The next day was something of a struggle to get through for Toland. His legs felt like he was on a ship and his head throbbed with an intense and persistent ache.

With the coming of winter he didn’t have much to do so had set about making two charms from leftover metal but he had delicately shaped them so that a pair of wings wrapped around the plate containing the runes like a mother bird wrapped around an egg.

He took them and headed upstairs to the attic trap door, on which he knocked gently.

A few seconds later Katrina opened the door and looked down at him.

“Hi,” Toland said.

“Good evening, Toland,” Katrina replied, “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”

“Well, you see, I noticed that you don’t seem to have a protective charm on you, or on Jaran, so I figured that they must have been lost with the rest of your things…”

Katrina frowned and pushed aside a length of platinum hair as it fell down in front of her face.

“Protective charms?” she asked?

“Yeah, to ward off evil spirits and let the linuri know you mean them no harm.”

She brushed another piece of hair from her face, “What’s a linuri?”

Toland scratched his head in confusion.

“They’re the linuri… They are magical little sprites that live in the forest, they are supposed to be quite playful but they are also quite shy, so if you don’t have the charm on you they might try and trick you into getting lost. But if they know you are a friend then they will help you find your way if you do get lost in the forest.”

Katrina stood up straight as another piece of hair fell in her face.

“Why don’t you come up here for a moment? Talking down a ladder is proving challenging.”

As she stood back from the trap door, Toland climbed up the last few steps on the ladder and hoisted himself up into the attic. The space seemed very bare, only consisting of the two beds and a pair of leather bags containing everything the two of them owned.

Jaran lay on one of the beds, propped against the wall, providing the only source of untidiness as he was surrounded by pieces of wood with charcoal drawings on them. Toland longed to know what the wizard was doing with the planks but he didn’t want to be invasive.

“So,” he began, “As the mountain paths are blocked with snow and the only other way out of the valley is through the forest I thought you would probably be staying until at least spring, so you should have a charm in case you need to leave the village for any reason.”

He then held out the charms to Jaran and Katrina and they each took it.

“Thank you, Toland,” Katrina said, examining the charm, “Did you make this yourself?”

“Yeah,” he replied bashfully.

“It is truly wonderous, the wings especially, you should consider trying your luck in the capital, even the royal jewellers would have a tough time making something with this level of detail.”

Toland blushed furiously, “Well, I don’t think it’s quite that good.”

He laughed and scratched his head.

“But thank you,” he said as he turned to leave.

“Toland, a moment please,” Jaran said, still turning the charm over in his hand, eyeing the runes on the metal centrepiece.

Toland hesitated, then turned back warily to face the wizard.

“These markings,” Jaran continued, “Where did you learn them?”

“They are just the traditional charms, I learned them from my father who learned them from his.”

Jaran raised an eyebrow.

“Would you perform a small favour for me, Toland, could you engrave these on a piece of metal but add on this…”

Jaran reached for a blank slate of wood and then, resting it on the floor in front of him, drew a rune on it with charcoal. He dropped the charcoal and handed the slate to Toland.

“Add it at the bottom right there, you see there are three lines on your charm? Then there are the three lines on the rune? Perfect.”

Toland nodded, he still didn’t feel well and wanted to go to bed, but he knew better than to say no to a wizard, even a hedge wizard, Cerneres had spent three years as a bear for a similar slight. So he obliged, making his way to the forge, pulling out a stylus and another spare piece of metal and quickly scratched out the runes.

He took the finished piece back to Jaran, who took the piece with a bewildered look.

“How in heaven did you manage to do that so fast?” Jaran asked.

Toland shrugged, “I have steady hands.”

Jaran just shook his head then handed it back to him.

“Say for me, protection,” Jaran asked.

Toland looked at him confused, his arm still outstretched dumbly, as though he had forgotten he could put down.

“Protection?” Toland repeated, unsure as to what the wizard was getting him to do.

Jaran nodded encouragingly, then picked up one of the larger pieces of wood and threw it at Toland with a vicious jerk of his hand.

Toland recoiled in shock, but not quickly enough for the board to slam into his face.

“Ow!” he shouted, glaring at the wizard in horror.

Jaran leant forward a little and asked, “Did it hurt though?”

Toland frowned, then realised a sizable chunk of wood had hit him square on the nose and he wasn’t in any pain at all. He touched his nose and it was still there and still in its original shape.

“What?” Toland asked dumbly then looked at the charm in his hand to see that it had split in half.

Jaran smiled, leaning forward almost to the point of toppling himself over, “Toland. How would you like to learn magic?”