An idea hit me but the question was, could I pull it off? Judging by how much of my mana had regenerated, I might be cutting it a bit close. Still, what choice did I have? My nose went into the water, mostly to hide what I was doing more than to get more to drink.

  So, I figured that, since earth magic was all about the manipulation of the elements in the earth, wouldn’t that include metal and various crystalline structures? With that in mind, I slid my magic out in an ever-widening circle. Lucky for me, the people who built this place used natural stone. Stone that just happened to be chock-full of silica and iron. Okay, it wasn’t pure iron nor was it all that plentiful, hence why it was left alone rather than harvested.

  As I shifted and shifted the stone around, I heated it up just enough to make it a bit more malleable. A bit of pressure here, a sharp burst of water to cool it there, and I had the basis for my plan. Now, I just needed to activate it.

  Up my head went as I took a quick look around. There was a gap in the crowd to my left. While it wasn’t ideal, given that it led toward the stairs, I would make it work. So, without further ado, I rapidly and repeatedly compressed my creation.

  Almost simultaneously, every person within a twenty five foot radius from me cried out in pain and shock. Many of them hopped around only to cry out again as my trap hit them again and again.

  My feet skittered across the floor as I avoided the tiny spikes of metal protruding from the ground as well as the flailing bodies. The thread of mana connecting me to my spell shattered as I ran beyond the boundary. As if someone had flipped a switch, the cries were replaced with demands. I ignored them as I pushed through the thickening crowd of people rushing to help those behind me.

  Then, just as I stepped onto the first step, I found myself being picked up. At least this time they didn’t have me by the scruff but by my collar so there was that. My captor moved slowly, carefully, as if they were afraid of hurting me for some reason. Which I appreciated, but not because it would have hurt me. No, I appreciated it because it gave me time to bunch my muscles.

  As soon as the person came into view, I struck out. I didn’t know how sharp my claws were, but it wouldn’t matter if I managed to hit something soft like an eye or something.

  My arms dropped as my body went limp. The person holding me, looking into my eyes with her brows lifted, was Ginger. Oddly enough, I didn’t see Pendragon, but he might also have gotten caught up with my little mess.

  “You done?” She asked with a neutral tone that I didn’t like. The noise around me deadened a bit as my ears went flat to my head. She seemed to understand that, yes, I was done. “Good. Let me get you to our room so that you can shift. Then we can discuss your little adventure. I mean, really. What were you thinking when you caused chaos in the central market?”

  I half expected her to carry me but, thankfully, Ginger gently placed me down on the ground. With my tail limp and head down, I followed her up the stairs. It was a good thing I was looking down as I didn’t realize just how hard it was to walk up the stairs with four feet. Okay, so it wasn’t hard once I got ahold of the rhythm, but that didn’t mean it was easy either. To say I was grateful that she left the stairwell wouldn’t be stretching the truth all that much.

  The room she led me to was very similar to Xander’s, except this one had a number of personal things piled haphazardly on the bed and counters. Also, judging by the smell, she had a few dishes in the sink that needed washing. Thankfully they weren’t too far gone. Then again, I doubted she would allow them to get so far gone as her nose was more sensitive than a human's. Or was it?

  “Shift.” Her tone was brusk as she shut the door behind me. I tracked her as she moved to sit on the bed while I tried to figure out how to tell her that I couldn’t. “I would rather not lecture you in that form. It wouldn’t be fair to you as you wouldn’t be able to defend yourself.” Seeing no other choice, as well as recalling something the system had allowed me to do earlier, I triggered the shift. Mana flooded out of me like usual. It gathered along each limb as it prepared to do whatever it did to facilitate my shift from fox to human.

  Nausea and weakness caused me to wobble as I watched my mana bar drain away until the bar was practically empty. Between the moment the last of the mana rushed out of me and the next, I felt hollow. Drained. As though someone had reached into me and scooped out everything that gave me life, energy, a purpose.

  Then the mana that my shift was trying to use rushed back into me. It splashed against the walls of my mana pool as it tried to fill the void it had left behind. The nausea faded, taking with it the darkness that had overtaken my vision at some point. In front of my eyes was a screen. One that I knew would appear, even if I had never seen it before. Almost like I had instinctually known what was going to happen without even trying.

  User does not have sufficient mana for desired action. Shift canceled.

  As Ginger read over the screen, her brows furrowed in puzzlement. “Wait, I thought your transformation didn’t require mana. Or did I misread the orb’s description?” I shared the item's description with her again. “It does say it requires mana, but only ten points. Surely you cannot have so little mana.” She murmured as her hand reached out to touch the screen. With her finger against the screen, she spoke a word. A single word packed with quite a bit of mana. “Reveal.”

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  Whatever she just did, whatever skill it was she used, revealed quite a bit of information. I mean, it made sense that I needed mana to transform and it never sat right with me that it would require so little to complete said transformation. I mean, it wasn’t like my muscles and bones were shifting to the new shape on their own. Something had to move them around, to break and reform them into their new shapes.

  And don’t get me started on the mass I lost between my fox and humanoid forms. While I had yet to weigh myself, my fox form couldn’t be more than a hundred pounds. Given how much muscle I had gained, my humanoid forms had to be at least half again as much, if not more. So where did the mass go?

  Ginger’s sigh brought me out of my thoughts and back to the present. “You cannot just go charging into places and do things without some plan. You were honestly lucky that Sabran didn’t kill you for entering his territory without paying a toll.” Who was Sabran? Was he the guy with the head of a tiger?

  Unable to ask my question, she continued talking. “Then you had to go and run from him. Never, ever, run from a predator. Sure, most of them are nice people, but most of them are still learning how to deal with their instincts. Some, like him, decided to embrace those instincts rather than tamp them down like the rest of us. It is honestly a miracle that he didn’t give chase, not that you would have gotten all that far.”

  Ginger let out a long sigh, as if relieved about that fact or something. I took the opportunity to lie down and get comfortable as I waited for her to continue. “Then you had to go sprinting full speed into a crowded market space. One that is close to the center of the city, and thus the one that all of the noncombat-focused people frequent. Seeing something move as though its life was in danger, caused the group to panic.”

  Her tone dropped a bit as her eyes locked onto mine. She didn’t look happy as she spoke the next part. “And of course, then you had to cast a wave of earth magic to change the stone texture. People tripped and nearly trampled each other as they tried to get away from what they thought was an attack.”

  How was changing the texture of stone an attack? Surely no one was that stupid. Wait, didn’t I just attack a bunch of people in the lobby by changing the texture of the stone? Sure, I changed stuff inside the stone, but, unless one was looking for such a change they would only notice the change in the texture.

  I sounded a bit pitiful as I let out a soft whine in an attempt to get across just how sorry I was. Her glare told me that she wasn’t going to let me off so easily. “No! You are lucky that no one died. You are honestly lucky that Sabran tries to keep on Pendragon’s good side. He contacted us the moment he saw what he considered a wayward pup in need of guidance.” Something about the term pup caused me to chuff.

  Her glare sharpened more, causing me to shut up. “I am going to give you three options. I will give you time to think about which of the options you will take but you must choose one before you leave this room.”

  Ginger stopped talking as she waited for me to respond. Seeing no way out, I gave her a small dip of my head in acknowledgment. “Option one, you hang out with Xander. Do what he tells you and go where he goes. Option two. You return to the shifters and their alpha…”

  A deep growl rippled down my chest at the very thought of the alpha. “Okay, option three, you hang out with Pendragon.” I half expected her to include herself as one of the options. The lack of it had me tilting my head in confusion. “I have to leave the city to do a quick mission.” Her hand flicked out as if to say it was nothing and it might be nothing, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t worried for her.

  Still, I thought over the two options and found that I didn’t want to accept either. In fact, I still wanted to go with my original plan. Too bad I couldn’t talk. Then again, maybe I could try and communicate some other way.

  Mentally, I called up the menu and looked for my notes. Pages of notes on runes appeared in front of me, surprising me. I had honestly forgotten about them. Not that I had time to go over any of it. Not right now anyway.

  Pulling open a new page, I jotted down what I wanted to do and shared it with her. Her reaction was quick and sharp. One moment she was sitting on the bed, the next had my muzzle gripped in her hand as she glared into my eyes. “You will NOT go off on your own. You might think that you are strong enough to handle yourself, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. Both in terms of the creatures that live in this area as well as the fact that there are random demons wandering through. Demons that would play with you before killing you.”

  I shuddered and whined at the reminder. The last demon I fought did just that. Hell, I got lucky that he was willing to play along for so long. As if to emphasize her point, her fingertips dug into my jaw for a few more moments before she released me. Free from her grip, I scurried around her and to the bathroom. Even as I slid across the smooth surface, I managed to close the door.

  Sure, she could have followed me. Entered the room with me to make sure I didn’t do something, but she didn’t. It was almost as if she knew I needed time to myself. Which was great because, given the way my hair was clumping together and the subtle smell of wet fur, I needed a shower.