This content was deleted from the Magic website during an update. The original page can be accessed via Wayback Machine here.

---

Even Tulu congratulated Fola on driving the dragon off before it managed to take another person, but she could only shake her head at the praise. She had failed again. Kenlo had lost one of its most prized cows–and a pregnant one at that. And Fola was exhausted. Could she stop the dragon next time? She feared not.

She had gone to tend M’bari’s cut leg. As she worked, the warrior had silently held Fola’s shoulder, the touch of his scarred and callused hand comforting yet disturbing at the same time. She couldn’t help but contrast the healthy warmth of M’bari’s clasp with the clutching, sickly heat of Bwire’s grip.

Fola walked pensively along the grasses beyond the huts of Kenlo. Now was no time to think of M’bari! Fola closed her eyes and tilted her face to receive the setting sun’s blessings. The warmth helped clear her head, but after a moment her face cooled as if a shadow had passed before the light.

No! Not the dragon again so soon, Fola thought, her heart already fluttering in her chest. But as her eyes snapped open, she saw that there was only an odd shadowy spiral of dust moving toward her. Fola had seen tiny whirlwinds before–when she was a child she had chased them in the Dry Time–but this one was different, darker than it should be, and moving like a living creature.

The dust caught her, hurling dirt into her mouth and eyes, buffeting her limbs. She pulled a fold of her robe over her face and jumped to the side. The dust storm followed. She ran, and the dust slammed into her like a fist.

This wasn’t a regular whirlwind. It must be magic!

Even as she realized it, claws raked across her lower legs. Squinting through the flying dirt, Fola spotted a shadowy creature lashing viciously out at her.

Now that she had something to focus her energies on, Fola attacked. Drawing on her failing resources, she gestured, casting a powerful bolt of golden energy at the clawing thing.

The bolt flashed into the shadowy form and the storm failed suddenly, leaving the suspended dust to fall limply to the ground. Fola was alone again.

But what was it that had attacked her? Could the creature belong to Bwire? No, M’bari had escorted that one far from town and the shaman had not even tried to attack the warrior. The goatherd? At least the goatherd had actually displayed some measure of ability, by attacking and driving off her brushwagg. But where would he get such power? If he were capable of summoning such a creature, then he had to be dangerous.

What if the gargoyle couldn’t stop this terrifying goatherd?

[What’s Fola’s next step?]
[Where has the shadowy creature come from?]
[Back]