It was two hours after nightfall, the sky dark and cloudy. There might be rain tonight. I had planned to go to the ocelot’s node and find a suitable mana crystal for my purposes but the potential of rain made me reconsider. I really did not like water. Though my metal form could deal with it much better.

Once again, as I was planning to shift, I was interrupted. The cat jumped onto the edge of my tree and growled. She was not pleased. In her mouth, she held a familiar pointed stick. One of her trap’s spears. Uh oh. Had she found me going into her home? But I had [Sneak] masking my scent, right? I decided to play it slow. I blinked at her and tilted my head with a hoot. She dropped the stick and glared at me. I picked it up with a tendril of shadows and inspected it more closely. The wood had been straightened with something sharp and cut to a point at the tip. At the bottom, it was carved into a cone with two slits going up the sides. To my magical senses, nothing notable appeared about it.

Looking back at the cat, she was scanning the surroundings and listening for something. I got her attention with a hoot and drew a question mark into the ground. Then I pointed at her and my home in general. She tilted her head. That did not get across, huh? We really needed to figure out better communication. I pointed at the Thaumonomicon still standing propped up behind me. The ocelot let out a quiet meow, almost a sigh, and nodded. Then she jumped into my home and opened up the book.

This time, the scrambling of letters was far less pronounced already. I still watched and focused to get English writing onto the page. We spent maybe half an hour like this before my student gave up. She looked at me and mewled in pain. This time it seemed more of a complaint than actual discomfort. She was getting used to it, huh? Then she started to turn a page but I stopped her with a wing. As she looked at me I shook my head and closed the book. We should take a break.

I pointed at my almost empty stash of food and moved half of it to her. We had a snack and quickly decided to go on a hunt. Though this time it would be a first for both of us. Hunting together. Well, I somewhat hunted with the goblins in the monkey cave but that did not really count. I was more taught there than being an equal. I was interested in the ocelot’s process of hunting. I had already seen her using traps but that could not be all she did, right?

Soon, we were on our way. I had trouble keeping up once again, this time more owed to her stealthiness. She blended into the surroundings almost like a chameleon. Every step sounded like the wind rustling the leaves or was completely silent. Most impressive was that she did not use any magic at all. Was she unable to, or was she making sure I could still follow?

After getting some distance from my roost, we stopped on an inconspicuous branch. I looked around but had trouble finding why we were here until my magic senses spotted trap mana a few metres into the trees. So she really did set them with magic. Once I spotted the trap, my fellow huntress gave me a nod and made to move again. This time, I held her back and took the lead. I had heard movement maybe two dozen metres behind us. It was loud enough to be decent prey. As we arrived, a ferret just slipped beneath a bush.

I signalled my company to stay back and spread my wings. Circling once, I dove at my prey right when it left the safety of cover and killed it before it even realized it was in danger. When I returned to the branch, catch in talons, I preened smugly under my friend's attention. She looked slightly impressed, but quickly hid it and demanded a share of the food. Generous as I was, I obviously shared. The ferret was too large to swallow whole anyways. Although, with my increase in size it was almost possible.

I got us another snack before we returned to my roost for more studying. After two more sessions, I barely had to focus on keeping the correct language for my student. The headache though did not disappear. I hoped she was not getting warped. I was only letting her read the introduction, so it should not be a problem, but it might be good to take a few more breaks at least.

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This went on for another two nights, the ocelot coming over soon after nightfall. Our shared hunts started with checking some of her traps and if they were empty we would catch something fresh from the floor. I had the pleasure of watching my fellow huntress turn into a flowing streak of fur and fury inescapable by all but the fastest prey. She was having a little more trouble with this kind of hunting than me which I attributed to my wings and her being drawn to traps. That did not mean she was bad at it, just not as good as me. The added verticality I could utilize was just that useful.

Even if she wanted to jump down from a tree, she had far less control over her descent and the branch always gave away her position because of the movement. She was far better with a true ambush, where her prey walked right up to her without noticing the danger. I was convinced by now she had some kind of [Camouflage] Skill, though I still failed to notice anything magical about it. She also refrained from using poison for my sake, which I was grateful for.

This night, I wanted to try something new. Instead of having the Thaumonomicon ready, I decided to try writing with her. Maybe she was ready.

As the ocelot stepped up, she tilted her head quizzically. I greeted her with a hoot and pointed at the ground in front of my roost. I had written down a few words in greeting.

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Hello. I am Fio. This is my home. Do you want to be friends?

My writing was simple lines in the dirt, much different from the magical nature of the Thaumonomicon. I really hoped she would be able to read this. But she showed only confusion. The letters drew her closer and she started sniffing around but I felt she did not understand them without the magical assistance of my tome. She started drawing her own shapes next to it.

? I am ? This is ? ? Do you ? ? ? ?

So, she only understood some very basic words. Then she started drawing the first line of the Thaumonomicon into the dirt.

Those of weak mind, turn away.

She pointedly looked at me. I sighed and produced the book once more. This time, I would let her read whatever she wanted. She was capable of holding it at English and with more words to read she would hopefully pick up the language.

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The next night, I visited her home for the first time since she had shown it to me. I wanted to get started on my memory bracelet. Hopefully, she was no longer too angry about the invasion of her home. It would still take a long time for my student to pick up the language. I figured she was not stupid, just the opposite. It was just very difficult to grasp a language formed from words without hearing someone speak it or having come in contact with the concept before.

As I stood next to the pond looking for a suitable crystal, the ocelot shot out of the water, nearly tackling me. I jumped back in surprise, flapping my wings and only stopping my ascent when I noticed her let out a wheezing chuckle. It sounded weirdly human, despite everything. I returned her mischief with a glare and unceremoniously dropped the Thaumonomicon in front of her before turning back to the crystals.

There were a lot of raw gems glowing with power, some more than others. They had different sizes and shapes, though most grew to resemble a spike. A few here and there had been broken off in parts or were a little drained, those I quickly excluded from my considerations. Others were simply too large to fit my purpose. It did not take long to find the first potential candidate, and, once I had one, others caught my eye all over the place. There was a lot of suitable material here. Too bad I only had so little gold and thaumium with me. I could have created a lot of magical devices with this lot.

The ones I found suitable were all pure water mana or had a little bit of destruction within. The difference was so slight, I could never have noticed it without my specialized senses. All the crystals with trap mana in them were excluded immediately. I did not want to trap my thoughts anywhere. At least not for this first attempt. Maybe the future would bring a use for them.

I carefully started to extract the first crystal. The ones near the monkey cave had pushed their mana into my body as soon as I touched them. These were not much different. Though the energy dissipated before getting close to my inner gate, or rather, my Beast Core surrounding it. Instead, the mana just turned into flux. That meant I needed to be fast and careful when handling them. Or I had to find a different method, one that did not require me to touch them with my body. Looking around I spotted a few large leaves not far from the clearing. They were exceptionally thick and picking one up let me confirm I could wrap the crystal with it and handle the whole thing without wasting any mana.

I got to work picking up a few suitable candidates for use. A total of seven crystals lay out in front of me, the first one immediately discarded since I had already drained some energy from it. The other six would still be useful until a curious cat picked one up and sat on it with her front paws. The object in question was drained slowly but steadily as I watched the mana and flux accumulate in the cat’s body. I quickly got distracted from my original purpose and watched how she guided the water mana into a careful flow along her fur, barely losing any of it to flux. Then, she collapsed on herself and a puddle of water quickly flowed down into the pond.

I stared. This was not at all within expectation. Was this the extent of her movement Skill?

The confirmation came in form of a spout of water shooting into my chest and throwing me on my back. The wet between my feathers collected on top of me and I quickly found myself pinned to the ground by 15 kilos of cat. She grinned at me with a ferocious smile, before her paws suddenly met ground, sinking into half a centimetre of liquid darkness. I haughtily hooted from behind her and after enjoying the incredulous stare of my feline friend, went back to work. Hopefully, I would be spared further interruptions.