She stormed back to her mount. It took off with a roar that shook the leaves. Ioronia couldn't help a slight smile of amusement rise on her face.