Shard

  Niphru awoke in the m as Dawn stirred, sunlight shining in through the window. As soon as she sat up, Dawn reached down and stroked his head, scratg behind his ears as well for a moment. A moment ter, she picked him up and brought him into the living room, greeting her mother as she came in.

  “Good m, I’ll have breakfast ready in a few mihen we tinue where we left off,” Amilya remarked as she headed into the kit. A momehere was a quiet swear, theurned with a mana stone, pg it into a tainer beside her chair. Grabbing another from the other tainer beside it, she headed bato the kit.

  Dawn hugged Niphru as they waited, and he wondered how he was supposed to manage anything when they left. If he couldn’t use his foxfire, he wouldn’t be able to help since he could barely move. Despite this, Dawn was insistent that he e as well, and he didn’t want to leave her, either.

  After a few moments of musing ouation, he heard Amilya return, and focused ba the world around him. She had brought out bowls of pe and some ba, pg a bowl beside him, as well as one for Dawn.

  Amilya sat down at the table without anything in front of herself, and, seeing Dawn’s quizzical expression, remarked, “I already had something to eat earlier, I had to stop by the farms to che on the farmers again. We actually o go visit them when you finish up, as well.”

  Dawn nodded before fog on Niphru. Like before, she carefully made sure he was able to eat until he was full before returning to her own meal. When he was doh the pe, she also tried to get him to have a bit of the ba, but he proved uo eat it since he could still barely swallow, let alone chew.

  While Dawn ate, Amilya spoke again, “I also received a message from the lord of our town, and would like it if you could bring a respoo him in person when you pass through. Another of our fellow vilges suffered a worse disaster than our own, and he is raising the requirement of food sent from the other vilges. Having heard of our situation, he excluded us, but we are in a better situation than it sounds like, as the forest is much safer now, and we easily hunt for more food, even if we lost some of our domesticated animals. Due to that, we still provide extra to help out our fellows.”

  Dawn nodded before replying, “If you are certain, I try to do so. I’m not sure if they would let me meet him, though, I’m just a random girl from a vilge, after all…”

  Chug, Amilya corrected her, “Not only are you the daughter of the head of the vilge, but you are also a mage. More than that, you are a mage that has earned a staff. You shouldn’t have any trouble at all, just keep behaving like you always do and I’m fident you will represent us well.”

  “I hope you are right, but I don’t feel that special…” Dawn replied after she fihe st of her meal.

  “To most, any mage is. You will see that more as you travel. Most of the mages are either iowers in the capital, or holding back the wilderness at one vilge or another. We are vital to survival, so people respect us as long as we don’t go crazy,” Amilya stated as she collected the dishes.

  As Amilya headed into the kit to the dishes, Dawn sat in thought, trying to imagihings acc to what her mother had told her. Try as she might, she couldn’t see herself as someone special, however, there were several others that could use magic too, so surely they couldn’t be that special.

  A few moments ter, Amilya returned, and they headed out to the farms north of town. After heading towards one of the eastern-most houses, Amilya knocked on the door. Shortly afterward, a ehe door, smiling as she saas present.

  “Ah, I’m gd you got here finally, I’ve been having some trouble keeping it penned up, but at least I didn’t give up as easily as the first guy,” she stated, turning to grab a staff beside the door before exiting her house.

  Amilya o the woman before speaking to Dawn as they headed towards the woman’s barn, “While you were rec, Devon and his meo the of the ants and mao capture the queen alive. We were hoping you might be able to bond with it since you had success with Niphru, one of the other children actually suggested the idea. I thought it was worth a try, but personally I doubt it will work.”

  They arrived at the barn, and the woman ushered them back a bit before removing a bar on the door and opening it. Immediately several finger-sized ants rushed out and the woman stomped on them before being the two of them forward. In the far er of the barn, they could see an exceedingly rge ant beside a rge pile of eggs.

  The farmer shook her head, remarking, “It keeps making more and mgs all the time, I doubt it would live long without me stantly tossing in more food for it. Do you o get close to it, or is it fine here?”

  Dawn closed her eyes for a moment, clearly deep in thought, focused on when she had met Niphru. Nodding to the woman, she replied, “I try from a distance, but I’m not certain. It is just a big bug, but Niphru was a rather intelligent animal.”

  The woman grunted, and Dawn began to focus o as Amilya watched beside her. The farmer nervously rested against her staff while keeping a around them for several minutes before Dawn shook her head.

  “I feel it, but it is incredibly weak feedback, and I ’t do anything. If anything, it almost feels mindless. I’m sorry, but it seems I ’t be useful in this case…” she remarked, looking down.

  Amilya sighed before hugging her and speaking, “Don’t worry about it, it was just a hope, not something anyone was relying on w. It is unfortunate, but not ued. Sadly this means it ’t be trolled.”

  The woman beside them nodded as she stood back up straight aed her staff, heading towards the queen ant.

  “This thing has been far more difficult to tain than I expected when I offered up my barn. I ’t say I’ll be sad to be rid of it,” she excimed as she reached the ant.

  They watched as the womaed her staff backwards above her shoulder, then brought it down with a siing spt into the head of the ant, causing it to burst into a gooey mess. She shook her head again at the sight, shakiaff to get the bigger ks to fall off.

  “It’ll be a while to get this ed up. Thank you for stopping by before it mao escape or succeeded in growing enough other ants to harm anything,” the woman stated.

  “Certainly, we came by as soon as we could. I just didn’t want to bother my daughter the instant she came home, or we would have been by yesterday. Thank you for housing the ant until we could try this out. Would you like me to send ao help you up?” replied Amilya.

  The farmer shook her head, waving off the offer as she remarked, “Thanks for the offer, but I my own barn just fine.”

  Amilya o her, theurned a as she put aside her staff and reached for a shovel by the wall.

  Before they got back to the vilge, Amilya hugged Dawn, thanking her f her best, and reassurihat it was fine even if she didn’t mao form a bond. Dawn nodded, still upset about her failure, but clearly feeling a bit better. Satisfied that she would be fine, Amilya let go and they returned home.