When Faust’s influence originally began to corrupt the dragons, shortly after their births, the dragons fled to the far reaches of the world to protect the Illusian races from their newfound covetous desires. Many dragons returned to the world of men after mastering their urges, but many more did not. Some that disappeared had discovered a way to pierce the veil of the realm and hide in the void beyond. Those that did brought the Material Realm with them and pocket realms grew around them, even persisting long after their deaths. Most dragons who embarked on these endeavors are thought to have perished in battles against the denizens of the void.

-Pocket Realms, From Theory to Fact

—

“I think I can do it,” Kole said, after dropping the primal skill.

“Do you have a name for that?” Zale asked. “Something flashy, like… the invisilator.”

Everyone stared at Zale, surprised at her terrible naming ability—even Doug who thought Mouse was a totally reasonable name for a girl.

Zale considered it further after noticing the looks.

“You’re right,” she conceded. “He can already turn invisible, so it wouldn’t make sense.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem with it,” Rakin said.

“It’s kind of like a camouflage,” Doug noted. “It makes you hard to notice.”

“It more deflects attention,” Rakin corrected.

“Aura of unimportance?” Zale suggested.

“He doesn’t need a spell for that,” Rakin quipped and then fought to hold down his laughter.

“It’s like he kinda fades into the background,” Zale said, thoughtfully.

“He doesn’t need—“ Rakin began but Kole cut him off.

“I don’t think now is the time for this discussion,” Kole pointed out in a whisper.

When the group seemed to be sufficiently chastised, Kole went on.

“I think this will work, but we need to be quiet and stay low. I can divert attention to myself the distance, but it will take more Will to divert any attention to us all than it would for me alone.”

“I can separate undergrowth, make our passage quieter,” Doug suggested.

“I can make myself completely silent,” Zale also volunteered, though without her armor she was capable of moving very silently from her mother’s tutelage.

They quickly tested whether or not Doug and Zale’s magics would work while Kole’s was active, and they found only Doug’s worked, Zale’s reacting destructively with Kole’s and draining a chunk of both of their Will before dispelling the effect entirely.

“Sorry,” Zale apologized.

They then tested Rakin’s primal abilities, just to see if it was a Blessing vs primal thing, but found his worked okay.

“Voidyness,” Zale said, again apologetically.

They discussed briefly how best to manage this and decided Doug would walk in front to clear the ground, with Kole following behind holding his shoulder. Zale and Rakin would follow, hands on Kole’s back to keep contact.

“I don’t think I can divert all the attention of the horse things when we get close. A few owls are easy—probably—but a whole herd is another matter.”

“I can calm them,” Doug said confidently. “They’re alien, but they are still connected to Assuine. If we can get among them, the owls won’t see us.”

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“Well, let’s give it a shot,” Zale said cheerfully. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“We get trampled by six-legged horse?” Kole suggested.

At the same time, Doug said, “We could get expelled.”

“Oh, we’ll be fine,” Zale said, waving away their concerns. “Mom’s never going to let someone get expelled for sneaking around. It’s kinda her thing.”

“What about the trampling?” Kole asked.

All eyes turned to Doug.

“They wouldn’t do that,” he said, with confidence, but then looked back at the strange creatures. “Probably…”

***

It all went surprisingly well.

Doug parted the brambles, and they all scurried forward.

Kole watched the grass and undergrowth part around them, still amazed at Doug’s abilities. The plants all sprung back up behind them as if nothing had occurred. Doug’s control over the plants didn’t last long, and it was only because they huddled so close that they could all fit inside the area of the spell.

As they scurried, Kole focused on his ability and the idea that they were all a group, waiting for any sign of attention. Once they were out in the open, he sensed a weak presence and allowed the Will to drain from him as the stimuli that alerted the owl faded. The effort had been harder than usual, but manageable.

“Fade!” Kole said excitedly, then bit it back.

“That’s a good name” Zale whispered from behind.

While happy to have settled on a name, Kole’s esteem for Zale’s naming judgment had gone down a bit and her approval actually made him rethink it briefly.

As they passed through the open, he struggled with the effort of deflecting the owls’ attention on such a large group. The horse creatures were asleep, and if not for that, Kole doubted he would have been able to maintain the Fade.

“I’m running out of Will,” Kole said when they were still twenty feet from the herd.

“Drop down,” Doug commanded.

Everyone fell to the dirt, and Kole let go of the ability.

Instead of flatting the grass around them, now it rose above them, slowly shifting to conceal them from view.

“The herd should block the most of the owls’ view now,” Doug said as he crawled forward on his belly. Everyone followed.

As he crawled, Kole was glad he’d placed a new order for clothes. He was wearing his best outfit—a relative term—and this excursion would see them soiled and torn.

When he got a few paces from the herd, Doug jumped up from hiding and whispered something soothing to the sleeping animals. The nearest scaled beast opened its eyes, and immediately found Doug, but didn’t react with alarm.

Doug approached and began to gently pat it as he spoke to it. The rest of them remained in the grass, watching Doug interact with the herd. The animals had six legs and scales, as Kole had noticed before, but up close he saw their heads looked more like a lizard’s than a horse’s, though the features were rounded and distinctly lacked the hallmarks of dragon heritage such as sharp bone structures with horns jutting from the ridges. Their feet were clawed, and they had long scaled tails that whipped around like an excited dog upon Doug’s arrival.

“What do we call them? They are horses with six legs.” Zale whispered to Rakin and Kole. “Sexahorses? Sexaquines?”

“Maybe we don’t focus on the six aspect,” Kole suggested and Rakin snickered, unable to contain his laughter.

“Fine,” Zale said, in a tone that would have been accompanied with crossed arms if she wasn’t lying in the dirt. “You think of something.”

“I don’t know…” Kole said, thinking. “Reptiquines? Scalequines?”

“Ooo, those are good,” Zale said. “Way better than mine. You’re good at this naming thing.”

Despite his assessment before that Zale’s judgment on naming was suspect, that compliment struck home and he felt a small sense of pride.

Doug came back to the group, the scalequines as Kole mentally dubbed them having gone back to sleep.

“They frighten easily,” he explained. “We should go and talk in the woods.”

“Umm…” Kole began, embarrassed. “How do we get back? I’m out of Will.”

***

Twenty minutes later, Kole and his friends lay in the forest, worn out and filthy from the long and cramped crawl back through the field. Staying in Doug’s area of affected grass had been difficult, making the already strenuous effort miserable.

“The creatures,” Doug began.

“Scalequines,” Zale interrupted.

“The scalequines,” Doug said, giving the name a smile of approval, “are all lost and confused. They are from a more arid place, and have never seen creatures like us before.”

“Humans? Demonkin? Elves?” Kole asked, trying to capture what he meant by ‘”us.”

“They didn’t explain it well, but they thought we were some weird half-formed` versions of the bipedals they were used to, but animals don’t have the best vocabulary at best, and Assuine’s power wasn’t as effective at granting these beasts intelligence for communication as it ought to have been.”

“So they are from some other world?” Zale asked, eyes wide.

“It seems so,” Doug affirmed.

They discussed it more as they walked back to the great oak in the Glade.

“So,” Kole said summarizing, “the goblin-rats—“

“Rat-goblins” Zale corrected.

“No, it was goblin-rats,” Rakin said, correcting her correction.

“The goblin-rats,” Kole began again, not at all certain goblin-rats had been the earlier agreed-upon name. “The ice people and the fish things were all kinda like stuff we recognize, but different, just like the scalequines. The scalequines are from a different place—realm world?—but is it the same one?”

“Good questions,” Zale said, “We—“

“We should ask your uncle,” the three boys said in unison cutting her off.

Even in the dim light, Kole could see Zale’s undisguised face darken in embarrassment.