"You are my familiar," I explained. "We're spiritually connected now. So let's get along." Didn't the System explain any of this to Levi? Why did I have to do all the dirty work?

Levi’s wordless thoughts instantly exploded into even more chaos. Despair, negativity and disbelief in varying degrees assaulted my mind. He refused to accept that we were bonded, that he was small and weak, and couldn’t believe that all this was happening. But his strongest thought was summed up in a word – WHY?!

"About that," I muttered and decided to take a positive spin on things, so that he didn't bear a grudge. "If I didn't make a contract with you, you would have died." That's right, I bluffed while trying not to feel guilty, I was a savior. I didn’t have any thoughts of killing Levi and gaining a ton of EXP at all.

Levi didn't look impressed. If anything, he looked devastated. Could Levi understand my thoughts like I could understand his? His mouth opened with a hiss, then he turned his head and chomped down on my thumb with an exaggerated move.

I flinched, expecting to feel pain from his teeth, but the bite was smooth as silk. I didn't know if it was because he was my familiar, but his teeth were retracted into his gums as he chomped and gnawed on my thumb repeatedly with all the tenacity of a disgruntled toddler.

As he did, he threw wave upon wave of blame at me.

"Levi?" I asked, trying to salvage the situation. Maybe I was just new to it all, but did all the familiars have such a big grudge against their people?

A jolt went through Levi's body at the sound of his name. He paused and looked up at me with huge golden eyes, mouth still gaping open and revealing the smooth pink flesh inside. He blinked at me, as if totally taken aback. I couldn't understand what was going on in his brain, but something warm spread in my chest, like a spark of wonder. Was that from him? Suddenly he flung himself off my hand, cutting off the feeling.

"Ah!" I gasped, and reached to catch him but missed.

His small body landed and slithered off in a patch of tall grass, quick as lightning.

"Levi!" I gasped and ran to the tall grass. "Levi, come back!" I half pleaded as I dug through the golden grass blades frantically.

The foliage was too thick and twisted, no matter how I pushed around the grass, I couldn't see the ground or even a hint of blue scales. Should I just cut it down? No, I could hurt Levi. Besides, he was too fast. He'd go to a different location long before I finished the first cut.

Absolutely distressed, I sat back on my heels and looked around, trying to catch sight of him crawling to a different patch of tall grass. The earlier battle had destroyed most of the field, leaving islands of foliage in the stretches of bloody mud. Unfortunately, some patches were close enough together that he could go from one patch to the other before I had a hope of catching him.

"What do I do?" I whispered to myself. I'd never lost a pet before. Never had the chance. Shiva was my first one, and she was sweet and loyal, I had a hard time keeping her away. But now that my magic was connected to Levi, he took off. What if I never found him?

Ding! [Familiars are compelled to stay by their Hunters. He won't go far.]

Compelled to be by me? So even if I couldn't see him, I wouldn't lose him completely. After the familiar mess, I didn't take much credit for the System, but I chose to believe in now.

I sighed in defeat and stared at the tall weeds. A gaping hole opened in my heart, growing bigger with every second.

Why couldn't I do anything right? I was a failure as Hunter. I manifested as an E, way too weak to help my family. If it wasn't for the System and my uncle's awesome gifts, I would be dead by now. But no matter how hard I worked and struggled, I still wasn't strong enough. All that happened was I caused a rift in my family between me and my dad.

I joined today's task because I wanted to make connections with other Hunters and get some pyrefly wings, but even that blew up in my face. I was now stuck in the wilds, alone, with no way home and nowhere to go.

I wanted to create a team with my familiar. Even if Levi was tiny, we could level up together, becoming an untouchable team that would take the Hunter community by storm. No one would dare betray me again, and I could trust Levi with my back. Instead, he ran off before we could even exchange more than a dozen words. He could tell with one glance that I wasn't worth the effort.

Why did everything I touch end up in a disaster? What was the point of even trying? Nothing changed, no matter what I did. I was ... so tired of trying. Most Hunter deaths happened in the first month of becoming a Hunter. I didn’t even make it a week.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

What did Mom even sacrifice herself for? How would she feel if she knew her efforts were in vain?

Slowly, I stood up. I'd rested enough that Regen had taken away most of the aches and pains, but every inch of my body felt as heavy as stainless steel. As much as I wanted to give up, I couldn't. It would break my family's hearts and make a mockery of my mother's efforts.

Feeling hollow inside, I looked up at the ruined city. I was back at square one. Where should I go? Even if I survived the night by some miracle, how would I get home? Walk? I was almost a hundred and twenty miles away from Boulder, and that was flying in a straight line. Add the mountains, chasms, and countless monsters in the way, and things got harder.

"Flying," I whispered and looked towards the other side of the battlefield, past the unknown's carcass.

The roc's beacon was over there, somewhere. If Uncle Maveric comes looking for me, the transportation roc will go to the beacon. So if I was by it, he'd find me right away. But staying out in the open overnight was too deadly. Scott carried the beacon around, couldn't I do the same? I could take it with me wherever I hide, that way the search party couldn't find me.

I just hope that I caught Levi before they came. If they came.

Even though the late day sun was getting low, I could feel its heat on my skin. The lingering water dripped off my body as I walked past the battlefield, hugging along the river bank. Though it was a longer route and washed out from Levi pulling water during the battle, it was easier to navigate than trekking through the blood covered divets in the open stretch around the unknown dragon.

I slipped on a rock and stumbled. As I did, I spotted a bright blue flash in the river twenty feet away. I paused and looked over just in time to see Levi's little head dive below the water, as if he'd never been there. He was following me. He didn't abandon me after all. Maybe it was stupid, but a small warm light grew in my empty heart. Even if Levi wasn't completely willing, knowing that I wasn't alone suddenly made things not seem as grim. My head was a little higher as I marched on with renewed determination.

When I left the side of the bank, Levi exited the water and slithered after me. I knew he was following after me, but pretended like I didn't. Every time I looked in his direction, he'd flee and disappear into the closest patch of grass. After a while, he finally just stayed in the grass and the only time I caught sight of him – out of the corner of my eyes, of course – was when he hurried from one patch to the next. Since he was making a game of it all, I was happy to comply.

Where the torn-up muddy battlefield ended and the wild grassland started was painfully obvious. Unfortunately, the tall weeds were way too tall to see very far ahead and I didn't know exactly where the roc had landed to pick up Star and her team. But I knew what the landing place looked like in the city earlier in the day – a huge patch of flattened grass. If I looked for something like that, I should find the beacon. I just hoped that I could actually carry it. The fancy looking pole was huge. Scott made it look easy, but he was also a C ranked Hunter. And since the beacon was 'owned' by someone else, I couldn't put it in my Items Bag.

I checked the time. There was an hour and half before nightfall. Not a lot of time, but I'd make it work.

It only took me a couple minutes to find the path that Star and her team took through the tall grass. When the monsters fled the city, they created a lot of paths, but there was a district difference in them. The paths that the monsters took were random and patchy. It was flattened in one spot, then the tall grass would be completely fine for a couple feet, then flattened again. After all, most monsters had bouncy gaits. Humans didn't run like that; they just plowed over every obstacle in their consistent strides. Granted, some monsters ran that way too, but I found one undeniable clue.

Some weeds were cut with a very sharp blade, it was simply too clean to be a monster. As the grandniece of an armorer, I recognized the signs immediately. My guess was Star or Pepper cut the weeds to make it easier for Scott to run with the weight of the beacon. Taking that as a clue, I followed that path. The whole thing wasn't trimmed – that would be a lot of work to do while running – but enough of it was that I never confused it with another path.

Ten minutes later, the path opened up, revealing a large section of flattened weeds, perfectly matching the landing site in the city behind me. And there, in the middle, was a ten foot pole laying.

Instead of excitement, my heart twisted in horror. It was damaged. The pole was bent and countless weeds snagged and caught in the couple intricate metal pieces that twisted around the top, some of which were broken off or bent. Did it happen when Scott was ripping the beacon out of the ground, or while they were fleeing with it?

I swallowed down the nervous lump that formed in my throat. I didn't know exactly how the beacon worked, but I did know there was a magic stone on it somewhere. The pole itself was just as design – pretty, while being sturdy enough to weather the wilds. What really mattered was the magic stone inside that actually drew the roc to the beacon.

I hurried over to the beacon and felt around the top, looking for a glimmer of magic in the intricate metal design. According to most design patterns, magic stones are placed in the middle of the designs. Make it pretty, right?

I couldn't see even a glimmer of magic at all. I couldn't even feel the slightest of tingles.

My concern grew to full of worry. Where was the magic stone? It had to be here. If it wasn't, the roc would have never picked up Star and her people.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed Levi slither up to where I was crouching. He glanced at me, taking in my expression, then at the pole. Confused, he leaned forward and tasted the pole with his tongue. His confusion shifted to utter bafflement.

I ignored him and turned the pole over. And paused.

I found the magic stone, embedded near the top of the beacon. A huge crack split the dull gray oval gem, rendering it completely devoid of magic.

*****