Off we were on another mountain hike! No tents this time, still no cooking pots, but hopefully we won't need any of that stuff. The magic cub scouts packed water and fried chicken. I'm okay with their culinary choices.

We've got the whole crew for tonight, Seth, Owen, Booth, Selendrith, Blaise, and Duvessa.

The plan was to hike up the southeast mountain for two hours, spend an hour or so hunting, and then hike back, and be back before midnight. The kids even brought lanterns and planned for a couple of hours of wiggle room.

They be learning.

They chose this way because it was close to several areas of interest. The Below entrance where I met Seth was somewhat in this direction, just more south than we were heading. Any beasts that might've wandered out before the entrance became guarded could still be in the area. Also, Owen thought he might know a good hunting spot. And last, but not least, this was in the opposite direction of that cheapskate guy complaining about the wolves. Owen was serious about not wanting to help him out with how cheap he was. Dude was genuinely offended.

There was still more than an hour of sunlight left when the kids got their shit together and set out. Seth tried to make me walk on my own. I did for a little while, but I'm lazy, and that didn't last long.

I give you permission to carry me, oh human palanquin.

These types of adventures are going to suck when I get bigger. There might come the day where I'm carrying Seth's lazy ass. Nah. Sucker can walk.

Owen led us off the road just before sunset. "We should light the lanterns now. It'll be full dark soon, and we've got a ways to go yet," he said.

"Why are we not using light spells?" Duvessa asked as she watched Owen and Seth pull out lanterns.

"Waste of mana, mostly," Booth said. "I don't want to keep casting those all night. I'll have no magic left in no time."

I never really worried about mana. I next to never used it, at least not consciously. I am still unsure if the chicken dodge used mana. I assumed it did, and that was why I couldn't do more than three in a row. But either I regenerated mana super fast, or I didn't use it.

I've not seen Seth run out, either. But then, he kept his casting to small spells most of the time, and when he cast bigger ones, there was always a period he didn't cast after. I never wondered if that was intentional or not.

I have seen other students run out. Some in the middle of spells, causing them to backlash in strange ways.

Selendrith cocked her head. "You only need to cast them once."

Seth was kneeling next to the pack he'd brought and looked over at Selendrith. "The only light spell I know is Moonlight. That one is a cantrip and is a concentration spell."

"Basic Light is one of the spells needed to pass this semester. It's in the student handbook," Selendrith said, looking at the group in mild judgment. "You could cast it on the lantern and it'd stay lit for several hours."

"That's right!" Duvessa said, snapping her fingers. "I did see that there. But that's towards the end of the semester, so I didn't bother with it."

"I haven't read the handbook," Owen admitted sheepishly. He glanced over at Seth. I knew Seth hadn't read it either, but he didn't admit it now.

"I don't have one," Booth said curtly.

Blaise turned around to face Booth. "How do you not–" she cut off when Duvessa stepped on her foot.

"It's fine, really, it's fine," Seth said. "Selendrith, could you demonstrate that spell for us? If we can learn it, we'll all have light whenever we need it."

Selendrith looked to be doing some mental math. "I can cast it once," she finally said. "I shouldn't spare the mana for more than that."

I haven't seen Selendrith cast much. She was a miserly caster. She was the type to track and measure her ability. She probably knew to a half cantrip how much she could cast and how long it would take before she could cast again. If possible, she'd have someone else do the casting.

"Wait a second then. Instead of just casting it, lets go through the signs and sounds," Seth said. He'd put the lantern down and gave Selendrith his full attention. The kid really did like magic.

"We don't have time for this," Blaise said. "This isn't a cantrip so it's going to take you all night to get it right. We use the normal lanterns for now, and let's just go."

What do you know. Blaise can talk sense.

"Yeah, you're right," Seth agreed, disappointed. "We should get going." He got right to getting that lantern lit. Good kid, and don't worry. You'll have ample opportunity to learn more spells.

The temperature on the mountain dropped quickly as the sun went down, and now a stiff cool breeze was rolling down the slopes. We came to a clearing in the woods with a gentle slope. A stream at the far end burbled, and the fir trees loomed at the edges.

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"We should douse the lanterns here," Owen said. "The light will chase off anything we want to catch."

"Then how will we see to catch anything?" Blaise asked. "It's darker than black here."

I could see fine.

"The moon won't be out til much later, and it won't be very bright," Seth said. "We should probably leave them lit for now."

"We're gonna need light, Owen," Booth said. "We'll be walking into trees."

I chuckled at the thought.

Seth tapped me on the nose. "Stop laughing at us."

Booth turned to glare at me. "Is your cat seriously laughing at us because it can see in the dark and we can't?"

"No!" Duvessa said. "Mau is a sweet kitty. She'd never take pleasure in our misery."

"Meow!" I said to Duvessa, and then glared at Seth. I opened my mouth just a little bit. If that finger came near me again, it was gonna get shorter.

"What did I tell you about biting? No! Down! Mau, get down." Seth struggled to pull me off his shoulder. I was clinging with my claws as gently as I could. I was having fun, but I didn't want to make the kid naked by accident. Shirtless in the mountains at night didn't sound like a fun time.

"And people pay money for those things," Booth muttered. "How are we going to find, much less catch, anything in the dark?"

"We can leave them lit for now and start with a locator spell. This one is unstructured, so it's a little inconsistent," Seth said.

"If it's inconsistent, how do we trust it?" Blaise asked.

"It doesn't lie or anything, but it doesn't always answer. I'll look for any nearby animals? Or large animals only?"

"We're looking for something smaller than a dog, but don't waste our time with rodents," Booth said.

Seth closed his eyes and breathed deeply. I focused on the familiar link, interested in how this was working for him. He'd been avoiding using his, or rather, Saben's, talent for a while now. The berries had made it hurt, and then we found out it was never Seth's power.

That did somewhat explain why only Seth felt pain after eating a berry. I'm not real clear on how it all works exactly, but if Seth had a bunch of magic stuffed into him, and then ate a berry stuffing a whole bunch more magic in, then yeah. I could see how that would hurt. The interesting bit was that it was the talent specifically that hurt the most.

And there were so many reasons that could be. The mana overload might be trying to pull the talent free and send it back to Saben. I could see that being potentially fatal. Or the too much mana might be ripping up Seth's magical insides. Also potentially fatal. The berries might also be toxic to normal people, and because Seth doesn't have a talent of his own, the berry is poisonous. And you guessed it, potentially fatal again.

That talent could kill him. I could understand him being nervous about using it. The fact the talent didn't really want to obey him was just icing on the shit pie.

Yet he practiced with it anyway. And now he was using it again.

Kid was calling the wind. I could feel the ache through the link, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been. Whatever that injury was, it was healing. The steady mountain breeze swirled in the clearing.

I watched as Seth let the spell stay completely unstructured. He didn't cast at all, and just let the talent do the work. It took several long minutes, while Booth shifted from foot to foot and looked at the other kids, clearly wanting them to step in and do something.

Owen was leaning against a log with his arms crossed. Duvessa sat cross legged under a tree. Selendrith was gazing out into the darkness at the edge of the lantern light. Blaise was peeling bark off a stick, tall and thick enough to be a hiking staff.

I thought Booth might have a meltdown waiting for Seth. The kid was really antsy at times. He was patient enough with his own stuff, but everyone else needed to be done yesterday. Eh, he'll get over it.

Finally Seth opened his eyes. "There's something a little bigger than a dog that way. And there are several more after that in the same direction. I have no idea what they are."

"Good enough. Let's go." Booth took the lantern and headed out.

"I'll send out scouts!" Duvessa said. She created a small flock of sparrows and sent them winging in the direction Seth had determined.

The troop marched on. Well, stumbled through the brush and banged into trees.

There was nothing sneaky about this crew.

"We should have brought a muffler," Blaise said, echoing my own thoughts. "We are going to scare everything away."

"Next time," Duvessa said. "I think this is fun, and I totally want to do it again."

Booth sighed.

A shadow sparrow flitted through the group and Duvessa caught it. A moment later she whispered, "There is something up ahead! Be quiet!"

"Should we douse the lantern?" Blaise asked.

"Yeah, at least shutter it," Seth said.

The dark didn't make the kids any sneakier. They were just slower, and much louder as they walked into every bush and tripped over every rock. They would be better off keeping the light.

In the trees not far ahead, I saw a goat. It was looking right at us.

"Maaahaaa!" the goat bleated. It lowered its head like it would ram us with its horns.

Okay. Not a magic goat.

Owen dug through his pockets and pulled out a carrot. Because of course he has carrots in his pockets. He approached the goat carefully. Seth got his catchpole out, and when the goat took the carrot, Seth looped it.

The goat didn't notice or didn't care.

"There's another one that way," Duvessa said. "Should we catch that one too?"

"Yeah," Owen said. "Any magic from this guy?" he asked Seth.

I shook my head when Seth glanced at me. "I think this is a normal goat," he said.

"On to the next one!" Duvessa whispered energetically.

The next one was calmly munching on a bush and ignored our approach. The kids fanned out around it and Booth set up his catchpole.

I hopped up a tree to watch this. I didn't think it'd be a debacle, mostly because the goats were completely tame. Then I saw a shadow move in the bushes and heard a faint rustling.

My ears pointed automatically in a direction none of the kids were. Shit, there was something else here. I scanned the darkness. My eyesight was fantastic, and I could see almost perfectly.

Almost. I couldn't see through things, and there was a lot of brush around here. I growled.

Seth glanced up at me and immediately cast Moonlight.

"Ah!" Selendrith cried, lifting a hand to block the light. Girl, it's moonlight. That shouldn't be blinding you.

An older woman with a bow drawn stepped silently out of the bushes, the arrow pointed first at Selendrith, and then at Booth.

"Just what do you think you're doing with my goats?"