Zyn had assured Xoco that her notable height could actually be an advantage in stealth. 

When the average height was significantly below her, so was the eyeline. A casual scan with the eyes, as the drow had explained, would be likely to miss her entirely because they wouldn’t be expecting a person so far outside of the average. Citlali actually had a similar advantage in that respect. 

This unexpected advantage expectedly did not help Xoco.

“Xoco.”

“Yes Zyn?” The jungle troll stopped in the middle of her attempted sneaky tracks. 

“You’re still doing the…the ’power walk’ while trying to sneak..” The drow gestured with his hands to her feet as Ozzy did the same with his tentacles. “It’s the opposite of being stealthy.”

“Oh.” Oh. “...when you say ‘power walk’ do you mean–”

“The walk you’re doing all the time.”

She nervously laughed. “...it’s not all the time, is it?”

Xoco looked around at her assembled friends on the club building’s rooftop at night. Aside from a currently Lightning form Vidal, the only other illumination came from two far away magelights at the entrance to the stairs. These light sources were perfect for a night of learning to be sneaky and softening the looks on her friends’ faces as they softened the blow they were to deliver unto her.

“You…walk with purpose!” Isak offered. His smile was unsteady yet genuine in trying to put her at ease and he looked to Nelli, temporarily relocated to his shoulders during her turn at training, for assurance. “It’s hard to unlearn being cool!”

“And powerful.” Citlali nodded. “Though sometimes one must use less than total power.”

“Why do I have to deal the killing blow? I hand out enough bad news…” Tonauac sighed. “Yes, you do it all the time. It’s just never a bad thing outside of this.”

“Oh.” Right. That walk. Sure she walked with confidence and purpose, but that was just part of being a confident person!...is what her family would say. Of course. This was all normal for them. So normal that they had Xoco learning this walk since she could even stand. Another way for them to project power. “I will try to be more conscious of that.”

Zyn swatted away her concerns as Ozzy flailed his tentacles. “Literally only an issue here. You and Tonauac are at a disadvantage by being giants but I’m going to teach you anyway because I’m just that awesome.”

“The recent growth spurt has thrown off my balance–”

The drow hushed the lizardlad. “We are here to learn and grow. Stop apologizing for doing both of those things.”

Xoco gave a quick pat to Tonauac’s Patli-free-shoulder. She had actually been growing a little more since the start of the semester but Tonauac’s own growth spurt seemed to have made hers less notable by comparison. “Our talents lay in other places, Tonauac.”

“Your talents can still lay in recognizing stealth.” Zyn stared out over the rooftop onto a darkened campus. “And everyone is getting the hang of that pretty well. Even with our less than ideal training conditions.” He yawned and allowed Ozzy to tap his face with a few tentacles. “Mm, that’s enough lessons for the night. I’ve kept you from your weekends for long enough.”

The mood turned casual yet again as they all slowly made their way down onto those lamp lit campus walkways, chattering about anything and everything on their way back to the dorms. Tiredness caught up with them the closer they got to their dorms as rest seemed ever more inviting with each step. 

It made it harder for Xoco to keep wearing a smile.

This entire plan of hers required subtlety and she couldn’t even walk without standing out. Worse, she didn’t even realize she was standing out like that. What else didn’t she realize? Just how obvious was she being? 

Tonauac’s own…’revelations’ had gone well enough even if he himself was still having a hard time accepting it. Xoco, at least, already accepted who her family was…and yet she still kept calling herself by a nickname even in her head.

But that was temporary. All of this was. Ephemeral inconveniences on the way to something better. Just keep smiling until then.

Eventually they all split into three groups heading for three separate dorms and bid each other goodnight.

Minus one complication. 

“Xoco, you have a moment?” Isak’s voice called after one such girl after they made it down half a hallway.

“Always!” Was her response. Two sets of eyes drifted over to Citlali, blithely smiling at them.

“So, first I really need to stop cornering girls like this–”

“Don’t.” Came two responses who shared a curious glance between themselves.

“...um, right.” The human raised an eyebrow. “Second, and related to that, Citlali if I tell you to give us a moment will you actually do that or are you just going to hide behind that corner?”

The lizardlass glanced over her shoulder at the corner and swung her head back around with a smile filled with little guilty daggers. “So…I could practice being stealthy and you could pretend I’m not there so you have an easier time saying whatever it is you’re going to say?”

Isak let out a heavy sigh. “You get points for honesty.”

“There’s points?!?” She blurted out.

Xoco could thank her for the outburst later as she barely managed to hold her own tongue.

“There might be if you keep quiet around the corner.” The human said as he spun her around, aimed her at said corner, and let her scurry off with her raptor in tow.

He cleared his throat, looked down the hallway to ensure that only Vidal was there, and then returned his gaze to Xoco after steadying his breath.”Hey are you…I mean…what are–...do you remember how I promised that we should train one on one sometime?”

Pink eyes went as wide as dinner plates. “I do remember that!”

“Hooooooow about we do that this weekend?” He asked, bead of sweat running down the side of his head. “I mean if you’re not busy or anything–”

“With the constant threats we face we should probably train one on one a lot.” 

Isak was having a hard time forming words but remembered how to nod. Luckily he looked cute when he was dumbstruck like that.

The sound of disgust that someone made meant not all agreed.

Xoco’s eyes shot up from her human.

That sound…it came from in front of her not behind. Not that Citlali would ever react like that. She was probably holding her snout shut to prevent her from cheering on how bold Xoco was being! And in front of her there was only Vidal, who not only would never do that but didn’t sound like him either.

No this was…feminine.

Feminine from a very empty hallway.

“W– y-yeah we should do tha–”

She grabbed her human by the upper arms and lifted him up to meet him at eye level. The smile she wore was, she imagined, determined. Enthusiastic. The kind of smile that said no one was going to stop her, least of all her family. “Let’s do great things together, alright Isak?”

He dangled there in her grip, wide eyed and dumbstruck for a moment before he got one of his silly smiles. “We’ll take the world by storm.” 

Xoco giggled and dug her, thankfully capped, claws into his arms. “A Storm needs favorable Winds.”

“Good thing I can handle strong winds.” The corners of his mouth twitched with mischief. “In fact I was asked to train them…tomorrow morning?”

That got a larger laugh out of her. “As if I could say no. What time?”

He stared into her eyes, blinking a few times and still dazed before some visible realization hit and his pupils focused. “....s-seven?”

The jungle troll girl felt her smile grow warmer as she set her human down. “Then I’ll see you at seven. Vidal, make sure he gets home safely.”

“Your concern has been registered and appreciated, Xoco.” The rock man stated.

The human was still wobbling on his feet by the time he spoke.

“See you then! Have a good night!” Isak himself was still scarlet, putting on a good smile while shaking some feeling back into his arms before calling out to a particular corner. “And goodnight to you too, Citlali.”

“Goodnight, Sir!” The Corner cheerily responded.

---

“I think someone was listening in on us last night.” Xoco immediately stated to Isak as he approached her on the beach. Both of them being in their training uniforms would make the spectacle appear perfectly normal to any observers who wouldn’t have the benefit of hearing them this far out on the sand. “Also good morning!”

“No need for a splash of cold water to the face with that revelation…” The human was mid-wave hello, bathed in the early morning light as his arm curled down from the news. “You don’t mean Citlali, do you?”

“She heard it too.” The jungle troll said as she removed Nelli from her neck and tossed her into the air. “Just barely though. Someone was making a sound of disapproval.” 

“Aaaand I missed that…”

“It’s my fault for distracting you.” Xoco grinned.

“You? Distracting? Of course not!” The human cleared his throat and backtracked as Xoco’s smile started to invert. “You’re…uhhm, not distracting…you’re very distracting?”

Her smile sprung back to full force. “So I’ll have a chance to beat you this morning!”

“I won’t make it easy.” He shrugged and let his own smile slip through. “But any idea why our mysterious stalkers would be making their disgust known?”

Xoco paced around the empty beach. This was a delicate matter. It took a long conversation with Citlali last night to even come to the conclusion that she should tell Isak and the others about this most recent incident. The jungle troll looked up to where Nelli was circling above. “Perhaps they don’t appreciate our sense of humor.” 

Isak laughed, then put a hand to his chin as his brows knit together. “No, no that might make sense.”

“It might?”

“Zyn doesn’t appreciate our jokes, and he’s sneaky. Tonauac? Doesn’t appreciate it and he probably inherited that from his spy dad.”

This might make sense if she didn’t know her family and the real reason they would let their disapproval slip through in such a clandestine operation. Her own hand found its way to her chin to entertain Isak’s thought. “So you’re saying we should make more jokes.”

“Tactically placed jokes.” Isak corrected. “Like we could probably just have Vidal hose down an entire area at any time and have him tackle whoever is revealed but then the other stalkers would be out there and way more cautious. Not to mention we need to know more about them before we act. Like what they even want. So no Vidal tackling for now”

“I would be able to disable them at a distance with a well placed burst of Water, Master Isak.” The currently Water form rock man affirmed. 

“When you say ‘disable’...”

“A high pressure shot to the kneecaps would prevent their escape while remaining thoroughly non-lethal, Master Isak.” 

“Brutal yet effective.” Isak tilted his head back towards the jungle troll. “Like someone else I know.”

Said jungle troll blushed forest green, giggled, and made a motion to bat away the flattery. “Well I didn’t mean to kick that hard.”

“I've gotta see one of your full power kicks, then.”

Xoco blinked and wavered between serious and a giddy smile trying to overtake her. The smile won out as she started scanning the beach for ideas. Something to kick. Something to go all out on. But something that could actually show off what she was capable of…

Her eyes landed on a driftwood log. One that looked good and dry, faded enough to start taking on grey hues. She dashed over and started inspecting it. The log was worn down from waves and sand to be smooth, and it was dry enough for a good display. Yet still robust enough that it would make for a good show.

“This one.” She said aloud while nodding to herself.

“Oh do you need some help with–”

Xoco lifted the log up from one end then worked a jagged end into the ground so that it would be a solid target. When she looked back at Isak his eyes were already wide.

“You want to see a kick, right?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Then I’ll show you a kick.”

“Wait.” 

She tilted her head.

“This is all training, right? Well I can learn from you too. Especially Wind spells.” Isak explained. “Add some Wind to that kick. Show me your full potential, body and mind, and explain it to me.”

It was Xoco’s turn to be dumbstruck, and her face was going to get stuck in a silly grin from all this smiling. This request was a welcome one and she gladly took the opportunity to explain at him. “I’ll be using a spinning back kick. The drop kick I used for my duel was flashy and…I admit I got too eager in using that. Once you jump, that’s it. You only have your body weight and the initial force of the jump. But a spinning back kick? You get the wind up momentum–”

She performed a basic standing kick before switching to a simple spin on one leg to demonstrate the increased power.

“And you can also keep one leg firmly on the ground to put more force into the kick.”

Next she took up a solid stance, more for effect than anything else.

“You wanted to see some Wind put into it too…luckily for you I’ve been thinking on how to do that. How much do you know about Wind spells?”

“Not enough…” The human admitted. “My professors say to focus on thinking of different aspects of a Storm spell as a whole to start, and then learning the parts. It seems kinda backwards but I guess it has something to do with ‘controlling the whole of it before emphasizing individual parts’.”

“Understand the self before understanding others.” It came out automatically. How long had it been since she heard those words? It didn’t matter. Blue Uncle’s visits and words of advice were some of her clearest memories no matter their age. “S-someone very wise once told me that.”

Isak was already mulling over the words, raising an eyebrow and looking between the jungle troll and the rock man as his thoughts raced. He sighed and returned to facing Xoco. “Well they don’t have to make it so obvious like that…”

“I know right?”

He let loose a guffaw, and she broke her serious stance with a hearty laugh of her own. After a final laugh he tried to get back on track. “So then tell me, how do you get your head right for Wind magic?”

Xoco hummed to herself for a moment before snapping her fingers. “First, a bit of Divination magic.”

Her eyes found their way back to the large log she had set up as a target. 

“You have to open your mind for these spells and think of possibilities. Think of things as they are now and as they might be. And right now I’ll be using a spell to find the weak spot of that log.” She narrated before thinking the thoughts necessary for the spell. That log was an enemy that had to be defeated. More importantly, she had an audience who she needed to impress. The words and hand motions came naturally afterwards. “And there I can see the perfect place to strike. Right there.”

The jungle troll extended a claw towards where a crack was barely visible.

“It highlights a spot for me right there, telling me that’s where I need to strike.”

Isak was listening intently with his eyes focusing on every little move that Xoco made. She didn’t bother to hide the smile that brought her.

“Next, Wind. This one is more physical.” She regained a more serious and solid stance, planting her feet as firmly as the sandy beach would allow. “Pay attention to your breathing. Feel the air enter your lungs, fill you with life, then feel the exhale as you feel that power reach down to your fingers and toes.”

She took a few slow and deep breaths for emphasis, motioning with her hands to show the flow of air and vitality through her body. 

“Think airy thoughts. Think freedom. Think of the wind carrying you not to where you need, but where you want. The spells you cast shall take you there if only you can wield the Winds.” She assumed a ready stance and steadied her breathing. Here she was on the beach with her human, finally getting to show off, so close to Gods’ March. If she was to embody the Lunar Huntress then she would have to impress this hunter. Together…anything was possible. “We are mages, Isak! And we shall make our own possibilities!”

Xoco shouted the words to Air Cloak and felt the winds wrap themselves around her body, crossing this way and that. Sand was sent flying and Isak squinted but kept his eyes glued to the display.

Good.

Nelli above aided her by adding some perfectly timed dramatic wind, blowing her long braid in the gust and also keeping the sand blown away from Isak so that he could see it all clearly.

The jungle troll started her reverse spin kick with as much power as she could put into it, then tweaked the air currents around her body to have the winds themselves put more spin force into the kick and propel her foot even harder as it kicked out and struck the weak spot from earlier. Her sole connected with the weak spot and a low CRACK  shot out from the log along with large shards of wood dried by salt and sun.

A larger half fell to the sand just before the lower half was knocked out of its unstable foundations to join its new twin in laying in defeat on the beach.

She bounced on the balls of her feet, thoroughly happy with herself. Even more so when she looked over and saw Isak blushing with an awestruck smile on his face while he mumbled something.

“Hmm?”

Isak shook himself aware, appeared to chew on his lip, then cleared his throat. “I said, those legs are deadly weapons.”

“I bet you could still beat me.” …where was that coming from?

The human didn’t seem to know either but raised an eyebrow anyway. “Well I did say that I was going to teach you today. So how about I teach you how to deal with illusions and we can test your theory as well?”

Her own brow raised. “You’re teaching me your own tricks before trying to beat me?”

“I have to give myself an excuse for when you kick me into the ocean.”

“Xoco, though I do not doubt your self-control in regards to Master Isak’s safety I must still make clear my insistence that any sparring you engage in with him remain well below hazardous levels.”

She gave a quick bow to the concerned rock man. “You have my assurance that I would never do such a thing.”

Isak looked over the remains of the log now looking like it had been hit with an explosion as he approached the jungle troll. “First, I’ve got a theory to test out.”

He made a motion with his hands and whispered an Illusion spell to produce a copy of himself standing in front of Xoco.

“Now, try seeing the weak points on Illusory Isak here.”

She complied and instantly her eyes shot open. No spots on the illusion were being highlighted. “Nothing…that’s a good way to check for illusions.”

“I read about it just yesterday.” He said. “Once I can make even more powerful illusions then I’ll be able to start uh…’contesting’ your power of Divination. Then it becomes a kind of arms race. But until then you’ll be able to check illusions pretty easily.”

“And in the time it takes for me to check you would have already struck?”

The human smiled and wagged a finger. “You got me. But do you trust being able to tell what’s real or not in the moment?”

Her eyes went down to the sand. Not too far away the waves lapped at the shore and provided gentle ambience to the scene. “I could look for footprints…unless you do another trick like last time, or I’m somewhere where there aren’t easily available footprints.”

“And I would take advantage of you looking for footprints.”

“Aww.”

“There’s an easier way. And I don’t mean use Nelli. We’re starting you with the basics so all situations are covered.” He said as he dispelled Illusory Isak and cast another illusion. “So, last time I managed to baffle you into staying in one place which made things easy for me. I get to just make something of an illusion painting and not have to worry about keeping it moving. Now, try walking forward.”

Xoco followed his instructions, then she found herself blinking in confusion as the ‘beach’ and ‘Isak’ in front of her…shifted at the corners. Like she was first somehow too close and part of her sight didn’t…fit? And then it would shift again and be normal for a step or two before things would look wrong again.

“See I’m actually walking with you so that this is harder for me.” Even Isak’s voice didn’t seem to be coming from the Isak she saw, and his thin lips weren’t really matching what he was saying. Like there was a delay. “It’s like trying to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time. Supposedly that gets easier but, again, keep on the move and you’ll make things difficult for poor Illusion mages like me. Especially if it’s a really complicated illusion like this!”

…of course!

She snuck a quick peak down at the sand and found that…the footprints only went so far before vanishing? Like more of them were being blocked by something…

Xoco wasn’t about to let him use the same trick on her twice and immediately cast a wide gust in front of her, just enough to knock him down wherever he was or get some sand in his eyes.

“Nice try.” The voice behind her wasn’t as shocking as him tapping a finger against her spine.

Pink eyes shot open in surprise as she yelped and swung around in an attempt to catch him in a grapple.

The panicked strike went wide and her footing was off from how much she flinched from his touch. Her hand caught his shoulder just as he hooked an ankle around one of her unsteady legs and threw his weight into sending the both of them toppling down into the sand. Xoco let go of him as she tried to catch herself to slow their fall and only got a slightly softer landing for her efforts.

It did, however, leave Isak propping himself up just above her as he stared down into her eyes while his face went scarlet again.

“I– thatwasmymistakeIshouldn’thave–”

Xoco burst out laughing while laying there spread eagle. “You told me how you were going to defeat me and still managed to do it!”

“That was more ‘accidental combat’ than–”

“I made another rash decision and you threw me to the ground for it…” She was supposed to be better than this. She was making too many mistakes and it was going to cost her, if it hadn’t already. 

Isak’s eyes darted away from her as he wobbled on unsteady arms above her. “W-Well you are here to learn…”

He started to climb to his feet while leaning down to offer her a hand up.

She stared at his pale olive flesh, reached out to grab his hand, and lightly tugged to give him a warning. “Join me down here for a while?”

“…okay?”

Xoco pulled him down to lay beside her in the sand where they could both stare up at the morning sky. She enjoyed the silence broken only by the waves for a few moments before pointing up at the pale daytime moon. “My people have a legend about our moon goddess. They say that she’s the one who slew whatever beast it was that’s skull is up there now.”

No one ever really could tell what the gargantuan skull in the sky was supposed to be. It resembled nothing known to anyone through the ages and yet it was very clearly in the shape of some as of yet unknown skull to inspire countless myths.

“After she slew it, she made a home in the moon and every night she would hunt the stars until it turned into day.” She relaxed even though she was laying in sand and getting filthy, placing her hands in her lap. “We have a holiday devoted to her and hunters in general. I always liked it…and I always wanted to embody her for Gods’ March. I’m doing that this year. Every night she knows what it is she seeks and then hunts it down relentlessly until a new day is achieved. Now I’ve got a certain hunter to help me get in that mindset, if he would be so kind as to help me.”

Another quiet moment. More waves lapping at the shore. Both of them could see Nelli doing loops and circles above.

“It is…was survival for me.” Isak finally said, having fully calmed down now. “It’s what my dad taught me from a young age and what I’ve been helping him with. And that’s what I thought I was going to be doing for the rest of my life before I awakened as a mage.”

…she had perhaps been insensitive? “I didn’t mean–”

“You said that Wind magic was about taking yourself somewhere that you want to go, right?” He said while gently cutting off her unneeded concern. “Illusion magic isn’t so different. It’s a vision of the world as you want it to be. So I’ve already been ‘hunting’ for better times for a while now. Actually I already found them but I can keep the hunt going for even better times. Hunting for stars is probably beyond me though.”

“You already caught one.” The jungle troll giggled.

Isak snorted. “Did you get that line from Citlali?”

“No but I’ll be very disappointed in her if she didn’t independently come up with it on her own.”

“Huh…” Isak clicked his tongue. “You’re right…”

Both laughed before Xoco got back to the topic at hand. “So…oh Lord of Storms and Hunter of Fortune and Stars, shall you teach me your ways?”

“Well if you really want to keep meeting up like this…”

As if she was going to turn down that opportunity. She propped herself up on one elbow to face him with a grin. “You keep beating me and making it look easy so I’ve still got a lot to learn. Also, it’s fun.”

Isak climbed to his feet and shot back a playful smile of his own as he offered her a hand once more. “Yeah I’m sure me ‘beating’ you is tons of fun.”

“It is.” She said as she took his hand as she climbed to her feet with his assistance. Not that she strictly needed the aid, nor was he able to provide much given the notable size difference but that just made it all the more impressive that–

Wait what did she just say?

Xoco had been wearing her golden claw caps ever since she accidentally clawed Isak, and that came in handy now as her capped claws were attempting to dig themselves into the human’s wrist while her eyes went wide over realizing what she said. She gulped and felt a bead of sweat running down her temple, picking up tiny bits of sand as it made its way down her face.

Isak, meanwhile, seemed to be locked into a dumbfounded smile. He didn’t blink and he didn’t seem to register that she had been squeezing his hand too hard before she finally remembered how to let go.

“Well we’re both filthy after some intense training!” No, try again. “We– I should go take a shower! And you…I will see later!”

Vidal’s timing was as perfect as always, walking up to take hold of a possibly still unconscious Isak to keep him from tipping over as Xoco released him from her grip and fled back to the dorms.