Dawn was most upset at the situation. She’d been sitting there finally able to scratch the fox that she had been seeing for over a week, and then some lunatic tried to blow up the sky over them! Even worse was that her Empathy let her feel the pain and terror the poor thing had felt.

  After rec herself from the shock, she stomped off to where the mage was getting off the golem-carriage he gate.

  “You big meanie!” she excimed, kig his foot, “You scared everyone and scared off my new friend! What was that for?”

  “Weren’t you the ohe fox? You should know how dangerous those are, I had to scare it away before it could do anything. It was odd for it to be so close to the vilge though...” the man remarked.

  “That fox is my friend! He has been visiting me for over a week now!” Dawn shouted at him.

  “That makes no sehe man muttered to himself, scratg his head.

  “Of course it makes sense, he isn’t dumb like the other animals are. Mother said it robably a wild Awakened, but he is smart. I eve it link with me in a way different than my own way. Only monsters and Awakened do magic, right? And he clearly isn’t a monster,” Dawn said in a normal voice this time.

  “That is ihe case, little one,” he replied, “I think I o talk with Amilya about the letter she sent.”

  “Oh, I take you to Mom, she has been keeping an eye on us sihe fox started visiting!” Dawn excimed, grabbing his hand and pulling towards the gate.

  As they reached the gate, they met Amilya who was ing down from atop the palisade wall. Daw go of the man’s hand and ran to hug Amilya, who bowed to the man, exg, “Teacher Morris, I’m gd you were able to make it here, we need an expert in awakened. Where is Kel, I didn’t see him with you?”

  “I let Kel go fly around while we were traveling here,” Morris replied, “even if the terrain is pretty bnd at least it isn’t the same old city as the st several years. And there is o call me teacher, it has been years since you were still a student after all.”

  “If you are certain, Morris, then I will drop it. But I will always think of you that way after how much I’ve learned from you. Anyways, how about we head to my home and I’ll get you up to date ouation?” inquired Amilya.

  **********

  The fox curled up in his den, starting to feel a bit safer. He realized the link with the human was still there, but decided to leave it intact, uaily why. He could barely make out anything over the link at this point, apparently it faded with distance.

  After sleeping for a while, he woke up around dusk, heading out to experiment with his own ability to link to things some more. eg a small tendril of energy directly to the base of a pnt gave him a simple uanding of it in addition to its health. sidering this for a moment, he ran deeper into the forest until he came across one of the light-emitting pnts he had stumbled across earlier. Linking to it, he found a sehat told him it was harmless, merely glowing slightly. Uain as to this feeling, he picked up a stid hit the pnt with it just in case. Seeing nothing happen to the stick made him feel a bit more fident.

  tinuing this experimentation, he searched for one of the flowers that had burned him in the past. Upon finding it, he did the same as with the glowing pnt, finding a sehat this one was safe uhe inside and outside of the flower were touched together roughly. Finding aick, he gently poked the flower, finding that it didn’t burst into fme like the other had before.

  Curious about this ability, he tried it as well on a feather on the ground, finding it gave him a faint pull towards another direuch as the link with the human did. He wasn’t about to go chasing after a bird, however, so he simply withdrew the link and headed to go find some food for the night before returning to bed.

  A few more days of experimentation showed him that he could actually scare animals in a specific dire by altering where the energy touched them. He also learned how to keep it in a sphere around himself without it being exhausting, which helped him avoid a hawk that had spotted him before he noticed.

  Then one evening, the link with the human seemed to grow stronger over time until suddenly fear and pain fshed through the link. Driven by something he couldn’t uand, he immediately raced in the dire the link pulled him, having to ge course as it grew stronger or weaker. The fear and pain shifted into absolute terror and agony before he finally mao reach the human, hearing screams well before ing into sight.

  Before him y the human on the ground, a great snake coiled around them. The human ounding at the sh their arms to no avail, and each leg was crushed and y bonelessly at odd ahe coils of the snake moving upward to their chest.

  Feeling sudden rage that something would harm his human, he hurled himself at the strictor, tearing its head away from the body it ressed against and shaking viciously. The snake fought against him, f him to adjust his grip on it to behind the head as it shifted, though he bit down harder and harder until he felt a ch, blood staining his fur as it erupted from the wound. He tinued shaking his head further until the snake fell limp.

  As he let go of the mangled snake, arms ed around him, pulling him to the chest of the human tightly enough that he couldn’t escape. As he struggled, the human cried and screamed into his fur before finally passing out, their grip still tight. After a while to get loose, he heard shouts from the pins and mao make out torchlight approag them.

  His ears twitched, ting half a dozen pairs of footsteps. He thrashed about again, trying to get loose, but only succeeded in waking the human who began g and screaming again, gripping even tighter until he could barely breathe. The only good he could tell was that there was no longer fear or terror ing through the link, instead a feeling of hope washed over him.