"Magic is always inside the eye of the beholder, a spell to clean dirt from the sidewalk could destroy it, poof, gone. Capow."

"Or it could tidy it up into one spot."

"The same people thinking about fire could be thinking of the hot flashy stuff that appears when you throw some sparks on some oil. Or they could be thinking about the reactions that cause such a thing to happen."

"Magic works the way the man/woman, thing/person, devil/angel, or chair/sword thinks it shoulds. More people believe what Magic can and can't do."

"That's when the rules start to apply for more and more people. Not just those who live by the creed they make."

"Quickly, Magic can change. To the point that the once natural and free flow before is now ordered by the ideals and imaginations of some random tribe member."

"We God's just put the idea's about what the Magic system should be. That's how the rune's of one world and the free-flowing ghost detectors of another can work side by side no problem."

"Cause the limits are all in our heads."

"And that includes God's like us."

-Lecture from Mrs.Mirror, on the topic of Magic, and how it behaves

Shub looked at the guild board with wide trembling eyes.

The damn thing was massive. Nearly ten feet of solid wood. Stacked head to toe with papers of all kinds, from random dogs missing in a random part of the neighborhood. Or massive beasts plaguing the seas of ports far from here.

It was strange to see something that was emptied nearly every day to be so full the next. But Shub guessed that with what the world had come to.

With how the Wizards fell.

How they continued to fell.

And how the system was acting up, that just about everyone needed adventurers. Including other adventurers.

Shub had enrolled into the guild just a couple of days ago, she knew hot to cast some basic cantrips and a few higher-level spells or two.

That had been enough for the people in the HQ anyway to sign off on her.

But the board she looked at was completely ignored, everyone who could hold a sword with a steady hand or could wield some magic in another was crowding around the receptionist desk.

She had the signup board that everyone was taking to find the killer of the mayor's daughter. Shub hadn't actually been to the announcement he had made. She didn't have to, as soon as the first wave left.

Enough knowledge that she needed to know, like the basic description of the attacker and the reward. Had been released through the tidal wave of rumor. Shub had been lucky enough to hear from a member of another party talk about everything.

Shub's face fell as she remembered the little man's party.

They had been so different, from rifles to wands. To skin and race. But they shared so much of a bond. Shub hadn't seen anything like it if you counted out the warbands she had saw at her home city.

And she hadn't been subjected to any of the kindness.

The area and people had a general distrust of orcs. Some of them had been part of a grossly cult, some violence was carried out against people who had nothing to do with it. Some more had retaliated.

The orc population was excluded from most things soon enough. But that didn't matter, she had her info so she could plot her trace. Shub had purchased a map and had copied down the routes that would have been used for the man's escape. And she found the most obvious one.

It was time for her first real adventure.

Shub looked at the trail around her.

Birds chirped this way and that as them of many different types and species flowed out of the trees.

The road she stepped on was rough and uneven, she even found a few holes here and there that nobody had the time to clean up.

And that was her first fifteen-minutes on the road!

What shocked her, even more, was the fact that so many little people had come through this road. Sure, plenty had used it, but they split off after into the lesser-traveled roads and area after some time.

It was surreal, to say the least.

Shub had also caught some flack for her choice on where the man had gone, sure, while the elf had gone the main path and caught nothing she went the same way and was called stupid.

She hated that they believed orcs were stupid.

Shub pictured herself in her mind. Light green skin, almost unseeable with the main tone being that of a light purple-brown. Shub was part of the Ersika orc clan. Clan's were what orc's called subspecies.

Her slight green skin and the giant ax on her back was what probably gave it away. But thinking her only part orc? It was like they had never seen an Ersika orc before. Which they probably hadn't, only the green one's wound up here.

Her brother clan of Betis, or nature orcs. Were always strike with the most wanderlust, they also had the privilege of being fathered by the prima elemental orcs.

Shub walked on the road for hours on end. The shade blocking out most of the heat from the sun. It was just one today.

It slowly grew tonight, but the light still made it seem low evening. Quite a few moons had come out recently. Not sure how many, but quite a few had come out for tonight.

Shub quickly stopped along the side of the road and made for camp.

Her Ersika heritage gave her some basic dark vision abilities. Plus, she didn't plan to stay awake for long. So Shub didn't bother to break out the material for a campfire.

Pulling out some preserved meat her mom had packed before Shub had left. She carefully unwrapped the tasty morsel and heated it using a basic cantrip.

Mana slowly coaxed itself out her finger and flowed into the meat, releasing a clam amount of heat, cooking the chunk for several minutes. Turing the average room temperature meat hot and ready to eat.

Shub scarfed it down after several minutes, slowly blowing on the meat and regulating the mana flow till she finished it.

Shub quickly pulled out two cups, one for some fine hot chocolate and another for some water. Quickly drinking both. Shub smiled at the sweetness she felt from the chocolate and wincing at the ale that passed through her.

It didn't taste good at all, but her family had always finished the meal off with some beer after she came of age to drink.

Shub quickly unpacked her sleeping bad and tucked in for the night.

Spending almost ten minutes staring into the sky, slowly setting into the rhythm of breathing before falling asleep.

Name the things one would expect after one wakes up.

It would usually be a loved one. Or a blanket and an alarm spell or clock.

Maybe the ceiling or the clean open sky?

Most don't expect some weird metal contraption to be pointed down their face, that was what Shub woke up to.

So Shub did what most people did when something like that happened.

She froze, well, her physical did. Her mental called up some mana and flooded the area around her.

Now, magic was a dangerous but ultimately harmless thing, sure. People died to a fireball, but that's because they messed up the cast.

Most people didn't die from magic till they angered it(Usually some random mage or beast) or they mixed it up(usually a messed up spell). So unless mana was never released. Magic never punched.

But when mana was released without instructions. Especially large amounts all at once, something would happen. And something did indeed happen.

Her attacked for one jumped away. The next, she felt slightly cold.

Shub didn't waste the time she got and open her bad up. Throwing herself on her feet to see her attacker.

The woman attacking her had a massive green robe on. With nothing on it.

She could see a pale face behind the hood, but only to the middle nose, and lower mouth.

The girl pulled her contraption up and fired something.

Shub threw herself to the side, only feeling something shoot past her. Shub launched a counter-attack of Magic Missile and a Blast at the assailant.

The release of magic power flying towards the woman.

She dodged the entire blast, quickly, the woman charged straight at Shub.

A blade whipped out, a short curved blade made of steel. And sliced at Shub, the attack glowed slightly with an orange sheen. The blade suddenly turning into a blur and hitting her straight in the shoulder.

Shub stumbled back, feeling something ooze out of her shoulder.

Shub froze.

No, it couldn't be. Her eyes were pulsing with fear and dread.

Her eyes landed on her attacker, the woman's blade covered in blood. Dark red blood.

Yeah, she had red blood even though she was an orc. So what?

Shub immediately started to breathe in and out rapidly.

She felt her world slipping, the finger tips of her senses that once held her on now slipping. Then the pain came.

Shub gasped as she felt the cool wind brush up her would, the-the blood inking out and flowing down her arm and chest.

This couldn't be happening, Shub turned to look at the wound, a crevice of flesh hung open. Blood oozing out at a sickening rate. Shub squinted her eyes and even saw bone. Bone!

This lady had cut her to the bone!

Shub's knee's felt and went weak. While the lady examined her blade to help her explain the orc suddenly having a panic attack of some sort, and breaking out in cold sweat. Did she accidentally poison it?

The woman didn't have time to react before she felt something hit her, hard. Like real hard. A wave of blood splashed down on both of them. Shub taking the blow like a champ but wincing in pain as it struck her wounded shoulder.

The woman lurched to the ground, gasping in pain at the sudden blast of ten litters of blood hitting her out of nowhere.

Shub's mind went from racing to a full-blown meltdown. Oh great. Her mana had made blood.

Shub's vision started to blur, she felt sick to her stomach. She felt her gut rising, her mana racing. Oh no, it was happening again.

She couldn't control it, the feeling of needing the blood to disappear, to go away. To leave her alone. The blood all around her, on the lady. And on that stupid blade.

Started to glow fast, the woman quickly noticed and turned to Shub. Who was still having a panic attack.

The blood was quickly glowing brighter than you could look at. The woman swung her device around, clicking some contraption. A second passed before she raised it and took aim at Shub.

That second was all she needed. Shub needed the blood gone, and the attacker to stop attacking. Two very open-ended directions.

Her magic flowed through and engulfed the woman. Power flowing around her, the blood quickly lessened around Shub.

Her face felt calm as the magic took effect.

The blood quickly turned blue, then to ice. In the span of several seconds. The once blood Shub had conjured morphed into a layer of ice that wrapped around the woman. Keeping her in place.

The magic slowly ended. And Shub looked at what she had done.

Shub whimpered and internally cried. She had an accident again.