[Xander – 12 years] → begins towards the end of Sig's PoV in Chapter 113.

After I exit the office, Sig remaining behind, I teleport up into the clouds high above. They're thick and dense and I forgot they're wet. At least I can't see down below, but I still start shaking, my heart beating fast as my breathing turns shallow.

Calm down, I close my eyes. It's okay. You're flying with magic which won't let you fall. Just don't release it.

I spend a few moments to calm myself down, then conjure an opaque barrier around me so I can change out of my now-wet clothes. Rather than putting on a fresh set, I put on swim trunks and tuck my spatial pouches into one of my stasis bracelets.

There we go. Now I'm in more appropriate attire for something involving a lot of water around me. It's not a pool or a lake, but it might as well be.

It also frees up my back, from which a pair of wings sprout as the barrier vanishes. My feathery wings are the same shade of platinum-blond as my hair, but I guess that's just their natural color, sort of like how my tail in wolfkin form matches my hair.

Teleporting rather than flying seems like it might be a good idea and much faster, but what I'm after is something which can change directions instantly. I'm not sure how well I can deal with that if I just teleport to it, because then I'd have to chase after it or teleport again. At least this way, I can potentially keep pace with it. The wings will help me channel my flight magics, too. I'll be able to turn more easily and I'm absolutely certain I'll need to do that.

I flap my wings once and am instantly flying extremely fast. My breath catches in my throat and I have to force myself to stay focused and keep my breathing under control.

As I soar through the clouds, water elementals send me tumbling with their greetings and I find myself needing to quickly correct my flight as I send jets back. It's only right to greet them as well, they should just not knock me out of my flight!

Why did I do this? This was a stupid idea. I should return to the ground, where it's a lot safer. But if I do that, I won't be able to handle this issue.

As I soar through the clouds, I quickly come across my target, a mass of magic and mana floating within the clouds.

The moment he realizes I'm after him, he darts off through the clouds.

But I won't let him escape. The cloud beast twists and turns, shifting directions in all directions in an attempt at escaping me. Flying rather than teleporting was definitely a good idea, something I confirm when I do try to teleport in front of him and he turns and escapes before I can grab him.

A little more speed. I need a little more speed. But I'm already going so fast. But if I don't go even faster, I won't be able to catch it.

The cloud beast begins shooting lightning at me and when the first one happens, I curl up in a ball and cover my ears. So loud. Thunder from this close is so loud. My wings wrap around me, shielding me. The thunder's quieter now, and the cloud beast throws more lightning around. It's realized that lightning is bad. Bad. Bad.

It won't stop. It won't stop. It won't stop. It needs to stop. It needs to stop. It needs to stop.

Then make it stop.

Right. I'm powerful. I can make the cloud beast stop. I summon my earplugs from my bracelet and stick the red ones in. After learning when Sig was doing the opening for his flips video that I could hear even with them in, I enchanted them to make sure I won't.

Now that my improved earplugs are in, I can't hear the lightning at all.

That's a lot better.

As I unfurl my body, the cloud beast watches me for a moments, then quickly takes off. It's realized the lightning isn't affecting me anymore, and the bolts themselves weren't even hurting me.

They were hitting me, but the only thing I noticed beyond that was the thunder.

"Huh."

I flap my wings once and begin soaring again, barely keeping pace with the cloud beast. Speed. I need more speed, so I begin flying faster. The cloud beast matches pace. He's trying to escape me, but he's also playing with me.

So I start flying faster. And faster. And faster. Then I double my speed. This is something I don't want to do, but I need to catch him to make him stop his mischief. He's been instigating the elementals in the area and is the reason it's been raining and storming so much around here.

The cloud elemental doubles his speed as well, so I triple my speed. He tries to match that and barely manages it. This is fast. This is way too fast. But it's necessary. All I have to do is catch him, then I can stop flying. Once I make him stop, I can return to the ground and treat myself to a massive treat.

Just a little bit more speed and… I grab the cloud beast, my entire body wrapped in a variation of the spell Grandpa Adrian taught me yesterday. That one was designed for touching creatures made up of mind magics, but adapting it to touch a cloud beast instead was rather easy. All I had to do was swap out the targeted magic types and adjust the flows to account for the difference in magics.

I hold the cloud beast against my body as it wriggles and tries to escape, and I stop flying and try to catch my breath.

"You're disturbing everyone," I tell him after a minute. "Stop making it rain so much here and let things return to normal. At least, as normal as it can be when the natural magics also affect things."

The cloud elemental sends lightning and gusts of wind and blades of compressed air and shards of ice out, but they don't even sting. I'm several times as powerful as he is and his magic is neither strong enough nor sharp enough to pierce even my eyeballs.

Though bit does still make me blink, and this is rather annoying.

So I bite him and start eating his mana. It's a little sparky, like Luke's was when he learned about me being a mana eater, but it's not exactly the same. It also has water, air, and ice magics in it and those all have their own flavors, too. His mana's perfectly infused with all of them, with water as the primary one and air as a close second.

As I eat his mana, the cloud beast begins struggling in an effort to escape my grip, but I just keep eating until he's empty. Or is it drinking?

Either way, he's empty on mana in less than thirty seconds. By the time I'm done, he's given up on trying to escape.

"Stop making it rain so much," I tell him. "You can join in when it does rain, but you're messing up everyone's schedules and making it difficult for many to do their work and for many to enjoy the warmer days while they last before winter comes. Stop convincing the water elementals to make it rain just because you think it'd be funny. It's really bothering everyone. If you keep it up… you won't like what happens then. Understand? Good."

I release the cloud elemental and stare at it.

"Behave."

The cloud elemental bobs up and down, then slowly drifts away. Once he's a decent distance away, I summon an opaque barrier around myself and strip off my swim trunks so I can dry off with a towel, then quickly dress. Rather than releasing the barrier and teleporting back to the main office, I teleport, then release the barrier.

Whoa. The cloud elemental and I flew almost fifty miles during our chase, and it's raining here. Storming, even. His attempts at stopping me must have triggered a storm, and now the elementals who were drawn here by his regular storms are adding to it.

At least the lightning has mostly stopped, so I pull the earplugs out and put them away, flinching a little when a boom of thunder sounds out as I do.

I enter the main office building, where Sig and Mrs. Cox are discussing the testing Sig did earlier this week.

Concern enters Sig's mind when he sees me, for some reason.

"Everything okay?"

Why is he asking me that? Is it because of the storm?

"Yeah," I answer, then look at Mrs. Cox. "It should stop raining so much now. I dealt with the beast instigating a lot of the rains and storms in the area. If it keeps going, I'll take further measures to ensure it stops."

Sig suddenly seems uncomfortable and disturbed for some reason. Should I ask him why? But I can't imagine what I said would do that, since it wasn't like I was threatening anyone here or something. That means he was probably already feeling those and they just weren't strong enough for me to notice.

Hanging out with our other friends should definitely make him more comfortable and happy, though, and it's time we go to meet up with them, too.

"Ready to go?" I ask him.

"Yeah," he answers. "Let's go meet up with the others."

We leave the ranch and I teleport us back to Dragon Falls, straight to his house. Once we're there, he pulls on his helmet and gets on his bike while I prepare to get on my hoverboard, then we ride to the meeting point with the others.

Once we reach Connor's house, I'm definitely eating a cheesecake both to reward myself and because it'll help me finish calming down from the chase.

"How'd the field trip go?" Connor asks as we make our way to his house.

"It was fun!" Sig answers. "Though also super confusing at times. Apparently, the noises Xander makes when he's trying to describe what magic is doing actually means something, because his great-grandparents were responding with them as well."

"Well, yeah," I say. "I wouldn't do them if they didn't have a purpose. That would just be dumb. It's just that y'all don't understand them, but Grandpa Adrian and Grandma Lily do."

"Who's 'Grandma Lily'?" Isaac asks.

"Grandpa Adrian's wife and my great-grandma," I answer. "She's a plant creature. Not a lily, that's just the name she picked when she took human form."

Sig feels amusement as the others feel confusion.

"There was more than the stuff for the field trip which confused me," Sig tells me. "Oh! But we got some bags of peanuts! We can make roasted peanuts once we get to your place, Connor! We've never had fresh nuts before!"

Sig didn't get as much as me because he doesn't eat as much as I do, but he still got enough of each of the things we were given that he can share with our friends. I'm storing his stuff in one of my bracelets, since they wouldn't all fit into his backpack.

Should we have dropped them off at his house when we stopped there so he could grab his bike? It's too late for that now, unless I teleport.

If it was necessary, Sig definitely would have said something. That means he'll probably collect it all before we leave tomorrow. But it won't fit into his backpack?

Oh. He must be planning on eating enough of it tonight that he won't need to fit it all into his backpack, just what's left. He's already said something which I think is him offering to share with the others.

Okay. That makes more sense. If I end up not staying the night, I'll make sure to give him all of his things before I go.

~~~

[Luke – 13 years] → starts during Xander's PoV.

"Hey, Tyler!" I greet him as Seph and I leave the school grounds.

"Hey, Luke," he pulls me in for a quick hug and kiss. "How'd school go?"

"Great!" I tell him. "Sadly, it seems Xander didn't stream today, so I guess he's not streaming on Fridays. Seph and I were gonna play at his place, wanna come?"

It's a little disappointing that he's not streaming on Fridays, but it's not like I can make him. His streams (or their videos) are really fun to use as background noise while doing homework and stuff but he's got no obligation to do them.

"If that's alright with you," Tyler looks at Seph.

"Yeah," Seph says. "He already asked me about you coming. You're a cool guy, I don't mind having you over."

"Awesome!" Tyler says. "Let's go, then! I've still gotta get updated on what's happened since I was last in civilization. We haven't been back very long, I almost didn't make it here in time to meet up with you."

"A lot has happened," I say, and we start riding our bikes and hoverboard. "Did you hear that Xander killed Akrolnomak?"

Maybe I shouldn't make jokes like that while Tyler's still adjusting to using a bike, though the bewildered look on his face before he falls is extremely funny and causes Seph and me to burst into laughter.

"He did what?" Tyler asks as he picks himself and his bike up off of the ground.

"It's just a rumor," Seph snickers. "He didn't actually go and do that. Xander went on another hunting trip with the boys from the Autumn Realm, and it seems like it was a big one. According to the rumors I've heard, he caught some accelerelk by making 'em ram into barriers. They probably started the rumor about the wyvern just 'cause he's insanely powerful."

"Though he did do something insane," I tell Tyler. "Xanson Entertainment is a new company and it does streaming and video sharing, but also includes a merch store for content creators, chat servers, and more."

I tell him about them as we make the trip to Seph's house, though I don't go into insane detail.

"I ain't sure how it'd work, though," Seph says. "There are already established sites for all of that stuff. Didn't you say his goal is probably to run the others out of business?"

"Yeah," Tyler says. "That doesn't really make sense, and I doubt Adrian King would run something doomed to not succeed."

"It's Xander," I say. "I'm fairly certain his great-grandfather would do anything for him."

Especially because I've still seen nothing to indicate that he's not some sort of experiment by Adrian King. I had to stop my discreet investigation when my parents found out, but what I did find suggests it even further.

That was even before I realized that Xander would've needed an insane amount of mana as a four-year-old to have sustained the spells he did due to his mana recovery rate. So yeah, Xander is definitely some sort of experiment by his great-grandfather.

Maybe he was created in order to force the people in general to advance their magical ability?

"Do you really think that's all it is?" Tyler asks. "I mean, I can see his fans moving over, but not most people."

"Perception is a very powerful thing," I tell him.

"What do you mean?"

"I'll say once we're eating snacks."

We finish the trip to Seph's house and greet Ms. Lee, then sit on the back deck with snacks as we pull out homework and packets.

"So?" Seph looks at me. "What's perception got to do with anything?"

"Their site is advertised as being child-friendly due to making adult content – whether sexual or not – inaccessible without being verified as an adult both for the account using it and as the active user of said account," I explain. "In each individual use. No other site is able to do this, and some sites know it's an issue but don't care.

"Now," I say. "Imagine you're a fan of a streamer who advertises himself as someone who's more adult in content. Not sexual, just someone who discusses more mature things or plays games on the more mature or gruesome side, maybe even deep horror, and not the cheap stuff. Their stream's tagged for that, their videos are marked 'not for kids', and it really is content a kid shouldn't be watching. If they find out a kid is in chat, they ban them because 'kids shouldn't be watching this'.

"Then Xanson TV comes out," I say. "And says it's just straight-up not even possible for kids to access any content on it that's flagged as eighteen-plus. The streamer doesn't shift over to it. What do you think?"

"Um…" Seph thinks for a few moments, then shrugs.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"And you?" I ask Tyler, who also doesn't know. "Alright. Well, by continuing to use a site which doesn't do anything to prevent kids from seeing stuff the typical kid shouldn't, he's stated he's fine with children watching content they shouldn't. People will view it that way, and they'll talk about it. And parents who watch him may end up stopping, or they may just stop their subs.

"It won't be massive at first," I say. "But it'll eventually get bigger as more people migrate over. Streamers and other content creators who are in support of the site's access restriction thing are already moving over exclusively. Some might also be because they're afraid of being perceived as okay with kids accessing more mature content, even if they themselves don't make it.

"And as more move over," I say. "People will start wondering about those who didn't even more. That adds on pressure, which will result in more moving over… Xander and Adrian King really got clever by making that a thing on their site."

"Maybe that would work for the site," Tyler says. "But what's stopping the kids from just going to another site to view that stuff?"

"Depends on the site," I say. "But all major legit porn sites have already begun moving their libraries over with notices on their sites about the transfer. There's apparently a deal so that they're still the ones managing and mostly earning and stuff, or however that works. I dunno. If they didn't change to a site which actually has proper restrictions, it'd be an outright admission instead of just an implied one.

"Also," I add. "You can verify your identity as a minor if you're using one of their devices, and it'll do dynamic adjustments to what you can access as you grow older, with the last of it becoming available on your eighteenth birthday. It apparently even factors in what's appropriate for teens versus for little kids into the moderation if that part is set up."

Though that's an opt-in feature parents can set up if the verified identity is thirteen or older. The filter isn't on if the identity isn't verified but is on by default if it's verified and under thirteen – though parents can opt-out if they desire. They can also adjust how strict it is on that as well. Not all children are equal, after all.

Though the eighteen-plus content is a nonnegotiable thing, so parents cannot override it.

"My parents can explain it better," I say. "But they're expecting it to become the dominant site for this and most others to bankrupt in the next five years or so. Their funds for hosting content which never gets viewed comes from the content which gets viewed the most, after all."

In other words, if all of the content which gets the most views is pulled, they won't be able to afford their servers and teams to continue hosting the stuff which never gets viewed. Server maintenance and replacements are a real thing as well and add in additional costs.

Downsizing might occur, but Xanson TV will definitely continue to pull content creators and even big-name organizations to their site. That, in turn, will drive users to their site, and many users are lazy. They prefer having just one site to look at and when the majority of the stuff they watch is on one, they're less likely to use another.

Which will drive views away from the other sites beyond just the videos that are pulled.

"On top of that," I say. "Xanson TV is likely using magitech servers which probably cost them much less to build, use, and maintain than other servers. So they already have a cheaper cost, meaning they can afford to pay creators more. And the revenue share combined with the merch is really good."

"Oh," he says. "I guess that makes sense."

"Yup!" I say. "Now let's do our homework! After that, I wanna hear about your trip!"

"I've had a question for you since the reveal stream," Seph tells me. "But it didn't seem like asking at school was a good idea."

"What's up?" I ask.

"With them releasing their mana batteries," he says. "Won't that kind of… hurt your family's company?"

I've been asked this at school a few times already, but it's not an issue.

"It could," I say. "But only because some things won't need our generators anymore. The little teleport pads Xander used during the testings was noticed by a lot of people and the Lumaria Group was asked about them. The major teleport pads which are expensive to use are mainly expensive because of powering them. Xanson Tech's mana batteries could solve that issue, and they could be used in our magitech generators for that part of the function.

"But magitech doesn't need electricity," I say. "Whether scientech of magitech. It's just easier in some cases. And since the small teleport pads didn't have a visible power source, that means their mana batteries were small – they took considerably less energy than the major ones. Could be nothing usable for the larger pads, but it is."

"Seriously?" Seph asks.

"Seriously," I nod. "The Lumaria Group's official response is that they're currently communicating with the company which developed and is researching improvements into the pads. Dad says that means they're making an offer to buy them out so they can let everyone go in a safer, happier manner. With sufficient enough severance packages there won't be many complaints. Then, the Lumaria Group will just replace all of the teleport pads with more efficient ones – ones which won't need our generators anymore."

"That sounds like it's gonna be a dip to your family's business," Seph says. "Ain't it?"

"Yes and no," I answer. "We do make decent money on selling those generators and doing maintenance and replacements of them as needed, but it won't be enough to negatively affect us. We've also signed a deal with Xanson Tech to use their mana batteries to power all future generators. This will save our future customers the effort of needing to buy them for themselves, and they'll be incorporated into the generators the same way they're incorporated into Xanson Tech's stuff."

Considering the mana batteries have an in-use expected lifespan which is longer than the generators, there will be no reason to replace them. Ever.

"What's that mean?" Tyler asks.

"That they'll stop functioning if someone messes with them," I answer. "But yeah, my family's business is still in business. We mainly provide electricity, both scientech and magitech, and power cores. Xanson Technologies is releasing mana batteries to replace regular batteries, stuff the normal person would use. It's not really a competitor for us. Only for their own purposes are they using bigger ones."

Something I'm not saying, however, is that my parents have been in talks to purchase some of their massive mana batteries for our power plants. They convert the mana from mana crystals into electricity, whether scientech or magitech depending on where it goes. Part of what the consumer pays for is the mana crystals which are used to supply that mana. If we can acquire mega crystals to supply the mana constantly rather than needing to repeatedly replace regular ones, it would lower costs all around.

But that's something that's not public yet because we don't know how those talks will come out. We're not even entirely sure if they're willing to create mana crystals large enough for that. Only Adrian King, Xander, and Greyson even have enough mana to produce to them.

Even then, only Adrian King himself likely has enough to produce ones which could properly fuel our power plants.

"Speaking of Xander," Seph says. "Um. You're friends with him, right?"

"Neighbors, yeah," I say. "But not really friends. Maybe one day, though! He invited me to the testings because I was helping him out with some stuff. Why?"

"Um… nothing," he mumbles and looks back at his homework.

Sudden hesitation about a question after bringing someone up? That's something I've heard guys at school do before, though usually about girls.

"What?" I grin at him. "Got a crush on him?"

"What?" He gives me a startled look. "No! I ain't into guys, just gals. Straight as can be. It's just… he ain't being forced to make that stuff and sell it, is he? He's a kid, and a foster kid, and he seemed so stressed in all of the videos… and a kid with that kind of talent is prime for being taken advantage of, right?"

Seph's concern is so hilarious to me that I burst out laughing.

"What?" He looks annoyed.

"Sorry," I say. "First, Adrian King is directly involved, so you know that's not happening. Second, and it's not really publicly-known because of how absurd it is that most people don't believe it when they hear it, but Xander has millions of mana. I actually suspect he's some sort of experiment by his great-grandfather and that that's why he's so talented.

"As for the inventions," I continue. "My parents are good friends with his foster-dad. According to Trey, Xander invented the puzzle spheres more of as a thing to do and work on, and possibly also partially to distract his second-cousin. The first version is apparently insanely difficult.

"The hoverboard was because Xander didn't want to learn how to ride a bike and his brain went to hoverboards because his mind works in ways we'll likely never understand. He doesn't like wheeled things like bikes and skateboards, probably a result of him breaking his arm the first time he rode a skateboard. The training spheres stemmed from him making them for him to practice with. The augmented reality kit was his attempt at trying to understand video games, I think. So he could play with his friends.

"So as you can see," I say. "It's all stuff that Xander made for himself. It just happened to also be stuff which can be sold, so his great-grandfather is doing that, and it's earning Xander money. My parents asked Trey about what he's getting and Trey gets nothing from it. He and Xander's case worker had to approve it, but that's about the limits of their involvement. Xander's bank account is probably a lot fatter than mine while Trey's only benefit is having to keep up with an Autistic who can quite literally change the world just by trying to find a way to connect with his friends."

Which is honestly quite terrifying. Xander can change the world in significant ways just because he doesn't want to ride a bike, or because he wants to try playing games with his friends, or because he wants a good way to practice mana control. And he has the power to back up his abilities and can even close Rifts.

Not only that, but he definitely holds enough power to take on high-level demons. Casually.

"Damn."

"Yeah," I say. "Xander's just an incredible dude, and there's no way Adrian King would allow him to be taken advantage of. Like I said, I think Xander's an experiment he's doing as well. It's the only way to explain how powerful he is. But anyway! Let's do our homework so we can get to playing!"

The three of us start on our homework and once we finish, we start throwing a football around while Tyler tells us about his hunting trip. He and his dad focused on magic wolves this time, though they did catch a few other beasts. It sounds pretty fun and now I want to try and hunt the wind-wielding wolves he tells us about.

They use air magics to boost their speed and as weapons, but I doubt they'd manage to out-speed me.

~~~

[Greyson – 10 years]

I toss the rock and it lands on the 7 in the hopscotch square, so I start hopping on the squares while avoiding landing on the 7. Once I make it to the other end, I turn around and make my way back to the start, then grin at Cody.

"Your turn!"

"Alright!" Cody retrieves the stone and returns to the start so he can toss it.

"Come ooooon!" Finn, another boy our age who's a genius when it comes to force-type magics complains. "Can't you two just agree that you're both the winner?"

The other six boys playing with us have all been eliminated, though only Finn has stayed with us. All of the others are throwing a ball around while he stuck with us to see who wins. I guess Cody and me playing another eight rounds with neither of us losing has stretched his patience. A ten-year-old has limited focus if he's not doing something, after all.

Which is why I'm doing multiple things right now, including mentally designing a phone which can withstand a standard mana level of 50,000, especially when in regular contact with lightning magics. Grandfather Adrian tasked me with doing so.

"No," I tell Finn. "Cody and I need to figure out which of us is the Hopscotch King for the next week!"

The rules include that we're not allowed to use magic to assist us in this, so we're both just hopping from square to square on our own and letting the rock land where it does.

Well, I'm managing to land it exactly where I want it to, but that doesn't matter. We're allowed to aim for a specific square if we want. I aim for them in ascending order, then descending if the game goes long enough.

"You can both be the king, though!"

"Nope!" Cody says. "Only one-"

"Huh."

They both look at me as I look toward the sky.

"What?" They both ask.

"A griffin's coming."

They both look in the direction I'm looking, but I'm sure they can't see him yet.

"I don't see anything," Finn says, squinting. After a few moments, though, he gasps, "Wait! There's a griffin!"

"Like I said," I say. "A griffin's coming."

The griffin soars straight toward me and lands on the ground a few feet away. The others out here all spread out, a few of the kids and staff nearby readying combat spells in case of an emergency.

As if anyone here would be in danger while I am here. This is a griffin, not a magical bear which throws honey-filled balloons while teleporting, manipulating time, and wielding mind magics. I could easily kill the griffin.

Who looks me directly in the eyes after landing.

"Really?" I ask. "Well, I can't do anything about that right now. For the first month of my time at this academy, I'm not allowed to leave. I can go into town to go to a restaurant or the park or something, but not further. It's that bad? Alright. Tell them that for every day they're misbehaving that I'm not able to deal with them, I'll pluck out all of their feathers one time consecutively."

The griffin flinches back. He's not one of the ones I've plucked feathers from, but he's seen me de-feather another griffin. Just thinking about having all of his feathers plucked, then healed back in, then plucked again, over and over, makes him feel a sort of phantom pain.

"You… can understand him?" Cody asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "Just gotta look him in the eyes and I can tell what he's saying and he can understand me. It's a form of mind magic, I think? But innate, so not a proper spell. It only works with some creature types, though. We can also communicate if we're touching."

"What's going on?" Professor Mitchell, one of the magic combat teachers here, approaches, a spell nearly fully formed in anticipation of needing to throw up a barrier around us.

Xander would probably be able to tell all of the nuances of the barrier he's partially formed, but my ability to sense magic even with magesight active isn't good enough for that. It's probably focused on countering light, earth, and air magics, though, as those are a griffin's primary offensive powers.

"He's asking me to come deal with some griffins acting up," I answer. "I've tamed all of the griffins within five hundred miles of my home. Sometimes, they start acting up and I need to remind them not to. Some apparently began to do that a few days ago. Hey! Is it okay if we go on a ride on him? We'll stay in the area, I promise!"

Professor Mitchell's one of the ones in charge of the group we're in, so he has the discretion to let us out to go do things. Since it's after school on a Friday and we're all just playing in one of the outdoor recreational areas, he might let us go for a griffin ride as long as we promise to stay in the area.

It's been awhile since I went for a griffin ride and I'd really like to do one now. Something I've learned over the past two weeks is that it's easier to get permission to do things if I invite Cody or even more along with me. That's why I said "we" instead of "I".

Having friends is a lot more convenient than I ever knew. No wonder Xander was always depressed over not having some.

"That doesn't sound very safe," Professor Mitchell says.

"I ride griffins all the time," I tell him. "I've even ridden various breeds of them around the globe. My most recent first experience with a breed was an arctic variant up by Santa's workshop. She was super nice and such a smooooooth ride."

"There are no proper harnesses for riding," Professor Mitchell says.

"I'm literally one of the most powerful mages in the world," I say. "I don't need a harness. If I start to fall, I can just use magic to fix my position. And I can use it to make sure they don't fall off, too. It's completely and entirely safe. And the griffin's fully tamed, that's why he came to let me know that some of the others were misbehaving. There's no risk of him attempting to cause issue."

Professor Mitchell contemplates for several very long moments, then gives me a small nod.

"YES!" I pump my fists up into the air.

"But you must stay in the area," he says. "And be back within fifteen minutes. Understand?"

I hope he knows what he's just agreed to, but I don't think he has.

"Understood!" I tell him, then hurry over to the griffin's side. "Come on! Lower yourself! You've gotta let the others on, too."

"Greyson?" Cody asks.

"Yeah?" I look at him.

"What are we going to hold onto?"

"I'll be holding onto him," I say. "You and Finn can sit behind me and hold onto the guy in front of you!"

If it's with those two, then I can handle being touched. They're good people and I'm comfortable with them, like with Cal, Travis, the other Cal, Dad, and Papa.

"Then maybe we should put on shirts, first?"

Since we're running around in the summer sun, we all shed our shirts awhile ago. Now that I've been reminded I have it off, I summon one from my backpack and pull it on while Cody and Finn grab theirs from by their backpacks, then I help them up onto the griffin's back before climbing up and positioning myself in the front. Cody's behind me, and Finn's behind him.

Since I'm in direct physical contact with the griffin, I don't need to use words to communicate with him. He spreads out his wings the moment we're ready for him, then he takes a few steps forward and flaps once. His magics activate and he lifts up into the sky, Cody and Finn both feeling startled as we suddenly soar high and fast. Cody grips me more tightly and I'm sure Finn's doing the same to him.

The griffin takes us pretty high up and soon, the academy grounds are just a tiny blotch on the ground far below. We begin gliding at this point rather than ascending. My friends begin relaxing as I enjoy the feel of the wind on my face and the sound of the flapping of the griffin's wings.

The air here is cooler than down at the school and Cody shivers behind me while I can feel it in Finn's mind. I'm a little chilly as well, but I don't know a good spell for dealing with that. Xander does, but his explanation for how to cast it makes my head spin.

Whatever sounds he makes obviously make sense to him, but they don't to me. That's why I've created a note to ask him to draw the spell out using light magic pens.

Keeping to the range from the academy I give him, the griffin begins soaring in circles as he descends. Cody's and Finn's minds transition to joy and excitement as we do. This griffin flies fairly smoothly and there's really nothing like a flight on a griffin's back.

"Oh!" Finn gasps as we descend. "I can see the farm!"

Finn's a boarder like most students, but he lives in a nearby town. Sort of. His family runs a farm raising a chicken-adjacent magic beast which uses plant magics. Their bones are used in magic fertilizers, as are their egg shells and even the rest of the eggs, though some eggs are eaten or sold for eating.

Like many farmers who deal with magic beasts, Finn has around 350 mana on the Lumaria Mana Level scale, so right in the middle of what's typical for magic beast farmers. If all farmers and ranchers dealt with magic beasts or magic crops, the average level of the nation would definitely be a lot higher. As it is, magic farmers and magic beast farmers and ranchers are only a small part of the population, even here in Kenzibri. They're an even smaller part of it outside of this part of the world.

We just have an unusually high number of them in this greater region due to it being the origin of the mages of this world. Even then, regular farmers and ranchers still outnumber them when not in an area like the Autumn Realm.

That area's special. I could feel it when I visited for the barbecue.

Something else which is special are Finn's family's chickens. As soon as the restriction is up, I'm definitely going to visit them to buy a chicken and some eggs so I can try them. I'm no life or plant mage but I want to try them anyway. They might still taste good even with the differences in magics.

"I can see your chickens," I tell Finn. "You weren't kidding when you said their feathers look like leaves! So they can really be used for compost and magic fertilizers?"

"You can see them?"

"He's probably using a sight-enhancement spell," Cody says.

"Awww… don't tell him that!"

Cody and Finn laugh in response to that, and I giggle a little as well.

Finn's parents are coming to visit tomorrow – he's in his third year at the academy so he's not in the new-student restriction period – so I could maybe ask him if he could have them bring some meat and eggs for me. If Dad, Papa, or Cal were coming, I'd probably ask them.

But I can't see them for more than two more weeks… and I really wish I could. How much trouble would I get into if I snuck back to Lakeview for a little bit? Probably a lot, but it would be worth it.

Though Xander would probably be really disappointed in me. He's already upset with me for texting him during the restriction period. I tried to let him know that I'm allowed to leave campus on weekends during the probation period and have my phone, but he didn't believe me. Not being able to tell him in-person really makes that a struggle – I can leave campus, I just can't leave the area.

If I actually break the rules, he'd really get upset with me, and I don't like that. So I need to do my best to stay here. Then as soon as I'm allowed, I'll visit Cal, Xander, Travis, and then Dad and Papa, in that order.

The wait for that will not be fun, though.

"Hey, Cody, Finn?"

"Yeah?" They both ask.

"Remind me to build a machine which accelerates time once we land."

Cody snorts.

"Dork," Finn says.

"Xander calls me that, too," I say. "And he's a god, so that means it's true."

"What made you want to build a time machine this time?" Cody asks.

"I miss my family," I tell him. "Getting to talk with them on the phone isn't helping. Hey, Finn? When yours visits, can we get some eggs and meat? I wanna try your family's chickens and I've got some allowance money I can pay for it with."

"We can use one of the kitchens and make chicken nuggets!" He says.

"And muffins!" I say.

"And muffins!" Cody lets go of me to pump his fists up into the air, then quickly grabs onto me again. "Whoa!"

"Hahahaha! We're going for a dive landing!" I pump my fists up into the air. "WOOO!"

The griffin soars down to the ground and lands, coming to a quick stop. Once he does, I help Cody and Finn off of him and they stumble for a few moments.

"Yeah," I say. "Land legs take a few moments to get back even after just a short flight. So? What'd you guys think? It was amazing, wasn't it?"

"When's the next time one of your griffins will be here?" Cody asks. "I wanna go for another ride!"

"Don't know," I answer before looking at the griffin. "No more rides for kids today or it'll never end. Go on and deliver my message to the misbehaving ones. If they end up crossing any line too far before I'm able to deal with them, just go to Xander and let him know you need help. He might be wondering what griffin meat tastes like."

The griffin fidgets for a few moments, then dips his head to me before flying away. I hope he comes back again for more rides.

"Thanks for letting us go for a ride!" I tell Professor Mitchel before looking at Cody. "Let's get back to figuring out who the Hopscotch King is!"

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