#dan mcgee

This is from book one, the band is trying to break into a giant scorpion farm to run out the big corporation that illegally seized it:

As much as he appreciated Zhao for casting such a thorough and well-played invisibility spell, Dan quickly realized one major drawback to the plan. Perhaps none of the guards could see them… but neither could they see each other. He felt around blindly in the darkness, not able even to see his own arms held out in front of him. Dan didn’t dare call out to his friends, so he simply forged onward, hoping not to run into anyone.

So much for that. He immediately bumped into an invisible form and was lucky not to squawk with surprise. “Flora?” He whispered.

“No, it’s Zhao,” they whispered back, and patted around until they found his hand. They pulled him towards one of the rear barn doors, and slipped through. The two found themselves standing in a brightly lit room, staring at a group of off duty workers, card game forgotten on the table before a few, kettle boiling over in front of another, and all around open mouths and wide eyes as the farmers stared at the door which had seemingly opened on its own. An older farmer narrowed his eyes and twisted his hands together, pulling them apart again with a loud, magical whistling sound. A blast of wind erupted from his outstretched fingers, and dried out the invisibility spell. Dan and Zhao stood there, masked up like proper bandits, instruments in hand and looking mighty suspicious

“Er… Evenin’...” Dan attempted. “We’re, uh, here ta perform yer, uh, yer.. annual… review..” Zhao shook their head resignedly.

“Let’s just run, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

The two bolted back out the door just as the farmers recovered themselves, one of them ringing a loud alarm bell as the rest poured out after the trespassers. Dan and Zhao ran for it, ducking behind a stack of wooden pallets to evade their pursuers. With Zhao breathing heavily, struggling not to cough, and Dan not necessarily needing to breath at all, they peeked out. Dan screeched when invisible hands grabbed at his shoulder.

“Dan.” José’s voice came from nowhere. “Ya suck at the sneakin’ thing. Is Flora with ya?”

“Thought she was with yew?”

“Nah, I got Johnny.” As if on cue, off in the distance they heard Flora’s distinct gravelly voice, invoking the Fate of destruction on her captors.

“Git yer filthy hands offa me! Swear to Efface I’ll tear yew sons of bitches to shreds, so help me, leggo’a’me! Jest lemme git my hands on my gun an’ yew’ll regret it!”

Luckily, Talasi has a curse that connects them directly to Vicky, and they explain to him that if she dies by their hand, the pain goes away, if she dies by another's hand or by accident, the pain goes away, but they're marked as a contact breaker with scars that radiate out from their chest and branch all over their body. They're still in a lot of pain, so they know at least Victoria is alive, and if she's alive, then so is Hephzibah. Probably. That cheers Dan up, although immediately after he's like aw shit this means either Johnny has them or they're freezing to death out in the cold somewhere we gotta go Now but Talasi is exhausted and they beg him to just stay the night, they can leave in the morning, and he really hesitantly acquiesces, and next morning is when the murders start so the townfolk won't let him leave cause he's a suspect.

Dan wandered the streets of Kinnesburg lost in thought, but also just lost in general. The people here were haughty, busy, and had no time for a backwater musician like himself. He meandered around, finally finding himself in a mostly empty lot that seemed to serve as a crossroads of alleys. He paused, and turned in circles trying to get his bearings.

In the distance, but growing nearer at an alarming rate, a cacophony rose. There was the distinct clanging sound of trash cans being knocked over, accompanied by whistles, shouts, and even gunshots. Through it all, there was a frantic barking and howling. Dan stared curiously down the dark of an alley as the thumping of footsteps and the panting of breath drew closer and closer. His hand strayed nervously to his banjo.

A strange form began to take place, bent over and galloping along the cobblestones on strong and sturdy limbs. Dan shrieked and leapt back as a barefoot and topless woman ran full tilt out of the alley on all fours. Her head was that of a coyote, with gray-red fur spreading down her shoulders, tongue lolling out of her mouth, and bright yellow eyes glinting dangerously. Blood dripped from a wound in her upper arm, a wound she was ignoring completely. She cocked her head curiously when she spotted Dan, and he saw that her lower jaw was exposed bone. Her teeth were set firmly into the jawbone, but Dan could see up into her mouth from below as she panted.

Her curiosity lasted but a moment. The coyote’s tall ears twitched back at the sound of shouting echoing between the brick buildings. She glanced behind her, muttered a curse, and took off again, brushing by Dan. Eyeing a low awning, she leapt for it. She managed to catch hold of the edge, but scrabbled to pull herself up, legs kicking the air. The wound in her arm burned with a fury. The woman cursed again, and the lawfolk’s whistles grew louder down the alleyway. Just as she was sure she’d slip back down, she felt skeletal hands beneath her swinging feet. Dan boosted her up, and with a:

“Many tanks, skeleton!” she sprung up to the roof and bolted away.

“You there! Did you see a beast-kin come by this way?” A red-faced deputy jogged out ofthe alley, followed by a posse of gun-waving lawfolk.

“Sure did sir, she came a-runnin’ outta that there alley all bent over like some kinda demon critter, why, nearly knocked me right down!”

“Hurry up dead man, which way did she go!”

“Fates, no need ta be rude officer. Sure, she went off thataway.” Dan pointed out towards the crowded streets. Without another word, the posse rushed past him.

“Wait a minnit boys.” The one who spoke wasn’t dressed in the usual white and blue uniform, but rather in the black and gold trimmed outfit typical of a wandering ranger.

“Think we’ve got a liar on our hands.” Dan took a cautious step back as the posse changed direction to corner him.

“I ain’t lyin’.” Dan lied. The ranger laughed smugly and pointed up at the awning, where a bit of the coyote’s blood had splattered from her wound. That damning finger moved to point next at Dan’s hat. His hand reflexively moved to touch the edge, and sure enough, his bone white fingers came back red.

“Well mebbe I were lyin’!” Dan huffed, pulling himself up to his full, unimpressive height and drawing forth his banjo. “Awright, y’all, I don’t think yew wanna fight me, so I’d recommend scootin’ off afore anyone gits hurt! I ain’t nobody ta mess with!” The ranger just smiled.

“My name is Everest Tempaneium. Not sure if you’ve heard of me, but I’m fair popular in the bounty hunting world. Some call me a mercenary, or a gun-for-hire, but two things are for sure, I’ve never lost a prize, and I don’ t take too kindly to liars. I think as well you will find that I am the one you ought not mess with.”

Everest’s fingers clicked, and a dome of shimmering energy expanded swiftly to cover the alley. Dan didn’t have a heart… but he felt it drop. The magic which normally sprang easily to his fingertips was silent. The confident and genderless ranger had cast a powerful mundaneity spell, and Dan's magic was fully suppressed. He glanced from side to side, searching for a way out. Tempaneium stood afore him, lawfolk were closing in on all sides, and as he took another step back, he could feel the brick wall pressing against his spine. He was trapped.

The ranger gestured for half the posse to follow the coyote woman, and with much struggle, they scrambled up the awning and took to the roof. Everest took a languid step forward, boot heels clicking ominously against the otherwise silent cobbles. Dan raised his banjo threateningly, but a lightning fast fist shot out and connected with his cheekbone. He gasped in shock, panic flooding into him like water from a dam. It was that same cheekbone that Bill had broken a few seasons back, and while the punch hadn’t shattered his face the same way the hammer had, the pain still flung him back into that helpless feeling. He shook his head, trying to shake away the memory, and Everest’s fist hit him in the sternum. Dan doubled over, but dodged the elbow that came next and retaliated with a bony punch of his own. The ranger deflected it easily, and kicked Dan’s legs out from under him. Once Dan went down, it was just kick after kick after kick as the rest of the lawfolk surrounded him and joined in the attack. He curled up, trying to at least protect his skull and ribs, and waited for it to stop.

A howl rang out from above, and Dan glanced up through the throng of boots and shining star badges to see that coyote woman, now drenched in far more blood than just her own, leap down from the rooftops and into the fray. The lawfolk scattered as she sank her teeth into whatever poor fool was close enough, snarling and snapping and lashing out with her fists.

“Up, skeleton, up up up!” she shouted, as blood poured down through her bone jaw.

“We LEAVE!” Dan scrambled his way up, snagging his banjo and smacking a deputy with it. Tempaneium’s fingers snapped again, and Dan could feel that mundaneity field redouble in strength. In fact, he felt it in his very bones. With a deep shudder of fear, Dan remembered that he himself was held together with magic. His joints felt weak. They ached. His knees slipped and he nearly fell back down.

“Aw no, fuck!” He cursed as his jaw fell off. His left radius slid down his ulna, taking his fingers with it and clattering loosely to the ground. He sat down hard as his right boot filled with leg bones that no longer felt up to the task of supporting him. Dan struggled to pull himself back together, but one by one his connection points failed. The coyote woman growled, her own jaw hanging loosely. Everest laughed self-assuredly… But that confidence didn’t last much longer.

The coyote woman tipped her head, twisting her ear like she was listening to something, and then she grinned a wide, open mouthed grin. As Dan fell apart, the coyote flung back her head and howled. She reached up into the air and took hold of the mundaneity field, twisting it between her fingers like it was a physical material and not an intangible energy. She wound it up tightly as Everest stepped back in shock. Holding it in her teeth, the woman grasped the other field as well, and spun them both together into a long thin string of raw power.

Dan’s bones enthusiastically reconnected, and his magic returned to him. Flexing his freshly attached fingers, Dan launched right back into the fight and plucked out a bright and merry tune that shook the earth. Dark storm clouds gathered low in the alley, and the air hummed with static electricity. The skeleton hesitated before striking. Last time this spell had been cast by his banjo and his hands, it had murdered one of his best friends. He redirected it at the last minute, frying the ground directly in front of Everest, who leapt back, eyes full of fear. The coyote snapped the string of energy like a whip, cracking it over the shocked lawfolk.

“How? How did you do that?” Tempaneium cried out, deputies fleeing away from the blood soaked coyote.

“No one defeats me!” she yelled. “I leave now! I go to my plateau! I see any of you again, you all dead, understand? Skeleton, come along.” Dan nodded and trotted along behind her, leaving the ranger and lawmen to nurse their wounds.

She strode into the middle of the busy street, dragging her energy whip behind her. Carriages swerved wildly around her but she just stood still, her face turned to the sky. The coyote howled again, and Dan felt the earth begin to tremble. She snapped her long whip, and it grew longer with each crack. The earth was shaking more and more, nearly sending Dan back down to the ground.

Buildings shook, townsfolk fled, and as Dan glanced up at the sky, he watched her whip reach the sun. It split and divided like a cell in mitosis, leaving two suns beating down on the earth. People screamed, and Dan felt the land beneath him shudder and rise up. It phased up through the buildings and people like they weren’t there, telescoping towards that second sun. The coyote woman and Dan balanced on the highest layer as the rest of the magical plateau erupted out of the ground to catch up with itself. The original sun disappeared, blinking in and out of existence. The plateau settled with almost a sigh.

Instead of the bustling city of Kinnesburg, with its noise and crowds and bustling energy, they now stood in a vast and empty desert. Creosote shrubs and cholla cactus grew as far as the eye could see, wild and dry. The sky was too close, too big, and almost too blue.

That strange new sun stared down like it was inspecting them. The coyote woman sat down on a rock, breathing hard. She shook her head, sending little clots of dried blood flying from her fur. Dan stretched out his hands and inspected his banjo. It was no worse for wear after clubbing a deputy or two, and he twanged out a few notes.

“Sun getting’ to ye?” Amos kindly asked, sitting down beside a despondent Dan. He nodded, then waggled his skull a bit.

“Somethin’ else then?”

“Naw, it’s silly. Don’t mind me none.” Dan sighed, waving Amos off.

“Go on, ain’t silly. What is it?” Amos encouraged. Dan waffled a bit more, but finally spat it out.

“It’s pretty well into Winter now, ain’t it? Time down there is still passing even if the sun ain’t movin’ here.”

“Aye, the fifty second, if I’ve been keeping track right. Yer right, it does get a bit complicated.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figgured too… Well, I mean, it really is a lil silly to be all down about it, but… it’s my birthday today. Or well, what Zarobando picked for my birthday at least, I don’t know my real one.” Amos lit up with delight.

“Oh! Ye don’t say. How old?”

“Somewhere between forty four and forty six, so I guess forty five? I don’t know that fer certain either.” Dan laughed.

“That’s a fine laugh ye got there, I’d like to hear more of it. Birthday ain’t no time to be feelin’ all gloomy! C’mon, I’ve got a right fine idea. SITO! Me an’ Dan are goin’ out fer a bit!”

After Sito barked her dismissal, Amos took Dan by the hand and led him out into the sun. Dan flipped his hood up so it couldn’t see him as well. That damn thing was always staring at him.

“Don’t ye worry, we won’t be out in it fer long.” Amos reassured him, and sure enough after maybe half an hour of winding through the desert, they came up on an enormous boulder, bigger almost than the entire Morning Glory. Dan looked up at it in awe, and Amos pulled him around to the shaded side, where a fissure ran about halfway up.

“In there.” Amos let go of Dan’s hand to point into the narrow crack.

“In the rock?”

“Aye! Get! Trust me, ye’ll like it.” Dan shrugged. He certainly did trust Amos. He liked him quite a bit actually. So he sidled into the crack in the rock. There was actually plenty room for him, since it was big enough to fit Amos as well, and Amos had a good bit more flesh than Dan did. It was dark, the ground underneath him soft and sandy. His eye-lights offered a tiny bit of illumination, but not enough to see where he was going. Suddenly the walls around him fell away into darkness.

“Jist a little further please, m’dear, I need room to get by ye.”

Once he was fully inside the rock, Amos softly clicked his fingers over and over again until he built up the energy for a flame spell. As the gently flickering light filled the space, Dan gasped in absolute amazement.

“Oh!” That little light reflected in glittering splendor off of the thousands of beautiful crystals that covered the interior of the hollow boulder. Amos dropped crosslegged to the sandy floor, smiling proudly over his fire.

“What do ye think?”

“Oh!” Was still all Dan could say, turning in place with his skull tipped up to the cavernous ceiling. “It’s so pretty!”

“Aye! This plateau tis harsh an’ rough, but it’s got beauty hidden here and there throughout it. It doesn’t like me quite as much as ye or Sito, but it still lets me find places like this on occasion.” Dan’s laugh echoed as he spun around. He let himself fall backwards and continued looking up from a laying position. The sparkling reflections shimmered and blinked like a sky filled to the brim with stars.

“Now watch this.” Amos dropped the flame spell, and the two were plunged into darkness. Not for long though, as one by one, tiny pinpricks of light appeared, moving around the ceiling in a dizzying dance. Dan gasped in amazement.

“What is that?”

“They’re like, er, little bioluminescent snails. The crystals are their shells, an’ they freeze and pop back in when there’s light on ‘em, but when it’s dark, they come out an’ crawl around. Ain’t that somethin’?” Dan hopped back up and looked closely at a wall. Sure enough, those little crystals were moving around, and a little glowing blob was poking out one end. He touched it carefully with one phalange and it immediately retreated back into its shell, shooting a tiny burst of liquid across Dan’s cheekbones. He pulled back swiftly and wiped his hand across his face with a clattering of bones.

“Augh! It spat at me, ew!”

“Ha! Yer all glowin’ now!” Amos laughed. Dan looked down at his hands and sure enough, a streak of luminescence was spread across one of them. He could only imagine how his skull looked.

“C’mere, c’mere. I ought’ve warned ye, I’m sorry.” Dan sat down beside Amos, who beckoned him close. Dan leaned forward a bit, and Amos picked up the hem of his poncho and carefully scrubbed along Dan’s cheekbone.

“There ye go, it comes off nice an’ easy.” Dan once again was glad he couldn’t blush. Once Amos finished, he turned his eye sockets away and looked again up at the ceiling.

“This’s lovely. Thank yew.” The wizard gave a satisfied hum.

So i did so much outlining. So much.

I wrote out exactly what each character was doing when and why and what their thought process was and I've got some damn good motives and lies and red herrings