"Miss Sara, what did you put on the fish?"

"It's my special seasoning, I collect spices from the places I visit, and combine them to make new flavors. I have to cook in the wild very often so this way I keep things interesting. "

"I see, I'm sorry,  I guess I am not used to this much spice."

"Hehe, don't worry, sometimes I forget that not everyone can handle spicy food; here, take this fish, this one only has salt added to it."-Sara handed another fish to Rosalind.

"Thank you, by the way, isn't Splyce going to eat too?"

"He is fine, he already ate like 30 of these fishes before we came back."

"Hey little girl, can I have that fish you don't want?"- Rosalind turned around to Murder, he had already finished his fish, and was asking for more.

"Really? Murder, how are you able to eat this much spice?"

"You didn't know? Us birds are immune to spice, chilli pepper plants want us birds us to disperse their seeds, to you mammals spice is an irritating substance that produces pain, but for us birds it's just a delicious treat."- Murder explained while pecking at the fish.

"That's amazing, I feel like I have been learning a lot lately."

"It's fun right? what were you talking about before I got back?"- Sara asked Rosalind while munching on her super spicy fish skewer.

"Many things, Murder was teaching me about tamers, and how beasts get their attributes."

"Ah yes, Murder is really good at explaining things isn't he?"

"Yes, but I have been wondering, I though tamers could only bond with one creature at a time, how come you have two beasts?"

"That's not entirely correct, it is true that tamers can only bond with one magical beast at a time, but we can also bond with other small animals at the same time. Most high level tamers have three bonds in their lives; their magical beast, their horse, and their messenger pet."

"What happens if you try to bond with more than one beast at a time?"

"If the new bond succeeds, the other bond becomes weaker, and the mental strain becomes higher, some tamers fell into madness after dual bonding. Anyways it is better to have one really strong bond, than to have two weaker ones, being greedy is just stupid."

"But aside from having a magical beast, what is the difference between a regular mage or a warrior and a tamer?"

"The answer lies in our bond, once we create a bond with a magical beast, we are able to share everything with our beasts, our emotions, our desires, and even our powers and attributes."

"You can share powers too, what do you mean by that?."- Rosalind asked with a confised expression.

"Yes, every creature has their own unique skills, for example; Dire wolves have a great sense of smell and incredible stamina, they can track prey for long distances for several days without rest, if you bond with one, those skills will be yours."

"That sounds really strong, then why doesn't every mana user bond with a magical beast?"

"That is because every one has a weakness. Warriors have great power, defense and speed, but they lack long range damage, and thus are forced to fight on the frontlines, where it is most dangerous. Mages have great power, specially long range damage, but they are glass cannons since they lack mobility and have low defenses. But when it comes to us tamers, our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness."- Said Sara while petting Splyce and looking deeply into his eyes

"You don't mean?"-Rosalind asked but Sara interrupted her with a serious tone.

"Yes, our bond, we not only share our skills and attributes, we also share our emotions and even our pain, and worst of all, if one of us were to die, the bond will be broken. The bond breaking creates a massive backlash both mentally and physically, some tamers loose the will to live after loosing their bond, not to mention, you will also loose all the shared skills between you, even if you were to recover, it would take a long time before you could bond with another beast, or for a beast to bond with another tamer."

"I see, so that's why there aren't that many beast tamers, it is really sad."- Said Rosalind with a depressed look on her face.

"Well, that is the world we live in, don't let that bother you."

"Which brings me to this, stand up little doe."- Sara stood up and urged Rosalind to stand up as well.

"Little doe, no, Rosalind, it is time for you to become a proper mage."

"Huh? what do you mean, I already am a mage."

"Yeah, a mage with no combat abilites, you are basically a civilian, or do you plan to be saved every time something like this happens?"

"Of course not."

"Good, today I will teach you the two most basic combat spells, mana shot, and mana shield, are you ready?"

"Yes."- Rosalind replied enthusiastically.

"You know how to concentrate mana into your eyes right?"- Rosalind nodded.

"Now, look at this closely, observe the mana flow and visualize it, magic is all about about visualization."

Sara pulled out Rosalind's wand and pointed it at a tree, Rosalind concentrated mana into her eyes, now she was able to see the mana in the air clearly. Sara gathered a small amount of mana at the tip of the wand, and then shot it forward toward the tree; the mana hit the tree leaving a small imprint, some of the tree back fell off.

"Did you see it?"

"Yes."

"This is the most basic non-attribute magic combat spell, mana shot, it is novice rank, now you try it."

"Ok, I will try."

Rosalind took the wand and pointed it at the same tree, she started gathering mana at the tip of the wand. Rosalind condensed the mana more and more into a single point, lastly, she made it spin and shot it forward.

"Bang."- The mana shot by Rosalind hit the tree in the same spot as Sara, but where there was a small imprint before, now there was a small hole going cleanly through the tree trunk.

"Holy shit, that was a magic bullet, that is an adept rank spell, I didn't teach you to do that."- Sara was not easily impressed, but now she was.

"This is the spell you used againts that bandit no?"

"You were able to use it at the first try after seeing it just once?"

"Hehe, doing runecraft requires a lot of delicate mana control, this much is easy."

"Great, this will be a lot faster than I expected, in that case let's get going, I will teach you the mana shield on the way."

"Already? where are we by the way?"

"We are still inside the Callid territory, we should be able to reach a town before sundown."

"I'm glad to hear that, I really need to take a bath."

"Splyce, let's go boy, Murder find us a path, and don't get distracted with other birds on the way."

"Fine, fine, I get it."- Murder replied in a dismissive tone while flying up and leading the way.