(Morgan Pov)

It is my fifth day here at the tribe and I think I am getting into a good rhythm. I just finished my morning exercises, I also performed my routine scan of the area. There she is, perched on top of her rock, as usual. Oh, she brought some friends with her this time, I haven't seen them before.

I see a loli with brown hair, one with blue hair, one with blonde hair, and one with pink hair. I think I know their names and most importantly who their parents are. These past few days I kept hearing the men talk about a child that wandered off and needing to find them quickly.

That is why I do my best to make sure Lyn gets back to her mother after she is done playing. I remember when my father lost me. I only found my parents after following the sounds of my mother attempting to kill my father. After that incident, my father put me on a leash to make sure he lives another day.

So I understand the men's desire to keep this a secret, and they all help each other keep the secret. What a perfect example of the bro-code at work. It also helps that the men of the tribe are on top of everything, they always seem to find the kid that goes missing.

I mean sure the fact that a kid goes missing every day is worrying. But when I take attendance for myself, everyone is accounted for. I guess they are pros at finding lost children after doing it so often. Not sure if that's a skill I want to hone, but it is useful.

"Hello, Lyn-lyn."

"Heelloo, Mawr."

"Let's see, if I know your names. Do this, if I say your name. Okay?"

I instructed them to nod if they hear their names, hopefully, the message will get through. I am not good at talking to children at all.

"Cookie Monster over here must be Maya, cotton candy over there is Sarnai, the ball of sunshine staring at me must be Lucine, and the little sparrow trying to look away is Merla. Am I right, are those your names?"

As I pointed to each one of them and they each say their names, they nod in response to their name being called. I don't think they understood 90% of what I'm saying, they are just smiling and nodding to the words they can understand. Whatever, I got the message across.

"Did you bring your friends here with you? Did you want to show them something."

I see Lyn nod her head enthusiastically.

"Maaaj-iiik!"

She does the hand motion as she says the word, I should probably teach her the correct way to say magic at some point. I see the chibis look at me expectantly, they want to see the spectacle that is magic. I wonder what I should show them? I think I know what to show them.

"Look at this trick little munchkins."

"Oooh." (x5)

I wanted to flex a little, so I showed them something very visually impressive. I created a bunch of butterflies and made each one of them varying shades of yellow, blue, red, purple, orange, green, and even brown. I didn't want one of them to feel left out of the rainbow.

This flex is hurting me mentally, this is something very complicated to pull off. The first step is simple enough, taking my magic and shaping it. Once I create the magical construct I need to have a constant output of magic to ensure the construct stays around.

To simulate movement I need to have very fine control over each magic construct. It's simple to do, but it is a bitch to pull off when there are multiple constructs. To simulate color, I have to invest more of my magic power to change the individual properties of each construct

I do this by changing the properties of the construct to absorb and reflect certain light waves to get the color I desire. For different shades of colors, I have to make adjustments here and there until I'm happy with my work.

However, to keep these properties, just like maintaining the shape, I need to control the output of power for each construct. This is hard, but thinking about it a little more, this is a great training exercise.

I am slowly optimizing my output of magic, and I'm learning how to maintain multiple spells at the same time. The biggest benefit of all of this is that I am keeping my honor as a clown intact.

~Wait, you were a clown in your past life. Why does that explain so much? And how did that happen?~

I was a part-time clown, let's just say I needed the money badly and I found the job opening. I then got into it because of all the fun I had either making the children smile or scaring them. It then became a hobby down the line, and it was a good distraction from my regular life.

I was actually pretty good at it and I was booked for a lot of parties. Wait a second, there is a green-haired loli, a blue-haired loli, a blonde-haired loli, a brunette-haired loli, and a pink-haired loli. I have an idea that will bring more smiles to the world.

~I am not letting you pull a Kyubey, you are not allowed to turn them into magical girls. You will NOT teach these little girls magic! AM I CLEAR!~

Oh come on, I am nowhere close to that white cat looking thing. I don't have any malicious intent, I just want them to know the wonders of magic.

~You're such a dullard, did you forget the fact that you only know dark magic. I am not letting you corrupt these innocent girls for your own amusement. You will not turn them into yanderes, and by extension, you aren't teaching them the dark arts.~

You are right I shouldn't attempt to do that now. I must learn and master the other forms of magic, but I will one day create a team of magical girls that will save the world. Mark my words Clara, I will turn that dream into reality.

~Your goals are ambiguous at best and your motivation for pursuing those goals are absurd.~

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(Hassar Pov)

It has been 5 days and I still haven't found Morgan. I thought I was a skilled hunter, but recent events say otherwise. It's a miracle that none of the women found out we lost a child immediately after being responsible for him.

I know he isn't dead at least, he has been surviving on his own for so long that I have some confidence in his survival skills. There is also the fact that we haven't found his corpse around the camp, which is reassuring in its own morbid way.

Then there is the matter with Clara, she had been constantly showing us the same dream. The dream where we live out an entire day and then wake up to live out that dream. She was really angry in yesterday's dream and telling us how useless we are as trackers and hunters.

I can't say she was completely wrong, she literally allowed all of the men in the tribe to have an entire day to search in their dreams. And then we woke up, we had a second attempt to search for him with the advantage of hindsight aiding us. Yet, we still couldn't find him.

I naturally got angry after having enough of her sass, so I shouted at her for the rude comments she made. I'll admit it wasn't my brightest moment, but I needed to say something back. She then said something about taking a more drastic approach.

I didn't have the usual dream, so I talked to the other men and asked them if they also had the same dream. They didn't have the dream or get a chance to talk to Clara, so I know it's my fault that nothing happened. What could she be planning to do?

I see Dorian, Roger, Garret, and Corbin running towards me, they look very panicked. I wonder what could have happened? The last I need to hear this morning is bad news, that is the last thing I need on my mind. I would hate to be the reason something bad happened after provoking Clara.

"Have you seen Lucine, I can't find her anywhere. I asked Saran if she saw her, she said she saw her go off to play with Maya. So I asked Garret if he has seen her playing with Maya around here." (Roger)

"I haven't seen Maya either, so I went with Roger to ask around. I asked Delkii if she saw Maya, and she said something similar. She saw the two of them leaving to play with Merla. So we went to "find Corbin after hearing that." (Garret)

"As you can guess by now, I couldn't find Merla either. My wife said Merla went off to play with Sarnai. So we went to Dorian, who also lost his daughter. The latest clue brought us here to you." (Corbin)

"So we came to ask you this question. Have you lost your daughter? And if you did lose her, ask your wife she will have a clue for you to follow. That is the pattern I am seeing right now." (Dorian)

Now that Dorian brought it up, I haven't seen Lyn this morning. Wait, is this Clara's vengeance at work? I didn't think she would be cruel enough to target children.

"Don't worry guys I'll talk to Madelyn, and I will even take over searching for them. You guys have jobs to do this morning, and I am free until noon. I'll take over the search while you guys do what you need to do. If I find them, I'll let you know."

———(One Moment Later)

"Oh, I have seen them. They followed Lyn out to the area Morgan is practicing his magic. She hasn't been playing with the other girls ever since she found Morgan. I guess she wants to play with both her friends and Morgan, so she brought them to Morgan."

Wait, what? How did my daughter, a 2-year-old, find Morgan before an entire tribe of hunters working together did? Alright, we need to discuss this at the next meeting. I don't want to say we are horrible trackers, but this experience says otherwise. I need to know when she found him.

"Wait, when did Lyn start playing with Morgan?"

"3 days ago, I went with Lyn yesterday to see Morgan. You remember that my father made me take lots of lessons to make me a desirable bride."

"Yes, but when we talked you never wanted to talk about the lessons. You wanted to learn more about the plains and the places I have seen."

"Ok, so I haven't told you that one of the lessons was anima magic theory. I wasn't the most talented or the most studious mage, but I have enough experience with magic to say this. He isn't using anima magic. I don't have a specific reason, it just feels different.

I would be worried about him playing around with something so dangerous around Lyn, but Morgan is an extremely talented mage. I haven't seen anybody play with magic so easily. My tutors had fine control, but none of them could play with magic as he can.

It is something you have to see for yourself. Have you guys decided what you are going to do with him yet or do you need one more day to come to a decision?"

"I think we need to have one final discussion before we wrap up things for good."

I forgot about that, we were too busy searching for him and being freaked out by those strange dreams. Well, now that we found him we can get the answers to the questions we have and then we can decide who will look after him.

—————(Another Moment Later)

After 5 days I finally see Morgan again, and I see him performing an elegant show of magic in front of the 5 "missing" girls. I see a large number of butterflies fluttering in the air, each of them their own distinct color.

The girls are chasing the magical butterflies around, it's fun to watch them run around trying to catch them. Every time they would get close to catching them, the butterflies suddenly speed up and fly just out of their range.

I look at Morgan, and he looks like he is in pain trying to maintain his control over this spell. The little girls are blind to his suffering, not going to lie, it's a funny situation.

"Morgan, what are you doing?"

"Maaaj-iiik!"

Lyn puts her hands together and clumsily moves them apart saying a line I know all too well. That is the cutest thing I have ever seen my daughter say and do!! I know Morgan does it too, but he does it intending to annoy me or to not answer my questions.

"You don't have to worry Hassar, despite the pain I am feeling, I have everything under control. Were you looking for the girls this time? I have been playing with them for about half-hour, and I haven't seen anyone else pass by? Are they the ones you are looking for? Or did another kid wander off?

I know you guys are good trackers and probably don't need my help looking for the others. But I want to help in any way I can. I am very easy to find at a moment's notice, so don't hesitate to ask me to do something for the tribe. I will do my best to help in any way I can."

Easy to find!! How did you avoid being detected by an entire tribe of hunters? I don't even want to add the word skilled to describe us, I feel like we lost that right to call ourselves that. You somehow heard our secret discussions about trying to find you.

Yet you didn't once think that we were looking for you specifically. I am sure we mentioned you by name specifically in those discussions. How did you miss that part?

How can a kid be so intelligent, yet so unaware of his surroundings? Is his luck that bad? Whatever, the point is he was here all along with the missing girls. Now we have to decide who his primary caretaker will be in the next meeting?

We can ask about Clara later, I have had enough of her for the past 5 days. I'm glad that after today, I won't have to hear her voice ever again.

~You can't tell me what to do! I do what I want!~

Well, that dream lasted a few seconds.