I sat on my haunches, gobbling up bread, cheese, and some jerky that Chaos had been kind enough to give me. She could have provided a full course meal… but apparently since we were now partners, she wasn’t going to coddle me. In simpler words she was pouting. An hour had nearly passed since she had vanished into the night, with promise to return, but not being specific about what she was going to do. At that point, I didn’t care. I was too hungry to.

And so I sat before a small fire and ate waiting till she finally showed her face again. I took the time to think about life. To think about my new world. My new dreams. How beautiful the sky was. How peaceful the night. How sweet the crackling fire sounded and how wonderful to see it again, safe for the moment, and still breathing.

Around the hour and fifteen minute mark she came skipping through the grass with a massive tome under one arm. From it hung the rough outlines of chains, jangling and jingling with every movement. When she came within the fire’s eerie glow, I could see her eyes sparkling, a mischievous grin playing on her face.

‘Oh great… she’s back to her old self,’ I internally wailed. I asked, “What’s that?”

She turned to the side so I couldn’t quite make out the writing on the front, “Something exciting!” She immediately corrected herself, “I mean, something really really boooooring. Totally boring. Holy Lights of Methane Juice! Most boring thing ever!”

I sighed and focused on eating yet another loaf of bread, “Okay.”

“Just… okay?” She asked, shoulders sagging and grin waning. Obviously she wanted me to be excited and curious. Such a child she was.

“Fine, I’ll bite,” I looked up. “What is it? Obviously some large dictionary or encyclopedia.”

Bouncing a little, she grinned from ear to ear practically and held out the massive text proudly, “Nooooope. See?” She added a little shake to let the chains jingle. It was a massive tome, covered in parched cracking leather and braced with iron slats that held the leather together. Chains hung from the sides of it, crossing here, joining there, till eventually they met at a massive lock on the front of the book. Runic symbols lay on the front, though I couldn’t read them.

“Some type of cursed book?”

Shaking her head quickly, hair tossing about in a wild fury, she stepped forward so I could get a better look at the front. “It’s a book I made for ya, Muddy Muffin Mustache.” She tapped the front runes, “It says ‘Read This Dummy! The Encyclopedia of Mortalis, Mating, Mysteries, and Magics for Moogles.’” My face went blank. She didn’t seem to notice, though, as she continued happily swinging it in front of my face. “The English edition, this gorgeous babe has everything you need to know about everything you want to know. It’ll take you forever to read through, buuuuut, you won’t be an ignorant three year old once you memorize my inspiring prose!”

“Is that so…?” I muttered, not sure how to respond.

She nodded, “That is so. Since we’re going to wean you off the staff, you gotta get educated. Education is very important, ya know?” she wagged a finger at me, like some teacher lecturing a naughty student.

I nodded as well. “Okay, thanks. Mortalis… mysteries, magics, and… mating?” I emphasized the last word, now both rather curious and a little frightened by it. Mating. Putting it on the front of the text was definitely something to note.

“Yeah, mating. I needed to talk about the races and stuff like that, but couldn’t think of a good word to encompass it all. You know, gotta keep the alliteration in the title. Catchy titles make for catchy… ummm… catchy creations!” She grinned and let out a wispy giggle.

“Of course. You’re such a poet…” I shrugged and held out my hands to accept the tome. “Thank you… one problem, I’m not a Moogle.”

She held it out as if to give it to me, but then pulled it back, looking shocked. “You aren’t? My bad. I made this book for Moogles explicitly. Says so on the title. Guess I can’t let you have it.”

“Fine, I’m a Moogle.”

“Oh, well here you go Mister Moogle,” she snickered.

“You’re a doll…” I grabbed the tome. When the weight fully landed in my hands, I had to pull back just to avoid falling forward. With a grunt, I plopped the slab of cement onto my lap. “Wow.”

“Impressive, I know.” Her hand rose before her and she lightly blew on a finger, brushing it daintily like some aristocrat.

“What are the lock and chains for?”

Her eyes sparkled, “Because it looks more secretive and epic.”

“Of course…” I mumbled, not wanting to reply. Fondling the lock for a few seconds caused it to pop open. I slid it off, undid the chains, and opened the tome to look through it. Every of the white stained pages held a wealth of detailed knowledge and even some drawings, all organized in a logical fashion. “Kind of surprising for the Goddess of Chaos. I was thinking it’d be more like a crossword puzzle, but jumbled up.”

She crossed her arms, “Meanie.”

“Just being honest.”

“And so am I.” Taking a seat beside me, she waited for a few minutes as I skimmed through the pages. First, her foot began to tap. Then her hand, impatiently. Then finally when her patience wore thin, she eagerly asked, “Well…?!”

“Well what?”

“How is it?”

“It’s good.”

“Just good?!” she asked, offended. I bit back a retort. She was such a child… when she wasn’t a sadistic psychopath. I just needed to tell her what she wanted to hear.

I gave her a thumb’s up. “It’s very good. Very impressive. Thank you for all the hard work.”

“Took me an entire hour,” she replied, nodding smugly.

“Very gracious of you.”

“It comes naturally with my amazing self…” She grew silent. Suddenly, her breath tickled my ear. “Psst… hey my Prophet Partner, what do you call Google but for cattle?”

I paused, slowly looking up at her, confusion wracking my brain. “Excuse me?”

“Google for cattle. What’s it called?”

“I don’t know… probably something like-” and it hit me. Oh crap, she was something else. Quite the character… and I was her partner and Prophet.

We said it in tangent, “Moogle.”

Clapping her hands, she fell onto her back as a fit of giggling hit her.

It earned the slightest upward pull on my lips as I refocused on reading. I could tell already, our partnership was going to be a really weird one.

With morning’s glow came the promise of a new day. Haggardly I stood from my bedroll, letting out a long yawn and a good stretch. A morning chill hung to the world, with a fresh application of dew turning the grass to a sea of jewels. Crisp air tickled my nose with the scents of said grass, the accompaniment of flowers, and other bizarre smells that whisked into the plains from the distant forest. I lightly pat my hair down and looked around.

I called out, “Chaos?”

“Yeees?” She called out from beyond some nearby, lonely tree.

“What’s the agenda for today?” I picked up a pack near the fire and fished through it. Finding some jerky, I quickly ate it.

“You are going to… err, you should go to Lonely Briar. It’s the home village of those two hunters that I sent back.”

Swallowing the dry and salty meat, I asked, “And I want to go there… why?” I started rolling up my bed roll and stuffing it into the pack Chaos had so… kindly… presented to me.

“Several reasons. Numero oreo! A low profile while things calm down. Right now even the other Goddesses are spending a ton of their time looking for you. Dangerous stuff. Number two, you can study so you ain’t such an illiterate, ignorant snail bottom. Threes, you can practice magic. Foursa, in a few days something exciting will happen.”

“Something exciting?”

“You’ll find out. You’ll have the staff, so you’ll be fine.”

“And you aren’t coming with?”

She chuckled, hopping down from the tree and giving me a ‘you poor child’ type of look. “I’m a Goddess, not a babysitter.”

“Good for you. Teach me some magic then,” I said back bluntly.

“Fine, fine… hmph…” She crossed her arms and walked over, stopping right in front of me. “Mister Demanding Dud, I’ll be trying to show you basic Mana Invocations again. Your overpowered Spirit Invocations are a no-no. I mean, you turned half the forest to charcoal and carved out a new lake.” Now that was shocking. My heart swelled a little with pride and my eyebrows rose.

“Really?”

“Really really. If anyone doubted that a Thalwesse was chilling with me, well, now they be believers, brother.” Snickering, she held up two fingers in a peace sign. I ignored it. Still, I couldn’t help but feel happy at that revelation. I really did have some magic. My own. Something that even Chaos or the other Goddesses couldn’t mimic. I considered that pretty great.

“So I’m pretty powerful then,” I said, picking up the staff and patting it thoughtfully.

Grinning, she replied, “Yeeep, but remember, giving the sharpest blade to the youngest babe doesn’t help that baby out much in the long run.”

That popped my balloon quite well, “I guess so…”

“Considering your knowledge…” she faked a cough, “Or lack thereof… you’re about as powerful as a baby unless you fire off a Spirit Invocation. But the problem with that… you have no control over it. It’s about as controlled as a tactical nuke. It’s a good thing we didn’t discover your power within some metropolis.”

I gulped at that, nodding, my throat going dry. I would have massacred millions. “…yeah.”

“Exactly. Now, fill up, drink up, and meet me over by the tree for practice. Make it snappy, Slothman, I’m a busy Goddess.”

“Busy forcing people to be her playthings…” I mumbled under my breath.

“Somebody’s gotta keep me entertained,” she said, heading over to the tree.

I quickly ate some bread and drank my fill, using the extra water to do a splash bath. Unfortunately the plains didn’t come with a bath included and since just thinking about stepping into a river gave me the shivers, I imagined that unless I stayed in an inn or something splash baths would be my staple. There were worse fates. I packed up the last of the supplies had given me, including the tome, and then headed to the tree.

The moment I walked up she clicked her tongue and with a glowing finger drew several words. It read ‘Chaon, figure out how to Mana Write.’

I sighed and nodded. This was what had gotten me in such a mess in the first place; but, it was also what helped me learn about my unique magic. I honestly wanted to just try casting more of my Spirit Invocations to see what I could do. Though I also wanted to avoid being found and captured, so Mana it was.

‘Focus. Focus. Focus. Let it flow like a river… control it.’ I thought to myself, over and over, pushing energy through my body and out of my fingertips. It felt like the skin hissed a little. Burned. I opened my eyes to nothing, however. My fingers weren’t even glowing.

“Ah c’mon…” I moaned and closed my eyes, trying again. I pulled the energy, trying to entice it. That failed. Next grabbing it and pushing. Failed. And so I tried again.

And again. And again. And again.

It was midday before Chaos finally interrupted my endless hours of failing. Sweat cloaked me more than my clothes and I felt like collapsing, my arms ringing in agony, eyes stinging with salt, and emotions roaring inside; depression foremost. Even now I couldn’t do the basics of the basics.

“You know, I’m getting the feeling this ain’t working,” she said.

With a frown, I looked at her. “Astute observation. How about I just skip to Chi?”

“You have to know how to at least manipulate Mana to use Chi…” Her shoulders hopped in a shrug.

“Damnation…” I allowed my feet to fall out from under me, bringing me to a panting and sweaty heap trying to catch a breath.

“Definitely. Though, I have an idea, boya. See, just like how someone who isn’t agile enough can’t do a handstand even though they can lift a truck… you can’t manipulate Mana even though you can slam out raw Spirit like no tomorrow. You need to build your agility. But, right now your raw power is getting in the way… so if we change our plan of attack, you can bypass your own power and borrow someone else’s while learning how to manipulate Mana.”

I blinked and wiped some of the sweat from my face, “Huh? Like with the staff?”

“Nooooo. The staff is just a piece of me. What I’m talking about is a contract.” She grinned, “A summoner’s contract.”

I tried to speak, “B-”

“No buts, ifs, hows, whazzits, or whoozings!” Her hand swung out and pointed toward the plains. “In the left corner you will find a Field Slime. Very uninteresting, but can be contracted for basic spells like Heal.” She pointed toward the forest, “You’ve got some Black Wolves in that direction along with a few Goblins. Both can be contracted… but both will put up a fight, so only go there if you’re feeling brave. Last… uhhh…” She pointed toward another section of the forest. “There’s currently a Nymph that-a-way, if you’re feeling like a more feminine companion. But forewarning, they’re usually pretty horny and will take some convincing.”

My mouth dropped, just staring at her. “What are you even babbling about…?”

“Just choose a direction and get moving, boya. You want to learn basic magic? Then we’re getting creative. Make your choice and git moving or I’ll contract you to the stinkiest goblin I can find. And no worries, I’ll explain the process as we walk,” she gave her signature thumb’s up and grin.

I just let out a heavy sigh. This was getting dang annoying.