Children's story, part five (which is really chapter 14, The Return of Sir Knight) (Patreon)

Okay, I got my rambling "parts" into a word document and replaced the spacers with chapter numbers and titles.  I have 30K words of this, and I'm still going strong.  Anyway, here's chapter 14.

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A dull red light hit the chain-link fencing, making it rattle just as Dakota was crawling through the gap on the far side. Faye screamed, her voice high and frightened.

“Keep running,” Fikru yelled before she jerked Faye forward with so much force that she almost lost her footing.

“Not helping,” Faye yelled.

“Run faster,” Fikru responded. Dakota came up behind them, his feet pounding the pavement.

“This way!” Dakota detoured through a parking lot with signs that threatened to tow anyone who dared to park in it, and several dozen old cars had dared.

“Where?” Fikru asked as she ran after him. She pulled Faye along even though Faye gasped for air.

“Pet store!” People at the pet store were more willing to help. In most of Chicago, he could scream, and people would just walk around him. Or maybe it was only his neighborhood where people were so concerned about minding their own business that they would step over someone laying in their own vomit.

But pet people were different. And pet people often brought their pets to the store. It would only take a couple German shepherds or dobermans or rottweilers or pit bulls to convince someone to back off. Those breeds were big on protecting people, and even if they weren't friendly in general, they were usually pretty good about listening to Dakota’s calls for help.

“Stop!” The man behind them yelled.

Fikru practically tossed Faye behind a dumpster. “Gross!” Faye yelled.

“Duck,” Fikru shouted and a half second later something heavy and slimy slid through the air where Dakota had been and hit the block wall. It was semi-transparent with the thickness of snot as it slid down the wall.

Fikru pulled out her blue speckled stone and aimed it in the other man's direction before firing off five or six spells. The man seemed to block each with a casual wave of his hand. “Forget being nice, blast him with a big spell,” Faye shouted.

“I'm eleven. What big spells do you think I know?” Fikru shot off several more spells that didn’t seem to do anything.

Faye punched the air, and the gentle scent of poop and garbage floated by on a breeze. That was Faye’s big spell. Dakota was fairly sure that spell worked better against obnoxious brothers than adult attackers.  However the guy did fall back a step and wrinkle his nose in disgust.

“Come on.” Dakota grabbed Fikru's wrist and pulled her toward the side of the building. She ran with him, pulling Faye along.

“We can’t do spells around prosaics,” Faye protested as the sound of traffic grew louder. Dakota was more concerned about rules like not getting kidnapped or not getting blasted by magic or not getting attacked by adults. All of those rules seemed more important than not doing magic in public, not that he could do magic at all.

They turned the corner, and Dakota stopped when he spotted a new chain-link fence at least 6 feet tall between the parking lot in the front of the pet store. “Climb,” Dakota said as he panted for breath.

“What? How?” Faye stopped by crashing into the fence and clinging to it.

“Levitate,” Fikru said sharply.

“Oh yeah. I can do that.” Faye rotated her hand in a circular motion near her waist and started to rise. With her other hand, she held on to the fence, pulling herself up.

Dakota stuck his toes into the fence’s openings and started climbing as fast as he could. He was halfway up before he realized that Fikru was on the ground. “Fikru, come on.”

“Get to the top. I'm faster levitating, so I'll cover you until you're at the top.”

“No. Come on.”

“Climb, you idiot,” Fikru snapped. The man appeared around the corner and Dakota wanted to stay and protect Fikru. A kid might not be able to fight an adult, the three kids could. But he also wanted to get to the top so that Fikru would follow. Caught between those two urges, he hung from the fence not willing to climb higher or drop back down to the ground.

Faye reached the top and swung one leg over the fence. “Both of you, get up here.”

The man fired another snotty spell, and it hit Fikru even though she tried to dodge. She pulled madly at her foot, which seemed to be glued to the ground. Dakota dropped to the pavement and picked up palm-sized rocks that had been dumped in a pile next to the building.

“Go away!” He threw the first rock even though the man was well out of range. Surprisingly, the rock flew in an arc high and then descended toward the guy with disturbing accuracy. The guy threw a hand up and the air shimmered, creating a shield over his head that the stone bounced off. But if he was shielding himself from rocks, he wasn't attacking. That was good enough for Dakota. He threw rock after rock with all his might. “Leave us alone! Get out of here!”

Faye dropped back down on the near side of the fence and helped Fikru cast some sort of spell at her trapped foot over and over until it came free. “Go away,” Dakota yelled, wishing that someone would come to their aid because he was running out of rocks.

The girls both circled their hands and started rising, and Fikru was much faster than Faye. She got to the top and straddled the fence before jerking Faye the rest of the way up and helping her over. Once Faye dropped to the ground on the other side, Fikru yelled, “I’ll cover you.”

Dakota threw a couple more stones and then scrambled up the fence as fast as he could. Fikru fired spell after spell, her arm recoiling each time a flash of light left her blue speckled stone.

“I can't hold them. Hurry up,” she called.

“I wish I had a wand to amplify my spells,” Faye said as she attacked, at least two of her spells contributed to the stench of rotting garbage on the air.

“Climb faster,” Fikru yelled.

Dakota didn't even spare the breath it would've taken him to point out that he was climbing as fast as he could. Toes did not work as well as levitation charms. Another snot spell flew past him, and for a moment Dakota felt like he had stuck his hand in a bowl of damp, chewed gum. He jerked, but his hand was stuck fast. Panic crawled up his spine but then he heard a familiar voice.

“Don't you attack my flock! I was bred to kill wolves! I was bred to kill lions! I will tear your throat out if you touch my goat,” Sir Knight insisted as he came running around the far corner of the building, his tail high and curled tightly over his butt as he raced toward them. “How dare you attack my goat.”

“Sir Knight!” Dakota yelled.

“Don't ‘Sir Knight’ me, foolish goat. How dare you stand in the path of a predator.” Despite his words, Sir Knight never broke his focus on their pursuer. Snarling and with his shoulder hair all standing on end in a furious imitation of a lion's mane, Sir Knight charged the strange mage.

At the last second, the guy stepped to the side and disappeared in a shimmer. Dakota thought Sir Knight would be happy to have chased away the enemy, but he didn't break stride as he ran toward them. “There are more. This way,” Sir Knight yelled as he took a ninety degree turn and started racing toward the convenience store.

“We need to follow him,” Dakota said as he ripped his hand free from the chain-link fence and dropped to the ground.

“What? Why are we following a dog?” Faye sounded panicky and out of breath.

“Dakota knows the neighborhood. Get up here,” Fikru shouted. She leaned down and held a hand toward Faye.

Circling her hand in the air furiously, Faye started rising. “I guess this is one way to practice a levitation charm,” she said. She was getting faster. Fikru pulled her the rest of the way up and then both dropped back to the ground on the near side of the fence.

“Hurry up!” Sir Knight barked. He was so angry he bounced on his front feet so it looked like he was pounding his fists against the pavement. Dakota stopped until the girls caught up with them, and then he grabbed each by a hand and started running.

“This way,” Sir Knight yelled. “They'll avoid other people.” Sir Knight reached the front of the convenience store and stopped, waiting for them to catch up. Even though he had stopped shouting, Dakota could still see how angry he was by the way his legs were stiff and the hair on his back stood on end. Sir Knight wanted to bite someone.

Sir Knight started walking quickly. He froze in the middle of the street, his nose in the air has he scented it. “Hide,” he said softly, his voice a little more than a wine. Dakota looked around wildly before pulling the two girls between a pair of parked cars and ducking down. Faye opened her mouth to say something, but Dakota held his finger over his lips.

Fikru pulled be a mirror out of her pocket and whispered breathlessly, “Magic mirror call my father.”

Sir Knight shouted, “Now!” with a single bark Dakota darted after Sir Knight, pulling both girls with him. On his right, Fikru asked her father to send help, but when he asked for a location, she fell silent.

Sir Knight led them back to the gap in the fence where they had first ducked into the alley.

“Why are we back here?” Faye asked.

“Exactly where is here?” Fikru asked a little louder.

“There's a hiding place.” Dakota pushed Faye through the fence.

Fikru's father was shouting now, demanding answers about where they were and who was firing spells at them, but Dakota shoved her towards the gap and then followed. They could call for help once they were hidden.

Sir Knight stood by the broken-out basement window that led to his den. Faye stood eight or ten feet away, feet frozen to the pavement. For a half second, Dakota thought she’d been hit by a snot spell, but then she started backing away. “That dog looks really angry,” she whispered.

“He is. He doesn't like people attacking kids.”

“Especially not when one of the children is my goat,” Sir Knight said fiercely. “If anyone tries to kill you, I will show them that I have five thousand years of breeding, and I can defeat any enemy.” Sir Knight’s barking was not reassuring the girls, but Dakota pulled Faye over to the broken-out window.

“We’ll be safe in there.” He pushed her towards the window, desperate to get all of them inside before the bad guy came back.

“If I get eaten by a prosaic dog, my ghost is going to haunt you, and in the magical world, that is not an empty threat,” Faye said before she slid into the window feetfirst.

“Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up,” Sir Knight snapped. Dakota waited while Fikru slid into the low basement and followed her. Inside it was dark, but Faye had already cast a tiny light that hovered above her palm. Then Sir Knight slid into the den and hurried toward the far corner, all three of them bent over awkwardly and hurrying after him in the cramped space. Sir Knight’s actual den was behind a structural wall that only went halfway through the space, so all of them got behind the wall where they couldn't be seen from the entrance before collapsing in the dirt and panting.

“I think there's a spider crawling on me, and I don't have enough energy to care,” Faye said.

Fikru shoved the mirror towards Dakota. “You explain to him where we are because I don't know.” Fikru summoned her own tiny light to drive back some of the darkness. Sir Knight planted himself between them and the entrance, panting with exertion but his body still stiff with anger.

“Um, okay.” Dakota looked in the mirror and saw the dark face of a very angry man who was so close to the mirror that all Dakota could see was an eye and a cheek and half of a nose. Dakota gave Fikru’s father their cross streets and the name of the stores on either side of the alley where they were hiding before he handed the mirror back to Fikru and collapsed in the dirt.

“What trouble have you found now, impudent young goat?” Sir Knight asked.

“I don't know. I was just coming to find you.” Dakota answered. “I didn’t want to leave you behind.”

“Next time if there's a choice between looking for me or keeping yourself safe, you had better keep yourself safe, foolish goat. I am a noble and ancient breed, and I can take care of myself. You are a young fool. You need to stay somewhere safe.” Normally Dakota would argue that point, but right now, he suspected Sir Knight didn’t want to hear it.

Fikru clicked her mirror shut and narrowed her eyes at Dakota. “Are you talking to the dog?”

“Of course. If I didn’t talk to him, he’d be even angrier.”

“I would,” Sir Knight agreed.

The girls looked at each other.

“What? We’re mages. We talk to dogs. Right?” Anxiety gnawed at Dakota’s stomach as the girls looked at him with huge, alarmed expression.

“No,” Faye blurted. “No, we do not talk to dogs. Mages do not talk to dogs. That is not a thing.”

“To be more accurate, mages don’t understand when dogs talk back,” Fikru said as she studied him. “Usually.”

Great. Dakota had found one more way he was weird. The day was getting better by the second.