"Good morning!" Mom's voice resounded through the clearing, her usual roll-call.
"Good morning." One by ene everyone, including me, answered her. The lack of Cyante's voice in the chorus still bothered me a bit but I knew it was time to let go of it.
Running through the clearing I avoided the scuffle between Trumpet and Tielter—they were fighting for a hip bone of one of the intruders, even though there was more than enough food laying about—trying to find Dad so he could teach me.
I found him in the den, sprawled on his back as Mom was grooming his coat.
"Dad can you teach me the illusions now?" I pawed at him. The dry moss and grass Mom brought in to sleep more comfortably being lifted up by the winds caused by my wagging tail.
"You didn't even rid yourself of the debris." Mom nibbled my face and picked out couple pieces of bark from my fur.
"It doesn't annoy me."
"You all done Asher. Go teach her. If she gets hurt I will have your tail," Mom said and started fixing the coat on her tail—all flattened after the night.
"I know too well you wouldn't," Dad grunted, and before Mom could say anything he was out of the den and the valley it was in.
"Go, and be careful, it's fine to take it slow. Tielter is still figuring things out on his own, Lyara and Trumpet still don't know anything past the basics. It would be better for you as well to take it slow and figure out what works for you from experience. Rushing ahead might just make things harder for you."
"I'll be careful." I promised and after giving her a kiss I ran out of the den, following Dad's scent out on the other side of the valley.
***
"We'll start with something simple," Dad said and a wall of black appeared in front of us, unmoving, large enough that he could hide behind it while standing. I walked around it, there was no depth to it and Dad's figure quickly disappeared behind it as I circled it.
"I think I can do this." I said.
"Fine then, gather up as much energy as you think you will need and prepare it for changing it."
"How?"
"You know how with the basic magic you send it into your teeth and muscles? Just don't do that and hold it outside your body. Be careful though, if you have more than you need, it's really hard to reabsorb it, just letting it disperse is better. And if you don't have enough, it will take the rest by force, and it hurts a lot."
"Understood." I focused and tried to imagine how much energy I will need for something of that size.
"Done with the preparation?" He asked?
"I-I think so." I stuttered, it was hard keeping the energy from dispersing on it's own and I had to focus hard on it.
"Now, order the energy what you want it to make."
"That..." It was that simple? I wondered, but did as he said. I felt the majority of the energy I prepared disappear and a black wall appeared in front of the one Dad made before disappearing just as quickly. All the unused energy already dispersed from my grasp and I couldn't feel it.
"Sorry." I whined.
Dad howled out with amusement. "You cleared this one, illusions require you to constantly feed it energy, some other uses are like that too, but they can do with just a burst." He demonstrated as a flame appeared on the dried leaves and flickered away, but that was enough for the leaves, they caught fire. He stomped on it to put it out before it could move anywhere.
"Is it really that simple? Just order the magic to do what you want?" I asked.
"As long as the outcome is possible and you have enough energy, pretty much. But it's just the simplest method. With stuff like the basics and even Anaji's fire you don't really need to go deeper. Other uses need you to have deeper knowledge and skill to be effective. But let's keep it simple for now." He dropped his magic and the forest appeared again where the blackness used to be. "Make that wall again but keep it up until I walk around it. Keeping extra energy ready while you order the magic to form is hard so you have to be able to prepare a constant stream, but that you should be able to do from the basics. Instead of directing it back into your body, you direct it into the illusion. Keeping it up for half a day takes about the same amount of energy as making it, so don't overexert yourself with that."
"I-I will try." I whined. After couple breaths to calm down I concentrated again.
The wall appeared again and stayed there for a moment, but I couldn't keep the stream of energy going to it. "It's hard to control the energy once it's not touching me." I whined.
"That's why I wanted you to learn the control first." He let out an amused grunt. "There's no rush, just keep trying."
***
By noon Dad was able to walk behind the wall before I couldn't keep it up. I was starting to feel the exhaustion a little bit too as I constantly had to create the wall anew. I still had trouble guessing how much energy I needed for it, but thankfully I was never once under the needed amount, I really didn't want to learn how much it hurts to have the energy taken from me by force.
"That's enough training for now. Let's go take a nap. And you should eat something while it's still there. We won't be going to the next hunt for five days at least with this much left over from the last one."
"I can still keep going Dad." I protested.
"I know, but I don't want to deal with the heat and I want to eat something myself. You're learning much faster than I expected. I doubt you inherited my talent, It makes everything beside the talent uses and the basics really hard to use."
"So I have Mom's talent then?" I pranced beside him. Mom was really powerful, being able to take on two adults at once.
"Most likely, but it's possible you didn't inherit either of our talents. You will just have to wait and see. Don't try anything with fire on your own though. That would definitely end badly."
"Yes Dad."
"You can continue training in the evening. I'll watch you."