Our following days were interesting, to say the least. For starters, Teival had successfully channelled his mana through me. I must say, the sensations I felt were drastically different from how the human in my dream had felt. If I had to describe it, then I’d say to imagine being electrocuted with many mini-shocks that crawl through your entire body starting from where the hands were placed.

In my case, Teival had placed his hands in two separate locations: my head and back – which was most likely due to my small stature when he initially began doing it. As for the results of having his mana channelled through me, I somehow felt a closer connection to the land. It was almost as if someone had dulled my senses before and this energy outburst from Teival had reawakened my reception to those sensations.

As I walked along the land, I felt it thrum beneath me with every step. I began to wonder if the brown crystal particles I sometimes found in my food had any correlation to my connection to the land, since the crystal termites also had brown crystals on them. However, I pushed such thoughts to the back of my mind as I struggled to make any sense of the gibberish Teacher was spewing out in every class Teival attended.

I honestly don’t understand humans. How can anyone find sitting in one place for hours on end fun? Add to that the fact you aren’t allowed to make noise unless Teacher asks you a question pertaining to the topic he was divulging information on, and I found myself exceptionally bored. I mean, how do you expect people to learn from words alone? I, for one, learn so much better by watching and doing! Take my catching termites as an example, I highly doubt I’d have been able to accomplish such a difficult task without watching it firstpaw.

Going back to the classes, I also began to ponder over whether Teacher was actually qualified to instruct the children on whatever subjects he was giving. What were they again? Ah, they were subjects like ‘Magic science’, ‘The history of the Crystal Beast Clans’, ‘Crystal Beast Nurturing’, ‘The history of Crystal Technology’, etc…I think my point has been made – all useless subjects, in my opinion.

 I mean, it’s not like I didn’t give the magic science theories a chance, since I secretly tried them out myself while Teival was reading. However, after failing all of my attempts – even though I was devoutly following the instructions to the letter – I determined Teacher’s knowledge to be flawed. Recalling how the woman in my dreams conducted her magic, I don’t know, it just didn’t feel right whenever I tried to do it. It was almost as if I was trying to use the wrong energy to power the wrong circuit, or something.

Anyway, since I found Teacher’s drivel to be unimportant for my intellectually superior self, I took the time in classes to catch up on my beauty sleep – since the training back at home was cutting into it! Saying that, Teival seemed to be really enjoying the classes that I didn’t have the heart to tell him they were useless. Poor boy, having no idea he’s being led astray with how to properly utilise the mana around us. “Mana around us…? Hmm, maybe I should try that out at some point.”

As for outside the classes, due to the daily training and regular diet of crushed crystals with termites, I found myself shooting up in growth. “Look, Teival! I’m already up to your knees! See! I’m not a glutton, I’m just growing! Do you happen to have another portion of food to give me, by the way?” Ahem, I do have one minor problem I have detected on my person…my claws.

I was digging the ground as usual in the secluded spot, then stopped to have a rest. As I was licking my claws clean to maintain my pristine appearance, I noticed the discrepancy! My beautiful black claws had started turning brown and grey! “Teival! I think I have a vitamin deficiency! Give me more food to make up for what I’m not getting! My beautiful claws!” Of course, when I showed my afflicted paws to my master, he simply scratched behind my ears and happily smiled. “Oy! Why are you smiling when your beloved Kia is ill and might possibly die from a vitamin deficiency! How cruel!”

A few days after that episode of panic, I found that my digging had become a lot easier than before. My claws seemed to cut through the soil without as much resistance and the sharpness of them didn’t dull as fast. “Hmm, perhaps I was mistaken about being deficient in vitamins? But then…why are they changing colour? Give me back my black claws!”

Apart from my crisis of whether to be concerned about my health and claws, or not, I have one other complaint to make about the past few days: Teival hasn’t been playing with me as often as before. I remember when we would run and chase each other all day, but now? Now he mostly sits with his legs crossed while muttering something, or humming, or singing, or reading from all of those books Teacher keeps handing out to the children! “Where is my affection from you?! I want to play more!”

Well, at least I have something to look forward to in a few more days. In class today, I somehow had awoken in time to hear Teacher mention about having another sparring session. I sat up straight upon hearing this before turning to look at my adversary – Mr Stripey. “Perhaps this will be the day I shall have my revenge! Just you wait! I am coming for you, hahaha!”