Second Names (Temporarily discontinued)

Chapter 17 -Is that Magic? Nope! Coincidence in short cloak's opinion

They had allowed me to stay for the night, because everyone was tired, and they apparently had some kind of job to help people, ( kind of like Robin Hood, as Charlie put it) which is why they'd saved me. 

Apparently they also watched over criminals, making sure the truly guilty went to prison, while people who didn't deserve it, stayed out of it. 

I decided to half trust them, for now, as at the moment she couldn't go back to town, and I really needed sleep.  I was shown to a small spare bedroom which had a hammocks instead of a bed.

The fact that they were hammocks didn't bother me in the slightest, as in my opinion it was a welcome change to all the other times I'd had to sleep on the floor. I placed my satchel by the hammock and kicked off my boots. 

Crashing into it, I instantly fell asleep, but it wasn't deep, as a traveler I'd learned to sleep lightly, this habit had saved me quite a few times...

Early the next morning...

I woke up as the first rays of sunshine came through a window and onto my face. I stretched, curving my back and spreading my arms, before slowly rising. I groggily went over to the wash basin where I splashed the cold water onto my face.

I went back to the hammock, and put on my boots and satchel, and then I neatly folded the blanket, and fluffed the pillow before placing them on the hammock. When I was ready I opened the door and walked out of the cabin. 

I was greeted by fog, but not normal fog, dark green fog, floating around, and filtering out the light. I squinted trying to see something, when suddenly a tall dark figure loomed holding up a purple glowing vial, two green also glowing eyes and a mouth seemed to glare evilly. The figure began to laugh, a deep malicious laugh. As I took a sharp intake of breath as I murmured "great goddess Solaria!"  

The figure continued to laugh, and for some reason lightning struck in the distance behind the silhouette. Completing the image of terror..

I looked around. What evil creature could they be up against?! 

Slowly the figure's hand lowered towards... a table? And they poured the vial of otherworldly contents onto it. Then a strong wind picked up clearing out the purple fog, and it revealed the figure to be a lot smaller, than it had seemed earlier, the person then stopped laughing and they pushed up their...  

Welding mask?

and took of a... thick protective coat? to reveal... Charlie? 

That menacing figure was that little kid? 

"Oh! Hi Wynn!" Charlotte said noticing me.

"What's going on? Why was their mist? And why were you dressed like that? And why was there lightning " I asked surprised and confused. 

"Oh, I was just working on one of my experiments, but it kind of spread around hence the fog! Then I couldn't see anything so I accidentally spilled my glass of morning cloud burst berry juice on the table, then I thought oh no! Ivy's gonna kill me so I put an Acid, specifically Lemon juice, 'cause it contains citric acid which is an active bleaching agent, which means it can effectively remove stains, plus I added a catalyst of my own formula to increase the rate of reaction! Hence quite quickly no more stain!" Charlie said proudly in an excited manner, saying words I didn't understand. 

"And you were dressed like that because...?" I questioned 

"Oh you know protective gear!" Charlie answered draping the coat on one of the chairs, with her welding mask.

"and the lightning...?"

"coincidence" Charlie answered cheerfully. 

"So you do magic?" I asked looking closely at the table cloth. 

"Magic?! No no nononono no, I don't do magic, I do science! I'm mostly an engineer, and alchemist among other wide and diverse things" Charlie said seeming momentarily offended. 

I had heard somewhere about this science before, but it did really look like magic. 

"Umm.. okay?" I said still confused.