[Xander – 13 years]

"Hi, Ms. Heidi," I greet Ms. Heidi as we enter the shop.

Rather than staying at Isaac's for breakfast, we decided to come down to Ms. Heidi's bakery and buy donuts for it. The others will buy their drinks at a nearby store while I keep the donuts safe after we leave here. I already have milk in my backpack, but they're getting their own. That's my breakfast milk, for when I'm not eating at home.

It's not even seven in the morning yet, and it'll take us past that to get to eating breakfast. I'm not happy with that, but it might be okay since we'll be traveling during my normal breakfast time. I've already snuck some fruit chunks, and might eat a little bit more while we're traveling, too.

Especially since I'm low on mana. I might have accidentally tapped into the world's dream while I was napping after stream yesterday and that consumed most of my mana. Grandpa Adrian told me not to worry about it too much, that it happens sometimes but is pretty harmless.

But I don't like being so low on mana, so I want to recover it faster. I've been trying to keep myself full on food since then so that my recovery is as high as possible.

"Good morning, Xander," Ms. Heidi smiles at me. "How're you today?"

"I'm feeling only a little okay," I answer. "Also very hungry. While the others look at the donuts, can I go first?"

"Sure!" She answers. "And hello to the rest of you, too."

They all greet her and start looking at the selections, and I order a baker's dozen donuts. Once we've all got our donuts, I store them in my backpack so that they don't get cold while we travel. We then head to a store so they can buy drinks for themselves.

As I wait for them to come back out of the store, I can hear someone riding a bike toward me. That doesn't mean they're coming for me, they could just be going for a walk as well. Whoever they are, they're very powerful. I could feel their mana from a lot further away than for a human person's.

I glance over and find a boy around my age riding his bike towards me.

But he's not really a human boy. He looks like one for sure, one with pitch-black hair and deep blue eyes and a face which hasn't lost its summer tan yet. His outfit is meant for the cold, like mine. Well, like most peoples' outfits now. He's wearing a hoodie and jeans, along with sneakers meant for wear and tear. His backpack is mostly blue with black accents, and it looks full of stuff, like my friends' do.

Even though he looks like a human boy, I can tell he's not because of my magical perspicacity. He's a dragon who looks similar to Dragon River, but smaller. He's got a lot of mana, too, even if not anywhere near as much as me or Dragon River. It's still more than an adult wyvern would typically have at the max, though.

That must be because he's a young dragon. Dragons are inherently powerful, but noble dragons still have to train to increase their mana capacity. Wild dragons and wyverns don't – they grow stronger until they reach their peak in adulthood, then basically never get any stronger.

Mostly. They can get stronger through training, but it's a lot slower for them. I'm not sure why there's a difference and I forgot to ask Grandpa Adrian why.

"Hey," he greets me, putting a foot down to hold himself steady now that he's not riding, just sitting on his bike.

"Hi."

"I'm Jake," he introduces himself.

"Xander."

"Nice to meet you!"

"Those bikes," he says. "They're Sig's and the rest of the dork squad's, right?"

There are people outside of the close friend group and parents who are allowed to call him "Sig" instead of "S.G."? Probably not. Dragons are better than humans, but he should respect Sig's preference for who can use the close-only nickname.

"Yeah."

"They inside?"

Why is he asking that? Even if he's in human form, he's a dragon. There's no way he'd transform and let himself have only human senses. His hearing should be good enough to hear them talking about what snacks to grab for later. Our plan is go to Nine Springs and explore the ruins a little bit this morning and they don't want to rely on my snacks.

I told them I have plenty of snacks, but I guess they like junk food from a store, too. Also soda.

Since they're talking about that, he should definitely be able to hear them. And I'm sure he can smell that they went inside, too.

"Yeah."

"Cool!" He hops off of his bike and puts it in the bike rack, then hurries into the shop.

He calls Sig "Sig" to him when he joins them, but doesn't get corrected. I guess it's fine, then. They talk for a couple of minutes while Jake picks out some stuff and asks them about what we're doing today.

"Mind if I join you?" Jake asks. "That sounds pretty fun."

"We'll have to ask Xander," Connor tells him as Sig starts to say something. "He's going, too."

Why do they have to ask me? They all probably want to hang out with him since he's apparently close enough to them to get to call Sig "Sig" rather than "S.G.", which means it would be four-to-one if I said no. That means I'd be overruled.

"Alright!" Jake says. "If he's not comfortable with me coming along, mind if we hang out again sometime else? There's something I want to show you guys and it's been waaaay too long."

"Us?" Sam asks. "Xander's a part of our crew, you know."

Sam really thinks that?

"Yeah," Jake says. "I mean, mostly Sig. We've been friends for years, but you're all good folk, too, so I don't mind showing you. You're actually the first I want to show! And if the rest of you dorks are there, I don't mind it!"

"Hey!" Isaac protests. "We're only dorks some of the time!"

"I mean," Sig says. "I don't mind you hanging out with us. Xander might be a bit uncomfortable and just wanting to hang out with us right now, though. He was around a lot of people due to his stream yesterday."

So many people showed up to the park after school let out. There were already a lot there before, but they were mostly adults. Then kids started showing up to meet Dragon River. I do kind of want to be around less people today.

But maybe one extra person is fine.

Also, I think Connor is attracted to Jake. He got very happy when he saw Jake, and he keeps having small spikes of happiness and nervousness. I'm starting to understand that someone feeling like that means they're crushing on someone.

So it's not just Sig he's got a crush on, then. That's understandable. Most people I know from our age group have at least two crushes. Jake's emotions are a lot more calm, but he's got that same feeling about someone there as well. It might even be Connor.

It's better if it's Connor, since everyone else is in a relationship. But if it's not, as long as he accepts rejection if he ever asks, that's fine as well.

"So we just need to check with Xander, then?" Jake asks. "Alright! Hey, Xander? Do you mind if I hang out with you guys today? It's cool if not, I wasn't expecting to run into Sig here."

"You know he's outside, right?" Sam asks. "I mean, he can probably hear you, but you'll have to wait until you get back outside for an answer."

"I can hear him fine," Jake says.

Of course he can. He's really a dragon who made sure not to let himself have just a human's regular senses. Talking directly like this from a distance while he's inside of a building I'm not is strange. It's not too often I'm around someone with good enough hearing for that.

"Um… maybe it's fine?" I answer. "It's okay if it's just one more person. Especially with what you really are. I know you won't be mean."

Grandpa Adrian gave me a book full of information on noble dragons. One of the parts I got to stated that because of how they became sapient, dragons are generally not mean creatures. Well, it was a lot more detailed than that, but that's the basics of it.

Noble dragons might be aloof, or they might be kind, but they'll rarely be outright hostile unless provoked. Even then, they probably won't be mean outside of getting petty.

"Alright!" Jake says. "Thanks, Xander! Lemme grab some stuff for snacking on out there as well. And I guess lunch."

"I got permission from Dad to catch something out there and cook it up," I tell him. "So we were gonna do that for lunch, if we stay until then. Um. If you want to join us for that, you can."

"Oh, neat," he says. "There are a few things I can think of that'd be good there, if you're wanting advice on what to go for."

As a dragon, he probably sometimes goes hunting in his dragon form while concealing it from human people. He'll probably know what's good to catch from experience. I just hope it's not stuff that's just full of water magic, but stuff which has other types as well.

A good blend helps with the balance of the flavors, according to Mom. And water dragons probably just eat raw meat rather than cooking it when in their dragon form, so blending flavors is probably something he doesn't do when hunting out there.

"Um… I might think about it. If I remember."

"Okay!"

"Are you using magic to hear him?" Sig asks, though I can feel confusion coming from all four of my friends.

"Nah," Jake answers. "Let's pick out our stuff!"

After they all finish picking out their snacks and stuff, they leave the shop and Sig puts it all into his bracelet. He must have been thinking about them getting snacks here even before we left the bakery.

I just thought his bracelet was full, but it was really that he wanted to hold everyone's snacks.

"Thanks for letting me tag along, Xander!" Jake feels really happy. "I've wanted to get to know you for couple of years, but didn't know how to approach you. You feel kind of intimidating… but Dad told me that you're pretty chill."

"I feel intimidating?"

"He feels intimidating?" My friends ask at the same time.

"I'll explain once we're in Nine Springs," Jake tells us.

They all get back on their bikes, then we start riding towards Nine Springs. As we do, the rest of them talk a little and I learn a few things about Jake. Some of them are from my own observations, others are from what he says or they say.

Jake apparently hangs out with them a lot during the summer, but he was visiting his mom elsewhere the whole summer, which is why I didn't meet him until today. His parents aren't divorced, as they were never married in the first place. Dragon's generally don't do that sort of thing unless it's to a human, so that makes sense.

Well, he doesn't say that last part. I know it because it's in the Guide to Dragon Society book Grandpa Adrian gave me after the stream yesterday. I read it a little while waiting for the others to wake up this morning and the marriage thing was mentioned in the section I was looking at.

He's not a part of their core friend group, though. Sig's just a popular kid, as are his friends. Jake is like Ethan in terms of friendship, but closer. They all ate at the same table for lunch when Sig was still attending, minus Isaac since he goes to another school. Now it's also minus Sig, since he's graduated high school and doesn't have to attend regular school anymore.

It seems Jake started attending school in the area when he was in fifth grade, unlike my second-cousins over in Sweden. They started school at the same age as human kids did.

How do I ask him why it took so long for him to start?

Jake just turned fourteen at the end of last month, so he's still an eighth grader. He's on the school's basketball team. The conversation transitions over to them talking about his practices for a little bit. Their games don't start until next month, and my friends apparently don't go to them.

Which I guess makes sense. They haven't gone to any of Ethan's football games, either. While they enjoy playing sports, none of them are competitive.

The rest of the ride is just them talking about school stuff. Even with Sig not being in school anymore, he's not left out of the conversation. He doesn't fall behind his classmates in his social life despite not being around them as much as they are each other.

Would the staff at the testing center have lied about his scores if they felt it best to keep him in school for the social side of things?

For some reason, I'm not sure I'll like the answer if I ask Grandpa Adrian and he actually answers.

Aside from that, something else I learn as we travel is thanks to my empathy. Jake isn't crushing on any one of them. He has a mild crush on all of them, but mostly Sig. He seems to think even I am cute.

Maybe his standards aren't that high? But I don't blame him for being attracted to the others. They're all good guys and really cute, too. As long as he accepts that Sig is taken and Sam and Isaac are taken, then he's probably fine.

At several points throughout our trip to Nine Springs, the others stop talking to try and race each other a little bit. They do so extremely excitedly, too, so they apparently all have a lot of energy right now.

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I feel like I have a lot, too, but I don't participate in the races. No one wins anything for being first and even if they did, I wouldn't want to join in.

"Didn't think to ask," Sig says as they park their bikes and I put my hoverboard away, once we're in the chosen spot inside of Nine Springs. "But did you bring something to eat? We all got donuts and I wouldn't mind sharing one of mine, if you didn't."

"I ate before I left home," Jake says. "Dad shooed me out the door since I apparently had too much energy for him this morning."

I believe it.

"Xander?" Isaac asks. "Did you just bring out a platter of steaming sausages?"

Everyone looks over at me and the plate of sausage links I just pulled out. It's a big plate of them I made sure to prepare in advance in case of something like this, since they seem to like spontaneously going places. This one was intended to share, so it's fine to show it to them.

I guess I forgot to tell them I had it, though.

"Yeah," I answer. "I put them in stasis a couple of days ago, just in case. I didn't want to do just donuts, so I picked these for a side. But I made sure there's enough to share, so that it ain't just me, since that'd be mean. Y'all can have some if you want, I have plates and forks."

I set the plate on the ground in front of me, then pull out some dishes for everyone, as well as a plate of fruit pieces, my milk, and all of our donuts.

"This is mindram boar sausage, isn't it?" Jake asks as he serves himself some.

"Yeah."

"How can you tell?" Sam asks.

"The smell," Jake answers. "It's a bit unique."

"Really?" Sam sniffs his. "Smells like normal sausage to me."

"Magic has smells," I explain. "He's talking about that."

"Not everyone has your senses," Sam says. "He wasn't talking about that."

"No, I was," Jake says. "It smells like mind magic, and mindram boar is the only pork-type meat I can think of which can be sourced easily in the area. There's a shop which gets it delivered from where they get hunted some few hundred miles away."

A microrift with them as a released animal probably appears near there on a somewhat regular basis. That would make it possible to regularly hunt them over there. As long as it doesn't start showing up too often and their hunters work well, the boars won't cause too much of a problem.

While I'm not fond of most pork, breakfast sausages seem to be okay. Mom claims it's because of the blend of seasonings, and I think she's right.

After we all eat breakfast, I clean my dishes and put them away, then we all stand and stretch a little. It's cool out, so it's important to stretch after being idle awhile to warm our bodies back up.

Jake's feeling really happy looking at Sig while we stretch.

"Hey, Sig?" I ask.

"Yeah?" Sig looks at me, then grunts. "Oof! Random hugs of Xander!"

"Sorry if I hurt you."

"Nah," he hugs me back. "Just caught me off-guard. You okay?"

"Still hungry," I bump his shoulder with my head a little while trying to get more comfortable.

It's not a direct answer, but it at least lets him know the answer isn't fully "yes". He wiggles slightly but gently. The rocking motion feels nice when he does it, which is probably why he does it.

"Are you two dating?" Jake asks after a few moments of our quiet hug.

There's a slight feeling of disappointment in his mind, but also of acceptance.

Sig gives me a light poke in the side, and I look up at him. I can tell without looking what he wants to know, and I nod.

"Yeah," Sig tells him. "Started toward the end of summer. That's… not an issue, is it?"

"Nah," Jake answers. "I'm pan."

"Pan?" Connor asks. "What's that mean?"

"Panromantic," Jake says. "Well, and pansexual, I guess. Means I'm attracted to people of either sex, regardless of which particular species of people they are."

That's the norm for dragons, according to the book Grandpa Adrian gave me.

"Wouldn't that be bestiality?" Connor asks.

"Not if they're a person," Jake says. "They can think on the level of a human, after all. And I think you're forgetting that one of your friends is dating another one of your friends… and one of them is genetically basically zero human."

"Xander at least looks human," Connor says.

"You've seen Berry in human form," Sig says as we stop hugging and I look at our friends and Jake again.

"That's… different?" Connor says.

"Would you date me?" Jake asks with a small smile on his face.

I can feel that he's being playful, but also that he actually has a slight hope in his mind. Connor's face has turned bright red at the question and I can feel him both being happy and nervous and timid.

"I-I mean if-if you actually meant it-maybe-I-"

"Just say yes," I tell him. "You like him lots. As much as how you used to feel about Sig, before he started dating me."

Connor still likes Sig that way, but not as much now. Maybe it's because he knows Sig's not available to date anymore? Though Sig and I still haven't gone any any actual dates yet. We mostly just sit beside each other, send texts directly to each other more often than before, and sometimes hold hands. Also do lots of hugs.

"Xander!" Connor's face is even brighter red and embarrassment fills his mind.

"Oh…" I look down. "Is that one of those things I shouldn't say?"

"Yeah!"

"Sorry…"

Connor's quiet for a few moments.

"You're forgiven," he says. "Just… don't say that again, okay?"

"I'll try to remember not to.

"Thanks," he's quiet for a few moments. "Um… yeah, Jake. You're really cool, and you've been a good friend since we first hung out. But it's not like you're the only person I crush on, and I like some of the girls in our class, too. But like. If that's an actual question, then… yeah? But Dad told me not to take any relationships like this too seriously right now. It should come second to other stuff, since I'm only in eighth grade. It should be more about figuring myself out and what I like than more serious stuff. Save seriousness for when I'm sixteen and up."

"No worries," Jake says. "And yeah, it was a little bit serious. But there's a follow-up question."

Jake pulls off his hoodie and shirt, and I quickly look away, closing and covering my eyes as well to make sure I don't accidentally see him naked. I don't know why he's pulling off his hoodie and shirt, but I don't want to be looking if he takes off more.

"Why are you undressing?" Connor asks.

"To show you something."

"It's freaking cold out!" Connor asks. "And I'm not sure our parents would be happy with you showing us… that. Especially not in public."

I think Connor's misunderstanding what Jake wants to show them. I still don't know what Jake wants to show them, but Jake feels really amused so I think Connor's misunderstanding.

"Just hold on," Jake tells him. "I can't show it to you dressed or I'll accidentally destroy my clothes."

Oh. Oooooh! He wants to show them his real form!

"Destroy your clothes?" Connor asks.

"Just gimme a second."

Jake finishes undressing, and I feel a spell get cast. Since I'm facing away from him, I can't tell its formula. I'd really like to look at it, even if it won't be exactly what I need. But it might help me figure out how to transform into species more different from human than a beastkin. I don't want to look when he changes back, either, even though I also want to look so that I can see the spell.

Not seeing him naked is better than seeing transformation spells that are returning to one's true form and a more long-term shifting spell than the one I have.

"What about now?" Jake's voice is now deeper, and it comes from a little higher up. "Would you still date me, seeing me like this?"

I turn around to find Jake in his real form, which is just a dragon. He is a full-blooded dragon, after all. He probably hatched from an egg after spending a century or two developing in it.

The book doesn't get into the specifics on each different dragon species' egg time, it just mentions that how long it takes before an egg hatches depends on various factors. Species is among them, but I don't know what the rest are.

"You're…" Connor trails off, and the others are just staring at Jake in silence, mouths slightly agape.

"My real name is -," Jake tells them. "The dragon Xander interviewed yesterday is my dad. This is what I really look like. I'm a dragon, through and through. Dad wants me learning about human society, so he taught me how to shapeshift. Once I was able to manage it well enough, he let me start attending public school. It took until most of the way through fourth grade, which is why I didn't start until fifth."

Oh. That's why it took him so long for him to start school. Since he was born a full dragon in dragon form rather than in human form, he probably didn't have a human form yet. He had to learn how to turn into one first, but probably didn't have enough skill until he was around ten to cast the spell.

Since he was able to start fifth grade like normal, he was probably given a regular human education even while growing up only in dragon form.

"This is what I wanted to show you," Jake says. "Dad said it's fine. I never really cared to get attention for being a dragon but since it's now public we're real… figured I'd let my friends know what I really am."

"I have so many questions," Sig says. "Starting with… how did you manage to hide it? If you're a dragon, don't you have, like, a million or two mana?"

"Something like that," Jake chuckles.

More than that.

"So it doesn't influence your human form?"

"It does," Jake says. "I actually learned how to shapeshift when I was seven, not ten. But since it's not my natural form, I can't instinctively control my strength and speed in human form. Dad had me spend three years learning to do so. It's how I was able to join the team despite being a dragon – no one knew I wasn't average because I'm good at controlling my strength. Though I might sometimes cheat and use a little bit more strength or speed during a game, if it won't be thought unusual and it'll help the team out."

Something tells me this might take a few minutes, so I sit back down. Sig sits beside me, though our friends remain standing. Even Jake is sitting, but I guess they aren't paying attention to that.

"Pretty sure that's against the rules," Sam snorts.

"Eh," Jake shrugs. "I'm a dragon, what are they gonna do? And it's not like it's anything too much when I do that. Just a small increase over what I usually display. The leagues accept there are probably a few people with higher-than-permitted mana levels who slip in. As long as they don't use it for an unfair advantage, they don't say anything or require mana level testing."

"There's talk of using my strength-restricting anklets starting next school year," I say. "To make sure it's actually fair. It would make it so that people who are super strong in magic can participate without making it unfair to others. But there's apparently a lot of little details which have to be done, so… yeah. I dunno."

Though Jake might already have something similar, too. Noble dragons apparently know how to make them, they just never gave the knowledge to human society. Grandpa Adrian did, too, but he wanted to let society develop it on their own. I'm technically outside of the bounds of that, but he says it's fine for mine to become public, which is why they might start getting used in sports.

Jake might have one from his father or another dragon that he wears concealed while playing in sports. It probably doesn't restrict him to the strength equivalent for the average mana level of those he's playing with, which would be why he's able to put out a little more than the others. It would definitely make it hard for others to notice that he's ridiculously strong compared to them, though.

"Really?" Sig asks me. "Your stuff's really getting used or considered for a lot of stuff, isn't it?"

"You have no idea."

"There's stuff you haven't told us about your creations, isn't there?" Sig asks.

"Yeah."

"If you're a full dragon," Isaac looks back to Jake. "How come you found Xander intimidating? Isn't he only part-dragon?"

"You said you've wanted to approach me for several years now," I say. "But I didn't even have my full mana until recently, so you couldn't have known I was a lot stronger than you."

"Right," Jake nods. "All noble dragons can tell when lies are told – noble dragons are the ones that are people, the ones with proper sapience at a human level. We also have perspicacity, allowing us to see the truth when it is hidden."

"The ability to know what someone really is?" I look down at my arms. "But I'm just human? Sort of. This is my real form."

"Perspicacity doesn't work on yourself," Jake tells me, and I look at him. Connor's now feeling Jake's scales. "And yours is probably a little bit weaker than a full dragon's. We can see a being's natural form, their nature, and their real form. Their natural form is likely what you see and understand to be their real selves. It's the form they were born as.

"A being's real form usually matches that…" he continues. "Except in the case of hybrids born as a species which doesn't match. As for nature, it can let us know what a hybrid is. Also, a hybrid isn't cemented as a species on its own until it's a third-generation pure. That is, born to two parents of the same hybrid type, born to the same."

"Which I'm not," I say.

"Right," he says. "Even though you have unicorn and phoenix, and they're apparently the parents of your mother, based on what you've said, you're a hybrid of those rather than a pegasus."

"Because my mom wasn't born to two pegasi-type hybrids born of the same?"

"Right," he says. "Anyway, your natural form is human since that's what you were born into. Your nature is a blend of noble sun dragon, noble shrubfolk, unicorn, and phoenix. Your real form… let's just say that it's a little scary. Made me nervous to approach you. Then I come back from my mom's and you're friends with my friends… the only reason I haven't hung out with them and you yet is just because I've been busy since school returned. But then I ran into you guys today, my first fully free Saturday!"

His tail swishes a little and I can feel how happy he is. It's radiating out of him, though I think only an empath would feel it.

"Since it'd get me an opportunity to get to know you," he says. "And you're friends with my friends, I figured I'd see about hanging out! I did want to show them my real self, too. And Dad said you're pretty cool, even if intimidating."

"I intimidated your dad?" I ask. "Sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"It's more like your real form does," he says. "Like with Magus Adrian. He's just a human who's been given a few True Seeds, so his natural and real forms match. But when we see his mana pool… it's terrifying. The only reason we're relaxed about him is because we know he won't interfere with us if we want to do something."

Grandpa Adrian's real form isn't his true natural form, but his natural form is his real form. That's confusing. I guess it's because he didn't just shapeshift, he actually modified his body to match Earth's version of humans.

"Dad said you're like that," Jake says. "You're intimidating, but you won't attack us for no reason or for a slight provocation."

"Oh," I look down at my hands for a few moments, then look back at Jake. "What's my real form? I thought it was this."

"Hm…" he thinks. "I can't quite put it into words. But it's rather terrifying and made me feel like you'd eat me if I accidentally upset you."

"Wouldn't that be cannibalism?"

Sig bursts out laughing.

"No," Jake snorts. "It would be like a bluegill eating a minnow, even if you were a full dragon. They're both fish, but different types."

"Wait," Sam says. "So dragons eat dragons?"

"Depends on the dragon," Jake shrugs. "For us noble dragons, though, we'll usually only eat wild ones, or the ones which aren't people. I'm gonna switch back now."

I turn around and close and cover my eyes again. Sig lets me know once it's safe to look again, though I could hear Jake finish dressing. When I look back at him, Connor's now holding Jake's left hand in his right.

So it wasn't just him wanting to see if Jake's scales felt differently than Dragon River's, then. That explains why he was feeling Jake's scales for so long. That was probably his way of trying to hold hands while Jake was in dragon form.

"What's the difference between wild and noble?" Connor asks.

"Bestial nature," Jake answers. "Humans evolved biologically over time. For the other species of people on earth, such as dragons, we actually evolved through transcendence. Basically, beasts transcended their bestial nature to become, well… you could say sapient, I guess. That's what we'll call it for a level of intelligence, though, and will which puts you as a person, like what humans have. This is different from regular evolution.

"The descendants of said beings will have sapience as well," Jake continues. "At least, as long as there's another with it within the last two or three generations. It's what makes us people as well, since we're on par with humans in that regard, even if our bodies are different. But since it's not an evolutionary process but more of a magical/mental one, it's not something which happens across a wide amount of our original species."

"It's an individual basis," I say.

Even I can understand that much, so I'm sure the others are understanding this even better than me.

"Right," Jake nods. "Some species evolve further after transcendence, making them distinct from their bestial ancestors. Phoenixes fit into this category. Their original species was a bird with life magics. The ones which transcended developed fire magics to make themselves distinct from those, so that it would be easier for other people to see a difference between them.

"Then there are those which bred all of their ancestral species with them," he continues. "Since they were the same species, they felt it was fine. Same for if it's a magical, near-sapient of a similar species. That produced offspring which were the same species, but had sapient minds. Unicorns did that, which is why all unicorns are people. It's also why they don't mind mating with other types of horse… the ones they do mate with have likely either gained sapience or are near that point."

So Solaris is sapient, then… wait, does that mean his mom is, too? She must be good at hiding it. But since flaremanes as a whole aren't, I suppose they don't really breed with other flaremanes once they transcend their bestial nature. Either that, or it's infrequent enough that their descendants eventually lose sapience.

Sig fills with confusion as Jake finishes saying that, but it feels directed at me.

"Xander?"

"Yes?"

"Are you seriously eating a cheesecake right now?"

"This discussion was taking a long time," I tell him. "And thirteen donuts and twenty-one sausage links and two apples and three oranges and two peaches and a bowl of berries wasn't enough to fill me."

"But… a cheesecake?"

"Yeah," I say. "What's wrong with a cheesecake?"

"It's barely after breakfast," he says. "I would've expected you'd do something like a peach or blueberry pie."

"Oh," I look at my cheesecake. "That does make more sense. I'll do that next."

"I guess we did talk quite a bit," Jake laughs. "Sorry! I know you guys wanted to do other stuff!"

"It's been educational," Connor says.

"Yeah," Sam says. "Definitely don't learn this stuff in school!"

"If you're worried about Xander's interest level," Sig tells him. "He hasn't started crafting something, so he's definitely not bored. Right, Xander?"

"Only a little," I say. "But I still learned something, too."

The book Grandpa Adrian gave me didn't talk about transcendence or anything like that, so this was definitely informative. Also very interesting.

"Well," Jake says. "Unless there are any other questions… should we get to doing… whatever we were going to do out here?"

"We hadn't decided," I tell him. "They suggested figuring out what to do once we got here."

"Yeah!" Sig says. "Okay, guys! What should we do?"

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