I waited for Seth to fall asleep before I swiped the magic dog whistle. I would've headed out right then, but asshole roommate Isaac showed up.

Isaac activated the lights in the room, and stared at Seth who was curled up and sleeping happily. After a moment he walked over to the desk and shuffled through the stack of blank paper. Then he used just a little bit of magic. It was unstructured, so there was no way for me to know what he was up to.

He glanced back at Seth, and I guess Seth looking content irked Isaac, because he dropped the stack of papers and made a ton of noise getting his own stuff ready for bed.

He banged his trunk open, slammed books to the ground, shook Seth's bed by bumping into it repeatedly. Seth slept through it all. Isaac didn't stop with that nonsense until I growled at him. If I wasn't using Isaac's mattress as a hiding spot for my stolen loot, I would have been tempted to cut all the supports holding his mattress to the frame. I'll need to think of something else.

I continued to growl at Isaac until he deactivated the lights and went to bed. Once I heard him snoring softly, I jumped down. I had the box chain of the dog whistle securely wrapped around my front leg. I paused at Isaac's shoes and carefully shredded small sections of his shoelaces with a claw. Those laces would snap now when he went to tie his shoes.

Happy with my pettiness, I slipped out the door.

Outside the dorm I had a look around as I considered the best course of action here. I wasn't worried about the whistle being dangerous to use. The hyena woman had been using it safely. I was worried about the whistle being dangerous to me. And possibly to the kids. Before I let Seth play with it, I was gonna have a go.

I needed vict- ah, volunteers.

Most familiars stayed in their bondmate's rooms, so I won't be able to use familiars for this. I'd have to use normal animals. Which meant I wouldn't be able to ask them what the whistle does. This will be a trial and error endeavor.

But I knew just the group of animals to start with and headed off to the arena where combat class was held.

Outside the coliseum, I found a nearby tree with a bunch of birds roosting in it. These were the guys that mobbed the combat students when Professor Mick the Mighty was doing his weird games. These birds might be a little annoyed at having their beauty sleep disturbed, but I wasn't concerned. I'd have a light, poultry themed snack if they got aggressive.

I unwrapped the whistle and tried to make a connection to it like I had the vault and the skull ring. This was a pretty complex piece. I sensed it could do a few things, but I had no idea what those were. And like all things magic, intent mattered. If I intended it to do something it couldn't do, I wasn't sure what would happen.

May as well find out.

My cat lips couldn't make a good seal. My teeth got in the way, and the split in my front lip left a gap. But I did get some air in the whistle. I decided to go with a basic, 'Come' command. I figured that was probably pretty universal.

The whistle was insanely high pitched and hurt my ears. I wasn't even blowing that hard, because I'd blow it right out of my mouth, and it was still crazy annoying.

Not a single bird moved. Not even a squawk.

Was I being too specific? Or not specific enough? Lets find out. I recognized one of the birds on a lower branch as a finch and started with that guy. 'Come finch!' I thought hard, as I fueled the whistle with mana and blew.

Nothing.

Okay, all the birds in the tree! 'Come!'

Nada. Not a one even twitched. Can birds not hear dog whistles?

One more time, all creatures nearby, 'Come!'

"Will whatever fucker is making that racket shut the fuck up!" bellowed a very cranky and squeaky voice.

Nice! We got results!

"I beg your pardon, oh mysterious sir," I said. "I was merely attempting to utilize a new tool."

"I'll shove that tool right up your ass if you don't shut the fuck up right now."

I waved my ass in the direction of the voice. "Come on over here and try it." Then I blew the whistle again. 'Come, rodents!'

A swarm of rats poured out of a small gap between the coliseum stonework and the mountainside. There were only eight of them, so a really small swarm for rats. I would have expected a few dozen. As they got close I blew the whistle again, 'Stop!'

All but one stopped.

That one was nearly twice the size of the other rats, and it gnashed its teeth and jumped at me. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" it was screaming.

I sidestepped and watched the rat. Wow, this whistle sure could drive some creatures nutso. Sure, the guy was a good sized rodent, but I was bigger, and I was a cat. I could eat him if I chose to. "Fine, fine. Talk to me a bit and I'll stop."

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"I'm going to bite your face off!"

"No you won't, or I'll blow this thing so hard your ears will be bleeding for a month." I put the whistle in my mouth again.

"No! Please, don't! For the love of piss and shine, don't." The rat collapsed on the ground and covered its ears.

I could see the creature shivering as it braced for the piercing shriek of the whistle again. It was a light tan color with a white belly, and a furry tail. Except for the tail, it looked like a normal rat. All the other rats had furry tails too. Were these some kind of squirrel crossbreed?

I had to agree with the rat though. If I wasn't the one blowing the whistle, I'd probably be really ticked off by it too.

"Okay. Truce," I said. "Who are you?"

"Thank the midden for small mercies," the rat said and rubbed his ears. "I am the grandfather of these younglings." He turned to look at the other rats, who had held still since the 'Stop' command. "What did you do to them?"

"I am practicing with a whistle that can train animals. I intended to use it on the birds there, but got you instead." I watched the other rats. They did not appear to be held in place magically, or under a magic compulsion. If anything, they just looked confused and not sure what they should do.

"Go back to the nest," Grandfather said, and shooed the others. Most left right away, a couple were looking at me curiously before scampering off with the others.

"Well that told me almost everything I needed to know," I said. "Thank you for your assistance."

"My fucking assistance? You blow out my ears with that hateful noise, take control of my family, and you fucking call it 'assistance'?"

"Well, yeah." I sat down and curled my tail around my paws. "You helped. I thanked you. It's called being polite."

"There is nothing fucking polite about what you just did!"

"Grandpa, with a potty mouth like yours, do you even deserve manners? Take a valium. Sheesh."

"Oh fuck off, you inconsiderate cat. And what the fuck is a valium?"

Well damn. "Fuck if I know. I think it calms people down? Anyway. What are you? I thought rats had naked tails, and yours is furry. You're not part squirrel, are you?"

The rat looked like it was counting to ten. "Are you deliberately trying to provoke me? Implying I'm some type of squirrel?"

"Nah, sorry. I've just not seen anyone like you before." I should probably play a little nicer here. I might get an opportunity to swipe a power, or this guy could volunteer to be a familiar. Or not volunteer and the kids could capture him.

That was a sticky thought. On one hand, these were animals, and buying and selling animals was normal. On the other, I'm an animal now too, and buying and selling me would be a hard nope.

My moral compass had always been a little shaky, but I do have some lines. If these guys were being sold into slavery, obviously, that would be a hard no. But being a familiar isn't the same thing. If a familiar is unhappy with the arrangement the bond will break, and an animal could always run away. There were benefits to being a familiar too. The cat from the Menagerie, Tom, got greater intelligence and longer lifespan from it. And possibly other benefits.

Yeah, I think I'm fine selling out the wee beasties to be familiars. I'm one, after all. It's like joining a cult or a MLM. You rope everyone you know into it too.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your night. I did not know you or your family lived here. I only intended to disturb the birds."

Grandpa rat glared at me and then huffed. "Fine. Apology accepted. Now fuck off already."

"Of course." I'll fuck off when I'm good and ready. "But first, I'm serious. What kind of animal are you?" I wondered if it would it be too rude to ask him what his power is.

The rat puffed himself up and stood tall. "I am the Grandfather! I am the caretaker of the largest treasure trove of all the packrats!"

Packrat? So this guy runs around collecting cool shit, and maybe magic cool shit since, you know, he's living in a magic school, and packing it away? That's a real thing? The dude must have seen the glint of greed in my eyes because he immediately huffed, "No! You will not see it. Those are my treasures! I have sealed and protected all of them!"

Sealed? I had a bad feeling about that. The dude had mentioned piss and shine a bit ago. And rats were famously dirty. "Do you piss on your treasures?" I guessed.

"Of course I do. That's the best way to cement them in place. I have a power that makes it dry quickly into yellow resin."

I shuddered. Any interest I had in his treasure trove vanished. And I didn't want to try out power stealing with this guy, either. Gross.

That just drove home the point that this guy was an animal. A dirty one.

"Are there other unbound beasts here in the school?" I asked. I still considered having the kids capture this guy for that bounty, but I wasn't sure how a rat would go over. I knew where he lived, so if we ended up short, we could come collect him later.

The rat shrugged. "None of my business. Now beat it."

I waved my ass at him as I walked away, my tail straight up. I don't think he noticed as he returned to his hole in the wall. That guy might be useful in other ways, too. I bet I could bribe him with shiny things, and I wouldn't need to offer anything magical for the rat to be enticed, just pretty.

None of that mattered as much as discovering that this whistle wouldn't be useful against magic beasts. If they could hear it, it would only piss them off. But if a group had normal animals with them, like the packrat and chickens both did, it could be useful. They would obey simple commands.

Over the next few days, Seth practiced the new spells and experimented with the whistle – to my enormous discomfort. While my apology to Grandpa Packrat was mostly sincere, I was beginning to think I owed him another one. Yeowch.

Seth also collected the odds and ends he thought we'd need. He sourced a few catchpoles, some heavy duty burlap sacks, rope, and even a map.

On Tuesday, Seth asked Ace at the Wind Tower if he knew of anyone heading to Vernar in the near future. Seth was getting worried about Saben. Here we were on week five, and no word yet. I didn't know how long would be normal here. Did they send mail by magic? Or by horse?

Ace didn't know of anyone, but promised to let Seth know if a plan was made. And if Seth still hadn't heard soon, Ace would fly a letter there himself.

Saben had such good friends. The guy was well connected. By all the pretty green peas, how did he end up in a distant city like Vernar?

That's right, I almost forgot. A field trip to Vernar was still on my wishlist. That's the city my egg was shipped from. I wondered if I could get Seth to take a trip with Ace there.

Probably not. It was a full days ride by horse or carriage, two by wagon, and four by oxen. I'm not sure if that accounts for the mountain slopes there and back. Either way, Seth will object to missing class.

That was fine. I had a feeling I would want more magic under my belt before we headed that way. I was optimistic with this beast hunting project. I would have more opportunities to swipe powers.

And no. I did not want a piss power.