“She thinks she can outmaneuver me. The nerve of that woman.” Len snarled. “I thought she knew me better. Assuming I’ve not prepared for such a scenario. Pah.”

Literal smoke poured out of Len’s ears as he rummaged around the small pouch on his side. I’d have loved to make some joke about Saturday morning cartoons, but, as I saw it, there were two good reasons not to make light of the current situation. One, he would not appreciate nor understand the joke, and two, I like my skin unburnt. Len was pissed and clearly in no mood for any type of humor. And I’d never seen him talk to himself like this which I took to mean it was serious time.

Len pulled out three normal sized books from the impossibly small pouch. A pouch that in no way shape or form could ever hold even one of these notebooks.

“Wha, but how?” I stammered, fully taken aback by the mind melting display that just happened in front of me.

“Abyss-touched pigskin. Now Hush!” Len said, preemptively dismissing my astonishment.

But…Tardis bag…Bag of holding. I have so many questions, comments, and concerns. And what was that about abyss pigs? My mind whirled as Len flipped through the first journal. I’ve played so many games and watched so many shows and movies that had the whole it's bigger on the inside trope, but actually seeing it before my own eyes utterly blew me away. But I guess it did fill in some gaps about how he kept pulling crap out from nowhere.

I turned back to look at the twin’s reaction, surely I wasn’t the only one surprised by this. Both of the twin’s eyes sparkled as they looked at the books and Len's fancy dimensional pig pouch. Unbridled adoration as per usual with this lot. Suppressing the rising urge to roll my eyes and sigh as loudly as possible at Len’s fangirls, I shook my head and turned back, only for Len to shove one of the journals at me.

“Search for plan BG17.” He said without taking his eyes off his own journal for even a moment. He threw another two books at his newfound devotees. “You two, find plans HE15 and JT07.”

“Yes Sir!” They replied in unison, dropping back into the wagon.

“Umm. Could you repeat that?” I asked.

“BG17.”

“Right. Uh, okay then.” I said whilst opening the leather bound journal. Wow, the first book I’ve opened in this world. How exciting! Then a twinge of guilt and embarrassment passed by. Man that’s kind of sad isn’t it. I could have probably answered a lot of my own questions about Kniyas if I bothered to find books. Whatever.

I shook the silly feeling away; I’d always wanted to know what Len had been writing all this time and this was my chance. I examined the text, then rubbed my eyes for a moment. The Kniyan alphabet was a strange set of squiggly lines and circles. Lots of circles, circles inside of circles, circles overlapping, circles with lines above, underneath and struck through. Hell, English’s letter “E” was just straight up a small Venn diagram in the Kniyan alphabet. And it was just as common in Kniyan as the vowel was in English, so there were more than a few tiny Venn diagrams covering this notebook. Which didn't help its readability.

However, thanks to Tutor’s help all those months ago, it made perfect sense. But it still tickled my brain. Add in the fact that I hadn’t read damn near anything but a training note and food cart menus in the last month and you get a very out of practice reader. And Len wasn’t the best penmen either. Not that I actually know what good penmanship looks like here.

“Plan BG13. Raid Tactics: In case of catastrophic— Bah.” A strong gust of wind blew by and ruffled the pages of my book. “Dang it.” I turned to Len to see if he was having the same issue, only to find the man in full concentration mode. His gaze fully locked in on the notebook in front of him. His eyes darted across each page for all thirty seconds then he flipped to the next and repeated the process. A small bug flew next to his face and was immediately incinerated when it touched his skin, leaving behind nothing but a small puff of smoke. Len's fun automatic defense mechanism. Scary.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Now slightly annoyed with myself and jealous of that level of concentration, I crawled back into the wagon to escape the wind's chaos. The twins sat diligently and scanned through their respective texts.

Len’s notebooks were filled from margin to margin with nothing but plans. In depth and elaborate plans on a number of scenarios, some more rational than others. Each plan got its own ten or so pages.

BG14 - RAID TACTICS: In the Event of Jaren’s Death. Okay that’s dark. Next.

BG15 - RAID TACTICS: In the Event Daila is sick. Hmm, no death for Daila, only Jaren huh. Seems kind of mean.

BG16- RAID TACTICS: In the Event Liam grows wings. Hey, that's one I can get behind. I couldn’t stop myself from peeking through the exciting plan. “Step one, have Liam become more accustomed to the disconcerting nature of omnidirectional movement with a steady course of…” I read to myself, stopping just before I threw the book across the wagon after reading the exercise routine.

“Flying Burpees. Are you shitting me?! How does that even work?” I exclaimed.

“Seventeen! Not sixteen!” Len yelled from his seat.

The twins snickered at me. I stuck my tongue out at them. An apt retort if I do say so myself.

BG17 - RAID TACTICS: In the Event Lirae steals Liam’s raid squad. “Wait, what? She can do that?” I asked.

“Yes, now hand me the book. Tawny, have you found HE15?” Len asked, sticking his hand into the wagon.

“Yep. Surrogate Squad Members for Liam Part 8: Elemental Mages.”

Okay wow, that's specific. I looked up at the flame mage. Just how much planning has he done. And how much am I involved in it?

“And Hait, how about you?”

“Got it. JT07, Fifth Legion Squad Creation Protocols: Sub-Five Recruits.” The boy’s eyes went wide as he comprehended the words that just came out of his mouth. “Oh...my...Laurel. Does that mean?”

Len hopped into the wagon, joining us. “Yes. Welcome to the first Fifth Legion Squad ever created. Code named: L7.”

Quiet squealing was the only sound that escaped from the twins’ lips. Hait had to prop his sister up from falling over from the sheer shock. I wasn’t all that surprised by the news. I always wondered why I wasn’t joining Len’s squad in the first place.

“We’ll be another twenty minutes.” Gerre announced from the front.

“Good. we’ll need it. First off, I need a comprehensive list of every ability you each have. Quickly, those twenty minutes are going to fly by.” Len said, turning toward the young mages.

"Umm, uh...Water. I, um use, water." Hait barely whispered the final word, far too nervous. Tawny, still completely starstruck, didn't seem to even hear the new directive.

Len rubbed his forehead. "Oh boy."

The next five minutes were used to bring Tawny back from the land of the crazy. Though neither were quite in any shape to actually talk about their abilities. Len just asked for their Character Sheets. He gave me access as well.

Neither twin had many abilities. Hait had a basic Water manipulation power appropriately named Aqua Manipulation which let him move a certain amount of water however he pleased. The amount depended on his level. Right now he could move about twenty pounds, a not insignificant amount. Len said it was nearly the same as his flame manipulation ability Which just made me wonder how his limit was measured. Pounds of flames? Surface area? Didn't matter right now. His other ability was Shell Shield, the shield he used to block Tawny's Electric Arc, the blast she sent at me earlier today when she wanted to show off.

Tawny didn't have a manipulation power like her brother. Just harnessing electricity was spectacular enough in my book. Len told her that a manipulation ability might come later. Electricity's erratic nature made it difficult to do so without a physical conduit according to Len. The twins lamented that they knew about it already and just couldn't afford one. Elemental monsters were rare enough in the Forest, let alone lightning attuned ones.

Conduit. Conduit. That word hung in my head for a moment while Tawny described her other ability. Then an image of a blue arcing feather popped into my head. The feather! That would probably be exactly what they are looking for. I almost said something, until I remembered where it was. Back in my lovely cave. If it hadn't been stolen or destroyed. Miss that feather.

"Arriving outside the gate now Sir." Gerre spoke up from his seat.

Len was right: those twenty minutes did fly by.