Amanda spent the next half an hour searching the bushes of the island and getting progressively more worried. What if he was stuck as a cat forever? Even though she’d only had to use the infusement once for the initial transform, she’d definitely had to think a little to shift back. What if he forgot who he was? To make matters worse, her leg was starting to throb. She’d already pushed it with the swimming and the sword fighting but there was no way she was going to sit down until she found where Sirius had gone.

She walked all over the island, calling his name, even alternating with ‘here puss.’ The place was bigger than she’d thought and not everywhere seemed easily accessible. Getting around to the other side appeared to require going over and she couldn’t see a way that didn’t require some scrambling. Cats were good climbers but was it likely he’d gone that far? He was probably just hiding somewhere, right?

She was crossing through the middle of their side of the island for what felt like the fifth time when there came a rustling in the bushes.

She froze, half hopeful, half afraid.

She breathed a sigh of relief when a disheveled looking Sirius stepped out from behind the leaves of an oversized fern.

“Hi,” he said with a sheepish smile.

“Hi.” She gave another large sigh and then a breathless laugh. “I was worried.”

He ran one hand through his messy dark hair. “Sorry.” But then his face fell into a wide boyish grin. “I climbed a tree.”

She gave him a dumbfounded look.

“I mean…” he held up his hand struggling for words. “I’m not sure what happened, but I just felt like running and then next thing I knew I was up a tree. I’ve never climbed anything like that before, so fast. It was amazing. I felt so alive. Only, then I couldn’t get down.”

“You got stuck up a tree?”

He laughed again. “Sorry I scared you. I really thought I was a cat for a second, but then I remembered me, well, I remembered you first actually.”

She bit her lip and smiled. Her heart was still beating anxiously in her chest but his excitement was contagious.

“So, what next?” He asked with wild grin.

She put a hand to her chest and turned to walk side by side with him back to their usual beach spot.

“Maybe I could try a dolphin, or a manatee. I’ve often wondered what it was like to be a manatee. They always look so peaceful.”

“I’ve never seen a manatee, not in the wild anyway.” Amanda told him. She winced a little as she turned a little too quickly, her foot reminding her to take it slow.

Sirius glanced at her. “Does your leg hurt?” Without waiting for an answer he swept her off her feet and carried her down the path.

“I was looking for you all over,” she explained.

“Sorry,” he repeated, then grimaced, evidently still not feeling like that word was good enough.

“Were you up the tree the whole time?” Amanda asked, trying to keep her tone light and teasing, so he wouldn’t feel like he had to apologise again.

He gave a sheepish look.

She needed no more answer than that. Noting something else she added, “You shifted with your clothes?”

He nodded. “Yeah, seems so.”

“How? I’ve never managed that.”

“I don’t know.”

He took her back to their beach. ‘Their beach’ was how she thought of it now. That little spot with the sheltered cove. She eyed some of the nearby rocks. They looked fun to climb but she didn’t want to push her luck. Instead, she sat on the beach as Sirius popped open the vial of shapeshifting magic again.

“I might take my clothes off for this one,” he said as he eyed the water.

“You’re going to try a manatee then?” she asked.

He nodded. “They don’t swim fast.” He caught her expression. “Are you worried?”

“Maybe a little. That and, I’m not sure if you’re aware how expensive infusements are? Maybe we shouldn’t just be burning through them like this.”

He sat down next to her with a smile. “More expensive than that pony of yours?”

“No.”

“More expensive than a puppy?”

“Mmm, some of them. And I guess, depending on what you had, you can get infusements that cost more than a pegasus, more than a dragon even. Maybe even more than your ship.”

“Which ones?”

“Time travel. Necromancy. Psychic magic. Probably none of these ones. It depends on how well they are made and how much is in them. I was just thinking, if you’re short on money, maybe we shouldn’t be wasting these.”

He smiled. “I’m not so sure it’s wasting them. Selling aside, it’s not like I would use them otherwise and there’s not much point in me having them if I don’t know how to use them. This is learning, and it’s fun. And I think having them will be useful once I know how to use them.”

She watched as he dove into the water and shifted form. He seemed more in control this time, or perhaps it was just the manatee nature? When he surfaced as himself again several minutes later he had another big grin on his face.

“Amazing!” he remarked.

They played around with the telekinesis next. Amanda tried to teach him how to hover using it, but it was much harder than the shapeshifting and after he went awkwardly crashing into rock the second time, he decided to aim a little lower and just work on moving small stones, which he soon admitted was also frustratingly hard.

“I don’t know how Shiv does it, let alone you, and you’re not even a natural telekinetic.”

Amanda shrugged. “Truth be told, I’m not that precise with it.”

“You’re at least as good as Shiv is,” he said as he reached for a new vial. “What about this one?”

Amanda had been blushing at his compliments but when she saw which vial he’d grabbed all the blood drained from her face. She shook her head. “You think telekinesis is hard to control, fire magic’s a lot worse.”

“But who better to learn from than the expert.”

Amanda bit her lip. “I don’t know.”

Sirius frowned and studied the vial in his hands with a considered look.

Amanda watched him. He seemed disappointed. She supposed it was a lot safer to teach him now while she was here than have him try to use it later with no training and no one else around. She sighed. “Okay, fine.”

He perked up and gave her a school-boy smile. “Really?”

“Really,” she replied. “But you have to do exactly what I say.”

He nodded.

She reached for his hands. “We’ll try do this together. The important thing is not to set yourself on fire. It’s easier if we have something else that’s flammable, something you can focus on which won’t burn as fast as your hands.”

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Sirius glanced about them. “Hmm, would a biscuit work?”

Amanda considered it then shook her head. “I think paper would be better if we have any.”

“Just that book I gave you.”

“Oh.” Amanda didn’t want to burn that.

“How about fabric?”

“Yeah, that’ll work.”

He reached for his knife and then for his shirt.

“Don’t ruin your shirt though!” Amanda exclaimed.

Sirius shook his head. “It’s old and I have others.”

She watched as he cut a small square out of it.

“Alright then.” He held it up. “Now what?”

She reached for his hands again.

He turned his palms face up and then sprinkled some of the infused sand near the tips of Amanda’s fingers so they could both touch the grains.

“Now you try to push the heat or the flames into the fabric. Think about pushing it out just in that direction.”

Sirius took a deep breath and his face took on a focused look.

Amanda could feel the magic starting work but it wasn’t directed like she’d told him. It went out in all directions, radiated from his skin, too close to his skin. He was going to burn himself.

She pushed her own magic in, taking over control, making a gap between the flames and his skin. This was advanced level stuff, to let the flame rest along the outside of your skin like shell without burning you. Most firestarters just pushed it out in a direction. The good firestarters might hold it in their hands but this one ran right up their arms.

She could see a shift in Sirius’s expression, noticed as his eyes widened, and as the flames crept higher, there was a flash of fear.

She snuffed it out, well not completely. He was still using the magic. He hadn’t let it go. She had to push it somewhere, burn it off, but there wasn’t enough air around them. And there was so little magic in the sand that to anyone watching it would have looked like she’d put the flame out. But really she’d simply moved it and compressed it and made it burn so hot so fast away from anything too flammable that in a second it was gone.

Sirius looked down at the vial with a puzzled expression on his face. “I don’t know what you just did, but that was not how I expected it would feel.”

She glanced at him hesitantly. The last thing she needed was for him to develop a sudden fear of flames.

But a moment later his expression formed a look of resolve. “Alright, I’m ready to try again.”

Amanda shook her head. I don’t know. You were supposed to push it out. If I hadn’t been here you might have gone up in a ball of fire.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you’re here then. We have the healing magic worst case.”

She looked at him and bit her lip.

“Alright,” he conceded, “What if you control it? Do what I was supposed to do, but the same as we just did so I can feel what you’re doing.”

“I suppose we could do it that way.”

Once more she took his hand between hers. This time she cupped one hand under his and both of them sat their side by side with their palms facing up. With her other hand she tipped a few more grains onto his palm. Then she placed her fingers in the grains.

“Is this going to work? If we both use it? Do I need to do anything?” He asked. “I could feel what you were doing before but that was when I was trying to use it.”

“Do the same thing you’d do if you were trying to read it,” Amanda told him. “Like when you were trying to tell what they were. Just let yourself feel. Relax and be receptive.”

Sirius frowned and nodded.

“Okay,” Amanda said in almost a whisper. Then she reached into the sand with her mind, tickled the grains and the magic within. Before today she’d never actually used an infusment filled with her own magic type before. She wasn’t sure what effect this would have. She’d taken control of the fire before but she suspected that was more like what another firestarter might feel if they were both fighting over the same flames. Now she was actively trying to use fire magic that was not her own.

She could feel a lot of power in those grains, like something wild that wanted to run free, untamed, untrained, and hard to control. She felt her own magic mix with it. Was it boosting the infusement? She couldn’t be certain. She twisted them together and then she created a fireball that sat perfectly in their hands. It’s base was round and perfect. The rest of it was teardrop shaped, the flickering flames reaching up toward the sky.

“Can you feel that?” she asked. It felt harder than it usually did. This new magic was a little different from her own.

He nodded. “Can you make it into a shape?”

“Which shape would you like?” She never took her eyes away from the fireball, too scared if she wasn’t watching it that she’d lose control.

“I don’t know. Anything. Surprise me.”

Carefully, she formed the fire into a floating manatee. It’s orangy tail waved up and down as if it were swimming. She risked a glance at Sirius.

He was frowning. “Can I… can I try something?”

She didn’t answer. Instead she tried to feel for what it was he was doing. If he was thinking about it already then the flames might move toward that idea.

Suddenly a large flame burst from the manatee’s mouth. Sirius jerked back in surprise, closing his hand in on the infused grains as he fell back on to the beach.

Amanda flinched and her hand was pulled free of Sirius’s as he fell.

Luckily this time he seemed to have put out the fire as he fell.

For a moment there was silence and then he gave a breathless laugh and he met her eyes.

All she felt was relief that he was okay.

“I guess maybe that’s enough for now,” Sirius said.

She studied his face, unsure what he was feeling after that experience.

But his eyes sparkled and he laughed again. “I see now I think.” Another laugh. “Once when I was a lot younger, we were at my aunt’s house and I got put on a horse. I got told if you wanted to move you just kick it with your feet so I did that, not very hard at all you I didn’t think but next thing you know it’s careening out across the paddock and under these trees and then I’m on the ground.”

Amanda couldn’t help herself, she laughed.

He paused in his story to chuckle along with her then he said more seriously, “But it’s kinda like that. You kick just a little and vroom.” He moved one hand forward fast against his other. “Just a little nudge gives you more power than you think.”

“I think this one’s particularly hard to use,” Amanda told him.

He raised his eyebrows. Then he frowned again. “I could feel it wanting to move and it took a lot to hold it back I think but also at the same time it’s so delicate and almost random, like it wants to jump from place to place. I think with some practice maybe I could hold it there or push it in one direction. I can see how that would be easier but it took a lot of energy and I wasn’t really even doing anything, I could just feel it, what you were doing I mean. Is it normally like that?” He gave her an impressed look.

She shook her head. “You get used to it and no, for me it’s more like, well, okay actually it is a bit like riding a horse.” She grinned. “It’s more like you’re guiding it than actually controlling it.”

“But, I could feel it, the energy it took. Is this like one of those moments when someone’s been putting a lot of effort into something and because they’re good at it they make it look easy so everyone thinks it’s easy for them but it turns out it’s actually still quite hard even for them but they didn’t know because there’s no relative comparison.”

She laughed. She wasn’t sure what he was saying but she didn’t think that was it. “I think it’s like when you swing a sword and it looks really easy and then I try to pick up your sword and can’t move it, but no, in this case that was actually harder than usual for me.”

“Oh, interesting.” He had a thoughtful look on his face.

She laughed again. The why’s of it didn’t really interest her enough to ponder on too long but she liked the way he looked when he was thinking about things.

After a moment’s thought she said, “I really want to know how you managed to shift with your clothes on.”

Sirius got a sudden mischievous look on his face and he waggled his eyebrows. “Are you disappointed because you were hoping you’d get to see me naked?”

She laughed and gave him a playful swat which somehow turned into kissing.

----------------------------------------

They played around with magic for a little while and were soon reminded about the tendency of sand to get everywhere.

Around lunchtime, Sirius got Amanda to check how much was left in the vials they’d been using. They decided to limit their usage to less than half of roughly what they’d started with, except for the telekinesis which Amanda said was easy enough to get more of. It didn’t leave them much of the other magics but they had no shortage of other things to do with their time.

Later that afternoon they stumbled upon a secluded grassy area further down the beach that was far less sandy than other places and which they made good use of, several times.

Amanda’s ankle healed fast and the next day Sirius taught her which fruits were the good eating kind and the secret to climbing those sorts of trees. They sparred on the beach several more times. Every time Amanda thought she was getting better, Sirius seemed to up his game ever so slightly. She wondered just how much he was holding back. That evening he showed her his secret path down to the beach then they lay on the sand and watched the stars. Sirius told her stories about them and reminded her of their names.

Amanda was starting to think that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be stuck there with Sirius for a month or even longer. It was peaceful and Sirius was good company. There was plenty of food and fine weather. She’d almost made her peace with the loss of the pegasus although she still thought of him occasionally and she’d feel sad and wistful but dwelling on things wasn’t her style and all it took to focus her mind on other things was for a shirtless Sirius to ask her if she wanted to go for another swim.

They woke in the morning in the little cave, the high one that they had originally climbed up to when they’d first arrived. Amanda awoke first. Sirius lay beside her, peacefully asleep. Nightmares still plagued him occasionally but nothing like the first night she’d slept with him. Sometimes she’d awake and he’d be mumbling in his sleep. Sometimes she’d wrap her arms around him or even just stroke his hand and that seemed to calm him. Once, he’d jolted upright with a start and woken her that way. He’d apologised and then looked guilty about it. She’d simply hugged him.

In the day he seemed less bothered by things. Perhaps he’d managed to find his own distractions in the daylight from whatever monsters plagued his mind at night. Last night at least had been much more peaceful.

Amanda looked out at the open ocean that spread out at their feet and she felt like they were sitting contently on top of the world. Was there really any better way to wake up?

But as her gaze swept the surrounding sea her eye caught on something new. A black flag flapping in the breeze. It was attached to the mast of a large wooden ship. One slightly smaller and more streamlined than Sirius’s one. And there in the centre of the flag, hung upside down, was the unmistakable image of a skull and crossbones.

Keeping her eye toward the horizon she nudged Sirius gently.

“Sirius.”

“Hmm?” He stirred slowly.

“Wake up. We’ve got company.”