[Xander – 12 years]

  "Hi, Dad," I rub my eyes as I enter the dining room, where Dad's talking with Ms. Johnson. "Oh. Hi, Ms. Johnson."

  "Hello, Xander," she smiles. "Did you have a good nap?"

  "Yeah," I cover my mouth as I yawn. "Though I still feel a little sleepy. Still waking up. But I got a text so I'm out of bed now."

  My nap didn't last as long as it normally does because of the text. They don't normally wake me up, but I woke up at that one for some reason. After checking it, I'm glad it woke me up. If it hadn't, I'd probably end up missing out on something that sounds like something I want to try.

  "A text?" Dad asks. "You don't have to get out of bed for texts. I'm sure Sig and them have been flooding your phone with notifications. They do that normally, don't they?"

  "It's not been so bad," I tell him. "And I muted the group chat for while they're on so that I don't. But I do check it sometimes. Like before my lunch, I went through and looked at all of the messages I hadn't seen yet. They've done a lot of hiking, fishing, and swimming. They were playing at a creek before my nap with some other kids who're camping at the campgrounds. I don't know what they're doing right now, that was more than an hour and a half ago and I haven't checked the group chat since earlier. Even if I had, they might not've sent anything."

  "Do you wish you'd gone with them?"

  "No," I answer. "They're being way too hyper for me. But going places is why I got up instead of trying to go back to sleep. Carter texted me and said he knows it's really late notice, but that's because he originally wasn't going to because I wasn't wanting to socialize much this week. But then he said he decided to invite me anyway."

  I nod. There. That should be everything, so now he's probably taking time to decide on if I can or not.

  "Xander?" Dad asks after a few moments of silence.

  "Yeah?"

  "Invite you to what?"

  Stupid me. I forgot to say that part.

  "To his birthday stuff," I answer. "His birthday's tomorrow. He's getting up really early in the morning to go hunting with some friends. After that, they'll have breakfast, then play until lunch. After lunch is just hanging out and play games, and probably swimming in the lake. Well, and he wanted to know if I wanted to ride in a tractor today and spend the night tonight. That one seems unrelated."

  "And… what were you invited to?" Dad asks.

  "All of it."

  "And what are you wanting to go to?"

  "All of it," I answer. "Oh, and I know it's really late notice to be asking you, but I can teleport there, so you don't have to worry about driving me. I'll also be able to get there on-time for the tractor-riding if I teleport. If-if you're okay with that."

  "I am," Dad tells me, then looks at Ms. Johnson. "The permission for him to visit Autumn Hills and Autumn Vale hasn't run out yet so I know I don't need to ask or reapply, but I don't know if he's allowed to go hunting."

  There are restrictions on what a foster kid can do and where they can go. Leaving the state requires receiving permission, but Dad filled out a form to get me permission to visit Mozrult for a month. He'll have to reapply every month for me to continue to be allowed to go once it runs out, but it's not time for that.

  As for hunting… I don't know if there's a restriction on it or not. I didn't see one in the binder I was given, but that could just be me forgetting it. If Dad's asking Ms. Johnson, then that means there probably isn't one in there.

  "You're okay with me going hunting?" I ask.

  "I've spoken with Carter's parents enough," Dad says. "To know that they'll have the supervision of experienced hunters for it. Also that Carter and his friends have gone hunting plenty, so they'll be more careful. I'll want to talk with his parents to see what you'd be doing during the hunting, but otherwise, I don't have an issue with it. But the state might, so we need to hear what Tiffany says, okay?"

  "Okay," I look at Ms. Johnson.

  "The policy is 'sense of normalcy'," Ms. Johnson tells my dad. "As long as it's something that can be considered normal and isn't outright banned or regulated by the policies, it's allowed. Different families have different senses of normal, so there's not an exhaustive list. In this case, hunting isn't restricted as many families go hunting, even around here. As long as it's treated as a normal hunting session, nothing illegal happens, and safety is maintained, I don't see an issue with it."

  "So that's a 'yes'?" I ask.

  "It is," she says. "Though since you don't know how to use a gun or a bow, I'm guessing you'll be mostly an observer."

  "The guards taught me how to use a gun," I tell her. "I don't have perfect aim, but I've gotten good at hitting close to the center. Handguns and rifles. But they might not use guns for the hunting, they're all strong mages and I know Carter and Tate use magic instead of rods a lot when fishing."

  I was offered to learn how to use a gun by the guards after the day I asked them to help test the AR guns. They scare me a little when they bang so I have to use my earplugs or headphones, but the guards aren't bothered by that.

  "Okay," she says. "I'm here today for a visit – this is my surprise visit for the month. Trey already showed me around a bit while you were sleeping, but can you show me around? I'd like to see everything with you, including your room."

  It's already time for another visit? Time is moving a lot faster than I thought. It really feels like the last one was just last week.

  "Yeah," I say.

  I lead Ms. Johnson around the house, including showing her my room and office again. She asks me questions about living here and how I like it, and about the staff, too. Once the tour/inspection is over, we return to the dining room.

  "It's good to see you so happy here," Ms. Johnson tells me. "You've changed a lot since school let out, and in a positive way. You're a lot happier and more confident, and you've gotten pretty comfortable, too. I'd say you've settled in well here."

  "Yeah," I pull up my shirt. "Look, you can see my abs better now. So I'm almost healthy, too."

  "You're pretty healthy anyway," Ms. Johnson says. "You can focus more on being happy instead. Anyway, this concludes my visit, so I'll be leaving now. Have a good rest of your day, Xander."

  "You, too, Ms. Johnson," I say, then Dad and I walk her to the door and she leaves.

  "Okay," Dad says. "So you'd like to go to Carter's now, then?"

  "Yeah," I answer. "If-if that's okay."

  "It is," he says. "Though I do want to talk with his parents, as I said. When is the tractor-riding?"

  "Um…" I check my phone. "In less than an hour and a half – he said that it's cutting hay, and they have to start by two, and it's already past twelve-thirty."

  "Carter's family has hay?" He asks.

  "I'm not sure if it's him or Knox," I answer. "Knox is the one who Carter brought along to the testings and streams to take the place of the dummy. He lives on a farm and one of their crops is hay. They have a few different fields. I don't know that that the Martinses has hay, but maybe they do?"

  "Okay," Dad says. "Why don't you get ready to go, then teleport us to the Martinses' ranch?"

  I go upstairs and change outfits to jeans, a green flannel shirt, and my western boots Once I'm back downstairs, I teleport Dad and me to the entrance to the ranch's main public building. When we enter, Mrs. Martins is at the desk inside.

  "Hello," she greets us with a smile. "Carter said he'd invited you late, but wasn't sure when you'd be here if you came, since it's a few hours' drive from there."

  "I teleported us," I tell her. "Carter said it was okay to."

  "I'm sure he did," she chuckles. "He's getting ready to head over to the fields right now; you can drop your bag off at the barn if you'd like."

  She gives me the directions to which barn she's talking about, then Dad tells me to wait so he can ask her a few questions. He takes awhile to ask them, and Carter comes into the lobby during it, dressed similarly to me. Rather than a green flannel shirt, he's wearing a light grey one, and he's got on his cowboy hat.

  Oh, right. I should wear mine, too. I pull it out of my backpack and pull it on as he walks over. When he reaches me, he holds out a fist, which I bump with one of my own. As I do, I see the bracelet I gave him – it's the friendship bracelet with gold, dark green, and light pink on it.

  Did he put it on just for me coming over, or has he been wearing it since? I want to ask, but I feel like that would be rude.

  "Glad you made it!" Carter tells me, and he's being honest, too. "I was just getting ready to head over to the fields when Mom texted me and said y'all came."

  "Yeah, but I don't know if Dad'll let me or not," I tell him. "He's asking your mom a lot of questions."

  "Hope he does," he says. "Hey, I saw your stream yesterday. Well, I saw the VOD, I was working during the stream. Did closing the Rift use up a ton of mana?"

  He watched the video from my stream? That's surprising. I expected that the only people who watch my streams would be the ones watching them while I'm live. Maybe he did it to try and have something to talk about with me? I know I'm not very good at socializing and can use help, but he didn't have to do that, if that was his reason for it.

  "Yeah," I whisper to him. "But don't tell Dad. I haven't told him yet and I'm worried he'd try and buy a lot of magic food to help me recover better. I have a lower recovery rate, only regenerate half a percent of my mana an hour when it's not boosted by other factors."

  Though it's a lower rate when considering the normal percentage range is 0.5-1% per hour, I do still recover quite a lot. More than most people can even dream of holding. Being lower on mana isn't a nice feeling, though, so I'd rather not be low for too long.

  "What was your favorite thing to find yesterday?" He asks. "You didn't mention it, so did you not have a favorite?"

  "I had one," I say. "Should I have mentioned it?"

  "It's not needed," he tells me. "But when doing new things, fans love hearing what your favorite part was."

  My viewers probably aren't really fans, but I'll keep that in mind. That way, what fans I do have can learn that sort of stuff if I do something like that again.

  "Oh," I say. "Mine was finding that silverwing grasshopper. Its wings looked really neat and the way the magic inside of it looked… that was really nice."

  "Xander," Dad says, and I look over. "I'll agree to it, but make sure you listen to all instructions during the hunting session, okay? No goofing off or doing your own thing. You need to make sure you act in a safe and appropriate manner, understand?"

  Really? Yes!

  "Okay," I say. "I'll do my best."

  "I'll see you when you're done," he says. "Can you teleport me back home now?"

  "Can I hug you first?"

  "Yes."

  I give my dad a hug, then teleport him back to his house. Once that's done, Carter tells me to follow him and I do. We go out to one of the barns, where he's got a golf cart-like thing waiting. It has has a thing on the back to carry stuff, including a couple of buckets, a cooler, and a box.

  "I know you don't like touching," Carter says. "But we'll be touching in the seats in the buggy since it's a close fit. Even if you have your arm in front of you, our sides'll be pressed together. Are you okay with that?"

  "No," I answer. "But I'll try to deal with it."

  "Okay," he climbs in as one of his dogs runs over and jumps up into the back. "Hey, Bubbly. Coming with?"

  The dog barks in response as I climb up into the other seat, and Carter starts driving us. The golf cart bumps a little as he drives, especially once we get to a dirt road.

  "You have farms, too?" I ask after a couple of minutes.

  "Mainly a hay field," he says. "It helps feed the horses, and we can insure the hay if we grow it ourselves, unlike if we bought it from someone else."

  "Insure it?"

  "Yeah," he says. "With the insurance company. That way, if there's a fire and it all gets destroyed, we'll be able to get paid out long as the insurance company doesn't mess about with us and determines we're not at fault. And getting paid the value of the lost stuff is important to being able to buy replacement hay."

  "So your horses eat hay?"

  "During winter," he says. "We let them graze in the pastures when it's warmer out, but it's not always warmer. And if it's raining, well, they don't like going out there, so we give 'em hay then, too."

  That makes sense. Even if the horses could probably evaporate the rain with their magic, they probably don't want to have to deal with that.

  "Oh."

  "We also grow a magic hay," he adds. "It has fire magic properties to it, so flaremane horses love it. Not many regular farmers want to grow it because it needs special handling and storage – the risk of fire is higher than with regular hay."

  As it turns out, regular hay can catch fire if it's not fully dry when baled or stored due to bacteria activity. That increases the heat inside of it, and the heat remains trapped. Once enough builds up… the hay catches fire.

  And for hay that's already got fire magics, that risk is even higher because it's naturally warmer to start with. The barns for the horses are enchanted to withstand even the hottest flames the horses can produce. Every piece of wood making up their walls, stalls, and such is enchanted, which costs a lot of money. But they produce enough income that they were able to afford it a long time ago, so things are safe now.

  For the barns where the hay is stored, those aren't just fireproofed, but they have an even more expensive enchantment: heat and fire suppression. That enchantment suppresses fire's ability to form, even magical fire. With it in place, the stored hay bales can't catch fire even if they're still wet. They just don't get hot enough for it. No one would be able to deliberately start a fire, either.

  A regular farmer wouldn't be able to afford both of those, nor the fireproofing enchantments. The market for hay with fire magic is also small enough that it's really not worth it for other farmers to grow it. It would take them years of growing it to afford the enchantments necessary to store it safely.

  So ranchers like the Martinses grow their own fire magic hay for their horses. Tate's family apparently grows hay with mind magic properties for their cattle and horses. Much like flaremane horses, mindwave cattle and mindwall horses love food that has mind magic aspects to it.

  "And they have wheat with mind magic?" I ask.

  "Yeah," he says. "Not for larger sale, though. It's mostly for themselves, though they do sell to a few people who ask if they like 'em well enough. Like us and our eggs."

  "But horses don't lay eggs?"

  "We have chickens!" He laughs.

  "You have chickens?"

  "Yup," he grins at me. "End up with a lot of eggs because of it. More than we eat. So we give 'em to friends or sell 'em. We're almost to the field, now."

  Bubbly barks, as if backing what Carter said.

  I don't see the farm yet, but the woods we're passing through open up further ahead. Once we're close to the edge, I can see the farm – it's set back a little from the road, which is why I didn't see it from further back.

  The grass they grow for hay is about three and a half feet tall and has a reddish-orange color to it. From what I can see as we pass by, it's not all one grass, though. I think there are at least three grasses, including one with flowers.

  That's on the left side of the road, while five large barns are to the right, the area around those cleared of the woods, too.

  "We were originally going to harvest Sunday afternoon," Carter tells me. "Then let it dry out for a couple of days before baling it on Tuesday and moving it into the barns. But now they're forecasting rain tonight, as well as on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. That came up suddenly, so something magical probably shifted the weather. And the rodeo's on Thursday, so we won't have time to deal with it then. We want to get it done sooner rather than later as it's ready for harvest and we want another harvest before it's too late. Grass stops growing after it reaches a certain height depending on the strain, and this one's just about there. If we cut it now, that'll give another week of growth for it for the last cut."

  Which means more hay will be produced. That's easy enough for me to understand.

  "So you're doing it today?" I ask.

  "Yeah," he answers. "Dad told me 'bout it as I was getting ready to invite you to the birthday stuff tomorrow, and I figured, invite you to give riding a tractor a try! Ours are easier to handle than one you'd find on a mundane farm."

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Okay," I say as he parks in the first barn, where his dad and older brother currently are, along with several tractors. "Whoa. Wait. If it's raining tonight, how're you gonna bale it if you want it dry first?"

  "Special tractors," Mr. Martins taps the one he and Collin are beside. "This boy here uses magic to rapidly dry the hay in a safe manner as it rakes it. We don't normally use it as it requires a lot more mana crystals, but since we need this harvest done before next weekend, we're using it."

  And mana crystals cost a lot of money. Even if they're mages and make most of their money from magic stuff, the tractor probably uses a lot of mana in order to perform the drying magic.

  "Are all of them powered by mana crystals?" I ask. "They all look like they're magitech."

  I can see and sense the magic in all of the tractors in here. They don't just have durability enchantments, some of the magics are definitely to make the tractors function. Even the wheels move via magic.

  "They are," Mr. Martins says. "They're more efficient and require less maintenance than diesel, allowing for us to work a little faster and spend less time fixing 'em up. The special raker has magitech systems, but the drying process is also magic, and that requires extra mana. We can afford the crystals, but we'd rather not spend the extra expense if we don't have to."

  "And if we get the hay done today," Carter says. "We'll theoretically have enough of it from the next harvest that we can sell the excess, making up for the crystal cost of the baler. And if we don't get it done today and do it after the rodeo, we might not have enough extra we can sell after the next harvest."

  "Oh."

  "That's why we want to get it done today," Mr. Martins tells me.

  "How much mana does it use?" I ask.

  "'Bout fifty of these," Collin pulls a mana crystal out of a box beside him. "We're loading it up now. Also, it's fifty between the raker and the baler – that one has the drying feature as well. This ensures they're fully dried before storage."

  The mana crystal he's holding contains roughly one hundred units of mana, which means it costs around $2,000. That's $100,000, and they said that they should be able to earn the cost back from selling excess hay. They can really earn that much from hay? Not just from hay, but from extra hay, too.

  Whoa.

  No wonder mages can earn a lot. They probably don't even buy all of their magic crystals, either. It wouldn't surprise me if they make some on their own if they have spare mana and aren't expecting to use it for awhile. That would increase how much profit they earn for sure.

  Oh, right.

  "What's up?" Carter asks.

  "Huh?" I look at him.

  "You said 'oh, right'," he says. "Like you realized something you'd forgotten."

  "That was out loud?" I ask. "Sorry. I just remembered that I forgot to ask Grandpa Adrian about selling my mana batteries through Xanson Technologies."

  "You make mana batteries, too?" He asks. "Are they special ones?"

  "Yeah," I nod. "It's how the AR stuff and hoverboards are powered. They're special mana crystals that produce their own mana, so their lifespan is indefinite. I think it's indefinite. I don't know if they'll stop producing their own mana over time, but Grandpa Adrian hasn't said so so if they do, it's probably a really long time."

  "They make their own mana?"

  "Just like we do," I nod. "It'll save on having to replace batteries, and also means I don't need to create extra panels on my stuff. Like the glasses. It's very thin, long mana crystals in the frames that powers them. But if I had to make it so you could replace them, I'd have to redesign the glasses and affect the structural integrity, requiring additional work to make things function properly."

  "I… didn't even think about how the glasses were powered," he admits. "There are mana batteries in the frames?"

  "Yeah."

  "That's… pretty cool," he says.

  "It is," Mr. Martins tosses him a bracelet with magic in it. "If you guys do sell them, we might look into it, though it might be a bit too expensive for us for awhile. For now, let's get started. Carter, you're doing the mowing. I've already set the machine up, so just take it out. Collin'll be behind you."

  "Yes, sir!" Carter slips the bracelet onto his right wrist. "Come on, Xander. It won't be as close a fit in there, though our arms'll probably still touch a little unless you keep yours in front of you."

  "That's… fine, I think," I say as Carter grab the cooler from the back of the buggy. "I managed the ride here mostly fine."

  "Hold on," he says. "Just remembered, but I got us some food, since it'll take awhile."

  Carter pulls lunch boxes out of the cooler, which has cooling magic on it. The lunch boxes do, too, and it looks like they have spatial expansion enchantments. That means they can probably fit a lot more than they look like, and they're good-sized lunch boxes.

  He even has one with food for me in it.

  "Thanks," Mr. Martins tells him as he accepts a lunch box from Carter.

  "You can leave your backpack in the back of the buggy," Carter tells me. "No one else'll be out here, and you've got your protective enchantments on it, too."

  I don't want to go so far away from my backpack here, but I don't think it'd make anyone else happy if I tried to insist on taking it. Trenton probably isn't allowed to come, either, so I leave him behind even though I really want to take him with me if I can't have my backpack.

  Carter leads me up to a large tractor and has me get up into the cab, then he climbs in after me and closes the door. There are two seats up here, and Bubbly is never allowed to ride. That means the dog will probably stay at the barns and watch or do whatever it is he does while we work.

  "Buckle up," Carter tells me as he buckles himself in. "I'd rather not, but Dad gets mad when I don't and he'd be even madder if I didn't with you here."

  I buckle up. Even if Carter didn't, I would because safety is important. In fact, I'd probably end up insisting on him buckling up as well, even if it meant he didn't want to be friends anymore.

  "So controlling this is actually pretty simple," he holds up his right arm and pulls back his sleeve a little. "This bracelet is actually the key to the tractor – it won't start unless the person holding the steering wheel is wearing it. There's a lot of magitech systems involved, so there aren't as many controls as a mundane one, either. The system does most of the work."

  He grabs the steering wheel.

  "There are two pedals down below," he tells me. "First is gas, second is brake, just like a car. I've heard some tractors have more than that, but I ain't ever seen one that does."

  "And you're allowed to drive it?" I ask. "Don't you have to be at least sixteen and have your driver's license? Or fifteen for a permit with an adult?"

  "One who's over twenty-one," he says. "And nope! That's only for driving on public roads – this is private property, so I can drive. And a license ain't required for tractors in many states, Mozrult included. Come on, let's get going."

  He starts the tractor and pulls out of the barn, then drives toward one end of the field.

  "The magitech in here," he tells me. "Will register when it's time to lower and lift the cutters on its own, so I don't need to do anything for those. See how we've got a thing sticking out of the front and two more from behind?"

  "Yeah, but the ones behind are sticking straight back."

  I look backwards to make sure they still are, as they were when we climbed up here.

  "They'll be like that until we reach the field," he tells me. "It prevents the tractor from taking up more space than needed when they aren't in use. Once the sensors in the front detect that it's time to lower the blades on the front cutter, it'll also send a signal to the back two. They'll turn out to the sides. This is a three-cutter, and covers a lot more ground than a one-cutter. Once we've done two rows, Collin'll come in with the raker. He'll cover each row twice with it, both for drying power and to move the hay. When I cut it, it'll mostly go straight down, like when you mow. The raker moves it to the side, but not enough for the baler. So he goes over it again to make the strips of hay narrow enough for the baler to pick up."

  "And also mostly dry."

  "And also mostly dry," he nods. "Dad'll come through after with the baler, and it'll do three-tie square bales."

  "Three-tie?"

  "Yeah," he nods. "Two-tie are smaller and weigh less, usually 'bout eighty to a hundred pounds or so. The three-tie ones are larger, at about a foot and a half tall, two wide, and four long. The hay we grow is a little bit on the heavier side, and those weigh almost two hundred pounds. Fortunately, we have one that can bale things pretty fast."

  "How do you collect it?" I ask. "You gotta pick it up yourselves?"

  I've seen pictures of farmers picking hay bales up out of a field and throwing them onto the back of a truck

  "We've got a machine for that," he grins at me. "I'll probably be the one driving it after. It sucks up the bales, moves them onto a thing and once there's a full row, it lifts the row up onto another platform. Once that platform's full, it'll lift up and move it into the back. Over and over until it's full. If we got as much as we're expecting, we'll manage 'bout twenty loads."

  "It's not as loud in here as I thought it'd be," I tell him. "I even have my earplugs just in case."

  "It's a magitech engine, so it doesn't produce noise," he explains. "It'll get noisy when it's cutting since that's spinning blades hitting stuff, but the cab's got enchantments on it to dampen that for us."

  "Nice."

  "Yup!" He says. "Alright, almost to the end."

  "How come you're starting at the far end rather than the close end?"

  "For luck."

  "Luck?"

  "Yeah," he nods. "You'd probably call it a superstition, but we always start harvesting from this end for luck. It gives us better yields."

  That statement was fully honest, but how could it be when there shouldn't be a difference in how much grass grew? They cut the same amount regardless of which side they start on.

  "How does that work?"

  "Like I said," Carter says. "Others view it as superstition. Anyway, you probably noticed that it looks like a few different grasses. It is, because the flaremanes like the mix better. They're native to the area, and so are the grasses. They grow pretty densely here, too, which is why we can get so much in this harvest. The soil's rich enough in mana 'round here for that."

  There's a massive dragon vein flowing underneath here, and it's got a fire magic aspect. Since the mana vein is big enough for me to notice even without using magesight, that means it really has an immense amount of mana in it. That would definitely make the soil here suitable for growing fire-based crops. At least, as far as my understanding of how magic can influence plant growth goes.

  "Aren't some of the grasses in the pastures like this?" I realize I've seen them before.

  "They all are, actually," he says. "They're relatively green when they're shorter, but as they get taller, they turn reddish-orange and are ready to be made into hay once they're the color of the stuff here. So the horses get it fresh in the pastures when the weather's good and as hay when it's bad or too cold. And we're here!"

  We reach the end of the field, and Carter turns into it. Just as he said, the tractor lowers the mower in front of us right before we reach the grasses. The back mowers lower right before they reach the grasses, and they really did move out to the sides, too.

  All without Carter touching any controls.

  The tractor doesn't bounce very much, even though I expected it to bounce a lot. I guess with tires as big as the ones this thing has, the ground not being perfectly flat doesn't matter. Or maybe some of its magic helps keep it steady? I look around and confirm that there are enchantments to ensure a smoother ride for those in the cabin.

  They're not actually doing a whole lot, even with the field being slightly sloped. I guess that's because the wheels are big enough that small bumps don't matter and there aren't any big bumps here.

  The mowing process for the field takes a long time, and Collin's part takes even longer since he has to go over each spot twice in order to move the hay into rows even with him driving faster than Carter. It really does dry out from the raker, turning almost completely orange as it does.

  Before we've even reached the halfway point, Carter's opened up his lunchbox and pulled out some grapes to eat, setting the container on his lap. That makes it so he can pull them out as he drives, popping them into his mouth before returning his hand to the wheel.

  It's not until Carter tells me that it's okay to eat if I want to that I pull some of the food out of my lunchbox. There are grapes, blueberries, pretzels, baby carrots, celery pieces, sandwiches, and bottles of water and lemonade. The sandwiches have roast beef slices for their meat and Swiss cheese for their cheese. I'm fairly certain they're mindwave cattle beef and cheese, and the magics in them confirm it.

  Carter even eats his sandwiches while driving. That's impressive, because he manages to keep the tractor going straight.

  "Hey, Xander?" Carter says once we're about three-quarters done.

  "Yes, Carter?"

  "Want to drive?"

  "I… don't think that's a good idea."

  "It's really not so hard," he tells me. "I'll help you at first, too, so it won't be fully you. Holding the steering wheel a little until you're comfortable steering, and telling you about the pedals. And if you decide to stop, we can switch again, promise. So want to give it a try? Just a little bit? Dad wouldn't have let me take you if he wasn't okay with it."

  He's being fully honesty here. And I kind of do want to try driving it a little, but what if I mess up? Carter doesn't seem concerned by that at all.

  "Um… okay, maybe for a few minutes."

  Carter stops the tractor and we switch seats, which is really uncomfortable to do due to how small the cab is. But once we do it, Carter hands me the bracelet key, which I slip onto my left wrist.

  "Wait," I say. "Will it work on my left wrist? I don't want to wear four bracelets on one wrist."

  Four's an evil numbers, so I'd need to move one of my friendship bracelets. That isn't something I want to do. I want the wishes I made when I put them on to come true, which means only taking them off when absolutely necessary.

  "Yeah," he answers. "As long as that's the hand that's close to the wheel most of the time, it'll work. And you can take your hand off without it stopping – you saw me doing that whenever we turned and when I was eating. It only stops when the hand's away for too long."

  "Y-yeah," I nod. "I saw that."

  "Okay," he says. "Grip the wheel and feel for both pedals with your right foot."

  I do that, and he grabs the wheel with his left hand.

  "The left one is your brake," he says. "You push on it to slow down and eventually stop. Don't push all the way down. It's not necessary. The one on the right is the gas. Lightly push your foot down to make it go."

  I do, and the tractor starts moving. That startles me and my foot immediately comes off of the pedal. Crap. I messed up and that means Carter's not going to let me keep trying.

  "Try again," Carter chuckles, apparently not upset at my mistake. "Yeah, just like that. Push down a tiny bit more… more… more… okay, there. That's a good speed. Try to keep it."

  This makes me feel really nervous, but I manage to do two rows without messing up. That's apparently enough for Carter to let go of the steering wheel, though he does tell me to turn a little from time to time.

  Part of mowing the hay field involves big, wide turns. When doing those, I have to make sure to overlap the cut areas as little as possible while still covering everything. That makes me really nervous and I know I'm overlapping more than Carter did, but he doesn't complain about that.

  By the time we finish mowing the field, it's nearly sunset. Carter takes over to bring the tractor back to the barn, where Bubbly is waiting for us.

  "Who's a good boy?" Carter asks the dog as he ruffles his fur. "You're a good boy, aren't you?"

  Bubbly barks in response, his tail wagging enthusiastically.

  "Keep guard!" Carter tells him, and the dog barks again. "Come on, Xander. Let's get the collector now."

  Carter opens up the box on the back of his buggy, where another bracelet similar to the key one is sitting. His dad apparently put it in there after we left, and Carter swaps the one he's wearing for it. The box is apparently a lockbox that's keyed to his family, so no one else can open it but them.

  Which makes it a relatively safe spot to put things like a key. Being able to bypass an enchantment requires knowing the specifics of it, and I'm not sure how many people can actually sense magic like I can. That means there probably aren't very many people who can do it.

  One thing I know for sure is that I'm unlikely to use my skills to unlock things I shouldn't be unlocking. That's especially true for if it's my friends' stuff.

  We climb up into the cab of the collector tractor, then Carter returns to the field and begins collecting the bales. The machine really does look like it's sucking them up. It collects three bales before moving them onto the bigger platform, and six rows before moving them into the back. That's one hundred and eighty bales before he drives to the third barn from the road we came from to drop them off. The machine even deposits the load, so we don't have to get out of the tractor at all.

  There aren't any bales in here already, but Carter explains that that's because they store the bales from different harvests in different barns. That way, they don't have to worry about which end is the older stuff and which end is the fresher. It also makes it so that if something happens to one of the barns, the other harvests won't be affected.

  "So there are four harvests?" I ask after he explains this.

  There are five barns and the first one is where they store the tractors and some tools and stuff. That leaves four barns for storing hay.

  "No," he answers. "Did you see the lines on the floor?"

  "The big yellow ones?"

  There were two of them. One of them was on the left side of the barn, the other was on the right side. The space between the left line and the left wall was bigger than the one between the right line and the right wall, which is weird.

  "Yeah," he says. "Those are the markers for where that harvest should reach for us to be fine. The marker on the left indicates where it needs to go for feed. We pretty much always get that much, even when we get smaller yields. If we fill in to that, we start putting hay in on the right. That's for bedding, which isn't necessary. The horses will be fine if we use normal hay or some other type for bedding, they just prefer flame hay.

  "And if we get more hay than that," he continues. "That's excess and we won't need it. We can sell it, so we put it in the fourth barn – but don't sell it right away."

  "You wait until the third harvest," I guess. "So that if you don't have enough from a later harvest, you can supplement those with the excess from the earlier ones."

  "Yup!" He says. "Only after we know we've got enough hay do we sell any excess, and that's why we wait until after the third harvest."

  "Okay."

  Running the collector is a lot faster than the mower, but it still takes a lot of time. As with before, Carter lets me drive for the last quarter of the field. Collecting the bales is a bit worrying at first, but Carter must realize what's making me nervous and lets me know that I don't have to be exact with the collector. There's room for error and I can be off a little and it'll still grab the bales.

  Though putting the hay away is a little bit more difficult, and I'm fairly certain I messed up. Carter doesn't say anything, though, so it's probably not too bad.

  We end up collecting nineteen full loads and nearly a full twentieth load, matching Carter's estimates of around twenty loads. They only need seventeen to fill the second hay barn up to the lines, so the last three loads go into the last barn. There are three big yellow lines in here, one for each harvest, and there are twelve loads from the first harvest, and Carter directs me to where I need to go to drop off the excess from this one.

  By the time we finish, it's completely dark out. It's well-past ten and I'm really hungry. Will I be able to sneak some food from my backpack without anyone noticing? Probably not, but I'll try anyway.

  "Good job, boys," Mr. Martins says once Carter's parked the tractor and we've gotten out. "And was that you driving at the end for both, Xander? Or just this one?"

  My face heats up a little. This is where he tells me how I fucked up, isn't it?

  "Y-yeah."

  "Don't be so nervous," he smiles as he accepts the bracelet key from Carter, who'd pulled it off as I answered. "You did okay for your first time. You going back in the buggy with Carter, or want to ride in the truck with Collin and me?"

  Ride back with my friend or with a man and a seventeen-year-old guy? That's an easy answer, even if I'll be uncomfortable.

  "Buggy."

  "Alright," he says. "See you back at the house."

  Carter and I wait for them to leave, then get into the buggy, Bubbly jumping up into the back. I summon Trenton from my backpack the moment I'm seated. I really need him right now.

  "You really did do a good job for a first time," Carter tells me as he turns on the buggy's lights, then starts driving. "Especially with you being nervous as heck. You kept panicking, too, but managed to keep driving fine. I was gonna offer to let you drive the buggy, but… I think you'd get too anxious."

  "Yeah," I nod. "I don't think I could manage it. The tractors were scary enough already."

  "What'd you think?" He asks. "Was it fun?"

  "Fun?" I ask. "It was… weird. And scary. But not fun."

  "Not fun, huh?" He asks. "How about this – did you like doing it? Not in a 'you want to do it again' sort of way, but in the 'I'm glad I got to experience it' kind of way?"

  Did I enjoy it in that way? What does he mean by that? How can I enjoy something but not want to do it again? But I do feel glad I got to do it at least once. It was a weird experience for sure.

  Oh. That's what he means.

  "Yeah," I say. "Thanks for inviting me to it, Carter."

  "You're welcome!" He says. "Oh, right!"

  I hear the cooler pop open behind us, and it takes me a moment to realize that he's using telekinesis. The cooler closes and a few moments later, something floats into the front with us and hovers in front of me. A container with strawberries in it.

  "Snack for the trip back!" He says. "For both of us. And the greens are already gone, so we can just eat 'em. Well, we could just toss the greens if they had 'em, they decompose. But I cut 'em all off earlier so that we could just chomp and not worry."

  By the time we return to the main area, we've finished off all of the strawberries. Carter's apparently super hungry as well. Rather than parking the buggy by the public areas, he drives us to his house and parks it out front.

  "Come on!" He says. "Mom's probably got something for us."

  "For us?"

  "Yeah," he grabs the cooler from the back. "Don't forget your backpack!"

  I wasn't going to, and pull it on before walking inside with him.

  It smells really good in here.Then I realize that Mrs. Martins is in the kitchen and Mr. Martins and Collin are at the table, digging into food. She prepared food for everyone for when we finished out in the field, despite it being well-past ten at night now.

  Our "real" dinner (as Carter calls it) consists of thick burgers, fries baked in the oven with some seasonings, a salad with a lot of leafy greens and vegetables, and a fruit mix. Some of the ingredients come from their own gardens, especially the salad stuff where it's entirely from the gardens. The pickles for the burgers are apparently homemade with stuff they grew as well.

  The servings are massive, made for mages who did a lot of work even without using magic. Or maybe they did use magic earlier, since they also had to care for the horses? Either way, it nearly fills me up.

  What fills me the rest of the way is dessert: huckleberry pie and vanilla ice cream. All of it is homemade, too, and the ice cream has mind magics in it so. They get a lot of food from the Coxes, don't they?

  By the time we're all done eating, I'm feeling very sleepy. I still do my best to help Carter with the dishes after, then he leads me to his room.

  "You look like you'll fall asleep first," Carter tells me. "You can take a shower in there, then change into your pajamas or whatever you wear to bed. I'll shower after you, then probably crash. You remember that we'll be waking by three to get ready for hunting, right?"

  He's letting me shower first? Probably so I can fall asleep first since I'm not used to being up this late. He did mention that I look like I'm going to fall asleep, too.

  That's nice of him.

  "Yeah."

  "Alright," he says. "Make sure to set your alarm so you don't accidentally oversleep. Best thing to do is set four of them – one at quarter 'till, ten 'till, five 'till, and the o'clock. That way, you've got a lower chance of sleeping through them. I'm doing the same with my phone, too."

  Alarms are a good idea, but I'm not going to set four, that's a bad number.

  "Okay."

  I set alarms on my phone, then take a shower and change into pajamas after. Once I'm done, I return to Carter's bedroom and curl up on the blanket bed he made for me on the floor. He made two of them for some reason, but I'm too tired to wonder about it. I just want to sleep.

  "Sleep well, Xander," he says as he heads to his bathroom.

  "Sleep well," I mumble as I drift off to sleep. "Don't let the dreambugs explode you."