Sous

"Ignis!" The webs continued to burn yet staring back at Sous was a girl around her age. The girl was dark brown with long silver straight hair that went to her bottom and with silver eyes. Sous' mouth gaped open. "Wow, you're beautiful," she told the girl.

"I know," the girl said back flipping her hair.

Sous smirked. "You're conceited."

"I know," the girl said once more flipping her hair. She stuck her wand behind her ear and turned her back on Sous and Shadow, walking on the path back to the houses. Without a word, Sous followed while Shadow lifted an eyebrow at the exchange the two young girls just had.

Sous ran to catch up to the girl. When she got side by side to her, the girl spoke. "That man doesn't look like a piper."

"That's because he isn't."

"Then what good is he then?" The girl asked. Sous liked the the smartness of this girl, the way she retorted back with a quickness and sass. Sous didn't have an answer for the girl. She stopped walking and turned to face Sous. "Why are you here?"

"We're looking for the piper to find out what happened after the spiders came."

Shadow managed to catch up to them although he wasn't trying. The girl glared at Shadow and did the same thing to Sous.

"Isn't it obvious? The spiders are rampant because the basilisk aren't. Some assholes are over trading basilisk eggs by in turn causing the population to diminish."

Shadow and Sous continued to follow the girl to the first house. She performed the fire spell and then knocked on the door, calling out names to the occupants but was met with no answer.

She turned to Sous and Shadow before moving onto the next house. "The basilisk had also been migrating during mating seasons to search for a mate. They're having travel longet distances than ever before."

That was true; Sous had read about it in the book.

"What are you doing?" Shadow asked.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"I think I like this girl," Sous said to Shadow.

He lifted an eyebrow to Sous then placed his attention back on the girl before him.

A faint blush overcame the girl when she overheard Sous make such a comment. She turned away from them toward the other house, not wanting them to see how she really felt.

"Where are your parents and why are you the only one doing this?"

The girl watched the webs burn away from the house. "My parents are about two blocks up the street. Not many know magic in this area."

"Why not?" Asked Sous.

"Its a city mostly with vampires and the focus tends to be on alchemy. The other magaes do the same. I like spell casting though and was granted a training wand a year ago."

Sous and Shadow watched the girl burn a couple more web off houses until Shadow mentioned they were going to search house number 702, the house where the piper lived with his family.

"There's no point, he's dead," she said nonchalantly. "Him and his family are in webs. I cut one of them open. I didn't bother with the others."

Shadow and Sous ran to the house with Shadow in the lead. When he got to the house, he looked up to see just how far off the sun set was. He needed to contact the patriarch of the village or at least the police force. The leadership of towns, villages, and cities could be a bit confusing. For example, Red Woods, the human community was led by a council but Red Woods Apex Pack was led by the Alpha and the elites. The magaes who lived across the tracks hadn't a leader nor community, and were in sense in limbo. They governed themselves.

The door to 702 was already opened and the house was cleaned of its webs thanks to the girl, but some of the webs still lingered. Some spiders on the smaller scale also still lingered.

Shadow motion for him and Sous to split up. His shotgun still in his hand and Sous' wand still out. Sous noticed they attic door was opened and took the ladder up stairs. When she poked her head up, she was met with two white eyes looking straight at her. She screamed, letting go of the ladder and falling to the ground. Hearing her scream, Shadow ran to her side. He helped her to her feet then proceeded to climb the ladder.

"There's nothing up here." He said.

"What? I just saw something. It had, like, gray eyes or something. Or white."

Shadow looked around. "Nope." He finished climbing the ladder and stepped into the attic. Sous stepped up, following behind him.

Towards the very back of the attic, there were objects that were spun in spider silk. It gave the appearance they were bodies. They managed to get closer and saw one of them was cut open from the head and there he was. With wide blood burst eyes, bloody nose, and his mouth slightly as he had gasped for air, and his face sunken in, this was him-the piper.

Next to him was a shorter mummified object that more than likely was his wife. Besides her were three smaller ones, more than likely the kids.

"We need to find the spider that caused this."

"You make it sound as if the spider knew what it was doing-"

"It did," Shadow argued. "Large spiders have some of the biggest and most complicated brains. All animals can br communicated with. Some animals go off instinct and others plan. The matriarch planned this."

"I don't want to kill her."

"You have an affinity for animals," Shadow mentioned.

"You don't want to kill it but it would surely kill you in a heart beat."

Shadow and Sous turned around to see the girl behind them, her wand behind her ear. She walked toward them, standing at the same height as Sous.

"What is your name?" Sous asked.

"Tany...Tany Cruci."

They walked quietly down the road to Tany's neighborhood. The sun had set and the vampires would be out. She looked at Shadow.

"You trading those eggs is what caused this."

"I have my missions."

"You can say no," Tany said, turning on her heels and leaving to her home.

It was two hours later when they managed to get back into the city where they were met with the police force of the city. Two officers who were clearly vampires walked to them and began to ask questions. When the officers walk away stating they would be back, Sous looked up at Shadow.

"Can basilisk turn vampires into stone?" Shadow nodded his head. "Vampires, full blooded vampires, don't have a heart beat. Wouldn't that mean the stone vampire would be conscious?"

There was a pub in Vania Shadow wanted to visit but wasn't able to take Sous with him because of her age. Funny enough, there was a playground crossed the so Sous went there.

She felt bad for the basilisk who had to roam further away from home to find a mate because of their decreasing number. She felt bad that she had a crush on Tany. She would keep that to herself, not telling anyone, even Shadow and of course not Kara.

Tany seemed liked she knew a lot about what was going on throughout the city. A later time, she would have to come back, maybe come back if the police force hadn't managed to find another piper. Maybe Sous could do it! All she had to do was a learn an instrument, right?