The journey to the river bank didn’t take too long. About halfway there I realized that maybe I shouldn’t just fly there. Now that I have legs, it would be good to try and learn how to use them efficiently.

Setting down onto the forest floor, it is only the second time that I lose the freedom of flight. Fallen leaves and various other forest underbrush flattens as I touch down and sink slightly.

Looking around, it is the first time I truly appreciate the enormity of these giant plants. The trees tower over everything around and from my position on the ground it’s even more pronounced.

Observing my surroundings, I am once more left feeling dissatisfied with my current perception range. Before, when I was still just an unformed, I could see almost everything all at once and the bit I couldn’t was just a slight shift of my vision away.

Now, I’m locked to about 60 degrees. Admittedly, this bird head is very good at quick shift to allow me to see more, but it’s just not what I’m used to.

I take a slow and unsure step forward. And succeed. Huh. I sort of expected different terrains to be completely different to walk on, but I guess not.

Step after step, I walk onwards. Soon, I’m as confident with my steps as I am with flight. Not to say I’m as skilled, but definitely confident. I traipse along, heading towards Aiden.

Walking is much slower than flying though, so my mind eventually begins to notice things I hadn’t observed before. For example, the path I am currently on is actually a very faint trail. Aiden must’ve walked this way a bunch of times to manage that.

Not long after, but more than double the time it would have taken me if I flew, I arrive at the river bank. There, standing near the river is Aiden, mana roiling around him. Must be practicing magic again.

As I walk up to him, I notice that I barely reach up to his knees. Yes, I’m longer than tall, but for some reason this still makes me slightly upset.

Accessing our bond as if to send a message, but not actually sending one, I alert him to my presence.

And the ignores me. That’s… to be expected. I suppose he did make it rather clear to me to not disturb him. But this is important! I’ve changed! Surely, he’ll be happy about that too!

So, I alert him again and when that doesn’t work I do it once more. At this he finally reacts, though not at all in the way I wanted.

“What is it pipsqueak?! Can’t you see I’m training!” he shouts. Actually shouts, he doesn’t just send the message through our bond.

I ignore that though, because I have much more important stuff to talk about. “I did it!” I shout in joy. And rather unexpectedly, a strange sound also comes out of my mouth at the same time. Huh, I suppose I would be able to make actual sounds now, what with having a head and mouth and all. Anyway, that’s not important.

“What the hell did you manage to do? You better not have fu- “Aiden starts, yet falter midway as he turns to look at me.

Aha! He must be bedazzled by my beautiful form. I flutter my wings, showing them of in all their glory. I know it’s rather splendid, you don’t have to praise me. Actually, praise me, praise me!

Aiden though, does neither. Well, technically he does the former, but I’m not sure if dumbly staring counts. Either way, it’s kind of rude. And I want him to say something about what I managed to do thanks to my genius.

I feel a slight tug on out bond. A soft, probing touch. Hmm? Why would Aiden do that? I’m right here.

“How, how is this possible?” he asks while I stay silent. That’s still not the praise I want to hear.

“You- But- I though you were defective?” Sigh, I suppose I’ll have to do some explaining before I get my just praise.

“Was not! Besides, spirits can’t actually be defective! I just couldn’t advance the normal way, that’s all.” Will that be enough? Please let that be enough.

A brief moment of silence later, Aiden continues our impromptu interrogation. “Wait, wait, wait. There are more ways to advance?”

“Ah, well, not exactly? It’s technically the same way as everyone else does it.” I reply sheepishly. I’ll still consider it a different method in my mind though.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Aiden’s eyes seem to gleam for a moment before he asks with bated breath. “So, what is it?” he sounds so eager. Why couldn’t this have been how our relationship was since the beginnings.

And so, I give him a brief overview of I achieved my greatest achievement, yet. Though it didn’t stay very brief at all, for as soon as I started talking I just had to relay to him the whole journey of how I got there in the first place.

I started with the library, though that part I mostly skipped over, as not much happened for most of the time I spent there.

Aiden didn’t seem to mind this though, or at least he didn’t once I got into the part where I actually discovered how to absorb mana without absorbing mana.

I explained to him how, whereas normally excess mana is expelled and the mana you absorb is the mana of different beings that they expelled, I reroute my excess mana directly into absorbing him.

Of course, I couldn’t leave out all the troubles I encountered along the way. Mostly, it was just he problem of horrendous mana production.

As I explained my solution to this problem, more souls, Aiden’s eyes lit up again.

And then, after explaining it all, I quieted down. Maybe now that he knows all the hard work behind my transformation, he’ll praise me? I sure hope so.

“And why did you choose this particular amalgamation of animals?” Ok, more questions still, but I’m sure we’re done soon.

“Oh, well actually I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I was in a weird fugue like state and most of it was instinctive. But I’ll do better next time!” I quickly add. And I’m sure I actually am going to have more control next time.

Aiden once again sinks into though. Damnit, let’s hope that’s the last time. My wish is heard, as soon he actually does look up with a smile.

“That’s great, you did amazing!” I beam under his praise. Oh, this feels wonderful! “Do you think you would be able to teach me?”

Oh. Oh! If I teach him, I’ll get to spend more to with him! Yes, yes, yes.

“YES!”

A satisfied sile appears on his face and if I didn’t have a rigid beak, I imagine my face would also be sporting one. Hooray for hard work!

We turn back to walk to our clearing. I walk besides Aiden even though I have to use a tiny bit of floating so as to keep up. And along the way, we talk! Aiden keeps asking question all along the way. And even though I spent the vast majority of the past year in a dusty old library (it isn’t actually dusty, on the contrary rather), he still asks all about the stuff I learned there. And I happily explain all about alchemy, enchanting and magic. I mostly talk about magic related things, that interests him the most.

We eventually arrive and settle into our cave that is no longer a cave and more of a slowly expanding hovel.

Aiden settles into a comfortable position, which I’m finding to be rather difficult myself on this rocky floor. Just one more disadvantage to having a fleshy body.

As soon as he’s ready, I begin. I already explained most of the stuff to do with souls that I know of, so I only add a couple of sentences. And then, I instruct. I slowly guide Aiden into a meditative state, almost a trance as the book said. It’s not truly necessary, especially with someone like me who already has a lot of practice sensing my soul, but it help the first time around.

Once I judge him to have entered the proper state, I simply remind him of what to look for and leave him to it.

What should I do now though? For the past year, all I did was read and study, never having any time to do anything else. Not that I wanted to do anything else.

Now, I just want to help Aiden in whatever way I can, but as demonstrated by the very situation in front of me, that simply won’t fill all of my time.

There were many fields which I could study further. I could focus on magic (or one of its branches), raising plants for alchemy or just alchemy itself, create enchanted items or develop my knowledge of formations more. And many, many others of which I know at least the basics and all of which could also support Aiden in some way.

Thinking on it a bit more I decided that, even if it wont be my main focus, I’ll still try and improve my formations. Until I learn how to restrict my mana leakage fully, I will be depending on it to advance further.

And I’ll still need to learn a lot of mundane subjects, like history, unless Aiden decides to learn it himself now that I can be actually useful as a proper Familiar.

And besides that, there’s also the matter of what kind of magic do I want to focus on. Yes, it may not end up as my field of study, but that doesn’t mean I should just give up on one of the core parts of anything to do with magic.

Then again, I suppose that the answer to this question is rather obvious. I’ll study soul magic. If for no other reason than to assist me with further breakthroughs.

Though a lot of books recommended, in one way or another, that a proper mage should be proficient in at least a couple forms of magic, in case one fails to achieve what I desire from it.

Okay, so I’ll need formations and soul magic, for my advancement and both also help Aiden (even though soul magic does so only very indirectly). Maybe I don’t need to try out anything else then? Ah, but I’ve come to enjoy learning new things over the last year, so perhaps I’ll still try to keep my broad foundations.

By now, enough time had passed that Aiden starts to slowly stir awake, even though he wasn’t asleep in the first place. Or at least he shouldn’t have been. But judging by the grin on his face, I doubt it.

I spend the rest of the day guiding Aiden through all the basics of internal mana control. Wait, no that name is already in use for the enhancement of the physical body through careful applications of internal mana, I’ll have to come up with a better name later. But I digress.

I teach him how to capture the overflowing mana, shift its direction right back to the soul and letting it reinforce it.

As night come along, he still can’t quite do it, but that’s alright. It took me some time too.

Aiden settles into his bed and I ready myself to do likewise. But a conundrum strikes me. Do I go into my usual corner or do I lie down next to Aiden? Or maybe I should actually subsume myself into him> I haven’t done that in a while.

In the end, I plop down next to Aiden and shortly after fall asleep. Having a body sure is tiring.