Disclaimer – I still don't own any chars in here so far, but who knows later? So just don't sue me, ok?
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Crack! As the shale cliff tumbled down on the three travelers, each reacted in their own way. The rock mage attempted to break the shale into harmless little pieces, but even those pieces could bury the mages alive. The two plant mages had a different idea. Calling to the plants of the forest to their left, they poured their magic through the trees and vines, weaving a net of reinforced plants above their heads to catch the rock pieces. As each piece hit the net, the net flexed a little but held due to the strong magic of Rosethorn and Briar, with Briar drawing on the strength of his constant companion, his shakkan. Finally the cracking of rocks stopped, signaling the end of the collapse of the cliff.
"Evvy, can you crumble the rocks for us, so we can drop them over the edge without hurting the plants?" Briar asked, panting. Magic really took it out of a person without time to prepare.
As Evvy convinced the shale to break into small pebbles, Briar and Rosethorn slowly moved the plant canopy over the drop to the left with their magic, and then unwove the net, allowing the now tiny pieces of shale to fall to the forest floor.
"What was that?" asked Evvy. "Why would there even be a spell on the rocks out here?" As she asked, she was also frantically checking her cats, making sure none of them had gotten hurt, especially not any of the kittens. They were so tiny even a small piece of shale could do potential damage. Finding all of them safe, and still entertained by their catnip, courtesy of Briar, she focused all of her attention on her two teachers.
"It's not like anyone was lying in wait here, right?" Briar and Rosethorn just stared at her. They had been discussing possibilities, and that had definitely not been one that occurred to them.
"Who would have it out for us?" Rosethorn asked thoughtfully. "You two annoyed the Vipers, the Amir's aunt, and Jebilu Stoneslicer, but the Lady is dead, and the Vipers in disarray. Add in the fact that neither of them had magic and we can successfully rule them out, leaving…"
"Stoneslicer," Briar finished for her. "We should have suspected something like this. He didn't like being told what to do by a member of Winding Circle's Initial Council and the Mage-council of the University at Lightsbridge (A/N – Those are actually in Street Magic), and even less by being shown up by an untrained little girl."
Evvy grinned at the reminder. "Well he was a zernamus. He'd just never been told to his face. Old Jooba-hooba was a bad mage anyway."
"Those insults may have come back to bite us though, if they made him mad enough to chase us to Yanjing. We won't be passing anybody for weeks at a time, except for towns, and no one is expecting us." Rosethorn warned. "He will have plenty of time to hunt us down. We'll have to be on watch all the time."
"Well let's worry about that later," Briar said, stretching. "All that magic stuff has worn me out. I just want to sleep."
"Sleep where, might I ask?" commented Rosethorn. "In case you haven't noticed, we have a ruined cliff on one side, and a drop and a forest on the other."
"How about in that cave?" suggested Evvy, who had been sending her power through the rocks to see if there were any more spells she could find. "It's pretty sturdy and it was hidden before. I bet no one else knows about it."
"Sounds good," Briar said. "Let's get over there and have some dinner before I fall off this camel."
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So how was the second chapter? *cricket cricket* Wish some people would find this story and give me some responses *sigh* Oh well.