Roar of Dragons

[Sig – 13 years]

"Sig!" Aunt Rachel shouts in terror as I hit the ground.

I roll and spring to my feet, then thrust my fists into the air as I do a little jump.

"Yeah!" I exclaim. "That was awesome!"

"Oh, my goodness," Aunt Rachel's got a hand against her chest and has stopped running toward me. "That was terrifying, Sig!"

"A drop like that can't hurt me!" I pound my chest. "I'm made of sterner stuff!"

"That was an awesome roll!" Carter says. "We forgot to make sure you know how to roll if you miss a jump or if something gives, and you did that perfectly!"

The bar I'd jumped onto broke when I landed on it and went down with me. I could have grabbed onto something else without an issue, but I wanted to land in style and so let myself fall. As I went down, I made sure to shift my body so I'd do a safe roll to avoid injury as well.

We're currently testing the stuff that Carter's going to use for his video by actually using them now rather than just hitting them or grabbing onto them. More than just jumping and landing, but with some actual running.

Aunt Rachel, Mr. Richardson, and Mr. Cox are watching as we do this, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I can see why Carter likes showing off his skills with it to others.

"Do you have any ideas how many trees I've fallen out of?" I ask. "Plus, I've done a little bit of freerunning before. That's just from goofing around with my friends. It was the trees which taught me how to land."

"Okay, was it like actual trees?" Tate asks. "Or just trial-and-error? Because I've heard stories about some trees…"

"You know," I say. "I probably know someone who knows someone who's met a tree that can talk. He's got a dorky friend."

"Who's a dorky friend?"

"Aah!" I shout in surprise and look at the kid standing right beside me. "Demon child!"

"I am not a demon child," he says. "I am a bug-hunting child."

The kid looks about ten or eleven and is dressed in a pair of cargo shorts and a gold sleeveless shirts. He's the only kid I've ever seen at his age with muscle tone like that and he's always had it, even when I first saw him a few years ago. That's always struck me as odd since I know developing muscle tone is ridiculously hard until around the teen years, so I've been a bit curious about him.

His sandy-blond hair is styled neatly today even with him apparently hunting bugs, and his blue-green eyes are giving me a look of high curiosity. Even Tate and Carter were only lean at seven and they grew up on magic beast ranches.

He's wearing a grown-and-grey backpack with a griffin button fixed to the left arm strap, and he's holding both straps. The brown, grey, and gold sneakers he's wearing must be new as they're really bright.

"It's… Greyson, right?" I ask. "I think that's what Sam and Isaac said your name is. You go to Lakeview?"

"Yeah," he answers. "I wasn't expecting others here when I came to hunt for bugs, especially not one of Xander's friends. Are you hunting for bugs, too?"

"Xander's friends?" I ask. "Wait! Xander mentioned that he's friends with a Greyson kid! Well, he called you a dork until he remembered your name over the weekend. That's you?"

During one of the just-chatting sessions during our sleepover, Xander said that he got reminded of the name of his dork friend and it was Greyson. I think he might've mentioned it at another time, but he mentioned it for sure during the sleepover. This kid mentioned Xander, so it's got to be him.

"We're second-cousins by blood," he says. "But yes, we are friends. Xander's currently getting quiet time at my secret base and I was apparently singing a lot, so I came to hunt bugs so that he can have his quiet time."

He lets go of his backpack and holds his hands in front of him, and a clear bug terrarium appears in it. There aren't any decorations in it, but there are several grasshoppers with silver markings on their bodies, their wings pure silver in color.

"Do you like silverwing grasshoppers?" Greyson asks.

"Uh…"

"If you crush their wings up," he says. "They're quite useful in making an alloy used in magitech remotes and remote-controlled toys. Not as useful as a multipurpose chicken, but still quite useful."

"Multipurpose chickens?"

"Excellent for testing things on," he says as the terrarium vanishes again, and he grabs his backpack straps once more. "But also for eating. In fact, once you finish using them to test a machine, you can then kill them, de-feather them, butcher them, and cook them to eat. You can even race them, too. If you really want to, you can race them, then use them to test a machine, then turn them into food. Very useful, and much more ethical than if you tried to eat a human test subject. You can also use their feathers for arrow fletching if you really wantd."

This is the first time I've ever held a conversation with him. We just sometimes see him when we're hanging out here and he's always looking for bugs. Now that I've had a conversation with him, as brief as it's been… I can see why Xander calls him a dork.

Though I'm also a bit concerned now, too…

"Hm?" Greyson looks at Tate, then at Mr. Cox, then he looks around and spots Mr. Cox's truck. "Oh. No trailer."

"I'm not entirely sure where to begin," Mr. Cox says. "But why did you wonder if there was a trailer after seeing us?"

"Because if you had your fridge trailer," Greyson says. "There would be an 87.938215% chance that you did a meat delivery today or had one. I'm quite fond of mindwave cows and always try to get some when it's in stock nearby. My allowance is much larger now, so I can even buy more than one steak without having to resort to stealing from mobs. Not that I'm allowed to do that, I've been told in very strict terms that I am not to do that anymore."

We all just stare at him for a moment while he nods, his expression and tone fully that of "this is just how it is", maybe with a slight touch of disappointment.

Then he sighs.

"Fortunately," he says. "The new rules do come with a bigger allowance. My great-grandpa wants to make sure I can eat as much as a mage of my caliber needs. I just realized, but it is fully within my means to simply teleport up to Lush Valley and buy the meat from the butchers there directly. Why have I never thought of that before? I think I'll go and buy some after I finish hunting more silverwing grasshoppers. I do apologize for interrupting your conversation. I heard 'dorky friend' and it made me think of what Xander calls me so I got curious. That was very rude of me. I'll go back to hunting bugs now."

"No, it's fine," I say as he starts to leave. "Actually, wait! I as talking about you! Have you ever met a tree that can talk?"

"I have," he answers. "They dislike me, so I do my best to avoid them. It's not as good as uprooting them or turning them to ash, but Xander gets mad when I do that so I don't do that anymore. Anyway, I must be off. I need at least three more of these grasshoppers and now I'm thinking about mindwave beef a lot so I'm getting hungry. Goodbye, and enjoy whatever activities you're doing."

Greyson wanders off and once he's a decent distance away, I look at Tate and Carter.

"Yup," I say. "He's definitely a weird one!"

Though didn't Xander have classes today? They must have gotten canceled for some reason. I bet he had a doctor's appointment, I can definitely see him wanting quiet time after that. 'The dork' being chill enough to leave his own space when he realizes he's bothering Xander when Xander needs quiet is pretty cool, too. All of the mutterings about 'the dork' I'd heard made him seem like he was insane.

He's just a quirky little bug-hunting ten-year-old. Sam and Isaac have mentioned how he's a bit dorky, too. They don't see him very much, but his older brother's in our grade so they see him sometimes.

"Teleporting?" Aunt Rachel asks. "That's… an odd thing for a boy to say."

"Honestly?" Mr. Cox asks. "I'd believe it."

"You would?" I look at him. "Pretty sure that was just him being dorky. He's ten. What ten-year-old can teleport?"

"Did you notice his muscles?" Mr. Cox asks.

"Kind of jealous he had those three years ago," I say. "Man, when I was seven, I was a skinny runt!"

"You know how Tate and Carter always leaned toward having some muscle definition?" Mr. Cox asks me. "Not ripped, but at least toned?"

"Wasn't that just because they were ranch boys?"

"No," he snorts. "It's because of their mana. The more of it someone has as tissue is developed – actively has, not which they can hold – the more it influences said tissue. It doesn't help them to build muscle, but it can cause said muscles to be stronger than they might be for a normal person. Children who grow up as powerful mages tend to be stronger than they appear as a result, and more resilient to harm as well. This effect is present once it's begun even if they go low on mana for awhile as their body's already been altered."

I don't fully understand what he just said, but I did understand one part and it confuses me.

"You just said it wouldn't have made him ripped," I say.

"Not by itself," he says. "And the effect is slighter the lower the mana amount is. For someone with a large amount of it, the effects of having mana are more pronounced. Another one is burning fat and building lean muscle. It's very difficult for a kid to build muscle definition, yet his arms were fully-defined. Either he's been on an insane workout and diet plan since he as little, or he has a lot of mana and is just an active kid."

"I don't have a massive pool of it but have muscles," I slap my abs. "Ain't every day you see a normal kid with these!"

"You only recently developed abs, Sig," Mr. Richardson gives me a light bop on the head. "And it's not unheard of for a boy your age, and one as physically active as you, to develop muscle definition. When was the last time you didn't spend at least half the day running or biking around?"

"Wednesday."

"Smart-ass."

"What was Wednesday?" Tate asks.

"We were cleaning up Aunt Rachel's back yard," I tell him, then look at his dad. "So you're saying that because he's ten and ripped, he's very likely got a large pool of mana and does fitness stuff?"

"I am," Mr. Cox says. "And if he's got enough mana to build up muscle like that, he's probably an anomaly like Lucas Gates. A ten-year-old being able to teleport is within reason when looking at anomalies like them or the Lumaria Kings."

"Oh," I say, then realize something.

Wait. Xander's insistent that he's not a Lumaria King, but he's related to someone who might be an anomaly or a Lumaria King, and his last name is King. When he was telling us about being related to the dork, he also mentioned that he'd only just learned it.

Could it be that he's actually a Lumaria King? I guess not one of the really powerful ones, though, or I'm sure he'd have known long before now. Next time I see Xander, I'll have to ask him how strong his cousin is and if he can really teleport.

I'd send him a text to ask him now, except I guess he needs some quiet right now.

"Speaking of muscles," Mr. Cox says. "Shirts, boys!"

"Shirts?" I ask. "Put them on? Why? It's summer and nice out!"

"For the videos," Carter says as he and Tate go to the truck to get their shirts. "No being shirtless in them unless it's something where it'd make sense."

"Just because the area is safe here," Mr. Cox tells me. "That doesn't mean it's safe everywhere. There's a difference between posting a picture of you and your family at the beach and regularly posting videos where you're shirtless throughout them. That can more easily draw the wrong sort of attention. So the rule Carter's parents have – and one which I'm requiring Tate to abide by – is shirts on in all videos where it's not logical to lack them. So if they're at a mudfest or a beach, where nearly all guys are shirtless, it's fine. But for just a normal video like this? It's required."

"I'm in agreement with him on that," Aunt Rachel tells me. "You did actually bring a shirt, right? You weren't just saying one was in your backpack?"

"I have a full extra change of clothes in there," I tell her. "In addition to a shirt."

"Go put one on," she tells me. "You can't help with the video otherwise."

"No, that makes sense," I tell her. "I mean, I hadn't thought about it before Mr. Cox explained it, but I understand."

I grab a sleeveless shirt from my backpack and pull it on, and find that that's the sort of shirt Tate and Carter pulled on, too.

Tate's also retrieved a camera and is aiming it at Carter as the other boy gets into position.

"Ready?" Tate asks.

"Ready!" Carter responds.

"Three…" Tate begins a countdown. "Two… one… go!"

"Hi, everybody!" Carter waves to the camera with a big smile on his face. "Carter here, back for another episode! Today, I'm in the ruins of a place that was destroyed by monsters back before I was born and as always, I've got some extras here for safety!"

Tate turns to show Mr. Cox in the video, then turns back to aiming at Carter.

"Always remember to be safe when doing your runs!" Carter says. "And always triple-check potentially unsafe surfaces if you want to go on them! And now that that's done, let's go!"

Carter turns and takes off running. Tate follows after him and just as I suspected, he uses his float magic to keep up. Seeing him do his runs, jumps, flips, landings, and other things live is pretty cool and fun to watch and the speed he's doing it is even more insane in person than in the video he showed me.

Despite them being the same speed.

"If you don't stay with them," Mr. Richardson looks at Mr. Cox, who's stayed with us rather than following after the other boys. "What happens if he has a bad fall?"

"It would have to be a really bad one to hurt him," Mr. Cox says. "As I explained before, the more mana you have as tissue is developed, the stronger it is. Children who grow up with a lot of mana have a more pronounced effect. You could hit Carter with your truck at sixty an hour and he'd walk away with some scratches and bruises, but nothing serious. If, by some chance, he did end up hurt, Tate would let me know immediately via telepathy and I can be pretty fast when I need. Mind magics aren't the only ones we grow up learning on the ranch. Have to be fast if a bull or cow decides it wants to run off."

It would probably sound bad to admit I want to see Carter and Tate get hit by a truck now, even though it's not out of malicious reasons. I just really want to see how unharmed they'd be for it!

"Psst! Xander's friend!" a quiet voice whispers, and I look over to find Greyson standing between two buildings. He beckons to me. "Come here!"

Curious about what he wants, I leave the adults to their conversation and walk over. He had to have used magic to whisper to me because there's no way I could have heard him otherwise with how quiet his voice was and the adults didn't seem to hear him.

"Yes?"

"You look bored," he says. "Catching bugs is really fun, want to join me?"

"I'm waiting for Tate and Carter to finish," I tell him. "Then we're going to play. It probably won't be too long."

"Okay," he says. "We can catch bugs around here while you wait, if you want."

"What would I do with them after?"

"Give them to me so I can play with them."

"And… what would you do while playing with them?"

I've heard enough of Xander's mutterings about him to know to always ask that question.

"Depends on if they're useful or not," he says. "If they're useful, then I'll use their parts for whatever I need them for. If not, I'll see what they look like when I draw explosion runes on them. It makes them be the explosion rather than needing other explosive stuff or just be blowing them up."

I'm not quite sure the difference.

"That doesn't really interest me."

"Oh," he looks disappointed.

"Are you and Xander Lumaria Kings?" I decide to ask, mostly because of what Mr. Cox made me think about.

"We are," he answers. "Though Grandfather Adrian didn't really know about us until recently. Not all members stay with the family and he's kind enough to let people go when they want to. Xander's not just a Lumarikang, though. He's also a reincarnated god. That gives him extra powers."

A reincarnated god? I think Xander mentioned Greyson believing that for some reason, no matter how hard he tries to convince his friend he's not.

"What kind of extra powers?" I ask.

"I once saw Xander kill every dragon on Earth after they tried to steal his cheesecake," he says with a completely straight face. "In an instant, too. He just glared at the dragons and they all died."

"Dragons are myths," it's really hard not to laugh at that and I get reminded that Xander mentioned that he's pretty sure Greyson mixes up dreams and reality a lot.

This kid was definitely dreaming when he saw that.

"That's because Xander killed them all," he says as a sphere with trapezoidal pieces appears in his hands, a faint glow emitting between the lines. "He also made this. Only a god could make a puzzle so puzzling to me."

His face lights up and the sphere disappears, replaced by another. This one looks similar, but with pentagons and hexagons for its pieces instead.

"Oh!" He exclaims. "He also made this one! It's a little bit easier. Only takes me six hours to crack rather than months! Do you want it? He made, like, three of them for some reason. He made three of the other one, too. It's probably because he likes that number."

"It's a puzzle?" I accept the sphere out of curiosity.

"Yeah," another of the second sphere appears in his hands. "You can push in or pull out the pieces, and you can rotate or slide them – the surrounding pieces will move if you slide one. Once a piece is shifted," he demonstrates, and all of the other pieces on the sphere change, either their heights, their locations, whether they're a pentagon or hexagon, or the lengths of their sides. Some of them do multiple of those shifts. "And they change! And the brightness of the glow tells you if you made a good move or a bad one. If the glow gets a little bit brighter, then you made a bad move and are further away from solving it. The glow dims, and you're closer."

"That's really neat," I say.

Xander made something like this? So he's dumb on paper but smart in practice? That must be really rough for him and is probably why he's taking extra classes during the summer. He feels dumb because he gets bad test grades. I did think he was smarter than he was saying, though, and I'm right!

"It is!" Greyson nods. "And you can even reset them, too! Look, you put a finger on seven of the pentagons – there are always at least seven – just like this, and you go 'reset puzzle' and look, it resets!"

The sphere's pieces shift around for a few seconds.

"And what determines its starting point differs," he tells me as he presents the sphere to me. "So you can be sure that each run is different. Xander said that it should look like a soccer ball when it's solved, and no gaps will be between the pieces so no glow will be visible."

The sound of an acoustic guitar comes from his shorts.

"Papa's calling me," he says. "I've got to go. Happy bug hunting!"

Greyson vanishes.

He seems quite fun to be around, but also a bit scatterbrained and definitely dorky. I can see why Xander likes to hang out with him.

I reset the puzzle sphere Greyson gave me as I walk over to the trucks, then pull down the tailgate of Mr. Richardson's and sit on it while I wait for Tate and Carter to finish. They've probably got at least five more minutes, so I can see how much I can get done on this puzzle.

"What's that?" Aunt Rachel walks over after a few minutes.

"Greyson showed up and asked me to go bug hunting," I tell her. "Then got a little bit dorky, then gave me this. Xander apparently makes these as a hobby? They're puzzle spheres, and I think they're magitech. Greyson said it takes him six hours to solve, but I think I've almost got it? It's supposed to look like a soccer ball. Well, one made of metal, and only three inches in diameter. But when it's done, it should look like a soccer ball.

"Actually," I snort. "Xander probably makes them to get Greyson to leave him alone for awhile without worry of being rude. I'm right! Here we go!"

I twist a piece, push in another, pull another, slide another, push in two more… Aunt Rachel watches as I keep making shifts just as soon as the other pieces stop moving. After a few more minutes, the last adjustment I make causes everything to fall into place, turning into a three-inch metal soccer ball.

"That's really cool!" I say.

"How did you solve that?" Aunt Rachel asks. "I couldn't keep up with what you were doing."

"There were patterns," I tell her. "Like, if I turned a pentagon and that was the right move – the glow would dim a little bit more – the next move seemed to always be to mess with a hexagon. If the right move was lowering a hexagon to Position1 from Position 2, what I'm calling when the pieces are down and when they're middle, and I can only shift them one position at a time, then I had to look for a nearby hexagon that had gone from Position 1 to Position 3. If there wasn't an adjoining pentagon before but was then, the right move would be to rotate the hexagon on the other side of the hexagon. On the opposite side from the pentagon."

"You picked that up in just a few minutes?" Aunt Rachel asks.

"They're easy to spot," I tell her as I take my phone out. "Gonna show Xander!"

I don't know if he actually wants us knowing about these since we only started hanging out recently, so I send it via direct text rather than the group chat. It's a picture of me and the puzzle sphere, followed by a message.

[Sig]: I met your cousin! Now I know why you call him a dork!

[Sig]: Also, he gave me one of these and said you made them! They're really cool! Took about nine minutes from reset to solve! It was super fun!

[Sig]: Is it okay to show others?

"Okay! Sent!" I say. "'Cept Greyson said he needed quiet, so it might be a bit before he responds. Carter's probably about done, too."

"Before he comes back," Aunt Rachel says. "How are you feeling?"

"Kind of happy," I look at the sphere. "This is really awesome, Aunt Rachel! It's so cool that Xander's good with his hands! I wanna ask him what other kinds of stuff he likes to make. Do you think that'll scare him, though? He seems to get nervous whenever we start asking him a bunch of questions."

"I don't know him that well," she says. "So I can't say for sure. I do think excitedly asking him questions might scare him, though."

My phone pings and I check it.

"Oh!" I exclaim. "He's responded already! Lemme see…"

[Xander]: He's apparently fine with being called a dork. I guess he accepts his dorkness.

[Xander]: Did you really like it?

[Xander]: Nine minutes? Greyson said it took him six hours. He'll probably be really jealous.

[Xander]: If you think they'd like it, I guess you can.

[Xander]: He really gave it to you?

[Sig]: I think they'd love it! And yeah, he said he had another.

[Xander]: So THAT'S where the second one went. I must've put it with the one I left out for him.

[Xander]: If I made them right, they should change their formula based on the location of Errai when the reset happens, so it should be different from use to use.

[Sig]: What's Errai?

[Xander]: A star.

He must have programmed it with a year-round star chart and a clock so it could do the checks. That's pretty cool and while I don't know much about magitech, I'm pretty sure that can't be easy to do. His uncertainty on if he made it right probably comes from that.

Before I can come up with a response to his message, Xander sends a picture with a couple of constellations, including Errai.

[Xander]: I thought about doing Polaris, but picked Errai.

[Xander]: You really like the puzzle sphere?

[Sig]: Yeah! Are they hard to make?

[Xander]: Not really.

[Xander]: I really like having autocorrect on. Even if it's always correcting me.

I giggle a little at the random comment. He probably got annoyed with it constantly fixing his mistakes but then got happy that he can be understood more easily.

[Sig]: Are you doing okay? Greyson said he was bug-hunting because you wanted quiet and he kept singing while working.

[Xander]: He was singing about muffins with machine guns…

[Xander]: I'm doing okay. I think. Definitely better than earlier. There was a surprise visit from my case worker earlier and surprises always make me feel overwhelmed. And I was already feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

[Sig]: Okay! I'll let you get back to your quiet! Have a good day!

[Xander]: You, too.

[Xander]: Don't explode.

I'm going to assume that last part is out of habit with Greyson.

"He's going back to his thing," I tell Aunt Rachel. "He apparently doesn't handle surprises well and there was a surprise visit from his case worker earlier. Do you think they're going to take him back?"

"No," she says. "Not if he's happy and safe with Trey. From my understanding, case workers do monthly visits to check on the home and the kid, and can do surprise visits as well if they wish. She was probably just checking in to see how he was doing."

Aunt Rachel sits beside me on the tailgate.

"When I asked how you're doing," she says. "I was meaning about the other stuff. It's not been that long. You don't need to pretend if you're upset."

"I'm… okay if I focus on other things," I tell her. "Do you think they'll love me if I get competitive? If I want to do competitive stuff?"

Aunt Rachel wraps and arm around me and pulls me against her.

"You're perfect the way you are, Sig," she gives me a kiss on my forehead. "Don't try to change yourself to earn love. Remember that I'm here for you and so are the dads, okay?"

My friends' dads all like me. How come it's easier for them to like me but not my own parents? At least I won't have to change for them.

"Okay…"

"Also," she says. "It's almost time for lunch. Mr. Cox wanted to know if we'd be fine with him ordering pizza."

"Can we?"

"We told him someone was going to come out here," she says. "And he could pick it up on his way."

I can't think of who might be coming out here. The dads had to leave because they needed to get back to work and the backup all left as well. At least, as far as I know they're all gone.

"Someone else?"

"Derrick," she answers. "Mr. Fuller. He took the week off as a vacation, so he doesn't need to worry about missing work and Mr. Richardson needs to return to the office. He's also bringing ice cream for you boys."

"Oh, cool!" I exclaim. "How many gallons of it?"

"You are not going to eat an entire gallon of ice cream!" She laughs. "It'll be about fifteen minutes or so before he gets out here with the pizzas and ice cream. If you want to play with Tate and Carter when they finish up their thing, you can."

"Alright," I say. "And, um, Aunt Rachel?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks," I tell her. "Um… again, I mean. For caring. And I'm sorry about getting mad this morning."

"It's okay, Sig," she says. "I've just been so worried about you ever since Paul clued me in, I really should have taken things a little bit more slowly. Trying to add in extra rules to a teen who's used to not having any was not the smartest of ideas on my part. And Mr. Richardson told me to let him know if you wanted to talk to a therapist, or you could let him know. He wouldn't be able to be the one you see, but he can recommend one that you might do well with."

"Okay," I say. "I don't think I want to talk to a therapist. I just… I don't know."

"The option's there if you ever want it," she tells me. "Okay?"

"Okay."

"Now," she looks away. "It looks like Tate and Carter are coming back. Why don't you go have some fun?"

"Don't need to tell me twice!"

[Greyson – 10 years]

"What is this?" Cal covers his mouth as he laughs.

"It's called 'grilling'," I tell him. "The art of using charcoal in a grill to cook food."

Papa and I are both on the deck, and I'm watching the charcoal get ready. I was forbidden from using magic to speed up any processes and so am attempting to will the charcoal to finish preparing faster. Using magic to look through the metal of the grill is okay, since Papa closed it so that the heat is contained, but using magic to speed up the heating up is not.

Maybe I should ask Xander how he bends reality to make what he wants to happen happen. Like dog fur. He enjoys visiting dogs at the pet shelter or petting random dogs he comes across on the street, yet dog fur never sticks to him simply because he does not wish for it to. That is likely a power he has as a god, but it might be something a mortal such as myself could learn.

Then I could use it to make the charcoal simply be ready. Then when Papa scolds me for using magic, I could just say "All I did was want it to be ready, can you prove that I used magic?"

Actually, he couldn't even if I did. Maybe if I-

"Greyson," Papa's voice is stern. "No magic."

Dang it! He somehow knew I was about to try!

"Aw…"

"I've never seen Greyson try to help grill before," Cal says. "He's even got a new apron for it? That's not his baking or normal chef apron, right? It matches your grilling one, mostly."

The apron is pure black and has some pockets for putting grilling tools in. Papa's apron has "Papa Griller" stitched on the chest in orange, and mine doesn't have anything on it. Yet. It will after I get my sewing kit out. I like doing that by hand but it takes a little while. I haven't decided what to put on it yet.

"I bought it while out," Papa tells him. "Figured he'd want one to match mine."

"Ah," Cal says. "Speaking of aprons, Greyson? Emily's is about to need replacing. Do you want to do the name on hers? Dad said he can bring it home after he gets off work tonight."

"That'll be twenty bucks."

"This kid," Cal chuckles. "Yes, Greyson, she's agreed to pay for it. As always. You're helping Papa grill today? How did that happen?"

"Your dad heard about Cox Cattle doing a meat delivery down here today," Papa tells him. "And Mr. King had mentioned that Greyson enjoys mindwave beef, which is the kind Cox Cattle does. Your grandfather felt we might not know since we don't normally buy magic foods and Greyson usually sprinkles in crushed magic crystals into his food here if he wants it here."

I only do that if it's going with sugar that's not getting dissolved, since there's no textural difference. It makes it work really well in something like cinnamon rolls, but not in something like frosting.

"You bought magic beef?" Cal asks. "Wait. Mindwave? That sounds… dangerous?"

"It doesn't hurt you to eat," I tell him. "They're called that because while alive, the cattle will emit waves of mental magics as a defense mechanism or when angry or going on the offensive. The magic in their meat makes it tastes better, especially to mages. Papa called me while I was hunting bugs and let me know he'd bought some mindwave steaks and wanted to know if I wanted to eat them. He then scolded me for suggesting that he see a doctor over thinking I would not want to eat such delicious meat."

"Your exact words were 'you need your head examined, Papa'."

"Being magic makes it tastes better?" Cal asks before I can respond to Papa's correction.

"Indeed," I answer. "And the type of magic it originates from can even affect the flavors in other ways. For a natural mind mage and dreamsage like myself, foods that come from animals with mental magics are extremely delicious."

"We knew about you using mental magics," Cal says. "But only your empathy and telepathy, I think. What's a dreamsage?"

He's not sure if Dad and Papa are aware of other mind magics I use, and I currently can't remember. This one probably won't get me into trouble unless they think too hard on it.

"Natural dream mages," I answer. "I'm able to walk through dreams with ease. Mine, and even others. I can even eat them to recover some of my mana. I was born one so it's not a magic I developed on my own. Papa, is the charcoal ready?"

"Not yet," Papa says. "We've still got at least two more minutes before it should be ready for grilling. And Cal? I got enough for you as well if you want some."

"I'm curious about the flavor," he says.

"But I want it ready now."

"Patience, Greyson," Papa tells me.

"Cal's here, too," Cal tells Papa. "We were stopping by to pick something up."

"He can have one, too," Papa tells him.

"Henry's grounded," I say. "He hit Papa at the store and so doesn't get special meat, only regular. No steak, either. Just a sandwich. A sad, pathetic, PB and J sandwich. Not even the crunchy peanut butter, the creamy stuff. I'll tell you, that boy is getting worse."

"You're a boy, too," Cal snorts.

"Sadly," I say.

Needing to get permission to buy materials for my project sucks, but I have to do that now because Grandfather Adrian is now involved in my life and I'm a kid.

"Henry hit you?" Cal ignores me to ask Papa.

"He was having a tantrum over me not letting him get toys," Papa explains. "And Greyson? You like crunchy peanut butter?"

"Yeah."

"How come you've never said anything?" He asks. "We always get the creamy since that's what Henry likes and he's the only one who really eats peanut butter."

Cal doesn't like peanut butter and Travis just doesn't eat it unless it's all that's there. I can't eat creamy, only crunchy.

"Travis and I both like crunchy," I say. "I just thought it was to deter me from eating it so that Dad could sneak spoonfuls of it at night without getting caught."

"Dad does what?" Papa laughs.

"Whoops! Didn't mean to tattle!" I say. "Hey, is the charcoal ready yet?"

"Let's see," Papa laughs as he pulls the lid off of the grill. "The charcoal's ready. Let's get those steaks out here."

Papa teaches me how to grill steaks, which includes starting them at different times so they'll all finish around the same time when there are different cook levels. I like steaks pretty rare, while Papa and the Calsall want medium. As we cook, he lets me put my own steak on the grill and flip it when it's time.

"Whoa," Cal says after taking his first bite. "Papa, this really is amazing."

"Right?" I ask. "It's the best beef in the world, and you can trust me on that! I've tried beefs in all sorts of countries and-"

"I thought you've never left the country?" Papa raises an eyebrow.

"It was imported."

"Uh-huh," he says as the Cals both try not to laugh.

"Anyway," I say. "This is definitely the best beef. And I realized earlier, but why haven't I ever just teleported up there and bought it directly instead of waiting for there to be a delivery down here? Though I've never made a steak before. I get chunks of it and grind it into ground beef and then make cheeseburgers. And with the bigger allowance now, I can even buy more than just one burger's worth of beef!"