Bbbzzzzz …

“…”

Bbbzzzzz …

“… what in the …”

Bbbzzzzz …

“… let me sleep Luana, will you … I have nothing important today …”

Bbbzzzzz …

“ … a damn bug. I don’t remember any of them being so loud before …” Hazelmere complained as she shifted in her bed, trying to cover her big, canine ears with the pillow.

Bbbzzzzz …

“… wait … the bigger a bug is, the louder it …”

A sudden realization hit her in the head, making her jump out of bed.

“A big bug!”

She wrapped herself in the furs quickly, without putting a dress on first. Wrapped like that, she ran out of her tent, frantically looking into the skies, trying to find whatever was buzzing outside.

Bbbzzzzz …

It was the middle of the night, meaning that the sky was covered in darkness. Yet, after some searching, she did notice a red dot blinking in the sky.

“What in the …”

Looking around, she saw no one outside. Everyone was still sleeping. With just a moment to come up with something, she rushed towards Heartwell’s tent.

“Peasant, wake up!” She screamed.

His eyes opened instantly. He unsheathed his sword with a practiced reflex, which stood next to his bed, pointing it at Hazelmere.

“Not at me, you jackass!”

A small, lit candle in his tent helped him realize she isn’t an enemy: “Oh, it’s you. What’s wrong?”

“Something is flying over our heads!”

Heartwell looked up, concentrating, as if he could see the sky through the tent.

“The buzzing …”

“Yes!”

“Those demons on the other side are using bugs …”

“Yees!”

Throwing away the furs covering him, he rushed towards his armor. As he was putting it on in a hurry, he started questioning Hazelmere.

“Are there any demons in the camp?”

“…”

“Are there …”

He got his eyes off the armor to look at Hazelmere. Her eyes were glued to him, and yet, she didn’t respond. He quickly realized that, while she was staring at him with her jaw hanging open, she wasn’t staring at his face.

After all, like all the other peasants, he had a habit of sleeping naked.

“Hey, hey,” he waved his hand to get her attention, “my eyes are up here, lady!”

“Oh … yes, they are …”

“Are there any demons in the camp?”

“… none that I’ve seen …”

“Have you alarmed anyone else?”

“No. I ran here because your tent is the closest to mine, and you’re responsible for my safety.”

“Good call.”

He put his armor on with practiced ease. It wasn’t the most durable, nor the most splendorous armor, but it was very practical and could be put on or taken off quickly.

“Let’s wake up the others! Stay close behind me!”

With the alarm raised, everyone in the camp got out of their tents. The camp was now bustling with chaotic activity as people collided with each other in the dark.

“That red, blinking dot! Do you see it?” Hazelmere asked Heartwell.

“Yeah, I see it!”

“I think that’s the bug!”

“The buzzing certainly comes from that direction. And it’s up in the sky. I think you’re right. But how do we take it down? Do you have some useful magic for taking down flying creatures?”

“And, most importantly, are you sure that’s the only bug in the sky?” Cybil asked as soon as she has joined them.

“I hear the buzzing coming from one side only. By the way, why weren’t we alerted? Shouldn’t we have someone watching the other side?”

The three people exchanged worried glances among themselves.

“Oh gods,” Hazelmere raised her hand over her mouth, as her pupils dilated in horror, “Mizette is on the guard duty tonight!”

“Let me gather some soldiers, and we’ll see what has happened to them.”

It didn’t take long for Heartwell to organize a small force. As soon as he had enough soldiers, they marched towards the stones, weapons at the ready. Hazelmere and Cybil were the only mages with them.

They reached the stones without getting themselves into a fight, seeing that the five people responsible for observing the other side were alive and well. One of them had to be a mage, so she could look through the stones, while four soldiers were tasked with guarding her during the night.

“Mizette! Are you ok?” Hazelmere asked, just in case.

“Yes … yes … we’re fine …” Mizette answered, her breathing noticeably quicker than it should be.

“Have you seen any demons?”

“No … no, we didn’t.”

“You must have seen this flying bug come through …”

“There’s night on the other side too … we can’t see anything …” Mizete responded.

“But, didn’t you hear the buzzing? It is so loud, it woke me up!”

“Umm … no, we didn’t hear any … buzzing …”

“Oh, I see,” Heartwell’s reprimanding voice got Hazelmere’s attention.

“What is it?”

He raised a half-empty bottle in his hand: “Smells like wine,” he took a small sip, “a good one at that, too good for a soldier to have. Our observers were having some fun during their shift.”

Hazelmere looked at Mizette in a mixture of disgust and disbelief: “Really?”

“No, no,” Mizette waved her hands frantically in her defense, “we didn’t …”

Hazelmere grabbed the furs Mizette had on her, pushing her hand forcibly through them. She found the sash of her dress and yanked it as strong as she could. It flew right out of the furs.

“Your sash is undone …”

Mizette lowered her gaze, looking a bit ashamed, but not too much.

“You didn’t have the time to put it back on properly, didn’t you? You were in a hurry.”

Instead of responding, Mizette exhaled loudly.

“Our lives are at stake!” Hazelmere roared at her with the eyes of a murderous psychopath.

“I know …”

A hand on her shoulder stopped Hazelmere from going any further.

“Yes, our lives are at stake,” she heard Heartwell’s voice talking in her ear, “so let’s focus on the demonic creature that’s flying over our heads. We will punish them later. I’ll lash my soldiers, and you do with your mage as you will. But we have much more pressing concerns right now.”

“If you need help finding a bug in the dark, I can help with that,” Mizette offered in a soft, measured tone.

“What do you want!” But Hazelmere responded with a voice full of fury.

“I’m a light mage. I can cast a light-ball spell and send it towards the buzzing so we can see what is out there.”

“Oh, so you can hear the buzzing now, huh?”

“Do it!” Heartwell said, ending any further bickering.

Mizette waved the palm of her left hand around her staff while chanting. A tiny ball of pure, white light formed in her hand and started growing in both size and intensity. Once it became big enough to fill the entire hand, she released her hold of it, making it float in the air. Then, she directed it with a gentle move of her staff towards the red, buzzing dot in the sky.

It floated slowly through the air, illuminating everything in its path. Everyone in the camp stopped what they were doing to stare at the bright ball of light up in the sky. In a few moments, it was close enough to reveal its target.

“So … it really is another bug,” Heartwell said.

“It looks like it, but I would expect it to flap its wings. I don’t see anything moving on its body,” Cybil noticed.

“I think I can see some tiny insect legs on it. Four of them,” Hazelmere said.

“Shouldn’t the insects have more?” Heartwell asked.

“Maybe the …”

The flying bug tilted to one side and started moving away from the camp in the middle of Cybil’s sentence.

“It’s running away! It’s running away from the light!”

“You think it got scared? Aren’t the insects supposed to be attracted to the light?”

“Looks like the demonic ones aren’t.”

Cheers erupted throughout the camp, accompanied by a few juicy curses directed towards the flying intruder.

“Umm … does this mean we have won?” Hazelmere asked, sounding both confused and uncertain.

“If there are no other demons nearby, I guess we have,” Heartwell concluded.

“So, all we need to do to chase them away is to cast some light spells at them?”

“I don’t think that’s the case. We saw those crawling bugs cross the portal during the day,” Cybil pointed out.

“Maybe it has confused my light with the holy light?” Mizette offered an explanation, “Maybe the holy light can hurt it, so it didn’t want to take any risks.”

“Hmm … that could make some sense … and if that is true, we will need more archpriestesses here.”

“Maybe the one who is here knows how to summon the holy light?” Cybil said.

“Moana?”

“Yes, I believe that is the name. It is quite interesting to see that you, who have so much trouble remembering names, have remembered her name right away,” Cybil teased.

But Hazelmere chose to ignore it: “Yes, maybe she can. And if that is the case, we should test the effect the holy light has on these demons. Maybe, that is how we can fight them.”

Then, remembering something, Hazelmere approached Mizette once again, with a furious look back on her face.

“And what am I to do with you …”