I wondered what someone who had a vastly transformative evolution would look like while changing. Tom, first grew taller. His fur also got a little longer and the stripes in it became more pronounced. I thought that was it, but then his top teeth poked out of his mouth and sparse red hairs grew around his eyes.

I massaged my nubs. I supposed, he didn't get that much more than me. I had pointy ears and weird eyes from the start. I poked the cat. The transformation took a chapter about moles and seven attempts of covering "Thunderstruck" on violin. Tom just slept.

With a shrug, I got up. I went down the stream and a song about loose rocks and thorny bushed later I found a wider section of water. I picked out a yellow robe from my bag and threw my dirty clothes back inside.

As I suffered in the cold, stream water, I wondered if there were rune formations for cleaning spells and how dumb of an idea it would be to just enter the bag myself. Maybe once Tom woke up, I could ask him to withdraw me from it. The bees survived. I splashed the water.

This all was starting to feel tedious. Wake up, read books, wave mana around, kill some food, go to sleep. How many people just... gave up straining themselves for more power? A couple of months as a child, few years as an adult and you could be a mythical creature... but it was a daily effort. I sat up shaking my head.

Before me, stretched rolling hills covered in trees, as far as I could see. The clouds had multiple times more layers than they did on Earth. Here and there, streams reflected light. I chuckled.

"Motherfucker. The borderline non-magical view is this fucking good and I'm worrying about tedium. I don't hit my head on the walls nearly enough." With these words, I got out of the water and covered myself with fire. With shell over twenty, I began building up low resistance to magic and could just put the weak flames directly on my skin.

Once dry, I cosplayed a tiny Hastur and boosted a couple of times back to camp. I landed on the fur roll somewhat out of breath, but back in curious mood. I picked out a bunch of books about more magical creatures. I drew chimaeras made out of the parts of various monsters in my diary, checking the books for reference. I hummed nonsensical melodies and occasionally poked the kid, to check if he was waking up.

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I opened my eyes. Over my head, floated a mana bowl of water. I tried to roll to the side, but I found I was bound in furs. A yellow bundle, sitting on my chest stirred and turned its head towards me. A pair of green, mischievous eyes lit up. The water dropped on my face.

"Hello!! Had a nice nap?" Mads asked cheerfully. I nodded and whispered "Status."

Name: Tom Anand Age: 11 / 9 Race: Lesser Rakshasa/High Minor Giant Strength: 23(23) Talents Endurance: 24(24) H.Minor Giant You are strong and big. Mind: 21(21) Catkin A cat once tried to look like a human, it hated it. Soul: 20 Lesser Rakshasa You grow into a spirit of carnage and war. As a mere child, you can only cast minor illusions. Well: 21(21)   Shell: 22(22)

Well, I likely won't become a dragon now... but a spiritual race didn't sound half bad. I will have to send a letter, to brag to mom and dad. I will wait till I reached Academy though, otherwise, they will come to ea... I got taken out of my thoughts by the Devil poking my fangs.

"Let's go," Mads said and jumped off of me. She put her hands on her hips and stood, looking at me over her nose.

I rolled over and extracted myself from the furs...

"Oh!! You gotta pull me out!!" The girl yelled out, put her bag by my feet and crawled inside. She... Why?

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Inside the bag was extremely bright, so bright it hurt my eyes. I couldn't see anything. I waited and my hand got grabbed and I was pulled out. I felt myself slipping through everything I was wearing, then I was outside. I still couldn't see. I felt a tip of some glass bottle against my lips and drank. My sight returned.

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"Well, guess I won't get to do this once I grow up," I said and pulled out my clothes and protective bracelet. I dressed up and gave Tom a thumbs up. He was looking at the sky and didn't notice.

I shrugged and opened the bag wide - pointing it away from myself -, thinking about pulling the light out. Nothing happened, so I put just my head inside. It was dark. I guess the light got out but was too fast for me to see. I got slapped on the head.

"I have a limited supply of potions. Don't waste them." I got scolded by the cat. "No worries, I threw the light out." I puffed my chest in pride. Tom just shook his head.

"My head is not itchy anymore!! You will go in a bag if we find one with a bigger hole, too!!" I wasn't going to let my cat smell like a stray.

"We will get to town by midnight if we move now. I will shower there." Tom waved me off, picked me up and we were off... not.

"I'm still a little thin, carry the luggage." At my words, the kid turned around and spent five songs packing up. Once he was packed like a nice, kinda large mule, I got on his shoulders and now, we were off.

Rather than shove my nose in another book, I just enjoyed the sights. After we passed a larger hill, I saw the train tracks, leading deeper into the mountains. It got dark when we reached them and Tom run by them, till deep into the night.

At some point, the tracks veered off to the right, but the kid continued going straight into a valley. Within was a walled city, the tracks going around it. From the wall, extended a barely visible bubble, with some runes and magic circles reflecting lights in the air.

The sides of the valley, extended into tall mountains. Higher up, I could see eternal snow replacing trees. The valley itself was crisscrossed with various paths and trails. Tom was running on one of the wider ones, leading straight towards a gate, decorated with reliefs depicting stocky humanoids raising hammers towards a dragon.

By the gate, we got stopped by a tiny, very bearded dwarf. He was wearing a t-shirt with a print of something that looked like a metal bands name. His legs were covered by pyjama pants and he had soft flippers on his feet. His beard and hair were wild as if he just got out of bed.

"What are you youngsters doing, coming so damn late!!", gruff voice cam from around Tom's knees. "I will need to see your Titles, so put the little girl down."

I hopped off myself and looked closer at the dwarf's face. He had green and blue eyes, looking kinda like a gem swirling with some impurities. His hair seemed to have a slight tint of orange but was mostly just plain brown.

"Provide Status, Provide Status." The dwarf mumbled and two, blue blurs appeared before him. "Aight, no current criminal activity. Follow me."

The sleepyhead turned around and marched back, into an open space in the wall, next to the gate. When we entered, the wall closed itself and from inside at least, it looked like it's always been, just a wall.

The room had white walls and ceiling, to the right, was an open door leading into a bedroom and in front, another door, leading into the city I guessed. The room itself had no furniture or decorations.

"Alright kids, go through that door there. You will find a place to sleep on the main road." With those words, the dwarf entered the bedroom and shut the door.

I shrugged. "I will find us a place to sleep. You just lay on my mana panes, I'm rested by now." I informed Tom and he obliged without a word.

I walked out into a wide cobblestone street. All of the buildings had signs with pictures depicting various professions and store names over the windows. The place looked as if someone wanted to have a medieval city, without sacrificing too many modern conveniences. Seeing the various lamp-posts with mana lights, I wondered if Anastasia complained that Horace was a hipster, not the dragons.

From the top of the luggage pile, Tom mumbled, "Academy hotel in the square...". I nodded and slowly marched, avoiding drunks sitting by various bars and enjoying the scenery.

After two songs about the joys of intoxication, I reached the town square. It was about seven buildings across and beyond it, I could see some taller, ten-storey buildings. In the middle was a larger building with lots of columns on the ground floor, five stories tall overall. I looked around and in the far off corner on the other side of the square, on the left, was a building with a flag with the Academy symbol, red dragon mountain on black background.

I shuffled over, being a bit sleepy myself already.

I walked in through glass, revolving doors and was greeted by a priest holding and waving smart-phone arguing with some sort of lizard person, cleaning glasses behind a bar. From the right, I got called over by an androgynous, bald receptionist. The individual had really tall, pointy ears and was glancing with a tired look over to the priest.

"Don't worry about the man in the black robe, we get them every few months and they're harmless." the receptionist sang like a mountain stream and smiled kindly.

I walked up and boosted myself onto the white marble counter, where I sat down. "What sort of them?"

"Priests. This town is one of the focus points for the continent, for random portal transportations. We get exclusively Catholic priests from the twenty-first century, though." After those words, the receptionist sighed. It sounded like a morning over a lake. "Only three of them at that, always one of the three. This one cares more about his phone reception that hunting demons and devils at least."

The receptionist locked their eyes on my nubs. "I apologize, it's been a long day. How may I help you?"

"Sleep. A room for two and something to wash this stray over there." I said and pointed at Tom, floating behind me. I gave the receptionist my best smile.

"Of course. I will ask that you pay with your gains from the journey, rather than what money your parents gave you." The receptionist shuffled through the shelves under the desk, glanced over me and Tom, blue screens flashing over their eyes. I put my black cube on the table.

In exchange, I received a key, with the number "17" on it, as well as two gold and three silver coins. I put the coins in the pouch and the key on Tom. 

"Your room is on the first floor, have a nice stay." The receptionist trilled and pointed to the stairs, in the wall by the bar.

As I passed the priest I called out, "Mister priest, the devil is watching you." I gave him a long look and laughed. As I took my first step on the stairs, I heard the phone hit the floor and, "I need a drink."

The priest had a nice voice. Maybe I'd bully him more tomorrow.