Misha the Beast Tamer

Chapter 15

I carried the girl in my arms, all the way back to town. We tried talking to her, but she remained silent and clung to my neck as if she was afraid she'd lose me. It was difficult carrying a toddler, but I refused the offers of help given to me by Todd and Erik.

"So do you remember what house she was taken from Princess? Aqila?" Erik questioned.

"We only know the road and what group of buildings where we last saw the Ogre." We don't exactly know what house she's from, Erik." I answered

Erik sighed,

"Well, we may have to take her to the town guard's. They might have had a mother approach them about her missing toddler, care to join me Princess? Aqila, Todd you can return to the inn and we'll meet you there."

"Sir, I would like to accompany you and Princess Misha to the guards quarters, sir." Aqila piped up, again keeping her promise to not let me be by myself with Erik.

Erik rolled his eyes, sighed and motioned for Aqila to join us.

"Thank you, Erik." Aqila said as she joined pace with me.

As we walked along together,

"Girl's, we need to make up a story of how we managed to find this toddler. We cannot tell them that she was taken by an Ogre. Not everyone is aware of their existence or they refuse to believe that  creatures from fairy tales told to them as children roam the earth. The only story that would be acceptable and raise no questions, is that we found her wandering and we took her straight to them as soon as we found her. Can you agree on this?"

"Yes." Aqila and I said in unison.

Once we arrived to the guards quarters, Erik did most of the talking. As expected, they didn't ask any questions and told us that there had been a woman earlier in the night looking for her child. They offered to take her to her parent's. Erik convinced them to take me with them as the child seemed to like me. They agreed.

They led me straight to the road and buildings where I saw the Ogre. It was confirmed that this was the missing child when the mother yelled out her name in an excited and relieved tone, remnants of tears on her cheek

"Mary. Come to me darling, I've missed you."

As soon as her name was called she jumped out of my arms and rushed straight into her mother's. I was satisfied. The mother thanked me profusely, she offered me a gift. I refused, they were already struggling and me accepting the gift would be cruel. Knowing that the child was with her mother unharmed and safe was enough of a gift for me.

I waved farewell and tiredly made my way back to the inn. I didn't realise how drained I was, until I crawled underneath the covers and fell asleep. Knowing that a life was saved tonight lifted a weight off my shoulders.

We all left early the following morning, Erik, Aqila and I would be going straight back to the academy. We stopped at Todd's and grabbed our things before leaving. I was slightly relieved to see the cabin and the lonely figure of Todd fading into the distance as we continued forward.

It was lunchtime as we approached the academy.

Classes for Aqila and I would restart tomorrow. The rest of the day was dedicated to catch up. We both sighed as once again we returned to our desks with a pile of work that would keep us up throughout the night.

It was another four weeks later that I got my first chance to see a supernatural being in the flesh within the grounds of the academy.

We were taken as a group out of the classroom, through the halls, out of the building and across the grounds.