Tara had set out on her daily walk through town, expecting a calm, smooth day, like most days were.  The nightmare from the night before had her flustered and got her in the mood to start studying some more of “The Arte”, expanding her knowledge of basic and advanced spells.  She didn’t have to use spells often, aside from small practical uses like lighting up a dark room, but she felt like she needed to constantly expand her knowledge of what she knew, in case she ever needed those other spells.

As she set out, she had a small book with her, which had a collection of spells for her to learn in it.  As she closed the door to her house, she tossed the book into the air and wove her hand at it.  The book descended towards the ground, but immediately stopped in front of her chest, opening itself up and hovering at an angle in front of her, as if waiting to be read.  “I haven’t lost my touch,” Tara said to herself as she began walking down the street, her book hovering along with her.

The streets were unusually quiet today.  They usually teemed with life, and whenever she strolled around, a lot of kids would normally come out to say hello to her.  Despite not using the Arte that much, she’d saved a few kids years back from an Ice Dragon that had attacked the town. For that, she gained immediate recognition and was revered by the town as a sort of ‘hero’ figure.  She normally didn’t mind the attention, enjoying the people coming out to say hello to her, especially the kids.  She’d felt like she was doing something right when she was able to protect the town.

Today, however, it was strangely quiet.  No one was out on the streets and not a single sound could be heard down the streets.  Despite the freakishly quiet nature of the day, Tara did not mind it a single bit.  She walked down the streets, waving her hands in front of her, causing the book’s pages to flip around.  She’d pulled down this book, in particular, for a reason.  She knew there were some unique spells within it that she’d never tried to learn before, afraid they were too advanced.  Today, she would learn and try one, to see how much harder she needed to work to be able to handle them.

She sighed as she flipped through the pages.  There were dozens upon dozens of spells that were at her disposal in the book, but none of them clicked with her as “the one”.  Whenever she would learn a new spell, she would flip through a book randomly until one stuck out to her.  Unfortunately, she had already flipped through half of this book and had yet to find the spell that stuck out to her this day.  She turned at an intersection and continued down the road as she flipped through the book.

Eventually, something caught her eye.  “Size Alteration?” she softly asked herself, stopping in the middle of the street, looking at her book.  The page she’d stopped on had a spell on it called ‘Size Alteration’.  She had never heard of this spell before, so she found a nearby bench to sit down at while she read the description the book had for it.  It read:

‘Size Alteration.  A High-Energy spell that can alter the size of any object, animal, or person at will.  The Energy within the air filters through the body or object and compresses or expands molecules to change the overall size of the target in question.  Limitations may vary, depending on caster.  High amounts of energy required for casting.’

Tara read further down the page, where it described the method for the casting of the spell.  This intrigued her very much.  As she read it over and over again she started smiling, almost teeming with excitement at what she’d found.  “This is the one.  This is what I’m going to learn today.”

Sitting on the bench with her hovering book, she spent hours upon hours of the day constantly reading and memorizing the spell.  To be able to cast something fluidly, it had to be engraved into your brain.  Any fidgeting or stuttering during a casting could result in a backfire and/or draining of the energy within the caster, either of which would be harmful to her.  In order to make sure she was safe, she had to spend hours memorizing spells before she even attempted to try it out.

Tara closed her eyes and yawned as she finished her final read over the words on the Size Alteration spell.  Leaning back in the bench she wove her hand, closing the book and sending it falling into her lap.  She brought both her hands behind her head and looked up to the sky.  She’d been out in town for most of the day, but she still hadn’t heard anything other than a moving truck that had passed by on a nearby street. 

“Sure is a quiet day” she said to herself, having noticed how deserted the town seemed to be that day.  As she finished her yawns, she leaned herself forward, back into a sitting position.  She looked down at her book and blinked.  She started thinking about the spell that she’d engraved into her own head and then at the book again.  Picking it up, she stuck it into a Large Compression pocket in the side of her long, red robe, the book disappearing into the pocket. 

She was getting ready to stand up and head back to the house when she heard a loud screeching sound coming from the distance.  Immediately jumping up from the bench, she stared off in one direction, squinting her eyes and thinking, studying the sound she’d just heard.  “That was…a roar.  I’m sure of it.  But…where is it?” 

As she stood still, trying to listen, she heard it again.  It was a high-pitched screeching roar and her mind immediately clicked.  She now knew where it was and what it was.  Much to her surprise, though, the screeching roar wasn’t alone.  She’d also her two female voices screaming.  Her eyes widened as thoughts of the Ice Dragon attack came rushing back into her head.  The screams she’d just heard sounded just like the screams of the little girl who’d almost been carried off by that beast, so many years ago. 

Tara knew exactly what she had to do.  Clicking her boots together, her feet began to hover into the air.  Leaning forward, she flew down the street, heading towards the source of the noise.  With a stern look on her face, she knew she didn’t have much time.  If it was what she thought it was, then she didn’t have much time.  Zipping around the streets, she finally came to an intersection, where she finally saw the scene.  Two women, one young and one older, were on the ground, screaming as a giant Antlion hovered its jaws over them, ready to strike.

She quickly flipped her wrist, ready for action…