Breakfast with the mercenary party, Lost Fang, was  pleasant. Something I learned about beaskfolk is that depending on what animal your related too makes up a large portion of your diet; Rana is a lizard-woman and mainly omnivorous, Cavadier the seafolk eats less than average and prefers leaner meats, Ra'sh typically eats large quantities of meat, and Tuca is mainly vegetarian but eats meat occasionally. Being human, I had a diet similar to Rana but I eat more grains compared to her. After eating, me and Cavadier left to the observation car of the train to begin our magic lesson.

Sitting in front of each other, Cavadier got some papers and other teaching utensils he keeps with him when traveling and placed them on the table. He drew a picture on one sheet of paper that had four circles connected into one large circle.

"Now, using magic is in many ways like learning to read or learning any new skill, it takes patience, hard work, and dedication." He gave me a classic stern teacher approach. "For starters, learning the categories of magic." He pointed to the drawing. "The most basic varieties of magic are the Four Elements; Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth, understand?"

"I got you." I shook my head.

"Now, think of these four elements as the standard types of magic, outside of the standard are the 'variants'. Variants are like the refined forms of the basic elements; the variant of Fire is Light, the variant of Water is Weather, Earth's variant is Alchemy, and finally Wind's variant is Darkness." He made adjustments to the diagram to show the variants.

"Alright." I nodded, understanding the difference.

"Now, learning magic is easy, being able to utilize magic takes both effort and natural affinity." He pulled four crystal like stones out of his bag. "These are low quality magic stones, they help beginning mages learn what elements they have the best affinity for. Something important to remember is that although learning every form is possible, if you lack a high enough affinity for it, you may never progress further than what could be called a simple tool, like producing a match sized flame."

Cavadier picked up a stone, and after he took a deep breath it glowed and produced a trickle of water; then, he picked up another stone and it produced a small breeze.

"Not only is learning to use magic difficult, but being recognized as a mage is a long process. Mages can categorized into standings based on how many elements that are proficient in using. Someone proficient in one element is an Origin mage; a mage who uses two, like me, is a Line mage; three is a plane; proficiency with all the basic four is a Plane, while proficient with three basics and one variant is a Pyramid, and the classifications go one until you reach a mage who is a master of all basic and variant forms of magic, the Sage."

"How many Sages are there?" I was curious if something was possible.

"They are very, very rare, but not unheard of. Someone who either has a natural affinity with all elements, and spent dedicated amount of time to hone each of them to perfection happens, maybe once every 3-5 hundred years or longer." Cavadier laughed to himself. "However, being master of all elements isn't very impressive as many people would think."

"What do you mean?"

"Affinity is only part of mastering an element, you can have high affinity for ever element and never become a Sage because you lacked training, or maybe too arrogant to learn the basics. Magic is fueled by mana, a force all life has within them, developing your capacity for mana is like trying to develop a muscle. However, if one or more mages combined their mana into one spell, they could take down a mage more powerful then them as individuals, but we'll talk about that later."

"I have a question, yesterday you called yourself a wizard, what is the difference between a wizard and mage?" That may have been a stupid question, but I wanted to know.

"Wizard is more of a... classification of mage. There can be many different classifications but the main five are Wizard, Druid, Saint, Alchemist, and Necromancer." My teacher thought to himself for a moment. "Druids are practitioners of Weather magic, Alchemists, well they are experts in Alchemy magic, Saints are holy magic experts and typically work for religious or medical institutions, and Necromancers... they're in theory an illegal practice, but they're mages with main focus in Darkness magic. Their existence isn't exactly illegal, it's just most Necromantic practices use corpses and souls as tools, and most people find manipulating the deceased to be a horrible act."

I made a note of this. "What about Wizard, that doesn't sound like it fits with the variant system?"

"Very perceptive. Wizards aren't necessarily variant users, they're more like scholars who studied the history, formulas, and philosophies of all forms of magic. To make it easier to understand, we're like the bureaucrats of the magical world. Most either working in government, military or law enforcement, or as educators like me."

"I wanted to ask you this before, but why are you a mercenary? To me, it sounds like being a wizard gives you more opportunities for stable, less dangerous work."

Cavadier looked away, uneasy. "I was studying to be come a teacher, and I got certification, but I had a few... vices in the past that got recorded on my record that causes potential employers to overlook me. Most magic users don't really enter mercenary work, so I figured there would be a high demand for my skills. I failed to realize that because I lack much physical performance, parties are reluctant to have a mage unless they're a variant or trained to use a weapon, and I couldn't do a lot of requests on my own. Eventually, I met Ra'sh and Tuca and they agreed to have me join them because I can create water and I was literate."

"That was nice of them, but what kind of vices kept you from finding work?"

"Vices in the form of heavy drinking, gambling away my student loans, and killing my brother-in-law." He awkwardly admitted. "That last one I say was justified, he was abusive and my sister was too scared to leave him. Luckily, he had a history of violent behavior so I was ruled using magic in self-defense." He picked up the crystals. "Speaking of using magic, let's see what affinity you have. Pick any stone, and concentrate on pouring mana into it."

"Yes... how would I do that."

Cavadier scratched his head. "Think of pouring mana like exhaling a large breath. Focus on the energy circulating through your body, and release it through one spot."

Nervous, I picked up one stone and did what he explained. Concentrating, I focused and then located the mana in my body, it was funny like picturing electricity going through me like a circuit. Then, I rerouted the energy to my hand and out into the stone; opening my eyes, I found the rock glowed red and flame ignited from it. Scared, I dropped it onto the table.

"Impressive." Cavadier complimented me. "You have a high affinity for Fire magic. When I first tried it, I could barely get a faint glow, try this Earth one."

I picked it up and did the same, but this time it only glowed green. "Is that good?"

"It's a good affinity, just not as strong as your affinity for fire."

Next, I picked up the water stone but it only gave me a faint glow; but when I picked up the Wind stone, I made a short gust hit us. By the end of testing, we discovered I had a very high affinity for Fire and Wind, good affinity for Earth, and a low affinity for Water.

"Looks like I did good, do you think I have a chance at becoming a Sage?" I joked with him.

"I think you could... after 60 or so years of devoted study to magic." He laughed with me. "Now we know your affinities, let's work on your spells." He started a new diagram. "A spell is pretty simple to understand because all of them have three steps; visualize you intent, regulate the mana you use, and concentrate on performing the spell. Now, most people learn the basics at first, but a good mage always uses some form of originality such as a combination."

"What are those?"

"A combination is when you combine two different types of magic to create a spell, like using water and earth magic to create plant magic, or earth and wind to create sand magic. Combinations are tricky because you need to have a high enough affinity for two different elements to create a combination." He made a diagram of popular combinations. "Although you have a high affinity for multiple elements, combination takes practice to learn. For now, let's focus on producing a single, continuous flame. Put your hand in a fist facing wrist up, uncurl your index and middle fingers, then focus on producing a small flame; a larger one would use more mana and be harder to control given your lack of experience."

Listening to my instructor, I did as he said and concentrated on making a small flame. A second later, a golf ball sized ball of fire levitated over my fingers. Impressed with this feat, I felt pride fill my head at performing magic.

"Good, now keep focus on keeping it that size for as long as possible, doing this practice will improve control, mana capacity, and concentration."

For another ten minutes, I strained to keep the flame continuously burning until I got tired. Cavadier instructed me to do that three to five times a day to get proper control of my mana; after our lesson, me and Rana had lunch and talked about our plans for New Darwin. The train is scheduled to arrive tomorrow in the early evening so we'll go to an inn for the night and head for the government office in the morning; if we get the paperwork finished soon, Rana is going to talk to a friend about looking for a temporary home while I go to the Mercenary Guild and get a card, both for my business with Lost Fang and to make some money. If I'm able to research enough, we should have a clearer destination to head for after a few months.

Just as we were finishing lunch, the train came to immediate halt and the intercom in the car turned on:

[Attention! Attention! Due to unforeseeable circumstances, all mercenaries are you exit the train while other passengers stay in their current cars. A Desert Dragon has been spotted!]

"A desert dragon?" I asked Rana, scared.

She grabbed my hand. "They're very dangerous, to get an idea, a small one is about as strong as 5 Frost Wolves. This is strange, dragons don't typically come near tracks when a train is close by."

"Do we just stay inside while Lost Fang deals with it?"

"They're only a D-rank party, Desert Dragons are, at lowest, B rank. They're should be other capable fighters, but I doubt there is enough people to fight. Every train has an emergency beacon to signal outposts in case of situations like this, if we wait long enough we should get help."

Staying put sounded like the smart option, but the thought of Lost Fang facing a dragon scared me. My fears were valid as I heard a hellish roar from outside; I looked out and saw a giant, winged lizard with yellow scales and wings. From this distance, it must be about half a mile away and coming closure; and by it's size, it must be at least 20-30 feet tall.

"This is bad." Rana clenched my hand tighter. "Help won't come for a while, that's too long to wait."

Fear filled me, but fear wasn't a feeling unfamiliar to me. "What if we helped fight it?"

"I don't have weapon." Rana explained. "You might have fought that Frost Wolf, but a dragon is a different category."

I looked out again, this time seeing ten people dressed like a D&D party wait for the dragon to arrive, and there was Lost Fang, standing ready like everyone else. From the state of everyone's equipment, they were all roughly equal to Lost Fang in power.

"It may be crazy, but I'm going to help." I stood up, about to go get my armor and spear in the sleeper car when Rana stopped me.

"Don't do this!" She was frantic. "I'm scared for them as well, but you dying won't fix anything."

She was terrified, her husband just said he was about to do something that would most likely get him killed, but I knew this something I have to do.

"Rana, the first time I died, I was terrified." I whispered to her. "I may die again out there, but if I can stall that thing for just a few minutes, I might be able buy time for help to come and save these people. Please, trust me."

We shared a look for a moment, then she let go. "Promise me that you'll be careful."

"I promise." With that said, I ran to our room and got ready. Fully armored and spear ready, I was time to help Lost Fang and the others protect this train.

Like my mom always told me, "Never let the fear of dying stop you from doing what's right". I was probably going to die, but that wasn't something foreign to me.