“Are we there yet?” Elsie asked for the millionth time as we made our trek through the swampy forest.

“I don’t know, does this look like a town to you?” I asked, voice laced with sarcasm. I honestly didn’t know whether we would ever make it to Everglow, considering that the only advice I was given was to go East. We had been traveling in a straight line for a few hours, and we were both exhausted. It was a good thing time moved faster in this world, since a few more hours in our world would mean their parents returned. I really did not want to have to explain that I lost their son to a magical alternate dimension.

“I’m tiiiired,” Elsie groaned, stomping on anything in her path. “I wanna go home.”

“Well we can’t go home until we find your brother. I’m sorry. He will definitely get some consequence when we get back.”

“Ooh like what? You should take away his legos! Mom takes away toys if we misbehave and Carter is obsessed with legos!”

“Um… I am not sure. It’s your parents’ decision really, so I’ll tell them after they get back.”

“Tattle tale.”

“You’re the one who wanted him to lose his toys!”

“Meh,” rather than dignifying me with a response, she scrunched up her face at me and stuck her tongue out.

“Keep doing that and you’re gonna get that tongue bitten off by a monster.”

“No you’re gonna get your tongue bitten off! You’re the magicless weakling!!” She giggled and started running away. Where did that energy come from? “Better hurry up or you’ll be left to guard your tongue against the monsters without my superpowers!”

...She had a point. I wanted magic, goddamnit. Weren’t teenagers supposed to be the chosen ones in all the stories? Instead I got stuck magicless and babysitting the most powerful five-year-old in multiple worlds.

“Hey Elsie, can you please teach me magic,” I asked, running after her.

“Can you buy me a LOL doll?” she smirked.

Argh I was so sick of those things. Pretty much every child I babysat in the past year had been obsessed with them, and playing with Barbies with Elsie earlier had been a nice change of pace from the LOL doll craze.

“How does your mom feel about those?” I asked. Her face fell. Got her. The controversy over the dolls had done a great deal in limiting the insanity the dolls had caused. They turned into black market goods for small children, used as rare collectables traded in PreSchools.

“Please I won’t tell her! It’s not fair! All of my friends are allowed to have them! I just want one!”

“Sorry, it’s not up to me to decide. I wish I could.” I hid a smile, relieved about not having to use that as a bribe to get magic, but then remembered why she had asked for one in the first place. “Can’t you just teach me magic for free.”

“No. You probably can’t even do magic. You’re just a babysitter,” she was grumpy. Maybe I should have agreed to buy her one and hoped she forgot after I left, but making an all powerful five year old angry didn’t seem like the best idea.

“Please, Elsie? It’s to protect us both.”

She looked straight at me and I felt chills run down my spine, as her eyes suddenly gained the wisdom of decades. “No. You are physically incapable of magic without me. You are bound to your world.”

“Uh, okay…” That was fucking creepy. Elsie went back to pouting and stomping through the woods ahead of me. “Hey, do you like Frozen? Wanna sing it with me? I have Let It Go downloaded on my phone!”

I tried to brighten the mood. Elsie hissed at me.

“Young lady, look at me,” I said in my most authoritarian voice. “You may be grumpy, but that doesn’t make it okay to hiss at people!”

She hissed again.

“Elsie! You are not getting any dessert tonight if you keep doing that!”

“That one wasn't me,” she squeaked. I turned around and like a scene from Scooby Doo, looked up to see a the fangs of a giant fucking snake dripping black venom as it hissed at me again.

I ran as fast as I could and grabbed Elsie’s hand to pull her with me. “Do that barrier thing again!” I yelled between exhausted breaths. After hours of walking, I was running on pure adrenaline.

“We need to stop for me to do that!” She gasped out.

“Fine. Once you stop moving, you need to immediately start the spell! You won’t have much time.” I said, and threw her tiny form forwards. Please don’t be injured, I prayed, then turned to face my enemy. The snake was… not really chasing us. It was around 20 meters away from us, slithering through the swampland on its belly. That really was not what I expected.

I turned back to Elsie, who was rubbing her skimmed knees and looked just as confused as I was. I ran to kneel down beside her. “Darn it this world really needs band aids.” I sighed. She giggled, but it was strangled and her face was red. “Elsie, are you okay?”

“Yeah… I’m a tough girl.” She said, flexing her arm.

“Hey, it’s okay if you want to cry. Even adults cry sometimes.”

“I don’t want to cry,” she shook her head emphatically. “It just… hurts a little bit.”

“I’m sorry. I panicked and hurt you. Can I carry you from here on?” I asked, feeling guilt creep up in my stomach. If I had just looked behind me to see that we weren’t being followed, I wouldn’t have had to throw her and she wouldn’t be hurt.

“It’s not your fault. You saved me. Thanks for that.” She whispered and buried her face in my hair as I gathered her small frame into my arms and started walking forwards.

I walked with her in my arms until it started to get late and I began to wonder if we would reach Evergold before the sun set. I was worried we would have to camp in the swamp woods where monsters lurked, and Elsie was already asleep in my arms. She may have been small, but my arms were still getting tired. I was about ready to stop and pitch a camp in the next clearing I found when I walked through two trees and saw... Everglow.