“Uh oh. Here comes trouble,” Lily said as we neared the gate on our way back home.

“What is it?” I asked looking around. I then spotted Trinity and Rikki coming toward us.

“Can we talk?” Trinity asked when she was a few feet away. Rikki hissed at Lily.

“Just try it you masked bandit,” my pixie told the ferret. She flew up and hovered between Trinity and me.

“I suppose we can talk,” I finally replied though I really didn’t want to. I felt Trinity and I were too different in our outlooks.

“Rikki!” Trinity shouted as her familiar jumped off her shoulder launching itself at Lily.

Lily easily dodged the attack and tried to zap the ferret. She mistimed her attack and missed. Rikki spun, barked at the pixie, and leaped at her again.

“Lily!”

“Rikki, stop this nonsense!” Trinity shouted. People stopped and watched the familiars. Just as many watched Trinity and me.

The familiars ignored the two of us. Lily flew past the ferret and away from us. Rikki followed her.

“Well, that’s just great,” I grumbled.

“They should be fine,” Trinity said. “Familiars rarely hurt one another.”

“That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” I replied before turning to go after the familiars.

“Jase, stop. We must talk,” Trinity said grabbing my arm to stop me. Before I could say anything, I spun at the sound of Rikki barking. The ferret was on the roof of a house across the path from the gate and jumping at Lily.

“Lily!” I shouted sending my desire for her to be safe and return to me over our link.

Lily replied that it was a game, and she would only hurt the ferret’s pride. She also informed me she would be back in a minute or so as the two of them disappeared over the roof. I decided to trust my familiar. Lily sent reassuring and loving feelings back to me. I glanced at Trinity’s hand where she gripped my arm. She let go.

“I see you decided to trust your pixie. Are you prepared to talk now?” Trinity said.

“Talk about what?”

“Why you have been ignoring me and the cougar,” Trinity replied.

“Sara is her own animal. She has decided to stay on my land keeping others out,” I said shrugging my shoulders. “It’s a mutually beneficial situation.”

“Mutually beneficial,” Trinity scoffed.

“Yes. Sara gets a place to live, plenty of game to hunt, and perhaps to find a mate. In return I get a defender that will keep other…predators off my land.”

“And you see me as a predator?” Trinity asked. “Why? Because I destroyed a beehive?”

“That about sums it up. That was the actions a bear would have taken or someone that only cares for short term profit,” I answered.

“The bees were mutants!” Trinity shouted as if that explained everything. I frowned. “Besides, the beeswax has made great candles.”

“Which could have been harvested many times with care,” I retorted.

“You’re ignoring the danger the mutants represented to the village!”

“No, I’m not. The bumblebees were no danger to the village because the hive was far away and bumblebees are generally harmless unless provoked,” I explained.

“And if the hive produced a new queen that moved closer to Stonecroft?” Trinity asked.

“Then there would be another hive to harvest that was closer,” I replied shrugging my shoulders again. She frowned this time. “If the bees had been killer bees or mutated killer bees, then yes, I would have agreed to destroy the hive. But these were just bumblebees that produced excellent honey.”

“You tried the honey?” Trinity asked in disbelief.

“Yes…”

“You’re insane!”

“Nah. Honey is harmless unless you’re allergic to it,” I replied shrugging again. “Besides, the honey made a fantastic mead that Marcus and Simon both agreed to pay what I asked for because they didn’t want me to sell it to the tavern directly.”

“The merchants did what?” Trinity asked in shock. She hadn’t ever heard of a merchant paying what a seller asked for.

“Oops. That last part slipped out,” I replied. Trinity grinned. “Anyway, once again the point is that the honey was just a great honey that we no longer have access to.”

“What the?” Trinity said as villagers started shouting. We both turned to look into the village. I glanced up as I heard cheering.

“Lily! Lily! Lily!” a group of pixies where chanting. A woman screamed and jumped out of the path as Rikki burst past her house. The pixies shouted, “Yay!”

Lily was riding the ferret like it was a horse. Rikki bucked and jumped trying to dislodge my familiar. Lily waved a tiny hat in the air and shouted “Ride ‘em cowgirl!”

“Your pixie is riding my Rikki!” Trinity shouted as she started to run towards the familiars as Rikki whined.

Lily launched herself off the ferret’s back and flew to me. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with tassels hanging from the arms, blue jeans, boots, and chaps in addition to the strange hat.

“How long did I ride?” Lily asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “And what are you dressed as?”

“Oh, I wasn’t asking you Jase,” Lily said. “I’m dressed as a cowgirl.”

“Ten seconds,” May answered landing on my left shoulder.

“Yes! I would have won the blue ribbon!” Lily shouted throwing her hat into the air before landing on my right shoulder.

“What’s a cowgirl?” I asked.

“Lily, you really need to get Jase to watch more videos and read stuff besides herbology,” May said.

“I know,” Lily agreed. “Jase, a cowgirl, or cowboy for that matter, is someone that tends cattle on a ranch. They used to perform in something called rodeos where they would ride horses and bulls.”

“They would also rope cows,” May added.

“I see…” I said as Trinity comforted Rikki. It made me glad that she cared for her familiar despite the way she acted at times. “Well, let’s go home. Marcus and Simon are sending people to pick up the mead and bring the alchemical equipment I had ordered.”

“Yes, let’s go home,” Lily agreed. I glanced at her and shook my head. She was once again wearing her preferred style of dresses made from ribbon. This one a light sky blue. Lily smiled. “You love it.”

“Yeah, I do,” I agreed.