Normandy

Peter and the rest of the group left the cottage ready to leave for the human world. They got to the field and set the relic wrapped with a cloak on the ground and they gathered around it.

"How do we go about this then?" Alice asked.

"I'm going to stick the shield into the ground with the eye facing me and you guys stand behind the shield ok?" Sarah said.

She pulled the shield from the cloak with her eyes closed and stuck it into the ground. Still, with her eyes closed, she moved backward carefully so she didn't divert from the path of the shield.

When she got to a safe distance, she weaved her hands and cast the Portal spell on the eye, it immediately reflected the spell but created a Portal adjacent to it. After the Portal was opened Melissa cast a cloaking spell from behind the shield making it invisible, after which they all went through the Portal.

It all looked like everything was going according to plan, but when they came out of the Portal, they didn't come out in Paris instead they were at the beaches of Normandy, which was situated in northwest France, but was still near the French capital.

"Where are we?" Alice and Peter asked, together.

"From the look on your face, it seems we aren't at our destination," Alice said.

"Run! run! run!" Sarah shouted as they took to their heels.

Sarah would've been able to open a portal, but she couldn't as opening consecutive portals was impossible, there was usually a delay between portals and neither of the other three could do it as Portal opening worked differently in the human world.

In the human world, you must have visited a place to be able to open a portal to that place, which made opening portals to random places impossible and a portal could only take two persons at a time. So escaping with a portal was totally out of the question for them.

They finally found a safe place to hide, behind some rocks stacked up making a barricade.

"M--rs Bur-ton whe-re are we?" Peter asked, as he tried to bring his breathing under control.

"We landed on the beaches of Normandy". Sarah responded.

"And why were we running?" Melissa asked.

"The Demon Lord's men are here and I think they spotted us," Sarah said.

Before that day Vermont brought down the barrier to send spies to scout the city of Normandy which wasn't very far from Paris. He intended on taking the city first as it was close to the magic council in Paris and it was near the beach.

Vermont was an elemental magic caster, specializing in water and lightning magic, so he relished the idea of setting up a base near the beach, so he could use long-range attacks of ice if need be, making the capture of Normandy Pivotal in waging his war.

"what do we do now?" Alice asked.

"I think we can take them. they're 6 of them I think," Peter said, as he peeped through a hole in the rocks.

"Fine then, but this is the idea, we attack not to win the fight but to stall them long enough to run into the city," Sarah said.

Sarah counted to three and they came out hurling spells at the opposition, as they moved towards the harbor. The spies were very strong, which made the fight fierce and longer than expected.

"Draco igneus!" Melissa yelled, as she shot a flaming Dragon curse at one of the spies.

The curse hit the spy as he fell from the wooden pavement into the water and died. The fight continued as they didn't see an opening to dash Into the cover of buildings, to find their way into the city.

Just as the fight became fiercer, one of the spies hurled a sleeping spell at Alice. The spell puts the victim to sleep and the more the victim slept the deeper they slip into death.

Alice was focused on fighting the spy to the left of her that she didn't see the other attack coming. Peter who saw the attack called for Alice but she couldn't hear him, because she was so engrossed in the battle with the other enemy.

Seeing this, Peter ran as fast as he could and pushed Alice, with the spell hitting him and he collapsed. "Peter! Peter!" Sarah shouted, with tears flying from her eyes as she ran over to meet him.

The fight went from six on four to three on three with the spies gathering more momentum and getting closer to the other three. Sarah got up and used a spell she hadn't used in years, it was a very dangerous one to pull off not just for the opposition but for herself also, as it drained a whole lot of strength from her.

She shouted the spell in pain, with tears still rolling down her cheeks. The ground tore open and widened, swallowing the remaining three spies.

The spell cannot be deflected nor dodged, so it was a guaranteed hit and only a few know and can cast the spell.

She fell to the ground but was still awake. Mrs. Sarah Burton was as hard as they came, so when she fell, she didn't go unconscious,

but she was unable to move.

About thirty minutes had passed then they began to see blue shades of light in the distance. Reinforcements were being sent and this time they were too drained to engage, with Peter still lying unconscious on the ground. Sarah got up as she had recovered a little energy and hurled him onto her shoulders.

"Melissa leave with Alice in that direction (pointing to a path which was behind the houses just after the harbor) keep on going and you'll find a bookstore along the path, ask to see the owner and say to him I'll be needing that green book and some coffee and he'll help you out," Sarah said.

"And where will you go?" Melissa asked.

"I need to see a druid she's a friend of mine, she'll have a way to wake Peter up," Sarah said. Alice couldn't even utter a word as she was still shocked about what had happened to Peter, she didn't even shed a tear she just stood looking lost.

Sarah kissed Alice on her forehead, and they all left for their destinations just escaping the reinforcements of Vermont's men. Melissa and Alice who looked like they had lost the will to live ran along the path looking for the bookstore Sarah mentioned.

After running for a while they finally spotted the bookstore from a sign which read "Books n Books". Melissa heaved a sigh of relief with Alice still looking expressionless.

They made their way into the store and went to the counter, but Melissa noticed that they were being stared at. She didn't know why until she saw her reflection on the door which had glass parts that led into the back room of the store.

Hers and Alice's hair were glowing green almost like it was covered in green flames. Melissa forgot that under any light bulb in the human world their hairs glow. It was one of the few ways to tell apart a human from a demon.

Melissa started to feel anxious and was about to leave when the owner of the bookstore came in from the back room.

"How can I help you today?" the owner asked with a smile.

"I'll be needing that green book and some coffee," Melissa replied.

"How is Sarah, it's been ages since I last saw her," the man asked.

"She's doing very well but you know Sarah is always about one Adventure or the other" Melissa said as she chuckled.

"By my books!" the man exclaimed examining Alice's physique. "You look just like your mother only younger," the man said.

Alice wasn't paying any attention to the man as all she could think of was the state Peter was in. "Telling from the look on her face it seems everything isn't alright. What happened?" the man asked.

"The new Demon Lord wants to start an invasion of the human world and he has his sights on Normandy because it's close to Paris.

We came to warn the magic council but our Portal brought us to the shores of Normandy and we faced opposition from the Demon Lord's men" Melissa explained.

"Where's Sarah now?" the man asked.

"One of our comrades was hit with the sleeping curse and she's gone to see her friend, a druid who she thinks can help," Melissa said.

"That would be Elena. She was an acquaintance of mine before she started leaving with Sarah on her silly adventures" the man said. The man took them to a room behind one of the shelves which he opened with a spell.

Sarah with Peter on her shoulder like luggage arrived at their destination after escaping their pursuers.

Before Sarah could knock on the door Elena came outside and attempted to hug Sarah but she was stopped at the sight of Peter on Sarah's shoulder.

"come in come in," Elena said as she widened the door for Sarah to go through. After She had set Peter on the bed Elena prepared, she began to explain the altercation and the state he was in.

"You should have said this earlier," Elena said rushing towards a hidden door in the living room. She came out after a moment with two miniature bottles in her hand with which she emptied the contents simultaneously on Peter's face.

"What did you give to him?" Sarah asked anxiously.

"It's scorpion venom and blended mushrooms mixed with my blood" Elena answered as she stood anxiously with Sarah in the corner waiting for Peter to open his eyes.

Elena's blood had unique healing powers which Sarah witnessed during their adventures. The elixirs were supposed to take effect in five minutes and it was the longest five minutes of Sarah's life.

After the five minutes had elapsed Peter's eyes were still closed which made Sarah fall to her knees and began to cry just then the room darkened with the smoke that usually came from Peter's back and after a while it disappeared.

When the smoke cleared out Peter was floating in the air which scared Elena as she hadn't seen anything like it before. Shortly after Peter fell back to the bed and vomited all over it.

Sarah immediately got up and hugged Elena and thanked her then went over to check on Peter and Elena left upstairs giving them space to talk.