Dawn was most upset at the situation.  She’d been sitting there finally able to scratch the fox that she had been seeing for over a week, and then some lunatic tried to blow up the sky over them!  Even worse was that her Empathy let her feel the pain and terror the poor thing had felt.

After recovering herself from the shock, she stomped off to where the mage was getting off the golem-carriage near the gate.

“You big meanie!” she exclaimed, kicking his foot, “You scared everyone and scared off my new friend!  What was that for?”

“Weren’t you the one near the fox?  You should know how dangerous those are, I had to scare it away before it could do anything.  It was odd for it to be so close to the village though...”  the man remarked.

“That fox is my friend!  He has been visiting me for over a week now!”  Dawn shouted at him.

“That makes no sense,” the man muttered to himself, scratching his head.

“Of course it makes sense, he isn’t dumb like the other animals are.  Mother said it was probably a wild Awakened, but he is smart.  I even felt it link with me in a way different than my own way.  Only monsters and Awakened can do magic, right?  And he clearly isn’t a monster,” Dawn said in a normal voice this time.

“That is indeed the case, little one,” he replied, “I think I need to talk with Amilya about the letter she sent.”

“Oh, I can take you to Mom, she has been keeping an eye on us since the fox started visiting!”  Dawn exclaimed, grabbing his hand and pulling towards the gate.

As they reached the gate, they met Amilya who was coming down from atop the palisade wall.  Dawn let go of the man’s hand and ran to hug Amilya, who bowed to the man, exclaiming, “Teacher Morris, I’m glad you were able to make it here, we need an expert in awakened.  Where is Kel, I didn’t see him with you?”

“I let Kel go fly around while we were traveling here,” Morris replied, “even if the terrain is pretty bland at least it isn’t the same old city as the last several years.  And there is no need to call me teacher, it has been years since you were still a student after all.”

“If you are certain, Morris, then I will drop it.  But I will always think of you that way after how much I’ve learned from you.  Anyways, how about we head to my home and I’ll get you up to date on the situation?”  inquired Amilya.

**********

The fox curled up in his den, starting to feel a bit safer.  He realized the link with the human was still there, but decided to leave it intact, uncertain exactly why.  He could barely make out anything over the link at this point, apparently it faded with distance.

After sleeping for a while, he woke up around dusk, heading out to experiment with his own ability to link to things some more.  Connecting a small tendril of energy directly to the base of a plant gave him a simple understanding of it in addition to its health.  Considering this for a moment, he ran deeper into the forest until he came across one of the light-emitting plants he had stumbled across earlier.  Linking to it, he found a sense that told him it was harmless, merely glowing slightly.  Uncertain as to this feeling, he picked up a stick and hit the plant with it just in case.  Seeing nothing happen to the stick made him feel a bit more confident.

Continuing this experimentation, he searched for one of the flowers that had burned him in the past.  Upon finding it, he did the same as with the glowing plant, finding a sense that this one was safe unless the inside and outside of the flower were touched together roughly.  Finding another stick, he gently poked the flower, finding that it didn’t burst into flame like the other had before.

Curious about this ability, he tried it as well on a feather on the ground, finding it gave him a faint pull towards another direction, much as the link with the human did.  He wasn’t about to go chasing after a bird, however, so he simply withdrew the link and headed to go find some food for the night before returning to bed.

A few more days of experimentation showed him that he could actually scare animals in a specific direction by altering where the energy touched them.  He also learned how to keep it in a sphere around himself without it being exhausting, which helped him avoid a hawk that had spotted him before he noticed.

Then one evening, the link with the human seemed to grow stronger over time until suddenly fear and pain flashed through the link.  Driven by something he couldn’t understand, he immediately raced in the direction the link pulled him, having to change course as it grew stronger or weaker.  The fear and pain shifted into absolute terror and agony before he finally managed to reach the human, hearing screams well before coming into sight.

Before him lay the human on the ground, a great snake coiled around them.  The human was pounding at the snake with their arms to no avail, and each leg was crushed and lay bonelessly at odd angles, the coils of the snake moving upward to their chest.

Feeling sudden rage that something would harm his human, he hurled himself at the constrictor, tearing its head away from the body it was pressed against and shaking viciously.  The snake fought against him, forcing him to adjust his grip on it to behind the head as it shifted, though he bit down harder and harder until he felt a crunch, blood staining his fur as it erupted from the wound.  He continued shaking his head further until the snake fell limp.

As he let go of the mangled snake, arms wrapped around him, pulling him to the chest of the human tightly enough that he couldn’t escape.  As he struggled, the human cried and screamed into his fur before finally passing out, their grip still tight.  After a while of trying to get loose, he heard shouts from the plains and managed to make out torchlight approaching them.

His ears twitched, counting half a dozen pairs of footsteps.  He thrashed about again, trying to get loose, but only succeeded in waking the human who began crying and screaming again, gripping even tighter until he could barely breathe.  The only good he could tell was that there was no longer fear or terror coming through the link, instead a feeling of hope washed over him.