Noon stroke the second day of 318. Time flew by faster than expected for Whil. He was back in the forest again. His right hand blazing. He swung around his hand; listening to the crackle that the fire made. He was smiling wider than ever. Even wider than the day he found Darreos.

“Mesmerised by the fire?” asked Darreos.

“Kind of…” he answered.

“Why not try learning to blast the fire instead of just looking at it all day long?”

“Think I didn’t try? I’ve been doing it since this morning. I can’t seem to get it right. I can’t seem to get it at all.”

“OK. Give it another try. Let me see it.”

Whil held out his burning hand. He concentrated hard. His hand started to shiver around. He was as if forcing the fire to shoot. He could feel the energy converging on his palm but did not know how to command it to shoot forward.

“Argh!” he groaned. “I just can’t.”

“Well. I can’t teach you how. In fact, I can’t teach you at all. How you conjure, magic, and how I conjure them are different. Creatures like me use spell words to conjure. Humans that get magic from Creatures use energy extension. In other words, ‘casting’.”

“So what now?”

“Try asking Sheila for help. I'm pretty sure that she’s more than happy to do so.”

Whil looked to the ground. He did not want to ask anyone’s help. He actually did not want anyone to know about Darreos’ existence. For some unknown reason, he felt as if he needed to keep Darreos safe from the outside world. All he knew was the world will take away all that he love. He was afraid that Darreos would be one of them. Even so, he knew as well that nothing lasts forever.

“Fine. What else can I do?” he said while he walked away.

“Wait. I’ll give you a ride.”

“How? You’re standing on two legs. You’re not a horse.”

“True. But, I am able to mimic animals and beasts. Any animal and beasts.”

“Really? You can change form?”

“Hahaha…yes I can,” Darreos said. Then, glowing blue smoke covered Darreos and changed him into a beautiful grey horse. “Ready for a ride?”

“Cool,” Whil said in awe. He then climbed on Darreos. “Onwards,” he said and Darreos took off back into Joycelm.

They entered the city as usual, except this time Whil was proudly on his beautiful horse, trotting calmly down the street straight towards Sheila’s house. Whil looked around the area while sitting on Darreos. He noticed people looked at him much more than usual. He gave a broad smile knowing the attention was really on him. Who would not give a look especially when a young teenager seemed to be riding on a horse around the city? The sight was almost rare. No teenager had his or her own horse to ride around. Unless it was their own Creature. Even when they have their own Creature, they rarely ride on them in cities.

The moment they arrived, Whil jumped off Darreos and procured a rather awkward landing. It made him looked stupid and incapable than cool.

“That was embarrassing,” commented Darreos as he changed back into a Feremear.

“No, no, no. Wait. Change into a dog,” Whil said to Darreos.

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

“OK. What dog?”

“Any.”

Then, the Feremear changed into a small white poodle. “Good enough?” he asked Whil.

“Yeah. Perfect,” Whil said pulling the Wielder’s bracelet off his wrist and slid in into his jacket’s pocket.

Whil and the poodle went straight to the front door and Whil gave quite a loud and exaggerated knock. He was excited and he could not really mask it. A clack behind the door and it swung open. The butler was the one that answered the door, as expected. He gave a demeaning stare at Whil and Darreos.

“No stray animals in the house,” he said.

“No, no. It’s mine,” Whil explained pointing to the poodle.

“I meant you,” the butler said giving a smile.

“Oh, Berton. Always the one with the jokes.”

“My name’s Berlin.”

“I was talking to the guy behind you.”

“Nice try.”

“Haha. Fine. You win. Is Sheila around?”

“Come in.”

“OK. Tell her I’ll be waiting in the backyard.”

Whil entered and Berlin closed the door. Whil then marched straight towards a door that led to the backyard while Berlin

turned the other way looking for Sheila. Whil got to the backyard of the Haze Manor and sat on a comfortable wooden bench that looked very well made with amazingly and meticulously carved patterns. Darreos jumped on the same bench and sat beside Whil; close enough to feel Darreos’ tail wagging around. Then, Sheila went through the same door Whil did with a very surprised look on her face.

“You have a Creature?” she asked, as she got closer.

“What?” Whil choked up with a shock. How did she know? Was it obvious?

“Yeah. That’s a Creature beside you.”

“Wait. How? I was gonna’ surprise you”

“Surprised me alright.”

“But how?”

“I can sense better than other people remember? I have ‘Sense’.”

“Oh. Dang it. I thought I was going to be the one telling you.”

“How did you come by a Creature of your own?”

Then, Whil explained what happened yesterday in Whispering Death and how he came by Darreos. He told her that Darreos was a Feremear but did not show her how Darreos really looked like. He figured that she would find out either way, or maybe, she already knew.

“Wow. This is big news. Did anyone else know about this?”

“Nope. Just you and me.”

“Why not tell anyone else? What about Alph?”

“No, no. Not yet. Not now.”

“Then why tell me?”

“I need your help.”

“My help? What kind of help?”

“Casting.”

“Oh. I see. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

She left the backyard and went back inside. Whil just sat there waiting and looking around.

“She was charming,” Darreos said suddenly. It was funny hearing his voice in a poodle’s body.

“Well, she is. She’s quite popular with many people,” Whil said smiling at the thought of Darreos’ current form.

The door threw open again and Sheila sped through the backyard towards Whil with a box in her hand. She sat on the grass and put the box right in front of her. Then, she gestured Whil to join her. Whil sprung from the bench and sat in front of Sheila and the box, legs crossed. Darreos followed and sat beside Whil.

“Before I open the box, tell me, what are your Sigils?” Sheila asked Whil.

“Fire, Mind and Matter,” Whil answered confidently.

“Your ability?”

“Umm. Ability?” Whil asked in confusion.

“Insight,” Darreos answered for him.

“OK. It seems like you still don’t know much about how the bond works,” Sheila said waving her left hand and Gallant appeared beside her from her bracelet.

“Now. Tell me what you know,” Sheila asked.

“I know that Darreos and I share past memories and knowledge. I know that we share Sigils. I know that I get magic from him. That’s about it,” Whil answered. “Oh. And I know how to conjure flames on my palms.”

“OK. That’s just the basic though,” Sheila said. “Listen. I’ll explain to you as simple as I can. A Wielder like you and I share magic with our Creatures. The magic can be conjured through the Sigils. Learning to conjure Sigils are normally a little harder than learning to conjure magic, but it won’t take that long. Usually people learn to conjure the magic until they get used to it and then conjuring the Sigils will come by naturally. There are three steps of conjuring involved in magic. Firstly is conjuring the Sigils. Next is conjuring the magic. Conjuring magic is conjuring the elements that corresponds to the Sigils. Like what you said you did with the flames on your palms. That is the basic part, conjuring the magic. Lastly is conjuring the forms. We know this as ‘casting’. Which means casting the magic you’ve conjured. For instance, casting the flames on your palm into fire balls, a ball of light, blowing it from your palm to attack or even into lightning shooting from your palm. Got it?”

“I get it. Sigils, magic and cast. But I can’t really cast at the moment. It’s hard. I mean, it’s hard enough to conjure magic.”

“I get you. You need to feel where the energy comes from. Dig deep. Normally, the energy originated from the chest area. From there you can flex it. Make the energy move like moving an arm or a leg. That of course comes from a command from your brain. Once you mastered controlling the energy, once it start feeling natural like walking or breathing, then you can try casting. These things take time. You’ll have to keep on conjuring the magic as much as you can before getting used to it. Try other Sigils. Don’t just stick with Fire. Try playing around with Mind or Matter.”

“OK. That’s helpful I guess,” Whil responded. “So, what’s in the box?”

“Right. That slipped my mind. Touch the box and speak two Sigils.”

“Alright.” Whil held out his right hand and touched the box. “Fire, Mind.”

Then, Sheila opened the box just as Whil removed his hand. She pulled out two leather gloves with a Fire Sigil on the right glove and a Mind Sigil on the left glove. She presented it to Whil.

“These are called the Sigil Gloves. They are purposed to help Wielders to master casting. They’re yours. Try them on.”

Whil grabbed them and slipped them on both of his hands. “Perfect fit,” he said.

“Now, conjure fire,” Sheila said to Whil.

Whil closed his eyes. He searched his chest for the energy that Sheila talked about. Then, he moved the energy and it surged towards his right arm. A moment later, fire burst on his palm as it did that morning and the day before. He smiled widely and looked at Darreos.

“This is way easier than drawing Sigils with mud,” he said.

“Well, I wasn’t the one who wanted to train in the forest,” Darreos talked back to Whil.

“OK. Now try Mind,” Sheila said with a light giggle from Darreos’ comment.

The fire disappeared and Whil concentrated his energy to his left hand. The wait was longer than when he conjured fire. The long wait made Whil curious. Nothing was happening. What was Mind magic supposed to feel like? Was that it? Was he supposed to not feel the difference?

“I don’t feel any different. Is that supposed to be how it is?” he asked Sheila and turned to Gallant and then Darreos.

“Let me guess. You channelled your energy to your left palm,” Sheila said.

“Yeah. Like I did with Fire.”

“That’s not how it works silly. Follow the logic of human anatomy. The mind is located at the brain. Channel your energy to your brain not your palm,” she said holding a laugh.

Whil tried once more and in a moment’s notice, he could see his surroundings as bright lights with different shades of blue depicting inanimate objects, shades of green depicting plants and shades of orange as living beings. He was amazed. Although, he could only see until a certain radius. The longer he used it, the weaker he felt. Suddenly, he felt tired and he can no longer see everything like before.

“Whoa. That was cool. I could see everything from every angle,” he said in excitement, but his tiredness was obvious.

“That’s because you expanded you mind and it became what we call as ‘vision’. Useful as a scouting tool. Fire is the easiest to conjure. Mind is harder. I can see that you’re tired already. It depletes your energy faster and twice more than fire. Matter is the hardest. Although they’re hard, with practice you’ll get use to them. Like training your muscles in your body, your energy can get stronger and withstand greater conjuring. Just keep practicing.”

“Right. One last question. What are abilities?” Whil asked.

“Oh. Abilities are traits that you gained from your Creature. Like me, I have Sense. It allows me to sense ten times better than any ordinary Human. You, according to your Creature, have Insight. As I can understand, Insight allows the user to see a split second or so into the future which gives an advantage in close combat battles. Learn how to use it. It can be very useful one day.”

“Wow. OK. Thanks for everything. Especially the gloves.”

“I'm glad to help. When are you going to tell Alph and Wyo about your poodle?”

“I don’t know. Soon for sure.”

----- ----- ----- -----

It was nearly sundown as Whil left Haze Manor. He walked back home with the Wielder’s bracelet on his left wrist and Darreos in it. He was still wearing the gloves and playing with the fire on his right hand. While walking, he thought of bumping into Vancory like the day before yesterday. Vancory would be scared of his new dragon he reckoned. He could not stop swinging his burning hand around. As the street lights started to turn on one by one, he noticed that the sky was dark and only a small hint of red from the swallowed sun.

The fire disappeared from his palm and Whil picked up his pace back home. Down the road, right pass his grandmother’s house, he saw a couple of men with a unicorn walking by slowly. He saw no one else around the streets except the two men, the unicorn and himself. One of the men had short hair and wore light leather armour with the unicorn along his side and the other wore a silky robe with long hair. As they got closer, the one with the robe greeted him.

“Evening,” he said.

“Evening,” Whil answered.

“Might we spend the night at your place?”

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