[Xander – 12 years]

  Everyone else is still asleep in here, and Sig did end up snuggling the other side of Mr. Leviathan when he went to bed. I can feel how happy and comfortable he is, which is really good. It means he finds Mr. Leviathan really comfortable to sleep with and that's really important for anyone who snuggles him.

  It means they have good taste in snuggles.

  I release Mr. Leviathan and get out from under the blanket, then look at Trenton, angling his head so he's looking at me.

  "Do you want to keep snuggling Mr. Leviathan while I help Collin?" I whisper.

  I move Trenton's head in a nod.

  "Alright," I say. "I'll put you back. Do you wanna snuggle him with Sig like you did me? I can try and put you in there. That way, you're still nice and snug, like you like to be when napping."

  Trenton accepts that, so I do my best to tuck him between Sig and Mr. Leviathan without waking Sig, then tuck them both back in under the blanket. I then change back to human and get dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved work button-up, and western boots. My dirty clothes go into my backpack and I pull that on as I leave the gaming room, just in time to catch Collin as he's about to go past the door.

  He's wearing an outfit similar to mine, but without a backpack and with his shirt being short-sleeved rather than long-sleeved.

  "You didn't have to get up and help," Collin tells me.

  "I know," I say. "But the rule is that if you sleep over, you help with the chores."

  That might not be enough to make him not insist on me not following the rule.

  "There are exceptions when a celebration happens," he says. "And there was a celebration last night, so you don't need to help."

  "And I normally wake at five, anyway," I say. "And it's hard for me to fall back asleep within a few hours of waking unless I'm super, super, super sleepy."

  "Alright," he says. "Come on, let's get to work."

  Collin and I put on our western hats as we leave the house. We check on the chickens first and collect the eggs, then hand them off to his mom before we go to the horses. We have to make sure they all have hay since it's supposed to rain most of the day starting soon, so it's not too likely they'll graze out in the yard. They might as rain doesn't bother them too much, but they do like staying dry.

  I don't blame them. Being wet isn't comfortable unless I'm taking a shower.

  As we handle the morning horse chores, Carter comes out and joins us, dressed just like us and with his own hat on.

  "Mornin', Sleepy," Collin says as Carter yawns.

  "Mornin'," Carter tells him. "Mornin', Xander."

  "Hello," I say. "What's that sticking out of her butt?"

  "Huh?" Carter and Collin both look at the horse I'm pointing out, who has something that looks like legs sticking out of her butt.

  "How come she's got tiny legs there?" I ask. "She didn't a minute ago."

  "She's giving birth!" Carter says. "That's the pregnant mare I was telling you about!"

  I'm not of much help for this so I just watch (when I'm not avoiding looking because it's gross) as they help her give birth, and the birth itself is really fast. Even just hearing it sounds gross but I don't know what else to do but stand off to the side to make sure I'm not in their way.

  It only takes her about seven minutes to finish giving birth to her foal. When he comes out, he doesn't have a mane or a tail, just like many babies. He's not up and walking around, just curled up on the ground as his momma licks him, apparently to clean him off.

  That's really gross.

  "Their flames always show up within the first ten minutes," Carter tells me as the momma horse licks her son, apparently to clean him off. "If they don't, then the chances of them living past the first hour are slim."

  "Okay," I look to my right. "Hello, Aurum."

  "We ain't goin' ridin'," Carter looks over at the unicorn. "And he normally only shows up for that, right?"

  "Yeah," I say as Aurum shimmers as he walks into the stall the momma and foal are in. "He feels really proud for some reason."

  Aurum moves behind the foal and just keeps seeming really proud.

  "Oh," I say.

  "What?" Carter asks.

  "Aurum's apparently the dad."

  "What?" Carter and Collin both stare at me.

  The foal's mane flares to life, along with his tail. Both are made of flames of pure white.

  "Oh!" I exclaim. "Like in my dream! I guess Aurum must've told me and I just forgot, and that's why I was dreaming about them.Aurum says his name is Solaris."

  Aurum nods when I say that.

  "That sounds cool," Carter says. "Does it mean anything?"

  "Aurum says it relates to the sun in an old, dead language."

  "Cool!" He says. "So the white-flamed flaremane is Solaris, huh? Hi, Solaris! You're my horse, so be good, okay?"

  "Aurum says that of course he'll be good, he's his son."

  "Didn't Aurum reveal to the world that unicorns are real just because he wanted to be on a stream?" Collin asks, and Carter snickers.

  "He says not to sweat the small details," I say. "I don't know how you'd sweat details, though."

  "It's a metaphor," Carter snorts. "Let's go let Dad know he was born, then it's probably time for breakfast."

  "You can just leave him?" I ask. "Don't babies need a lot of stuff?"

  "Not horse babies," Carter says. "Especially not flaremanes, they're a high breed of magic horse. And since he's apparently got unicorn blood in him, he's probably even more fine."

  "Horses are born a lot more developed than humans," Collin tells me. "There are a few things to keep an eye out for but he won't need constant watch, especially since his flames are in. Magic breeds are already fairly alright on their own, and higher magic breeds are even more so. And since his dad is a unicorn, uh… yeah. He's probably fine."

  That makes sense.

  "Oh. Alright. Breakfast time?"

  "Breakfast time," he confirms.

  [Sig – 13 years]

  Mr. Leviathan really is comfortable to sleep against, no wonder Xander prefers to sleep this way. I'm going to have to see about getting my own version of him.

  What I'm not sure about doing is asking Xander why I've woken up with Trenton snuggled between Mr. Leviathan and me. I've woken up and the teddy is facing the larger plushie, but stuck between it and me. That's definitely how Xander slept, in addition to being a wolfkin.

  Xander, who's also not in here right now. Nor is his backpack, I discover as I look around. So not only did he leave the room, but he took his backpack while leaving Trenton with me. There's no way he's gone too far even if his backpack is gone since Trenton's still here, so he's probably just moved to another room.

  Wait.

  He left Trenton with me. Didn't Mr. Richardson say that Trenton is a comfort/security object for Xander? That the reason he doesn't really let anyone else touch him unless he both trusts them and is holding Trenton is because the bear makes him feel safe? To let Trenton be out of reach like this when it's not something like in his room means… that definitely means something, though I'm not entirely sure what.

  Whatever it means, though, it makes me want to bounce a little in excitement. As it is, my chest is kind of vibrating from it and I can feel a big smile on my face.

  "Something smells delicious," Knox mumbles as he wakes and sits up.

  "Bacon," Tate says.

  I look over to find Tate stretching, and he lets out a small groan as he does.

  "Stiff?" I ask.

  "It was a good sleep," he says. "My body doesn't want to wake."

  "I'm glad I actually got to sleep last night," I say. "I did not like getting woken so early yesterday."

  "Gotta get out early enough so you don't scare the game off," Bo says. "Especially when it's hot out, since they'll bed down earlier in the day."

  "There's no way we have to get there two hours early," I say. "I really don't believe it'd scare them off if we went later."

  "It would," Tate tells me. "You have to be on your way before they wake. They're prey, and they know there are predators. They wake early and if they notice something moving around where they want to go, they'll avoid going there. Even your smell can trigger that in them."

  "But-"

  "You already caught some magic beasts," he grins at me. "You've got what, 20 mana? Get a little better at casting and you'll be able to hunt magic beasts regularly. Not big earners, not for a long while, but even a little bit builds up over time. And hunting magic beasts is often different from regular ones. When we go, we rarely just sit and wait. We actively track and hunt them down – there's no time requirement for hunting most, as long as you don't hunt anything which does have a start or stop time in the same session."

  So if I improve my magic hunting skills, I can skip the annoying early-hour wake-ups? I'll definitely start taking magic practice even more seriously than I did before.

  "But," Knox adds. "Magic beasts also tend to fight back once they realize they're in danger."

  "Yeah," I rub my chest a little, then wince. "I learned that the hard way. You can see the bruise."

  It's a big one spread across my chest. I'll have to figure out a way to explain it to Aunt Rachel without telling her the truth if I want to stay shirtless at home. Fortunately, she knows I roughhouse so I can probably just say I got it playing with the others here, that I fell off of something or one of them accidentally held back too little.

  "Do you need salve?" Tate asks. "I'm sure they've got some here."

  "Healing salve?" I ask.

  "Yeah," he says. "In the first aid kit in the bathroom."

  "It's magic, isn't it?" I pick up Trenton. "That's gotta cost a decent bit. I'll be fine. It's not like I'm not used to getting bumps and bruises. Anyway, breakfast!"

  We all head out to the dining room, where Xander's helping put breakfast on the table. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that he's assisting with that, though I'm also not surprised that he's not touching the platter of bacon. There are also sausages, hash browns, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and fruit. Enough food to feed a small army – or a group of teen boys.

  Xander takes Trenton from me and puts him on the spot beside where he'll be eating. Us boys are eating on the floor in the living room, since there are so many of us here. Rather than putting his food on the floor, Xander's using the coffee table to hold it.

  Once we finish eating, Mr. Martins handles the dishes, though Xander insists on helping with them. The other boys and I all start getting dressed, them for church and me waiting to see what I'm doing. As much as I love hanging out with these guys, there's no way I'm going to church if I don't have to.

  "Hey, Xander?" I ask as he enters the room.

  "Yes, Sig?"

  "Are you going to church with them?"

  "No," Xander answers. "Dad wants to get a big breakfast with me so I'm gonna meet up with him, then come back and meet up with the others after. Why?"

  "Oh," I say. "Um. Aunt Rachel and I have a trip this afternoon, and it'll take several hours. I think she wants me home for awhile before then and was wondering if you'd be okay with teleporting me back to my place."

  "A trip on a Sunday?" Tate asks. "You ain't gonna be home in time to get sleep for school with that, if it's this afternoon. Not unless it's a reaaaally short visit to wherever you're going."

  Oh, right. None of them know. My face heats up a little as I try to figure out how to explain to them without coming off like I'm bragging. What do I say?

  "I… might've studied everything needed to finish middle school before," I say. "And even stuff for high school. So we're going to the state's facility for testing into a higher grade, to figure out where I should really be at. It's Monday morning through Wednesday morning in a thorough exam to determine exactly which classes I have passing knowledge of. Though from what I read, it requires being able to earn at least a B-plus to count as passing for this. We're figuring I'll probably end up somewhere in freshman or sophomore year. But I'll also gain credits for any of the tested subjects based on my level, so I might not need to take all of the required classes past that point."

  "That's cool!" Tate says. "Dad always said you seemed smarter than your age! What're you hoping for?"

  "Freshman year?" I shrug. "They kids'll be closer to my age there. Wherever I end up, I hope I do actually learn some stuff in it. Just sitting in classes the past couple of years have been soooo boring because I already know all of it. Literally. I haven't gotten anything wrong on any homework assignment or test. Not that my parents cared…"

  Tate looks ready to say something when I suddenly feel arms around me. Did Xander just teleport into a hug?

  "I know a boy who can really mess up their lives as punishment," he mumbles, causing me to snort.

  He notices me getting depressed and his first thought is to hug me while his second is to offer to contact his habitual criminal cousin to do something. As much as I appreciate the offer, I don't want something bad to happen to them. There's still a chance they might start loving me.

  "It's fine," I hug him back. "There's no need to do that."

  "But what about a want?"

  Where is this coming from? Since when does Xander even think about wanting to do this sort of thing?

  "Seriously," I pull back a little, and he looks me in the eyes. "Don't a-ask… Greyson to do anything."

  The look in Xander's eyes isn't what I'm used to and it caused me to fumble my words for a moment. There's empathy at my situation, and seriousness in his offer. He's actually serious about doing something to my parents. I don't really know what to make of that because this isn't normal for him.

  "Are you sure?" He asks.

  "Positive," I say. "I'm a lot happier now, anyway."

  "Okay," his gaze softens and just like that, he's back to being how he normally his, burying his head against me again. "Do you feel better, or am I hugging wrong?"

  "You're hugging right," I snicker. "Your hugs always make me feel better."

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  "Okay," he releases me. "I'll have to ask Dad if I can teleport you to your place."

  "Alright."

  Xander gets permission, so I change my shorts and underwear, then slip on my shoes and backpack.

  "Hold on!" Carter says. "Don't forget your hides! They're ready for collection."

  "Oh, right," I say. "Magical tanning. Faster."

  Carter takes me to where all of the stuff is tanning, and Xander's pelts, leathers, bones, and meats quickly disappear into his bracelet as I'm shown my hides. Two of them were tanned with fur on, while the third was tanned without the fur. The fur itself was moved into a glass jar, though, as it still has value on its own.

  The one with fur still on, the fur is so soft despite not being long. It even has a very faint glow to it, as does the fur within the jar.

  There's also a box containing all of the bones from my lightstep hares, since those have crafting value, too.

  "Someone will be here later," Carter tells me. "To manage the purchases of the things which are being sold away from us. If you want to sell your stuff, we can get that done then, then Xander can bring you the money if he's alright with that?"

  "Okay," Xander says.

  "No," I say. "I wanna bring them home. They're my first magic beast kills! That's something to show off!"

  Carter just snorts and rolls his eyes.

  The jar goes into my backpack while the hides are rolled up and placed on top of the box, which I pick up.

  "You don't have to leave the ranch for it," Carter tells Xander as we leave the tanning area.

  "Okay," Xander says.

  "For what?" I ask.

  "To teleport you," Xander answers.

  "Where are we going?"

  "To the front."

  To the front?

  Xander leads me around to the front porch, then the two of us appear at the foot of the driveway to my house. Couldn't he have just teleported us from the tanning station, especially since he's just going to be teleporting right back, too?

  "Oh," Xander says. "Mr. Fuller's here. Do you think Hunter is?"

  Him being more interested in Hunter's presence doesn't surprise me, knowing what I know about what Hunter did for Xander. It also wouldn't surprise me if Xander's got something to give to Hunter as a thank-you for it.

  "Probably not," I frown as I look at Mr. Fuller's truck. "He better not have spent the night. They haven't been dating that long."

  We walk up the driveway to the front door, where Xander gives me another hug.

  "If you want," he says as I wrap my arms around him again. "I can ask Dad about bringing you over for the fitness sessions for school. We do swimming on Mondays, martial arts on Tuesdays and Fridays, fitness on Wednesdays, and athletics on Thursdays. Though Adam's talked about maybe switching athletics and the second martial arts."

  "Uh… Xander?"

  "Yes, Sig?"

  "I'll just be attending high school," I tell him. "So I'll still have PE."

  "Oh, right."

  I lightly bonk my head against his, then he lets go and walks back down the driveway. Upon reaching the street, Xander vanishes.

  He does know he can teleport from the house, doesn't he?

  "Goofball," I snort, then turn and enter the house.

  Mr. Fuller is dressed in jeans, a button-up, and his hunting boots, while Aunt Rachel is wearing a dress and flats.

  "A bit too early to be going on a date, isn't it?" I ask.

  "Sig!" Aunt Rachel's eyes widen and she rushes over. "What happened to your chest?"

  Yeah, I knew I wasn't going to be able to hide the bruise without actually putting a shirt on. It's way too noticeable. At the same time, though, I'm way too comfortable shirtless to put one on unless I need to.

  "So the kids in the Autumn Realm all have, like, 200-500 mana," I say. "Well, most of them. Including all of Tate's and Carter's friends. They're also not used to having to hold back that much and one of them maaaaaaaay have accidentally used more force than necessary when headbutting me! But it's fine, it hardly hurts and I'm tough as golems! Ow!"

  "Maybe don't thump your chest to prove how tough you are?" Mr. Fuller suggests.

  "Oi!" I say as Aunt Rachel tries to examine the bruise. "You told me you were taking it slow with my aunt, but you clearly spent the night and are going on a morning date!"

  "He didn't spend the night," Aunt Rachel says. "He just got here a couple of minutes ago. He invited me to come to his church today, since we weren't expecting you to be back until early this afternoon."

  "Oh," I make a face. "They go to church out there so I always intended to come back before. I love hanging out with them, but not so much that I'd go to church with them just so I could hang out in the afternoon. Also, I don't know what to do with these, but I've got the hides and bones from the hares. Magical tanning is apparently faster, too."

  I want to change the topic away from that and show off my loot.

  "Can I see?" Mr. Fuller asks.

  I present the furs and leather to him and Aunt Rachel, and we decide on storing it for now until I can get a proper way to display them in my room. I might eventually sell them or use them for something, but I want to show them off right now.

  "Also," I say. "This fur is from the first one I killed, and this fur is from the one I killed with my hands, which is why it doesn't have a pierce wound."

  "You did what?" Aunt Rachel asks.

  "I mean… uh…"

  She sighs, then ruffles my hair.

  "Derrick already told me the real story," she says. "Even that you might have a bruise. I wasn't expecting it to be so bad-"

  "Please don't ban me from hunting again!" I beg. "It was fun! Apart from having to wake so early! And the kids from Autumn Realm said that with how strong I am, it shouldn't be an issue for me to hunt weaker magic beasts, which don't need me to be woken up so early for! Well, as long as I work on my casting skills so I can cast faster, but still! And you saw all the meat we got from it!"

  "This is something Derrick and I already talked about," she says. "I don't want to hear about you ending up in the hospital, understand?"

  "Yes!" I exclaim. "Thank you so much!"

  I quickly put the fur down and hug her. She knows I got hurt hunting and is letting me go.

  "You, too!" I hug Mr. Fuller.

  "Why me?" He laughs.

  "Because there's no way Aunt Rachel would let me go hunting again if I got hurt the first time!" I say. "So I know you convinced her!"

  "Alright," he chuckles and pats me on the back.

  "Though he left out the part about you breaking the hare's neck," she says.

  "Well," I let go of him and give her my best "duh" look. "It rammed me in the chest. Did you think I still shot it with a bow after that? No! I caught it and then wrestled it to the ground so it couldn't attack me anymore. I didn't know what to do from there and Mr. Fuller told me to break its neck. That was… uncomfortable. I hope I never have to do that again."

  I shiver a little at the thought. Killing something with my bare hands is definitely different from using a bow.

  "So do I," Aunt Rachel ruffles my hair again. "Try not to get attacked by any other magic beasts, alright?"

  "Does the honey-throwing bear count?" I ask.

  "That's… different," she says. "He showed up again yesterday, and they still have no idea what to do about him. Since he's harmless, they don't feel like an extermination order should be issued, but he is an intelligent magic beast, so there's always the risk."

  "They've tried finding him," Mr. Fuller says. "Except he seems to just vanish into thin air when they search. At the moment, he's being classified as a Level 1 Nuisance Magic Beast, which means they're just monitoring him for the time being.If he becomes a problem, they'll call in the Magic Special Forces."

  "Why the MSF?" I ask.

  "Since he's able to avoid being noticed when he's looked for," Mr. Fuller says. "He's got at least 200 mana, so they need a stronger force to deal with him. The MSF will either have the strength to track and take him down, or they'll be able to call in a stronger mage, such as the Gatewoods."

  Oh, right. They do contact stronger mages who aren't in the military sometimes, if the situation requires it. There are even rumors that Luke gets called to help with Demon Rifts, though no one's been able to find proof from what I've heard.

  The idea of them using Xander as the step between whatever comes before his great-grandfather makes me snicker.

  "What?" Aunt Rachel asks.

  "There's a serious power discrepancy between the strongest non-Kings and the Kings," I say. "And Xander been proven to be able to seal up a Rift like it's nothing. I was just thinking it'd be funny if he's one of their steps now. Like, 'we've not got anyone else and would normally go to Adrian King, but maybe we should ask Xander to take care of it'. Then Xander shows up and is just like 'the heck is this?' and eliminates the issue before treating himself to a cheesecake."

  Well, he'd probably swear instead of saying "heck", but I'm not going to tell my aunt that.

  "He might be in consideration for it," Mr. Fuller says. "Though I've heard they don't contact the Kings very often, even when things are bad. There really aren't many of them who are actually extremely powerful. Anyway, your aunt and I should get going in the next few minutes if we're to be there on time. Did you want to come with us?"

  "Nope!" I answer. "Not gonna go to church! And you better not try and make me if you two get serious, okay?"

  "Wouldn't dream of it," he ruffles my hair.

  "Can I invite my friends over?" I ask Aunt Rachel.

  "Sure," she answers. "But don't cook the meat you got, alright? I know you'll want to show it off to them, but I'm fairly certain you don't know how to cook meat that lean."

  "I guess I can wait for the expert to come back," I give an exaggerated sigh. "There goes my plan to conquer the world. I can still show them the pelts and bones though, right?"

  "You can," she says. "See you when we return."

  "Bye!"

  Aunt Rachel and Mr. Fuller head upstairs and leave, and I send a message to the group chat asking if they want to hang out.

  [Sig]: Anyone want to come over? I wanna show off the hides from the hunt!

  [Sig]: The ones I've got here anyway

  [Xander]: Getting breakfast with Dad. Not returning to Dragon Falls again until this afternoon.

  [Sig]: I know! Have fun!

  He really is a goofball sometimes. It's obvious he's not coming since he's back out in Autumn Hills, but he still responded to say he wouldn't come. The others all say they can be here, so I wait for them to show up. They're all over at Connor's house as they spent the night there so I could have joined them there instead, but I don't want to haul the hides there and back. They're a bit too big to fit into my backpack with everything else.

  Which I should probably remove my dirty clothes from, so that they're in the hamper and can get washed when I do my laundry next.

  "Huh?" I frown as I grab my backpack.

  My backpack has small mesh pockets on the sides meant for holding water bottles. The one on the left (when I'm wearing it) has a water bottle in it as usual, while the one on the right… has a small tin and a piece of paper.

  I pull the two out and unfold the paper, finding Xander's neat, careful handwriting on it.

  I'm not gud at alkime but it stil works sum. Wuld hav heeld yu if I culd but I'm bad at that, tue. This has sum heeling propertees, thoe. Shuld liten the payn and mayk it heel faster. Not a lot faster just a littul. It's a practis won I mayd last week. I hope yu feel bettur soon.

  Also, gud job on killing it.

  Xander

  His unassisted spelling was getting better, wasn't it? Well, not that it matters, I can still understand what he wrote, with some deciphering. It's a tin of simple healing salve he made while practicing alchemy and should help with the pain and slightly speed up how fast the bruise heals.

  That last line of it kind of indicates – at least to me – that Xander might have secretly been upset about me getting hurt. Also that it's a good thing it was a hare and I killed it and that it wasn't something like a person attacking me.

  Especially when considering his great-grandfather apparently went and eliminated an entire organization with a lot of financial backing just because Xander got scared they might come after him.

  I'm going to have to thank him for this salve. Also find a way to make it up to him no matter what he says. Even if it's just a practice salve, it still probably cost a lot to make.

  Hold on. Why did Xander even try making a healing salve? He heals instantly so he wouldn't need it. I'll try to remember to ask him the next time I see him but that's definitely weird.

  I open up the tin and find that the salve has a faint minty scent to it with a hint of berries. It's tinted pink and is really creamy, easily rubbing on but without being greasy. Within a minute, I've rubbed it in and there's no trace of it left on my chest, at least visibly. The pain really has lightened up a little, though, which is a relief.

  It was still at a four.

  A knock at the door lets me know my friends are here, so I cap the tin and hurry upstairs to let them in. Aunt Rachel locked the door on her way out and my friends don't have a key to this house.

  "Hey, guys!" I greet them.

  "What happened to your chest?" Connor's eyes widen. "You didn't send any shirtless pics since going on the trip! It's because of that, isn't it?"

  "Uh… maybe?" I ask. "But Xander snuck me some magic healing salve, so I don't even feel the pain right now. Come on! I wanna show you guys the hides!"

  "Doesn't it take longer than a day?" Isaac asks as I let them all in.

  "Not if you're using a magical tanning process," I say. "Smaller stuff just takes all day or all night. And I went over to the Martinses' for something with Xander and they let me use their stuff for the hides. They were all doing a ton of tanning from their hunts, too. The amount of beasts they caught was insane. Come on!"

  I lead them downstairs and show them the hides.

  "Whoa!" Connor says. "They glow!"

  "They do!" I nod. "I've got the bones in a box, too. They can be sold for use in crafting magic items, too, but I think I'm just going to get them displayed along with the hides."

  "Did one of them do that to you?" Connor asks indicates my chest.

  "They're hares," I deadpan. "What do you think they could do to someone?"

  "Doesn't Xander catch hares which can open pocket spaces to disappear into?" Sam asks. "Fairly certain there are some which can fight."

  "Only one of them fought back," I say. "And that was after the other two died! That's this guy here, and I broke his neck with my bare hands!"

  "As if," Connor snorts. "No way you managed to kill something with your hands!"

  "I did!" I say. "Though it actually started the night before the catch. I was on the phone with Xander and before he ended it, he told me to look for gold…"

  [Luke – 13 years]

  As Tyler and I come to a stop, I try to do a spin stop like Xander likes doing with his hoverboard. It's a lot trickier than he makes it seem and I fumble it every time. Falling off of a hoverboard also is possible if you're trying to do stuff like this.

  "At least I didn't fall off this time," I grin at Tyler.

  "This time!" He laughs. "What about the last four?"

  "I'm improving!" I say. "Come on, let's go see if he wants to hang out!"

  I hop off of my hoverboard and Tyler hops off of his bike, then we walk up to the front door and I knock on it. There's no doorbell or I'd ring that instead, and I can tell he's inside the house rather than out back.

  Him and his mom. At least, I'm assuming so as I don't know either of them well enough yet to know their electrical signals. There are two people in the living room, though, so I'm assuming it's him and his mom as the sizes are right and they're the residents.

  After I knock, there's a few moments of wait before one of them gets up and comes over to the door, answering it. The smaller one, which turns out to be just who I thought it was: Seph! He's wearing just a pair of shorts right now, so it looks like I was right in that he's not a church-goer.

  "Hi, Seph!" I greet him when he answers the door. "I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out and tell me how the hunt went!"

  "You know you could've texted, right?" He asks.

  "Psssh! Who needs texting?"

  "He broke his phone," Tyler snorts. "And I don't have your number."

  "How did you break your phone?" Seph asks.

  "Forgot to take it out of my pocket before wrestling with Tyler," I tell him. "Maaaaay have accidentally crushed it."

  "He overcharged a lightning bolt compared to what was necessary," Tyler says. "And it fried his phone. Which is apparently impressive as his phone's supposedly designed to be really lightning-resistant."

  "It's probably a case of just wearing down over the year," I say. "Especially with me getting a lot stronger since my birthday."

  "Your birthday?" Seph asks.

  "I get a new phone for my birthday every year," I explain. "Updated with the latest features and strengthened resistance to lightning magic and physical damage… as much as can be managed with current materials. It's fairly expensive due to how strong I am, which is why we don't have a backup. We actually have to use crystals made from my mana in the materials to cut down on costs, too. But anyway! Did you want to hang out?"

  "Uh… Ma?" He looks at Ms. Lee.

  "I don't need you for anything," she says. "So you can if you'd like."

  "Alright," Seph looks at us. "Wanna hang out here or go somewhere?"

  Judging by the slight shake he's got, he's nervous about something.

  "If you're worried about a repeat of my phone," I say. "It's more that I got stronger than it could handle faster. And it's generally on me when I'm doing some high-level stuff. As in, I took it with me to fight some, uh… things this summer, and I sometimes forget to take it off of me when helping out with stuff while using high-level magics. Before my mana got fixed – long story – my magic would also burst, causing lightning to spark all over my body. That's why our classmates are nervous of being too close to me or in the pool with me. I'm actually pretty good at not damaging other things, it's just nearly a year of buildup on something almost constantly on my body can wear it out. And the phone was actually mostly fine after the lightning bolt, Tyler left out the part where he then body-slammed me and that broke the phone. Given a few minutes of rest, and my phone wouldn't have been as brittle. And don't forget that we've both got the strength-dampening anklets. We can play here if you want! Back yard?"

  "Yeah," he nods. "Come on."

  Seph leads us through his house and to the back. As Tyler and I drop our backpacks on the deck, Seph grabs a ball that was sitting in the yard. He holds it up to us with a questioning look on his face.

  "Sure!" I rush into the yard. "To me!"

  Seph throws the ball to me, and I catch it and toss it to Tyler.

  "So how'd the hunt go?" I ask. "Since you're back today, that means you caught something, right?"

  "Yeah," he answers as he catches the ball from Tyler, then throws it to me. "Got an antelope and a couple of rabbits."

  I dash to the side and catch the ball, then pivot and throw it to Tyler.

  "That's awesome!" I say. "So do you have the hides?"

  "Tanning takes a bit," he says. "You gotta use some special materials if you want it to go faster and we ain't got that stuff. It's magic and a bit more expensive, especially if it ain't something you can source on your own or you don't do it often."

  "Thought you said you can get most hides finished within a day," I look at Tyler. "You do the magic tanning?"

  "Luke," he rolls his eyes, then throws the ball to Seph. "My dad and I hunt monsters and magic beasts for a living. Doing the magic tanning process is easy for us. And it ain't really worth it for nonmagical beasts, especially if you're planning on selling 'em, since their hides are worth less."

  "Oh," I say. "Is the cost really that much of an issue?"

  "Speaking of magical beasts," Seph says as we continue tossing the ball around, so I guess the cost must be that much of a problem. "The other kid who went on the trip caught three. Lightstep hares."

  "Lesser or greater?" Tyler asks.

  "Lesser," Seph answers. "He only has around 20 mana, so he's not that powerful."

  "Lesser?" I ask. "Greater?"

  "Yeah," Tyler looks at me. "Lightstep hares come in lesser and greater variants. Lesser ones will run if they sense danger, partially turning into light to enhance their speed. If more than half of them die, then the other remaining ones in the group will attack. You can still attack them normally in that state, they just ram you with the intent to break your bones."

  It would probably feel like a cotton ball getting flicked at me to me.

  "S.G.'s a pretty sturdy kid," Seph says. "That's who the other kid was, the S.G. you did the beta tests with. It didn't manage to break his bones, though he's probably got a maaaaassive bruise now."

  Considering he jumped off a one-story building during the beta tests and just kept going, I don't doubt that he's rather sturdy. It's a shame he didn't want to be my friend, he seems like a really cool guy.

  "What are the greater ones like?" I ask.

  "They've got around 400-500 mana, normally," Tyler says. "And if they sense danger? They go after its source from the start. And they can fully turn into a sort of pseudo-light. They ain't as fast as light, but they're just as bright and mostly intangible. You have to use darkness magic to harm them when they're in that state. Dad and I caught one once, but we had to work together to do so. It ain't really worth it, though. There are better sources of materials with light magic in them which can be used for things which utilize light magics. I think the bones might get used in a material for making magitech lights, but that's about it."

  Magitech lights? The shells I use in the magitech lamps I use when teaching might include them. Or maybe not, if Tyler says they're not worth hunting. I'll have to look into that and see after Tyler leaves tonight.

  That's something to think about later, though, so I just make the mental note and return to what I'm doing now.

  "Hey," I say as I catch the ball, which we've still been passing around. "What about throwing a football? Tyler's got one in his backpack, and it'll make us need to run for the ball a little more."

  "Sure," Seph says. "Just toss the ball over there, I'll get it later."

  "Awesome!" I say as Tyler runs over to his backpack. "Oh! Tyler! We forgot to turn on the anklets! Turn yours on!"

  I turn mine on as Tyler grabs his football, then he turns his anklet on as well and we begin throwing the ball.

  Thank the gods I finally have people I can do stuff like this with. It's something I used to dream about and now it's reality. If only Parker were here with us… but no, he'd just ruin it. I push that thought out of my mind as right now, I'm having way too much fun to let depressing thoughts dwell.