[Xander – 13 years]

"Morning, Xander," Carter greets me as he walks over to the lounge area. "Morning, Trenton."

Carter's in just a pair of shorts, though I'm in my pajamas. I didn't sleep in them, I changed into them after I woke up. Being shirtless out here when a bunch of other boys are here would be much too uncomfortable. Forcing myself when there were only eighteen other boys was bad enough, I don't want to do it when there are thirty other boys.

That would be way too much.

So I changed into my pajamas before leaving the room. I'm still in my wolfkin form, though, since I'm okay being in that here. Carter changed back to his wolfkin form after being a merboy last night and is still in it now as well.

"Hello," I wave Trenton's right paw.

"You were conked out pretty hard when I went to bed," he tells me. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Did you?"

"I did!" He plops himself into the same seat he's sat on after waking for the last two sleepovers. It must be his preferred one. "Had some pretty nice dreams."

"That's good," I tell him. "Did you like being a merboy?"

"Yeah!" He smiles, his tail flicking a little. "Swimming in that form was fun, especially while we were playing! I tried teaching some of the others who know the shifting spell how, but… they'd definitely need either you to teach them the way you taught me, or to do the spell formula marbles again."

Grandpa Adrian told me to expect him to want to teach his friends how to become a merboy and that it's okay for that to happen. If they learn it, they learn it. Teleporting is a much more difficult spell, which is why the spell formula marbles are more exclusive. It's not something one can just learn without prior experience unless they use something like that.

"And on that note," he snorts. "Did you sell Luke your version of the teleport spell for ten grand?"

"Yeah."

"Ain't that ten times what your great-grandfather told you to sell it for?" He asks. "You sold it to me for only a thousand."

"Yeah."

"Why'd you tell him it was more?"

"I didn't," I tell him. "I told him that I'd sell it to him for ten grand. I didn't tell him the normal price was lower."

"Why the upcharge?"

"Because he's annoying."

"Oh," he snorts. "I guess I can get that. It's fine to get breakfast now, yeah?"

"Yeah," I answer.

"I'm gonna go do that!" He hops up and heads over to the food tables.

Breakfast today consists of crepes, breakfast sausage links and patties, an egg casserole, glazed apple slices, mixed fruit, berries, and a build-your-own parfait. The drinks are the usual assortment of orange juice, whole milk, and water.

"That's a lot of crepes," Carter comments. "Did you make them all? How long did that take?"

"I did," I tell him. "And I can use magic to make a bunch at once, so it didn't take me too long to make all of them. Maybe fifteen minutes? They're all plain, but that's so you can add your own sauces and other toppings."

"I can see them," Carter says. "Strawberry syrup, strawberry cream cheese icing, same for blueberries, same for pumpkin spice, powdered sugar… and more."

"Mom said it's good to have a variety with this many guests," I tell him. "And I've got more food in stasis, in case we run out."

It's always good to have extra food just in case there's not enough. I have plenty of food stored in various stasis pockets and stasis expanded spaces for if there's not enough food for me. Or for if I get sent back or told "no more food".

That hasn't happened yet, but it still might one day. Or what if Dad dies? Then I'd be sent back to the boys' home. I could maybe Ask Grandpa Adrian to let me have my own place to stay after that, then, so that I don't have to go back to the boys' home.

"Got it!" Carter responds.

Carter assembles his breakfast and as he's eating it, Nash comes out in shorts and a t-shirt. He's like me and not comfortable being shirtless around others, though he's still wearing shorts rather than pants.

Slowly, the other boys wake up, come out, and get breakfast. By the time they're all done eating, it's right around noon. Mom still said I should make breakfast rather than a lunch even though it was likely they would all wake close to or during lunchtime if they were up late. They don't seem to mind that it's breakfast food rather than lunch food, and nobody asks me for some of my lunch.

I did have morning activities planned, but I underestimated how late the others would sleep until. They were all up really late today and slept in pretty well, even Carter.

The pickup time today is noon, so most of the others start getting ready to go once they eat. I make sure they all have their magic lamps they made last night, as well as their glasses themed to the party. The simple ones with just their names on them are for them to keep here, for if they hang out. They can leave other glasses if they want, and it seems like they all want to leave the ones they decorated.

They do take their pumpkin party glasses, though.

"This was really fun," Austin tells me once we get notified that his mom is here to pick him, Nathan, and Marty up. "Thanks for the invite!"

"Thanks for coming," I tell him. "Don't forget your party bag before you leave."

"I won't!"

Soon, Sig's aunt arrives to pick him up, making him the last guest to leave. By this point, we're waiting in the foyer of the house for her so that we aren't alone. Even if it's okay now that the security system is upgraded, it's still better to not be alone unless we're told we can be.

"Thanks for coming," I give him a hug.

"Thanks for the invite," he hugs me back. "Let us know if you're joining us later!"

Sig, Connor, Sam, and Isaac have to do chores once they get home. After that, they're planning on going to the park. Even though Halloween isn't until Tuesday, there are stalls and stuff set up for people to buy treats and play games and stuff today. They actually got set up last weekend, but I was too busy to look at them.

Sig and the others visit them during the holiday season for the seasonal fun and treats.

"I'm not sure," I tell him. "Um… I want to do my walk. But I might go to the park tomorrow. If, um… if I do, y'all can come with me. You'd probably know what's good and what's not better than me… I've never been to the stalls, as far as I can remember."

"Sure!" Sig answers. "See you, Xander!"

We hug each other again, then he leaves with his aunt.

"Is it really okay for me to go to the mage district before cleaning up from the party?" I ask Dad once Sig is gone.

"Yes," Dad answers. "The rec center is your space. The same rules for cleanliness apply to it as for your bedroom. Just make sure any trash and food is cleaned up before tonight."

"Okay," I give him a hug. "Bye."

"See you later, Xander."

I leave and once I'm at the street, I teleport to the mage district. Trenton comes out of my backpack, and I enter Mr. Vincent's shop for my first stop of this trip.

"Good afternoon, Xander!" Mr. Vincent greets me. "How're you today?"

"I'm feeling okay," I answer. "I hosted another party last night. There were plans for activities for the morning, but the others all slept in really late so it ended up just being a lunchtime breakfast for them. I'd like to buy seven fudge, please."

"You don't want to do the card game?" He asks.

"I do," I tell him. "But what if my psychic powers let me know which card's the real one? That'd be cheating. I don't think they've ever done that, but what if they do? Especially as I get stronger? So I'd like to buy it instead, even if I still want to play the game. And it ain't like you keep playing it with kids who figure out the tricks for all of them, anyway."

It's okay to tell the workers here about me being psychic. Grandpa Adrian told me that some of them have probably figured it out on their own already. A lot of them are really old and have met a lot of people, both human and not. Once someone gets to be a certain age, and has interacted with enough mages and other magical people, they've likely met enough psychics to pick up the signs of one.

Even though psychics are really rare among all people, not just human ones. We're rare, but also not uncommon enough that older folks are unlikely to meet several. I don't know how long it takes to go from "meeting one" to "meeting two" to "meeting several". Some of the folks here are less than a century in age, so maybe it's once every two or three decades or so that they meet a one they haven't met yet?

I should ask Grandpa Adrian the next time I think about it while we're talking.

"They get a permanent discount," Mr. Vincent tells me. "And you're good enough to figure out the trick for all of them and are a psychic. I'll give you the discount as well."

"You don't-"

"I know I don't have to," he interrupts me. "But it's what I do, and it'd be unfair to not give you the discount just because you're a psychic. You've made it past the first three decks, so you're trying to figure out the trick and you're able to. I'm sure you would manage to complete the game by the end of next month.

"And in all honesty?" He smiles a little. "One of the reasons I do it is to find people with psychic powers they aren't aware of. It doesn't happen often, but I have found a couple in the past. They didn't have as wide a range of psychic abilities as you, it's mostly just minor gut feelings, but even that can be trained a little."

"You train psychics?"

"Not me," he chuckles. "Someone else. I contact them and let them know I found a psychic, and they help the kid learn their power. But as I said, it doesn't happen often. And most of the time I do encounter a psychic, they know what they are due to inheriting it from a parent who also knew."

"Oh."

He chuckles.

"Lord Adrian has had children before the known ones," Mr. Vincent tells me. "He dampened his bloodline factor even further for them, enough that most wouldn't have been able to tell they were a Lumaria King by power alone. Their magical gifts were a lot subtler then. While the bloodline has all but died out by this point, there are some people who still have traces of it in them. That's why the few psychics I do come across tend to have only minor gut feelings within their abilities."

Grandpa Adrian told me about that when I asked him while we were talking earlier. I wanted to ask him something, and we ended up talking for about an hour while I was waiting for others to wake. He told me about the previous line of human children he had. They were with Grandma Lily as well, and raised among humans as humans.

Because they weren't too much different from average mages, there wasn't much attention drawn to them. Pretty much no one even knows they once existed, and there are plenty of people descended of them who don't know it. It would be tough to, when their ancestors themselves weren't aware of it and were relatively average.

The reason he has more powerful, prominent children now is because of an accident. He and Grandma Lily were trying to have a human child who was a little more powerful… but they didn't lessen their bloodline factors as much as was actually needed for the amount they wanted. It was supposed to be enough to result in children with around 50 mana and ended up being around 300 instead.

By the time they realized it was too little of a reduction, Grandma Lily was pregnant with triplets. They decided to just leave it, and to do the same for any other children they conceive for the era.

"Oh," I say. "Okay. Can I buy the fudge?"

"Sure!"

Mr. Vincent lets me pick out which fudges I want, then he gives me the ten-percent discount normally reserved for people who complete all of the card decks. Once I leave, I continue my trip through the street, saving Uncle Roger's shop for last.

Ms. Heidi has a decent amount of extra donuts today, but that's understandable. It's the Saturday before Halloween, so there's more activity at the park. She made more donuts in anticipation of that. The stalls at the park aren't always consistent so it's hard to know for sure how many extra will be needed and it's better to make more than it is to run out.

At the flower shop, Trenton and I both receive flower crowns while I tell Ms. Laney about the party. I don't need the flower crown, but she offers it anyway in exchange for telling her about the party.

"Hey, Xander!" Uncle Roger says when I enter. "Saw you pass by, figured you weren't feeling like candy today. Changed your mind?"

"No," I answer. "I wanted to come here last 'cause I had some questions."

"Go ahead," he says.

"I don't know any etiquette stuff for sun dragons," I tell him. "So I don't know if there's anything I need to keep in mind for the visit. Is there anything I should be aware of for that?"

"Niels is visiting?" He asks. "When will that be?"

Uncle Roger's told me before that he likes watching my streams and how I interact with the others. We haven't announced the date yet for Niels's visit, but it's coming up. That's how he knows it's Niels who's coming.

"Friday," I answer. "We're gonna do a barbecue with a dragon at the park. I already got the permit for it. Grandma Aurora's the dragon."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Uncle Roger starts laughing. Is it because of the permit thing? That's important, though, because not having a permit for an event like that would be a problem. Filing for a permit is so the town knows when and where it'll be located. That, in turn, allows them to prepare for any problems which might arise.

"Leave it to my sister to leave out information!" He says. "She told me she'd be visiting on Friday, but that's all she told me!"

Oh. He's laughing because Grandma Aurora didn't tell him more than just that she was visiting, not that it was for an event.

"Who all's coming?" He asks.

"Niels, Axel, Leif, and Grandma Aurora."

"You won't need to worry," he tells me. "Dragon customs are different from human customs. We respect our ruler and obey their commands and laws, but there's no need to be formal with your grandmother. And as for etiquette, well, just follow the common rules for basic courtesy and respect."

That's a lot simpler than I expected. It's basically to just act how I usually do.

"Anything else?" I ask.

"That's it," he answers. "We're noble dragons, not wild ones. As long as you aren't mean to us and don't cause us problems, we're generally pretty gentle beings."

"But also petty."

"That's mostly when someone wrongs us or is mean to us," he chuckles, then turns thoughtful for a few moments. "You know… speaking of dragons, Xander, I've thought about your ancestry a little."

"I already know why I look like I have a pure-blooded Kenzibri tribe person thingy in the past generation or two," I tell him. "I asked Grandpa Adrian yesterday and he didn't know, but then Grandpa Blaze told me."

"Not that," he chuckles. "It's that you have an interesting bloodline."

"That comes from having four nonhuman people and Grandpa Adrian in the past three generations."

"Not that," he says. "The bloodlines have somewhat blended a little, but yours hasn't stabilized since there hasn't been consistency and is a blend of multiple creatures. I can see the greater noble shrubfolk, the sun dragon, the phoenix, and the unicorn.

"What's interesting to me," he says. "Is some of the magic in your bloodline. It doesn't come from any of those, as near as I can tell."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "Ain't it all from those and Grandpa Adrian?"

"No," he tells me. "Unicorns and phoenixes use telepathy to communicate, adding in a small touch of mind magic to your bloodline. That enhanced the mind magics you inherited from Lord Adrian, granting you a stronger power as a mind mage and turning you into an empath and a dreamsage, as far as I can tell.

"Then there's the noble shrubfolk," he says. "That includes plant magics, earth magics, and water magics on a greater extent. There's also minor light and air magic, with some poison, acid, and decay magic.

"From sun dragons, phoenixes, and unicorns," he says. "You have light and healing magic. Unicorns can't heal others very well, but they still possess it, in a little bit of a different form which purifies. Then the sun dragon and phoenix in you granted you an affinity for fire magics.

"Dragons," he continues. "Have gravity magics inherent to them, and it prevents their insides from being crushed under their own weight as they grow large. There's also our inherent flight magics. We don't have much else in it unless we train, and I know my sister has a little.

"The thing is," he says. "The spatial magic in your bloodline can't be entirely from her, and it's much too strong for your father to have with what I do know of him. He wouldn't have been able to train enough to boost it even further than Aurora did."

"Maybe it's because I've been using it a lot?" I ask. "That can boost an aspect in a person's bloodline, and I do use a lot of spatial magic. Teleporting and stuff."

"That's actually part of what's been blending it," he says. "But you haven't used it enough to really strengthen that aspect. So you're blending it, but not strengthening it. You'll need a lot more than that to boost an inheritance as strong as that."

"Oh… so there's something in my bloodline I don't know about?"

"Indeed," he says. "Which is interesting… perhaps something latent in Lord Adrian? But no, he came from a mundane family. It wouldn't explain the temporal affinity, either."

Telling a magical beast in one's bloodline is easy enough to do, but differentiating the origins magics not from one's species is much more difficult. All he really knows is I have these affinities, and these magic beasts. Since he knows what magics are inherent to those magic beasts are and how strong they are within each beast, he can figure out – for the most part – where some of the affinities come from.

But he can't actually see that the different magics come from the different beasts and ancestors. That's just educated guesswork.

"I just use it a lot."

"Not that," he says. "You have a very powerful temporal affinity. Lord Adrian must be a little baffled by that as well. Greyson uses spatial and temporal magics a lot, but it's developed an attribute for them in his bloodline. You? It's already in your bloodline, and quite strongly. None of the creatures in your ancestry have those in enough of a way to create affinities for them as strongly as yours. Not at your mix."

"Oh… that is confusing."

"It is," he says. "Especially since we rarely branch out of our natural magics. They feel the best to us and we generally don't have any reason to. Aurora expanded on her spatial magics in order to create a protected domain, much like Dragon River, or Fern."

Something tells me Grandpa Blaze knows why I have strong spatial and temporal affinities. Not my psychic instincts… I just feel like he knows something.

"Oh," I say. "Okay. Um… I guess I learned some stuff I wasn't expecting to learn. And thanks for answering my question about the etiquette for when Grandma Aurora and Niels and them are here."

"You're welcome," he smiles. "Now, did you still want to buy some candy? Don't forget that you have a permanent discount now."

The permanent discount is because I'm physically stronger than him due to being magically more powerful and my body has finished adapting to that. Well, sort of. It's constantly adapting because I'm constantly gaining more mana.

Apparently, I'm a lot more of an anomaly than I thought, even after hearing about how my soul is too powerful for this world. The average person can increase their mana capacity by around 10% per year if they do a decently-good training routine. A much heavier training program, such as what weaker people wanting to join the Special Magic Forces go through, can bump that up to around 30-40% per year, maybe 50% if they're lucky.

That's not too good to do long-term, though. Without a blessing from a god, increasing one's capacity by more than 10-15% per year can actually cause damage to a person's mana if they do it for too many years in a row.

However, there's a second cap for how much mana a person can gain per year. That one's in a flat amount, and few people ever reach it. The typical absolute maximum amount a person can increase their mana capacity by per year is around 3,000 units. Some people can do more, some have it lower, but that's what's typical.

Most people never reach that just because most people have less than 100 mana, and 3,000 is 10% of 30,000. People basically have to be as strong as Luke or stronger to reach that. Almost everyone stronger than him never reaches that cap because they plateau.

My capacity increases by more than that per day.

That could be because of my nonhuman ancestry… but as it turns out, even that's not as great. Greyson's a bit of an anomaly, as are the ninja twins. Even dragons, the creatures with the highest typical absolute maximum, can generally only gain up to around 10,000 mana per year. Some can go higher, but that's rare, just like me.

Which actually makes it a really good thing I have a really high healing factor, as it allows my body to adjust more quickly to its constantly-growing mana capacity. But it also means that I'll pretty much always win an arm-wrestling contest with my great-uncle now.

So now I just get a discount instead of arm-wrestling for one.

"I want to buy ten pounds today," I tell Uncle Roger. "Equally-split between everything, but the different gummy bear flavors counted as one thing and the different gummy wolf flavors counted as one thing and the different jelly beans counted as one thing for this. Can you do that?"

"I can," he chuckles.

"Okay."

After I pick out and pay for my candy selections, I put the bag and my receipt in my backpack.

"Are you going trick-or-treating on Tuesday?" Uncle Roger asks.

There's no age limit on trick-or-treating. Some of the alternate-Earth novels Russell reads has it where people aren't allowed to go trick-or-treating once they hit thirteen or fourteen, depending on the area. Not unless they're escorting a younger sibling, and they're not allowed to wear a mask for it.

That's just stupid, though. He says the in-story logic is to prevent problems, but that's just punishing a lot of people for the actions of a few. Deal with those causing a problem rather than taking away an activity from everyone over a certain age.

A thirteen-year-old might enjoy it just as much as a twelve-year-old, after all. And it might help to scare off the pixies, too, so more people participating is better.

Since those restrictions don't exist here, we're allowed to go trick-or-treating as a group for the celebration.

"That's the plan," I tell him. "We were going to go through Sig's neighborhood first, then Connor's. After that, we were going to go through Sam's. It's another party thingy so there's a lot of us. We'll be splitting up into smaller groups so that we don't crowd homes as much."

If there's still time left after, we might visit other neighborhoods for more trick-or-treating. Isaac's, then Ethan's.

"Alright," he says. "If you come by here, we'll all have stalls set up. Those who sell food will be giving those away for the treats, while the other shops will be giving away small items, such as erasers, candles, and flowers."

"Really?"

"And we'll have things with chocolate in a separate dish on the other side of the table from the stuff which doesn't," he adds. "Though I know a couple of them are planning on doing things like candy apples or popcorn."

"Oh, nice," I say. "So then I can get stuff. Nathan's mentioned that there's usually a lot of chocolate being given away. That means I won't really get candy from most places."

"You'll be able to get some from here," he tells me. "We wanted to make sure your first trick-or-treating in years was something you could enjoy. And I hope the rest of your weekend goes well."

That's really nice of them.

"Thanks," I tell him. "I'm gonna go now."

"Have a good rest of your day!" Uncle Roger tells me.

"Have a good weekend!" I wave one of Trenton's paws to him. "Bye!"

I exit my great-uncle's shop and begin making my way to the Wolf's Dragon. I already ate at the sub shop here, and it's around time for a slice of cheesecake and a smoothie.

As I'm walking past the wooded section, I pull out my phone and call Grandpa Blaze.

"Hello, Xander!" He sounds out-of-breath even though this is telepathy.

His phone is designed to pick up and relay telepathic messages, designed specifically for him. My own phone got upgraded to handle those same capabilities so that I can call him and we can talk without him needing to use a different way of talking from normal.

"Are you working out?"

"I'm a phoenix," he says. "We doesn't usually work out."

"You sound out-of-breath."

"Just doing some fun physical activities," he tells me. "No, Celeste! To the right! Anyway, what'd you want? You usually text!"

"Do you know why I have a strong spatial and temporal affinity in my bloodline when none of the creatures in my ancestry should have been able to provide that?"

"Oh, that was me," he says. "Left! Left! Yeah, like that! I dabble in temporal and spatial magics. It's pretty fun! Also makes some pranks really easy to do. Celeste, duck! I teleported into your room before, didn't I? That was me, not Celeste."

"I hear a lot of horses and birds."

"Some of your cousins," he tells me. "Some of whom are distant, some of whom are not. We're playing a game with some of the really young ones where they're charging at Celeste, who's blindfolded, and I'm telling her where to go to avoid them. We're also navigating an obstacle course at the same time. Sometimes, I have to dodge spells, too. Haha! She jumped before you could try! Hind kick!"

"Did a bird just get kicked by a unicorn?"

"That was a griffin, actually," Grandpa Blaze informs me. "He wanted to join in, too. Don't worry, he wasn't wounded, just surprised by the kick. Jump! Left! Left! Jump higher! Anyway, your spatial and temporal affinities being so strong from your bloodline came from me. I would've thought Magus Adrian knew that. Right! Right! Yeah!"

"It was Uncle Roger who told me," I tell him. "I guess Grandpa Adrian would've known, since he saw you. I just had a feeling you'd know why so I called you first. You seem to be a bit weird and would know stuff like that. And you use temporal and spatial magics for pranks?"

"And for getting around," he tells me. "It's a lot faster than relying on a unicorn's ability to turn into light. Most can't move quite as fast as light. But it's also fun to teleport items around on people as a prank. Usually on the little ones, like we're watching right now. Duck! Left! Left! Right! They enjoy trying to grab items before I teleport them. And as for the time magics, uh… don't worry about those! But your affinity for them comes from me as well. Spin-kick!"

I don't think I'll ever play that game. I really want to know why Grandpa Blaze uses temporal magics well enough for them to become a part of his bloodline, but I suppose I won't know for now.

"Um… thanks for answering, and have fun with the game."

"Love you!" He says. "Bye!"

"Love you too, Grandpa," I say. "Bye."

I hang up and pocket my phone, and just as I reach the parking lot to the Wolf's Dragon, I spot someone I haven't seen in awhile. He looks to be in his early twenties and has golden-blond hair, azure eyes, and a lean build.

As he usually is when I see him, he's dressed in a pair of black shorts and a golden sleeveless shirt, his sneakers black with golden accents and laces. Since he's wearing that despite the cold, his arms being slim but defined is obvious. When it's warm enough, he goes shirtless and that makes it very clear that his build is lean and toned.

Not as toned as me, but I also have a little bit more muscle bulk than him, even if I'm still slim.

When we first met, I was scared of Aiden. I can't remember it very clearly, but I remember him being shirtless on a walk in summer. Somehow, he earned my trust during our first conversation despite that and other factors, but I don't really remember any of it. Regardless of how he did it, I feel comfortable with him.

I sometimes encounter him on my walks through town. Since I haven't really done those as much since moving in with Trey, the odds of us meeting have dropped even more. Encountering him was already rare enough, so it happening right now is really coincidental.

And… he's a phoenix. So this is the adult phoenix other than Blaze I know? Grandma Lily really knows a lot if she knew I knew him when I haven't seen him since before she learned about me.

Maybe… maybe she learned from Grandpa Blaze? But why would he tell her about Aiden? That's just confusing.

"Hi, Aiden."

"Hey, Xander," he says. "How've you been?"

"I've been alright," I tell him. "Got put into a new foster home after the last time I saw you."

"I heard," he chuckles. "Dad told me about that."

"Your dad?" I ask. "He knows me?"

"You know him as 'Grandpa Blaze'," he chuckles. "Though you might have heard him called 'old coot' by Magus Adrian."

"Maybe several times," I say. "So you're my uncle? Are you a unicorn, too? But your species magic says you're just a phoenix."

I've learned to differentiate between bloodlines and species in someone's magic. They're two separate things, just very close to each other so I was mixing them up before and thought they were the same thing.

"Because I am," he smiles a little. "I'm actually older than Celeste, but I'm also powerful enough that I don't age anymore. When I die, I resurrect at this same age. Or if I purposely make myself a hatchling to experience life again, I age up to this point, then stop."

"Oh," I say. "Um… did you know I was your nephew?"

"Not until Dad told me," he says. "Until then, I just thought you were a quirky little kid. Haven't seen you while I've been on my walks lately. Are you on your way in to get some cheesecake?"

"That was the plan, yeah," I nod. "But I eat it there now most times."

"Mind if I join you?"

"No," I answer. "But I'm gonna go see if I can get a cheesecake today."

"Alright," he says, and we begin walking to the building. "I heard you had a party last night."

Grandpa Blaze must have told him.

"Yeah."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Yeah," I answer. "But I'm a little disappointed my morning activities didn't happen. The others stayed up late enough they slept in really late today. But I guess it's okay. I was planning on having them for the Tuesday celebrations, too. This means I won't have some of the same exact festival activities just a few days apart."

"Good luck with them," he tells me. "What was your favorite part about your party last night?"

"Teaching Carter how to turn into a merboy," I answer. "It was quiet and calm with just the two of us in the pool. But I really liked that they all wanted to do the magic lamp enchanting session and drawing on the cups. They all did it. Here's my prototype decorated cup."

I pull out the cup to show Aiden. It's a plain clear glass one like the ones I set out for the others, and has a tree pattern with a dragon and a wolf on it. This isn't the final version, which I left in the rec room. This was just a practice one.

"I had to use a lot of temporal acceleration magic to get it right," I admit. "But it was worth it. The design came out really nice."

"That does look nice," he says, and I can feel how impressed he is. "You're pretty good with art."

"I've used a lot of temporal acceleration to learn and improve my skills," I tell him. "I've got probably at least a thousand hours' worth of practice now."

"Don't be in too much of a rush," he tells me. "You've got plenty of time to practice."

"Yeah," I nod. "If I use temporal acceleration, I can fit in hundreds of hours into an afternoon and I don't age at all, physically or mentally. And by doing that, I have more time for other things, like throwing a ball back and forth with Dad."

"That's not what I meant," he chuckles.

Dad had the same reaction when I told him that after he told me not to rush because I've got plenty of time to practice. I don't understand what was funny, but understanding adults will probably never be something I can manage until I'm an adult.

Or maybe I never will, even after I'm one.

We continue talking a little as we enter the restaurant, and Emily is our waitress today. Those boys I normally see here are here again as well.

By the time I'm done with my food and Aiden's finished his, I'm feeling really happy.

"Um… Aiden?" I ask as we reach the parking lot again. "Do you know Grandma Lily?"

"I do," he confirms. "We talk from time to time," he chuckles. "I remember when she was still a hatchling. This one time I visited her village, she was such a shy girl who hid behind her father. Well, to be fair, the shrubfolk tend to get nervous around phoenixes since they're plant people and we're fire people, but she was extra timid in comparison to others."

"You're older than her?"

"By a decent amount," he confirms. "I'm one of the oldest living creatures on Earth. She might be an elder among her people, but I was alive when the first of them transitioned from plants to plant creatures and later, to people."

Whoa. He's really old, then. But if that's the case, just how old is Grandpa Blaze?

"Anyway," he says. "I'll be going, now. See you next time, Xander."

"Bye."

Aiden walks away, and I pull out my phone to let Dad know I'm about to teleport home. I should really make sure the rec center is cleaned up, and I want to get that done before dinner.

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