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"Returning to Camp" (a story fragment by TippyDeVil for Thursday Prompt)

    As Kara and Manacle returned to their campsite with the young Charles, the sun was just coming down to the tops of the mountains.  Kara walked a few paces ahead of the man and boy, even though her excellent tracking talents were not needed to find the remote but rustically improved campsite where Manacle had left their supplies earlier.  It was simply her habit to walk a pace or too removed from her companions.  Manacle walked behind the boy as he followed Kara and noticed that Charles actually stumbled a couple of times because he was watching Kara more intently than he was watching where he was walking.  
    Odd, since Kara looked very intentionally as unremarkable as possible.  True, there was not much to be done about her height, a shade over six feet, but otherwise she had an average build and average hair of a very average color of brown.  Manacle guessed that Charles was probably well into puberty since his skin was starting to coarsen with the shade of a future beard and his voice had done strange things when he was excited.  Perhaps he simply looked after every female that way.  
    Manacle himself was many years past puberty and had the look of a man thirty-some years old who was in excellent shape but still rough in the face from too long in the sun and never bothering to pamper himself.  He showed a little grey hair around the temples, but he had shown grey hair for years.
    As they entered the campsite, Kara turned and glanced at Charles before speaking to Manacle.  "I'll go fetch some water."  
    The trees around the campsite would be very dark soon, though the clearing would stay light for a little while, not that it is much of a problem for Kara, since her night vision was exceptional.  It was her usual habit to do some scouting around the camp before settling down for the night.  Well, as settled as she ever got.  Manacle knew that Kara would cover a lot more ground than the path to the stream.  She could move pretty fast when she wanted to.
    As she left the clearing for the walk down to the stream to get water she growled over her shoulder, "You'd better start a fire before your new friend catches his death."
    The boy is indeed cold, since he has only dark blue t-shirt on, and the the evenings get cold quickly, even in early fall.  Still, something in the boy's pride won't let him take too much help.  "I'm fine. I spend a lot of time out here."
    Manacle didn't say anything immediately.  He could see the boy was cold.  The boy was rubbing his hands on the denim of his pants and looking a little longingly at the cold ashes in the fire ring.  Finally, he smiled at the boy, "Charles, did you say your name was?"
    "Yeah."
    "Would you do me a favor and help me with a fire?  If you could pick out a few of the smaller sticks while I get my tinder box, we'll have a fire started in a few minutes."
    "I've made fires before."  Charles had actually made a great many of them, since he spent most of his days wandering the woods, and spent his nights at the campgrounds at the bottom of the valley.  He was sure of his hands as he assembled the tepee of kindling over the pile of fluff and charred paper out of Manacle's tinder box.
    "I've made a few fires myself, though Kara has no faith in me."  Manacle pulled a silver lighter out of one of the many pockets of his long coat and knelt beside the pile of tinder and kindling.  "Of course, some technology has it's benefits."  As he struck the flint wheel and started the tinder, he could feel Charles trying to decide how to ask something.  Finally, after the first flare of flames had died down and the larger logs had been laid over the new embers to catch fire, Charles spoke.
    "Sir . . ,"
    "Yes?"
    "When those or. . .  orch . . ."
    "Orc wolves . . ?
    "Yeah, those.  When they came toward me in the ravine, I'm pretty sure I saw you light an entire tree on fire by yelling at it."
    "It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it I suppose.  Why?"
    "If you can do that, why do you have to build a fire like this?"
    Manacle is momentarily taken aback.  After his display of power in trying to shield the boy from the orc wolves, he had expected a great deal more disbelief from this boy who had no experience with such magic on this world.  Instead, Charles skipped the denial of what he had seen that was usual for the humans of this world and instead questioned for more information.  Interesting.  "Well, that particular spell is a lot more inferno than we really need to start a campfire.  Besides, there can be great peace in doing things the longer way when you have the time.  It can give you something to do with your hands so they don't get in the way of your thinking."
    "And witchfire makes the meat taste funny," added Kara from just outside the glow of the fire as she sat a bucket of fresh water on the ground.
    Charles was startled by her sudden reappearance, and almost completely jumped up from where he was sitting.  He is not used to being surprised, since he can usually hear any animals moving in the forest around him.  Manacle, however, just stood and turned toward her.  After all the time Manacle and Kara have spent together, she can still sneak up on him, but not very often.
    Manacle spoke to Kara while Charles got settled by the fire again. "Did you see any sign of any more offworld beasts?"  
    "No, and there was very little sign of the ones we saw.  They weren't here very long."
    "Any sign of a breach?"
    "No.  Probably a one-way ticket."
    "That makes sense.  They probably just wandered into a shaman's circle that hadn't been closed properly and their natural magic reactivated it."  He walked back toward the fire and sat down on the stone beside where Charles was sitting.  "They just ended up on this world on accident."
    Kara squinted at Manacle for a moment.  "Maybe, but breach of the Quarantine is breach of the Quarantine, so here we stay until we know more."
    "While you were out and about," asked Manacle, "did you happen to find anything fresh to eat, or do I need to start boiling water to soak some jerky?"
    "I got a couple of squirrels,  they'll be cleaned shortly."
    As she retreated into the darkness to prepare the squirrels, Charles watched her walk out of the firelight, squinting and turning his head slightly as if trying to focus on something through a fog or haze of smoke.
    Manacle looked down at him for a moment. "Charles?"
    "Humm?"
    "Were you looking for something?"
    "Nothing, I'm probably just . . . Nothing."
    Manacle doubted it, but he didn't say anything as Kara brought the squirrels, already laced onto some saplings, to put them over the fire.  She had said she had a "couple," but had, in fact, caught a couple extra and put the larger one on the fire near Charles.  Manacle noticed this as well, but decided it would be best not to say anything as they waited for the meat to cook and ate in relative silence.  Kara chewed on her skewer to get the last good bits as the others threw their skewers in the fire.  Charles kept looking at her out of the corner of his eyes.  He seemed about to say something to her several times, but Kara looking in his direction always silenced him.  Finally he spoke, but to nobody in particular.   "I guess I'm glad you came along to send those beasts back were they came from.  They were so horrible."
    Manacle spoke quietly, "Orc wolves are pretty shocking to someone who isn't familiar with them, but they have a home too, and we just try to put things right as much as we can.  That's our job, just trying to hold the barrier of the Quarantine."
    "Well, thanks.  Even if they are 'normal' in their own world, I'm glad they're quarantined there."
    Kara snorted, " . .they're quarantined!!  Just a minute . . ."
    Manacle put up his hand and spoke over her, "Take it easy, he's just a little ignorant of some points of history."
    Kara stood.  "Ignorant, indeed."  She looked down at Charles.  "I suppose most of them are.  I will be gathering more firewood."  She stalked off into the woods and it occurred to Charles that, even as visibly upset as she was, she still made no noise when she walked.
    Charles looked hurt.  "What did I say?  I was trying to thank you."
    Manacle took a deep breath and tried to explain.  "I know, and it's not your fault.  Some of the people of this world have been very . . . unkind to her in the past and I'm afraid she still holds a certain amount of hard feelings for humans."  Manacle realized his choice of words and stopped, wondering if Charles would realize it as well.  He did.
    "Isn't she a . . ."
    "Human?  Well, no."
    Charles digested this for a moment then spoke again.  "I suppose that would explain the tail."
    "You can see her tail?"  
    "Sometimes I think I see it, but sometimes I'm not sure, like I'm imagining things."
    This was remarkable, indeed.  Charles seemed to be able to see some aspects of Kara's true form, even if the glimpses were fleeting.  Manacle decided he was glad he was getting to know the boy better instead of simply seeing him back to civilization and vanishing him from the boys life again.  
    Charles shook his head and looked into the fire.  "I didn't mean to make her angry."
    "Don't worry, if she though you meant it she would have taken your head off in a much more literal fashion."
    "Why does the beasts' quarantine bother her so much?"
    Now Manacle looked into the fire while he searched for words.  "Well, the beasts you saw were something you certainly had never seen walking around in this world before, but in the end they are just that, beasts.  They seemed to be feral, which means they were just doing what comes naturally.  We had to send them back because they breached the Quarantine, but it is not their world that is quarantined, but yours."
     "Why is my world quarantined?"
    "Well, many years ago, before most but the longest lived of creatures was alive, this world, like most, had many different peoples on it, most of them in forms that you would call human, and a few in other forms as well.  Like most young worlds it was very alive with magic, or mana, or whatever these various peoples called the magical energy that flows through them and connects them.
    Charles raised an eyebrow, ". . . like the Force?
    Manacle looked at Charles and smiled.  "That is what one man's imagination called that sort of thing, yes.  And indeed, in some peoples it manifests very much like that while others follow a different path."  Again he looked into the fire and searched for words.  "Most of what we can gather on this world has been passed down in fractured and nearly disbelieved myths, legends, and children's stories. At any rate, some people were particularly adept at various feats of power, and they became known as priestesses, or shamans, or whatever.  Most of them were solitary, or belonged to small tribes or villages.  However, some organized or inspired larger groups that accomplished many wonderful feats . . . and a few not so wonderful follies. Eventually, one group came to great power and sought to spread that over the entire world.  The followers believed that theirs was the only 'true' faith and many of their followers went to great lengths to spread their power."
    "Sounds like some of the stupid missionaries that used to come to knock on our door.  I don't blame her if she doesn't like them."
    Manacle shook his head.  "Now Kara has a habit of judging all humans of this world by some misguided individuals, but the fact is, they were just that, misguided.  Even if the motives of some might be, well, less than pure, most of the followers genuinely believed then, as most missionaries do know, that they were doing what was best for humanity.  However, they went about it a very destructive manner.  Temples were torn down, circles broken, and many of the magicians were forced into hiding."
    ". . . and some of them were burned like so much kindling." Kara had returned and dropped a load of wood noisily on the ground.  "Then when they ran out of proper 'witches,' they started executing people who couldn't even call a familiar just because they were on such a roll."
    "Yes," agreed Manacle, "there were some pretty serious atrocities."
    "It's bad enough they had to screw up their own world, but they caused so much bloody havoc that they were cut off from the other realms before they tore them up as well."
    Charles was looking back and forth between the others.  "Couldn't anybody just stop them?"
    Manacle sighed. "Most realms do not interfere in others internal affairs . . ."
    "Your mess, your problem," Kara added.
    "  . . . but, they were causing so much damage to the channels that connect the worlds and realms, that a group of the powers of the other realms finally cut off this world from all others."
    "Left this world to rot and good riddance."
    "What happened to them?"  Charles wanted to know.  "I mean, if they were so powerful why aren't they in power now?
    Smiling for the first time, Kara answered, "Their castle fell out of the sky."
    "Huh?"
    Manacle tried to explain.  "Well, we are not entirely sure, since the other realms were cut off and the information that remains on this world is fragmentary at best, but the closest we have been able to figure is that they caused so much damage to the lay lines and channels of power that the whole structure just collapsed in a great Cataclysm, and nothing magical worked.
    "They destroyed magic?"
    Kara snorted a short laugh. "You don't destroy magic, boy. It destroys you."
    "What my very abrupt companion is trying to say is that magic is a part of life, although a part that many folks are insensitive to.  Magic wasn't destroyed so much as shattered or broken.  When the magical order was so thoroughly muddled and chaotic that it ceased to work for anyone consistently the power of the organization was also broken because they found they were bailing water in the same leaky boat as everyone else.  Many simply went mad from the chattering of familiars they could no longer control and some were destroyed by the peoples that they had treated so badly.  We are not even sure which of several possible organizations might be behind is since there was so much altered and destroyed."
    "I don't normally condone eating other sentient beings," said Kara, "but some so richly deserve it."  
    Charles noticed that he could really see her eyes clearly for the first time and they looked like flashing gems somewhere between garnet and obsidian.  He realized he was probably looking at the last thing those squirrels ever saw.  He was glad to know that it wasn't his imagination and there was more to Kara than appeared at first glace.  Probably much more.  Like a ranger with some inborn sense of animals, this comforted him far more than it frightened him.
    "That reminds me," Kara continued, "I've got some jerky in my bag, I think I'm still hungry."  She turned and walked a few feet away and, as she left the firelight and the shadows fell over her, Charles was sure this time, just for a moment, that he saw her tail, swishing a bit like a pleased feline.
    "Anyway," Manacle tried to continue as if he hadn't seen it as well, "with magical power apparently broken, many people just renounced magic entirely, since it didn't seem to work anymore, and eventually it was something of legend and myth.  Even people who might have believed that magic worked at one time believed that the world had 'moved on' and that magic was a part of the distant past."
    "So magic doesn't work here?"  Charles puzzled, trying to keep up even though it was getting late and he had certainly had a tiring day.  "What about what I saw today?"
    "No, magic still works, but most people here don't know how to use it anymore.  After the Cataclysm, the power that was shattered eventually settled into new patterns, and the few people sensitive to magic that remained went about learning how things had changed, although with patience, they found that many things had stayed the same. I'm not sure this world will ever regain the power that it once had but it has settled down enough for the other realms to tentatively allow some connections.  One of the conditions of these connections is an organization whose purpose is to patrol the world in order to prevent intentional breaches of the Quarantine outside of approved channels as well as investigate natural and accidental transports across the gap between the worlds . . .
    "Nothing like a history lesson to put a boy to sleep," Kara observed.
    Manacle looked down at Charles, his eyes closed and his breathing regular as he slept. "I suppose so.  He has such an agile mind and so inquisitive . . . . he can see your tail you know."
    "He smells like a shaman."
    "Yeah, this flat-faced human muzzle isn't much help, but the wolf in me feels it when I touch his hand.  A latent beast-master do you suppose?  That might explain why the orc wolves were drawn to him.
    Kara shook her head once.  "Orc wolves are solitary.  Three of them in a forest this size that close together?  Three of them to 'happen' to catch that scent at once?  I doubt it."
    "Then you think someone was responsible?"
    "Someone.  Something.  I don't think it was just bad luck.  I noticed that you neglected to mention there are still remnants of the bastards responsible for the cataclysm active in this world."
    "Do you blame them for all the harmful magic that happens here?"
    "I'm usually right.  They may not instigate every plot or devious deed here, but if you follow dark magic far enough, you'll find their dirty little paws mixed up in it."
    Manacle didn't have any reply to that.