Amidst the rubble of my former home stood a tall man in dark clothing.

“A mage was here. And he escaped. Conduct a mana purge and get a squad together. I’m going into the forest.”

“Yes, liege.”

–

As luck would have it, no other animals attempted to make a meal of us during my watch. I looked through the spellbook for other spells it might be useful to learn. This volume appeared to contain mostly spells intended for combat. I couldn’t find anything that would allow me to conjure water, but I did pick up a spell that allowed for the healing of wounds attained in battle. I cast it on Michael as he was sleeping and smiled with satisfaction as the few minor cuts and bruises he had acquired escaping the castle vanished before my eyes. He would wake up feeling pretty good. Then I cast it on myself, hoping to rid myself of the bruise on my shoulder that I had acquired when Michael had dropped me to fight off those soldiers. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

“Fuckin’ shitty useless over-specialized magic.” I grumbled aloud. Michael would have recognized my tone as stealthily silly if he were awake, but he was sound asleep.

I tried to look for more spells, but at this point even looking at the book was making me sleepy. I had to stay awake so we didn’t both get mauled, so I elected to walk in circles for a while instead. It was strange that I had been so tired recently, as I was usually a very light and short sleeper. On the other hand, finding out you can do magic and having your home destroyed would probably wear out anyone.

When the moon was high I had long since been tired, so I nudged Michael’s shoulder with my foot. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”

“Muh… guh… but I don’t wanna go to school today, mommy! I wanna stay home and bake cookies with youuuu!”

“I ain’t your mommy, boy. I don’t even like kids. I do like cookies, but that’s beside the point. Get up and watch for monsters so I can sleep.”

“Roger wilco.” said Michael, now sitting upright. “Anything big comes though, I’m waking you so you can roast it.”

–

Michael spent most of his shift tending to the fire, as he couldn’t relight it if it went out. Soon the moon was low again and signs of the sun were starting to break over the horizon. In fairness, the time I was entitled to sleep was probably up by the time the monster came.

Michael saw movement in the distance. Then he saw a large biped with one eye and a club step out into the clearing.

“Hey, Jenna. Wake up, your services are required.”

I did not stir.

“Jenna!” he just about rolled me over with his foot. Nothing. The ogre charged.

“FFUUUUUUUUUU-”

–

I woke up with a sharp pain in my leg.

“So, ” said Michael “a monster came but you wouldn’t wake up. I killed it the old way. He crushed one of my arms and one of my feet before I could take him out, and he probably broke your leg, too. That had me pretty depressed until I found this.” He held up the spellbook with his remaining arm, opened to the page of the healing spell. “All I had to do was hope you would eventually wake up.”

I cast the spell from memory, and the results were miraculous. Within seconds Michael was healed as good as new. I cast it on myself and my leg mended flawlessly and the pain went away.

“WOO-HOO!” hollered Michael. “Jenna, that’s AWESOME!”