Mary eventually calmed down and stopped crying.

"Vanilla, we need to find you another name." Mary broke the silence, and Vanilla's mood improved too. She was happy to see Mary stop crying.

"I am still thinking. Besides, I am still looking like Vanilla. Once I change my appearance, I will change my name too." Vanilla smiled.

Mary nodded. It sounded like a plan. Vanilla went to put some wood into the fire, while Mary took out a laser pointer.

"What makes you tick?" she asked herself while squeezing the laser pointer in her hand. A single glyph appeared in her mind. She closed her eyes to see it. It was right there in the center of her vision, but hard to focus on. It was as if she simply stared at the letter-shaped sun for a second and then closed her eyes.

She could roughly make the outline of the glyph. It did not change color, but it was a beautiful shade of purple. She knew it was a full word, not a part of it. Kate told her to figure out its meaning, so that's what Mawy tried to do.

"Maybe it means 'connect'?" She first thought to herself. That's what came to her mind. After all, all living creatures were connected to this network. But nothing happened.

She tried to imagine what would happen once the spell activated, but nothing came to mind either. Well, a few ideas came, but they came from her own mind, and Mary knew that.

"Whatcha doing?!" Vanilla came and asked curiously.

"Trying to learn the Elven language!" Mary happily smiled.

"Oh, that's impossible. Only magical girls can." Vanilla giggled, now happy to see Mary smile.

"But the letter said I need to learn it before I can become a magical girl." Mary sighed.

"Well, you have a chicken and egg problem then. Actually, it makes me wonder: Could we find some wild eggs?" Vanilla laughed, trying to improve the mood even further.

"Heh, always thinking about food. But actually, let's go catch fish while it is still bright." Mary stood up.

They went to the shallow place and worked together. Mary shined the pointer to bring fish from the depths into the shallow places, and Vanilla chased them until they got stuck. Then she simply picked them up. It worked so well, they lost track and caught way too many.

They brought them back to camp, cleaned the pot that they used to boil the orbs, and placed the fish there.

"Way too many. Any idea what to do?" Vanilla sighed.

"Maybe salt and dry them? Smoke them?" Mary threw in some ideas.

"We don't have enough salt, and I don't know how to smoke fish either. We would need to build a small pyramid around the fire, so it would be way too much work." Vanilla explained. "Well, I can simply fry them on the fire. We have eleven, so roughly two fish per meal, so we have nearly three meals. So tonight, tomorrow morning, stew for lunch and fish for evening? I hope cooked fish does not go bad that quick."

Mary just nodded. Vanilla was a better cook anyway. She went towards the river and cleaned the fish. Mary did not want to watch; she was rather focused on her own puzzle. She could not crack it, but she was not about to give up either.

The fish finished cooking, and the smell alone made Mary hungry again. Vanilla gave her the stick, and Mary ate it happily.

"You're such a great cook, Vanilla. I could live with you." Mary announced.

"I don't think you have a choice." Vanilla was evilly announced.

"If I became a magical girl, would you follow me and become a magical girl too?" Mary added.

"Of course. I am not as smart as you are or interested in magic, but if that means staying with you, I would." Vanilla added.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"What if I pass the exam and you don't?!"

"Well, then I would stay as your pawsy familiar." Vanilla giggled.

"I was serious!" Mary briefly complained.

"Me too." Vanilla added, with a serious stare in her eyes.

Mary then switched the conversation, and the mood lightened. They talked about appearances. They no longer had the right to look like Chocola or Vanilla, so they had to change a thing or two. Luckily, this world offered several tools for this.

The night came; they had a brief dip in the water and finally went to sleep. The sun disappeared before nightfall came; it was cloudy. Mary had trouble falling asleep; she really hoped to see the stars, and the lack of stars agitated her more than necessary. She focused on the laser pointer, but before she could crack the puzzle, the tiredness overtook her.

They both woke up and briefly jumped into the cold air, for the raindrops that fell on their faces were colder. They had to quickly think. They quickly put on their shoes, grabbed everything they could, and ran towards the nearby pine tree. It was before sunrise, but it was not dark anymore.

The tree gave them a chance to put on some clothes and get ready for the ever increasing downpour. The rain eventually became so heavy that the tree provided little protection, and they had to hold the sleeping pad above their heads to protect themselves and their camping bag against the rain. But they had to actively hold it with at least one hand, and that meant they could not sleep anymore.

"This fucking sucks." Mary complained while shivering from the cold.

"Don't swear. It's uncute." Vanilla corrected her. "It could be worse too."

"What could possibly be worse?!" Mary angrily explained.

"Look!" Vanilla explained and pointed the finger towards the fireplace.

Mary saw the pot that they used to store baked fish. The pot was flipped over. All the fish were gone. Likely by some wild cat or some wild fox. The other pot, with the stew, was untouched. Mary sighed loudly.

"At least the fox left the stew." Vanilla added.

"At least you have that dragon potion that keeps you warm." Mary sighed.

"Want a drop?" Vanilla offered quite smugly.

"You know what? Sure. It's freezing in here."

Vanilla gave her the vial. Mary put a tiny drop on her finger, closed the lid, and then licked her finger. It burned. It burned pretty badly. Like concentrated habanero extract. But the warmth did not stop at her tongue; it spread through her mouth and then throughout the entire body. She felt strange. Her mouth burned, but her legs still felt cold, but at least she stopped shivering.

An hour passed, and the heat evenly spread through her body. The rain stopped, too. But the grass and everything were completely drenched.

Vanilla removed her shoes to keep them dry and walked over wet grass to restart the fire. It had no embers, so she had to start from scratch with wet firewood. Nevertheless, it did not stop Vanilla.

Mary sat under the tree, fidgeting with the laser pointer. She saw the same purple glyph in her mind. She did not know what it meant. She could not guess it either. Mary stood up and went towards Vanilla.

"Hey, Vanilla, tell me what you know about the elven language."

"Nothing really. I know Kate could read it. I don't know anyone else who could." Vanilla explained.

Mary returned to her pad. She was thinking about Kate. There was one thing that set Kate apart from everyone else she ever met in this world. She was the youngest. Kate was a kid in appearance. Mary remembered how much Kate liked milkshakes. Kate was very intelligent, but her behavior was rather childish. That's exactly what the book about magic said, too.

Mary suddenly realized what this meant. If she was to become a magical girl, she would have to become a kid again. It's easy for kids to pick up new languages, too. This is what Kate meant by 'kickstarting' the process. Everything somewhat clicked together in her mind. And yet, she still did not know what the symbol meant.

"I accept." She said it while looking at the glyph in her mind. Nothing happened.

The catgirl sighed. Maybe she had to find the right mushroom to read the spellworld. She decided to drop this for now. She had time, and there were more pressing things on her hands.

"A bit too early, but here you go." Vanilla approached her and gave her a bowl of reheated stew.

The bowl had twice the amount of stew as yesterday. But since their fish was stolen, that was likely the only food they would eat today. For now, Mary happily spooned it out while Vanilla emptied hers. It was very tasty. Mary then went to wash the bowls; she saw the river did not have clear water anymore. Rain made it muddy and opaque.

"We are not going to wait until it is dry." Mary asked Vanilla, who was packing a damp sleeping bag into the backpack.

"No. I don't think we will see the sun today either. It's best to move before another rain catches us again."

"And go where? We can't show up in the market."

"Where else? Mary. We can't survive like this. We need actual, proper equipment. I know you don't want to risk us being seen, but I don't think we have any choice." Vanilla explained.

Mary nodded and simply sighed. She understood it. She agreed with it. She wanted to offer fishing again, but even that would not work today.

"Well, not now. We don't want to be early, because that's when our colleagues are buying ingredients. If you want to think of a better solution, you have a few hours." Vanilla smiled.

"I actually do. Wait here; I want to look around for a mushroom." Mary smiled.

"Don't go far; it's easy to get lost." Vanilla nodded.

"I won't venture far and will always keep the river in sight." Mary nodded too.

Mary picked up the knife, fixed her clothes, and went towards the trees.