Chương 4

The Harp E Woods looked a lot different than the forests around her home. For one thing, there were a lot more bare branches that looked like sharp, scraggly claws than she was used to. For another, it didn't have nearly as many interesting smells. In fact, the whole thing smelled kind of moldy. The ground was really soft too, not quite muddy, but not as firm as she wanted it to be. Lemon trusted in her leash charm to keep her paws safe, and she confidently trotted forward through the trees.

It wasn't as nice as walking on the dirt path she'd let behind, but according to the map, that curved the long way around, way, way, way far out of her way. The short cut through the trees would save her lots of time and paw sores. It was disappointing to find that there was no music in the woods. Music-playing trees would have been a fun new experience, but it wasn't to be. Instead, all she heard was the creaking and groaning of trees swaying in a cold wind that blew down from some nearby mountains.

Lemon was not impressed. Even less impressive was the occasional animal carcass she smelled as she walked by. It wasn't so much that there were dead animals, it was that whatever was killing them wasn't eating them. Occasionally, she saw something still alive feasting on the carrion, usually some sort of big buzzard, though occasionally some smaller rodents.

"Ew," Lemon said. That was so gross she didn't even want to eat a sausage now that she'd seen it. No, wait, she still did. Lemon stopped to pull one out of her messenger bag, accidentally got two when she tore the links, and decided that was a sign that she should eat an extra one. Happily, Lemon chomped down the first one, then got moving again while she chewed up her bonus sausage. That, of course, made her thirsty, so she got out her water bowl to lap some of that up.

The messenger bag charm was perhaps her favorite charm because whatever she put in there stayed exactly like it was. Nothing ever spilled, nothing ever spoiled, and nothing ever got lost. She drank half of the bowl of pure, cold, clean water, which smelled nothing like the nasty wetness beneath her paws, then stored it away again for later. A shadow flitted overhead, and Lemon peered up through the bare branches to see something big, person-shaped, and winged flapping through the air.

She couldn't tell exactly what it was, other than to say it was brown and orange on one half and pale and fleshy on the other. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to notice her and quickly disappeared. Lemon hadn't gotten a good look at it, but she had seen those claws at the end of its legs. Those were longer than Midnight's, and she wanted nothing to do with them. The bird-person obviously was killing everything in the Harp E Woods, which was a shame because Lemon had been looking forward to hearing the harps.

As long as she didn't linger though, she was sure she'd get away without being noticed. She was intruding on its territory, after all, so it was only fair that she leave as soon as possible. Lemon started moving again, this time with an eye towards the sky. It was hard to keep reminding herself to look up like that, but every few minutes or so she remembered to scan the clouds overhead for bird-people. She never saw one, no matter how many times she checked.

What she did find was a giant nest built into the arms of a tree that was almost as tall as Hogarth's tower. And inside that nest was a trio of eggs, each one the size of Lemon's head. She knew because she'd gotten her levitation charm back out and floated up to take a peek at them. Rather than being plain white or brown like the chicken eggs her master sometimes came home with, these ones had striped bands of color on them, dusty brown and orange just like the bird-person she'd seen flying earlier.

They also smelled kind of bad, not like that time her master had forgotten about the eggs for several days, but like that one time when one of his potions hadn't been mixed right (not Lemon's fault) and started spewing black smoke all over the lab. It had taken days and plenty of magic to get the lab cleaned up again, with Lemon wearing her alchemist's mask the whole time she cleaned. Did she mention that it wasn't her fault?

Midnight insisted it was, but Midnight blamed everything on Lemon, so her opinion didn't count. But after that, Hogarth had made her the spectacles charm so she could see human colors, even though it wasn't her fault the mix hadn't been done right. Anyway, that's what the eggs smelled like. The whole nest kind of smelled like that, really, like bad potion that needed to be cleaned away.

That was not Lemon's job though, and the stink was making her nose hurt, so she floated back down to the ground, switched back to her leash charm, and trotted away, hopefully to never smell the stinky eggs again. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Except that a few minutes later, she found another nest that smelled just as bad. Lemon decided the best thing to do now was change direction, and also to switch out her spectacles for her alchemy mask, just in case.

Hogarth wasn't here to help fix her if she breathed in something she wasn't supposed to. It wasn't like there were very many interesting colors in the Harp E Woods anyway. Everything was just dark browns and moldy greens, and she could see those just fine without her charm. When she got to someplace less smelly, she'd switch them back again. Until then, she kept her nose down, tried to remember to watch for bird-people, and hustled along as quick as she could.

A bone-chilling screech rang out above her, just as a shadow appeared on the ground where she was standing. Lemon lost a split-second shuddering at the noise, and then she darted away. Behind her, something big and solid hit the dirt with a thump, and the bird-person screeched at her again. Lemon spun to face it, just in time to take in the details of its ugly face, saggy chest (and weren't those supposed to be covered up on people anyway?), and its sand-colored plumage.

The bird-lady opened her mouth, revealing sharp, jagged teeth and a long, narrow tongue that flitted out, then flapped the wings it had where normal people had arms, and lifted itself up into the air. Lemon wasn't about to let her just get away with trying to attack a dog out of nowhere like that. No way. So she opened her mouth, and she barked directly at the bird-lady, from only a few feet away.

The wave of sound crashed over the bird-lady so hard that feathers blew off her wings and she toppled over onto the ground. A growl bubbled up in Lemon's throat and her hackles went up as she stalked closer to the bird-lady. Those talons would have shredded her if they'd made contact, which they would have if the bird-lady hadn't let out that stupid shriek when she was diving in. The Harp E Woods was not a friendly place at all! Lemon might have been a good girl, but she knew when it was time to stop playing nice.

She quickly located a big rock, picked it up with Wizard's Hand, floated it as high as she could, and dropped it on the dazed bird-lady's wing. Bone snapped and the bird-lady let out another screech, this one filled with pain. She didn't stick around after that. It was time to put her leash charm to good use, and Lemon ran for all she was worth. Miles rolled by under her paws, the trees thinned out, and the ground got softer. It wasn't exactly wet, but she left paw prints behind as she ran.

No other bird-people showed up, but no matter which way she changed direction, she kept seeing their nests in the trees overhead. It started to get dark, dark enough that she couldn't tell anymore if there were bird-people in the sky, so she stopped when she found a hollow log to hide in. Her fur was picking up all sorts of gunk Midnight would make fun of her for, but Lemon didn't care. She understood now why the road circled around the Harp E Woods instead of going through it. True night fell.

Lemon ate a few more sausages, finished the last of her water, and tried to curl up to sleep for a while. She might even have succeeded in dozing for a bit, but then something woke her up. It was voices, she recognized after a bit. And voices meant people! Excitedly, she crawled back out of the hollow log and started following the noise. It was coming from a spot not too far away, where a bunch of torches had been lit in a big circle. As Lemon got closer to it though, she slowed down.

Those voices didn't sound anything like any people she knew, didn't even sound like they were speaking the same language she knew. She crept closer, then recoiled when she saw that the voices weren't people. They were more of the bird-people, six of them in total. They were standing around in a circle, and taking turns speaking except for one, who kept up a low murmur the entire time. There was magic in the air, bad magic. Even with her alchemist's mask still keeping her nose safe, Lemon could smell it.

One by one, each bird-woman said her line and tossed some type of bone into the center of their circle. Sometimes it was small offering, a tiny little bone like from a raccoon. Other times, it was much bigger. The one at the top of the circle, the one who was always chanting in the background while the others took turns throwing bones, never took a turn, but the rest kept going around the circle over and over again.

Each time a new one landed, the torches that surrounded them would flare up a little more, and the flames would get a bit darker, probably. Lemon wished she had her spectacles on so she could tell for sure if the color was changing. But on the other paw, it didn't really matter. Whatever these bird-people were doing was capital-B Bad. Hogarth had been very clear about Bad Magic that proper wizards were not supposed to do.

And even though she didn't think the bird-people were wizards at all, they were still doing the Bad Magic. That meant Lemon needed to do something to stop them. She just wasn't sure what. As much as she'd been enjoying her day of not having to deal with Midnight, right now, Lemon wished the cat was here. She would know exactly what needed to be done, and exactly how to do it. When things were serious, Midnight got the job done. Not that Lemon would ever tell her that.

Midnight's ego was already so big she could just about float away on it. What would the cat do? Probably knock something over, maybe the torches or the bone pile. Her solution was always to knock something over. Lemon could do that. She could reach some of the torches from here with Wizard's Hand, and they didn't seem that heavy. That was a good start. That might disrupt the Bad Magic, but she was willing to bet the bird-people would be able to fix it. The bone pile was probably more important.

And of course there were the bird-people themselves. There were plenty of loose stones around. Maybe they weren't as big as the one she'd dropped on the first bird-person, but now was the time for no more Ms. Good Dog, for real. Lemon quickly gathered up a pile of stones for ammunition. Torches first, bird-people second. Time to get to work.