Niphru awoke as Dawn stirred in the bed beside him, finding himself surprisingly well-rested. While he had previously had a headache before he went back to bed, he found that there was no pain after the short rest.

  “Good morning, Dawn. I had a weird dream st night, like I was flying through the wilderness,” he remarked with a hint of confusion, still wondering if there was any meaning behind the dream.

  Dawn gnced over as she was getting dressed and replied, “That does sound weird. Maybe it is because you were thinking about how we were here to go into the forest to help everyone out?”

  That seemed a reasonable enough guess, so Niphru nodded his head as he hopped off the bed and padded over to the door. After waiting for Dawn to finish dressing, he used his magic to open the door for both of them.

  As they arrived in the living room, it appeared that Amilya was still asleep, since she wasn’t present yet. Since it was likely she’d be up soon, Niphru and Dawn decided to make breakfast, going into the kitchen and looking at what supplies they had access to.

  After getting used to the utilities in the spire, they found themselves disappointed with the limited facilities back home, though they could still put together a meal without difficulty.

  Niphru used one of his fmes in pce of the magical heater on the stove, having had enough practice to easily control it, and wanting to save the wear and tear on the magic stone powering it. About halfway through cooking food, Amilya emerged from her bedroom.

  “Thank you for making food, Dawn, Niphru. I wasn’t expecting you to get up before me. And what is up with you being so rge, Niphru? I certainly didn’t expect that!” she excimed as she entered the kitchen with them.

  As Amilya filled a cup with water for herself, Niphru responded, “I actually got to talk with a god! Apparently, two of them worked together to help me become Awakened. The one I talked to also offered to help guide me in using the mana I was storing in my mana stone to control my mutation into something they said their followers often ended up with. I’ve also been getting bigger each time I’ve had their help.”

  He flicked his tails in opposite directions before remarking, “And when I followed their directions, I gained a second tail. A little while ter, they told me that I could also shapeshift. It is easy to just become smaller like I used to be, but taking a human form is nearly impossible unless I change it to have fox parts. I also had to study Dawn to learn how the human body works before I could properly change into a human form. I’m guessing that means I can take forms other than fox and humanoid, if I can study them enough.”

  “That is quite an impressive feat, speaking with a god. I’m gd to hear you’ve gained so much from interacting with them,” Amilya replied with a smile before looking over at Dawn.

  “And how have things gone for you at the spire since your st message?” she continued.

  Dawn shook her head in response before stating, “The st several months have all been roughly the same, so nothing has changed since then, aside from our trip back here.”

  After a pause, she continues, “Well, we did meet Leanna again, the leader of the bandit group, but she had a lot fewer people this time around, and she mentioned being in contact with the vilge. What is up with that?”

  Amilya chuckled before replying, “Oh, right, you might not have heard, but most of the bandit groups were pardoned and are now serving Lord Jerald. Leanna has been very helpful with running between the vilges and hunting down the worst of the beasts in each area.”

  A moment to catch her breath ter, she continued, “We actually had a really nasty one based on a cat that nearly killed Harold when it caught him by surprise, but they chased it down and killed it. They leave the bodies at the nearest vilge, so we get to use the meat, hide, and bones, which is a great help.”

  She finally finished, “We do have to pay higher taxes as payment, but that is no problem since we have more meat due to their efforts. It is a pretty good deal, in my opinion, and not many disagree.”

  “Oh, so she isn’t a bandit leader anymore… That is nice; she was pretty friendly when we were around each other before. I’m gd she can finally stop hiding outside the town,” Dawn responded with a smile as she finished cooking breakfast.

  The group continued to the table, bringing the food with them and settling in to quietly eat. Once they finished, Amilya was stopped when she went to deal with the dishes, Dawn and Niphru taking them instead. With their usage of magic, it took very little time to clean and dry them.

  As Amilya watched, she sighed and remarked, “I really should have kept up with my own magic when I retired. Nowadays, I’m mostly useless with earth, water, and air magic. I’ve only kept up with fire magic at all because it is easier to light the firepce with it, and it can be used to cook if the stove’s crystal runs out.”

  Niphru immediately replied, “Well, can’t you just start practicing again if you want to use them again?”

  “I suppose I could, but it is a lot of effort for very little benefit at this point. We have plenty of water, things can air-dry without magic, and I can handle a little scrubbing by hand. And I never really had much use for earth magic,” Amilya answered with a ugh as she shook her head.

  She paused for a moment before continuing, “I suppose you should probably get out and let people know you are back, so I won’t keep you occupied any longer.”

  Niphru leapt off the chair he was sitting on before asking, “Do you think I should go out in humanoid form, rge fox, or small fox?”

  Dawn ughed and replied, “You should definitely go as a smaller fox like you were when we left, otherwise people wouldn’t recognize you! Mom can spread the news about you being able to change forms, so they won’t be surprised ter.”

  After a short discussion ter, they both headed to Monti’s home together. It didn’t take long for him to answer the door and invite them in, and they quickly found themselves sitting around the firepce with him.

  They spent a bit of time discussing what they had learned about healing while they were gone, as well as how helpful it had been. Monti was especially surprised when Niphru mentioned being able to transform after using healing to study Dawn.

  Some time ter, they finished talking with Monti, and Dawn headed to meet with her friends. Meanwhile, Niphru headed toward the butcher to let them know that there would be a lot more beast corpses to process soon, since he’d be going out hunting again now that he was back.

  Once he had finished letting the butcher know to prepare for more mutated beasts, Niphru wandered the vilge speaking with various others, eventually bumping into Dawn as she did the same. Once they felt they’d caught up enough, the two returned home and began to unload the cart they’d brought back. It was mostly a number of books for their bedroom, though they had also brought some tools back as gifts for Amilya.

  Eventually, they finished their work and took some time to rex before finally going to bed for the evening.