[Sig – 13 years]

The moment I hear Mr. Fuller's truck in the driveway, I start pulling on my sneakers. He's just returned from church and lunch with Aunt Rachel, which means it's time for us to head to Mr. Jack's farm for me to practice archery and shooting a gun some more.

I probably don't need to keep up with the gun practice, as I'm a pretty good shot with just a couple of months of practice. Mr. Fuller says it's still a good idea to keep up with the practice for if I do ever end up using one, though.

Today is mostly so I can practice the new archery spell. Imbuing my arrows with fire magic will really help out against the magic beasts we're hunting tomorrow, so that will be our focus for today.

"Hey, Sig," Mr. Fuller greets me as he and Aunt Rachel enters the house. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," I grab my backpack and pull it on. "Let's go!"

"Behave for him," Aunt Rachel ruffles my hair.

"Always do!"

Mr. Fuller gives Aunt Rachel a kiss, then the two of us leave. She doesn't want a bow in her house, and she doesn't want to accompany us for my practice sessions. That's a little disappointing, but I hope we can turn her around one day. I'd love to show her what I can do with my training.

"We're not going to Jack's today," Mr. Fuller tells me.

"We're not?"

"We're not," he repeats. "Your aunt already knows, we talked about it after church. Some of the folks from my church do magic archery, not just Seph. Some of them have good-sized properties with archery ranges, and even setups for practicing against certain types of creatures. One of them has a son about your age who practices magic archery, and they'll be assisting in the hunt as well."

I haven't been told who all is going or how many of us there will be, so it's something I want to ask right now, too.

"So we're going to their place for this?" I ask.

"We are," he confirms. "They have things for practicing for hunting hares, including magic ones, so that will help you with practicing for this weekend."

He gives me an apologetic look for a moment before returning his attention to the road.

"I misunderstood a little about the hunt," he tells me. "In all fairness, I'm used to hunting regular animals, not magical ones."

"It's an adjustment period for all of us," I say. "So we're not going to a forest and hunting in a group?"

"These hares live in both forests and fields," he says. "But mainly forests. Several groups will be in the woods, hunting the ones in there. Some of the ones which flee those will head into the fields around the forest, and you'll be in a group there."

"In the field?" I ask.

"Yeah."

"So another group will hunt the hares and chase them out of the forest," I say. "While I'll be in a group waiting in an ambush?"

"That's about the sum of it," he says. "Though there might be other magic beasts, but the main target are the icicle hares. Those are the one whose population boomed and are causing issues. A special hunting session was called."

Chances are good the population boom in the magic hares is from a microrift opening up and letting out way more than normal at some point this year.

"A special hunting session?"

"Yeah," he nods. "I've heard others talk about them before, but all it's ever meant to me was that I wouldn't be able to hunt in that area. It's when the government declares there to be an issue with a magic beast in a location and the beast needs to be culled, and fast. Magic beasts generally don't have restrictions on being hunted while nonmagical larger game does. During the special hunting session, it's accepted that some ordinary animals might get hunted even if someone's already reached their bag limit or it's out of season. As long as it's not an excess, it's permitted."

"So if we see a moose," I say. "We can hunt it even if it's normal, but not to go out of our way for it?"

"Right," he says. "Some people might try to abuse that, but you better not, okay? The focus is on the magic beasts. Just stick to the instructions and the area you're supposed to be in, and focus on the hares. Don't wander off if you see something else and want to get closer, you need to focus on what you're there for."

Mr. Fuller is technically going, but he won't actually be out with me. The hares being grouped up on and killed in a large amount in a short period of time means they'll definitely be fighting back. Mr. Fuller is just an ordinary person, so he's more at risk of dying than I am.

Aunt Rachel isn't really comfortable with that, but Mr. Fuller somehow convinced her to allow me to participate.

"The hares," I say.

"The hares," he says.

"I will," I tell him. "Whose place are we going to? I haven't met them, I'm sure."

"You haven't," he chuckles. "His name's Frederick Wilson and he's a farmer, like Jack. His farm is focused on wheat, corn, and soybeans, so they're done for the year on that front. He and his son, Ryan, go hunting regularly for meat, but also for things to sell."

It might be how they earn money during the winter months, since they can't grow crops in winter.

"Did you know that icicle hare horns aren't actually ice?" I ask. "Even though they look like it? They're actually ice magic crystals, which is used in making enchantments relating to the cold, and magitech coolers and freezers. Stuff like that."

"You looked them up?"

"No," I snicker. "Xander's already seen a documentary on them and was telling us about them at the sleepover Friday, after I'd let him know I wouldn't be able to go to the one this weekend."

The hunt is actually local, which is why local hunters are the ones doing it. I could technically go to the sleepover if I wanted, but was told that it's best if I spend the night with the group I'll be a part of. That way, we all get ready at the same time and don't have to travel for it. The plan is to start around sunrise, though I won't have to get up super early for it.

Magic beasts don't need us to lie in wait and hope they decide there's no danger. We just go for them and they'll fight back if they feel too threatened.

"I didn't know that," he says. "If they're magic crystals, then they sell for a decent amount, right?"

"Depends on their size," I say. "Xander said most of the ones we'll encounter probably won't have large ones and they'll be low in strength, so they'll most likely only sell for around twenty bucks at the most, each. Their horns, I mean. A pelt in good condition can sell for about as much, their meat for a little bit more. So each whole one I catch on my own will earn me about sixty bucks. Ninety, at the most."

Though I guess I don't really need the money, not with what I earned from streaming and videos. This will mostly be to help out with the icicle hare problem. Maybe also to get me some more meat. I'm not really a fan of hare meat, though, so that one's not as important. It's fine as jerky, but figuring out the ingredients to use with it is a pain and it seems like it mostly boils down to becoming stew more than anything.

At least, that's what happens when I look up how to cook hare meat. It's all recipes for stew. What I don't keep will go for sale for others, though, so it still helps out around here.

"Hard to believe magic food can sell for that much," Mr. Fuller says. "I knew magic's worth more, but that still seems a bit… off to me."

"Difficulty of acquiring," I shrug. "Most people can't hunt magic beasts, so there are fewer people doing it. And the materials used for hunting gear for magic beast hunters is more difficult to acquire and is in less supply. It's partly just supply and demand. I guess that means the prices for what's getting caught this weekend might not be as high as normal, too, since there'll be a huge batch of 'em. Or maybe they will be? I dunno how many there'll be, or how much it'd affect the price compared to normal."

While I understand some basic economics thanks to studying, I don't have enough information about the magic beast part market to know how things would be affected by this.

"Ah."

It takes a little bit to get to his friend's farm and when we arrive, he drives on a worn gravel path between the empty fields. After a few minutes, we come to a spot with a side-by-side parked near a large pond with a small dock on it. It's a little bit wooded around the pond, though there's an open field beside it. The side-by-side's parked at the transition between the two.

Set up in the field is a shooting range, with straw bales and targets. Along that line are several slim posts which probably mark out the shooting range. The posts cover a huge range, and there's a dividing line between the regular targets and a much larger shooting space.

Five thick wooden posts are scattered around towards the back of that larger space. The top of the one of the posts looks like it's been rotated off so that it's facing away from the post, and there's a man and a boy about my age loading what looks like balls half a foot in diameter into them.

A pair of large boxes sit on a pair of wagons they've brought over, probably so they don't have to carry boxes of large wooden balls around by hand. Several more of those boxes sit by the table with their bows and arrows on it.

Both the man and the boy have brown hair, while the man has brown eyes and the boy has blue. They're both dressed in jeans, outdoors boots, and long-sleeved shirts, the boy's shirt being grey with camouflage sleeves and shoulders.

That seems like an odd shirt, but he looks good in it despite that.

Mr. Fuller parks his truck beside the side-by-side, then we get out and he grabs the bow and arrow set from the back of his truck.

"Hey, Frederick," Mr. Fuller greets the other man as we approach them.

"Hey, Derrick," Mr. Wilson says. "This is S.G.?"

"Yeah," Mr. Fuller says. "S.G., these are Frederick and Ryan."

"Hey," I say.

"'Sup?" Ryan greets me.

"What's that?" I indicate the post with my head.

"Shooting target," he lifts a ball up out of one of the boxes, showing it to me. "These are special magic balls. We load 'em up into the posts, which then shoot them at low to the ground there," he indicates a circle drawn onto the post near the ground. "And they'll fly across the ground."

The ball he's holding has a bunch of marks on it that look like tiny dents and cuts. Several snowflakes are stained onto it as well, each one about half an inch in diameter. It's definitely been used for target practice before, but…

I can't see a way for it to shoot out of the post. The post has several markings similar to the one he indicated, though some are flatter than others. Each of those markings has a seven-pointed star carved into it, too. A small one carved inward, but it's present on all of them.

"They're magic?" I ask.

"Yeah," he toss the ball up and catches it. "The balls bounce several times before losing their momentum. It can imitate a hare or rabbit bouncing. These ones imitate icicle hares and will randomly shoot an icicle towards a person, though charging 'em up's a pain in the ass."

"Ryan!" Mr. Wilson gives him a light whack on the back of the head.

"You know I'm right!" Ryan laughs.

"Charge them up?" I ask.

"Yeah," Ryan rotates the ball a few times as he looks at it, then turns the part he's found to face me. "See the dip carved in there? We push a mana crystal into that and it'll drain the crystal's mana. You have to keep it pushed in to make sure it drains quickly, though. These ain't the fancy ones which can do it fast."

"They ain't that bad," Mr. Wilson rolls his eyes. "Ry just doesn't like collecting the balls after they're used."

"Ugh," Ryan tilts his head back a little as he groans. "Yeah, no, that ain't fun. The direction they bounce to is randomized, as is the number of bounces. Results in having to walk all over to grab the arrows when using regular ones."

"Regular?"

"Nonmagical," he clarifies. "Like the ones y'all brought. Conjured arrows don't need collecting. And in addition to having to collect the arrows, we gotta collect the balls, too! He who shoots it collects it, that's the rule."

"We aren't putting only the icicle hare balls in," Mr. Wilson picks one up out of the other box and shows it to me. This one has flame markings on it. "This one imitates flarepoint hares."

"Flarepoint?" Mr. Fuller asks. "Those weren't mentioned."

"There ain't gonna be a lot of 'em," Ryan says. "But they'll definitely be around, too. We're doing mostly icicle hare balls, but adding in a few flarepoint ones to practice for those, too."

"What do they do?" I ask.

"They're similar to icicle hares," Mr. Wilson tells me. "Except their horns are aflame and they shoot small darts of fire at their targets. And speaking of that, the setup we have here is meant for single-direction shooting. That is, from past that pair of posts over there into the shooting field here. The balls can somewhat sense people and will aim in that direction, so it's set up so that they'll only shoot at people over there. Makes it so there's areas those not shooting can stand and not be targeted."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"They can sense us?"

Isn't that newer magitech?

"Sort of," Mr. Wilson says. "It ain't as good as what some higher-end companies can do, but they have a thermal energy detection enchantment as part of their targeting enchantment. These balls are pretty old and we'll need to replace them within the next year or two, but they can still aim well enough for now."

So it's not a new thing, then. I guess I shouldn't expect all fancy-seeming enchantments and magitech to be a Xander-created thing. It's hard not to when he does something like create the first fully-functional hoverboard just to avoid learning how to ride a bike.

Especially when said hoverboard involved figuring out an enchantment/magic that had decades of research behind it and he solved it in an afternoon. While using almost nothing from said research for his own.

If we have infrared scientech, it's logical that we might also have infrared magitech and enchantments.

"That's neat," I say. "And they're good for practicing hunting hares?"

"Hunting hares in fields," Ryan corrects. "But yeah."

"Are you almost done loading?" I ask. "You loaded a lot into it as we approached. Do the others need loading? I can help!"

"They fit more than they look," Ryan grins at me.

"Spatial expansion?" I ask. "Isn't that really expensive?"

"Not that!" He laughs. "The pillar goes deep into the ground. We can fit a good thirty of these into one, and this is the last one for us to set up. We are almost done, just a few more balls and it's good to go."

They finish loading it up and turn the top back on to cover it up again. Mr. Wilson then pulls out a key-like object with a seven-pointed star on the end. He inserts that into the matching carving in the circle I was shown and turns it. That allows him to remove the circle, which is actually a panel.

"That's neat," I say.

"It is," Ryan grins at me. "There's a barrier there – that's the faint blue shimmer you see – and force magic will activate behind the ball to shoot it out. When it does, that barrier temporarily disappears to let the ball go through. The balls above it will drop down, and that forms the initial queue.

"Once there ain't anymore balls above it," he continues. "A barrier forms inside, just above the hole. It starts pushing up the balls below after each firing, so that there's always one there and ready to shoot out."

"That sounds like a fairly simple system," I say. "It just has something to detect objects, right? And if the answer is 'no', the barrier's there. If the barrier's there, then the lower enchantment works to move the balls up."

There's probably another system for when the panel's on, so that they can load it without the barrier in the way. Even my limited knowledge of enchanting and magic is enough to tell me that the system itself is fairly simple and probably not difficult to get set up.

"Basically, yeah," he says.

Mr. Wilson unlocks the other posts' lower circles as the rest of us head over to the table. Mr. Wilson checks to make sure our arrows don't match theirs once he joins us. Arrows which match will make it harder to tell whose is whose. If they match, then we'd need to retrieve arrows between turns and the final practice round wouldn't work too well. That one's meant to include all three of us practicing together.

Our arrows are different, so Ryan takes a turn first to demonstrate how the practice range works. He stands in the shooting area while the rest of us stand in front of the shooting area for the regular targets.

To start the balls getting shot out, Mr. Wilson blows on a whistle. A few moments pass and just before I ask if something's broken, a ball shoots out of one of the posts. It bounces a lot, reminding me of how the hares I've shot before move.

Ryan follows the ball with the arrow he has knocked, though a little ahead of its path. After it changes directions a few times, he releases the string and his arrow soars forward. His arrow impacts the ball, which immediately stops bouncing forward and jerks a little as it crashes to the ground, the arrow sticking straight up into the air.

"They're designed to not break arrows," Mr. Wilson informs Mr. Fuller and me. "Whatever part of them is 'heaviest' sits upward. Makes bullets sit on the top while they're idle as well, but it's to protect the arrows."

"I was concerned about that," Mr. Fuller says. "Wouldn't be good to break the arrows in practice all the time, right?"

"They might break during the hunt," Mr. Wilson says as Ryan tracks another bouncing ball. "But it's better to reduce how often you need to replace them."

"How long has your family used magic?" I ask. "You're mage farmers, right? It seems like a lot of the ones in this area are on the weaker side – maybe two or three times as powerful as a normal person. But then I go over to the Autumn Realm, and they all have three or four hundred, maybe more."

"The Autumn Realm is a bit special," he says. "They were founded by the original tribe which learned magic from Adrian King, and they've all used magic fairly often in their work. Magic's been a part of life for them for thousands of years. The Dragon Falls area was only settled about two hundred years ago, and bye tribes and people who didn't use magic as much."

I knew the area wasn't inhabited by people for too long, but didn't realize most of the area isn't descended of mages from ancient times. That makes sense, though. There are too many non-mages in the area for that. Sure, there are plenty of powerful families in the area, but there are far fewer mage families than those which don't use magic.

Powerful mages cleared out the more dangerous beasts and protected the non-mages as they settled in. That was done to take advantage of the area's fertile soil from the numerous natural water features of the area.

At least, that's the official history. Now that I know there are other types of people, and the fact that an actual dragon has lived here for much longer than humans… could it have been from his influence?

"The amount we use isn't too much," Mr. Wilson tells me. "So our capacities generally don't get too high from training. We usually end up with around 30-50 mana before we die."

And due to how mana capacities are determined in a baby, they aren't born with much more than average as a result of that. It's something which would need to increase over many generations.

"As for how long we've been doing this," he says. "About a hundred and thirty years. It's five generations, and we are slowly getting stronger on our baseline as we use magic more in our lives. Ryan was born with about 15 magic, we think. That's how much he had the first time he was tested, anyway."

"You're increasing how much you use it?"

"Sort of," he says. "Ryan uses it more than I did at his age, and I used it more than my own father at that age. He had 23 mana when tested at the start of the school year, so is at that or just barely above. One of the things he does that I didn't do at his age is care for magic chickens."

"Magic chickens?" I ask.

"Yeah," he nods. "Being the youngest, Ryan's responsible for handling the chickens. Cleaning their coop, making sure they had food and water, collecting their eggs, and so on. And when he started sixth-grade, he announced he wanted some magic chickens rather than regular ones."

"Uuuugh!" Ryan calls out before letting loose another arrow, taking out his fifth hare-imitating orb. "Daaaaaaaaa! Don't tell him that!"

"They're not a higher magic breed," Mr. Wilson chuckles. "So they don't cast spells or anything like that. Their meat and eggs simply taste better due to the presence of magic. The problem is, the breed he picked-"

"Nooooo!"

"-likes playing a game with people who try to collect their eggs called 'peck the hands'," Mr. Wislon ignores his son's protests. "They seem to do it for fun, not out of maliciousness, but only when the hands are bare. They get more aggressive with gloves. And Ry? He said they'd be nice to him and they wouldn't play the game. That lasted all of ten seconds into collecting their eggs, when he started using a self-enhancement spell to protect his hands. So now he uses that pretty much every day."

I snicker a little. That definitely sounds like something an eleven-year-old would want, and Mr. Wilson even let him go with it despite probably knowing how it would turn out. At the same time, though, that would definitely increase how much magic someone uses in their life.

I begin focusing on Ryan's practicing a little more, while Mr. Fuller and Mr. Wilson talk weath each other. Ryan takes out a total of ten of the orbs without casting any spells, though he does have to dodge three icicles and a flame dart.

There were actually six icicles shot at him by four of the orbs, but three of the attacks didn't get too close to him. He seems to be able to tell when they'll reach or not, even though it doesn't seem to be based on the distance from the orbs. Even how far their attacks fly varies.

For the next ten orbs, Ryan uses an elemental enhancement corresponding to the orb that's flying forward. When his arrows strike them, the orbs change color to green, sort of like the iris on the streamer orbs do when they turn on.

Is that to indicate he used the right element for them?

"Got a question," I say after Mr. Wilson blows his whistle again and Ryan lowers his bow.

"Shoot," Mr. Wilson says.

"A name like 'flarepoint hare'," I say. "Makes it sound like it's actually really tough. But we'd be able to hunt them?"

One of the things I've learned from the random bits of magic beast trivia Xander's given me is that the more dangerous-sounding the name, the more dangerous the beast can be when provoked. That's not always a given as there are some gentle-sounding ones which can be really dangerous, but it's almost a guarantee when their name sounds dangerous.

Gemstream buck? Sounds gentle, but super dangerous. Icicle hare? Sounds cold but not too dangerous. Bullet elk? Avoid unless strong. Flarepoint hare? Sounds like it can put out some really strong heat.

"As with the icicle hares," he says. "They'll be around 20-25 mana in strength. We try to make sure they never get too much stronger than that around here, for safety reasons. There will be a stronger team on standby, though. Just in case."

"I wanted to ask about that," Mr. Fuller says. "I hadn't thought about it when we were talking earlier. So there are reinforcements in case any of the animals are a bit stronger? How strong are they?"

"They've got around 100 mana," Mr. Wilson says. "And they're from farming families in the area, too. You know the Clarksons?"

"The pumpkin growers?" I ask.

The Clarksons have a large farm and host a lot of autumn festivities. It's where Connor and I have gone pumpkin-picking the weekend before Halloween ever since we became friends. Jake goes there with us, too, and always seems to know the best pumpkins for us… though after what I learned yesterday, he's probably cheating and using his dragon senses.

We were planning on going there again this year, though that depends on where Xander wants the pumpkin-picking party to take place. But the Clarksons' farm also has a corn maze (probably magic corn, since it can survive that long with how cold it gets in October here) and other activities. If we don't go for the party's picking session, we'll probably go after it ends on Saturday.

"They're strong mages?" I ask.

"They are," Mr. Wilson says. "Not anywhere near the level of those in the Autumn Realm, but still strong. The hares don't bother their farm, but there are other pumpkin farms in the area."

"Ah," I say. "How come we're waiting until next weekend, if they're a big problem?"

"Next week is when they're predicted to actually go cause problems on the farms," Ryan explains as he rejoins us. "So we're waiting until the weekend before that, then taking them on. Any survivors will be too hesitant for the next couple of weeks to go near farms."

"So we wait until shortly before they cause issues," I say. "So that we get them before they do, but far enough in that they won't muster up their courage before everything starts getting harvested?"

"Right," he says. "Anyway, your turn! Then we'll collect our arrows."

"Not the balls?"

"That'll be after," he says. "We have to lug the wagons around. Do you know the spells?"

"I know the fire enhancement," I say. "Not the water one you were using. Didn't know I'd need it, so I didn't practice it yet. Can you teach me?"

"It's not something you can learn in an afternoon."

"S.G.'s good at picking up skills," Mr. Fuller tells him. "Including spells. Teach it to him, and he'll be casting it alright within ten minutes. Not as good as someone who's done it for years, but well enough to use in a hunt."

Ryan seems to take that as a challenge and shows me how to cast the water enhancement spell. I practice it on the regular targets for a few minutes, then switch to the fire enhancement one. It was always planned for me to practice on regular targets first, to make sure I can do it against something stationary. Moving targets come after that.

"Jeez!" Ryan exclaims. "You really did pick that up fast! Takes you a second to cast, but you'll get there with practice. Have you ever done a conjured arrow before?"

"No," I answer. "You?"

"Yup!" He answers. "I use it when the target's a little bit stronger, rather than wasting regular arrows hoping the tips or shafts are strong enough to handle their hides."

Ryan seems a bit hopeful that I don't manage to learn how to cast them. He then ends up disappointed when an arrow of magical force forms after only a couple of minutes of me trying.

With that accomplished, I practice shooting the hare-imitation orbs. Just like Ryan, I shoot ten regularly, then ten with arrows I enhance with elemental magic, tailoring which element I use based on which element the orb has. Dodging the attacks from the orbs is easy, too. I just need to shift my body to the side a little so their darts and icicles fly past me.

After that's done, Jake shoots ten with conjured arrows, and I do the same (after learning the other two elements). I have to borrow his bow so I don't melt Mr. Fuller's, and I probably won't be doing this for the actual hunt on Saturday. It was mostly to mess with Ryan.

The final practice we do is shooting the hares together. Ryan, Mr. Wilson, and I do this one together, each of us standing in a different spot, a good distance away from each other. This will be a little like how we'll hunt on Saturday – mostly staying in one place, watching for the hares. There will be more people in our group than this, we're just practicing this so that I know what to do.

Rather than aiming at any hare which we see, we each have a "zone" to cover. The zones make it easier to avoid multiple people shooting at one hare and wasting mana, though they do overlap a little. We're also supposed to target any which get too close in the zones to either side of us. That helps make sure that as few as possible make it past us, especially since we'll have to dodge attacks as well.

"How many are they expecting there to be?" Mr. Fuller asks after we finish practicing shooting like this. "If everyone in the field's going to be in a line, working like this. I thought they weren't expecting more than fifty or so, but you made it sound like more."

"They're expecting each of us in our group to catch around five to ten apiece," Mr. Wilson tells him. "Though there will be much more than that, the population really is quite large. Our group will have ten of us in it."

"Well," Ryan says. "That's five to ten if the hares come at us evenly. It's always possible one person will get swarmed with them. Dad's said that's happened before."

"Sometimes," Mr. Wilson confirms. "Not too frequent. Then again, a population boom like this isn't common, either."

"Shame it ain't deer or moose or something like that," Ryan sags his shoulders. "Why'd it have to be rabbit? It gets boring so fast."

"And you'll probably exchange most of your meat for cash," Mr. Wilson chuckles. "Let's retrieve the arrows and balls."

That requires going back and forth with the wagons, since each box can only fit so many balls in them. It's a lot different from just pulling arrows from a target and retrieving the one which went past.

"You caught on quick," Ryan tells me once we've finished. "The way you were shooting the balls, it was like you'd been doing this for years. Has it really only been a couple of months?"

"I pick up skills pretty fast," I tell him. "Especially physical ones."

"Not just that," he says. "It takes more than just being good at archery to hit a fast-moving target. You have to predict their movements."

"Oh, that," I say. "The patterns were easy to figure out."

"The… patterns?" He asks. "I mean, I know everything's got one, but when they've only changed directions a couple of times?"

"Yeah," I shrug, then grin. "I'm probably the world record holder for solving Xander's puzzle spheres. It only takes me a few minutes to solve his most difficult ones on the market! Patterns are super easy for me, for some reason."

Which, now that I'm thinking about, it explains something that happened with Zevatris, back when Xander was still new in our friend group. We really hadn't meant to get that into the game and miss out on laser tag, but none of us regret hanging out with him that day. If he hadn't invited us, and we hadn't accepted, then we might have just stayed as bowling neighbors.

He's a little quirky, but he's also funny in his own way (even if he's not trying to be). Had we never become friends, I'd still be happy with how things are, but I wouldn't give up my friendship with him for anything.

And thinking about that afternoon playing Zevatris with him and the others has given me an idea, but I definitely need to keep quiet about it until I've determined if I'm going to go through with it or not. I might still keep quiet about it until I've finished, too.

"That's insane," Ryan says. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah," I grin at him. "I'll bring one to show you Saturday. Oh, and thanks for the tips on magic! I'll do more practice enhancing items with the elements over the week, to try and reduce my speed. Definitely won't be as fast as you, but it's best to get it as fast as possible, right?"

"Yeah," Ryan says. "It was nice meeting you, too, S.G.!"

"Same to you!" I say. "Anyway, I think Mr. Fuller wants to get going. See you Saturday!"

"Wait!" He says. "Can I get your number first?"

"Sure!"

We exchange numbers and send each other goofy selfies, then Mr. Fuller and I leave.

"So?" Mr. Fuller asks. "What do you think of them?"

"They're pretty cool," I say. "But if this is an attempt to get me to go to church, some 'everyone there's like them' thing, I'm not gonna do it."

"Wasn't going to!" He laughs. "I know you're adamant about not going and I'm respecting that. Just wanted to know what you thought of them, since you'll be hunting with them Saturday. Comfort with someone can make a difference in dynamic, you know."

"Yeah," I nod. "Like I said, they seem pretty cool. I hope everyone in the group I'm in is."

"They are," he tells me. "At least, if it's the people I was told earlier."

"Alright."

"I know we've got a bit before dinner," he says. "But it's also well after lunch by this point. Want to stop for sundaes before I take you back home?"

"Only if you're paying!"

"Of course!" He laughs again. "There's a place not too far from here which makes good ones. Local dairy, too. Am thinking of taking Rachel there as a post-lunch dessert on Sundays, but wanted your opinion on it first."

"Mine?"

"You know her tastes for desserts better than me," he says. "If she'd like it or not."

"Oh!" I say. "Yeah, I'll judge them! But if they're bad in quality… you've gotta buy me pizza for dinner every day for a week!"

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