“Too scared to move eh, boy?” The butcher hollered as he crashed into Erzo’s body. Surprise befell the butcher’s face when he realized he fell through it. Face first into the cold, hard road. Erzo’s body fell apart and dispersed in a puff of snowflakes. Eyes wide, the butcher picked up some snow and crushed it in his hands. He stood furiously, twisting his head left and right to look for him. He noticed the girl was gone too. Both had left him alone to himself, bruised and battered.

  “Erzo,” Mel asked, “w-, where are we?” Having never experienced magic before, she couldn’t quite grasp what had just occurred.

  “Do not worry, we are safe. This is where I used to live before I left the city with Ve-, I mean, my book.”

  “I see, well do you plan to stay here then?”

  “No,” Erzo said before making his way to his old makeshift bed. “I just wanted to pick up a few things before we left the city.”

  Mel’s eyes sullenly shifted to the damp ground beneath her naked feet.

  Guilt washed over his face, “I am sorry I could not help your brother, but that shouldn’t mean you need to suffer too.” Erzo exclaimed.

  A few tears began to run down Mel’s face in a moment of solitude for her brother. “We were twins, you know? We did everything together.” She started wiping her dirty hands across her face. “I cannot think of a world without him.”

  Erzo scratched his head and then looked at her with determination. “Then, why not start over?”

  Mel stopped rubbing her eyes and looked at him silently.

  “Yes, we will give you a new name, and a new identity. Your current name will just be tied to your previous life here, but this new life will not have such attachments. Your brother will remain in your heart, but we will help you see it through. What do you say?”

  “Why do you keep saying ‘we’?” Mel said, curiously furrowing her eyebrows and looking around slowly.

  Caught off guard Erzo’s cheeks reddened, “Oh, I-I will introduce you two later.” He picked up his satchel and began to head toward the exit. “There is one last place we need to go before we leave.”

  “Oh, okay, but where to?” Mel asked.

  “Just follow me,” Erzo said with a wide grin.

  The city was still cloudy and dimly lit by the time Erzo and Mel had left Erzo’s hideout. Erzo had missed the taste of properly handled meat and so he led Mel to a seldomly used path around the back side of the district square.

  Not a stone’s throw away, the butcher sat, tending to his wounds and mumbling to himself in front of his meat store.

  Nervously Mel piped up, “Erzo, why are we back here?”

  “I wanted some meat, and I am not that good a hunter yet to get the good stuff on my own,” he responded while pulling a small knapsack out of his satchel.

  She quickly grabbed his arm to stop him from moving ahead. “But didn’t we run away because we can’t fight him?”

  “No, we ran away because I did not want to fight him. That doesn’t mean I ‘cannot’. Besides, I don’t plan to fight him again.” He slowly continued to creep up to the side of the meat store where the light was most dim. The butcher was completely focused on pulling out each of his splinters along the side of his stomach. It seemed each one took longer than the next.

  Erzo quickly picked up a rock and threw it overhead to the other side of the building. The crashing noise made the butcher flinch and halt his progress. Except he did not move. He only looked around for a moment before returning to pull the next splinter out of his arm.

  Hmm, okay, plan B. I hope this works.

  Erzo stood up and began to sprint behind the butcher into his open door frame. All the while emanating blue mana from his body. He was so focused he did not see the butcher’s fist slam into his ribcage.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  All of the air left his body, and Erzo crumbled to the ground. That was not part of the plan.

  “I figured you might come back, lad,” the butcher snickered. “Ready for roun’ two then are we?” His speech was somewhat slurred from the swelling of his face.

  “I don’t need to fight you,” Erzo said. The blue mana swirling around his body became brighter and paler. He held out his hand and then snapped his fingers again. The blue light vanished and once again Erzo was made still and unmoving. The butcher rolled his eyes and scoffed.

  “Nice trick lad, shame it won’t work a secon’ time.” The butcher turned away and began to sit down but the pattern of many footsteps caught his attention. More footsteps now. The butcher stood up straight and looked around.

  “I think it will work this time,” Erzo said. The butcher whipped his head back to the frozen figure that still lay on the ground.

  “What do you think, Erzo?” A voice asked from a shadow next to the shop.

  “I don’t know, it was pretty hard to learn, but Vega said it would be difficult to master,” another voice said from the other side of the shop.

  “Safe to say, I think we did master it,” another voice responded. This time from inside the shop. The butcher sprinted inside the shop to see three boys raiding his racked meat, knives, and other goods.

  “What th-,” the butcher couldn’t finish the words before being pushed over by two more kids. “Hey!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, “Get out of here!” The butcher began to lunge at the closest boy but he easily slipped underneath the butcher’s large legs and ran out of the door. A knapsack, full of meat and supplies, bounced joyfully on his back.

  The next one did, and another. All of them ran around the butcher and out of the door of the shop. The butcher ran after them, but not before grabbing his meat cleaver and holding it overhead. “Ima kill you, kids!”

  “Just like you did that other boy?” Erzo called out.

  That is when the butcher saw a sight he did not ever think he would. The fog lifted only a little, but enough for the butcher to see seven kids.

  “What the hell?” The butcher said and dropped his cleaver on the ground. He was defeated. His shop was ransacked with almost nothing left in it. All of the food stocks he had saved, curred, and maintained were gone.

  It took some time but Erzo and Mel securely fastened all of the meat and supplies available around them and happily made their way to the gate leading out of the city. The fog was somewhat lifted and the early sun just barely touched the landscape. Mel hesitated for a moment. It made her uncomfortable to be so out in the open in the middle of the road with so much baggage. With his other hand Erzo held hers and squeezed slightly. She smiled at him. Nothing would stop them from walking out.

  Mel’s eyes jerked side to side, taking note of every guard present by the gate. Erzo looked to her, then to the others and whipped up his hand, chuckled and snapped his fingers. A pulse of blue mana spread wide and weaved through the air. Dancing all around them. Their appearances began to fade in the light of the setting moons. Not a shadow to be seen.

  As they left the city gates towards the forest, Mel couldn’t help but look at Erzo with wonder and awe. All six versions of Erzo smiled at her giggling. Glee sparkling in their eyes. Meat in one hand and a satchel of food in the other. Nothing could stop them.