Meg - Meliai Range

Meg scratched her ear. “If you guys stay here…you’ll be okay? I mean, with the desert and all?”

“We will be fine,” said the leader.

“Though a little more shade and water would be best,” said a second ash.

Joshua cleared his throat. He brushed his fingers self-consciously through his shaggy hair. “We, um, would be most honored to have you! The force of nature is already strong here, but with the Meliai among us—”

“Yeah,” Prickly Pear agreed. “Nobody would bother us ever again. We could grow in peace!”

Aloe Vera studied the Meliai doubtfully. I imagined she didn’t trust life-forms that required so little healing. “How far is your range? How much territory can you protect?”

A third Melia laughed. “We marched today to Los Angeles! That was no hardship. If we are rooted here, we can protect everything within a hundred leagues!”

Reba stroked her dark hair. “Is that far enough to cover Argentina?”

“No,” Grover said. “But it would cover pretty much all of Southern California.”

***

The Burning Maze, Chapter 46