53 The Mines 2 *bonus Chapter*

\"And have you heard anything unusual lately?\"

\"You bet I have! See Jona over there? Someone saw his cousin in action with a goat last week and —\"

\"I meant concerning the incidents! The missing workers?\" Elisa hurriedly interrupted the man, her face quickly taking on a crimson color to display her discomfort.

\"Oh, yeah. The incidents. Nothin much to tell ya about it. Weird creeps stealing our equipment for a while now,\" the slightly disappointed miner who she was interrogating replied.

\"But were there unusual noises, or did you see anything?\" Elisa asked expectantly. 

\"Not much, honestly. We are just mindin our business and once in a while, something disappears or breaks or whatnot. Hard times, I'm telling ya. But no one's seen a thing so far,\" the man elaborated further and spit on the ground.

\"Alright. Thank you for your time then. I will keep asking around,\" Elisa replied and turned away.

\"Well, good luck with that, blondie. But be careful, lot'o weird shit happening here lately,\" the miner said warningly and turned back to his work.

This was not the first conversation of similar outcome that Elisa had held today. Nobody had seen anything, and the eerie rustling or whistling which some of the workers reported was barely enough to be considered a clue. A few dozen men were working here, how come no one could report anything useful when every passing day marked the occurrence of a new incident?

Without anything noteworthy to report, she decided to head towards the scheduled meeting point and discuss with Mr. Atkins how they should proceed from here. When she approached the agreed-upon location, the lean man was already waiting for her impatiently with his arms folded in front of his chest.

\"Elisa! What took you so long? I have been waiting here for almost a quarter of an hourglass!\" the upset Apprentice Magician complained.

\"That's not that long,\" Elisa stated matter-of-factly.

\"What?\" Edgar exclaimed, taken by surprise.

\"Forget it. Did you find out anything useful?\" Elisa changed the topic.

\"These miners are dumber by the dozen, no one has seen, heard, or even smelled anything! Even if clues are lying around here somewhere, we will have to find them ourselves,\" Edgar remarked bitterly. It was no feat to see through his annoyance regarding this development. He looked at Elisa and asked in return, \"What about you? Any luck?\"

\"Not really. Some reported a rustling or whistling when they passed nearby shrubs, but it might as well be their imagination. Right, and one guy was dead certain that he heard someone play a flute on his way home, but I don't know what to make of that,\" Elisa summarized quickly. 

\"Same as me then. As expected, nothing useful we can get from talking to these ingrates.\"

\"Strange, very strange. I fear, Magic is involved in this matter — almost certainly it is. Some of these incidents happened in broad daylight in the middle of the camp. Unless they are lying, someone should have seen something...\" the middle-aged Apprentice Magician continued to mumble to himself.

\"One guy seriously kept insisting that his ax was stolen directly from his hands, just as he was about to chop down a tree... and he didn't see anything! Can you believe that?\" Edgar suddenly turned around and asked.

\"Uhm, no. That really is strange,\" Elisa replied unprepared.

\"All he remembered was feeling groggy and a bit lightheaded and the next second his ax was gone... I thought he was exaggerating or just had too much ale, but what if he was put into some kind of trance?\" Edgar queried as he continued his trot, not really expecting an answer.

\"Can Magic do that?\" Elisa asked confused in return. So far she had only seen basic applications of elemental Magic and could hardly fathom the possible scope of more advanced techniques.

\"What can't it do, child? It would certainly explain what's going on here, but who would do something like that? Or rather, who can do something like that?\" he continued to ramble about his theory.

\"So, you think there is a human culprit behind this after all? But who would profit from some missing tools?!\" Elisa interjected.

\"Oh, I did not say human, did I? Ever seen a human with hooves? I haven't.\" Edgar returned amused.

Elisa looked at him in bewilderment. If it wasn't a human, then who was it?

\"Didn't you say there was a high chance of Magic being in play here?\" Elisa asked back, trying to put the pieces of the story back together.

\"And you think humans are the only ones capable of Magic? Here? In Thorn Forest?\" Edgar laughed jovially and showed one of his rare smiles in response to her naivety.

\"You really think you're at the top of the food chain, don't you?\" he said rhetorically after a deep breath and soon calmed down again.

\"So what are we talking about? I have never heard of such a sophisticated bear before...\" Elisa retorted with slight sarcasm.

\"A Magical Beast... or rather, a Magical Creature, possibly intelligent even\", Edgar said solemnly. He had donned a grave expression now and was even more serious than before.

\"What? Here?\" Elisa exclaimed.

\"Where? Inside an ancient, magical forest? That does not seem too farfetched if you ask me\", he replied with folded arms and scrunched eyebrows. 

\"It's not magical...\" she tried to object but was quickly interrupted.

\"Everything is magical! Especially old places, dark places, wet places, spots where no one ventures... does that ring a bell?\" Edgar threw back agitated. Elisa ignored him and immediately tried to change the topic,

\"But it's unheard of for a Magical Beast to appear this close to the village!\"

\"Magical Creature; and that they don't usually go out of their way to bother you does not mean there aren't any.\" Edgar lectured.

A moment of multilayered silence ensued. Elisa had not yet been aware of this possible threat to her and her family; at the very least she had not expected it to be this close. However, she soon spoke up again,

\"So, what are we going to do?\" she asked soberly.

Edgar abruptly stopped in his tracks. He turned around imposingly, the edges of his loose robe fluttering in the wind, then he said,

\"Well, isn't that obvious? We're going to set a trap!\"