After formulating a rough plan, Daughter of Whisper went home. She would pretend that Sirius no longer wants to hang out with her, due to work from the elders. He is yet to get said work, but some discrepancies will be easy to miss in big picture. They will enter the city at different times to avoid suspicion, and Sirius will visit the hall to receive errands, but at night they will meet up in his home and train together.
Sirius stood outside his house, watching Daughter of Whisper disappear behind the bend of the road. He lifted his face and looked at the clear summer sky in deep thought. They found a possible way to save her life, but people from Crimson Crusade were still somewhere in the city, lurking, plotting. Sirius had no way to fish them out without endangering himself. At this point he decided to utilise regular visits to Elders' hall to convene with Calmness of Storm privately. When opportunity arises, he will ask for advice.
Sirius sighed and turned around, facing the source of the sound of rocks grinding together. He was unsurprised, as he saw the rockhogs munching at the corners of his little hut. He rolled his eyes and walked towards the beast. At closer inspection he found Seth, who was sprawled on its back, sunbathing.
"Seth, there you are," said Sirius and connected to snake's mind. Some images of its dream flashed in his head, but he shook them off and transmitted the words Wake up.
Hunt.
No hunt. Wake. Sirius carefully measured the amount of thoughts so as not to overwhelm the snake.
Seth woke up, happy to see his owner and shot to Sirius, coiling around his neck.
"Buddy, you are the one who disappears from time to time."
Hunts. Mice.
"You grew a little. Is there so much food here?"
Yes.
Sirius smiled and turned to the rockhog that didn't stop carving a hole in the structural wall. With a frown he put his hand on the beast and connected to its mind, carefully overlapping the mana together. As their minds synchronised, he felt the immense emptiness.
Hello? Sirius transmitted, but his words echoed in the emptiness, confusing him.
f-f-f-o-o-o-o-o-d-d... responded slow breeze of thoughts, only noticeable due to the overall stillness.
Sirius looked at the beast. It was huge and built like a wide pig, covered in rocky hide. Rows of horns crowned its head and gave a lizard-like appearance. He tried pushing it away, but his efforts were in vain. After surveying the rockhog from the sides, he noticed a deep crack on the side with a golden vein running in parallel and sighed. It was Cobble, one of the slowest beasts that came to his house to feed. While others noticed his shouts and waves of his staff early on and ran away, this particular boulder only moved when someone else bumped into him. In despair Sirius climbed on top and watched his house slowly disappear in the bottomless maw of this magical animal.
He slapped the animal from time to time with his staff, watching the rocky giant completely ignore his attempts at herding. He learnt the hard way that this loaf of a rockhog is an unstoppable force, when the Cobble went right through the wall of his hut, driven by the tasty mana crystals he left on a table. Since then Sirius only stored his materials in mana-insulated chest or pouch, lined with lead plates. As he thought about the ways to chase Cobble away, one bright idea made Sirius hopeful.
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Sirius climbed down and went to the edge of a scribbled diagram. He pulled out some remaining rocks from deep below and sorted mana-responsive pebbles from the inert ones. From his pouch he pulled out a single accumulation mana crystal he was willing to sacrifice to save his house. With his mind he created a thick shell made of mana around the rocks. The shell should be able to withstand the huge internal pressure he was about to create. After a quick round of checks he took a deep breath and began channeling mana from inside a small pea-sized crystal into the orb full of rocks. He felt some resistance, as if the crystal was unwilling to give away its energy, but Sirius' will prevailed and he felt the crystal shrink in his grasp. With his body as a conduit and a pump he pushed more and more energy in the chamber, stopping from time to time to let the shell stabilise.
He increased the pressure until he saw the air sparkle with tiny crystals. Under his gaze rocks vibrated and popped, jumping from the pile. They were mana-responsive due to metals or crystals, but Sirius could bet on the latter. He saw some pebbles heat up and crack, small shrapnel hitting the dense shell and sending waves across. A couple of minutes later Sirius began noticing the rocks sparkle with small deep-violet particles. He smiled with satisfaction, but didn't dare to stop the process. Even if he underestimated the amount of mana needed, he still could pull it from outside, and he did. His eyes flashed with golden light every now and then, surveying the situation in both material and astral worlds. He felt the crystals enlarge under his influence, and now he was interested how far can he take them.
Heavy thuds disturbed his control. Cobble lost interest in his house and was sniffing the air in search for a more tasty meal. Sirius had no time left. That empty-headed rockhog will without a doubt go through him and if the shell is not deconstructed carefully the mana inside will level the surrounding area, leaving only a smoking crater. Therefore, Sirius stopped pushing mana inside and carefully drained the internal pressure. Rocks once again began violently vibrating, releasing the densely-packed mana into the orb. Sirius' face lost its colour. The rocks were filling the shell with mana at the same rate he drained it. If things will go like this, he won't manage to remove it in time, the rockhog have already turned its blank gaze in his direction. Sirius' mind raced to find a solution. He could try and control the violent mana inside a shell, but that would take all his focus and he risked destabilising the containing orb. Furthermore the crystals, which turned out to be more unstable than the naturally formed, were vaporising on his eyes and didn't intend to stop doing so. Sirius was pushing mana over the course of several minutes and now he had less than half a minute to prevent the explosion.
Sirius dreadfully watched the rockhog approach him step by step, while the shell continuously released the mana. He steeled his nerves and did what he avoided for so long - began expanding the sphere. The increase in the volume would reduce the pressure and make the most unstable crystals explode, leaving behind those who could maintain their structure. Sirius slowly expanded the sphere, adding stabilising pathways as he went on. The rocks cracked and jumped, as more and more crystals exploded, spreading the tiny particles all over the ground, but Sirius didn't stop. When the orb grew twice its original size, he felt the pressure difference was manageable, he dispelled the orb. A strong gust of mana blew across him, sudden motion causing chaotic swirls and spreading the unorganised rocks tumbling across the field. One particular rock rolled right under the Cobble, between its front legs. Cobble followed the mana-rich stone with its gaze and its giant horned head slowly met the ground. Thick horns dug into the soil, leaving the towering beast in a peculiar, but extremely awkward position, with its snout buried underground.
Sirius wiped the cold sweat and watched with amusement as the unstoppable rockhog stood with its head between its legs, completely still. If Sirius didn't connect to its mind earlier, he would say that it is confused, but he knew that Cobble was not capable of such feat. After a small break Sirius carefully gathered still popping stones in a sack. He really wanted to inspect them more thoroughly, but his mind was sluggish and exhausted. All he could do at the moment was levitate a couple of rocks on the palm of his hand. He found fascinating how easy it was, now that the pebbles were filled to the brim with mana crystals. As he drifted into sleep, he wondered: what could he do with them?