Even with that thought, Tsugi found it hard to give up on learning magic. He needed something to help push him to wake up in the morning.

‘If by the time I turn of age, and I still don't have any magic affinity, then I will stop.’ Determined, he continued to practice wherever he went.

Now that he can chop wood with ease, Tsugi and Mare were able to finish chopping all the wood.

"You've gotten stronger, Young Master Tsugi." Mare commented.

"All thanks to you." He smiled proudly. "But I still have a long way to g-go in order to catch up to you."

"How's hunting with the ax?"

"It's going well." He said, swinging the ax through the air. "Although, it's a bit h-heavy for my taste. I find it hard to be able to throw it long distance, which m-makes it harder to hunt animals with very good senses like boggledins (deer like creatures, with huge ears allowing them to hear very well, and worm like fur that gets attracted to energy around them, allowing them to be able to sense danger from a kilometer away)."

"It's good practice, young master. It will not only help you build strength, it will also help you learn to hide. You'll get the hang of it."

"I keep hearing that a lot. 'Learn how to h-hide'. I am hiding! What do you all m-mean by 'hide'? Am I supposed to disap-p-pear or something?" Tsugi was agitated.

"Hiding is not just physically hiding your body, Young Master Tsugi. Have a seat." Mare sat in front of him. "You must also hide your presence. Turn around and close your eyes." Tsugi did as instructed. "Now let me know when you can notice that I am right behind you."

Tsugi kept his eyes closed and waited, but he felt nothing. "Did you leave Mare?" He called out, but received no answer. "Why are you playing a j-joke on me?" He opened his eyes and turned around. "Bwaagh!" Tsugi held onto his heart and toppled over the log. "How l-long have you b-been standing th-there?"

"I never left. Now turn back around and let's do it again." He closed his eyes and felt nothing for a while. Then he started to feel like someone was watching him, sending a chill up his spine.

"Mare!" He quickly turned around. "BWAAGH!" Once again he fell over clutching his chest. "That was s-scary, I felt like s-s-someone was w-watching me."

"Yeah, me. So you can tell the difference now right?"

"I th-think so." He said, pushing himself off the ground.

"Okay, now let's do it again, except this time, I want you to put a finger up every time you feel someone or something, and put it down when it's gone."

Tsugi sat and they went through the process step by step. Soon enough he was able to recognize the feeling pretty quickly.

"Now you try it." Mare sat down and turned her back to him.

"How? I don't even know wh-where to begin?"

"It's easy, you just need to be able to control your emotions. If you can't then it will not work. The more heightened your emotions, the more it will leak out and make it easier for you to be spotted."

"Okay, I got this." He mumbled to himself. He closed his eyes and took deep slow breaths, relaxing his body and slowing his heart rate. He opened his eyes and stared at Mare's finger pointing straight into the air.

‘Hide. I need to hide.’ A memory of his father finding him popped up into his head and his heart raced. ‘No, calm, calm. I must hide.’

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He tried again and again, but when he felt like he got close, his father would pop into his head and he would lose concentration.

"Instead of thinking, just clear your mind, as if going to sleep." Mare said.

Tsugi breathed and emptied his thoughts. He fell back into the darkness where he felt no emotions, like an endless dark empty box, and slowly opened his eyes. Mare's finger was no longer pointing to the sky. His excitement brought a huge smile to his face and her finger shot right back up into the sky.

"I DID IT! I DID IT!" He yelled.

"For a split second yes, but you need to control those emotions young master, or you'll never master it. It's the most basic hunting and survival skill, but it's the foundation to learning everything else."

"Thank you Mare! Thank you, th-thank you, thank you! WOOO!" He ran around and jumped with joy. "I'm going to g-go scare so many people! MUAHAHAHA!" He laughed evilly. Mare laughed as she had never seen him this happy, and shook her head at his goofiness. "I'll see you tomorrow Mare!" He waved at her and ran back into the castle. "Now, where is Xeni?" He snickered wickedly.

He calmed himself down, and snuck through the castle toward the kitchen. Xeni was washing dishes, when Tsugi arrived. He carefully stood behind her, "Rawr!"

"AH!" Xeni dropped the plate and it shattered on the floor. "What are you doing?!" Xeni yelled, Tsugi just rolled on the floor clutching to his stomach. He was laughing so hard that no noise came out.

"What is going on here?" Dina ran into the kitchen.

"I'm sorry Dina." Tsugi laughed.

"Stop goofing off and clean up your mess!" She yelled.

"Yes chef!" Tsugi still couldn't control his laughing.

"What…is…wrong…with…you!" Xeni hit Tsugi while enunciating every word.

"I'm sorry Xeni. I was j-just practicing."

"What? Scaring people?" She yelled.

"No." His laughter finally calmed down. "Mare taught me how to hide my p-presence, so I was just practicing." He wiped away tear drops and helped Xeni pick up the broken plate.

"Well, it wasn't funny! Don't do that!" She scolded and hit him some more.

"Okay, I'm sorry! I'm s-sorry!" He laughed. "I won't do it anym-more, I'm sorry."

***

Now that Tsugi knew how to hide, he continuously hid everywhere he went.

"Xeni." He whispered. "I'm going to try walking around the castle."

"Now? It's still bright out."

"I know. I'm going to try and see if I can hide."

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea, Master Tsugi. What if you get caught?"

"I won't. I've been practicing for a while now, I have to up the s-stakes, or I won't know if I can p-properly do it or not."

Xeni sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Please be careful Master Tsugi."

Tsugi promptly left the kitchen, and advanced toward the main part of the castle, only ducking behind corners to stay out of sight.

As he strolled through, he made it to the main hall without getting detected. Looking around he made his way upstairs. Two voices approached from around the corner as he ducked behind a statue. He reached Sir Gorou's office and slowly opened the door to sneak in.

‘I'm just going to touch the desk and call it victory for today.’

The sunlight peeked in through the closed curtains. He made his way over to the desk and froze. A giant figure stood by the desk. Dread immediately coursed through his body like wildfire and his heart pounded loudly in his ear.

He had made a grave mistake.

The curtains waved with the slight breeze that entered the room. Sunlight entered, and he realized that it was just one of his fathers cloaks that was hung up. Although relieved, the terror he felt was very real. He dropped to the ground in panic, gasping for air.

"Hold on, I think someone's in here." A voice came from outside. It was the knights that remained behind to protect the castle.

Tsugi's legs refused to move. He clutched his chest and clamped his eyes shut. 'Breath!' He told himself. The handle wiggled and clicked, the door opened wide and two knights stepped in and gazed around the empty room.

"Hmm, I could've sworn..."

"You're losing it." The second knight said. "There's no one here. Come on, let's go." They left and shut the door behind them.

Fighting with all his might to control his fear, he had hidden behind the enormous cloak that smelled of iron and leather.

He waited a moment before leaving and ran as fast as he could back to his room. As soon as he entered, he finally let go of the breath he was holding and fell to the floor, gasping for air that refused to distribute to his extremities. So much horror drove through him. The freedom away from his father had caused him to forget how much he had feared him. That was when he knew…he was nowhere ready to face his father.