Tina leaned against the stump, she wiped her tears and looked at Ms. Porter.

            “What’s your name?” asked Tina.

            “Bette.”

            “Can we start over? Slow down?”

            “Yes. I just had to prove to you that this isn’t some silly adventure story. You’ve always wanted to leave home, you’ve dreamt of goblins, demons, swords, magic and power. That’s why you came with us and didn’t ask any questions.”

            “Who are you?”

            “A medieval band of misfits, no an official order of advisors to legends and kings who do magic, no I am older than time.”

            “The truth.”

            “It was the truth, well, except for the time bit…” Bette tossed her curls and smiled.

            “Stop it.”

            “Okay…I’m just not used to just explaining stuff.”

            “Get used to it,” Tina glared at Bette.

            “The world is made up of different lands. In each land there are rulers. These rulers have advisors who can use magic. These magic people are called different things in every land. We have our own town and towers where we train new humans who can use magic. In each land are different creatures that sometimes use magic. There is an evil force in the world. I don’t know what you know about religion but there is evil everywhere and to put it simply it is getting stronger. A man and woman were born to the nobility of two different lands. There were heirs. You saw the man’s mother, I’m guessing. Well, this man and woman fell in love with the evil part of the magic, they love magic but they also love evil. They call it dark magic. They started killing many of the people who do magic and they have infiltrated the great towers. These magic people used to be misfits, wise women, healers, traveling salesmen, fireworks artists and just everyday people. There is still a network on a grassroots level from town to town with magic peoples. The magic humans who were in the towers who didn’t want to practice the dark arts fled to the country and are being chased down. There was a prophecy of a girl who could battle the evil man and woman. You are simply that girl and I have found you.”

            “There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

            Bette shrugged.

            “Why don’t you use names for any of these things?” asked Tina.

            “Names are interesting. They give power to some of these things and I want you to grasp the concepts first. These evil people and magic humans are called many different names in all the different lands so it would get confusing. A wise man once said, ‘for what’s in a name by which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” I think for now you should think about these things as nameless.”

            “What’s Mr. Haspel’s name?”

            “Tim.”

            “Does he do magic?”
            “Yes.”
            “Will you teach me to do magic?”

            “Yes.”

            Tina paused and looked at Bette. She was sitting on the ground. There was mud on her cloak and the fire was crackling next to her. She had placed the pot of stew on the ground and the ladle was covered in dirt. She was rubbing at her neck absently with her hand where Tina had throttled her. Tina felt like she had run a marathon and she was winded and nothing was making much sense.

            Tina asked, “What aren’t you telling me?”
            Bette looked at Tina, “It has been foretold that to save the world you will have terrible love.”

            “That sounds more cliché than anything you’ve told me.”

            Bette looked at Tina and widened her eyes. She had large round brown eyes that had small flecks of gold in them. Tina looked at her and suddenly remember the older Bette that she had seen with that same look in the desert.

            Bette stood up and said to Tina, “Tim will be back soon and we have to go see a man about an elf…or was it a woman about a gnome…no it was a weird elf…some strange female but slightly male elf…some creature named Shane…”

To be continued…..