The carriage was the same one that Kyle rode to Vegaville in, and there were two boys in it too. Kyle barely remembered them.

"So what town are you two from?" Kyle asked as he and Beth sat on one side of the carriage and waited for it to exit the city.

"We are from Drunkroot. It's to the south of here." They cousins born around the same time and both had the same types. Fire Ice Ground.

"Oh that's cool. The library operator in Thornberry is from Drunkroot." Kyle remembered how Mr. Reese told him about being a teacher in Drunkroot 20 some years ago.

"We haven't ever been to the library." The one on the left said.

"Well it's not important. He is in Thornberry now." Kyle said, and then they did not talk.

"So Beth, what do you think is going to happen when Berry and Cory see us together?" Kyle remembered that Beth's two brothers did not like him, even if he could not remember why.

It was the two brother's fault that Beth avoided Kyle for several months, and that had created a large misunderstanding. Kyle was going to give them a piece of his mind.

"I think i'm going to use a Shock spell on them." Beth held out her hand as if she was going to fire the spell.

"Hahaha, that sounds great." Kyle agreed with her choice of actions, but she would probably not do any such thing. Berry was her older brother, and Cory was younger. Beth was a small child, so she might not be able to take them both in a fight.

It was a long journey, and it was not until late at night did the carriage stop in Thornberry. Kyle and Beth got out from the carriage and took their suitcases, then the carriage left towards the next town.

Inside the north gate to the town, two families were waiting, and the relies to Kyle and Beth coming back home varied.

"Welcome home Kyle!" Elena and Fred both said.

"Welcome home brother!" Said Dave who was standing next to Fred.

"Welcome home Beth!" Beth's parents Reginald and Sarah Valheart were also there

"Get away from our sister!" Yelled the brotherly duo of Berry and Cory as hey ran forward and dragged Beth away from Kyle as she got out of the carriage.

POV: The Mercers

"It's great to be home." Kyle did not regret going to the mage school, but it was indeed good to be come. Kyle dropped his suitcase on the ground as he walked forward and stopped in front of Elena and Fred.

Elena and Fred had made use of the 40 gold coins, and they now had better clothing than before. Elena even had a fancy hat.

"Are you things heavy Kyle? I can carry them for you." Fred picked up Kyle's suitcase, but it was not heavy.

"Did you have enough things for school? I wanted to send you some of your things, but then I got the letter from you saying not to." Elena was concerned about Kyle having everything he needed, but Kyle told Elena in a letter that he didn't need anything sent to him.

"I had enough, I just got really good at washing clothes." Kyle washed his clothes every few nights, and dried them with his magic. He had the robe on most of the time, so they did not get very dirty.

"You still have the wand right? Did you fight anyone with it?" Dave excitedly asked Kyle, bounding on his toes.

"I still had it, and when I dueled someone, the wand worked great!" Kyle gave Dave the thumbs up symbol, and it worked with making Dave satisfied.

"I knew it was a powerful wand." Dave was happy with his choice of a gift for Kyle.

"I'll take your suitcase, so let's go home." Fred picked the suitcase up again and held it at his side.

"Thanks dad, I just have to say something to Beth before I go." Kyle turned to look at Beth who was demonstrating the use of [Static] to her brothers.

POV: The Valhearts

"Aren't you worried about something happening again?" Berry asked Beth as he dragged her by her right arm away from the carriage and Kyle.

"You shouldn't go near him." Cory pulled from Beth's left side, and Beth dropped her suitcases.

"Stop it! Look what you did, you made me drop my suitcases." Beth was already expecting Berry and Cory to do something before the carriage arrived at Thornberry. Beth did not like it, but Berry and Cory really didn't like Kyle.

"We're glad to see you returned safely Beth." Reginald was standing next to Sarah when he spoke, and a tear developed in his eye. Both Reginald and Sarah were standing a small distance away from Berry and Cory, and they did nothing to stop them.

"Is that a new bracelet I see on your arm? We didn't give you money to be spending on things like that." Sarah saw the new bracelet Beth had, so she made a comment on it.

"It's new, but I didn't buy it. Kyle got it for me." Beth was trying to shake off Berry and Cory by moving side to side. Kyle had gotten that bracelet for Beth after it was mentioned he got a bracelet for Florianne.

Beth was unable to shake Berry and Cory off, and both Reginald and Sarah looked at the Mercer family. They had briefly introduced themselves when they met, but other than this, the Valhearts had never seen the Mercers before. Elena looked a little familiar to Reginald, but she was probably just a customer.

"Alright, back off! [Static]" Beth managed to free herself of Berry and Cory, and then she cast the spell Static so that it would cover her body and not let Berry of Cory touch her.

Kyle walked over to Beth while she used the Static spell.

"You sure have some protective brothers." Kyle said to Beth as he took a step towards Berry and Cory.

"Get away from us, or we are going to make you eat our boogers!" Cory thought of the most insulting thing he could, and his index finger into his nose.

"I heard you two make up a pretty big lie last year..." Kyle said while still getting closer. "... you know what happens to liars right?"

"W-we didn't make up any lie!" Berry's stuttering gave him away instantly, not that it mattered to anyone.

"None!" Cory added, but it was too late. Beth had already hit the both of them on the head and ran over next to Kyle.

"He didn't hate me at all!" Beth said while putting her arm around Kyle and looking at Berry and Cory. Beth's brothers were furious.

"Oh my, what have you too been going while you were away." Sarah laughed a little and it made Beth get a little embarrassed. Beth's face turned a little red and she put her arm down.

"I don't think we should be asking those questions dear." Reginald could not help but laugh a little too.

"I'm glad you were able to make up." The Mercer family came closer to the event and was now joining in.

"It was just a misunderstanding the whole time." Kyle decided to put his arm around Beth this time.

"Can we get something to eat? I'm starved." It was late at night, so it was unlikely for them to get something good to eat. The two families split up, and they went to their respective homes.

The next day, the Mercers went to see the Droughts. Kyle felt up at his neck and touched the red string with a few fingers. He put it in his suitcase for the trip, but put it around his neck now that he was going to see Claire.

"You still have that?" Elena asked Kyle as they went down the road to the Droughts. Everyone who was currently there had seen Claire give Kyle the basic red string for his 8th birthday, almost a year ago.

"I don't want to think about what Claire would do to me if I didn't." Kyle said as he looked up and put his hand on the string again. Even if he had been sending Claire letters every week for the last 5 months, he did not know what her reaction would be to seeing him in person.

Once they got to the Drought residence, it was determined that Kyle should go to the door first. Kyle walked up to the door and knocked on it 2 times before hearing a very familiar voice inside.

"Is it Kyle!?" Yelled the child and Kyle could hear running inside the house. The door was quickly thrown open and Claire stopped for a split second before yelling "Kyle!" and jumping onto Kyle, knocking him onto the stone paved path and knocking him out. Claire was a little monster that Kyle was not prepared to deal with, and she wasn't a serious enough threat to take precaution when confronting.

POV: Inside the Drought's home.

"I didn't think it would be this bad." Said Elena as Fred and Paul carried Kyle inside.

"I'm so sorry, I let it slip that he was coming back a few days ago and she has been running to the door every time someone comes by now." Kathy apologized while holding Claire back. Kyle had specifically not mentioned it in the letters when he would be coming back, and only said so in the ones to his family.

"I just need to make sure he is fine. This is my fault, so I should help him wake up." Claire said, not being able to escape from Kathy by physical means and was now resorting to words. She wanted to check on Kyle who was in Paul and Kathy's bedroom resting.

"Don't you think you have done enough?" Said Dave who sitting in a chair while looking angrily at Claire. "Brother wasn't even back a full day and you are attacking him."

Claire knew who Dave was, and when they were younger they played together frequently. Claire was a grade higher than Dave, so they did not have the same classes at school, but Claire was able to stop him as he either came or left the school grounds and would ask when Kyle was going to get home. After the first week of this, Dave got very annoyed with Claire. After the next month, he was beyond annoyed. Claire stopped asking Dave every day when Kyle would return only 3 months after he had left. Something was probably wrong with her, but nobody could think of a reason.

"Hey, Kyle is waking up." Elena said as Kyle started to move a little.

'What just happened?' Kyle though as he looked around. He was staring at the ceiling and thought for a moment that he was reborn again, but then he moved his hand in front of his face and dispelled that thought.

"Kyle i'm so sorry!" Claire said as she climbed on top of Kyle. Kyle did not even have the strength to sit up with her on him like that.

"What happened?" Kyle asked the other people in the room.

"That happened." Kathy said, pointing at Claire, halfway between looking upset and smiling, but it was not a normal face. Kyle then felt the back of his head as he noticed it hurting.

"And this?" Kyle asked, rubbing his head.

"Claire jumped you at the door and you hit the ground pretty hard. You were out for only a few minutes though." Said Fred.

"Oh, you kept the string!" Claire said as she pulled the string around Kyle's neck.

"Don't pull it so much or it will break." Kyle said. He was more worried about his neck being hurt from Claire pulling the string into him or what Claire would do when the string broke than the string actually breaking.

"Okay then i'll let go, I see how important it is to you." Claire said as she let go of the string and was now sitting normally on top of Kyle.

"Hey Claire, um... could you?" Kyle said to Claire as he looked at her sitting on him. She was sitting right in the spot that Kyle needed to to move so that he could breath.

"Oh, I'm sorry, i'm doing it again aren't I?" Claire said as she got off of Kyle and stood on the floor.

"Hurting brother? Yes you are." Dave said to Claire.

"Kyle is fine, he can just use healing magic right?" Claire asked as she looked at Kyle with sparkling eyes.

"That's right, I can. [Heal]." Kyle used the call because people were nearby, and he healed his body. It was a wide range various injury healing Heal spell, so it took quite a lot more mana than normal. Just a drop in the lake of his mana pool though.

"Wow, that is really cool." Said Paul who standing to the side. Kyle got up from the bed and they all moved into the living room. Kyle knew where he was because he went to Claire's home frequently in the past.

"You are going to stay here for a long time right?" Claire asked as they all entered the living room.

"I guess I could stay the rest of the day." Kyle said, looking at his cases and then at Claire. Claire was not happy with that reply and pouted.

"No longer!" Claire said, stomping her feet.

"I think he means to say that he will be here for a long time." Kathy said.

"Can't Kyle just stay here all the time?" Claire asked Kathy. Kathy looked at Elena briefly and then looked at Kyle.

"Would you be fine with staying here for the night?" Kathy asked Kyle, taking the nod Elena gave her as permission to ask.

"Where my letters not enough Claire?" Kyle wrote to her every week. She shouldn't have reacted so strong.

"No they weren't." Claire was adamant about Kyle saying for the night. It was only mid-morning though, so that was a long time.

"It's okay Kyle, it will be like last time." Elena leaned against Fred and everyone looked at Kyle.

"Okay fine, but I need to get some things from home." Kyle agreed to it, but he wanted to get different clothes first.

"Yeah that's okay. Just come back soon."

Kyle went back to the Mercer home, and got a different set of clothes and wore them back to the Drought home.

Kyle stayed at the Drought home overnight for the second time, almost a year since the previous time. After Kyle went to sleep, he was violently woken up by Claire climbing on top of him.

"What are you doing Claire?" Kyle asked with groggy eyes as he looked at her.

"This is how mom and dad sleep, so I want to too." Claire put her head down on Kyle's chest and was not obstructing his breathing like earlier.

"Fine, but remember that this part needs to go up and down so I don't die." Kyle pointed to his abdomen and made some exaggerated movements with his diaphragm.

"Yeah okay." Claire did not really listen and instead went to sleep.

Kyle went to sleep shortly after see did, and did not wake up until he heard the laughter coming from Kathy and Paul the next morning.

Life in Thornberry was eventful.

Kyle visited Beth almost every day. Berry was 10 years old and had an apprenticeship with a smithy, and Cory was just in the EDME school, so he was home from the break. Because of this, Kyle was barely ever able to get alone time with Beth. Berry had gotten smarter, and was not letting something as simple as a locked door stop him. Through his constant banging, he made Kyle stop coming over as frequently.

Kyle wrote a few letters to Florianne. He wrote about how his family and things about the town, and when Florianne sent Kyle a letter, it would be elegantly crafted as if it was planned out by two people.

Kyle's favorite thing to do however was to go into the 1st district with his brown cloak and mask and heal people. Nobody knew the masked mage in this town, so Kyle could heal people without even using chants. Kyle had been back home for about half a month when he got a special surprise case in the 1st district, and he was too close to do nothing about it. A baby needed to be delivered.

Kyle followed a man into a house of the 1st district, and it was very small. It was probably just 2 rooms. To the right from the entrance was the living room and the bedroom all in one, and then through another door forward from the entrance was the kitchen.

"What do we do Mr. Mage?" The man asked as his wife laid on the bed, preparing to give birth.

"I don't know, I've never done this before!" Kyle really was unsure. He had never delivered a baby before, a strongly opposed healing people for anything other than adventurer's guild quest in his past life.

"Just don't let it hit the floor!" The woman yelled to Kyle. Kyle looked at the hole the baby was supposed to come from, and it was disappointingly small. He could not understand how it would work.

"Ah!" The woman screamed, and she was in huge pain.

"She's been hurting a lot more recently." The husband held his wife's hand as she started to give birth.

"It's happening!" The woman said as she squeezed her husband's hand.

"I, um- ah, [Heal]." Kyle used Heal so that whatever was being broken in the woman would not be in as much pain, but would still be in an abnormal state.

"Ah!"

"Ehaas!"

"Augaha!"

The woman would not stop, and slowly the baby came out. It was not a plop like Beth though, and soon the room was filled with crying. Crying, and the smell from a huge rush of blood that came from the woman. The man looked over and slowly walked to the kitchen, holding his face.

Kyle looking into his arms and tried to understand what just happened.

'Are these fucking horns?'