My mother moved her chair and stood up. “I’ll get to work,” She said.

At the same time, Elira walked over to her and hugged her. I felt slightly saddened at the scene before me. Part of me yearned to be that innocent child, to be unburdened again.

My mother bent over and kissed the girl on her forehead. “Welcome home, sweetie. We’ll have dinner early tonight. Kealyna and Cellestra will be staying for it.”

My father finally sat down and his head followed Elira’s erratic movements closely. The elven girl darted to Cellestra and then to Shadow who had fallen asleep on my back, far too comfortably, no doubt.

“I’m sure you won’t get bored,” My mother said before disappearing inside.

Elira didn’t even react to it. She was too occupied looking literally everywhere when it came to my body. I imagined having four sets of eyes on her would have helped quite a bit. After petting Shadow awake, she started feeling the hairs on my back and then ran her hands through them, her mouth open in excitement.

My father gave me a look that said something like should I tell her to stop? and was about to make his voice heard, but I shook my head. “It’s fine.”

“So soft!” Elira let out once more. “Do you make webs too?”

“I can, yes,” I replied. “Look,” I said as I held up a hand and grabbed her attention. Once I had it, I shot out a line of thread that connected to some of the pebbles on the ground.

“Woah!” She let out again. “So cool!”

“Be careful,” I said, grinning. “It’s sticky.”

I took the silk in my hands and reeled in until I had it in a ball with some of the gravel before summoning fire to incinerate it. As expected, that made the little girl squeal with delight as well.

“Magic is so cool. I want to learn magic too!” She said in elation. In reaction to that, I saw my father’s smile disappear as he looked down at the table and turned his head away so that I couldn’t see his face anymore.

I ignored it for now, but I wanted to ask him later why he did that.

Elira’s attention span was short-lived. She ran back to Shadow and started petting him, evoking soft purrs that I felt in my body.

“You wanna go for a ride?” I asked, causing Elira to cock her head. I lowered myself to the ground and lifted her up with my legs before placing her on my back where Cellestra usually sat. Her little legs made it harder to straddle me but we managed. She seemed to grasp what I said and took hold of my hair as I stood up. I then started skittering around, taking things slowly at first.

“You know,” I said. “This is how Cellestra and I got here. We traveled many miles to get here.”

“This is awesome!” She said with a cheer.

I could see Cellestra giggle at the sight as well.

“You ready to speed things up a bit?” I asked, making sure to check on how Shadow was doing as well. He didn’t seem at all bothered by the movement around him.

Elira nodded slowly.

“Hold on tight.”

I sped up and started running along the edge of the field, away from the buildings. I planned to circle this one field and then get back. I watched with glee as the young elven girl, and the cat both, looked at the world passing them by on both sides. I could tell she was more than enjoying this.

A few minutes later, we’d circled the entire field and arrived back at the servant’s house. Once in the gravel, I lowered myself and carefully put the girl back on the ground.

“That was so cool!” She said, exhilarated. “You’re amazing!”

“You sound like you had fun,” My father casually mentioned.

“I had! Kealyna is the best sister ever!” She let out as she ran towards my father and hugged him. I smiled as I was flattered by the girl. At the same time, I felt odd to have that said about me. I was a sister now to somebody, and apparently, I was doing a good job at it.

“You didn’t wear yourself out too much, did you?” Cellestra asked, not entirely serious. I could hear it in her voice.

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“I don’t think she can wear me out. I think she will wear herself out with how she is.”

“She does look like quite a handful.”

I nodded as I watched her looking at a gray cat that had made its presence known and was now staring at me from afar. Elira didn’t wait long before she walked to the cat and petted it.

I giggled. “Curious and active.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me if she collapses in an hour or so,” Keelarin said. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen her like this, though. Tell me if it’s too much.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “In fact, I’m happy this is the reaction I got.”

We watched Elira play with a few other cats that had joined to watch me from afar. The gray one had approached one of my legs before touching it with a paw, and had then backed off to a safe distance — which was about twenty yards, it seemed.

A while later, the door opened, and with it, a wonderful smell followed. Even though I wasn’t hungry, I’d love to have some of whatever the source of that scent was. My father beckoned Elira over who seemed to be too occupied to even care about dinner at the moment.

Dinner was a simple oven dish with, unsurprisingly, plenty of potatoes and tomatoes mixed in. I didn’t eat any at first but waited until the others were finished before savoring whatever was left over. Despite my hesitancy at first, I was glad I had some. It reminded me of easier times…

I would have loved to stay longer. But after all that, it was time to say goodbye for the time being. Elira clung to one of my legs, not wanting to see us leave.

“It’s okay,” I said to her as I used one of my other legs to pat her head. “We’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Promise?” She asked.

“I promise. We’ll need to do a few things. I think we’ll be back when you’re done with school.”

She nodded before speaking softly. “Okay.”

There was still the thing I wanted to ask my father, but I thought it would be better to ask him in private. Hopefully, we could get our business done quickly tomorrow and come here a bit early. I imagined that should be possible unless things in the city took longer than I expected them to.

Before we left, my mother gave us some fresh bread and a pouch with tea leaves which left me chuckling. It seemed she’d caught on to Cellestra and her morning habits from our earlier conversation. She had also offered to lend me some clothes, but I’d politely declined that, as I felt no real need to get anything beyond what I could make myself. Besides, I would love to get some extra practice making more. I was currently still wearing an incredibly crude silken top which I’d have to throw out anyway.

I would take a long-awaited shower tomorrow morning…

“Your family seems nice,” Cellestra said as we walked towards the shrines, she was on my back as usual.

I nodded. “I’m so happy they are okay. Seeing them again… there are no words to describe it.”

“I’m happy for you,” She said warmly. “Elira is a sweet girl too, isn’t she?”

“Very much so. Did you see her face when she was in the position you’re in now?” I smiled. “It was adorable. Did you see my father’s face when she said something about wanting to learn magic, though?”

“I saw, yes. Any idea what that was about?”

“I don’t. I want to ask him about that tomorrow. I hope things are okay…”

Cellestra remained quiet as we passed the shrines and entered the forest beyond it. We continued for a few minutes before I came to a halt in an area with four trees that formed a square; something which would be ideal for the type of shelter I could make.

“Think we are far enough out here?” I asked.

“Well, so far I haven’t seen anything that could pose a threat to anyone. If what we’ve been told is right, we should be okay here.”

I nodded. “Let’s get to work, then. I’m thinking…” I looked around the dirt-covered area and the square in my mind that had sides that were about twenty yards each. I sighed. “This is going to be quite a lot more work than before, isn’t it?”

I lowered myself and Cellestra stepped off, looking around. “What did you have in mind?”