*Tink, tink, tink...* Soon after Bridget had finished her work, the bell for dinner started to ring. Hearing the bell Bridget put the spear inside her warehouse space and started to move in the orphanage's direction. Along the way, she put down the hatchet and rope and then moved to the main building. As usual, she was greeted by a smiling mother at the entrance and then went to wash her hands. This time Bridget had to spend more time washing her hands because grinding and sharpening stone dirtied her hands quite a bit. 

After she cleaned and dried her hands she made her way to the dining room, where everyone was already waiting, and once Bridget sat down the spirit of the room got ignited. They ate and chatted, the lively atmosphere making the food taste so much better. As usual, after the main course, they got the dessert that everyone loved. Today none of them had anything too interesting or unusual to say so the time was spent peacefully eating. 

After they finished their dessert, it was time for bed, or more precisely get ready for it. Although they ate dinner relatively late, they usually didn't go to bed this early if they weren't tired, but at the same time they didn't go outside they just spent time how they wanted until it was bedtime. Bridget decided to get into her nightwear and spend time trying to get some mana training. She wanted to start enchanting stuff as fast as possible, but she was blocked by her own lack of mana control. 

It was kind of frustrating, she had gotten a book, that normally she would be able to afford later in life, but she couldn't utilize this lucky chance because she couldn't do the first step necessary for the whole process. So she took the pocket knife and started the training. But this time she sat in a lotus position and closed her eyes, the reason being that maybe this way she could feel something she didn't before, maybe the media back on Earth was right.

Unfortunately in this situation, it didn't help, she still was struggling to mold her mana. Briget tried to feel the movement, and she could feel how mana left her body like a small stream, but she couldn't do much else, after mana left her body she couldn't control it again in any way. After trying and failing repeatedly, Bridget wanted to try something else, but before she could she felt a little lightheaded. 

''It looks like, I spent more mana than I thought.'' It wasn't smart to push more mana out of herself when she felt the symptoms of mana depletion. If she pushed more it could result in her state worsening and she might lose consciousness, so she stopped. 

''What are you doing?'' At some point, while trying to control her mana, Bridget missed the arrival of Lyra. Right now the blue-scaled dragonkin was standing a few steps away from Bridget with a curious look. When Bridget looked at Lyra she remembered that Lyra could use lighting, so maybe she could help. 

''I'm trying to manipulate mana, but I have no success in that. How do you do it, you control lightning, how?'' Bridget wanted to know how Lyra could do it, and maybe Lyra could teach her. 

''Sorry to burst your bubble, but I have no idea how to control mana.'' Lyra gave Briddegt a shy smile, explaining that she couldn't teach her. ''For me it's natural, and hard to explain, it would be the same if I tried to explain how I move my arm, I just do.'' Lyra shrugged and moved her arm around to emphasize her point to Bridget. 

''I see, well then I will try until I succeed.'' It wasn't the most optimal way, but Bridget will have to try until she succeded. This might take her a while but she wasn't going to give up on enchanting stuff, so she might as well do it. 

''Have you asked Theo?'' Those words struck Bridget as lightning. She had totally forgotten that Theo had chosen to take a wizard's path, and his class needed the power to manipulate mana. Lyra could see that Bridget had not asked Theo, and her smile turned mischievous, and she couldn't stop herself from laughing. ''Hahaha, you forgot about Theo's class, didn't you?'' To those words, Bridget could only nod as her cheeks flushed red a little bit. 

If someone knew how to control and manipulate one's mana it was a wizard, so not asking Theo about mana manipulation was indeed an embarrassing oversight. Lyra couldn't stop laughing for a while, because it was just that funny for her. Bridget on the other side wanted to just dig a hole and bury herself in it. For the next while, Bridget was constantly assaulted by Lyra's laughter until it was time to sleep, and even then Bridget could hear Lyra's snickers across the room. 

***

Finally, it was the next morning, and this time Bridget got up faster than Lyra, probably because Lyra couldn't stop laughing by herself and went to sleep pretty late. Not wanting to waste this opportunity Bridget got close to Lyra's ear, cupped her hands to amplify her voice, and then executed her plan. 

''AAAAAAAA...'' Birdget's scream made Lyra jump in place. Her eyes shut open and she jumped out of bed on the other side of Bridget. Seeing the shocked face of Lyra, Bridget couldn't help but form a toothy smile on her face. Lyra took some time to figure out what was going on, but the moment she did she lept over her bed ready to pounce on Bridget. 

Bridget wasn't so naive to think that Lyra would just let her go, so she was ready when the dragonkin jumped at her. The young crafter pulled the bed sheet and threw it up on Lyra, making her get tangled in the sheet. Seeing her chance Bridget ran, and not long after she heard another pair of footsteps chasing after her. 

''Hahaha, don't run, I won't hurt you!'' Lyra was gaining on her fast, but that was expected her stats were higher than Bridgets. Bridget shot a quick glance backward, and the moment she did, her brown eyes connected with Lyra's own blue, and that seemed to make Lyra more determined as she picked up speed. 

Seeing this Bridegt also picked up speed as much as her muscles allowed. She grabbed the stair railing to quickly turn, and that resulted in her almost falling down the stairs, but fortunately, she was able to hold her balance and with fast steps, she moved down the stairs. *DUM, DUM, DUM..* Lyra was on hot pursuit as she ran down and skipped 2 to 4 steps at the time, and the sound of her landings made Bridget's heart start pumping blood faster than ever before. Bridget quickly got down to stairs and ran to the dining room, where mother was arranging the table for breakfast. But after a few steps, something jumped on her back. 

''Got you.'' With Lyra's extra weight and her momentum Bridget tumbled down, with Lyra on top of her. *TUD* The fall wasn't painful, but it made quite the noise, and it attracted mother's attention. While Lyra and Bridget were wrestling on the ground, the kind sheepkin, turned to them and slowly approached them, until she was only a few steps away. Mother stood there for a while until they finally noticed her, and froze up, Lyra and Bridget both saw the smile on mother's face, and they both knew that they were in trouble. 

''Dishes after breakfast.'' The two girls didn't dare to move, they just nodded without saying anything, only when mother went back to her previous task did the two of them slowly get up and go back to their room. The whole way they didn't say anything, they just kept their heads low and their steps as soft as possible. 

When they arrived at their room they spent their time in it peacefully unit it was time to eat. Bridget tried to see if she could make a breakthrough in her mana manipulation, but nothing changed, only that she felt a little lightheaded, but she expected that so she just laid down and waited for food. Lyra on the other hand started to do some pushups, she did them slowly and rhythmically, she didn't want to work up a sweat before breakfast, so it was more like a warmup, or a light morning exercise. At one point Auriel, but while she was changing, the signal for breakfast was sounded so it was time to go eat. 

They waited until the young elf was ready and then the three of them made their way down together. Breakfast as usual was quiet and peaceful, as everyone ate and then went with their days. Lyra and Bridget had to stay and clean the dishes. So they did, they carefully cleaned the dishes and then went on their way to the back yard, ready to start a new day.