"Did you tell your father?" Mr. Lottle asked.

Lenore answered, "Yeah." While raising her hand to show him a metallic disc.

"How did he react?"

"I don't know, he said he had to go, so we ended the transmission quickly," Lenore replied as she watched Aaron saddle her mare.

"He probably isn't taking this very well."

Lenore turned to Mr. Lottle, and looked at him closely, "What do you mean?"

But Mr. Lottle didn't have the chance to answer her, as Aaron called out, "Lenore, how good of a rider are you?"

Lenore shifted her attention to Aaron, and pondered on his question, occasionally bobbing her head to the side, before finally deciding her response, "I'm pretty okay, I mean I'm not good, but I'm not bad either."

"That's a fair answer," Aaron said, examining the saddle on the grey-horned horse, before saying, "Show me how good you are, and we'll work from there,"

"Work from there? We're practicing here? Right now?"

"You have a better place or time? Or do you want to be like Ash and his unicorn, holding our speed back?" Aaron's words didn't evade Ash's nor his unicorn's ears, who were both lying down.

Ash's unicorn instantly stood up, knocking off Ash, who was laying against them. They seemed just about ready to charge at Aaron, but Ash placed a hand on their mane, calming them down.

After calming them down, Ash looked at Aaron, "Hey! You were the one who invited me, I can go right now, that way I'm not holding anyone back, and Uri is a very fast unicorn, if she was at Quarry's stage, she'd run laps around him."

Aaron's unicorn, who was lying in the grass nearby, ears flickered but didn't react. Aaron put his hands up, "Relax Ash, it's just a small joke. Now calm down and sit back down."

Ash exhaled strongly before sitting back down in displeasure.

Mr. Lottle leaned toward Lenore and whispered, "Do you know why Ash was so upset at Aaron's remark?"

Lenore shook her head, "I don't really know him that well."

Mr. Lottle chuckled, and said, "It's because there is a very strong bond between rider and unicorn, Ash wasn't that annoyed, but Lucky was, so Ash's emotions were influenced. And Uri would've been the same if it was reversed, I find that fascinating."

"Really?" Lenore's voice filled with curiosity, "What else happens because of the bond?"

"Lenore, hurry up, and get on the unicorn!" Aaron called, and without getting a reply from Mr. Lottle, she approached her mare.

Ash and Mr. Lottle both tensed up, and both made sure to pay attention in case something went wrong.

Using the wind elements to support herself, Lenore mounted the horned horse and grabbed the reins tightly. There was no specific reaction from the unicorn, only an awkward shudder.

Ash breathed out and patted Uri on the neck.

"Okay, let's see what you can do," Aaron said.

"Wait!" Mr. Lottle said, "I don't need you guys to get the Casters all excited again. I have another place you guys can practice."

Aaron raised an eyebrow, and Ash looked curious.

The group was then led by Mr. Lottle to an area behind his house, Aaron leading Lenore's unicorn by her rein. Behind the house laid a shack. It was all wooden and looked old, most likely filled with creeping shadow spiders, but the door was strangely large, enough to fit three unicorns stacked on top of one another, and wide enough to fit five, yet judging from the outside, there was no way that shack was going to fit that many unicorns.

Mr. Lottle gestured to the shack, "Here it is."

Ash and Lenore looked unimpressed and confused. But Aaron had a sparkle in his eyes, and he asked, "Who made it? Was it Matthew?"

Mr. Lottle nodded, "He still has the strength to pull this off."

"Uncle Aaron, what is it?" Lenore asked, still unaware of how amazing the shack truly was.

"It's a pocket space... A big one at that."

Mr. Lottle opened the door to the shack and gestured inside, and Aaron dropped Lenore's reins and said, "Well, ride in."

Lenore didn't say anything, she only shifted uncomfortably in the saddle, and gently squeezed the horned horse's ribcage with her leg. The unicorn began walking and went through the door.

However, Aaron didn't follow immediately and instead asked, "Mr. Lottle do you have any practice swords, or anything similar?"

"No, I typically only train unicorns here, so I don't really have anything like that... But I do have old brooms in the barn."

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"That'll work." Aaron then turned to Ash, "Could you go get them?"

Ash silently nodded and whispered in Uri's to go inside the pocket space.

Aaron watched Ash leave for the barn, but he frowned when he stared at the barn, it wasn't from what he saw, but from what he felt,

Has Matthew done something over there as well?

However, he didn't ask anything and entered the pocket space, with the two other unicorns following him. Mr. Lottle entered last, closing the door on his way in.

When Lenore entered the shack, her surroundings changed.

They were in a grassy valley, it was flat with only grass and no trees, but there was a nice breeze that went through her hair, and ruffled her feathers. Yet there wasn't grass everywhere, a trail was right in front of her, it was made of stone, and when looking at it from a bird's eye view you could see it created an oval that stretched for miles.

The grey-horned unicorn shook when she saw the field, and without a command of any kind, she walked onto the trail and faced the direction, her muscles adjusting, and her ears moving back, as well as her tail swinging freely.

Lenore did not like how this horse was reacting, and she really didn't want to ride her when she started running.

"Okay, Lenore. Let's do this." She heard Aaron's voice on her right, as he entered the pocket space, "This is quite the place you have here, Mr. Lottle."

Mr. Lottle merely nodded at his words.

Aaron approached Lenore and her unicorn, "She looks like she wants to run."

"I don't know if we're ready for..."

The horse under Lenore shook and pawed at the ground.

"Lenore, I don't think you have much of a choice... Okay... Um." Aaron turned to Mr. Lottle, and asked, "What's this unicorn's name?"

"Her name's Lucky." Mr. Lottle replied.

Aaron turned to the unicorn named Lucky, patting her neck, "Okay Lucky, Let's see how fast you can go."

Lenore, who heard this, had all the color drained from her face, and quickly asked, "Uncle Aaron, we don't need to go fast, right?"

"We'll use this to test your balance," Aaron said, as he whispered something into the unicorn's ear that made her restless.

Aaron then backed away, and he smiled at Lenore as he said. "Three..."

"Wait, Uncle Aaron, what are you..."

"Two..."

"Oh no, I can't..."

"One!"

The unicorn instantly took off. Her movements caused Lenore to bounce on the saddle, and she struggled to grip the reins, every moment felt like she'd fall off and hit the hard stone floor.

Aaron watched her, as he mounted his own unicorn, ready to catch up if needed. But it looked like that wasn't going to be necessary, as Lenore subconsciously extended her wings to stay balanced.

But even still Aaron made sure to keep watch.

On the side Uri walked past the trail and into the grass it was circling. Resting her body there as she waited for Ash to return.

...

Approaching the barn, Ash smelled a faint peculiar scent, one that was at the tip of his memories, yet he couldn't place it. The smell became more preeminent the closer he got to the barn, and without him even noticing, his hand crept to the sword at his waist, like his body knew what this was.

When he arrived at the entrance of the barn, he wrapped his fingers around the cold steel handle, and just as he was about to yank open the door, he felt a tickle at his ankle.

That was all it took for him to unshed his sword, coat it with the lightning elements, and turn around, thrusting his sword downwards. The ground was instantly destroyed when the sword struck, with little charges of electricity attacking the dirt, yet despite all this, he failed to snuff out the life that touched him, which was a blade of grass next to his foot.

When Ash realized this, he bitterly laughed at himself, and shed his sword again, turning back to the door he quickly opened the door, and a wave of nauseating stench hit him, and that's when he was able to remember what this smell was, it was blood.

Ash frowned and glanced back at the shed, and debated.

If I were to go back, would Aaron make fun of me? I mean it isn't normal for a Star Core Magician to feel scared like this... Right?

Ash sighed, and decided to continue forward,

It's not worth getting bullied over...

Entering the barn, Ash saw nothing to be worried about, only rows of shelves full of grains, baskets with fruits, and bales of hay, with tools here and there.

he even closed his eyes and used his mystic sense, but still found nothing,

Then what's with the smell?

After using the mystic sense, Ash had already found the brooms at the back of the barn, leaning against the wall, he quickly snatched them up and was about to leave, when he noticed something in the corner of his eye.

What is that?

Ash approached a white, thin object he saw on the floor, and picked it up, "Woah." He mumbled, it was curved and longer than a finger. It felt smooth, and at its ends, sharp.

While he flipped the white object over, he noticed his glove had collected a few drops of yellow liquid, and as he smeared it against his fingers, it began eroding the glove. He brought the hand to his face and sniffed it, there was no smell.

This... Is a bit concerning...

Ash's other hand rested on his sword hilt, when he looked up, he saw another white object, and this time he drew his sword before approaching, but he didn't make it to his destination, instead after crossing a certain line, his surroundings changed.

All the rows of shelves and the baskets of fruits, disappeared, he wasn't even in the barn anymore, instead, he found himself in a forest, and a new scent entered his nose, a rotting stench.

In this forest, there were feathers everywhere, but he also finally found what was causing all the smells, there were dead animals all over the place, and their corpses were of varying stages in the magic path, most were in the Core Creation stage, with very few in the Caster stage, but he did spot at least one Star Core Magician.

What is this place?

Ash moved forward, he could hear the sounds of birds in the sky, and the ground under his feet felt mushy and soft, but it didn't feel like it had rained.

Everything in Ash's body told him to get away from this place, and he was about to when he suddenly jumped to the side and felt the soft brush of feathers zoom past his face.

He turned to look at what attacked him, and he saw a long blue bird, water surrounding it making it hard to see clearly, but Ash could still sense the stage the blue bird was in, the Star Core Magician stage, and through the tiny opening the water around it had, he could see a snake missing its fangs in its talons, also in the Star Core Magician stage.

This is going to be troublesome...

Around Ash, the lightning elements were fluctuating, and inside his magic expanse lightning was beginning to explode around his star core, getting ready to leave through his fingertips.

The bird dropped the snake in its talons, and the water elements around it began spinning like a top. The water in the ground rose, as well as the little humidity in the air, and both collected into the spinning top.

Ash raised his sword preparing for what he thought was going to be a fierce fight with the bird, but before he knew it, a bit of red was added to that water, and in the next second all the water collapsed, revealing the floating bird, but it was limp.

Yet Ash's eyes weren't staring at the bird, but what was behind it, and keeping the bird up, and his hands trembled as he looked at a beast he had never seen before.

The body was that of a lion, but its tail was of a scorpion, and on its head were the horns of a goat. The creature's fur and mane were all black, and its eyes an Icy blue, yet none of these features disturbed Ash as much as the presence of the creature, or the lack thereof.

Even with this beast right in front of him, Ash couldn't feel a thing, which scared him.