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“... then, the headless man leaned down, its stomach-mouth level with Erasmus’s eyes. It licked its blistered lips and said, ‘Oh, joyous day! Even if you kept your side of the bargain, I would have devoured you, but now I may eat you and still be considered righteous!’ And the headless man put its whole stomach-mouth around Erasmus’s head, but Erasmus had taken the advice of the lady Josephine, and put the bane-needle in his hair, so the headless man pricked its lip, and since it was a creature of magic, it jumped away, so Erasmus could draw his sword and cut the creature in two! The four! Then eight! And the headless man was no more than pieces of meat. But Erasmus was not satisfied, so he took the chest-eyes of the creature, and buried one under the Tree of Sorrows, and the other under the binding-stone of Elmerton, where they may lie to this day.” Jack Fenton smiled blankly at the air over the childrens’ heads. “And that’s how your great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather met his wife!”
“I’m not sure you have the right number of ‘greats’ in there, dear,” said Maddie, who was working on repairing an alembic on the workbench.
“Eh, close enough, right kids?” He beamed down at the two toddlers and one almost-toddler in front of him.
“He’s not my great, um, great-great-great-great-great-great-great–” Tucker gasped, “--great-great-great-great-great-great–”
Jazz burst into tears. Then, because Jazz was crying, Danny started to cry.
“Uncle Jack, I told you that story would be too much,” said Flynn, rousing himself from the thick tome he’d denied he’d stolen from the Royal Library. “Jazz is only seven.”
“But it was my favorite when I was a kid!” protested Jack, moving to comfort Jazz. “What’s got you so upset, butterfly?”
“He killed him, he killed him, I don’t wanna,” she wailed.
“Hey, hey,” said Jack, “you don’t have to kill anything. Neither of you do! Your dad will do it for you.”
“And so will I!” said Maddie, who had abandoned her project to come over and pick up Danny. As she bounced him on her hip, he pressed his face into her shoulder.
“You don’t have to,” said Flynn, “because monsters like that don’t exist anymore. Not around here, anyway.” He yawned. “Amity’s magic reservoir was the woods, and they’ve dried up. The only place nearby that’s had anything significant in over a century is Daire.
Jazz continued to cry, but her wails became more sniffle-like. She must have understood what Flynn was saying, because Danny sure didn’t.
“Like, maybe if you’re in a place where the reservoir is in the mountains or the desert, you might get something, but not here.”
“You never know, nephew!” said Jack. “That’s why we Fentons are always prepared in case there’s an emergency that needs our Ranger prowess!”
Jazz whimpered again.
“Jack,” said Maddie, dangerously.
“Oh, yeah! But that’s not going to happen! Not while we’re around!”
“No one in either of our families have been Rangers since before either of you were born,” said Flynn.
“And yet, that’s what you’re researching, isn’t it?” said Jack, stabbing a dramatic finger at Flynn.
“Yeah, because I want to be an archaeologist, and Rangers made note of where the ruins were. I’m not going around monster hunting any time soon, and neither is Jazz. Or Danny.”
“But it’s good to be prepared,” said Maddie. “You never know what will jump out of one of those ruins. Are you okay to go back down and play with your friend, now, sweetie?”
Danny nodded, and Maddie set him back on the floor next to Tucker.
Tucker leaned over and whispered in Danny’s ear. “Was it real? The story?”
Danny shrugged. “I dunno. Grown-ups say stuff sometimes. Wanna build something?”
Tucker shrugged. “Sure,” he said, and they went back to the blocks they’d been playing with before Jack’s story.
.
Danny was lying in the bed he shared with Jazz, but he couldn’t sleep. Every time he tried, he remembered all the things Erasmus had done. All the creatures he had killed. It was scary, and not just because of the creatures.
When Jack was speaking for them, doing their voices, it was so easy to forget that they were just creatures… And Erasmus had been in danger all the time.
The movement of a light in the main room showed in the gaps of the door and Danny sat up. Jazz didn’t stir. She’d cried for a lot longer than he had, and she’d worn herself out. He slipped out of bed and opened the door.
“Oh, hey, Danny,” said Flynn, who was still reading the book, this time by candlelight. “Can’t sleep?”
Danny shook his head.
“Me neither. Although, in my case it’s because I have to bring this back by tomorrow… or else… What’s up?”
“ Was it real?” asked Danny. “The story?”
Flynn shrugged. “Parts of it, probably. Want to come up and sit here with me? Avoid waking your sister.”
Danny nodded and let go of the door, letting it swing back into place as he walked over to Flynn, who picked him up and put him in his lap.
“Whatcha reading?” asked Danny.
“Ranger records. Most of what Rangers did wasn’t fighting monsters, you know. They did stuff like surveying, setting the roads straight, and, you know, other stuff… that I’m not studying.”
“Why?” asked Danny.
“Why am I not studying them, or why Rangers did surveying?”
“Yeah.”
Flynn nodded. “I’ll try to get both answered, then. Places with a lot of magic in them are… hard to map. When you’re going someplace, you use landmarks, right? Places and things you recognize and know where they are.”
“Uh huh,” said Danny. “Or you remember- you remember where you turned, or the stars can tell you sometimes.”
“Yeah, that’s a bit different. Dead reckoning.”
“Dead?” asked Danny, his eyebrows pushing down and together.
“Just a saying,” said Flynn, quickly. “Don’t worry about it. But in magic reservoirs, landmarks move around, or the space between them can get bigger or smaller.” He looked down at the book. “There’s some other stuff that happens with maps and space in places like that, but between you and me… I don’t really get it. Rangers tried to keep track of how things moved, so people could navigate through the woods. It used to be a lot bigger, so you couldn’t just go around it, or cut through it.”
“How much bigger?” asked Danny.
“I’m… not sure, actually. But the idea here, with what I’m doing, is that I should still be able to get an idea of what landmarks were near other landmarks, and figure out where important ruins are based on that. Specifically, I’m trying to find the old city-state of Vex.”
“Oh,” said Danny, also not really getting it. But if Flynn couldn’t get it, it must be really hard. Flynn was an adult. “Is it hard?”
“Kind of. But even though I might have to return this book tomorrow, there are others I can look at… Which is why I’m here, Urn doesn’t have nearly so many records. I’m glad I don’t have to go back home for another week.”
Danny put his hands on the edge of the table and twisted to look up at Flynn. “You’ll play with us before you go, right?” So far, despite being impossibly cool, Flynn had been pretty boring on this particular visit.
“Of course,” said Flynn. “Feeling better?”
“Uh huh,” said Danny.
“Ready to go back to bed before your parents hear us and kick me out for keeping you up?”
Danny giggled. “Yeah,” he said.
“Alright, then,” said Flynn, standing and heaving Danny over his shoulder, “To bed with you! Sleep tight!”
.
Three months later, the Fenton family received a letter from Urn, written by Danny’s Aunt Alicia. Flynn had gone into the woods to try to find the ruins of Vex. He never came back.