The wagon’s floor rumbled as it rode over the coarse gravel road. Jasper’s brow was creased, and his hands clenched tight. Ethan lay asleep on the floor beside him and Avril leaned against a wall, her dark eyes troubled.

“You can’t be serious,” Jasper said. The illusion around him flickered slightly, revealing the gremlin for a split second before it snapped back to his human appearance.

“We both know I don’t joke about things like this,” Avril said. She drummed her fingers against her knee impatiently.

The wagon hit a bump and jumped, snapping Ethan out of his sleep as his head bounced loudly off the wooden floor. He groaned and groggily pushed himself into a sitting position, looking from Avril to Jasper as the clouds left his eyes.

“What are you talking about?” He asked through a yawn.

“Yon,” Jasper said, grimacing. “You’d think he’d run out of Vodrun at some point.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed as the last of the sleep left him. His hand dropped to the hilt of his sword and he cocked his head to the side, listening intently for something.

“Are they here now?” He asked.

“We wouldn’t be sitting around if they were,” Avril said with a grim smile. “But they aren’t far behind.”

“They never are. I wish we could just stop running,” Ethan said with a heavy sigh.

“Not yet.” Jasper growled. “We can’t afford to fight any Vodrun. You’re running out of energy. How many fights can you even survive at this point? Two? Three?”

“I will do what is needed,” Ethan said, the faintest tinge anger burning in his voice.

A small spider crawled out from the floorboards and started to skitter across the floor. Jasper ground it into the wood with his heel before it could escape, his eyes uncharacteristically cold.

“Yon is definitely a problem,” Avril agreed, glancing down at the small black stain Jasper had created on the wagon floor. “But you have more pressing matters that are about to arise.”

“Of course we do,” Jasper muttered. He rose to his feet, shooting a weary look at Avril.

“I really wish you could just make things simple for once. It would be so easy for you.”

Avril’s eyes darkened and she frowned at the gremlin. She waved impatiently at the back of the wagon and clicked her tongue.

“You know that’s not how it works,” Avril said.

The wagon suddenly ground to a halt. The three exchanged a glance and Avril raised an eyebrow.

“You better get going,” she said. “Bring me back some presents.”

Ethan hopped to the ground and Jasper followed after him, pausing for a moment to present his middle finger to Avril. Ethan drew his sword as they ran toward the front of the caravan.

“How many times can one damn caravan get attacked?” Jasper whined.

“You don’t know it’s an attack yet,” Ethan said, his eyes scanning the area for any sight of foes.

There was a cry from somewhere ahead of them. Jasper raised an eyebrow at Ethan, who grunted in response and picked up the pace. The guards had gathered at the lead wagon, in front of a large force of badly armored men that had blocked their path. They had evidently been lying in wait for the caravan within the small forest to the side of the road.

“Okay, it’s probably an attack,” Ethan said, eyeing the people blocking their way with a frown.

“I request that you remove yourselves from our path,” the guard captain said from the front of the wagon line.

There was a smattering of laughter from the other force, but none of them took their eyes off the caravan. The wall of men parted down the middle, allowing an average sized man with a short gray beard and scarred face to make his way to the front.

“That can be arranged,” he said with a small bow. “Simply hand over a small protection fee and you can pass.”

“A safety fee?” The guard captain asked. “And what exactly do we need protection from?”

“Us!” The man said with a nasally laugh. He looked back at his men, who immediately broke into forced laughter. The guards bristled and several drew their weapons.

Jasper strode forward to stand in between the two parties and held his hands up.

“Wait! Calm down, gentlemen.”

“And who might you be?” the scarred man asked, giving Jasper a once over. The gremlin didn’t respond to him. His eyes scanned through the crowd until he spotted who he was looking for.

“Linna! Get over here,” Jasper called.

She emerged from the crowd of guards, a frown on her face. Jasper noted the cloth weapon wrapped around a small hook on her belt and gave her a pleased smile.

“You see those guys?” He asked, gesturing toward the men blocking the road. Linna nodded hesitantly.

“Training time,” Jasper said with a wicked grin.

He snapped his fingers. Dozens of spikes erupted from the ground behind the bandits in a semicircle.

“He’s a Vision!” One yelled.

With a rough chorus of battle cries, the bandits charged. The caravan guards placed their backs to the wagons and prepared to defend themselves. Jasper gave Linna a firm push toward the bandits, his eyes locked on the scarred man.

“Go squish some bugs. None of them should be any issue for you,” Jasper told her. He made a beeline toward the scarred man as Linna drew her weapon and met the bandit charge together with the other caravan guards.

“Hello, Vision,” the man said, looking at Jasper with a lazy smile on his face.

“Not the only one here, I reckon,” Jasper said. He hurled himself to the side as flames engulphed the spot where he had been standing with a loud roar.

“How’d you know?” The scarred man asked.

“The shit eating grin. We’ve all got it,” Jasper replied as several spikes of earth erupted from the ground and pierced toward the scarred Vision. A coil of fire appeared in the air before the man, melting the stone before it reached him.

“I see,” The scarred man said in the same bored voice. Jasper threw himself into a roll as the other Vision hurled a ball of molten flame at him.

An earthen hand punched out of the ground behind the scarred man and wrapped its fingers around him. A pillar of fire roared into the sky, forcing everyone in the area to step back and cover their eyes. When it disappeared, the hand was gone as well.

“You’re rather weak,” The scarred Vision said with a laugh. “You’d think an earth Vision would be more creative than this.”

A bolt of lightning screamed out of Jasper’s hands and slammed into the other Vision’s chest. The scarred man cried out and stumbled backwards a step, smoke rising up from his chest.