From where he landed amid the rubble, Evin looked back and saw the ormyrr come to a halt directly in front of the slender figure of Betilivatis. She stood there, her white robes and copper hair swirling around her. A glowing ball of orange light hovered in front of her chest. In one outstretched hand she held open A Practical Guide to Monsters, the other held the carved wand. On her face she wore a smirk.

“You!” The ormyrr looked the elf girl up and down with wonder in its blood red eyes. “You is magic doing!”

Betilivatis nodded. “That I am.”

The ormyrr leaned forward quickly, and for a moment Evin thought that it would eat her whole. Instead, it spread its bulbous body over the ground at Betilivatis’s feet.

It was bowing.

“I must sees more!” it shouted, its thick voice partially muffled by the dirt. “Please giving me more!”

Dazed and surprised, Evin got to his feet and walked around the giant, grubby body of the ormyrr to stand at Betilivatis’s side. Jorick followed.

“What did you do?” Evin whispered in Betilivatis’s ear.

Betilivatis merely smiled wider, then held the Practical Guide up higher so that Evin and Jorick could read it.

“‘While (or perhaps because) these creatures have no talent for casting spells,’” Evin read aloud, “‘they find magic absolutely irresistible. They will lie, cheat, and steal to obtain a scroll, spellbook, or other magical object, and can be mesmerized by a skillful display of magic powers.’”

“Pleeeeeease!” the ormyrr begged. “I giving anythings you want!” Lifting its head up from the dirt, the ormyrr looked at Betilivatis with pleading eyes. “I is riched. Much very so! I giving golds! Lots of golds!”

Evin crossed his arms and looked down at the pitiful monster. “According to this book, you’re probably lying,” he said.

The ormyrr shuffled across the ground and reared back so that it could grasp Betilivatis’s robes with two hands. She didn’t flinch.

“No!” it whined. “Truths is all I giving! So many gold coins, they all yours, promisings! Just give me magic!”

With a prim cough, Betilivatis closed A Practical Guide to Monsters and shoved it back in her satchel. “Tell you what,” she said to the ormyrr. “I’ll make you a deal.”

“Anythings!” the ormyrr said.

“All right. Tell me where the gnolls that came through here went, and I’ll give you something magical so that you don’t have to dig through these ruins anymore in search for mystic artifacts. Afterward, you will leave this place and leave us alone.”

The ormyrr let go of Betilivatis’s robes and reared up to its full height, its teeth bared into what Evin hoped was a smile. “It is a dealing!”

Evin, Jorick, Betilivatis, and the ormyrr all waited expectantly, looking among one another.

“Well?” Jorick finally said. “Where did they go?”

The ormyrr cleared its throat again. “Magic things first.”