I’m so absorbed in the work that suddenly a group of people have walked up to me and asks me something. How long, what time is it-

Why do I have blue-

I touch my arm, and find that no, those are not scales. Not, normal ones, anyway.

“I don’t know what’s up with my arms, no. Looks like crystallized mana. I know I channeled a lot of mana, but for it to crystallize on me without burning me…”

To demonstrate, I pick a small one and pull it off- “Ow!”

“Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah, just… I think I’ll leave them for now.” I say, healing the small wound before it bleeds much.

They do indeed seem to be made of mana crystal, so I should be able to move their mana into a proper crystal. One not stuck to my body.

“It’s that time already, huh.”

“We brought hot dogs.” A man says, lifting a shopping bag.

“Hey Lars, did you do… that?”

“Do what?”

“There was a giant spell here! And there was lines on the ground on the way here and… this.” She waves a hand around us, probably referring to the work I’ve made, and/or the various engravings and inscriptions and illustrations the wolfkin (and wolf) have made afterwards.

“Oh yeah, I did cast a grand spell, with the help of some of our furrier friends.”

I explain to them what I did while I smelt some steel scraps and shape them into grills for the, well, grills. When I finish the explanation I have to explain the smelting too, but thankfully I don’t casually amaze them with something else while doing that.

In the meanwhile, tablecloths are put on the tables, and a couple more people arrive. With it being five minutes over the agreed time, and most or all people who said they wanted to come being here, I make the call to fire up the grills.

The smells soon lure out a few hungry bellies and most of the young ones, but as if by magic as soon as the first food is off the grill and ready to eat, more wolves and wolfkin come out. It’s around that time the final humans arrive, too.

“You brought your kids?”

“You said we could bring family?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t… Yeah, okay, that would include the next generation as well, I just didn’t expect anyone to actually bring kids here.”

The two daughters of one family promptly run off to play with the furry ones, while the other family has their son bashfully cling to his mother.

“How could we not bring him? It’s great weather for grilling, and he really looks up to you, you know?”

“Uh-huh?”

The parents laugh, a carefree laughter with a hint of something other than mirth.

“Ahh- ahh you Lahsh Eikeli?”

I throw my arms to side side and look at the kid. “Do I look like Lars Eikeli?”

He nods, but retreats further behind the impenetrable fortress that is ‘mom’.

“Then maybe I am Lars Eikeli.”

I squat down to his level, “Do you like Lars Eikeli?”

He looks from me, to his mother, and comes a bit out of hiding, face lighting up.

“M-hm, he’s leally cool and he does magick an cn beh-come a dwagon and is the boss of the wolvs and can fly and is leally cool.”

I just smile and nod, “What’s you favorite thing he does, that you would like to do?”

The bou, whether he takes the hint or not, sinks into deep, deep thought at the question, so I flash a disarming smile to his parents.

“Fly.” is the answer he lands on, pun wholly intended.

“Oh? But can’t your parents fly?” Most Den members can levitate, after all.

He shakes his head vigorously. “Dass not flying! I wa-na fly leaaaally high, like a dwagon!”

“I see, so levitation isn’t enough for you…”

I can’t really teach him to fly in flight forms at his age, it, it would be possible, but there’s ethical considerations. And legal. I guess It would be possible to do something like pair skydiving, since he’s so small, but my flight forms don’t really have that much extra capacity. Assisted flight would be a great service to offer though, and could be cheaper than the shapeshifting and stuff needed for the existing flight packages.

I suppose it would involve riding, and would need to have capacity for and adult human (non-obese), so it’d need to be around the size of Leda to have some safety margin. Speaking of, I’m surprised she’s over in the other world, I assumed she’d sniff out this plan almost immediately. Well, she’s dutiful, so maybe she had an existing promise with the icelanders.

That aside… Maybe I should make a rideable form for that kinda stuff. Would need another, speech-capable form to not need mind magic, though. That one could just be a small puppet, to not add any unnecessary weight. Maybe I should get around to make that short elf/fae themed puppet, a hobbit or halfling or gnome or gnelf or gnoblin to whatever. Maybe not goblin, but child-sized, at least. Fae, child… changeling?

Oop,s I’m thinking too much and scared him behind his mother again. Speaking of, I turn to her and speak english:

“”

No?

“”

She looks to her husband/boyfriend, and they share a look, before asking me to clarify a few things and asking if one of them could go with him. That’s… a good idea actually. Would be a bit cramped with the fae puppet, but with a responsible adult there we could instead agree on some form of communication, like divers do. It’s not like we need anything complex, mostly just ‘are you okay?’, ‘go down’, and yes and no. Other than that you can use mana to point and direct.

Hmm, if I make that work, Leda would probably want to emulate me, so I’d need to properly talk things through, I wouldn’t trust her to do this commercially in a safe manner without proving herself first. Well, they don’t need to decide yet, food first, and I’m probably going to make the saddle and harness either way. Harnesses. Should have three sizes, for children, teens, and adults. Well, start with a small one for my own puppet and demonstration, then probably one for adult, and any others as needed.

“Heyh, mom, what did you say?”

“It’s a secret.”

Somehow wolves and wolfkin are still trickling in from all directions, heeding the call of foodie. In fact, some of these clearly come from way further than they can smell, so either they just happened to be on the way back, or the pack bond alerted them. Maybe a combination, for some of them, and at least the wolfkin understand language and concepts well enough to at least know ‘today=much, fancy, food at Den’.

Well, the most intelligent ones were already here, and were the ones to help me with the spell, so there’s that. I suppose that tells you a: how a high priority food is to them and b: that they will happily do a little work for food. Oh, and c: they will know when there’s food.

I do a thunderclap, the magically enhanced sound startling several people and wolves, and getting the attention of everyone.

“First, since I sorta kinda arranged this I guess i should thank you all for coming, but more importantly, we have food, and a lot of it. Good thing too, given how many people showed up. I don’t know if there will be any leftovers…”

“Ahahaha, is that a challenge?”

“No, it’s-”

“Let’s show Lars that we can eat all the food he can throw at us!”

There’s hollering and cheering and awoo’s and whatnot, so I just wait for them to calm down.

“Anyway, I invited you here for the food, so let’s get right to it. I’m manning the grill so just come over here and state what you want. I don’t know who got the drinks, but there’s soda in a cooling formation by the entrance. Make sure to put it back so it stays cool.”

With that it’s time to eat, and I give Tåke (who had strategically placed herself next to the food) the first plate, and from there I hand out food by levitation while eating a bit myself. The wolfkin quickly do as the humans are form a semi-orderly queue, and most of them even try to eat with proper table manners. Some quick magic and the wolves get earthen bowls to eat from, too.

There is much merriment as we slowly devour what I thought would be too much for for that to happen, and a second round, and a third round, and we actually start to run out of things, but at that point most people are satisfied.

Some time later I stop the heat and fire and break the tablet used to make it (fire hazard!), and after chatting and hearing stories from the wolfkin (they like stories!) for a bit I bring out the salami and cured meats, giving all who want a taste of each. This stuff is expensive, hence why I brought it out after most had eaten their fill, but it’s well received either way. I suspect that little shop might get more regulars as more of the wolfkin get an income…

“Hey Lars, you’ve mentioned that you met the wolves on Upheaval day, can’t you tell that story?”

He didn’t speak very loud, but those who heard it relay it from table to table. Soon it becomes almost quiet, and when I look around I find almost all eyes pointed in my direction. Well, I guess if there’s ever a time to tell that story, it’d be now, so I stand up and move to the open area in the middle, all eyes on me.

“One year ago, well, night to the day one year ago is when I met the wolves. I was camping in the forest not far from here, to ‘take a moment to catch a break from society’ and stuff before moving on with my life and celebrate finally being done with school.”

“For you humans here, you might not know since the Reveal was overshadowed by the Upheaval itself, but a few days - I think researchers have found fairly certain proof of it being known to at least some people five days before the upheaval, and it exploded from there, I managed to move mana after a friend sent me a video two days before.”

“Uhh, sidetracked, which will happen again, but anyway, I hadn’t made much progress with doing anything with the mana, aside from detecting it, and moving it around a little bit. So I figured I might as well try meditation and peace and quiet to see it I could improve.”

“Woke up in the middle of the night, something like three or five o’clock, hard not to in that weather, and went to pee since I was already awake. I was really tired at that point and don’t remember much, but when I woke up the day after my tent was full of wolves, who had managed to get in. Long story short, they weren’t particularly hostile, and I ended up sharing my breakfast -some leftover meatballs- with them.”

“Speaking of which-” I bring over my bag and take out that fancy meat I bought, and the box of meatballs. “I figured this would be appropriate, and we might as well snack on this while I rant. Uh, talk. Eh, same thing, often.”

I hand out the snacks in bite-sized portions, having assumed correctly that it would last a lot longer if we ate it after the main meal, and I talk about the trip from the back home, finding the kids, well, teenagers. Not that much younger than me, but my mental image of them was that of drunk teenagers. Hilde was among them, and there was the insects.

The next while involved a lot of experimentation, trying to figure out magic, particularly the Aspect Magic I had learnt form the wolves, learn about the wolves, and fighting more of those insects. Oh, and the [System].

At this point I feel and know the information drawn from it more than see it, and from what I hear that’s how it was for most people from the start, but there’s also people who still experience it like that. It’s a visualization thing. Some people hear it as words, too, and it’s not I can’t visualize it as a big ol’ stat sheet.

There’s abilities and classes and power levels, too. Their significance is still being researched. It’s not like you can’t use them when not equipped. In fact, just about the only thing researchers are certain about is that the [System] simply represents our skills, particularly the skill level, and names and such are based partially on the person experiencing them, partially on some kinda gestalt… something, which I’ve heard jokingly referred to as the akashic records, because why not.

Around that time I started finding business opportunities - tutoring, making and selling stuff, etc, so talk a bit about that, but since I sound like a crappy advert I keep it short and in a list format. You can’t believe what happens next! Well, People are already paying attention, so i don’t need to be clickbaity.

Then made a flight form and learnt to fly (though I already mentioned flying as among the services I offer), and shortly after met Leda. That’s a story I’ve told many times, so I deliver the well-practiced, short version, and mention my video on that if anyone wants the longer, more in-depth version.

I have to think hard to get things in chronological order after that, so I just give up and mention learning mind magic from the companion bonds, more research, and the work I’ve done towards uplifting, along with the ethical questions I’ve asked there. I got that law passed, though, so the wolfkin has some protection, and you can do that whole process to take them as a ward to give them even more rights.

Speaking of, if they are ever to integrate into human society they will need education, and it should start as early as possible, so I need to look into that. With the little furballs growing it would be the appropriate time for a human to look into kindergarten, but…

Focus.

Then I met the space guys and did the space hop and flight to america and stuff (a trip I can now do in significantly shorter time via the Water Temple), oh, and the cultivators and all that. The gate in iceland to another world, traveled a bunch, and more business contracts, with the space guys, the japanese cafe owner, and the Moriyu company. Still 90% sure they’re yakuza.

“Well, that’s the short version. Could probably write an entire book or video series on this. Heck, if I wrote it you could probably double that, with my tendency to, y’know, uh, since I’ve been talking for this long I guess it’s dessert time.”

I swear several of the wolves who had been lazing around suddenly seem a lot more awake. Well, I got enough cakes for everyone and then some.

At least, that’s what I thought.