“When am I going to learn that I should bring my silly phone with me when I go wandering?” I scratched the back of my head and sneezed from the cold that had quickly flown down my nose. It wasn’t even as if I could feel my nose! Everything was numb. I suppose it hadn’t helped that I had slipped in a patch of snow and sank before falling backwards. Why did I have to be so clumsy? It was so irritating!
Where was I? At a glance, it was just a snow covered field, but I knew from the wood fence and randomly placed scarecrows that I was on farmer’s land. That was a good sign so long as I hadn’t missed a sign telling me that all trespassers would be shot on sight. That would be just my luck…
“Can someone help me, please?” I tried yelling, but my throat was raw and it hurt to do so. Luckily for me, I had at least snatched one of the boys’ jackets for warmth, but even that wasn’t helping me too much at this point with only a thin button down underneath it. I cursed as I kicked something buried in the snow, caught my toe underneath it, and fell face forward into another mountain of fresh powder.
I spit out some inadvertently tasted snow and quickly dusted myself off as I sat back. What had I tripped over? I heard a low groan coming from underneath the snow… What in the world…?
Slowly, I began to dig. It didn’t take long to find a black straw hat, similar to one a farmer would use, buried in the snow. When I removed it, I found black hair beneath a wooden post. Was it a scarecrow? If so, someone had certainly liked this one enough to give it a wig… I continued digging, set on at least standing the poor thing on its feet.
Once I had removed the snow from most of its torso, I tried pulling at the cross. Either the post was just freakishly heavy or something wasn’t right… I quickly moved to my feet and pulled at one of the arms of the post and finally flipped it over to find a young man instead of a scarecrow.
“Ye gods…!” I dropped to my knees and quickly blew on my hands in a meager attempt to warm them before placing them against his cheeks and rubbing them. He was ice cold. How long had he been left here? “Come on, buddy, wakey, wakey before you give Cassi a heart attack!” After what felt like an eternity, he opened his eyes… They were almost as black as his hair…
He grimaced and gritted his teeth. I looked at his wrists and… No way…  There were nails through the palms of his hands… Who in the gods’ names had thought it funny to play Christ with this man?
There was a fence nearby and there was a glint of metal in the snow. I realized how badly I was hoping it would be useful long before I moved to my feet and grabbed for it. Thank the gods, it was a crowbar! It was horribly rusted and I wasn’t sure how strong it was, but it was my best chance. I ran back to the young man and set the crowbar down for a second while I removed my leather belt. I really hoped this would work…
I placed the leather in front of his face and showed him. “Bite down on this as hard as you can. I can only imagine how painful this is going to be.” He watched me warily but bit down on the leather nevertheless. Right then I was glad I wasn’t squeamish…
I set the crowbar under the head of the nail as carefully as I was able and yanked upward hard. The man bit down instantly and held his breath the few seconds it took for the nail to come loose. The wood was from the old fence. At least that meant it would come out pretty quickly; at least in theory. I didn’t want to put him through any more pain than I had to.
I moved to the other side and gave him a few seconds to breathe. He nodded to me when he was ready for the second to be pulled free. I did my best not to hesitate when I pulled, but this nail was in stronger wood than the first. I continued to pull hard and finally the nail came free. I threw the crowbar away and knelt beside the man again.
“Aside from the nails, cold, and pain you’ve been put through for however long, are you all right?” He just looked at me. He didn’t seem sure I wasn’t going to hurt him again. I took my belt out of his mouth and quickly threaded it back through my belt loops while he continued to get his breathing under control. It was only when I was trying to buckle the stupid thing that I realized my hands were shaking.
When I finally managed to buckle my belt, I took hold of his left wrist to examine the wound. It didn’t look too bad considering I had just finished removing a nail. I sat back and tore the hem of my jean leg off to tie around the wound. I did the same with the other jean leg for his other hand.
“Who would do something like this to you?” He pushed himself up and retrieved his straw hat, dyed black to match his black clothing.
“Humans like you.” He practically snarled at me as he spoke…
“What are you if not human?” He replaced his hat on his head while his black eyes glared at me.
“Creatures like you would call me a scarecrow.” That was intriguing…
“That would partially explain the situation.” He scoffed and moved to his feet, dusting off his black trench coat. “How did you come to be as you are?” He looked down at me. He seemed to be contemplating something, but I wasn’t exactly sure what that was.
“By the use of black magic, I was forced into this form.” Black magic? He had been created by black magic?
“You’re sure it was black magic?” I moved to my feet and sneezed. I reached into my pockets to see if I had remembered to bring some kind of handkerchief, but the scarecrow held out a piece of fabric that looked as if it had been torn from a sleeve despite the fact that his trench coat seemed intact. I didn’t question the kindness and blew my nose in it. If it had been Sitka or one of the other boys, I would have no doubt tried to hand it back to him, but I simply held onto it instead. Sometimes it was best not to tease a scarecrow in the middle of a field of snow.
“I’m quite sure it was black magic.”
“But you’re not evil. In most cases, the product of black magic is a monster.” He blinked, obviously confused by my statement.
“How do you know I’m not evil, Kurzes Mädchen?” I held out the scrap of cloth he had handed me.
“Would someone evil care whether I had something to wipe my nose or not; let alone hand me something to help out?” I couldn’t stop the smile that captured my lips as his pale white face turned slightly pink, at which point he quickly tilted his straw hat over his face and began walking in the direction I had been going before I had found him.
I followed after him without really noticing I had begun to do so. He glanced back at me a time or two in the five minute time span where we remained silent, but he never complained. I almost started to think he was making sure I was still there. Maybe he was paranoid of me being at his back. When I thought about it, I sped up to walk beside him. He seemed calmer after that.
“Who made you human, scarecrow?” He jumped when I spoke. He must have been deep in thought or simply hadn’t been paying attention.
“A human woman who wanted me to kill her husband made me human. When I refused, she nailed me to that cross thinking her God would forgive her and remove me from her sights.” He growled and pocketed his hands. I bit my lip, pocketing my hands in my jacket as well. It was getting colder.
“What’s your name, scarecrow?” He looked genuinely surprised at my question, but he was quick to shrug it off.
“I wasn’t given a name. I belong to that woman until I’m given one, I believe.” He glared at his feet as his pace slowed to a stop. I stopped before him and studied his face. I felt awful for him. He had done nothing to deserve that life.
“What if I give you a name?” He didn’t look too confident in my abilities.
“What would you call me; Bob or Joe? Would it be something inanely silly, Kurzes Mädchen?”
“I was thinking along the lines of Maverick. It’s an English word for independent.” His cheeks turned slightly pink before he lowered his head to let his black hair fall in his face awkwardly due to his dyed straw hat.
“I suppose I can deal with that…” I held out my hand to him.
“Then it’s nice to meet you, Maverick. My name is Cassi.” He hesitated several times before he finally shook my hand. Unfortunately, seconds later there was a burn in our palms. We pulled back and shrieked at once. I stuffed my hand into the snow while Maverick stared at his hand in awe, checking the other quickly. I looked up and found that he had removed my makeshift bandages only to discover that the wounds in his palms had healed over perfectly. The only thing marring his right palm was a pentagram within a broken circle. I glanced down at my hand and found a similar marking. “What just happened…? We didn’t just release you from the service of one insane woman to another, did we?” I couldn’t stop myself from looking from my hand to his face and back again, in an obvious panic over what had just happened.
It was then I recognized the mark on my hand. It must have showed on my face because Maverick leaned down to look me in the eyes. “What’s the matter?” I stuttered for a few seconds before I managed to calm myself down and speak normally.
“I recognize the spell.” He looked at me as if I were a demon… He probably wasn’t far off. “I live with a lot of psychotic magic users and one of them showed me this spell once. It’s so similar to another that most humans who try it manage to screw it up. It’s just usually the other way around…” He grabbed my shoulders and shook me to force me to stop speaking.
“What are you talking about exactly?” He removed his hold so that I could compose myself enough to speak more coherently.
“You said you were brought to kill someone, correct?” He nodded slowly, fixing his hat on his head out of reflex. “You refused and were nailed to that cross afterward, correct?” He nodded again. “Black magic has two sides; one for good souls and one for evil souls, the same as light. The black magic the woman used is for experienced magic users. Because she hasn’t used magic before, she mixed up the signs for summoning a soul. You were bound to her temporarily because of the magic…” I stopped, finally realizing what I had done, and sank to my knees in the snow.
“What’s wrong?” He knelt down in front of me, looking a tad panicked.
“If you had stayed under her ‘ownership’ a little longer, your soul would have returned to wherever it came from. When I gave you a name, it made your body permanent.” I couldn’t look at him, and I felt awful. I really didn’t deserve to meet those black eyes after I had done something so stupid.
He grabbed my chin and jerked my head up to force me to look up at him. He was glaring at me, but I didn’t really blame him. He had every right to be angry with me. “Don't even think of blaming yourself, Wenig Ein. It isn’t as if you use these magics enough to know these things off the top of your head. You would have had to be exceedingly lucky to not mix up your thoughts.”
“But, I…” He released my chin only long enough to put his hand over my mouth to stop me from speaking.
“Don’t give me that, Wenig Ein. I’m not upset with you.” I couldn’t halt the giggle fit that was muffled by the scarecrow’s hand. I really had no idea why even when he removed his hand, looking horribly confused by my outburst.
“You really are insane, scarecrow.” For an instant, he smiled down at me and tapped my nose with his index finger.
“Then it would make sense as to why you of all people found me.”
“I take that as a compliment.” We heard someone curse at that moment, but I had to turn to see anyone while Maverick only had to glance over my head.
It was a woman stumbling through the snow, but she hadn’t seen us yet. She was covered in blood, but she didn’t look injured herself. The stumbling was simply from walking through the snow. In fact, she seemed quite lively as her cursing became more colorful.
“Is that…?” Maverick put his hand over my mouth to quiet me quickly and knelt low to the ground to lengthen our invisibility for a few extra seconds.
“Yes, it is. Quiet and she may pass us by.” Despite our whispering back and forth, I couldn’t believe the woman would actually pass us by, but I silenced myself and stayed low. Luckily, the old picket fence between the woman and us made for some adequate cover for the moment. Unfortunately, I was starting to feel a sneeze coming on. Maverick noticed it quickly and pinched my nose between his fingers in hopes of halting the action. Of course this would happen the same way it did in the cartoons! However, it would have been better if Maverick’s tactic had actually worked. I pushed his hands away and buried my face in the snow, hoping the cold would halt the sneeze or muffle it enough to keep the woman from hearing, but it did neither. My sneeze was only muffled slightly, and, as I realized how loud it had been, I pulled my head out of the snow and shook the powder from my hair while the remainder melted on my face and made my nose numb.
The woman stopped and turned about, looking for the source. “Who’s there?” She was shouting until she noticed Maverick and me. “A little bitch and a rag doll?” Maverick moved to his feet so quickly that I didn’t even see the transition. I moved clumsily to my feet when the scarecrow stepped in front of me and blocked my view of the crazy woman. I peeked around Maverick and scanned her over. She was only dressed in jeans and a ragged and bloody turtleneck sweater that barely fit her. Her jacket was torn and just as bloody as the rest of her. She was holding a pitchfork that I hadn’t noticed earlier.
“Maverick, this doesn’t look good.” He reached back and squeezed my shoulder, never taking his eyes off of the obviously irritated woman before us.
“I know, Mädchen; I know.” The woman stalked toward us, at which point I noticed an odd glow coming off of her body. Her muscles tensed as she kept a firm hold of the pitchfork despite her clumsy movements in the snow. This was bad…
“Maverick, back up!” I hadn’t even realized that I had jumped in front of the scarecrow until there was nothing between me and the woman who appeared even more off her rocker than I had thought in the first place.
“What are you doing, dummes Mädchen?” The woman’s pupils were dilated to the point I couldn’t see the actual color of her eyes. She glared ominously at me. The stupid woman had gotten herself possessed!
“Remember the black magic she used?” I could almost see his confused face behind me. I had seen such faces on people too many times to not be capable of imagining it. “Your soul wasn’t the only one that came through.”
“What are you talking about, little bitch? You don’t even understand what’s going on!” The woman could have been foaming at the mouth for the gods’ sakes! She swung the pitchfork at me and just barely missed hitting me in the face with one of the sharpened steel prongs.
“This isn’t going to end well! Maverick, run!” I heard him take off seconds after I screeched at him, but, as I went to turn and run, the woman swung the pitchfork at me again. I dodged it again, but I couldn’t keep my balance this time. I tripped in the deep snow and landed on my back. The woman took the time to point the prongs at my throat and trap me in place.
“Now, magic-brat, what do you know of the scarecrow that I’m not aware of?” I really hoped Maverick had run and not looked back.
“Go back to whatever realm your forsaken soul came from!” I gritted my teeth as I waited for her to stab me through the neck with the prongs of the old pitchfork. The moment she drew back to do as such, I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself to my feet, slipping in the snow several times before I managed to keep my balance. I bolted as quickly as my legs could carry me and only managed a few feet before I bumped into Maverick. It seemed he had turned back and had been coming for me when I had managed to escape the woman with two souls trapped in her body.
“Stop moving around so much, magic-brat!” I shoved at Maverick, trying to make him turn around.
“We have to run right now; just go!” I fully expected Maverick to run and leave me behind. I wasn’t as fast as I would have liked even if one didn’t account for my short legs trying to get me through the deep snow that tended to hide dips that I could easily fall into and get stuck in. It was quite an easy prospect for me to think about, but I had no time to contemplate it before Maverick scooped me up into his arms, took a final glance back and froze. He couldn’t move.
“What is this? I can’t move!” I glanced over at the woman and found that she was holding her palm out to Maverick. There was a symbol on it similar to the one I had, but they were different. I had no time to even consider the differences. I covered Maverick’s eyes with my corresponding hand and he dropped me instantly and slumped to the ground. I really should have paid more attention to the boys’ magic lessons!
“Damnable woman, summoning magic she doesn’t understand!” I bit back a curse and moved to my feet between the now vulnerable scarecrow and the slowly approaching woman. I was really starting to wish I had kept the crowbar. Maybe if I could distract the woman and get her to follow me back to where I had dropped it, I might stand a chance against the pointy pitchfork. But how was I supposed to tick her off enough to do that?
“Little magic-brat, give me my rag doll back!” My mind raced until I finally cursed and shrugged at the woman.
“He isn’t yours any longer, farm-girl.” Her black eyes flared menacingly. This was going to be some great fun with the real psycho…
“Delusional little bitch!”
“Oh, the farm-girl knows some big words now? However, I am not delusional at all.” I bared my palm with the marking on it to her. It seemed to anger her further as she stopped and held the pitchfork tighter. The dark soul inside of her probably recognized it and transferred the information into her brain.
“Mädchen, what are you doing?” Maverick growled at me from the ground where he was trying to make his body accustom to whatever it was that had made him collapse. He didn’t seem to be accomplishing much.
“Maverick, hush; mommy and daddy are talking.” The woman actually hissed at me as if the sight of the mark on my hand burned her in some way. Maybe it did, but questions could be asked later.
“You little bitch, give me my rag doll back!” She swung the pitchfork at me, and I barely managed to dodge it. I ran for the place where I had dropped the crowbar as fast as I was able, but, even then, I could almost feel the woman gaining on me.
“Mädchen!” I barely heard Maverick as I jumped over the old fence. It must have been older than I thought because the post I used to brace my jump broke and I fell clumsily into the snow, feeling a flash of pain in my hand for an instant. I ignored it and moved to my feet again, looking around quickly for the crowbar that might actually help me survive this encounter. The whistle of the pitchfork as it was being swung at me was the only thing that helped me dodge the blow. I turned to face the woman, backing away as carefully as I was able and dodging every blow the woman tried to hit me with. I really hoped I could keep this up a little longer.
“Little bitch, hold still!” I found the crowbar by trying to walk over it. I fell flat onto my back as the woman swung at me. This wasn’t good! The woman stood over me, grinning maniacally as if she had just beaten a difficult opponent. She raised the pitchfork until her hands were above her head and the prongs were above my torso. I was frozen in place by panic. Even if I had been able to, I couldn’t have moved out of the way! I felt my body tremble from fear. I was numb to the cold. I heard someone shout my name just as the woman plunged the pitchfork’s prongs into my body, just below my ribs.
I couldn’t feel anything at first. I simply stared at the pitchfork protruding from my torso as if it had been thrust into someone else. Like watching a movie maybe. Then, slowly, the pain spread from the place where blood was flowing from the wounds. I felt the tears falling from my eyes and my fingers dig into the snow beneath me. The woman was laughing. Before I could fully process the information my brain was receiving already, the woman dug the pitchfork deeper into my body until I felt it pierce through my back and into the ground, trapping me in place as I screamed at the top of my lungs.
The pain… The pain was unbearable! It was making me cough and it was getting harder to pull air into my lungs as I dug my fingers into the snow even deeper. It wasn’t as if I could feel them anymore anyway. The dark sky above me was starting to blur even through my glasses. I was shocked those were still on after all that had happened. They were crooked, though. I heard a struggle close by. It didn’t really concern me. I was just trying to focus on my breathing.
Was someone calling my name? Maybe more than one someone… I couldn’t focus properly. Someone leaned over me as I began to cough again. Something wet was dripping from the corners of my mouth. I didn’t particularly care what it was at that point.
“Cassi…! Baby girl, please, look at me!” Was that Sitka’s voice? He sounded worried… That wasn’t normal, not that it particularly mattered at that moment. I wasn’t sure when my eyes had drifted shut, but I opened them and found a tearful Sitka leaning over me. It was so odd to see tears falling from those pretty red eyes, his black hair falling over his shoulders as he leaned over, not having tied it back as was the norm. He cupped my cheeks in his hands and leaned down to kiss my forehead. “Thank the gods, you’re not dead, but you have to stay still, baby girl, you hear me? Stay still.” My head was starting to spin. It was making me really dizzy…
“Sitka, how did…” He shushed me gently before he turned to yell at someone else. Someone grabbed the handle of the pitchfork. The pain that shot through my body as the prongs were jostled was so unbearable that it forced a scream from my throat that I almost believed wasn’t mine. It really sounded as if it had come from someone else, but the pain was my own and no one else’s. There was no mistaking that much.
I heard Sitka shout at whoever had pulled on the pitchfork, at which point, the person released it. The pain didn’t vanish by any means, but it was nowhere near as horrible as it had been. I coughed up more blood just as Duka settled beside Sitka, panicking and trying his best not to touch me to keep from hurting me further.
“Duka, can you help her?” Sitka pleaded with the genie, glancing back every few seconds as if making sure no one could sneak up on us. Duka scanned the injury, biting his thumb as tears welled in his eyes and fell.
“I… I don’t know… I don’t know!” Duka pulled at his hair a few seconds before he froze. His eyes darted blindly back and forth for several seconds while mine were starting to drift shut. The only reason my hazel eyes didn’t close was because Sitka would tap at my cheeks just enough to keep me awake.  
There was a flash of light beside Duka where a young girl appeared, looking to be the same age as Duka if one thought her a human. She didn’t look very happy to be there, her dark blonde hair falling to her shoulders when tied up at the back of her head, though, if released, it would fall to the small of her back. She had the same gray eyes with blue flecks of color, marking them as magic, as Duka did. She was dressed the same way any teenage girl would be in the snow unlike Duka who was still dressed in his vest and Arabian pants with no shoes.
“Duka, you know I…” Her tanned arms fell to her sides as she realized what was going on, but I couldn’t see the expression on her face very clearly when I saw her head turn to look at me. My vision was getting blurry and the most I could see was spots as it became harder to breathe and the pain slowly made me numb. Maybe I was going into shock…
“Please, Yami, you’ve got to help Little Master!” Yami loved her baby brother far too much to ignore such a plea, but I was having trouble concentrating on the words. I coughed again, more violently this time, and jarred my injury to the point that I was beginning to feel pain again. I felt Sitka wipe my face and heard him gasp moments later. I could feel my eyes were open, but they weren’t seeing anything.
“She’s coughing up blood, damn it! Yami, you need to make a decision and now! Put your petty differences aside! If anything, you owe her this much. She gave both you and your brother a home even after you tried to kill her the first time you met her!” Sitka was becoming panicky and shouting a lot more than usual. I wiggled my fingers a little to make sure I still could before I found Sitka’s hand beside mine. He had removed his hands from my face when he had turned to shout at Yami, I was sure. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again to see the blurry figures and circles I was used to without my glasses, but I couldn’t tell whether my spectacles were even still on my face by that point, but I could at least see that Sitka had turned to look at me again.
“Sitka… Calm down a little, okay? Shouting… won’t solve anything…” Someone else knelt down to my right side. It could have been Maverick, but my vision was too blurry for me to be positive.
“How could this happen, Yami? I gave her protective magic! She shouldn’t have gotten hurt!” I could hear tears in Duka’s voice. It hurt more that I upset them this badly than the pitchfork protruding from my body did.
A few seconds passed in silence before I heard Yami make a sound of triumph. She hated to see her brother upset as much as I did, so I was sure she would help. It was just a matter of whether or not they could find a way to help before I drifted off for the last time. “There’s a mark on her right hand!” Someone traced the pattern on my hand as I tried to force myself to stay awake through the pain and the cold. “Scarecrow, pull the pitchfork out.” Yami sounded irritably calm by that point, but at least Maverick was awake.
“Is… Is Maverick… all right? I can’t… I can’t see anything…” A few seconds of silence ensued where I realized that my eyes were open yet I still couldn’t see anything.
“I’m fine, Wenig Ein. Just relax.” I nodded slightly and reflexively squeezed my eyes shut as I fit the air shift where Maverick had likely stood, ready to pull the pitchfork out.
“How deep is it, baby girl?” Sitka was trying not to sound worried, but his voice kept cracking as he spoke.
“A… All the way through… Into the ground…” A few more seconds of silence passed between the people above me.
“Sitka, keep her still. Maverick, when she’s secure, pull fast and pull hard. Do not hesitate.” Even Yami sounded worried about the situation and she hated me with quite the serious passion. I felt Sitka place his hands at my shoulders and lean his weight into his hands while, I assumed it was Duka, lay across my legs.
The moment I was sure I couldn’t move, no matter how hard I managed to try, Maverick pulled. I screamed in such a high pitch that my voice was lost and I could only grit my teeth to squelch the pain. It felt like days of pain running back and forth throughout my body and centering on my wound rather than the moment or two it took for Maverick to remove the pitchfork from the ground and out of my body. The moment it was free, my breathing came faster. I could feel myself losing blood and losing it fast. I kept getting flashes of my vision back at random where I saw everyone rush about. I barely heard Yami shouting to Duka.
“Duka, come here! Put your hands here!” Four hands were placed on the wound, but I couldn’t scream anymore. I could only gasp, trying to get air into my lungs and failing terribly. I heard the genies begin to mutter and whisper as magic flowed from their hands and into my injured stomach. Sitka squeezed my left hand as an unbearable heat rushed into my body from where their hands lay.
There was a lot of pain… Far too much pain, but I had to endure it. I gritted my teeth, forcing myself not to bite down on my tongue as the seconds dragged into minutes of this heat and pain. When everything stopped, I was too shocked to want to move. I felt as if I would feel the pain again if I tried to. Besides, I had no strength left. I felt the pull of exhaustion, but I couldn’t sleep. Not yet; I had to know if it was over, if I had survived the chaos and pain of that day.
“Baby girl, open your eyes and look at us, please!” I could hear Sitka’s pleading. Did that mean I was alive? I was so scared of moving, afraid the pain might come back and finish the job it had started. I wasn’t even trying to breathe for fear the pain would start again. I couldn’t even find the courage to open my eyes to reassure Sitka that I was still alive, but that was only if I actually was alive. I still couldn’t be sure.
I felt feminine hands on my cheeks. Those could only belong to Yami. What was she doing? If anyone wanted to see me dead, it was most definitely the genie who believed I had forced her baby brother to be my slave. “You must open your eyes. Push past the fear of feeling more pain or you will never awaken, and if that should happen, I will make doubly sure your next lives are far more painful than this event has been for making my brother weep over you.” She was right. Not about the threats and the painful lives I would endure, but the rest wasn’t wrong. I had to open my eyes at least. Try to move and push past the fear I felt so strongly.
Yami removed her hands without another word as I forced myself to curl my fingers. I barely managed a twitch, but it was still movement. It felt as if I were coming out of a deep sleep that wanted to swallow me back into my dreams. After a few more seconds of twitching, of which no one commented on, I gasped and opened my eyes as if my lungs had only then remembered how to take in air after being suffocated by water. My entire body burned for several seconds before the pain receded and all I could feel was exhaustion and a bit of soreness as if I had exercised far too much too fast in one day. I couldn’t see anything and for a second, I began to panic. The panic was only squelched when Sitka set my glasses back on my nose. I didn’t remember him taking them off, but he must have done it after I lost my vision.
But I could see again… I looked for Maverick first and he was leaning over me just as nervously as Sitka and Duka were while Yami had her arms crossed and looking bored but her body was just as tense as the others. I found a pair of blue silk gloves floating over my head when I laid my head back to take another breath. I slowly pulled my arms to brace my upper body and push me into a sitting position. I would have fallen over had Sitka, Maverick, and Diro not taken hold of my shoulders.
“I think I’m okay…” Without warning, Sitka pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms tightly around my shoulders. The jostling forced a yelp from my throat, which made Sitka loosen his hold and relax a little. “I’m not a rag doll, Mr. Cranky-Pants.” He actually laughed into my shoulder, though it was more a nervous chuckle than anything else.
Duka wrapped his arms about my neck and nearly choked me, pressing his face into the back of my shoulder since Sitka had seated me in his lap with my back to the genie. “While you lot continue with your lovey-dovey attitudes, I will be going back to my previous duties of finding a way to free Duka.”
“Yami, wait a minute.” Yami halted her vanishing act for a moment, though I couldn’t see the expression on her face.
“What do you want now?” I managed a tired smile even though she couldn’t see it.
“Thank you.” She said nothing else for several seconds and I almost thought she had gone until she muttered something under her breath.
“You’re welcome.” Then she was gone. Suddenly I remembered the farm-woman who had nearly managed to kill me.  
“What happened to the woman who attacked me?” Sitka squeezed slightly while Duka pulled back and sat closer to lean against Sitka’s side. Under normal circumstances, the crimson-eyed man would have complained, but he didn’t bother this time.
“Diro took care of her. Not in the usual way.” I leaned my head against Sitka’s chest. This was surprisingly comfortable…
“I hope he didn’t kill her. She was possessed by a dark soul. She would need an exorcist before she was given over to the police.” I felt Sitka’s gaze shift, more than likely to look at Maverick who hadn’t moved closer.
“Not this man, I hope.” I shook my head.
“He’s a scarecrow. He’s a dark soul, too, but he’s the good kind.” I shivered visibly. “It’s really cold all of a sudden.”
“The temperature is dropping. We have to get you warm before you freeze to death.” I didn’t remember much after that aside from a few whispered words as I began to drift off in Sitka’s arms after he’d managed to stand up and begun to walk. I couldn’t tell which direction, but, then again, I didn’t particularly care all that much at that moment either.
“How did this happen exactly? We’ve been searching for the Little Master for the last hour. To come upon this is… expected, actually…” That was Diro’s voice, slowly followed by a silk glove squeezing my shoulder. The question wasn’t directed at me, however.
“She was trying to lead the woman away from me when I was made immobile. She had tried to find a weapon to help protect herself against that woman, which was why I was so far away.” Maverick mumbled so low that I could barely hear him, but the others became quiet and continued to walk.
“I couldn’t let her hurt Maverick…” I barely managed to mutter under my breath, but no one commented back to me. That was probably for the best. I was so tired… “Hey… Make sure Maverick comes with us. Be nice to him… He’s our new roommate…” I heard a stunned sputtering, but I didn’t stay awake long enough to hear whatever protests the scarecrow wanted to make.