Bee

Mal and I followed his mother into the back of the store. Herbs, books, and...animal parts? *Eww* filled the shelves that covered the walls.

Mal's mother indicated for us to sit on some chairs surrounding a table.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Mal's mother, Bianca. You can just call me Bee." She said

I introduced myself next. "My name is Hero. And I was kidnapped by him" I nodded my head towards Mal

"I've apologized for that. Several times" Mal wined

I laughed and said "I'm just messing with you"

Mal's moth- Bee glared at her son and said "No no. I want to hear more about this kidnapping"

We told her the whole story. We told her about me and Mal's sudden intent to kidnap the princess.

She was quiet for some time before she stood up and looked through a cabinet.

"What are you looking for?" Mal asked

She was still rummaging through the cabinet when she yelled "eureka!" She held up a small disk and came back to us.

"This will tell us if any of you have any magic traces on you. It doesn't matter if it was ten years ago or only one day. It will give us a whole list." She explained "Mal, I want you to go first. There is something I want to check"

Mal stood and let the disk scan him. One the scanning was complete, names appeared next to him.

"What are those?" I asked

"These are all the spells that have been casted on Mal. If a spell name is closer to a certain body part the more likely it is that the spell was cast there. Since he uses magic daily, it is normal for him to have so many." Bee explained

She checked the list of magic closer to his head.

"Just as I thought" she muttered

"What?" Mal asked

"Someone has been tampering with your mind." She said

"Could they have been the ones who made him get the idea of kidnapping the princess?" I asked

"Most likely. The disk doesn't specify who casted the spell or why" she said

*What the hell? None of this is making any sense*

"Your turn big guy" she turned to me.

*Big guy?* I looked down at my stomach with a gloomy look.

The disk scanned me faster than Mal. When Bee finished looking through the names she said "There's nothing here"

"Then if this isn't a spell, what is it?" I asked

She sat back down and sighed "I didn't want to do this since it wastes so much of my energy but I guess we have no other choice. Please sit"

I sat in the chair in front of her and she grabbed my hands.

"I'm going to look into your future. Maybe there is something there that can tell me how to help you" she said. Then she closed her eyes.

*Did she just fall asleep?* I wondered. I looked over at Mal.

"Can you do this?" I asked

"Yeah, but after I would spend a week in bed with a fever, so I don't like to do it" he said

Bee finally opened her eyes. She had tears streaming down her face. Mal and I panicked.

"Mom! What happened?" Mal asked

"Are you okay?" I asked

It took some time for her to settle down. There was a voice coming from the front of the store.

"Hello? Anyone here?" They asked

"Do you want me to-" I started as I stood

Bee grabbed my arm. "Don't! I know that voice"

I looked down at her and asked "Who is it?"

"It's the guards. When they found out that Mal was my son they questioned me. They wanted to know where you two were. I guess they found out where I work" she said

I heard a voice in my head

*Gee I wonder how? It's not like there was a sign on top of the building that said 'fortune teller'...oh wait*

"Hero?" I asked

Bee gave me a weird look and said "Both of you hide somewhere. I'll try to get rid of them"

"If you don't come out I will come in by force" the guy outside said

Bee headed to the front when she stopped and turned. She went to the back of the room and grabbed a small box. She gave it to us and said "Wear these at all times. Don't take them off." and left.

Mal grabbed my hand and pulled me behind a large bookshelf. "Let's hide here in case they come to the back" he said

As we listened to Bee and the guy talking to each other we heard scratching from the other side of the room. There was a window at the very top of the room. It slowly opened. *Is some kind of horror movie now?* Hero asked in my head

*I know right?*

A man sneaked in from the window and started looking through the place. He had clothes that belonged to a guard. *They're invading people's houses now?*

He was making his way in our direction. If he got too close. He would definitely see us. *How are we going to get out of this?* I wondered

Mal grabbed my face and pulled me towards him and kissed me. I was too stunned to move.

When the guy looked around the shelves and saw us he was also surprised. "Ah...sorry" he muttered and left through the window.

Mal and I stepped out from behind the shelves. I looked back at Mal.

"What just happened?" I asked

His face was bright red and said "I-I just thought that since it was dark, he wouldn't see our faces and would think that we were hiding to umm…"

"Oh…" I blushed red and said "got it"

Bee came back into the room and saw us. "What happened?" She shook her head and said "Nevermind. You two need to leave. There are more guards coming"

"Are you going to be okay here?" Mal asked

"I will be fine." She reassured him. She stared at the both us us and said "Remember to keep the rings on in that box no matter what. Trust me on that"

We nodded and teleported back home.

I thought for a second. "Why didn't we just teleport back home before the guard found us?" I asked Mal

Mal's face turned red again and he laughed nervously "oh yeah, I forgot" he said