Ravenspell Book 2: The Wizard of Ooze by David Farland

give off lots of heat. That’s a fire.”
    Gleefully, the mice stacked up a few twigs and leaves, and Amber heated them. Soon they had a nice little flame dancing in front of them. It wasn’t much bigger than a candle, but all of the mice huddled around the campfire and warmed their paws.
    As they did, Ben suddenly got a sly look. He twisted his paws funny and said, “Look, a cat!” Then he whirled and peered at the snow behind them.
    Bushmaster gave a mighty shout and Thorn jumped so high, he could have been a flea. Amber shot around and saw the shadow of an enormous cat there in the snow. She was trying to think of some spell to frighten it off when she followed the lines of the shadow and saw that it was only Ben, making shadow puppets on the ground.
    I can make a better cat than that, Amber thought. And suddenly she created an enormous black cat out of shadows and sound. It yowled and hissed, and Ben’s eyes went wide.
    He whirled and peered behind him just as an enormous cat leapt upon his back. Thorn and Bushmaster raced off, squeaking in terror. But when the huge black cat landed on Ben, it disappeared.
    Amber laughed herself silly until Bushmaster and Thorn returned. Then they all sat beside the fire and got toasty, enjoying the strange and pungent scents of smoke and ash, while Ben showed them how to make shadow puppets that looked like cats, dogs, and creatures that he called alligators and dinosaurs.
    When they were all warm, Thorn whispered, “So Amber, are you really going to add humans to the list of enemies to mice?”
    “Yes,” Amber said with grim determination. “I won’t have any more nasty humans killing mice. Next one that tries: bam, a human dies.”
    “But,” Ben said, “I don’t think that humans really understand what they’re doing. They don’t think that mice have feelings too.”
    “Well, they’ll get the message soon enough.”
    “You ought to give them a warning,” Thorn said. “It wouldn’t be fair to just start killing them.”
    “That’s a problem,” Ben said. “Humans have never talked to animals before.”
    “I’m sure that I could do it,” Amber said. “I could use my magical powers to talk to them.”
    “Hmmm . . .” Ben said, thinking. “They wouldn’t believe anything you said. They’d just think that they were going crazy. Having hallu . . . dreaming. Besides, what would you tell them?”
    “All I’d do,” Amber said, thinking fast, “is tell them to ‘Free the mice.’ Of course, I’d have a thousand guards with spears to back up the request.”
    “You know,” Thorn told Amber, “there are plenty of other animals you should add to your list of enemies. Fish like bass for example, and trout and perch . . . lots of fish eat mice. And of course pigs eat mice, too.”
    “It’s not just the animals that eat mice that you have to worry about,” Bushmaster said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re eaten by a fox or stepped on by a cow—dead is dead. What about all of the animals that can step on you—horses and sheep and cows? Not to mention the careless cottontails, and the rampaging herds of chipmunks!”
    There was a pop as some pitch in a piece of wood exploded, sending a cinder streaming up into the night sky like a star that rises instead of falls.
    “And what of natural disasters?” Thorn added. “Flash floods and hailstorms, tornados and lightning. And sickness and old age. There are so many things to worry about. Will you put an end to those in your haven?”
    Amber peered at Thorn and felt weary to the bone. She had only just decided to take over the world, and now he was taking all of the fun out of it.
    “I’ll have to think about that,” Amber said.
    “Er,” Bushmaster said, clearing his throat. “I wish that you would reconsider letting shrews into your little haven. Ounce for ounce, they are the most ferocious predators on earth. Lady Blackpool seems nice enough, but, well, my grandmother was eaten by a shrew.”
    “I