“We’re going to the eastern county, there we should be able to find safety for our kind,” I replied to Eurielle’s question.

Surprisingly, Eurielle did not pry for a more detailed answer from me and I appreciated it greatly. Instead, she asked a different question that threw me completely off guard.

“So, how come you don’t use magic Nocturne?”

I looked at her quizzically, “Because I can’t use magic?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, your aura tells me that you can,” Eurielle scoffed as she scooted closer to me and she grabbed my arm. Before I could stop her, she unwrapped the cloth around my right arm and exposed the red scales on my arm. “This happens when your mana is extremely concentrated and built up. It manifests on your physical body and from how much your body is covered in scales, you have the potential to do some high level magic”.

Oda and Aldric seemed highly interested in my arm and joined in with Eurielle in inspecting it.

Feeling extremely self conscious, I pulled my arm back and wrapped it back up while I retorted, “If what you’re saying is true, how come my caretaker never noticed?”

“Most demons are affiliated with offensive or black magic. You seem to be affiliated with support magic, or white magic. Your caretaker might not have been proficient with sensing magical energies like I am so I don’t blame them for not noticing. I don’t think you can use healing magic since that belongs to holy beings. You should be able to cast illusion magic and buffs,” Eurielle explained as she drew a diagram in the snow.

“Once you use up some of the built up mana in your body, the scales covering your body should go away over time,” Eurielle said. “Why don’t we try to practice focusing on summoning your magic?”

Oda instantly piped up with excitement in his voice, “You totally should Nocturne! It’d be so cool!”

Sighing, I agreed.

So, Eurielle made Oda and Aldric stand guard a bit away to give us privacy and to make sure that our mana usage didn’t attract any monsters.

Eurielle and I sat opposite of each other underneath the trees as trickles of snow fell from the sky. I had my eyes closed and I was listening to Eurielle’s instructions.

“Inhale. Exhale. When you’re inhaling, imagine collecting your mana. When you exhale, imagine that your mana is being exited from your body in the form of magic whether that is enhancing your speed or strength. Inhale. Exhale”.

Following her instructions, I envisioned my magic power welling up inside me with each inhale and my power manifesting with each exhale. I continued to do this for what felt like hours but I knew it was only a couple minutes.

“Nocturne, keep doing that but hold out your hands. Imagine that your power is extending outward,” Eurielle said and I felt her guide my hands to the correct position.

I kept my steady breathing as I imagined my power, my rage, my mana being expelled from my body. After I did that for a few more breaths, I felt something in my body change. My body felt lighter and swifter and for some reason, it felt like I was reaching farther than I usually could.

“Open your eyes,” Eurielle instructed.

When I opened my eyes, I was greeted by the sight of red ethereal talons emerging from my fingertips. I was careful to maintain my focus while I moved my hands to touch the snow. Where my talons touched the snow, they left a clear sharp cut.

I stared in wonder and Eurielle added, “With more practice and experimentation, I’m sure you’ll grasp magic better and learn new spells and enhancements you can do. For now, this is good progress”.

“How do I turn this off?” I asked as I etched a doodle into a tree trunk.

“Imagine your mana is being pushed through a valve. Close the valve when you want your magic to stop. Open the valve when you want to use it,” she replied.

By imagining that, the magic talons I had created disappeared without a trace.

“See, I told you you could use magic. You just needed a teacher to show you the ropes,” Eurielle stated proudly with her hands on her hips with pride clear in her voice.

“Yeah, point taken,” I looked up at the sky and saw the moon looming over us. “We should call the guys back and determine a sleeping order”.

Eurielle agreed and we went to go talk to them. When we got to where they were positioned, we saw that they had killed a few monsters and they were in the process of harvesting the meat and fur off them.

Before we went to bed, we agreed to eat some of the meat before it went bad so we went back to our grove and using the fire crystal, we cooked the meat.

Once our bellies were full, Oda offered to take the first watch and when we were determining the watch order, Eurielle demanded to be woken up as well for a shift.

We agreed that we would take turns to stand watch for two hours and then call for the next person. Oda was first, I was second, Aldric was third, and Eurielle was last.

We set our sleeping bags on the ground underneath the trees near their trunks to hopefully prevent most of the snow from falling on us while we slept. We had to reallocate some of the blankets we had to accommodate another person but we managed somehow.

Bundled in my sleeping bag, I heard Aldric quietly let out a good night and Eurielle replied back with the same. I remained silent as I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

I was woken up by Oda for the watch change and I carefully sat up in my sleeping bag making sure that I didn’t let any heat gaps open up. I stared out at the night sky and the bright stars glimmered in the sky. Everything was so quiet, it honestly felt ethereal. I never imagined I would encounter so many of my kind on this trip. I always thought I would be alone on my journey and reflecting on that, I realized that having company wasn’t so bad after all.

The two hours went by peacefully without anything of concern happening. I woke up Aldric for the next shift and he grunted as he woke up. I laid back down and closed my eyes for the rest of the night.

When I woke up to the early morning light, I saw that Eurielle was doodling in the snow. She had drawn a pack of snow bunnies and even had a few snow bunny sculptures beside her. I looked around and saw that I was the first one awake.

“Morning Nocturne,” Eurielle said as she finished drawing a snow bunny.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how are you doing that?” I asked.

Eurielle understood what my question actually was and she answered, “Even though I can’t see the physical world, I can see the flow of mana. Thus I can see my own version of the world”.

“That explains some things,” Aldric said from where he sat.

“Oh, you’re awake. Good morning,” Eurielle said politely. We all then looked at Oda who was completely passed out in his sleeping bag. “Who wants to wake him up?” Eurielle asked.

“Or we could just leave him here,” I said as I stood up and shoved him awake with my foot.

He groggily woke up and yawned.

“Come on, we have places to be. Our supplies won’t last forever out here!” I ordered.

He attempted to quickly pack up his things, but instead he ended up dropping and tripping over everything. Rolling my eyes, we all helped to close up our campsite. Once everything was cleaned up, Eurielle used her magic to move the snow around to cover up evidence of us being here. With that done, we continued on with our journey east.

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