John Dare,one of the Dolk,formerly known as the Scribe,had finally caught up to
the college prick kid who had stolen his Implement three years
earlier.Besides retrieving his somewhat worse-for-wear shapeshifting Implement,Dare had also taken Daniel the colleg boy as his rightful
prize,under the rules of the Folk.
The immortal formerly known as the Scribe had stayed in touch with old
friends over those three miserable years,and thus was aware there'd been a major collapse in the worlds reserves of magic over those three years.
Since theres only a finite amount of this non-renewable resource to draw apon,there'd been a meeting of the various factions of the Folk where
the negotiators had bargained and made their cases about why THEIR special
group needed to keep the supplies of magic allocated to them.
In the end there'd been sweeping cuts to the amount of magic allocated to everyone,which meant many of the Folk had lost many of their powers,if not their immortality.
Monitoring of magic usage had increased and thats how John Dare had finally caught up with the college prick who'd stolen his Implement.
The whiny little creep had kept on burning off magic with the Implement
and one of John's friends in the monitoring services had tipped off Dare to find the thief who'd stolen his Implement.
So now John Dare was burning gas as his 58 Malibu burned off the miles
as his car thundered down the old route 66.
Under the new rules all the Folk had to report in to the nearest facility,sort through the paperwork
and give an oath they would not burn off more magic then had been allocated to them.
John Dare's Implement had been de-activated under the new magic
freeze,and he'd need to give the oath,pass a quick verbal exam on proper
magic usage and pay his fees to get it re-activated.
Now the Folk describe themselves in terms of their job description.Hence Scribes wrote stuff,and in the past had been given near unlimited usage of the magic,just as long as it served some greater good to the Universe.
Shapeshifters such as werewolves and dragons hadn't been granted that job to harass humanity,but to use those enhanced senses that came with the changed body in order to sniff out new hidden pockets of magic that hadn't
been found yet.
Then there were the lesser jobs,such as Hitchhikers,who had been
assigned the role of keeping the general human race believing in the supernatural .Theres nothing like having your passenger in the back seat suddenly vanish on you as you're passing by a cemetary at night to re-inforce your belief in the supernatural.
The Hitchhikers served a vital role in the magic cutbacks,since Folk researchers had shown there was a direct link between a belief in the supernatural and efficiency in usage of magic.
However John Dare viewed Hitchhikers as a nuisance,since they'd done the vanishing act on him a few times over the past decades,as well as using their magic on his mind to make him drive them here,there,everywhere.
So when John saw the female Hitchhiker off in the distance waving for a ride,he held back a few swear words and pushed down the pedal even more and roared right past her.
He'd gone about 3 miles down the road when he took a look at the college prick who'd made his life miserable for the past three years.
Daniel the bleep was handcuffed and gagged,but John Dare could just imagine the smirk or sneer that lay hidden by that gag.
After 3 years playing with the stolen Implement,Daniel knew more about the Folk and their magical jobs then most other mortals.
He must have guessed from his kidnappers reaction to the lady hitchhiker beside the road that she was another of the Folk,a Hitchhiker.
Mentally cursing himself,John Dare slammed on the brakes and the 58 Malibu slid to the shoulder of the Hwy 66,where John Dare lay hunched over the steering wheel,considering his options.
Then descision made,the 58 Malibu made a squealing U turn and with a shower of gravel,headed back to the Hitchhiker...