Woad Children (Challenger's Call Book 3)

by Nathan Thompson

  Well, that snapped me awake.

  “I’ve yer shirt right here,” she said, reaching down. My eyes began to take in her form, then I processed the fact that she had just told me she was naked, and that she had told me I was naked, and I still didn’t remember much about last night. I looked away from her, because even if I wasn’t a total prude, there was still a tiny fairy in the room who had just opened the window to let everyone outside, including God and the entire country of Canada, see just what was going on in here. I rolled backwards, bumped my head onto a nearby wall, and looked up just in time to see Merada grinning at me.

  “Wait, you’re both actually clothed,” Breena suddenly noticed. “That was mean, Merada.”

  “Aye,” she said. “Beg yer pardon, Wes. Couldn’t help meself.”

  I glared at the beautiful spear maiden, angry but relieved I hadn’t forgotten about anything too awesome.

  “How did you know I wouldn’t remember what we did last night?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Ye were tired and had depleted all the mana in yer brain,” Merada answered good-naturedly. “Aside from that, I didn’t. I just felt it was worth the risk.”

  “Can I talk to you later, about why you were in his bed at all?” Breena asked.

  “Sure,” the brunette said with a shrug. “Just not before breakfast. Later, big, strong Challenger. We should do this again, sometime.”

  I heard Breena sigh as Merada flexed her long legs and sprang out of bed, leaving the room without another word. I muttered some complaints from under my breath and tried to rub the remaining stars out of my eyes.

  “Wes, I’m sorry,” Breena said out loud. “Merada is… kind of a flirt. She doesn’t know about the conversation we had earlier. I’ll talk with her, and let her know not to confuse you or give you false expectations.”

  “I appreciate that, Breena,” I said, rubbing my hurt forehead. What kind of wood was this tree even made of? There were probably alloys softer than this crap.

  “Still shouldn’t have given her your pants, though,” Breena added frankly. “They’re way too loose on her.”

  “Wait, what?” I shouted, removing my blanket, revealing my normal clothes.

  “Gotcha,” she said in a singsong voice, then flew out of the room, her voice trailing behind her. “That was fun! I see why she does it so much!”

  I groaned and decided to just give up on whatever it was I wanted out of today. I made use of all the necessary facilities to get myself ready for the day, then strolled out of the room, re-summoning my armor, since it was my best clothing right now anyway. I reminded myself to look into that later. Since I was probably going to meet with Icons and rulers for my new job, I needed to have a set of clothing that didn’t look it had been covered in blood thirty minutes ago.

  Breena redeemed herself from earlier by flying up to me holding a plate of food and carrying a cup of tea. I was about to tell her that I hated tea, but then I remembered what Guineve had done to redeem coffee and decided to give elven tea a chance.

  It tasted delicious, although the sweetness nearly made my eyes pop out.

  “Oh no,” Breena said as she saw my face. “I didn’t put enough sugar in it, did I? I knew I should have put in another kilo!”

  “No no,” I said quickly. “It’s fine. It tastes fine, really,” I added, getting a little worried about Breena using the word ‘kilo’ to talk about how much white powdery substance she had put into my beverage. “Let’s just sit down and eat. Have you already eaten, Breena?”

  “Yeah!” She brightened. “I had a couple dozen donuts, but I could probably eat again. Sure have missed fairy cooking. Don’t tell Guineve, though.”

  “Your secret is safe with me,” I said slowly, scanning the village for a nearby cardiologist. I figured there weren’t any, since no one was already walking up and shouting at me for being a bad friend.

  The food was good. Really good, in fact. Elvish crepes just might have become my new favorite thing. As I ate, though, I watched Breena, finally remembering just how many times I had woken up last night.

  “Hey Breena?” I asked as I watch the tiny fairy sway as she sat on the table. “How are you feeling?”

  “Huh?” she asked, distracted. But then her eyes opened. “Oh!” she said excitedly. “I actually feel really great! I’m back in the Woadlands and I got to see Petal and Cauli and all the other little sprites I hadn’t seen in forever and—” She broke off into a long, wide yawn. “And we’re finally getting to work on Trials and Tumults and stuff like we’re supposed to, so that’s super exciting too.” She blinked, and rubbed at her eyes. “It’s just taking a while for all the ‘tired’ to wash out. I might be a little out of shape.”

  Not one word about the fact that I had kept her up all night with my screaming and nightmares.

  “Breena?” I said. “Thank you.”

  “Huh?” Her wings twitched as she cocked her pink-haired head at me. “You’re welcome, but what’d I do?”

  “Take good care of me,” I answered. “I keep forgetting that I have the best friends.”

  “Aww, that’s sweet.” She beamed, and more of the fatigue left her cheerful face. “Thank you, Wes.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said, then I figured now was the best time anyway. “Can I show you something?”

  “You found something?” she said, perking up some more. “Where? What was it? Wait—” Her eyes suddenly narrowed. “You’re saying you found something? Drat.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, Wes, how bad is it? How much science does it break? Does gravity still work around it? How many seals on it did you unlock before you realized you found it? All of them? Or just a couple?”

  “I don’t…” I started to say, then trailed off under her glare. “Okay. I get it. I’ll own it. But what I meant to say was that I made you something.” I pulled the stick out of my dagger’s storage space. I had trimmed it as best as I could using woodcraft and Shaping Magic, but as I handed it over I suddenly saw dozens of tiny errors I never noticed any of the times I had checked before.

  I laid it on the table and Breena floated cautiously over to it.

  “A stick? Um, thank you, Wes,” she said slowly. I winced.

  “Yeah, sorry,” I said, suddenly feeling like my gift was the dumbest idea in the world. “I just… well I saw it… and then I saw you watch the other fairies…”

  “Other fairies?” Breena asked, still confused. “With a stick… Wes, the other fairies didn’t try to make you play ‘fetch’ for them, did they? Because they’re supposed to know better.”

  “No,” I said quickly. “I didn’t even know that was a thing fairies did.” Not that it surprised me one bit now that I thought about it. “I was talking about in the Horde lair. The other fairies and their wands.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Okay. That makes way more sense. Wait…” Her eyes widened. “Are you saying you tried to make me a wand?”

  “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I offered lamely. “But I didn’t really get your opinion before I acted, so I’ll understand if you don’t like it...”

  She held up a hand as I started to ramble, staring intently at the small rod. She muttered what I gathered to be one of her detection spells, and then her eyes widened again.

  “It works,” she said, surprised. “The magic’s stable. The application’s a tad rough, but not in a way that affects anything important. And it hasn’t been wielded by another user, so I could bind my power to it easily.” She looked back up at me, eyes wide with shock and gratitude. “Did you say you found this? No,” she corrected herself. “No, you didn’t. You said you made this for me. When did you even have time?”

  “It uh, helped me fall back to sleep to work on something,” I told her. I still wasn’t a hundred percent sure whether I was dealing with shocked happy Breena or shocked ‘I can’t believe you broke the world again’ Breena. Both her expressions and the mindlink were being spectacularly useless in helping me figure that out.


  “But you just found out yesterday that I wanted a wand,” Breena said, still staring at the green stick. “You wouldn’t have had time to find the materials. Speaking of which—” She looked closer at the stick. The enchantments had turned the veins in the wood to a subtle, purple color. “This is fantastic material to use. Where did you even get this?”

  “It’s from the Chaos Wound tree I ran into when we first got here,” I answered. “When I scanned it with my Blood Magic, I found that it had a lot of useful properties. I wanted to try and do something with it.”

  Breena blinked.

  “And you just thought of me?” she asked, still in that neutral tone that didn’t let me know whether she was mad or happy.

  “Yeah,” I said carefully. “I know you the best out of anyone. It would feel wrong to start with someone else.”

  “And you just thought of me,” Breena repeated, and her eyes sparkled with a wet shine. “You didn’t even know that I wanted a wand. You didn’t even ask.”

  “Well, Lady Titania, the fairy Icon, used a wand, so I figured I had precedent. It just seemed like something you might want.”

  I finally felt a torrent of gratitude and joy pour into me from Breena’s mindlink. The little fairy flew into me, knocking through the remains of my breakfast and tackling my neck. She had grown to almost four feet as she did so and it was enough to knock me off my seat.

  “I LOVE YOU, WES!!!” she shouted into my ear.

  The landing didn’t hurt, so I just held my breath until she finished squeezing my neck and nuzzling my cheek. I very carefully patted her on the back, feeling relief when I didn’t twitch out of any weird and stupid hangups. She gave me one last squeeze before she flew back on top of the table and pointed her wand upward.

  “I wanna try it out!” she said in a single breath. She gave a quick look around. “Am I clear? Yep, I’m clear! Safe enough! Let’s try a basic test!” She closed her eyes and began to glow. The pink light traveled downward and into the wand itself, concentrating around the veins in the wood. “Success! It’ll take me! It’ll work! Ha ha!” She jumped up excitedly and began buzzing straight up and down. “Next test!” she called out in a loud voice. “Stay clear! Fire in the hole!”

  Oh crap, I thought. I broke the Breena, and now we’re all going to die.

  But she just sent a fiery dart straight up and into the air, the simple kind I had seen her use before. Those never killed anything on their own. Unless she used a whole lot of them they were nothing but harmful inconveniences, like toys with ‘ages three and up’ labels.

  This dart, though, flashed into the air as a blazing, star-like ball the size of my fist, which was currently the size of Breena’s head.

  “Yes!” she shouted. “Over five times total improvement! Fantastic! But does it work with everything?” she asked, looking puzzled for a brief moment. Then she snapped her fingers and pointed her wand out again. “Fairy light!” she commanded. Sparks shot out of the tip of the wand, bright enough for me to look away and cover my eyes. “Five times the intensity again!” she shouted. She looked around again, realizing that she was starting to draw a crowd. “Right,” she called out in a calmer tone. “Sorry.” People nodded and began to walk away.

  “Just two more tests, everybody!” she called out loudly. “Just two more, and then I will maybe calm down! Next test! Healing magic!” Her eyes darted around, finally settling on one of the elven soldiers nearby. “You there!” she shouted. “You still suffer from injuries!”

  “It’s just a nicked finger,” the soldier said as he leaned away from Breena. “I cut it while sharpening my knife. It should heal on its own in just a few minutes.”

  “Nonsense!” Breena shouted. “You’ve suffered enough! And I require your participation! Corrective Flow!”

  Just shouting the spell’s name and flourishing her new wand was enough to activate the magic. Before the poor wounded elf could dodge out of the way, a tiny ball of water splashed over his fist. He cried out, but as he pulled his hand back, he started blinking.

  “Gone,” the guard said. “The cut is completely closed. And nothing else is wrong,” he added, hurriedly patting himself to make sure he hadn’t changed colors or gained an extra limb.

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Breena kept shouting, flying around me. “Healing magic is amplified too! This’ll let me fix intestines in minutes! Gosh, a healing blast from this could probably put a guy’s colon back together!”

  What-have-I-done-What-have-I-done-what-have-I-done…

  The thought played through my brain in an endless loop. Breena didn’t seem to notice.

  “Last test, people!” Breena shouted, still shaking with excitement. “And then you can have the rest of your day back! Clear the airspace above the table! Gonna do the big spell test!”

  With that, she flew straight up, glowing brightly to mark her position.

  Um, Breena? I sent through the mindlink, to make sure she hadn’t snapped from all the excitement. Are you okay?

  This is so fun! she screamed through our link. This is so fun! This is so fun! This is so—hold on, gotta concentrate!

  “Okay!” the tiny voice called from high in the air. “Final check in three… two… one! Fire in the hole!”

  There was a bright flash as Breena tore the sky open with a lightning bolt even bigger than the one I had enhanced via script magic. As the bolt dissipated harmlessly into the air, Breena began to race back downward, giggling hysterically all the way down.

  “It works!” she laughed. “It works! It’s the perfect battle wand and I finally have one after like a thousand years and I’m NOT EXAGGERATING but it works and it’s the bestest wand ever and thank you Wes and oh! Hey!” She came to a complete stop. “Naming ceremony time!” She pointed her purple-pink glow-stick into the air. “I hereby declare that I am Breena, fairy of Challenger Wes Malcolm, and this! Is! My! Boomstick!”

  There was awkward silence, followed by a round of polite clapping from anyone too scared of the little sprite to be seen leaving. The other fairies were the exception, though. They called all the other sprites over and began cheering for ‘aunt Breena’ and telling her ‘finally!’ and ‘it’s about time!’

  My beautiful tiny friend beamed as she basked in the congratulations of her fellow sprites (and completely ignored all the terrified looks from everyone else). Eventually, though, she fluttered back over to me and gave me a hug.

  “Wes,” she said as she hugged me. “Gonna try again.”

  She opened her mouth a couple of times, closed it, and sighed.

  “Knit and darn it. One of these days, though. Until then, just let me tell you you’re the bestest Challenger ever.”

  “Thanks, Breena,” I replied, patting her on the head. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  After that, the rest of the commotion faded. I turned to see Merada walk up to me.

  “I just got word from one of Titania’s guard. They’re coming to take the rescued prisoners somewhere safe and to take us to a meeting point.”

  “Meeting point?” I asked. “That’s a bit vague.”

  “Aye,” Merada said uncomfortably. “I think they mean it to be.”

  “Guess I can tolerate that, since they still need to verify my identity,” I replied, starting to turn. “I’ll go let the Gaelguard and the Testifiers know.”

  “About that,” Merada said. “They were hoping to meet with ye alone, first.”

  “Did they say why?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “You mentioned their needing to verify my identity. Won’t my people help do that?”

  “I told them that as well,” she answered me angrily. “They said it was for security reasons.”

  In other words, they were trying to control me.

  We were getting off to a real bad start.

  “Alright then,” I said firmly. “If you’re still in contact with them, tell them their request is denied. Because I don’t feel secure meeting them alone, either and I’m not letting them dictate terms to me. I
’ll go get my people together.”

  “Thank ye,” she told me, touching my shoulder as I started to leave. “I’ve missed having someone help me stand up to them.” She met my gaze as she spoke. “I’ll be standing with ye, too.”

  “Yeah, and so will I, Wes,” Breena said as she fluttered over. “Sorry about earlier. I’ve pretty much settled down, now. I should be able to do most of the talking.”

  “Thanks, Breena,” I replied.

  In truth, though, I thought to her, including Merada in the mindlink conversation. Shouldn’t you by yourself be proof that I’m who I say I am?

  Yes, she began, but I think there may be something else going on, here. I think the Icons are scared that Stell is gone, and are trying to gain a sense of security by controlling the situation.

  That’s pretty much it, Merada muttered. I’ll help ye round everyone up.

  When the Icons’ guards arrived, we were all waiting for them. They looked up and blinked at the number of people behind me, taking in the presence of the Testifiers, the woad tattoos of the virtually Gaelguard, and above all, Breena.

  “It’s her,” one of the fairy guards muttered, a larger male that wore light armor. “Lady Breena.”

  “Yup,” Breena replied with a wave. “Brought the real thing with me, too. Hiya Birch. How’s Daisy and the kids?”

  Some of the guards in the back began whispering. As I looked at them, I realized that they were mostly elves and large male faeries. All of the guard wore some kind of light mail with leaf-like plates over the torso, and they carried long thin blades at their waists.

  “They’re well, my lady,” the guard answered enthusiastically. “If we have time, they’d be happy to meet you, after we escort the potential Challenger to—”

  “Oh no.” Breena shook her head sweetly. “I’m going with him. That’s my job, remember?”

  The elves and fairies paused at that. I didn’t think they were really expecting to see Breena with me. Why, I don’t know, but they were clearly unprepared for the fact that she was with me.

  “We have our orders,” one of the elves began uncomfortably. “Only the Woad Princess and the Challenger candidate meets with the Icons.”