[Xander – 12 years]

  Sig and Carter are talking and I want to join the conversation but I don't know what to say. It's about streaming and a little about athletics. We're in the back yard rather than down by the lake, and the three of us are sitting on a log at the bonfire Carter's older brother and Tate's oldest brother made when the parents were looking.

  Some of the other boys are running around, throwing a ball, but Sig's apparently exhausted and not up for running around right now.

  "-not expecting the boost from the AR stuff to last too long," Carter says. "Since I don't really do that stuff much. So most of the viewers coming in from that will probably leave. Most of what I do is other sorts of physical activities, or showing people what it's like to live and work on the ranch here."

  "But you're monetized now, right?" Sig asks. "So you're getting money?"

  "Not much," Carter says. "Only for video sharing, actually. For streaming, I don't have the numbers to apply. The number of streams and hours streamed. And I don't stream directly that much, mostly just do videos."

  The different sites have different requirements, so being monetized on one doesn't mean being monetized on the other. It's a shame they don't do it on both but apparently, one site's just better for streaming than the other, while the other's better for video-sharing than the streaming site.

  Which is just terrible. They should fix that so people don't need to use both if they're doing both.

  "Ah," Sig says. "I do a lot of streaming, so I'm hoping I keep the viewers who came in from the test streams. That'd be huuuuge! If I'm lucky, then once I'm monetized, I might make enough I can stop mowing lawns and watching dogs and babysitting and stuff."

  I haven't even looked at the requirements for monetization as I'm not sure if I would get approved for it. At the same time, I don't really need the extra money. The amount I'm receiving for the new Rift sensors has eight digits. A few hundred dollars more a month doesn't really seem that noticeable in comparison.

  Well, the reason I'm earning so much from the Rift sensors is because of their total value and how many of them are being purchased for installation across the continent. Each individual one is a lot less than that. The government also apparently allocated a lot of money for researching and developing new magitech Rift sensors this year, something Grandpa Adrian says they've been doing for each of the past few years.

  Which means that Xanson Technologies was technically awarded a massive chunk of money for the development and production of those sensors. So I'm getting paid a lot as the main force behind it.

  That was Grandpa Adrian's wording, not mine. Even after his explanation, I still don't know how I was a force.

  "Good luck," Carter says. "They might invite you to the convention in October."

  "Convention?" Sig asks.

  "Yeah," Carter says. "They host a couple of them a year – one in Europe in the spring, and the other here in Kenzibri in autumn. As an up-and-coming athletics streamer who's fairly popular, I got invited to have a meet-and-greet and panel there, but I ain't gonna go."

  "Why not?" Sig asks.

  "'Cause I'd have to pay for it myself," he answers. "The trip, the hotel, all of it. And I ain't gonna do that. If you're inviting the content creators who help you exist, why make us pay for it? And since I'm fourteen, at least one of my parents has to go, too. That means they'd have to pay for not just me but for them, too."

  "Wait," I say. "They invite you to have a panel and stuff there, but you gotta pay for the trip? What about compensating you for your time? Isn't that a money-maker for them?"

  "And it'd be time I'm not streaming or recording videos," Carter says. "Or doing work on the ranch. So it would already lose me out on that income."

  "That's really fucking stupid and they're really fucking shitty for that."

  "It's how they all do it," Carter tells me. "Doesn't matter if they're streaming or video sharing, big or small. They don't really give a reason for not offering to cover even just a plane ticket or hotel. And they've been asked."

  Yeah, they're really fucking shitty.

  "If they do invite me," Sig says. "I'm not gonna go."

  They continue talking for a few more minutes, then Tate comes over to us.

  "We're gonna kick a soccer ball around," he tells us. "Y'all wanna join?"

  "Sure!" Carter looks at us. "But if y'all don't want to, we can keep talking."

  Sig looks at me and just stares. Does he think he said something?

  "What?" I ask.

  "Did you want to play soccer?"

  "No."

  "Then I'll stay with you," he says.

  As much as I appreciate that, I can tell he wants to play with the others. I'm fairly certain he wouldn't have asked me if I was going to play with them if he didn't.

  "You don't have to," I tell him. "I want to make a phone call, anyway."

  "You sure?" He asks.

  "Yeah," I nod.

  "Alright!" He says. "I'll be back in a few! Enjoy your call!"

  Carter and Sig run off with Tate, and I call Grandpa Adrian.

  "Hello, Xander," he answers the call.

  "Hello, Grandpa Adrian," I say. "Remember how you said we can't just release my mana batteries because they're an inherently superior product and it'd bankrupt battery divisions for basically everyone else?"

  "Yes."

  "Is it okay if we release a streaming and video sharing site?" I ask. "With Greyson's latest servers and his magi-artificial intelligence programs, it would be superior to any other in the world. And we can combine the two into one and improve discoverability. They both keep recommending me things that make no sense for what I've watched and liked and stuff. And I heard even disliking a video or saying not to show it to me or that channel to me counts as interaction so it ignores that you don't want to see it."

  Which is even more dumb. If I say I don't want to watch a channel, that doesn't mean it should be factored into what to recommend, it means it shouldn't be recommended to me.

  "I take it you found out about Carter's invite to the con in October?"

  "Con?"

  "Convention," he says.

  "Oh," I say. "Yeah. Wait. You knew about it?"

  "And that S.G. is likely to get invited as well," he says. "They do both meet the criteria to receive the invite, especially with them being your friend, adding in some prestige to inviting them. You've probably received one as well."

  "Oh," I say. "I don't know how that comes in. Dad might see it, though. But apparently, the companies don't even pay for the people's trips when they ask them to come out! And compensating is very crucial, especially when it's something you're making money on or saving money on! Luke's family even compensates for the entire day for even just an hour of work. Maybe less than an hour. And flying out somewhere, participating in the convention, and then flying back is probably… at least a day."

  Grandpa Adrian snorts.

  "At least a day, indeed," he says. "The conventions are usually several days long. We can talk more when you return to Dragon Falls. I'm working on the site right now, it should be ready to go by Wednesday, as long as you finish the server upgrades."

  "Oh, you're already making one."

  "Xander," he chuckles. "I had a feeling as soon as I realized Carter and Sig would both get invited to the con that you might be asking me if we can release a superior site. Your reasoning is that this way, there's a streaming and video sharing site which actually compensates for the conventions, isn't it?"

  "Yeah."

  "I've had some issue with the way they do things for awhile," he says. "Including in other areas, content moderation, and in child safety. Since the services are hosted in the Kingdom of Britain, I didn't care too much about releasing my own. Figured one would pop up that's hosted in Kenzibri, more focused towards the physical and magical side of things. Except Kenzibri tends to be a bit too into that sort of stuff rather than civilian tech development. Since I knew you were going to ask me this, we have the technology to make it work, and we can provide better moderation than anything outside of Xanson Technologies can offer, I decided it's time to release one."

  "Better moderation?"

  "That AI you and Greyson created is inherently superior to anything else out there," he says. "And can moderate the entirety of the internet on its own if its servers are powerful enough – and the latest one from you two can provide that power. Every message, every post, every video, everything. And it's able to understand context and nuances other AIs cannot with just a little training. Managing a single website would be trivially easy for it. This would make it safer for everyone. Now that I'm working on it, I feel like it's something I should've done a long time ago."

  Even Grandpa Adrian can have regrets. Whoa.

  "Oh," I say. "Okay. I don't know when I'll be back but it should be tomorrow. Dad wants me back before bedtime tomorrow. But the server and storage drives are ready, I think. My updates to them are sitting on Greyson's desk."

  "Alright," he chuckles. "I'll look at them, and will probably talk to you Monday or Tuesday, then. Congrats on completing the rite of passage, by the way."

  "You knew about it?"

  "I did," he says. "I noticed you entering the Autumn Circle and watched the entire thing. Am I correct in assuming that you decided to try that dive based on something Greyson mentioned at some point?"

  "That the air can be solid with enough force if it's really, really, really cold," I say. "But mana can be with density rather than temperature, so I figured it would work. And if it didn't, well, a hundred-ten-pound boy plummeting towards the ground from really high up might still make a crater. It was so scary, though…"

  "I'm sure it was for you," he says. "So good job braving your way through it. Did you enjoy the rest of the hunting trip?"

  "Yeah!" I answer. "Is it wrong of me to say that it was funny that all three accelerelk killed themselves by ramming into my barrier? I know it's wrong to think death is funny, but they all decided to attack the source of time magic for some reason, and all three of them did the exact same thing."

  "Depends on the death," he says. "And magic beasts though they might be, seeing powerful ones die just from ramming into something is amusing. Of the beasts you caught today, which are you most looking forward to eating?"

  [Sig – 13 years]

  As I kick the ball between Carter and Cooper, passing it to Tate, I notice something off of our small playing area. Something which stops me in my tracks.

  "What the-"

  "Nope!" Carter quickly tackles me to the ground before I can get the rest of the sentence out. "Don't say it!"

  "You don't know what I'm going to say!" I say.

  "I can guess!" He says. "And we gotta move away if we're gonna talk about it. Tell you why in a sec."

  "But it's-"

  "S.G.!" He says. "Seriously!"

  "What?" Bo asks, then looks over towards Xander. "Oh. Uh. Yeah. Let's, uh… move away. Give him some privacy."

  Give Xander some privacy? He's just chilling with his back against Bubbly and a couple of other dogs sitting beside him at the fire. Also a phoenix sitting on his lap, which he's just petting as if it's the most normal thing in the world to just pet mythological creatures rumored to be able to obliterate entire nations on their own.

  Once we're what's apparently a safe distance away, Carter looks at me.

  "First," he says. "Xander let me use his senses last night. Cast the spell to make mine match his, mostly. And his hearing is ridiculously insane, which is why we had to move further away. I could hear my parents through the walls of the cabin. The only reason I couldn't understand them was because of how much other noise I could hear."

  "That's… insane," I say.

  "Yeah," he nods. "Xander and I were talking, and he said that his hearing's gotten better ever since his brain got fixed. That's why we have to move further away, to avoid him hearing us."

  "Hearing us… talk about the mythological creature he's petting?"

  "Ooooh, my goodness!" Tate quietly exclaims. "I felt Dad suddenly create a second telepathic relay while we were hunting. Before I could ask why he'd done that, he told us to absolutely not react to what he was about to say, and that Xander was excluded specifically because of it. Then lets us know that Xander's got a bird with red, orange, and gold feathers just chillin' on his shoulders and Mr. Martins had let him know it has potent fire magics. It may actually be a phoenix, especially considering that Xander was friends with other mythological creatures already."

  After finding out that Xander was friends with elementals and regularly interacted with unicorns, it shouldn't really be a surprise that not only are phoenixes real, but he's friends with one.

  But it is a surprise, because who expects two mythological creatures to be real?

  "We all so badly wanted to look," Bo says. "But Mr. Cox was firm in us not. He even masked our surprise and shock to avoid Xander's empathy from picking up on it."

  "Thank the gods he only has it passive and doesn't have proper training for that sort of thing," Tate says. "Otherwise, he probably would've noticed the masking. None of us really know how to approach him about the phoenix thing."

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  "Um…" I glance over at Xander, who's looking at us with a cute tilt of his head, mild confusion and curiosity on his face. "You guys do remember that he thought he was hallucinating the unicorn, right?"

  "He did?" Tucker, who I've only met for the first time today, asks.

  Tucker's pretty cute, just like the rest of them. He has similar golden-brown hair and green eyes to Carter and is just as fit. I'm not sure what his family does for a living but he must be as active as we are.

  How does Xander handle being around so many cute guys while dating me and not stare? It's really hard to not.

  "Sig?" Tate asks. "You just felt really frustrated."

  And he can probably tell what else I'm feeling. That realization makes my face heat up a little.

  "Internal struggles," I mumble. "Um. Yeah, Tucker. Xander used to hallucinate due to his brain damage. He said that a lot of it vanished after his brain got fixed, but he still thought he had some hallucinations. The unicorn was one of them… and he might be thinking the phoenix is, too."

  "Ooooh, crap," Tate says. "Us not reacting to the phoenix and Dad masking our surprise and shock probably only reinforced that. And we were doing it because even the dads didn't know how to react to it and wanted us to treat it the same way Xander was – as if it's a normal thing, not something unusual."

  "We should all go talk to him," I say.

  "We should all go talk to him," Carter agrees.

  The six of us walk over to Xander, who stops petting the phoenix as we draw close, probably thinking we didn't notice the motions from afar. The mythological bird looks at us with the same tilt of the head as Xander.

  That's actually kind of cute.

  "Hey… Xander?" I say.

  "Yes, Sig?"

  "How long have you known the phoenix?"

  "He first showed up about two years ago, I think?" Xander answers, then his eyes widen. "Wait. Y'all can see him? But no one reacted to him…"

  I don't need to be an empath to know Xander is extremely confused. His brow's furrowed a little more than usual but not with a flaring of his nostrils. His gaze is also softer rather than hard. Tate explains about his dads' instructions and the masking of emotions.

  "They didn't want to bother you," I tell Xander. "They figured it was best to just act like it was normal rather than something special. And I guess for you, mythological beasts showing up kind of is normal… that's the second one."

  "Grandpa Adrian's said he's had to chase unicorns away from my streams before," Xander says quietly as he looks at the phoenix. "You're real?"

  "Yeah," a voice enters my head, causing me to jump. Judging by the reactions of the others, they expected the voice to happen. They definitely heard him talking earlier, too. "You thought I was a hallucination?"

  "No one ever reacted to you…"

  "I did choose to only allow myself to be visible to you," he says. "It's different from any form of invisibility magic. It's a special sort of mind magic which affects perception. Those I do not wish to see me cannot even perceive me. Their senses cannot even pick me up. I suppose hiding myself could make those who see me think they're hallucinating. My apologies. If I'd known that, I would've let you know I was real sooner."

  "I'd have probably thought you were just trying to convince me you weren't really a hallucination because you're a hallucination," Xander admits. "That you were still just a hallucination, but my brain trying to deny it."

  "It would be hard to deny it if I made myself noticeable to others," the phoenix says. "Hm… come to think of it, I also never told you my name. I'm Blaze, the old friend Fern was talking about earlier."

  "Fern?" I ask.

  "Wait," Xander says. "That wasn't the fire elemental?"

  "Nope!" Fern laughs, his body bouncing a bit. "That old fella doesn't have a proper name. And Fern was right, I was laughing my tail off at him struggling to figure out why there was an issue at the start of your trial."

  "An issue?" Carter asks.

  "Oh, so you can regenerate super fast?" Xander asks at the same time.

  "It's a metaphor," I tell him. "Means he was laughing really hard."

  "It was a pretty funny issue," Blaze looks at Carter. "I spoke with Fern before visiting Xander and let him know a few things… but also left out something important. Xander's a pretty special kid and the trial didn't start properly because of it. Fern had to make an adjustment so that it could actually start, but I won't say what as it might ruin the trial for others. But his attempt was just as valid as any, so don't worry. Fern wouldn't acknowledge his bravery otherwise. And Xander? That species of 'small but powerful bird' he mentioned is a phoenix. He was thinking I taught you how to do that and I had to let him know you came up with it on your own."

  "Not entirely on my own," I tell him. "Greyson mentioned something similar to it and I adapted it to use ambient mana in the air rather than the air itself."

  "Yes," Fern chuckles again. "But thinking of something like that during the trial isn't something most could do. It was impressive, seeing you do that. You made me proud with that move."

  "What move?" Tate, Carter, Knox, Bo, Cooper, Tucker, and I all ask at once.

  "The mana in the air there is super dense," Xander says. "Fern says his spirit energy protects our bodies and our things from being damaged by it. Did you know that if you hit air fast enough, and the air is cold enough, it's like a solid? Well, the air has to be super cold for that. But mana? Mana just needs to be dense enough to be physical if struck quickly enough. And I figured, I'm probably strong enough that I could do that. So I jumped as high as I can, then used as much strength as possible to try and kick the mana in the air. It worked, too. The mana was as if physical to me, allowing me to, uh… plummet at what could've been deadly speeds to the ground. I didn't think that part through all the way other than I might get hurt, which was scary."

  "He did that to create an impact and shockwave," Blaze says. "Which knocked his opponent off his hooves. I remember my first time doing that… I was in my first life, before I'd ever resurrected. Still young at only one hundred years of age, and not a person known to me aside from the ancient hermit living in a mountain cabin he'd built. I was soaring through the sky one day, just basking in the feel of the sun on my feathers. I came across demons, who'd entered through a Rift in space they'd torn. The Rift was gone, but they were terrorizing the local wildlife. After assessing the situation, I determined that most of the problem came from one particular demon, as he was particularly tough. I'd never had need to learn to control my flames and knew that if I'd tried to use them, I might burn down the forest. So I instead decided to divebomb the lead demon to deliver an immense impact straight into his skull. Did need to add some extra mana into the air on my own to make it dense enough, but it worked."

  The phoenix bobs his head from side to side for a moment.

  "I hadn't known just how much force it would be if I slapped the mana in the air with all my might," he says. "Didn't just obliterate him, but at least the demons were dealt with and their targets were fine. They cleaned up the last of the demons."

  "An old hermit?" Tucker asks.

  "Yes," the phoenix says. "Let me tell you about my first time meeting Adrian Lumarikang, the man now known as Adrian King. He'd immigrated to Earth long before I hatched, but I'd heard about him from some of the other intelligent creatures around. When I was around eighty, I grew curious about the old hermit who didn't care to travel to where humans lived. I decided to pay him a visit to see what he was like…"

  [Xander – 12 years]

  Blaze told us stories for over an hour, and the other boys all actually sat through them. I kept expecting them to get bored and get up to go play, but they all just kept listening and asking for more tales. Even some of the adults came and listened to Blaze talk for a little while.

  He's finished telling us stories now as it's time for us to eat dinner. The main meal and sides are prepared, and desserts will be ready in about an hour or so. There's also something else he wants to do before tonight, so he tells us all to have a great rest of our day before flying away.

  As we make our way over to the tables of food, Mr. Martins comes around from the front of the house with three others who weren't here before.

  "Dad!" I exclaim and run over to give him a hug.

  "Oof!" He grunts before chuckling and wrapping an arm around me. "Hey, Xander."

  "What're you doing here?" I ask. "You didn't say you were coming!"

  "I know you're not good with surprises," Dad tells me. "But I hope you don't mind this one. When they told me about the rite of passage and how you passed it, I rearranged my schedule so I could come out here. I'm not quite sure what the whole thing was, but it sounded like it's a big deal and I wanted to celebrate it with you."

  "And you brought Mom and Ms. Johnson, too!"

  "I knew you'd want Katie to be here, too, if I were," Dad says. "And Tiffany's your case worker, she likes hearing about your accomplishments."

  "Hi!" I tell both of them. "Come on! The food's ready!"

  I lead them over to the tables.

  "These are elk burger patties," I point at one platter. "And these are beef burger patties. These are beef and elk kebabs, and I think there might be some rabbit and/or hare meat on them. This is rabbit stew, this is hare stew, this bowl is full of shredded snake, and that's fried chicken bites."

  I grab a tray and start filling plates and bowls.

  "Xander," Dad says. "Make sure to get some fruits and veggies, too, not just meat."

  "I've got potatoes, see?" I hold up my tray. "Mashed potatoes and potato wedges and fries. And I've got rolls, too. Those are grains. And I put onions and lettuce and pickles on my burgers, and ketchup, too. Those are produce, and there are veggies in the stew. And there's cheese on them, which is dairy."

  "You walked into that," Katie tells him.

  What did he walk into? It doesn't look like he'd walked into something.

  "I did," Dad chuckles. "Xander, make sure to get some fruit, too."

  "Okay," I say. "I was gonna get some after I finished with the meat and potatoes and breads. And look! They even kept the watermelon away from the good fruit! Not many people do that. A lot just put the watermelon right with the good fruit, and then the watermelon juices get all on them and ruin it."

  I finish getting the non-fruit stuff, then I start filling bowls and plates with fruit stuff.

  "Xander," Dad says. "Maybe hold back a little on how much you're grabbing?"

  "It's fine," Mrs. Martins says. "We've prepared a lot, and Xander used some pretty high-level, mana-intensive spells during the hunt, from what I've heard."

  Dad looks at me with the look he always gives me before asking for more information. In this case, it's probably what the spells were that he wants to know.

  "I used temporal reversion and then temporal reversion on that over and over to lure out accelerelk to hunt," I tell him. "And had a specialized portal to draw out more pocket hares. The accelerelks were easy to take down since they'd break their necks running into my barriers while boosting their own speed. To take out the pocket hares requires using a specialized warding net that I have to be careful with as I send it through a portal in order to trap them. If I'm not careful, then it might collapse the portal. Their hides are good for enchanting with spatial magics, though, and their meat tastes really good."

  "Is there some of it in dinner?" Dad asks.

  "No," I answer. "It's all mine, and this is stuff some of the others caught. They didn't want to use the really expensive meats, even though I said I guess it's okay. Oh. I never gave you some of mine from the other hunt I caught some, did I?"

  "You don't have to," Dad tells me. "It's your meat, you can decide what happens with it. If you want to save it all for yourself, you can. If you want to share it, you can. If you'd like to sell it… I'm not sure where to go to do that, but you can."

  "Pocket hare meat is really good," I tell him. "We can eat it for dinner one day."

  "If you're okay with that," Dad says. "Then sure."

  "Did you say the accelerelks broke their own necks?" Ms. Johnson asks.

  "Running into my barriers, yeah," I nod. "See, their bodies might be super tough, but they were still moving super fast due to their temporal acceleration spells. And when a high-speed object meets a solid, unyielding object, it generates a lot of force. With their speeds and weight, it was enough force that their lowered heads were forced down even more, and super abruptly. That resulted in their necks breaking. At least, that's my understanding of it. I'd have to ask Greyson to know the proper explanation and he's currently on phone silence until his first month at the academy is up."

  Well, he's supposed to be on phone silence. Either he smuggled in a secret second phone or he built one without getting caught, because I started getting texts from him today. The last one was of him and his roommate battling robots that I'm fairly certain he built.

  When I got the first message from him today, I told him I'm not going to respond to any others until after his phone silence is up because he's not supposed to have a phone right now. He responded with a picture of a flower and I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean.

  Grandpa Adrian is probably going to confiscate the phone soon, anyway. There's no way he's not aware Greyson's got one.

  "At least I didn't have to stab the accelerelks," I say. "With the pocket hares, I have to take a knife and stab their necks so they bleed out quickly. That's not fun at all, even if I do have to stun them so they're not conscious for it. But then I get their hides and meat, so I guess it's okay."

  "What other things have you hunted?" Ms. Johnson asks. "This is your third trip, right? I'm not sure I heard the details on the second one, other than it was a bit south."

  "That was a solo hunt," I say. "I wanted to see if Alkronomak was really weak to wind but not fire like the boss monster based off of him in a video game I played with Carter. Wind magic didn't really do much to him, even when compressed down into blades. Fire really burned him, though. After finishing that test, I cut off his head and went and hunted a bison with a mixture of magics including air and earth. Its hide was used to make these boots. See? They're really comfy, and magic was used to ensure I don't need to break them in. They're also durable and can protect my ankles, and are very quiet. The guy who made them is making me a second pair of them, and two pairs of cowboy boots."

  "Hold on, Xander," Dad says. "You didn't tell me you were going to hunt Alkronomak."

  "I was going to," I say. "But you didn't ask for details about the hunt so I assumed you didn't care."

  "I'll make sure to ask for details next time," he says. "You killed Alkronomak?"

  "Yeah," I nod. "Now hunters don't have to worry about avoiding his territory. I've got him in one of my pouches," I touch the one he's in. "This one. I don't know what to do with a wyvern, though, especially him. Should I tan his hide? Would it be cannibalism to eat him if I'm part-dragon? Or would it not be because he's a wyvern and a wyvern ain't a dragon?"

  "You hunted a wyvern?" Ms. Johnson turns pale.

  "Not just any wyvern," Dad sighs. "Alkronomak is one of the strongest wyverns known, with a mana level estimated to be around 3,000,000."

  "Was," I say. "He was around that strong. Now he's a corpse and no longer a potential threat to society. Do you think I should ask Grandpa Adrian if his meat is edible? He didn't tell me it's not when he discussed my hunt with me after, so I think it's fine. But maybe I should ask him. What do you think, should I ask him?"

  "I think…" Dad says. "Once you return home, we're going to have a talk about what's important to say when asking for permission to do things and what you should say when I ask how things went."

  "Okay," I say. "But that didn't answer my question. Do you think it's fine, or should I ask Grandpa Adrian what to do with the meat? It won't rot in the stasis pouch, so I can hold it for a long while if needed."

  [Sig – 13 years]

  I'm willing to bet the exasperated state Xander's dad was in from when he arrived to when he left was from something Xander said. None of us know what it is Xander said, but we're all certain Xander said something.

  It started while they were grabbing food and Xander was talking at the time with an oblivious, innocent look on his face. Now, they're saying goodbye as his dad, their chef, and his case worker are heading to a hotel for the night.

  Most everyone has left now, though the boys from the group Xander was in for the hunt are still here. Carter because he lives here, the rest of them because they're staying for the sleepover. The plan was for us to sleep out here in the yard since it's not rained like it was going to, but they're now saying it's definitely going to rain here tonight.

  "It seems to be raining a lot here," I comment. "Is this normal this time of year?"

  "No," Tate answers. "Something's been up recently with the rain, probably some weirdness with the magic of the area or some creature or something. We've just had to adapt to it. Chances are good it'll be over by winter, weather anomalies like this rarely last longer than a few months."

  "At least it started towards the end of harvest season," Bo says. "Though we're hoping it'll end before next month, since that's when we'll be harvesting some of our crops."

  "Good luck," I say as his brother comes over.

  His brother's sixteen, almost seventeen, and there's something really familiar about him even though I know I haven't met him before. Not that we've spoken much today, he's mostly hung out with his friends. But every time he talks near me, it feels like I know him. Todd's not staying for the sleepover since he's not part of Xander's group of friends, but he was apparently on the hunting trip earlier so he was here for the celebration.

  "Okay, Todd," I say. "I've gotta know, do we know each other? Because I'm really sure I've never met you before but you seem really familiar for some reason. I feel like we know each other."

  "We ain't ever met before!" He laughs. "Least, not in person. We do know each other, though – you know me as Jack. Felt it'd be weird to let you know in-game that I live in an area you go out to sometimes, that it might come off as a bit creepy."

  This is Jack? He lives so close to me! It's such a small world!

  "It would, yeah!" I say. "Dang, I thought you were closer in age to me! You're old!"

  "Old?" He asks. "I'm only a junior! I ain't that much older!"

  "Oh, no, you're definitely old," Bo grins. "That's why you're always hunched over as ya tell kids to get off your lawn!"

  Bo takes off running and laughing as his brother chases after him.

  "I'm pretty sure he was coming over to let Bo know he was leaving," Knox snorts. "Nuts."

  "Sig," Xander's voice comes from behind me.

  I let out a small shout of surprise as I jump and turn to face him. He came out of nowhere. Xander can really move quietly when he wants to… whoa.

  Xander's wearing his pajamas and sneakers, so I guess he's not in his regular sleepwear for tonight's sleepover. He's probably not as comfortable with all of the other boys here as he is with our friend group back in Dragon Falls. It's a bit weird seeing him in his pajamas out here, though, so I guess it means he's ready for bed even if it's only eight. His eyes are drooping a bit, and he's holding Trenton against his chest, the bear wearing a flower crown.

  But what made me "whoa" – which I think I did out loud – is the fact that he's in his legendary wolfkin form! And he's just as cute in it as he is in his human one. The tail coming out of his rump is lazily flicking from side to side.

  "I don't think I can stay awake much longer," Xander tells me. "So I'm gonna go lie down in the rec room. That's where Mrs. Martins said the sleepover's gonna be. I might be asleep when y'all come there to sleep. You can snuggle Mr. Leviathan with me if you want."

  "Alright-" I'm interrupted by Xander lightly slamming against me for a hug, and I wrap my arms around him. "Sleep well, Xander."

  "And if you dream of talking chocolate cheesecake again!" Carter says. "And it ain't me, make sure somethin' gets rid of it! Oh, and ya ain't gotta be up early in the morning to help with chores, Collin said he'll handle all of 'em that I normally would so that the group sleepover can just have fun."

  "Alright," Xander says. "Night, y'all."

  The others say goodnight to him, and Bo and Todd come over and say night to him as well, then Xander heads into the house. Todd lets Bo know he's leaving, then those of us remaining decide to start throwing a football around. This is probably the last thing we'll do before going to bed since we've all had a long day, but we've still got a little bit extra energy in us.

  Though I'll admit, it's a bit weird to try and throw a football around with a bunch of people who have twenty or so times as much mana as I do. They're all a lot stronger and faster than me, though I do my best to keep up.

  That just makes it more fun.