Teasing people was wrong, Daniel had decided. Of course, he was fine with jokes, but gaining enjoyment from someone else's discomfort was just bullying, plain and simple. That was why Daniel, a poor innocent victim of Rory's cruel bullying, was having to distract himself by making his aunt Gemma uncomfortable. Some might view this as hypocrisy, but Daniel didn't so it was fine.

Gemma walking out here in the forest had a lithe relaxation to her that was quite a contrast from the slightly strained aunt he had thought he knew. So while teasing Gemma with her awkwardness around kids normally felt like kicking a sad puppy, out here he thought it was okay. Her improved attitude helped Daniel cross the line in his mind from laughing at her to laughing with her.

He had gotten quite used to his parents grabbing his hands to stop him from escaping. So when he found himself walking between Gemma and his mum, with the hand on his mum's side already taken, he quite naturally reached out and grabbed Gemma's hand with his free one. She reacted with a strange noise, almost a squeak. Daniel thought it was hilarious!

"Are you alright Gemma?" his mother asked.

"...I'm fine, what did Agnes say next?"

So as they walked, and the adults talked, Daniel tried to study this new side of his aunt. It was fun catching her surreptitious glances when he was brazenly inspecting her. It made him start to giggle when their eyes met, which drew a hesitant smile in response. But then when his mum's story of how she felt about how Agnes felt about something that happened to Agnes' husband was finally over, Daniel started to pay attention to his surroundings again. He noticed that at some point his dad and Rory had passed them, and Rory was looking back at him and Gemma with a smug smile on his face. And it seemed that Mum was trying and failing to hide a smirk in their direction.

The line crossed back to laughing at her. Daniel extricated his hands and moved ahead.

"How far are we going?" he asked, turning round to walk backward so he could face his aunt and mother as he spoke to them.

"We're almost there," Gemma answered.

Flame of Kyburad.

He started flicking his flame from one shoulder to the other, taking a different route across his head each time. The results of his practice. Is this difficult? Is this fast? He tripped and stumbled, walking backward while moving the flame too much to handle at once.

"Careful, Anne," his mother cautioned as he righted himself.

He turned back to walking normally, his face starting to heat up. It turned out that being childish sometimes wasn't the worst thing in the world. He was a child after all! Being goofy was fun. But that didn't make it okay to soften up on everything. Mummy! Mummy! Look at this aren't I amazing? Praise me, Mummy! He would not be doing that again. He wanted to slap himself in the face. He wanted to think about anything else.

"Can you tell me the names of some magic skills?" he asked.

"Why would you want to know that?" Mum cautiously answered.

"When we learned the flame at church, the priest just told us its name and then it seemed pretty easy. So I thought I could learn something else if I knew the name."

"The priest has a guidance skill for it to work that way."

"I heard mage skills have requirements to teach as well," Gemma added.

"I can learn mage skills? At church?" Freedom! Daniel exulted. Get away from me, priest! I am an archmage I have no time for your religious dribble. He started to mime himself slapping priests to get them out of his way.

"You can learn about mage skills at church when you are old enough for them to teach you, sweetheart," Mum said.

"Should I not have said that?" Gemma asked Mum.

"Hey Anne, come look at this!" Rory interrupted, calling out in a low-pitched voice from in front of them. Daniel was wondering where his dad had gone and was about to call back and tell Rory to get lost. But then Dad emerged from the side of the path a fair distance further on from Rory and beckoned Daniel forwards. Daniel decided that made one trustworthy person calling him, and he ran to catch up to the two of them. Dad led them a short way into the trees, and then crouched down and pointed towards a slope covered in tightly packed bushes. The bushes were green but covered in a vibrant layer of yellow flowers and even more vibrant red thorns. Daniel looked around, trying to see what he was supposed to be looking for when he noticed a gap making a small tunnel into the nest of branches at the bottom of the bushes.

Inside the gap was the face of a fox. Daniel's breath caught, and his heart started to melt. His mind lit up with ways to convince his parents to take the fox home with them. Oh no, do I need wisdom to resist this as well? This is stupid I like cats more than dogs. Don't foxes stink? A deeply troubling thought occurred to him. What if cat people could be reincarnated as dog people? Heresy! Someone must pay!

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

They were far enough away that the fox hadn't seemed to notice them, and it started to crawl forwards into the open.

"That's a Forest Black Shod Fox," Rory whispered from beside him.

Daniel started slightly, having not noticed Rory coming close. That name seemed a bit of a clumsy mouthful to Daniel's ears. The fox came out as was moving sideways away from them. Daniel noticed something was dragging behind it. It looked like it had a bunch of vines caught in its tail. Or it might be most of one of those bushes since he could spot red thorns peeking out here and there.

The foxes head came up and twisted around toward their direction. Its gaze locked with Daniels, and he could feel his cat person instincts being washed away like sand. Okay, since you insist I'll let you be my friend, Mr. Fox.

But then its lips pulled back, revealing sharp teeth, and it started to growl as it moved its body to face their direction.

"No!" Daniel cried out, "Bad Mr.Fox! You don't growl at your friends!"

A part of him was wondering why this seemed silly, not scary. But then the fox's tail bristled. The vines he had thought were stuck to it moved upwards and spread out around its back legs. They formed a half-circle in the air, like a display from a peacock, with each vine ending in a large red thorn crooked over and pointing in Daniel's direction.

Uh oh. That's not silly Mr.Fox. I need to run away now.

Daniel shrunk back reflexively, but his father stood up and moved forwards, shouting and waving his hands. The fox turned and ran in the opposite direction, its weird vine tails moving back down to join with its normal one.

"Do they usually act like that?" Dad asked Rory as he turned back to them.

"No," Rory said, shrugging, "We probably just scared it."

"What about those vine things?" Daniel asked, fascinated, "Are they alive? Are they separate? How do they work?"

"Does that interest you Anne?" Rory asked.

"It does."

"Well luckily, your uncle is an expert. I have a book with me that will tell you all about them."

"You have a book with you?" Daniel asked suspiciously. He couldn't see a book, and it seemed convenient for him to have the right one on hand. Daniel's father turned to look at Rory, helping to back up Daniel's doubting glare.

"Err...I have a book at home that will tell you all about them."

"I'm sure," Daniel said, far less interested in something that might happen later, if Rory could be believed. Which he could not.

They returned to the path and after a few more minutes they reached their destination, a clearing with a cottage up a small rise towards the back. A stream could be heard burbling between it. Daniel looked around but could not see any inhabitants.

"Whose house is that?" he asked.

"Mine and Gemma's," Rory answered. "It used to be her father's."

"I thought you had a small house in the town and traveled most of the year."

"What?" Rory exclaimed, acting shocked. "Who told you that?"

"You did!"

Gemma let loose a loud, full-throated laugh that caused Daniel to turn to her. She definitely didn't laugh like that at home.

"Don't be silly, Anne," Rory said, "Now come on inside, I'll show you this book."

Daniel dubiously followed Rory inside along with Gemma, his parents moving away together towards a large rock in the middle of the clearing. Rory led him to a side room and started digging through a chest of drawers in the corner. Daniel curiously inspected the assorted junk that made up the rest of the room.

"Is this all from your job?" he asked. There was a sort of outdoorsy theme to the junk.

"Yeah most of this is from our work as rangers," Rory answered, turning around with a book in his hands.

"Rangers? what about landtrust?"

"What's a landtrust? Some kind of animal?"

"I see."

Rory took the book to the table in the middle of the room and cleared a space on the surface for it. But instead of putting the book down, he flicked through it, and then pulled a page out of the book and set it down on the table. Daniel looked at him, aghast. The page held a handwritten description of the Forest Black Shod Fox, complete with a well-done illustration of one, although without any vine limbs showing. What it did feature was the starkly dark fur around its feet, which he guessed was where it got its name.

"Why would you ever tear the page out like that?" Daniel asked although he noticed the page didn't particularly seem torn.

"Eh, it should be fine."

"Can I see the rest of the book?"

"No sorry I put it away already."

Daniel hadn't seen him move to put the book away. He sighed, letting his frustration show.

"Actually, Anne, there was something I was hoping you could do for me"

Of course, there was. He stared blankly at Rory waiting for him to elaborate.

"I don't know what your mother has been telling you, but when you try to act like Marcus it's creepy, not cute," Rory said.

"What do you want?"

"Well, this stuff is actually part of my job, inspecting the animals in the forest and then writing it all down. But your Uncle Rory can't deal with all the horrible slimy creepy crawlies around here. I thought my adorable niece might want to help me out since she is practically one of those horrible slimy creepy crawlies herself," Rory chuckled at his own words. "You seemed interested in this stuff. Why don't take your Aunt Gemma and go find some disgusting creature to inspect."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you love your Uncle Rory more than anyone else in the whole world?"

Daniel didn't think that deserved a response.

"I'm telling you Anne you should stop doing that." Rory said, his ever-present grin leaving as he leaned in and started to speak in a conspiratorial whisper "The truth is, since your father will be away soon, I wanted to give your parents some time alone as just the two of them. And to do that means finding something to keep you occupied and away from them. Now what do you say, will you help your uncle complete his good deed for the year?"

"What are you going to be doing while I'm off with Aunt Gemma?"

"I'll be here and there, don't you worry," he said, the grin returning "You trust me, right?"

"No, not at all."

"Great, I'll go get Gemma," he said and then he was gone. A few moments later Gemma entered the room and stood there looking at Daniel.

"Do you know how long he is going to be?" she asked.

"He didn't tell you what we were doing?"

"He just asked me to watch you for a moment and then went out the front door," Gemma replied.