As Shadow and her family (plus Kirrik) journeyed toward their next stop before Glossa, she took a deep breath and let the smell of the woods wash over her. It was so refreshing. She’d gotten used to the odd, intense smells of the village pretty quickly, but the forest was definitely… easier on the nose.

They’d passed out of the large clearing a little while ago, and she was appreciating all the familiar scents. She was enjoying being back in the forest proper.

Well, almost. They were following a road.

It was only dirt, but it was wide, and much straighter than the small game trails or other clearings her group would normally follow. It was a very different experience traveling on a road, instead of forging through the woods without one. It was so much… easier. No need to constantly jump over roots, or weave around trees. No foliage that was so thick they had to hack through or go around it (well, the humans did at least, she was quite adept at finding gaps she could fit through).

It was honestly getting a little bit boring.

At least the conversation was interesting. Shadow was having a fine time listening to Kirrik talk about what he’d been up to the last few weeks, and Annie was helpfully explaining things she thought Shadow might not know about. Kirrik had been hired to plant a ‘divination beacon’ (Just like the one they put on the tortoise!) on one of the other titanic beasts that Annie was researching (He put his on something called a ‘great earth serpent’ that was over 100 feet long!). Annie’s assistant, Emma (Shadow would get to meet her when they got back to Glossa!) had done the hiring, as Annie had already been gone. That’s why they didn’t really know each other, despite Kirrik technically working for her.

Kirrik had found the job through something called ‘The Tasker’s Guild’ which was a guild that facilitated meetings between people who needed odd things done and people who could do those things. She found the whole idea fascinating. The guild seemed like it could be a good solution for her money problem. Evidently, a good portion of those tasks were related to doing things in the wilderness, which Shadow thought she was rather good at navigating. It gave her some hope to start earning some coins for herself eventually.

But as interesting as all that was, she still found herself wanting to go for a run in more interesting terrain. It’d been a couple of days since she’d been able to dash about in the forest, and walking on the boring, flat, road was not exactly fulfilling that desire.

She got Annie’s attention with a pat on the leg. She had just finished asking Kirrik about what he did before he came to work for her.

“Hmm…?” Annie looked down at her questioningly.

Shadow motioned into the forest and ran in a tight circle to show her intent.

Surprisingly, Annie had to think about it for a second. Shadow quirked her head in question. She’d really been asking as a way to inform Annie that she’d be off running around. She hadn't expected hesitation.

“…Yes, you can run around, but please be careful. Remember, we’re in civilized lands now. It’s not unreasonable to expect to run in to another person out here. You should be much better off with your clothes, but we don’t want a… misunderstanding. Please come right back if you detect anyone else and… just… be careful.

That... made a lot of sense.

Shadow gave Annie a serious nod in response. She… hadn’t been thinking about that. She was a little confused about why Annie was being so evasive about the issue, but she realized that Kirrik didn’t know about the hunter they’d (or, really, she’d) unfortunately killed, and it would probably be for the best if he never learned about it.

It would be for the best if nobody knew about that, really.

She would be careful. She decided to turn on her ear-sight and made sure to take special note of the scents around her. She didn’t plan to get sneaked up on this time. If it happened anyway, she’d run away immediately, and she'd have her shadow-ports to help this time.

Annie nodded back to her.

“Have a good run, see you later. Just... don’t run too far and screech loudly if something happens.” Annie gave her a nervous smile.

Shadow hopped up and gave her a quick hug, followed by another nod.

Don’t worry, I’ll stay safe.

She dropped back down and shot off into the forest.

“Oh! And be careful about thickets! They’ll tear up your clothes!” Annie yelled after her.

Shadow inhaled sharply, surprised she hadn’t thought about that, and grateful for the advice. She let out a quick screech to let Annie know she'd heard her. She was already out of sight of the group.

She was used to being able to squeeze through branches and thorns and such if she needed to. While her scales weren’t exactly armor, they did a good job of protecting her from minor scrapes. She didn’t normally have to think about small sticks and thorns.

But she had clothes now and she needed to take care of them.

It was surprisingly easy to forget she had them on. She made sure to adjust her course to dodge around the thick underbrush as she ran through the forest. For that matter, she tried to avoid mud or other things that would get them dirty. It was actually pretty fun, like a game. She made a challenge out of running as fast as possible without messing up her awesome new clothes.

She was having a great time. She’d missed this, even though it really hadn’t been that long. She found the act of just running along, keeping her senses engaged, intensely cathartic. She wondered if that was an instinctual thing. Shadelings did spend a lot of time running around, so it made sense that she should like it.

Regardless, instinct or not, this was an activity she didn’t mind indulging in.

After a while, she brought herself to a stop next to a tree, panting deeply. The tree was right next to what looked and smelled like a game trail, and was a great place for a Shadow-fluff ambush. It was getting close to lunchtime, and all the running had woken up her appetite.

She hunkered down in a nook formed by the tree’s roots, pouring out just enough dark mana to shadow the alcove, and make herself effectively invisible. She worked to calm her breathing. After a couple of minutes, she figured she could work on her mana shaping while she waited. It would be harder than normal, seeing as she needed to keep an outer shell of mana around her for the alcove to remain shadowed. She’d need to work with the mana that was inside her little bubble of darkness.

She was relaxed as she started working at it. She started shaping the mana inside her bubble, while keeping a line connected to the outer shell to maintain control of that as well. She was focused, but at the same time, she just felt content. She was happy to be chilling in the forest, recovering from her run, feeling the heat dissipate from her muscles as she rested.

Shadow guided the mana along, aiming to make the letters she knew so well, and found herself getting lost in the sensation of it.

And suddenly they were there. Or she could feel them at least. She dropped her outer bubble so she could see more clearly.

The phrase she’d been working on, ‘I shaped mana!’, was sitting on the ground in front of her, wrought in shadow. The letters weren’t perfectly formed, and the strands of mana connecting them were a bit distracting, but they were clearly legible.

She felt excitement bubbling in her chest, the thrill of her success bursting in her veins, but the words remained. She had the sense of it now. Extreme focus wasn’t necessary.

She had been going about this whole thing wrong.

Well, not wrong, just… too forcefully. She’d been trying too hard. Guiding the mana with force rather than just… letting it move like she wanted it to. Before, it had been like she was trying to move a leg by focusing on moving every little muscle individually. It was possible, but really you just wanted to… move the leg.

Not that her previous work was wasted. She moved the mana around, making different words in front of herself. She could sense how she was making use of all the practice she’d put in before, she’d just needed to take a mental step back and let herself… move the mana.

She’d eat later.

She got up and tore off toward her companions. She found she could shape her mana even while running. It really did feel like she had an extra appendage now that she was doing it right, even if it was a feeble and shaky one. Her lines were still wobbly, but they were there!

She had an idea, and made a shell of dark mana out a few feet, holding it in place relative to herself as she moved. This was different from just letting it billow out around her, perhaps only guiding in a given direction like she had done when running from the trapper.

The difference was staggering, in mana cost at least.

She was still losing some. There was a certain amount of attrition just from having the mana out in the world, but it was nowhere close to what she normally lost when she let it billow around like normal. As far as she could tell, holding it like this should be just as effective at blocking vision. After giving herself a few moments to feel just how quickly it was dissipating, she was rather confident she could maintain a dome of shadow a few feet around herself indefinitely, if she really wanted to.

She let the sphere drop right as she burst out of the woods in front of her group.

‘I can make shadow words! I got the shaping to work for real!’

Kirrik just blinked at the shadowy text splayed over the ground.

“I knew you’d get it! Congratulations!” Jonas laughed, giving her a proud look.

Annie walked over and squeezed her in a hug, before breaking off and gazing at her with a big smile of her own.

“And with that, we can finally start to teach you real spell-casting. It’s time I taught you about the elements.”

Shadow had been waiting for this for so long.