While Cat explored with her new mana spirit, which Cal could still hardly believe had manifested so quickly, he returned to Sarah, where the dogs were now gathered with Twonger and Serilina.
“Alright, so there are six of us. We need six volunteers for the next round of testing. So why don’t you kids each pick a partner, first come, first serve, and everyone else gets some more food with Sarah, okay?” Cal said smiling to the kids still at the makeshift picnic. Surprisingly one of the boys instantly ran to Twonger while the rest of the kids were debating between each other. He would have expected one of the dogs to get the first pick.
One of the smallest of the children walked up the Bug slowly. “Hi, Miss Bug. Will you help me?” He asked.
“Yep, I help all my friends. So come on, Matt. Follow me, and we can go find a nice place to work,” She said furiously, wagging her tail as she walked off, leading Matt. Twonger and his student followed them. Cal could not remember what that kid’s name was and made a mental note to check with Twonger later.
The pairing off continued as two girls picked the remaining dogs, Sasha with Gretel and Kate with Alfred. One of the older boys, Dennis, picked Serilina, and finally, Cal was chosen by a kid he recognized as Chuck.
“So, do I get a dog like Cat?” Chuck asked as they walked back towards where Cal had just finished with Cat.
“I don’t know, your mana spirit is pretty unique towards you. Honestly, I didn’t even know they could be like Cat’s until she manifested hers. None of mine took animal shapes, and I know a capybara that has one that looks like a mushroom,” Cal answered. Whatever the mana spirit wanted to be was fine with him, and if it managed to as quickly as Cat’s had that would be amazing too.
Cal, of course, did not get so lucky a second time, as they spent the next eight hours slowly coaxing something to take shape. Chuck had told Cal over and over he could feel a presence just a little outside his full awareness, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t bring it into focus.
“Let’s try something a little different. I want you to eat a piece of this fruit and see if that helps at all,” Cal said, offering Chuck a small piece of mana fruit, which Chuck grabbed and ate quickly.
“Oh, that was great, is there any more?” He asked after finishing it.
“There is, but it’s dangerous to eat too much. Trust me, I made that mistake. Not quite sure I’m fully human anymore after the stunt either, best not to push it anytime soon. But now that you’ve got that energy going through, you try to reach for that presence again, call for it in your head,” Cal said. He wasn’t sure of his idea, but it seemed like it couldn’t hurt to try.
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“Oh, huh, really? How does that work?” Chuck asked a figure that Cal couldn’t see. Cal just smiled.
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Bug wasn’t entirely sure how to help someone manifest a mana spirit; the way she and the dogs had gotten their abilities was a very different thing, but if Cal needed her help to help these kids, there was no way she wouldn’t at least try. Her way of trying was various different than Cal’s. She currently had Matt running around the grove, playing tag with her.
“Come on, Matt, if you wanna catch me, you’re going to have to get the help of the mana spirit within you. I bet if you keep asking, they will help. You just gotta find the right words,” She said as she darted between trees, making sure he was still having fun with the chase. The smile on his face made her believe he was.
This game repeated over and over for an hour before Matt collapsed laughing in the grass. “Miss Bug, I think I need a break. Can we take one?” he asked.
“Yep, in fact, why don’t you try seeing if you can hear that voice now that we got through all the exercise? I’ll see what I can do to help,” Bug said, joining Matt where he was resting.
“Okay!” Matt said enthusiastically.
Bug began to tap the ground with her front foot, trying to keep it in sync with her tail. She thought to herself about needing the smelling capabilities of all the previous paladins if she was going to pull this off and felt a force rush into her. She took a deep breath, carefully working through all the scents until she was sure she had the whole of Matt. Then she started to breakdown everything she could smell about him and compared it to before Cal had a mana spirit. There it was, a small scent, deeply layered under the rest, almost impossible to find. She doubted she would have been able to if they hadn’t had him tire himself out first.
The real reason behind the running was so that she could get a good feel for his own energy before she tried this. She needed to be sure she could fully understand the difference before trying to poke a mana spirit herself, and if Matt hadn’t been so young, she’d probably not have gone this route at all. She was worried the spirit wouldn’t be thrilled with the intrusion, but they’d see.
“Hey Matt, can you smell the odd pineapple smell?” She asked, trying to point him towards her discovery.
“Yeah, why does it smell like pineapple?” He asked back.
“It’s not really pineapple. I made the smell easier to detect this way. It’s your mana spirit, so try reaching out to them again,” Bug instructed.
“Uh, okay,” Matt said, sounding a bit hesitant this time. Before he could say anything, a multi-colored mana spirit popped into view between them. It looked like a starfish floating in midair. Each of its arms was a different color.
“That felt strange, why can I feel both of you? I don’t think that’s how this is supposed to work,” the spirit said, and Bug realized that she had made a mistake. Hopefully, it wasn’t a big one.