"Hel—lo—?" Nicholas sang as he knocked on Jeral's residence.

"Coming—" a voice replied followed by several steps made by an adult. The door opened not long after. "Hello there little 'fella, how may I help you?" Jeral's mother cooed.

"Good morning missus Fark," Nicholas replied with an equally amusing expression, to which Mrs. Fark chuckled. "I'm here to invite Jeral to play!"

Fark looked surprised for a moment. "Oh? He had already left to play with his friends, though..."

A curious raise of an eyebrow earned Nicholas an equally curious eyebrow look, to which he realised what Jeral was actually doing. "Oh! Thank you Mrs. Fark." He turned around and prepared to leave again.

"Don't mention it," Jeral's mother muffled a chuckle before remembering something. "I need to get some groceries," she looked at her sleeping gown which was originally blue, lightening due to years of washing and sunshine. "And get a change before, too."

Nicholas skipped to where he thought Jeral was most likely at. "Where to..." His mind raced as he thought where Jeral could be. "Where would he—"

A sudden burst—although small amount— of fertility mana told him where Jeral was. Quickly, he rushed to the location where he sensed the source of the mana burst. It turned out following the mana burst was the right choice considering how he saw Jeral's skinny but firm back before he even reached the spell circle.

"Jeral...!" Nicholas was beginning to run out of breath as he slowed to a walk. Jeral's head turned to the side, just enough for his eyes to see from the edge of his vision.

"Hey Jeral...!" Nicholas called out again, waving his hand while exhaling puffs of air to greet him. "What'cha doin' aga'n?"

Jeral turned his focus back onto what he was examining. "Oh nothing much, just the fact that we didn't hide the circles in a geographically secure location."

Nicholas slapped Jeral's shoulder at the mention of the geographical locations again. "You still worrying 'bout the circles' locations? Get over it, nobody's gonna find them unless some court mage or higher ranked sorcerer came into town."

Jeral looked unconvinced as he replied. "Yeah, but still... I've got a bad feeling leaving these stuff out in the open. Best we get Andrew to clear them up before problems arise."

"Pfft..." Nicholas laughed aloud as his breath steadied. "You think that irresponsible son of a bitch is gonna clean this mess up?" Jeral raised an eyebrow at him. "Forget it J'!" He then continued laughing.

"Yes or no, he'll have to do it either way before trouble comes our way," Jeral then squatted down and touched the edges of the circles. Even though the circle was covered by leaves and soil above it, it still remained solid in the ground. "And it's not dissipating."

Now that got Nicholas' attention. "What? What do you mean? Isn't it supposed to stay here permanently until the environmental mana washes it away?"

Jeral's brows furrowed as he replied. "That's the problem. We used too much mana. There's too much residue to let nature clean it all up."

He then stood up and dusted his hands. "If what the brother and sister pair said was true, then we're in pretty deep shit."

Nicholas looked grim for a moment, before opening his eyes wide. "Oh yeah, Andrew sent a telepathic knowledge for us."

Jeral raised his eyebrows as he shoved Nicholas lightly. "Why didn't you say so idiot! Lead the way then." He then chuckled softly.

Nicholas smiled as well. It was good to see people smiling when not in crisis. He— with Jeral by his side— headed to the pairs home.

"Next stop, the mysterious two!"