When everything goes to hell, one has three options. Flee as far as possible, cower in a corner with one’s head buried in the sand, or retaliate and make sure the other side will never be able to try stupid stuff again. Burn baby, burn!

Ran Ezarki, the Fire King

A week went past, rhythmed by the training from hell, courtesy of my father. We were still using the garden for now, however we had located a promising stone barn in the middle of old unexploited vineyards fifteen minutes away from the city.

I had balked at first, since the owner didn’t went to rent but sell, arguing that he was too old to take care of the vineyards, but Uriel had been even more interested. To him, investing in land was the best thing he could do.

“Money might devalue or be stolen, but land almost never does. Besides, my money is only piling up in the bank at the moment, might as well use some in a meaningful way.”

The land attached to the barn was quite extensive, with more vineyard lining it on one side, and garrigue on the other side, thus ensuring our privacy. I’d be able to blow up my own butt without anyone the wiser apart from my father.

As I got out of the shower after the too many kilometers long run of the morning, I crossed path with mom in the hallway.

“Have you seen my lipstick? I was sure it was on the shelf under the mirror, but I can’t find it anywhere.”

Hmmm…should I tell her where it had probably gone? I thought I had seen some of the mice with war paints of a color that looked suspiciously like her lipstick’s. But then if it got confiscated, they might target mine.

“Nope, no idea.”

“Damn, I liked that lipstick. Oh, don’t forget Kate’s parent-teacher conference tonight. Since I won’t make it, I’m counting on you to sub as her guardian.”

“I know, I know, I’ll take care of it. She didn’t blow up anything in science class lately, I think?”

“No, I think the last disaster was the potato launcher one. Damn, that window was expensive, and the school’s principal was so whiny I wanted to smack him a good one.”

“Uhu, it’s amazing how you’re always busy when there’s something at the school since then…”

“Pshh, that’s just your imagination.”

After breakfast I made sure to put some muesli and coke on the windowsill for the pixies. The old stories spoke of bread and milk, though since the mice had made their preferences known by exchanging the bread with the cereal box and stealing a whole pack of Coca-Cola bottles, we had decided it was easier to just give them what they wanted.

They did deserve a reward for all the pests they had taken care off, hardly a day went without finding an offering of dead spiders, real mice, rats, or even once a small asp viper.

I’d leave alone any viper I’d find in the wild, since they were shy and tended to flee whenever someone came near, but they could cause troubles in gardens since one often doesn’t even know they’re here and it’s easy to get bitten while gardening or moving stuff if they’re hiding nearby without a retreat path.

The day went by in a flash, between my training and the discussions with the notary about the barn and land sale. If all went well it would be ours by next week. The owner wanted to sell, and the price was met.

Out of breath, I sat in the grass. Today’s training had been brutal, Uriel deciding to train my evasion maneuvers. To do that, he had been alternating between throwing stuff at me, including small rocks, and lightly punching and kicking me, though his “light” punches were still enough to bruise.

“You’re progressing quicker than I hoped, but we will need to find you some more sparring partners sooner or later. I’d like for you to see more fighting styles.”

“There are many fighting clubs and schools in a city of this size. Maybe we could look at these?”

“Doesn’t hurt to look, but I’m not too optimistic. The few I saw were only teaching watered down versions good enough for a regulated tournament, but not a life and death battle.”

“I need to clean up before going to the imp’s school. You’ll want to come with me or stay here?”

“I’ll go to the Polygone, I booked a copy of the new racing game coming out today I want to retrieve before the gaming shop closes up for the day.”

“Your choice. Don’t forget to close the door behind you.”

The imp’s school was fairly close to the house, only fifteen to twenty minutes on foot if one was to stroll leisurely, ten minutes in a hurry.

It was nether considered overly good or overly bad, maintaining itself in an honest average, although it had some well-equipped labs, to the delight of our little science nut, and sometimes the despair of both her teachers and us.

As usual the meetings were running late, with some parents never admitting that their little angels could sometimes be hiding little demons’ souls popping out whenever their backs were turned.

As it was our turn at last, the head teacher waved us inside his cluttered office. Thankfully, he was used to dealing with me now, so the discussions could run smoothly with either Kate translating, or my trusty notepads.

“Ah, Miss Ortiz, always glad to see someone with common sense. I’m sorry it took so long to get to you.”

“No worries Mr. Royer. So tell me, anything I should know about this trimester?”

“Let me check my notes…about Katarina’s studies, science is good like always, she’s diligent both in class and her homework. I’d be happy to say the same about French and English, but sadly she’s been getting worse at both courses. I’d suggest either tutoring or remedial classes.

As for her general behavior, I have no complaints apart from her bringing plush toys in class. As cute as those may be, they’re still a distraction, and have no place in a classroom.”

“Plush toys uh? Wouldn’t those happen to be mouse shaped?

“You know the toys, I gather.”

“I think so yes. Imp, we’ll talk about this at home.”

A very dejected imp was staring at me with her best puppy dog eyes.

“But they don’t hurt anyone, and they…”

“Shush. At home I said. Now go get me and your teacher some coffee from the vending machine, while we discuss your future remedial classes.”

I tried my best not to smile while she stomped out of the office. I’d have to have a good talk with her about risking exposing the pixies to her classmates and teachers.

“So, can you explain to me how those remedial lessons would work? Neither our mother nor I want Kate to grow up illiterate after all.”

I was taking notes as the head teacher explained the schedule when I felt little claws climbing on my calf. I deliberately dropped my pen to check, coming nose to nose with a reddish brown very panicky pixie when I bent down to retrieve it.

“Excuse me Mr. Royer, can you just send me the schedule on my email? I’ll make sure Kate goes to the lesson. I forgot something and really need to go right now.”

Without waiting for his response I charged out of the room in the wake of the pixie, leaving a stupefied teacher sitting at his desk. I'd apologize to him later.

I ran to the vending machine, which was situated in the courtyard. At this hour apart from a few parents and teachers in some parts of the building there wasn’t anybody left, or there shouldn’t have been.

As I neared the courtyard I heard a muffled yell followed by a slapping sound.

“The little bitch bit me! Don’t let her escape!”

A small body collided with me, three bigger ones emerging from the courtyard. I grabbed Kate’s hand, dragging her into the street as fast as I could. If we could get home Uriel was certainly back by now and could help us.

It was not meant to be though as Kate stumbled on the border of the sidewalk, falling down on her knee. The men took the opportunity to catch up with us, effectively blocking our escape paths.

Whilst they cautiously surrounded us, I was urgently signing to the imp:

“When I take one down, you escape and run home as fast as you can. Don’t look back, don’t stop for any reason. No discussion!”

My old friend Richard Martin, the lackey who came to our door a few days ago, chose this moment to open his mouth.

“Nobody needs to get hurt tonight. If you come with us calmly I can guarantee your safety. Your grandparents only want to talk with you.”

Yeah, right, and I had a bridge over the moon to sell. I could already see the bruise blooming on the imp’s cheek. Mr. Martin, you will be the one sacrificed to the cause!

I checked the two goons positions, and squeezed Kate’s hand in warning before letting go. I advanced meekly, my gaze on the ground, as if I had given up all idea to fight, stealing frightened glances to the other men.

I didn’t have much to fake since my heart was actually pounding wildly, though only partly in fear. I started my fire song, ready to unleash it if necessary, even if I would prefer not to use it. The repercussions if there were any witnesses wouldn’t be good.

As I neared him I could see clearly the obnoxious lackey’s self-satisfied smirk, albeit it quickly turned to a pained grimace when I grabbed his shoulders to knee him as hard as I could. I doubled with a foot on his face when he curled in a ball, laying him out cold.

Kate launched over his body in a mad rush towards home, the pixie on her shoulder tightly holding her hair. I turned around to block the path of the other two guys, only in time to receive a mean punch to the gut.

Those bastards were fast, and much tougher than Richard Martin. I was trying to find my breath when one of the guys started running after Kate, the other one raising his hand to slap me, his other hand fisted in my hair.

This was when the overpowering stench hit me, and a grimy hand caught the goon’s arm in midair. Next the goon seemed to simply vanish, too fast for my eyes to follow. A second later, the dull thud of a body hitting a brick wall could be heard.

Fighting with my rebelling stomach, I raised my head to meet the ocean blue eyes of what was probably the dirtiest man alive, and my savior. My savior twice over if the…unique…smell he was emanating was any indication.

I frantically motioned to him to follow, taking off after both the imp and goon number two. It wouldn’t do to be safe just to see my sister getting abducted. I shouldn’t have worried since we met half-way a very annoyed Uriel dusting off his pants.

“Couldn’t that half-wit decide to run? Nooo, he had to take a swing, and now it’ll be a pain to get the stains out of the fabric! Damn bastard son of a donkey…oh, hey darling, did you keep one alive to interrogate? Mine won’t be able to answer any questions I’m afraid.”

“Is Kate ok?”

“She’s at home with Maggs, don’t worry. She’s a bit shell-shocked, but kids are resilient. Who’s the hobo behind you?”

“My savior, so play nice with him.”

“I’ll abide by your wish for now, albeit I’ll want a full explanation later. Now show me the way to the rest of the bunch.”

We retraced our steps to the conflict spot, only to find the place devoid of any thugs. The two pricks had taken the opportunity to vanish when we went after Kate.

“Why the hell were they so intent on getting Kate?”