Much more clearly and firmly than I’d felt with Foire, I knew that Vefir was on the brink of acquiring a magic manipulating organ. What was it…

“Vefir, what have you been trying to do recently? You should have felt something happen, maybe it’s hard to describe.” I had a guess, but I couldn’t let myself get my hopes up before even talking to him about it.

He looked at me, seeming to be just as surprised as Foire had been. “I… have tried to help others recover. I helped with your wound’s dressing. That is all.”

I stood taller. Now, was this more of a multi-purpose magic like Wavespeaking, or exclusively healing? I wasn’t sure which I would prefer. “Has there ever been a time when you did something more magical?”

“Um… what is ‘magical’?”

Of course he wouldn’t understand the term. “Like, you did something that came from you, not from anything else, and it helped someone’s recovery?”

He paused, then slowly nodded and flared his frills. “Once, with your arm. It made me tired and feel sick. I haven’t tried since.”

I nodded, then, fighting to keep myself from grimacing, extended my right arm. “Try it again.”

Vefir seemed to not know what he needed to do, but still he was eager to follow my instructions. He held both hands over my right shoulder, and as seconds marched to minutes, I slowly relaxed my shoulder, shivers of pain coursing up and down my whole arm. On a whim, I sent my magic coursing to my throat, but more gently than before. Instead of a barely controlled roiling of power, I channeled a constant thread of the magic as I spoke.

“Vefir, calm yourself. The power is there for you. Just bring it out of yourself and allow it into my arm.” I could feel that my words were on the verge of creating a [Skill], but not quite there. My cadence had become more gentle and understanding, while also somehow energizing. I could feel the magic flow out of me and begin to influence Vefir.

With my guidance, finally Vefir seemed to find his “something”, and a warmth spread up my arm. Somehow I understood that it wasn’t as “shaped” or “controlled” as it could be, as the comfort dispersed across my whole body. I wasn’t sure what it was, but with the warmth came relief and I sighed, enjoying the feeling while Vefir sagged.

“That was it! Great!” Then I noted how drained Vefir seemed to be, and reached out my hand to support him. He shrugged off the help and tried to stand tall. “You ok?”

Vefir tiredly flared his frills. “Did that… work?”

I flexed my arm. It still hurt, but having just recently strained it, I knew that it had improved markedly, the aches having reduced to be significantly less agonizing. “Yes, thank you, Vefir.”

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He seemed cheered by my praise or acknowledgement, and I continued, “You’ll need to get some rest when you return. I have a feeling that will help you recover.” I didn’t add on my hopeful guess that he would be able to evolve as well. Vefir nodded in agreement, and stumbled away to help the rest of the pack begin to pack away the results of the hunt. I noted that Foire didn’t exclude him from participating, but did assign a relatively light job to Vefir, allowing for him to recover. Again, I was surprised to see the ease with which he quietly led his pack.

Before long, the pack was packing away the vast majority of the meat left from the scaled deer. It seemed that, beside me eating one of the thighs, the rest had only fed on the entrails and viscera, leaving the rest to be transported back to the den. I continued to wonder over that as we approached the den and dropped off the meat back with Sybil. I could only barely withhold myself from chuckling as I noted the four males working at digging the latrines out and looking enviously at the food we’d brought.

As the pack left once again to hunt, Foire approached me. “We now fill ourselves with the frogs before going on another ranging hunt. Do you still wish to accompany us?”

My first thought was that yes, I wanted to. I wanted to be out, and moving, but I also didn’t want to have to watch more hunts without participating in them. I was standing in indecision when I noted that Vefir was readying himself to follow on the hunt, and that made my decision for me. I was too excited to see if he would evolve after healing my arm like that. I wasn’t sure if it qualified as a magical phenomenon, but I thought it would. Having a member of the pack that could help accelerate our healing, even if not on the level of a Wavespeaker, would be amazing.

“Vefir, come with me.” I called out to him and began to return to the den. Without thinking too deeply about it, he immediately followed and we made our way to the den. Once there, I pulled Vefir into a quiet corner of the communal resting space. He seemed confused, but I quickly urged him to rest.

“No, everyone else is still working.”

“I know, but I feel that this rest will… how could I put it? Um… if you allow yourself to rest, you’ll be able to use that magic more frequently and better. That will be better for the whole pack than even all our hunters could be. So, rest. Now.”

Mollified by my strange command, Vefir settled into a comfortable position and, too quickly to be wholly natural, fell asleep. Surely that meant that he would soon be a… healing? magicblood keelish. Or not a magicblood, since he wasn’t a Bloodletter. Again, I was frustrated by my inability to read or see another’s [Status] since I knew they existed. Yet, that wasn’t to be.

I was striding out of the resting area of the den when I noticed that there was an unfamiliar adult keelish in the mouth of the den speaking with Sybil. Not Wisterl or Rulac, or any other of the adults I’d seen over my short life. Yet, this one was much more impressive than any of the ten that had followed Shemira. A female, just a hint shorter than five feet tall, and densely covered with the ripcord muscle that Foire seemed to be made out of. There was a pattern of scars running down her neck from the base of her skull, a series of short cuts that stopped just an inch short of her shoulders.

She perked up as she saw me and called out, “Hey, little Alpha.” Her tone wasn’t flippant, but far from as respectful as I realized I was becoming accustomed to.

“What?” I barely contained the snap from my tone.

“The Swarm Alpha wants to see you. Come along.” And, with that, she turned to go deeper into the den than I’d ever been before.