Chapter Text
“Hisirdoux Casperan.” Zoe greeted, leaning against the door frame of GDT Arcane books. Douxie looked up and grinned. “You on cafe duty tonight or can we go hunt some shadow mephits?”
“I’m off tonight.” Douxie said, putting the last few books away. “We can start here and work our way to the canals?”
“I’ll race you there.” Zoe teased.
“No magic?” Douxie asked. “And we stop if we see a mephit.”
“Sure.” Zoe said. Douxie followed her outside. They started to run towards the canal. Douxie’s longer legs giving him an advantage. Not that Zoe wasn’t above nudging him out of the way when she could. They made it all the way to the canal, panting heavily.
“I win.” Zoe said half bent over, clutching a stitch.
“I think you’ll find it was my win.” Douxie said, stretching his back and getting his breathing under control much faster than she was.
“No way.” Zoe argued, panting as she stood up straight. “Face it man bun, I won.”
“I never should have told you about that.” Douxie said with regret. “Tie?” He offered as a compromise.
“Tie.” Zoe agreed. She looked around the canal. “Let’s get to work.”
The shadow mephits were easy to find if you knew where to look. The creepy things lurked in alleyways and shadows. Looking for unsuspecting cats and other small creatures. Douxie was illuminating the dark places while Zoe held her wand at the ready. It was half way back into town before they found anything. They spotted something slinking around and chased after it. Instead of finding one shadow mephit, several were prowling around. They snarled at the sudden light, clawing at them. One almost got Zoe’s arm but she warded it off. The mephits were climbing all over the walls above them.
“Blast it!” Douxie swore as they ducked behind a large bin, hearing some mephits collide with the metal. “Arch!” Zoe stared at the black cat with glasses that leapt out from the shadows of a nearby building.
“You’re lucky I was close by!” The cat said. “Don’t tell me, you still have read volume 8 of the monsterology books.”
“Really not the time Arch.” Douxie said, selecting a different spell on his gauntlet. Arch rolled his eyes and Zoe’s jaw dropped as the cat changed into some kind of furry dragon. “Flame me!” Arch breathe fire while Douxie used his own flame magic to surround the group of mephits. Zoe shook her head and stood up. Using her own small wand she summoned a limbo portal. The mephits fell through, the portal shutting quickly behind them.
“You have a talking cat!” Zoe exclaimed. “That breathes fire and turns into a dragon.” She whacked his arm. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“Uh Archie Zoe, Zoe Archie.” Douxie introduced quickly. “Archie’s my familiar.”
“A pleasure.” Archie said with a bow, changing back to cat form.
“Back at you.” Zoe said, she pointed at Douxie. “You never told me you had a familiar.” Douxie scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
“Sorry, it’s just Arch is all I have. I wanted to wait a bit.” Douxie trailed off. Zoe softened a little before rolling her eyes.
“Ugh fine.” She jabbed her fingers at him again. “You’re getting the burgers this time.” Douxie smiled at her, nodding as they headed back to town.