His face lit up when he saw his father standing in a nearby lantern light—surrounded by at least twenty other ranch hands--silhouetted against the yellow light as he aimed his gun and fired. Nikodemus sighed, completely jealous that his father would only teach Carl to shoot, but not him. Nonetheless, he and Carl dashed to his father’s side.

“How can we help, Dad?” they said almost in unison.

Their father scratched his head with a heavy sigh. “Well, hyenas are pretty tasty, and right now, they’re all running away. Carl, I need you to help me shoot them. But, before we commit to that, I want Nicky to try and… influence them to come back.” His father was always awkward when he had to talk about Nikodemus’ powers. It wasn’t that his father resented them, or thought they were evil; it was just that he didn’t understand them.

Nikodemus’ eyes lit up at the chance to do something with his father. He turned toward the hyenas and reached out with his consciousness, intending to touch their minds with his and convince them to return to their cage. At first, he touched all of their consciousnesses at once, and was overwhelmed by doing so to the point where it felt like his brain was ballooning out of control and bleeding. He released his hold on all of them, and instead concentrated only on three. Now, it was easier to seep inside their consciousness. He fell to his knees however, exhausted by the effort from it, as he began guiding those three back to their pen--almost seeing through their eyes. Carl was stunned when he began to see his brother’s body being dragged through the sand toward the hyenas; there was no one and nothing around to be dragging it, after all. An invisible force was propelling it. Carl launched himself on top of Nikodemus and pinned him there so he wouldn’t continue speeding toward the hyenas. “I think I remember Nicky telling me about this, dad! If he tries to move too much with his mind, it will physically drag him toward the thing he’s trying to move! I’m sure he’s got a hold on a few of them! Give him a moment to steer them towards us!”

Their father lowered his gun for a moment, trusting his boys. Eventually, three of the hyenas who were running in the opposite direction began turning back. Their father nodded his approval as the three hyenas dazedly headed back toward their pen.

“Great work, boys. We’ll have to shoot the remaining ones.” Their father and the other men took aim and fired a shower of bullets at the remaining hyenas as Nikodemus shepherded the three back inside the fence, shutting the gate behind them and locking it without lifting a finger. After that, Nikodemus lost consciousness.

When he awoke, he heard his father saying, “Someone left the gate open on purpose. I have no idea who; it seems there might be a traitor amongst us.”

Nikodemus’ eyes fluttered open, and he was greeted to his father talking in hushed tones to his mother and brother. Nikodemus’ eyes felt heavy with sleep, and his head was pulsing in pain. It felt like someone was poking it with a white, hot branding iron.

“Nicky, you’re awake!” Carl cried, throwing himself on his bed and throwing his arms around his brother.

Nikodemus weakly wrapped his arms around his brother. He felt too weak to speak at the moment, and didn’t try to. Instead, he took a deep breath, and then waved to his father and mother, who immediately glided to his side. “We’re so glad you’re okay, Nicky.” They said in unison.

“Thank you so much for your help with the hyenas, Nicky. At least now we’ll still have some meat.” Father said.