A breeze brushed the fur at his temples.
Ruger blinked and looked around the spot.
There was nothing there, only a roughly circular patch of lawn. Its edges had been trimmed on all four sides into deliberate, wave-like curves, with irregular inverted semicircles dividing up its border.
Ruger trusted his senses.
He stepped forward, finally setting foot on the level lawn, and kept walking slowly until he reached the other side.
Still, nothing happened. He continued onward. Perhaps the sound had come from the flowers beyond the lawn; at least the direction matched.
"Are you his new apprentice?"
The voice rang out again.
Ruger, who had already crossed the lawn, whipped around. A pristine white round table now stood on the previously empty grass. A woman sat beside it, slowly raising an exquisite white teacup to her lips as she watched him with curious eyes.
Ruger raised an eyebrow. Clearly, she had been teasing him.
The woman wore a long white dress with a palm-wide band of pink patterns decorating the hem and a scattering of small pink flowers across the fabric. It matched the teacup in her hand, whose glossy white exterior was also adorned with a string of tiny pink petals.
She also wore a broad-brimmed hat, its brim tilted slightly. Together with her sharp yet composed gaze, it gave her a distinctive air of authority.
"Beautiful lady, I imagine taking a Three-Ring Wizard as an apprentice would be rather extravagant."
Ruger glanced at the round table. An empty white chair with a slender, openwork back stood beside it.
The woman gestured for him to sit.
Ruger accepted without hesitation. He approached the table, turned his back to the chair, and settled onto it with a slight shift of his backside, gracefully and with his dignity intact.
"So