Grandma and the Wizards

As a kid, Grandma used to tell us stories about the wizards of old, humans with amazing power. They could obliterate entire cities by reading incantations from ordinary sheets of paper. The evil mages would often roam through the night. They would kidnap naughty kids and do terrible things to them. Those were Granny’s scary stories, and we believed them. None of us Caninefolk pups in the village would dare stay outside after sunset.

By the time I was a teenager, I realized no one in our village, Beastfolk or humans, had ever seen a mage. Though everyone knew the scary stories. So one day, when Grandma brought it up as usual, I laughed. I told her I'd no longer get scared by her wizard-boogieman stories. I expected her to get annoyed and admonish me or something. But she didn’t. Instead, to my surprise, she just stood there in her armchair. Her knitting hand froze in place, her ears pricked. Her pupils tightened, shrinking away from something only she could see.

“Swear to me, Irele, my dear puppy, that if you ever come across a mage, you will run for your life! This old, frail woman has seen with her own eyes how ruthless and deadly mages can be…”

Knowing her as a strong-spirited Caninefolk, it was the only time in my entire life that I had seen fear in her eyes. So I nodded, promising I would follow her words. Years passed, and I became a forest ranger. I met many people and knew the lands around the village by heart. And even after Grandma sadly passed away, I still kept my promise to her.

Until today.