Page 1 of Finn's Solace

One

Levi

Two weeks since moving to Mistvale, and I didn't feel a lick of regret. I'd thought I would, what with leaving a perfectly nice apartment in a big city to move to this tiny town where the weather forecast was useless and it rained without rhyme or reason.

But nope, I liked it. Mistvale had a certain charm, and it didn't hurt that there were so many supes around. I was sure this was the first town I'd ever been to where the supes outnumbered the humans.

I wondered if I'd have to pay a visit to the dragon who watched over this town. Did I have to pay him some kind of protection fee?

Wait. He wasn't a mobster. At least, I didn't think he was. Judging by what I'd heard about him at Waves—a club run by a merman and catering mostly to supes—he was a good man. Or dragon. Most of the supes in Mistvale seemed to be.

It was a nice change from city life where you barely saw any supes, and those you did tended to keep their distance. Secrecy was big among supes, and in cities, most places were under some kind of surveillance, which meant they had to be careful.

I'd left the big city life because I'd gotten bored, and I had a feeling Mistvale was exactly what I needed. As if to prove my intuition right, I'd found Greta, my familiar, on my second day in town. She'd been injured, and after a trip to the vet, she'd informed me with a bite on my finger that she was my familiar.

Like every mage, I'd wondered since I was a kid what my familiar would be. I'd always hoped for a dog because they were supposed to be loyal and cheerful beings.

Gretawasn'ta dog.

She wasn't bad. She was actually pretty sweet, and I was enjoying getting to know her. But she wasn't the kind of familiar I could take places, especially not around humans, because Greta was a skunk. Her fur was mostly black, with two strips of white over her back. Her tail was bushy and a mix of black and white, and she was actually pretty cute.

She wasn't a big fan of people, which I suspected was because of the injuries I'd found her with. Maybe some asshole humans had hurt her. Whatever the reason, she preferred to stay at home for the most part, and I didn't really mind. It wasn't like I was going to be using my magic for anything out there.

"Oh, hey, Greta," I said as she climbed up the old-person rocking chair I was sitting on—I'd found it really cheapat a yard sale a few blocks over—and perched on my lap, her bushy tail curling over my knee.

She made a soft grumbling sound as she eyed me, then curled up like a cat, covering her face with her tail.

I had nowhere to go anyway. I could sit here until she was done with her nap.

I eyed my phone as I tried to decide what to do next. I was running out of food, so a grocery run might be in order. There was also the issue of my very low funds. Getting Greta looked at by the vet had dipped into my savings, and so had renting a place and getting some furniture. I still had enough money to get me through another month, but I needed to start looking for a job. Soon.

I wondered if there were any nurseries in town. Or maybe I could find some rich person wanting a gardener.

As an earth mage, I loved nothing more than getting my hands dirty and helping things grow. Plants were my specialty, but I could boost healing in some smaller animals as well. My connection with the earth gave me my powers, which was another reason why I was glad I decided to move here.

In the city, it was hard to find a place that was all natural. There was no place untouched by humans. But this town? There were trees everywhere here, a huge park—that I was pretty sure belonged to a forest spirit of some kind—and a river flowing beside it. It was teeming with energy, and connecting with the land here was a heady feeling. I'd been shocked speechless the first time I connected with the ground in mybackyard, and grateful to my past self for renting a house with a backyard.

Around forty-five minutes later, Greta woke up from her nap, stretched, and stalked off. She had to have been a cat in a past life, right? She had to be.

Shaking my head, I got to my feet, stretched as well because damn if it didn't feel good, then headed to the small kitchen to make myself some dinner.

I'd planted a small garden in the backyard my first week here, and soon it would start bearing tomatoes, herbs, and some vegetables. I was mostly growing them for Greta, since she preferred to 'hunt' for her food herself, but I wouldn't mind eating some fresh produce either.

I ate in front of my laptop—I'd decided not to splurge on a TV when I could just as easily use my laptop—while watching an old sitcom.

It was the first show I'd watched when I ran away from home and came to the 'human world,' and I had a soft spot for it.

Like most mages, I'd been born in Ravenshire, a secret island where mages had hidden themselves away centuries ago. They'd hidden to keep themselves safe, but over time their reasons had changed, and they'd become rigid and bigoted, punishing anyone too 'different.'

They hadn't done anything to me, but I'd gotten sick of their behavior, especially after they'd almost killed a kid I used to know. So, I'd left.

I didn't regret leaving, not even after everything else that had happened. Maybe I would've been safer if I'd stayed in Ravenshire, but I certainly wouldn't have been happy.

Finn

"If you think I'm gonna let you live after that," Dean, my brother, growled through the headset. I rolled my eyes as I took a few more points off his player, which made him whine, "Whyare you so good at this?"

"I'm not. You're just that bad," I said, then jerked away before remembering he wasn't sitting beside me and couldn't hit me like I knew he wanted to. While he was eight years younger than me, he'd grown up into a bulky idiot who had more strength than he knew what to do with, and his hitshurt.

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