"Was it left here or left back there... ahhh. Where is Gianna when you need her?" Damien said, talking to himself as he walked through the tall identical hallways.

Stopping and taking a large breath, he looked left to observe the moving portrait hung there. A large green hill sat as the center of the image, clouds dotting the blue sky above as tens of goblins dotted the mound. A large figure was set in the center, armored like a knight and being attacked by the little creatures, mowing them down as if they were wheat ripe for the harvest.

Shaking his head, he looked back forward while trying to decide which direction to go. Unfortunately, all he was doing was making the situation worse with each guess as he was without a doubt, absolutely lost. The walls were like a labyrinth and very easy to get turned around in. Signs were posted everywhere detailing what classes he was close to and which wing of the building he was in, but if one wasn't close to where they were supposed to be and didn't recognize the classes or nearby area, one wandered.

As he was doing currently.

"Dammit."

He scratched the back of his head as he began quietly assessing what his options were.

"Need help?"

"Jesus ch- woah," Damien exclaimed, jolting and turning around at the scratchy, inhuman voice.

Before him was the figure he'd seen from the painting, standing what seemed approximately ten feet tall. It looked like a bulky knight and if it weren't for the voice, he might have thought it to be Human. When he glanced past it to the painting, the goblins were looking about in a confused manner, no longer having an opponent to attack.

"You are lost," what Damien assumed was a golem stated, bending over his huge upper body to get a closer look at him.

"Yeah... I am," he responded slowly, backing away slightly.

"Where to?" it asked.

Damien continued staring up at it, a little stunned. Alexa had mentioned the paintings did weird things but he always assumed that was just the way they moved about. This... this was something else entirely.

"Dwarf. Terren not have long. Where to?" Terren asked the stupid small creature before him.

They almost always did this when he exited the paintings to help and he didn't understand why. Sure, it was nice to see the surprise on their faces at his magnificent form, he just wished they'd consider his limited ability to stay in their plane. It was exhausting.

At least he was certain he'd called him the right thing. Dwarves were small. The man was small.

"I'm not a- no, nevermind. Beast Handling. That's where I'm going to," the small man declared incorrectly.

"No. You going to Combatant wing. Stupid. Monster wing that way," Terren said, pointing the opposite direction the Dwarf was walking.

"Oh... well... thank you, Terren. Any chance you could guide me there?" it asked him.

"No. Not enough time and busy. You are welcome, little Dwarf. Bye," Terren said, waving the thing off as he re-entered his world.

He might have been able to guide the creature the entire way, but his Master had only told him to give lost things directions. He didn't have to guide. Plus, he was already tired of conversing with it and he had Goblins to kill. Invincible Goblins. It didn't matter how far he chased them across his Master's paintings or how hard he hit them, they always seemed to come back.

He'd change that today.

Damien watched in awe as the huge thing before him seemed to be sucked back into the painting, surprising the Goblins as it began to attack with a renewed vigor. He stepped closer to the painting and tapped it slightly with his finger, feeling a solid surface. The occupants of the painting stopped fighting and turned to glare up at him.

Terren lifted one of the Goblins and threw it at Damien, prompting him to back up and step sideways slightly.

A loud thud sounded out as Damien watched the goblin slam into the surface of the painting, causing it to ripple slightly.

"That... that was awesome," he exclaimed. "I thought it was going to come out."

Damien watched the scene for a moment longer as they resumed fighting before turning to travel in the direction the golem, Terren, said he should go. As he walked, he paid close attention to the other paintings he passed by, wondering which had semi-sentient beings trapped inside them as well.

A few minutes later, Damien was in the correct wing and following the signs telling him to go up a flight of stairs and take a few left turns. Soon enough, he was standing before one of the most colorful doors into a classroom that he'd seen in the academy.

It was a large carved and painted image of a blue Phoenix fighting with a Grask on a wide-open plain. The carvings seemed to move across the door as the battle unfolded, like a three-dimensional movie. The two combatants were in a bit of a standstill with the Phoenix very slowly gaining the upper hand over the Grask, shooting fire downward as it circled from above. The Grask attempted to return fire with webbing shot from its two long fang-like trunks but kept missing its quarry while taking the occasional burn from failing to dodge. It looked like in time the Grask would succumb, that is until a large black Dragon swooped down from the clouds above and slammed into the back of the Phoenix.

The creature plummeted toward the ground with a soft screech and Damien grimaced as the huge spider/elephant drove it's pointed trunks directly into its body and dragged it to the ground, pulling it under itself as its front two massive spiked legs began rending the magical, flaming birds body as it cried out in pain.

Damien continued watching and listening on in horror as golden blood leaked from its body onto the surrounding fields and it whimpered, crawling and trying to escape the Grask's clutches. The black Dragon landed shortly after and roared loudly, showcasing its razor-sharp teeth and prompting the Grask to retreat a few hundred feet away with a torn off wing and leg in its clutches, disappearing underground through a large hole.

A hand landed on Damien's shoulder.

"What ar-"

"Dammit!" Damien yelled as Gianna's voice sounded out from behind him, every muscle in his body tensing as he jumped.

'God I'm gonna die of a heart attack before anything else in this damn world,' he inwardly lamented.

"Sorry, just... Don't sneak up on me like that, please. That kind of stuff ruins me."

"No worries, I'll try not to in the future," she said with a smile, hands up as she took a step back and visibly struggled not to laugh. "We should go inside though, class is going to start soon. I even managed to save you a seat closer to the front by me."

Damien nodded and stepped to the side, letting her grab the knob which was conveniently placed directly next to where the Grask's home was. He didn't know if that creature could exit the painting, but he sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to find out.

He followed her inside and stared around the room, amused. The teachers were all allowed a certain amount of creative individuality in their classroom, and it appeared this class was probably the reason it was limited to a degree.

The windows letting light in were shaped like different monsters with floral patterns all over the glass, while the tables and seats were all different colors and shapes. Some of the desks and seats blended into one another to form benches or elongated tables instead of single desks, while others were just mounds of dirt covered by grass and vines.

Instead of three columns of seats holding two desks at each one, this classroom had two columns with three places for people to sit in each one, the columns slowly splitting further apart from each other. A single desk column started two rows up in the center aisle to occupy the empty space and widened as it went up to the fifth row.

The wall and ceiling were covered in furs of many different colors and the flooring was a beautifully hued grass, dotted with stone pathways leading everywhere.

All in all, it felt like the teacher had done their utmost to bring the outside world inside.

Damien looked to the podium made out of bones and saw it covered in papers but without an instructor behind it. Turning to where her polka-dotted desk was showed him an empty seat as well. She didn't seem to be in yet.

He followed Gianna into the classroom along the further of the pathways. Unlike where he'd sat in Terrel's class and Basic Spells, she led him to a seat in the front row, one of the spots already occupied by a small female Celestial.

Gianna went in first, taking the window seat and leaving him in the middle next to the new... potential problem. Surprisingly, she wore glasses and seemed more than a bit reserved, unwilling to look in his direction, which relieved him a bit. At least, even if she was trouble, she'd be quieter about it.

Short purple hair hung down to her shoulders and like every Celestial he'd ever seen, she was blessed genetically with great features. Other than the glasses though, the only thing that surprised him was how small the girl appeared, being more cute than beautiful with her circular spectacles.

"So, Miss Dewitt then?" he said, turning back to Gianna after his quick assessment of his other seat partner.

"Yep, that's her name," she responded as he pulled up the class list on his ring.

"Why does the list describe her as an eccentric?" he asked, reading the specific details of this class once again.

He'd almost not asked for this period because of it. All his other classes were described briefly, with none of them having an excerpt about the teacher's mental state whatsoever. It's not that the list creator couldn't have, either. They easily could, with the exception of Mr. Feival, be described in one word each: Sadist and Arrogant.

'Out of the instructors I've met so far, what makes her so unique they felt the need t-'

Damien's head quickly swiveled to look forward as a loud crashing sound echoed throughout the room, the stack of papers on the podium shooting in every direction and obscuring the teaching platform. Many of the students around the room sighed while others laughed, including Gianna. The one to his side remained silent.

"Hahahaha! STILL DONT HAVE THAT DOWN!" a cute, high-pitched voice yelled out from the center of the pandemonium.

Damien watched on as the papers floated down to the ground, slowly revealing the form of a small Human woman. She looked about five feet tall and had a pair of small goggles strapped over her eyes. Her hair was a dirty blonde that was cut off at the shoulders and was exceedingly voluminous, poofing out as it cascaded downward.

A wide smile spread across her face, showcasing her teeth and making her look like a Human Cheshire cat. She appeared to be in her mid to late one hundreds to Damien, on the younger side, but that was always a guess. He could never really tell when it all depended on mana.

The woman's figure finally became fully visible, paper fluttering with finality to the ground, and Damien saw the two cages she had clutched in her hands. Each had different creatures inside of them, one the stuff of rainbows and happiness while the other was what nightmares are made of.

In her right hand, a small, adorable little chipmunk of an animal. It had two huge fox-like ears, big eyes, and tiny four-fingered hands. The small guy sprinted around in its cage with vigor and excitement, sometimes stopping while clutching the roof to shake its head back and forth, seemingly deciding where to sprint next, all as if it were on multiple shots of coffee. After doing that, it would once again get to its race. The bars of its cage seemed wide enough to allow the small thing out, but it seemed content to just dart from wall to wall.

The container in her left hand held something Damien had only seen in books, akin to a demon's pet from his world. The small monster looked like a mix between a miniature wolf, a komodo dragon, and an angler fish from the deep oceans of the earth. It had a low stature, grey fur, no tail, no ears, no eyes, and a large mouth full of long razor-sharp teeth that it showcased each time it bit the cage and thrashed its head about. It was growling rather angrily.

"Fuckshit! I made another... CLASS! Come down and pick up your information sheet for these two little adorable critters! I seem to have scattered them a bit," she yelled, looking around herself while hanging her goggles on her neck.

'That is the understatement of the century.'

Damien watched on in awe while mentally quipping. That was the first time he'd ever seen teleportation magic, and it was awe-inspiring. He already wanted to ask how she did it, but that would have to be saved for later in the day, or year. Class had apparently started in this fashion and made him completely understand the note detailing her as eccentric.

He stood slowly, waiting for the small Celestial to move out of the way so he could go retrieve a sheet. A line started filing past their row as the girl remained seated, head now set on her hands as she stared forward, bored, while having her chair pushed just far enough that he wouldn't be able to comfortably sneak by her.

"Would you like me to get you one?" Damien asked her, hoping to get her to either stand or scoot in so he could retrieve their papers.

"Get me one!" Gianna called out from behind him as a hand landed softly on his lower back.

He turned around and rolled his eyes at her with a nod, turning to the girl who hadn't spoken. He tapped her shoulder lightly and she turned to look at him.

"Ar-"

The girl jumped at his touch and looked up at him, quickly looking down and muttering in response, "I'm... sorry. I'm waiting for everyone to get theirs first. I'm not... good with crowds. I'll... get three, though."

"Oh. Sorry for bothering you. And we'd appreciate it," Damien replied, sitting back down slowly.

The poor girl seemed not to be a fan of people in general; overly shy, quiet, perhaps an introvert through and through... Either way, she nodded at him and stayed seated for a bit longer, moving once everyone else had already claimed their papers.

She moved a little slowly and carefully down the aisle, doing everything at her own pace while keeping her wings close together to avoid brushing anything. She picked up the last three papers scattered across the floor as Ms. Dewitt smiled widely at her, waiting to say anything else until the girl had made it back to her seat.

"Thank you for that. I haven't caught your name yet," Damien said as he took two of the papers from her while everyone settled into their seats, idly chatting. "Mine is Damien."

The girl nodded, looking forward. "It's ok and I know. Top-ranked Gold, Human in your first year. Uses ground, water, wind, healing, and fire magic very proficiently. Everyone talks about you. My name is Jasmine Inks. I'm from one of the lesser noble families on Hylyu. I'm here to avoid my parents marrying me off to some random person for prestige," she explained, causing his eyes to widen at the last part by speaking more than he'd expected her to.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," Damien responded, thinking to offer a handshake but deciding against it. "I... hope you successfully avoid a marriage you don't want?"

It was probably hard enough for the girl to even talk to him. He turned back forward to avoid bothering her further after his awkward response.

"Sorry if that made you uncomfortable. I know a lot about you so it makes sense to tell you about me," she responded carefully, seeming to smile slightly as he turned away.

"Aren't you a little young to be married off by your parents though?" Damien asked softly, turning slightly to her.

The girl shrugged and stayed silent.

"She's older than you," Gianna cut in from his left. "We are the same age, both Platinum together. Just a little younger than Alexa."

Jasmine nodded at Gianna's words.

"Does that mean... wait, do you all hav-"

"OKAY! Everyone should have received their papers," Ms. Dewitt yelled out, interrupting their conversation.

"So! Welcome! This here is Pippin!" she continued, lifting the cage with the terrifying creature in it while gleaming at the class. "It's really cute, small, extremely fast, likes cages, and loves people! Usually, it ends up as dinner in the wild to these guys," she said, now lifting up the actually adorable creature, "but it breeds fast and hides out in trees mostly so they can't always catch them."

"Pippins are mischievous little creatures and typically climb all over people to search for food or small shiny objects. If they don't find anything and feel safe, they like to stay with you until you move too far away from their home, using your body for its warmth and mana. Make sure you keep your rings and any other valuables tightly in your grasp when handling this little one!" she called out, putting down the cage with the adorable creature in it and moving her free hand toward the cage with the terrifying-looking thing in it.

Damien's eyes widened as he looked down to his sheet of paper to double-check what she was doing. He found the word Pippin, gazed down at the picture, and screamed out almost at the same time as the rest of the class. They were too late though, interrupted by an angry exclamation from the woman.

"OW!" She yelled out, staring at the jagged blood-covered stump where her pinky and ring fingers used to be. "Give them back you bastard!" she yelled, shaking the cage excessively hard as the little monster inside it bounced around, no longer growling but yelping loudly.

After a few more moments, the creature coughed up what it had bitten off. Ms. Dewitt grabbed her fingers and set them where they belonged, attaching them back to her hand as she dropped the demented monster's cage to the ground.

"One moment, one moment. That was not the Pippin ahahaha," she said, chuckling as her magic did its work.

'Maybe sitting in the front row of this class wasn't the best idea.'

"Damien! You're here today! And up front, excellent!" the woman called excitedly from a few feet away. "I said yesterday that if you showed up today I'd make you play with one of our little guests to show it off. You're lucky too, I was gonna make you open up the Rippler's cage, but he seems extra hungry and angry right now. Open the Pippin cage while I finish reattaching this," she finished, to his immediate distress.

"You were going to make me open that things cage?" he asked unbelievingly.

"I heard you were good with healing magic! Plus, if you're not, it's just a trip to the infirmary to reattach them," she responded.

"Yeah but what if he ate them?" Damien asked back.

"Body modification magic! Don't be such a stickler, come here come here," Ms. Dewitt responded, waving him forward with her good hand.

Damien shuddered.

Body modification magic. Able to regrow entire limbs or fingers at the cost of immense pain. Not breaking your bones, but regrowing them and shaping them as well from what Damien had learned about it so far, at least. Maybe he'd specifically be able to leave the pain nerves disconnected until it was done, though. He'd have to question Mr. Feival more about it.

Damien stood and moved behind Jasmine as she scooted her chair in. He walked up to the front of the class, keeping a wide berth of the teacher and her insane pet.

When he reached the box she had dropped to the floor, he bent over and grabbed it, lifting it to eye height. The little monster stopped spazzing out and jumped to the bars near his face, looking at him inquisitively with its dark green eyes while tilting its head to the side. Damien barely held back the aww that almost leaked out at that, until it reached its little hand through the cage bars toward him with huge eyes.

"Awwwww," he muttered out, not regretting it in the slightest.

He slowly extended his left hand towards it, stopping right before touching its finger as he remembered the eccentrics warning. He mentally checked his body, making sure he had no loose shiny items on his person and clenched his right hand tight that held his ring, before touching the small things hand.

The moment he touched the critter, it immediately latched onto his finger and launched itself out of the cage. Within a fraction of a second, it was darting around his body with a speed he couldn't keep up with using just his eyes. It froze momentarily when it shot up his right hand to pull and push on his ring but gave up after a second of trying, content to explore literally everywhere else on his body. It seemed to particularly enjoy pulling on his fingers.

He was glad his pants weren't baggy and that the creature seemed to avoid going under clothing for the most part. It had looked around the neck region of his vest but decided it was unimportant to explore it right now. Damien immediately made his pant legs bond to the black shoes he'd asked Kastra to make for him. They appeared similar to the shoe style everyone around here wore but sported a mixed look of running shoes and boots, breathable and flexible, yet supportive. Alexa had similarly opted for a pair of them instead of the pointed, long-toed boot she'd been wearing all these years here without him.

The great thing about Kastra making their clothing was that since it was all magical, he could make minor changes to his ensemble without her. Anything major and she'd need to intervene, but shutting off an avenue of exploration to a little critter that pulls on shiny, dangling, and finger-shaped objects was simple enough for him.

"Hold your hand out and create an area of warm mana on your palm," Ms. Dewitt instructed while walking over to him.

Damien nodded and did as told, receiving an immediate response from the Pippin. It seemed to have sensed the mana and sprinted to his hand, trotting around a bit before curling up into a ball on his palm and staring directly into Damien's eyes from over its tail.

'Fucking. Adorable.'

"Pippins love most people but only because of their mana. We are much more mana dense than most places on this world, and because of that, some creatures like this Pippin here enjoy being around us."

"The reason he was staying in his cage earlier instead of exploring all of you was because the thing was nervous. I hunted for a baby of the species that was abandoned for around week or so and finally found that one. Ever since I found him, the only place he's ever been outside that cage was on me. He seems to like you more though," Ms. Dewitt explained, pausing briefly to smile at the small creature and pat its head.

"As for that bastard over there," she said, suddenly yelling and pointing at the monster who seemed to be glaring at her from its cage with imaginary eyes, "he's also a baby of his species. Ripplers are notorious for growing to about half the size of a Grask, so about two horses combined. That's just on average, however, with some even getting larger in the higher reaches of the western mountains, just above where we are in fact. They haven't been spotted over the eastern ridge, but here they are always violent, attack on sight, and tend to roam in packs."

Pausing slightly, the teacher moved toward the Ripplers cage before continuing to give her lecture.

"The larger they are, the harder they are to fight, as well. It has been documented that those in more mana dense areas are much bigger than average and more vicious on top of it, carrying a natural resistance to all forms of magic. There have been recorded instances of entire subjugation groups ranging from one hundred to two hundred years of age being slaughtered to the last member when trying to take out a medium-sized pack. The Association typically lists them as a red level threat but always tries to send at least two black ranked members along from the Mage or Combatant guilds for added safety."

"Ripplers hunt using a combination of sound, smell, and vibrations," she said, pausing slightly near the cage as it began to growl at her. "They rend their prey with either their extremely large fangs or their razor-sharp claws," she said, picking the cage up of her desk to set it on the podium.

Suddenly, an eery silence draped over the room. The Rippler immediately began to appear uncomfortable, fidgeting and shifting in different directions while Ms. Dewitt circled the cage, conjuring a pole of some kind. Whereas before it could track her, Damien watched on now as it was completely lost as to where she might be.

Smiling evilly, the instructor crouched onto the balls of her feet before poking to stone into one of its feet. Immediately, the creature yelped out, jumped into the far wall of the cage, and began to snarl. The stick that had been used to poke it was in pieces, being rended before Damien had a chance to realize it had attacked.

Standing up with her hands on the backs of her hips, Dewitt started laughing.

"That never gets old with these things. If you can learn to mask the sound you make, you can easily fool these little ones. The older members of the species are much wiser and sensitive, but in a room so full of sounds, vibrations, and scents, this little thing is missing the trees for the forest."

Damien watched on and began to appreciate taking this class already. They should make it mandatory. He never wanted to meet one of those things in the wild, especially if they were supposedly resistant to magic.

"Never assume one can't see you because it doesn't have eyes. The only thing you can do when encountering a Rippler is to either fight or run for your life, but even if you run it will almost always catch you. Never climb a tree, never hide underground, and never go through the passes during the fifth and tenth months of the year. The fifth month is its typical mating period and the tenth is when their offspring are born. They become even more aggressive than usual in both instances, typically clearing out an entire swath of a forest until its void of all life."

"I got this cute little guy during the tenth month! Been stalking a small pack of them for a few years now, waiting for a baby to be made and it finally happened, coincidentally right as they were changing their territory to be near a trade route! Went in, slaughtered the pack, retrieved this little furry bundle of joy, and was even compensated for my work! Win win win!" she finished with a huge smile, staring out at the silent class while holding the cage high for all to see.

"How uh... how big is a small-sized pack?" a male student from behind him asked.

"Average size is aboutttt... Oh I don't know, twelve of them?" Ms. Dewitt responded, thinking to herself.

"And you took out a pack that size by yourself?" Damien said, incredulously. "How old are you??"

"Never polite to ask a young lady her age Damien!" she said with a grin. "I'm just shy of three hundred right now, though. Two more years and I'll be there! I'm pretty good at body manipulation, so it keeps me young! Not sure why, but giving myself younger limbs and hearts over the years seems to keep me in my prime!"

Damien and indeed most of the class stared at her with their mouths agape. She certainly hid her age very well, in an extremely morbid fashion. His opinion of her shifted dramatically from a crazy woman to a bit of a prodigy. He now understood why the school put up with her unique personality.

"Don't take that to mean most anyone my age could do that, though. I just happen to specialize in different forms of illusion magic! In fact, this isn't even my real body," she declared, thrusting her hand into the cage immediately after making that claim.

The Rippler took no time to act and her entire hand was cleanly severed off at the wrist. Blood exploded from her hand as she maintained a neutral expression and the beast chowed down on the flesh in its maw.

The class watched on in horror, then astonishment, as her entire right arm dissolved into motes of light and reformed a moment later outside the cage. She stood there, smiling that same insane smile she always had on as she looked over them, while the Rippler froze in place, meal having disappeared.

"Don't worry though, this is indeed what I look like. I just missed my bath over break so I decided to take one! In any case..." she assured, face screwing in concentration momentarily.

A loud pop sounded off from near their instructor and a copy of the same exact woman with her goggles on came into existence next to the other, holding four cages stacked on top of each other.

"That's much better!" they both declared at the same time as the new arrival removed her goggles and the original placed hers back on. "Didn't make a mess of anything. Come get yourself a-," she continued, popping sound going off as the clone disappeared from beside the podium,"-cage children! Don't worry, these are all docile creatures. I want you to document their habits, likes, and dislikes before the end of class!"

Damien wanted to rub his eyes, but refrained. He believed the one that just left was the clone, but... was it? If he believed what she said, it was, but there was no way for him to tell in the slightest.

The students continued staring on as Damien's mana faltered in his hand. A few moments later he felt something poke his cheek and saw the Pippin had crawled up to his shoulder and was staring up at him questioningly. He restarted the mana on his shoulder this time.

"Damien, you can go sit. The Pippin will be your *pop* creature for the period," they finished together, the clone appearing with four more cages.

'This is eery,' Damien thought, the voices matching so perfectly it was like surround sound rather than two people speaking at the same time. 'Casually using teleportation magic, creating a clone of herself, and using it to do mundane tasks like retrieving animals... she's either mad or brilliant.'

The cages all held a plethora of different, small animals. One was a fox, similar to Jasper, while the others were a variation of cats with large hind legs, miniature golden retriever look-alikes, a tripod creature with one big eye and a lanky, furry, skinny body, a bipod animal that had the long legs of a bird but the upper body of a fuzzy cloud, a small lizard that walked around on its hind legs while using its front legs as if they were arms, a tiny horse with white wings, something that seemed to be a mix between a dragon, a dog, and a long maned horse, and a few others as the clone and real version left and arrived with more and more cages.

The last was Damien's favorite by far. It had beautiful white fur and was so small it could fit in both of your hands. Luckily, Jasmine had been given the creature to look after and was willing to let him pet it as it slept in her hands.

Strangely, though being one of the most adorable of the animals, looking like a puppy and fox mixed together, she seemed oddly uninterested in it. If Gianna was any indication, begging him to switch her seats, it definitely wasn't his taste that was off. Either way, since Jasmine wouldn't, he was more than delighted to give it attention.

Ms. Dewitt explained it was a Sylphen when he asked. He'd asked more about it but she'd told him to go read a book if he was so interested and he made some mental plans to visit the library again soon.

Each of the fifteen other students in his class received their own as well. Some loved them, others kept them at a distance. The tripod one, in particular, was not a favorite yet it seemed to be craving affection the most out of the new arrivals. Almost as much as Damien's Pippin. He was already falling in love with the little creature, and it refused to leave his person.

After handing out the animals, the rest of the class was spent with notebooks out, detailing any and everything they could about the animals before them. Damien didn't realize he could write so much about a single, small being, but had almost filled three pages in notes taken just in the first hour.

Once that first hour passed, however, it got very dull until finally, the class came to a close and Damien began to make the trek back home. Cradling Piper and Egren in his arms, he smiled to himself at how successful the day had ultimately been, regardless of how it had started. He'd named his little guy and Jasmine's Sylphen before getting home, making sure Alexa would get no opportunity to try. Piper would be her gift, but there was no way he was going to allow her the opportunity to mess up his name.

She adored cute things and tended to name them after her old stuffed animals from home. She'd offended more than one Fae in this manner, and whenever they saw something on their travels... They were hardly ever fitting names.

Ms. Dewitt had given the class the option of taking the animals home with them if they wanted. He was definitely taking Piper home and when Jasmine declined to keep the Sylphen, he immediately jumped on the opportunity to take care of it as well, Ms. Dewitt agreeing with a shrug of her shoulders and a shrinking of Gianna's. Hopefully, he would be allowed to keep them both even after the little project was at its end.

Damien had almost volunteered to take more of the other left-behind creatures as well but decided he should ask Alexa and Kastra before he turned their home into an animal sanctuary. He planned on doing that first thing when he and his two tagalongs got home, which was approaching fast.

"Thanks for walking with me!" Gianna called from beside as she waved goodbye to him one-handedly, her other cradling the young fox who was sleeping against her chest.

"No worries, have a good night," he said back as he continued on toward the gate leading into Diamond.

Making his way to it, he watched as an Elf walked through the gate before him, presumably Rias Ahlers, the ground manipulating Knight who was currently ranked first in the school. He thought to call out to her for an introduction and conversation but decided against it as the gate closed. By the time he arrived and opened it, she had already disappeared into one of the houses.

Damien made his way to their mansion and opened the front door, immediately finding himself being tackled by a full-sized Kastra. He adjusted his stance in time to stay standing and protected his two little care packages as she hugged him and kissed him deeply.

"Welcome back husband," she said, pulling back as he stared forward in a daze.

She draped her arms over his neck while instinctively making room between them for whatever reason he'd created it.

He gathered himself and smiled into her rarely shown happy expression before responding.

"You know, technically we aren't supposed to be married."

"We are basically married," she said impassively. "You made me jealous today, I think. If you get another wife, promise you'll still have time for me."

Damien's mind tensed slightly, then eased.

"That was a bit random. You know I wouldn't need another, and even in the small chance I did, I'd never run out of time for you," he said back, sighing at how quickly she'd picked up Gianna's flirting and moving his body inside the house.

"I don't mind if you get ten more wives. I almost expect it. Just have time for me," she declared, shuffling backward as he made his way forward. "What are these two little sleeping things?" she asked, looking down and stopping her awkward steps.

"The two newest additions to the family, hopefully. I might have to fight to keep them... Let's go find Alexa; one is a gift for her," he said.

"That's perfect. She was feeling down earlier. Do I get one too?"

"You get to share mine," he said as they made their way through the house. "Why was she sad?"

"I want my own... Stupid life crisis I think," Kastra responded with a shrug.

Damien lifted an eyebrow at that but continued on, arriving outside the door in less than a minute. He turned the knob and entered, finding Alexa sitting on the bed cross-legged and waving at him.

"You don't seem too sick," he said with a grin while moving to their huge bed.

"I'm not really sick... Just feel like I'm moving through a swamp. It only took me a minute this time to get seated like this instead of laying down," she said as if that were a huge accomplishment while Kastra moved sit on the bed and lay across her lap.

"Well, congratulations are in order then, and luckily I have brought a present for you!" he exclaimed, sitting on the edge of the bed and turning his body so he sat cross-legged in front of her, holding the Pippin out for her to see.

"Awwww, it... it looks just like a little floof of fur. Such beautiful green eyes... He reminds me of princes-"

"His name is Piper and he loves people and warm mana," Damien declared, interrupting her naming process as she began reaching for it. "Can you move any mana to the surface of your skin or is that no good?"

"It's... well, not too hard to move mana around my skin but I can't change temperatures or anything. Can I hold him?" she asked with begging eyes.

"I think just mana will be fine," he responded with a chuckle before depositing the sleeping creature into her arms, excited that the naming crisis had been averted. "This one is Egren."

Alexa started cooing to Piper as he remained asleep, patting his head and grinning like a child. When she finally assessed what he'd said, she took a look at the sleeping white figure in his arms and leered at him skeptically.

"Your naming sense is terrible. Names are supposed to be cute. How do you know Egren even fits it? Or Piper? Are they girls or boys?" she asked.

"I.. don't exactly know. Never checked."

"That one is a boy and that one is a girl," Kastra declared nonchalantly, pointing to Piper and then Egren respectively from Alexa's lap.

Alexa grinned at Damien and he cocked his eyebrow at Kastra.

"Then that one is pr-"

"How do you know?" Damien asked, stopping the horror that was about to be committed.

She shrugged her shoulders before responding, "Just makes sense based off their colors."

Damien laughed as Alexa frowned down at Kastra.

"You can't just guess genders like that Kass."

"Then check to see if I'm right," she responded.

Check they did. The rest of the short afternoon was spent with the three of them trying to speculate the gender of beasts none of them had ever seen before while holding them above their heads like the iconic scene from the Lion King. Egren didn't seem to mind, but Piper woke up affronted and began flying around Alexa's body and the room, throwing them all into a fit of laughter and stopping the process.

He hoped they were males, for both of their namesakes.