I left Greypeak behind and made my way towards my parents’ nest. Mum sat in front, keeping an eye out for potential threats. The two fledglings were still asleep but would likely wake up soon. They had not reacted too well to my presence the last time I was here but maybe they would be more amenable if they saw me guard them when the rascals woke up.

I spent an hour talking to my mum telepathically. Slowly but surely, she was getting better at pronouncing words. I thought it might be good for her to hear actual humans speak. Good for father as well. His voice sounded very feminine. Altogether, my whole family had a voice that sounded way too similar to my own for my tastes. But for now, pronunciation was more important.

Eventually, dad showed up and shortly after the little ones woke up. They seemed a little intimidated but when mum left and dad started preening me, the boys slowly started to calm down. Eventually, I could look at them without causing excessive fear. I still avoided [Telepathy]. We had talked it through with everyone and decided to only start with it once they gained sapience. My revelation of having [Hidden Identify] which could not be detected easily was met with indifference. Then again, my family barely knew the basics about altered Skills or Breakthroughs.

For tonight, I decided to accompany the hunting lessons. Dad and I would keep an eye on them together while I taught him a little more about speaking. The whole process was not very exciting. The little ones had the basics down but still exhausted themselves heavily just trying to catch a few scraps.

After a few hours, both of them had managed to catch something and were digesting their meal. They sat on a branch close to dad, cuddling each other. I kept a little more distance. Still, the rascals could not keep their eyes off me. It must have been weird for there to suddenly be a new owl a few months into their lives. Their instincts should be screaming ‘danger’ at them. And yet, there was some obvious curiosity.

Eventually, one of them decided to take a chance. He hooted at me. Without interrupting the lesson I was giving dad, I eyed him. He hooted again. Then his little brother shoved him. A short scuffle broke out after which they sat a little further apart. My bigger little brother kept switching between hooting at me and looking out into the fields. Did he want to see me hunt?

I rotated my head to look around. The field was too far to keep up [Telepathy] with dad. But maybe there was something close by. There. Right behind me on the next tree over. That was a good target. A squirrel was sleeping in a knothole. I quickly formed a tendril of darkness and extended it over. The three metres were easily bridged and my shadow pierced the rodent’s throat. It made no sound and simply fell dead.

I pulled it over with the darkness and showed my kill off to my brothers before devouring the snack. They were baffled. Their heads weaved and bobbed back and forth. Their little beaks opened slightly but did not hoot. Their eyes were wide open. Even dad looked a little intimidated. Not to be outdone, he covered his branch in a swathe of darkness. It was not much thinner than mine from an outward perspective but my senses could see it have less essence than mine. His Skill might be at a similar level but he definitely lacked my magic Attributes. Still, I let him have his moment of impressing the boys and returned to teaching him how to pronounce ‘human’.

The beginning of the word was not too difficult. Owls could make high-pitched noises like the ‘hju’ quite easily. ‘a’ was also not too hard. The problems were the ‘m’ and ‘n’. The latter was somewhat possible but the principle of speaking without opening one’s mouth seemed to elude him. Thus, his version of human sounded more like ‘hiu-uhn’. Then again, we had beaks, not mouths. I really should bring my family along to the witches the next day.

Telling them about that particular idea was not very successful. My parents and sister had made some bad experiences with the village and wanted to keep away as much as possible. In the end, I relented. If only to avoid having them meet Circe before the girl had a familiar.

I spent the rest of the night getting some rest. With everything going on, I should have felt more exhausted. In the end, I only noticed how bad it was once I settled down. All the things I had done the last few days were not particularly demanding but the sum of things still made me nearly sleep. Nearly. Owls roost most of the time anyway, so it was quite enough to just spend a few hours with an eye closed.

When dawn emerged, I was not feeling very rested and simply took some more time. Only after another two hours or so did I finally take off again. The main reason was that I heard the excited and familiar voice of a human girl.

I made sure to keep perfectly silent as I glided above the trees. It was easy to spot the two humans trampling through the woods, not just because one of them could barely stop talking for more than five minutes. I used a trick I had learned a few days ago and formed a second set of wings with [Sgiathan Dorcha] to hold myself still in the air above her. She was leading the search for a potential familiar which I found quite interesting. Despite her incessant noise, which most definitely scared away any suitable targets, she was never looking back at her master. So I carefully connected to Mira with [Telepathy].

“I’m here”, I sent, “Don’t speak.”

The woman barely flinched at my voice. I found her head swivelling in search of me but of course, she forgot to check above. And that, even though she knew what she was looking for.

“Hold out your arm”, I sent.

She hesitated for a moment but then held out her left that was not holding a staff. I slid through the foliage, not making the slightest noise thanks to [Sneak] and carefully landed on her forearm. This time she nearly jumped but somehow she still avoided making any suspicious noise. Circe was no the wiser as her master settled back into slowly following the girl, now carrying me along.

“You can speak to me in your mind”, I told her.

“I know”, came back indignantly, “I was just surprised.”

“Not as surprised as Circe will be.”

The woman smirked at my look before we refocused on our leader.

While the girl kept talking about this and that option for a familiar, never managing more than three sentences before bringing back the topic to me, I talked to her master.

“Is she always this enthusiastic?”, I asked.

“Not quite. She has always anticipated her bonding. Your arrival simply worsened her state.”

“So she can be quiet?”

“Yes. In fact, she is incredibly focused once one manages to direct her interest at something. I believe she already has her [Brewing] Skill at the first Breakpoint.”

“I see. Now, tell me about the switch from an apprentice Class to the ‘real’ version. What happens exactly?”

The [Witch] met my eyes for a moment and smiled softly.

“There is not much to know. Just like when dropping any Class, you will lose all Attribute Points gained from it. You will gain a double bonus for the aligned Attributes but only for the very first Milestone, gaining the Class. You will also be able to choose any of the Skills you have acquired during your apprenticeship as starting Skills.”

“That’s everything?”, I asked, “You can get the other Class Skills more easily as General Skills, right?”

“Correct. If you fail to reacquire them, you might have heavily limited choices for your future Milestones, though. It is heavily recommended to pick them up.”

“Wouldn’t the best option be to take a bunch of Classes, get them to the first or second Milestone before dropping them and then regaining all the Skills as General ones?”

“If you could live fine only off your base Attributes and Race-Level, certainly. That is rarely an acceptable option, though.”

I blinked. I had a free Class slot. Should I try cycling my Class like that?

“There is also the issue that you will not have enough time to invest into every Skill properly. Do not overload yourself. It will only make you weaker.”

That… made a ton of sense. I already had a bunch of Race Skills that I could not push past the first Breakpoint. And only a single Skill had ever reached past the second. There was so much time I could invest into what I had already, even just taking up a second Class was probably a bit too much. Then again, I wanted the easy levels and Attributes coming with it.

“Have you decided on becoming an [Apprentice Witch]?”, Mira asked.

“I… am interested.”

“Let me note that you can only improve an apprentice Class under supervision of a master you accept. That counts for both its Skills and its levels.”

She smirked at me.

“That’s not much of an issue. Unless you don’t want to teach me?”

At that moment, Mira stopped. I looked forwards only to see Circe standing still and observing something out of our sight. She was completely silent and had been for most of our conversation now. What moved her to that, I could only speculate.

The girl carefully took a step. Then another. Her hand held some wild nuts from one of her many pouches. After her fourth step, something rustled and I heard quiet steps disappear into the undergrowth.

“No! Warped fungus! That was so close!”

She turned around with her cursing and the next words died in her mouth. I greeted my friend with a hoot.

“Do not worry, Circe”, Mira said, “I had to search for a whole two weeks before finding Grunk.”

The girl pointed at me with her berries, looking between us with an open mouth. Eventually, she found her voice again.

“Eh… but… what? How long have you been here?”, she asked.

I extended my [Telepathy] to her.

“Maybe half an hour?”, I said.

Instead of asking another question, she ran up to me. Circe’s arms were stretched out for a hug and I pushed out a swathe of shadows. She ignored that and plunged into the darkness, somehow still finding me despite Mira stepping back. After a moment of rubbing her face into my chest, she looked up at me.

“Good morning, Fio!”, she grinned.

“Yes”, I sighed, “Good morning.”

A push of my will and I was shifted to a nearby branch. The girl collapsed onto her master, who carefully caught her. She grinned at me when the darkness dissipated.

“This stuff is really cool”, she said, “Can I learn it?”

Mira held her face with the tips of her fingers. I sent a wave of amusement through [Telepathy].

“Highly unlikely. It’s a Racial Skill, after all.”

“Alright! Then, let’s keep going!”, she said and turned around. Her arm was held out for me to land on. When I did, she smiled at me. At least, she had her other hand full and could not try to pet me.