Angela sat on the kitchen floor with her back against the wall, her belly once again full of pastry. Which sounded great, but you could only eat so much pastry before you got sick of it. It wouldn’t be long before they got the kitchen going, though, something Angela was looking forward to immensely. She liked cooking. You almost had to enjoy it if you were going to be a vegetarian. Besides, once she wrapped her head around all the bonkers different vegetables in this place it would be interesting to see what new meals she could create.

“You’re draggin’ your tush, lady,” Leonard said. He was standing across the room, squirrel fists on his hips, shaking his head.

“Oh, be quiet you little furball. Why don’t you go outside and see if there’s some neighbourhood squirrels to make friends with?”

Leonard nodded pensively. “Yeah…I think I just might do that. Check out the sows, if you know what I mean.”

“I really don’t,” she said, giving him a look that implied she didn’t need further elaboration. He shrugged and ran out the back door, which she’d left open to air out some of the mustiness lingering in the house. As he exited, Mark entered the room, staring after her familiar’s retreating form.

“Soo…” he said in an open-ended kind of way, gesturing in Leonard’s general direction.

“Yes, I got a familiar,” Angela said.

“And that’s what you picked? An obese squirrel?”

“Do you really think I would have picked a familiar that can’t fly or fight if I was given a choice?” she answered.

“I heard that!” Leonard shouted from the back yard.

Mark shook his head. “And the New York cabbie accent?”

“No idea,” she said. “I’ve thought long and hard about it, and the best I can come up with is ‘Why the fuck not?’”

He laughed. “I bet it’s because—”

“Hey, so did you know Naomi is coming over later?” Angela said, quickly changing the subject.

“What? When? Why didn’t anyone tell me?” he sputtered.

“Hah! You liiike her,” she teased, grinning at the red rising in his cheeks.

“Don’t be a dink. We both know that’s not happening. Plus, there’s the thing with the”—Mark looked down the hall to see if anyone was coming—“with the bag of heads. That was pretty hardcore.”

Angela grimaced. “Dad told you about that? Yeah. I super-duper don’t want to get on that chick’s bad side. She might be cray-cray.”

“She is hot, though,” he noted.

“Don’t do it, Mark! Don’t succumb to the cray-cray!”

He shook his head. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“I’m sure you will. I would bet all of my monies.”

“You don’t have any money.”

“And I’ll have twice as much nothing when the bet pays out,” she said. “You say you can’t control your magic, but I bet if that girl asked you to fire up your pants-dropping spell, you’d make it work in less time than it takes Leonard to hork back a ladybug.”

“They got protein!” her familiar shouted from the yard.

Angela shook her head. “Does that guy have an Ability to hear what I’m saying? Those are some sharp ears.”

Her brother shrugged. “I dunno. Check your Tome. Anyway, I’m heading to the Port District with mom.”

“Okay, let me grab my stuff and I’ll come.”

She started to stand up, but he shook his head. “No way. One of us needs to work on their magic today. That’s you.”

“Fuck that noise. I’m not letting mom go back there alone.”

“What am I, her pet corgi? She’s got me, and Gavin is coming as well. Darius said that Casúr will drop a smiting on anyone who messes with a blacksmith’s family in Palmyre—it’s to prevent blackmail, apparently—which means we’re totally safe.”

Angela glared at him. They were never totally safe, but he did have a point. Progress on their magic was essential and he’d already committed to going.

“Fine,” she said. “Besides, Naomi wasn’t specific about when she’d come over. It’s probably best if one of us is around when she gets here.”

“Good point,” he said, a flicker of disappointment crossing his face.

“That said,” Angela continued, “I do want to grab some real food at lunch. If you’re back by lunchtime, you wanna come with? I’d like to hear how it goes with mom at the orphanage.”

“Sure. Whereabouts?”

“I only know one restaurant in the city, so that one,” she said. “You be careful with mom though, okay? She’s putting on a good face, but she’s got to be a mess right now.”

“Yeah…” he said, frowning and looking down the hallway. “Maybe having Gavin with us will help. Did you know that kid has 39 Luck?”

“Holy shit!” Angela said, her eyebrows trying to fling themselves off the top of her forehead. “That kid is gonna be drowning in ass once he hits puberty.”

“Aah!” Mark said, pawing at his ears. “For the love of god, he’s only 6! That’s where your mind goes? What is wrong with you?”

“Hey, I’m not wrong,” she said. Then she processed her brother’s words. “Wait, that kid is only 6? He’s huge!” Angela expected Mark to agree with her comment, but instead he broke eye contact and got a strange expression. Curious. “Hmm. Well, have fun. Keep an eye on mom.”

“I’ll be okay,” their mom said, walking in before Mark could respond. “Don’t worry about me.” She turned to Mark. “You ready to go?”

“Yep,” he said, grabbing his staff and thumping it on the ground twice. “Just point the way.”

Angela climbed to her feet and gave her mom a hug. “You be safe, okay?”

“I will.”

Angela bit her lip. “Are you sure you need to go? We could have someone else deliver the money. I mean…it was only yesterday. I don’t know if it’s healthy for you to go there so soon.”

Her mom cupped her face and delivered a smile that was at least partially forced. “I said I’ll be fine. And yes, I do need to go. Those people were kind and I’d like to thank them face-to-face.”

“If you say so,” Angela muttered, her brow furrowing in concern as they headed down the hall to where a very exuberant Gavin waited at the front door. They exchanged another round of hugs and a wave or two, then Angela was left alone in the house.

She looked around. Dust still hung in the air, along with a pervasive mustiness that clung to the space no matter how much they aired it out.

“Yeah, I’m not working in here,” she said, marching down the hall and out into the back yard.

Everything was soaking wet.

Right. It rained.

She went upstairs and grabbed her dad’s pack so she could sit on it and keep her butt from getting soaked, then went back outside. Finally settled, she summoned the Notifications section of her Tome.

A single sheet of granite appeared in her hands. Angela stared at it in shock.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

All this time, she’d been summoning the whole stack of her Tome and then looking for what she needed. Could she really have just been grabbing what she wanted and leaving the rest?

Shaking her head, she put the thought aside and looked through the notifications.

“Come on, mama,” she said. “Mark, I hope you were right.”

Her eyes went wide. “Bingo.”

Flipping to the section mentioned in the notifications, she eagerly read through the contents:

FAMILIAR – DRUID

A druid’s familiar isn’t just a pet, it’s a reflection of the druid’s true self. In your case, ornery, foul-mouthed, wilderness-averse, and—let’s be honest—a little on the chunky side.

“Hey, not cool,” she muttered.

A druid’s familiar is also one of the most powerful tools in their arsenal. Whether it’s a bird soaring over the forest as their eyes and ears, a wolf standing at their side in battle, or a squirrel pouring ranch dressing over their “healthy” salad, your familiar’s usefulness is only limited by your imagination. Over time, your familiar will gain new Traits and Abilities.

Your familiar’s current Traits and Abilities are:

LEONARD’S TRAITS:

BEACON

You are always aware of the exact direction and distance separating you and Leonard.

OBESE

Leonard’s huskiness is more than it seems. Despite his girth, he is still able to contort himself into extremely small openings, and he can go without food for up to 14-days, or water for up to 4-days. This Trait also unlocks the Cannon Ball Ability.

SPEECH

Leonard is capable of speech even when outside a Druid Grove. Clearly.

LEONARD’S ABILITIES:

Unless otherwise stated, all familiar Abilities have a 1-hour cooldown timer.

CANNON BALL

Leonard’s mass artificially increases to match yours for one minute. During this time he loses none of his agility, moving exactly as he would if the Ability weren’t triggered. However, any objects he encounters will react in accordance with his modified mass.

SENSE MELD FAMILIAR

Utilize and process any of your familiar’s senses for 5 minutes as though they were your own.

“Holy shit,” Angela said, re-reading the description of Leonard’s capabilities. He wasn’t setting the world on fire, but if this was the intro stuff, what would he be able to do after some level-ups?

Angela looked around, eventually spotting Leonard around 10-metres up an old, leafless tree on the other side of their back fence. He was chittering animatedly with another squirrel, probably trying to talk her into the sack.

Nut sack. Heh heh.

Curious to try her familiar’s abilities, Angela idly focused on him and thought “Cannon Ball.”

As soon as Angela triggered the ability, the tree Leonard was sitting on suddenly bent to a 90-degree angle as his weight skyrocketed. Leonard somehow managed to hang on with his forepaws, but just as the tree got level with the ground he slipped, falling straight down and bouncing off tree limbs like a pachinko ball until he disappeared behind the back fence. That was a much kinder fate than the one awaiting the squirrel he’d been speaking with. The sudden, 90-degree bend in the branch, combined with Leonard’s grip giving out at the last minute, resulted in all the stored tension being released in one fell swoop, the tree snapping upwards like a catapult and launching Leonard’s paramour in a soaring arc that saw her disappear over the house, her small form still climbing towards the apex of her trajectory as she vanished from Angela’s sight.

“Oops,” Angela said.

“What da hell was that!” Leonard shouted from beyond the neighbour’s fence. There was a series of loud bangs as he climbed the wooden slats, his progress slowing until he eventually hauled himself onto the top of the fence and flopped onto his back, heaving for breath.

“Oh man, I gotta work on my cardio,” he groaned. Looking around, he spotted Angela. “What did you—”

The fence beneath him started to creak ominously. Scrambling in a panic, he rolled to his stomach and jumped onto the sturdier brick wall that edged their own property before shooting an angry glare Angela’s way.

She waved meekly. “Um, did you know you have Traits and Abilities?”

“’Course I got ’em!” he shouted. “I’m a familiar, ain’t I?”

“Oh,” Angela said, somewhat disappointed. “Well, I didn’t know. That was an ability called Cannon Ball.”

Leonard perked up. “For real? What else I got? You gotta tell me dis stuff or I don’t know it.”

“Seriously? Dude, come on over here and have a look.”

A much happier Leonard hopped down from the fence and darted over, climbing into Angela’s lap with his front feet on the sheet of stone, his head going back and forth as he read the text.

“Oh yeah…yeah, this could work good.”

After much discussion, and despite the disastrous test run, they were both quite excited about the possibilities presented by Cannon Ball. The other stuff was a bit “meh” for now—Leonard wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about sharing his senses—but they agreed there was probably more good stuff coming down the pipe once he levelled up. Which raised an obvious question.

“How do I level you up, anyway?” Angela asked.

“Eh, I gotta do familiar things,” he said.

“You need to be more specific.”

He shrugged. “Y’know. I do stuff you can’t. That’s what a familiar does. I do it long enough and eventually you get a quest.”

“So, you get XP?” she asked.

“Nah. Animals don’t get XP. More like a set amount of tasks or somethin’. I’ll tell ya when I get close—it ain’t gonna show up in your Tome.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Hey lady, dis is a partnership—you ain’t the boss of me.”

She looked at him. “Actually, I think I kind of am.”

“Kay, maybe a little,” he said with a scowl, “but don’t go lookin’ in on my private time! I don’t want ya activatin’ that Sense Familiar Ability when I’m gettin’ friendly with dat sow in the tree back there.

Angela cringed. “Yeah, that’s not going to be a problem.”