[Gathering, Expectation]

  I jumped to the guards station, entered and the same guard who Dogberry had sent to the clinic was back at the front desk. Before I had a chance to say a word.

  “Yes, ma’am, how can I help you?”

  “I’d like to see Dogberry please.”

  “I’m sorry ma’am, he’s gone for the day, maybe I can help you.”

  “I heard from a reliable source that a group of men plan to commit arson tonight.”

  “Can you bring this source to the guard house ma’am.”

  “No, I’m afraid, I can’t guardsman.”

  “Understood ma’am, do you know where they plan to strike?”

  “Yes, the new farms out by gnome colony.”

  “I don’t think we have jurisdiction out there ma’am.”

  “I think you do, guardsman, is Nora here?”

  “No ma'am, she had gate duty and is done for the day.”

  “Guardsmen, are you going to help or not?”

  “I don’t think we can ma’am.”

  “Fine, I’ll get Dogsberry.”

  I did a locate spell. Opened the portal wallet and jumped. I found Dogberry in the Jack in the Green Inn nursing a beer.

  “What are you doing here, Rose.”

  “This is going to sound strange, Dogberry, some trees told me that the new farm site was going to be burned tonight by some ‘ very bad men’ . I wouldn't bother you with this but the same trees told me that the attack had taken place this afternoon. I’m going to ask Draco to help and I don’t think anything will happen until after the gnomes quit for the day at ten pm.”

  “Strange Rose, that’s nothing, our first case together a ghost overheard some men plotting, that case saving the Burgomaster’s daughter made me head of the guard. But it should be a guardsman coming to get me, not you.”

  “He didn’t think you had jurisdiction that far out, I tried to tell him it was city land I just bought it from them.”

  “That’s it, I just spoke to him this afternoon about this.”

  “He’s very green, maybe he just needs some more training.”

  “No, I know exactly what is wrong, we have to hurry back to the guard house.”

  We portaled directly there. The guardsman was exiting the building. He seemed surprised to see Dogsberry and myself.

  “Where are you going guardsman?”

  “I was just going to do my rounds sir.”

  “Who’s manning the desk?”

  “No one sir, I was going to do a quick sweep and come right back.”

  “Back to your desk.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Dogberry drew out his guard whistle and gave it three short whistles. It was almost instantly returned and two guards soon came into view. Dogberry spoke to them. They went inside and arrested the guardsman. Dogberry gave five long blasts on the whistle and soon it looked like the entire watch was back.

  “I need five volunteers.”

  Draco was next, logically he should have been first. Six guardsman against Draco is just ridiculous, if he was tied down to the ground, then sixty guards against him might rate even odds. But they’d have to be sixty brave men to get that close to an angry dragon. Close it would have to be, arrows and bullets just bounce off his armored hide, so the usual hunting method employed by humans, kill at a distance just wouldn’t work.

  You’d need to get right up in his face, his eyes and mouth when open were vulnerable. But all that was assuming that a dragon was just an animal. But no as he loved to tell you he was a world class magician more than a match for Merlin. And he is clever. You don’t live for almost eight hundred years without being clever. From the moment you are born, something is trying to kill you, the first couple of years the cleverness is on your parents. But once you step outside the door to your home, you better have some amount of brains, or you’ll never make it back.

  The point is logically, I would have asked for Draco’s help first. But I was trying to do this legally. The opponents we were fighting against even while using every illegal means at their disposal would also come at us from the legal side, if we stepped out of line. So first I asked for help from the weakest, the Guard.

  Then I portaled to the tower and walked down to Draco’s Lair, the piles of gold in the lair seemed to be growing. I wonder if the room does that automatically for dragons or that is something that Draco has to ask for everyday. Before I even knocked, Draco invited me in.

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  “Thank you for keeping everyone safe today. I over reacted when I arrived at the Guards. I should have known that you’d never kill all those men.”

  “When I saw how hurt some of those kids were, I really considered it. But I settled for a paralysis spell along with an itching spell. To have horrible skin irritation while you are paralized, helpless to do anything about it, almost mirrors children being beaten by grown men.”

  “Sadly men like that won’t see the poetic justice, nor learn a karmic lesson, I dare say.”

  “Maybe not and it may be petty, but it felt very good at the time. Don’t worry you don’t even have to ask, I’ll be there tomorrow.”

  “Thank you and yes I was going to ask but first I have another favor to ask. Would you help defend the farms tonight? I think the cartel is going to be sending arsonists to burn it down.”

  “What gives you that idea, Rose? Did you get some of those scum to talk?”

  “No to be honest, I never even thought of questioning those men, how stupid of me. I entirely let my emotions get the better of me. I’ve just been reacting ever since. It’s time to start using my head. No, I didn't hear it from the men. The talking trees told me.”

  “The talking trees you say.”

  “Yes, yet another thing I was planning on talking to you about. They not only talk but move as well, a little disjointedly but once they get going it seems to smooth out. They claim that Nyx woke them when she erected the magical field.”

  “I need to look closely at the magical field. It must be very, very high density.”

  “Why do you say that, Draco?”

  “Well you’ve created magical fields, over vegetation, so did Sparky at the bakery, when he expanded the field to make the tea room. He enclosed several trees in the process, they didn’t start talking or moving about.”

  “Maybe it’s the method of creation that determines the density. We take an extremely small magical field and blow it up until it reaches the size we want. She does the opposite, when she gathers ambient magic into the area. Maybe that method just naturally produces a higher density."

  “You're right Rose, we’ll have to experiment with all this stuff after we resolve this whole cartel issue and I’d love to hunt some more cartel scum. I’ll do an invisibility spell and fly overhead. I can see blobs of heat, so I’ll circle the farms, until I see the blobs approaching. That way we’ll have a close guess on numbers, and we will also know the direction they will be approaching from. I’ll be circling the farms by ten pm.”

  “Thanks Draco.”

  Then I portaled to the bakery to ask Paula if she wanted to join us tonight as well, she readily agreed and would meet us at the gnome colony portal at nine thirty. Then while I still had time and before I forgot I jumped to Hilltop and created nine more of the quad townhouses. Inside each I included a portal wallet so that the farmer could jump easily from anywhere on his farm to Hilltop or to his farm or the gnome colony, where they had access to the entire public portal network.

  At nine thirty Groucho, Lu and I portaled to the gnome colony, where Paula stood waiting for us. We each had a piece of magic paper that was paired four ways, so the moment one of us wrote something the other three could see it. We spread out, two on the southern side and two on the eastern.

  Lu and I took the southern, as we deemed it the most likely approach, we spread out a couple of hundred yards and settled in to wait. Paula and Groucho were on the eastern side, the second most likely way to approach from the hills. Draco would be in the air shortly. Hopefully he’d be able to alert us to the enemy approach.

  It wasn’t long before I saw movement but it was coming from the farm fields, so I guessed it was the trees. I was afraid they were all going to cluster around me but they didn't. They stood in a line roughly thirty feet apart.

  They walked farther south of the line that Lu and I had formed and the closest to me was about ten feet to my south west. It slowly inched toward me and began whispering in a voice that reminded me of wind. It was very weird, eerie even nothing like the deep voice that Woody projected, but also friendly.

  “Hello Rose ma’am, I thought you’d like to know, they should be here in about ten minutes ma’am, they’re coming right out of the south. Which I assume, you calculated they would. But we will catch them before they ever reach your position. There is another group of six, just portaled in. I’m Ashley by the way but just call me Ash ma’am. The ones by the portal aren’t moving.”

  “It’s nice to meet you Ash, the ones by the portal are with me, we are supposed to blow a whistle once we spot them start to commit a crime. Please tell the others not to capture the bad men until after they do something. Otherwise they will get off scot free.”

  “I’ve told the others the plan ma’am. Half will capture intruders, the other half will douse the fires. Please stay back ma’am, we don’t want you hurt. An invisible dragon approaches man, I believe that must be your Draco.”

  I heard a soft thud behind me. I updated the magic paper so Lu, Paula and Groucho knew what was going on.

  “Rose, they are about fifty yards ahead.”

  “Draco, the trees say they will handle it, let’s just wait and watch and assist when needed alright? I updated Paula, Groucho and Lu already. Once the trees have captured them, I’ll alert the guard.”

  The line of talking trees stood completely still, the bare ground between each of the trees soon filled with a man or two, maybe fifteen to twenty in total all spread out in a long line. After the last man had passed the tree line the trees began to noiselessly follow them. Then one of the men in the center. Apparently signaled the others and they stopped and lit the multiple torches they held in each of their hands.

  As soon as one of the arsonists threw his first torch, I blew the whistle that Dogberry had given me. The trees then with much more speed then I had witnessed from them before rushed forward in pairs. One tree wrapped his target in branches, while the other doused out the torches, by spell, or dew. I couldn't determine that at the time. By the time the Guard reached our location seventeen men, each closely bound to a tree, and one hundred and twenty two drenched torches, were piled up at their feet.

  Draco said, “You’ve got this handled, I’ll see you at home, and flew off.”

  Dogberry sent one of his men back to retrieve more shackles. Lu, Paula and Groucho joined me. Dogberry drew me aside.

  “Rose , I have room for about five of them in the cells with the seven that are already locked up from the attack on the road. Do you have somewhere you could house them for me, until I can work out a court schedule.”

  “Certainly and thank you. Just let me know when you need the men back.”

  “Well after the judge deals with the twelve we already have in our cells and we have shipped them to their fates.”

  “Until then I’ll look after these twelve. I know the judge is friends with the cartel, he ruled in their favor this morning. How likely is it he will just let all twenty four go?”

  “It would signal the end of his career if he does, but if he does do something like that and someone were to come into my empty guard house and kidnap my prisoners to another world. That’s a case that would forever remain unsolved.”

  “You’re always thinking two steps ahead, Dogberry.”