Chapter Six -

It had been a very long time since I’d had a friend. It had... never happened for me to have two of them.

I hugged my bunny friend close to my chest. He was inside that jacket I’d kinda-sorta stolen, head poking out just under my chin, with his ears tickling the sides of my face. Jazz was a little ways ahead of me, walking with a lot of certainty with Thorn on her shoulder.

Two whole friends!

New friends, sure, but still friends, they’d both agreed, both promised, and that was worth a lot.

The last time...

The last time I’d had a friend was Mister Crownelius Ravenbird.

I felt my smile grow a little brittle, but I pushed through. He wouldn’t want me to be sad at all, so I decided not to be.

Crownelius and I had met in prison. Well, I was in prison at the time, in the very city whose ruins I’d just escaped. My cell had a little window, and that window, being on the ground, let me peak out into a grassy courtyard where knights and guardsmen would sometimes practice and fight with their own companions.

Crownelius had found me one day and woke me up with a loud craw. I gave him a little piece of hard bread that he pecked at for a while. He returned the next day, then the next. I had nothing to do in my cell, so watching him come every day was a nice change.

I started saving a bit of my lunch. It wasn’t much, but I could be a little hungry if it meant seeing Crownelius every day.

Eventually, he came close enough that I could touch him. Then he’d come into my cell though the bars.

He started bringing me gifts too. Bits of shiny wire, some twine, even a few shiny copper coins that I hid under my pillow.

One day, something changed. It wasn’t big, but there was something different about Crownelius. His gaze was sharper, he was a bit faster to react, he listened a lot more carefully as I spoke. It took some time, but the spark was kindled, and from that came a flame that we carefully nurtured together.

“Is something wrong?” my bunny friend asked.

I looked down, then blinked as I realized that I’d teared up a little... maybe a lot. “I’m fine,” I said.

“Hmm,” he replied before brushing my face with his ears. It made me laugh, so I gave his forehead a smooch in thanks. Yes, this bunny would be a good friend too.

“So, what’s your story?” Jazz asked.

“Me?” I asked.

“Obviously,” she said before glancing back. “I’m not asking the bunny.”

I hummed, tapping my chin. How could I start this... lying to a friend was wrong, so obviously I was only going to tell most of the truth. But how much truth was the big question. “My name is Button,” I began.

“I know that much,” Jazz said.

“Mhm! I was born in the year 1128 in a small town to the south called Agoir. Do you know of it?”

Jazz gave me a look. “Button, are you terminally bad at math?”

“No? I know my arithmetics!” I defended. It wasn’t my favourite subject, but I wasn’t terrible at it.

“Do you know what the year is?”

“Nope! But I have an idea,” I said with a nod. “The stars are the same as I remember, for the most part, so it can’t be that far ahead. And the ruins of Nafasker are old looking. I’d guess... 1400?”

“It’s 1547, according to the Tang calendar.”

“Oh, so I’m four hundred years old then?” I asked. “I feel pretty good for an old, old crone.”

“Is that old?” my bunny friend asked. I nodded and rubbed him between the ears.

Jazz shook her head. “That’s not possible.”

“It is!” I said. “I know because it’s true!”

“Uh-huh,” she replied, and it was pretty clear that Jazz didn’t believe me, which was rather disappointing.

I hummed. “Maybe I can prove it? We could go back to the prison where this smart little guy freed me?”

“Prison?” Jazz asked.

“Oh yeah, that’s what they did with underaged witches. Do they still do that?”

“What? There’s no such thing as a witch.”

I blinked. “There isn’t?”

“Well, maybe as a costume, or in a story. But witchcraft isn’t real,” Jazz said.

That was news to me. I blinked, then raised a hand and made a small ball of fire. “What’s this, then?”

Jazz stared at the fire, then shrugged. “Elemental expression. That’s actually really impressive, but it’s not witchcraft, there are scientific explanations for every sort of elemental expression. Besides, you’re an evolved human, right?”

“I’m a what?” I asked.

She waggled her arms. “You have wings for arms. That’s pretty common for pretty much all the really dedicated Air-type trainers. I mean... you might be a little young for a full evolution like that, but it still stands. It’s happened.”

“Huh,” I said. “Jazz, I think that the world maybe changed a lot more while I was away than I’m prepared for.”

“You’re still saying that?” she asked.

“Saying what?”

“That you’re a time traveller.”

“I’m not a time traveller, no more than you are,” I said. “I lived every day from the time I was imprisoned to now. Only I couldn’t do anything about it. I guess I didn’t age for  that time, but that’s incidental and has nothing to do with time travel.”

Jazz shook her head. She didn’t believe me.

It hurt, a little, to know that she didn’t think I was telling the truth, but it was okay. Our friendship was still just hours old, it was normal that we hadn’t reached a deep level of trust just yet. That would come with time.

“What about my ears?” I asked. “Would those be considered witchy?”

“No? They’re... rabbit ears? Honestly, you might be considered a little strange for having two evolved things like that, certainly an outlier, but I think people will find you even more strange once they start talking to you.”

I blinked. “Wait, was that an insult?”

“If you can’t tell then what does it matter?”

I huffed. I had a lot of work ahead of me, securing Jazz’s friendship. “I’ve told you a little about me. What about you?” I asked. “Is it normal for future-girls to wander around with only one companion to keep them safe?”

Jazz frowned a little, then shrugged. “As long as you’re on the championship route, at this time of year, yeah? I guess. We’re a little ways from the main path, but ever good trainer knows that that’s where you find the best companions.”

“Championship route?” I asked. I was familiar with both concepts, but not put together like that.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know what the championship is?” Jazz asked. At the shake of my head, she continued. “It’s how a trainer proves themselves? There are badges you can earn across the world. Get five and you’re eligible for the contest at the end of the year. Well, ideally you need more than that. Anyway, the route cuts across the entire continent.”

“Across the continent?” I asked. “How far does it go?”

“We’re on the far western end,” she said, and I nodded. I knew that much. “And the route ends at the Red Fangs, in the Great Tang. The championship arena is there. But people start the circuit from different parts, so it doesn’t really matter.”

That was incredible! The Red Fangs? Those were mountains way, way out to the east. So far away that I’d only heard of them in bard songs and in old tales about heroes and such.

“Is that your goal?” I asked. “To travel to the end of the Championship Route?”

Jazz frowned for a while, then nodded. “Yeah. It is. It’s what I’m going  to do. And in the end, people will know that I’m a master, someone that they have to respect.”

“That sounds incredible,” I said. “Maybe I should try the same thing too! What do you think, bunny? Want to become a big fancy champion?”

“Do champions eat good?” he asked.

I laughed and gave him a squeeze before relocating him onto the top of my head. “I bet they eat the best!” I said.

Jazz grinned. “They do. But it’s not just about that. It’s about proving yourself, overcoming challenges, and forging strong bonds.”

“Like the bonds we form with our companions?” I asked.

“Exactly,” Jazz said warmly. “It’s about trust, understanding, and pushing each other to be the best.”

I nodded. That sounded like a lot of fun! And a good way to make new friends and see more of the world than what I could peek from a jailhouse window. “Then count me in!”

***

Chapter Seven -

“There,” Jazz said as she pointed ahead. They were on the outer edges of Forsvollr  now, not that Forsvollr had much more than edges. The whole city was more like a bunch of little towns connected by short roads. It was all hills and little patches of forest, with maybe some tall grassy spots between them. “See that building with the orange roof?”

Button next to her squinted, bringing a hand up to cover her eyes from the sun. The bun ny perched on her head did the same, tilting forwards and covering his eyes with a little paw. “Yup! I see it,” she said.

“That’s a trainer centre,” Jazz explained. She couldn’t believe that she had to explain this at all. Everyone knew what a centre was. “There are a bunch of things in there to help trainers, and normal people too. If your companion gets hurt you can bring it in for a check up, or for healing. Most bigger centres have a second floor, or a basement, with like, little rooms that trainers can book day-by-day, so you can have a place to sleep for free.”

“Really? So it’s like a hospital and a motel all in one?” Button asked.

“And a government office too,” Jazz said. “There’s usually an office that can help with paperwork. Oh, and there’s almost always a free computer to use.”

“What’s a computer?”

Jazz gave her a look. Button was... dead set on pretending to be from the past. Jazz didn’t believe it, of course, because that was nonsensical. She might believe that Button was a country bumpkin though. “I’ll show you one later,” she decided. “They’re useful for sending and storing, uh, information.”

Button nodded, seemingly content with that answer .“That’s really cool!. Is the place beyond the city? It looks... kind of small?”

Jazz shrugged, then went on to explain a bit about Forsvollr. She really didn't know all that much, having only been here for a couple of months, but she’d picked up some things by osmosis. It was a surprisingly active place. All of those little towns being squeezed in together made for a lot of action. Plus, Forsvollr had a few attractions. The guild arena, for one, and one of the biggest League schools in Lithos, as well as the Pine Tower, which she pointed out in the distance.

They were right on the edge of the suburbs when Button and Jazz both paused. There was a fight going on off to the side of the road. “Wanna watch?” Jazz asked.

“Uh, sure?” Button said.

Jazz grinned and jogged over. It looked like they were just starting off. Two kids in t-shirts and shorts, with scraped up knees and baseball caps. They looked like they were twelve, maybe thirteen. It was possible that they’d started their journey already, but she suspected that they might just be some local brats.

Local brats that might be better trainers than her.

Jazz concentrated, pushing away the poison in her gut at the thought. Button caught up easily. The bunny-eared girl wasn’t even breathing hard from the jog.

“What are they doing?” the bunny on Button’s head asked.

“It looks like a friendly spar between spark companions,” Button said.

There were two sparklings between the boys, both smaller, both seeming pretty young, but they had that intelligent look in their eyes that no normal animal would have, and, of course, they were obeying their trainers... a little.

“That’s a rat,” Button’s bunny said. “What’s the other?”

The boy to their left, whom Jazz dubbed Lefty in her mind, did indeed have a rat sparkling. It didn’t look like it had any particular elemental evolutions yet. It was just a large, kinda fat, rat.

Righty, the boy across from him, had a small blue creature ahead of him. “That’s a lizard of some sort,” Button said. “It looks like it’s got a water evolution?”

“It’s a salamander,” Jazz said. “And yeah, probably. There are lots of wild salamander around here. It’s not surprising to find one with a spark. They tend to gravitate towards fire or water mana pretty hard.”

“Mana?” the bunny asked, but before anyone could answer his question, the fight began in earnest.

Lefty glanced their way real quick, but then narrowed his eyes and refocused on the match. He reached up and twisted his cap around. “Alright Rat Butt! Ram his stupid lizard into the ground!”

“Rat Butt Ram!” his rat shouted squeakily before charging across the field.

“Dragon! Use Earthquake!” Righty said.

The salamander tilted its head way off to one side. “Wha?”

Then the rat rammed into his stomach, sending the little blue salamander flying back. “You idiot!” Lefty shouted. “Dragon doesn’t know how to use Earthquake!”

“Not yet,” Righty said. “But he does know Charge!”

The salamander ’s  eyes sparkled, then its entire body glowed with a faint whitish light. The creature shot towards the rat who was still shaking its head and waiting for orders from its master. The two went flying as the salamander smacked the rat right back.

“What was that glow?” The bunny asked.

“Typeless energy,” Jazz said. “It means the move used some. Some moves don’t, not when they’re weak.”

“Rat Butt! Tail Whip!”

The rat spun around, smacking the salamander in the face with its tail. It flinched back a little, closing its eyes against the motions of the rat’s tail smacking at its face. “Dragon, jump back, Mud Shot!”

The salamander cheered before jumping back into a small muddy puddle. The mud glowed faintly before the companion kicked some of it ahead and at the rat.

“Dodge!” Lefty shouted. It was enough for his rat to hop out of the way of most of the mud, though some of it smacked his flank. The little rat-like creature rolled with the blow. “Now, Quick Attack, like we practised!”

The rat screamed as it took off running. A few stray streams of whitish energy collected around it as it sped up. It wasn’t the fastest move Jazz had ever seen, but it was pretty quick.

“Salamander! Take him down!”

The salamander shouted and flung his head around.

The two companions rammed into each other, then flopped backwards bonelessly. Jazz could almost imagine the little birds swirling around their heads.

“I won!” Lefty shouted.

“What! No you didn’t! Dragon fell slower!” Righty countered.

“Because he’s fatter!”

“You take that back!”

Jazz sighed, deciding that she’d seen enough as the boys went at each other. It didn’t look like much more than a friendly scuffle, though, and quickly ended with both boys laughing as they tried to push each other into the mud.

“Well, that was something,” she said.

“It was exciting!” Button said. “I’m not sure if I like how... violent it is. But it’s good for little sparklings to let some energy out.”

“That was very fast!” the little bunny said.

“You liked it?” Button asked.

Jazz nodded. It was rare for a sparkling, especially a younger one, not to enjoy getting into tussles. “Almost every companion likes battling. It’s mostly safe, keeps them in shape, lets them learn new moves... they get stronger over time, and it helps them evolve. Come on! The route ends just over there, we can check out the centre.”

Button nodded behind her, then continued to follow Jazz down the route. Jazz wasn’t sure when she’d become the leader of this two-person parade, but here she was. It was maybe not that bad. She’d left this morning to find a few fights in the wild to train her companion up, but this wasn’t a bad outcome either.

Forsvollr didn’t really have a ‘start.’ It just went from light forest to a few homes, and then the homes grew closer together until they reached the intersection leading into the city, where a centre was plopped down and towered over the one-story homes and shops around it.

It was a quiet enough place, with lots of lawn space for every house and wide sidewalks that were used more than the roads criss-crossing the city.

She led the way to the front of the centre. It was a big building, almost twice as large as a lot of the homes around it, with a bright orange roof that contrasted nicely with the white-painted wood panels.

Jazz opened the door and let Button and her bunny enter first, then followed after, letting the doors close behind her.

She’d never been a huge fan of the interior of centres. They were meant to be homely, but in a sort of... samey, artificial way. They weren’t all the same, but they were all very similar. She supposed it made sense. If she was running into an unknown centre with an injured companion, she wouldn’t want to have to ask for directions.

“That’s the nurse’s counter,” she said. “The woman there is nurse. The companion next to her is a sparkling trained to be a healer. They can heal your companion up and give them check-ups. Once we get you an ID, you might want to hand your bunny over.”

“Hand me over? You’re giving me away?”

“I think she meant to have a check-up,” Button said.

“Un,” the bunny said with a shake of his head.

“Hmm, it can’t be all bad,” Button said. “They’ll just check your humours, maybe stick you with some leeches.”

“Uh,” Jazz said. She... ws pretty sure no one did anything like that.. “People do. There’s actually a whole process after you’ve joined where you get your shots, your picture taken, and all that stuff.”

“Oh,” Button said. “Well, Bunny, if I’m going to get shots, then I’ll want you to be there to hold my hand, and if you get one, I’ll do the same, okay?”

“Okay,” the bunny said, sounding a little reluctant still.

Button rubbed the bunny on the head.

Jazz shook her head. They could worry about all that later. What she needed was some answers. She marched forwards, leaving Button to follow, and came up to the front counter. A centre nurse was standing there, her healer by her side. A large, pink-furred rabbit with enormous ears and a small nurses’ cap on its head. Jazz wasn’t sure what animal that had started as, but years of breeding and training had created something entirely new and hyper focused on healing magic.

After a few moments, the nurse glanced up and smiled. “Oh, hello! Welcome to the Center. We restore your tired companions to full health! How can I help you?”

“Yeah, we’d like to register my friend here as a new trainer,” Jazz said with a nod.

If they were quick about it, then she could maybe set out and get some other things done before it got too late!

***

Chapter Eight -

He reached down and rubbed his backside again. The centre had been... interesting? It smelled weird, like humans, but also like a lot of other creatures, and then there was a strong stink that stung his nose a little. Button said that it was cleaning products, which she also didn’t like the smell of.

The healer there had been nice, but also scary. It was a bunny, like him, but also... very much not. For one thing, this bunny was tall enough that she reached up to Button’s hip where he only reached her knee. For another, she was very smart and knew a bunch of magic.

Button had explained that it was actually different kinds of magic, but all geared towards healing, and the human nurse lady had confirmed it. The healing bunnies of the Trainer centre were the results of generations and generations of bunnies all raised to be the best healers they could be. They had turned into a whole new sort of animal, one who was rarely born without a spark and who had an innate gift for anything that was good for healing.

Even Button, who insisted that she was from a long, long time ago, said that she knew of similar bunnies, though she said they’d been smaller in her day.

The healer bunny had the same kind of energy his mom had, and that scared him a little, but she was gentle, and when he went in the back with her, the healer had poked and prodded him carefully while asking him how he felt.

It wasn’t all that annoying. There were other creatures in the back, lots that he recognized, like caterpillars and birds, and some that he didn’t. They were all more or less quiet, stuffed into little boxes while waiting. He was worried that he’d be stuck in a box too, but the healer stayed close and kept hold of his paw as she walked him through.

He had been told to sit on a bed with some soft padding. A little staircase was placed for him to climb up onto it, then the healer had used a few healing techniques on him. He felt a lot better after that. A few aches faded away, as well as some bruises that he didn’t even notice were bothering him.

Button was let into the back, and she looked around at everything while a lady very similar to the one in the front, but with a different scent to her, explained some human things. Button had nodded, then sat on the bed next to Bunny. She had been poked with a needle filled with something, then had some blood taken from her arm.

Then it was his turn. He had been very brave as the healer stabbed his rear end with a long needle. Once that was done, Button had picked him up and cradled him in her arms until the pain went away.

It was one thing to be hurt in a fight, but this was entirely different.

Button had brought him to another room where someone made her stand in front of a machine that flashed brightly, then they went to the front again, where she was handed a strong-smelling card with her picture on it and a bunch of human words that he couldn’t make heads or tails of.

Then they had to sit in a waiting room, which was human for a room where people waited. Jazz was apparently busy with some stuff, so they didn’t have much to do. That was, until Button plucked a small pamphlet from a display covered in them.

“Oh, this is useful,” she said.

“What is it?” he asked as he stretched up to see. There were pictures and little black scribbles in human . He could speak as well as anybunny, but he didn’t know how to read.

“It’s called a Trainer’s Guide to the Modern World for Wild Companions,” Button said. “It’s like... a guide to teach friends you’ve made out in the wild about... I guess the modern world. Honestly, this is neat!”

He nodded, sitting up on her lap to better see. “That’s the thing Jazz told us to look for ways for,” he said as he pointed at a drawing of a box with wheels.

“Yup. And that’s a computer. It says here that, uh computer thing. A computer is a device that can store, process, and display information. It has a screen like a TV, a keyboard with letters and numbers to type, and a mouse to move a pointer and click on things. You can use it to write, watch videos, play games, and connect to the internet to find information or talk to people. ” Button put on a voice when she was reading things that made her sound all proper and careful.

Jazz returned, this time carrying a small heap of loose papers in a small folder. “Here,” she said as she handed it to Button. “Your information.”

“My information?” Button asked.

“Trainer ID, some basic paperwork, proof of ownership of your bunny here, just in case, and medical stuff for both of you. You officially exist now, congratulations This is your Trainer ID, the important bit,” Jazz said as she gave Button a small card.

“I guess that I’m an official Trainer now,” Button said as she looked at the card.

“Obviously,” Jazz said with her arms crossed. “It’s good for you. The ID lets you get lots of free stuff.”

“Oh?” Button asked. “What sort of free stuff?”

“Eh, you can rent a room in most centres for free, as long as it’s not overbooked,” Jazz said. “There’s free healing for you and your companions, some places give free transportation too. A lot of things are cheaper. Gear, supplies, medicine, and vitamins. It’s all super expensive once you’re done with your journey, but until then, the League picks up on a lot of the costs.”

“Interesting! That’s kind of them.”

Jazz shrugged, her arms still crossed. “It’s less that it’s kind and more that it’s good business. Companions are needed to make the world work, and the best time to learn how to be a good Trainer is when you’re young. Do you know how much time it takes to train some companions?”

“I don’t!” Button said. “I’ve only made a few friends with sparks over the years.”

“Heh. Well, it’s not fast. I think that’s why it’s good to have young Trainers. We don’t have jobs taking up all of our time. And if you find a few good companions, they’ll be with you for the rest of your life. Having a good companion at your side can unlock a lot of potential jobs.”

“Like that nurse and the healer?” Button asked.

Jazz nodded. “Yeah. Medical professionals almost always have a healer with them. If you want to become a medical professional, you’d better look for and find one, or buy one from a breeder.”

“Oh, can you only get certain jobs if you have certain companions?” Button asked. “It was the same back in my day.”

“I mean, some, maybe. It’s more that some companions are really useful to have if you have a certain job, and if you have one with you, you’ll be much better at that kind of work,” Jazz said.

“So, what kind of job are Poison-type companions good for?” Button asked.

Jazz pouted. “A-all sorts of stuff! A slime-type companion is a must-have for sanitation workers, you know! And lots of rangers have Poison-type companions to help them weaken others to capture them. Obviously, there’s work in toxicology. A lot of venoms are only cured using the same venom. There’s pest control too!”

“I see, I see,” Button said. “What about Friendship-type?”

“That’s not a type!” Jazz snapped. She placed her hands on her hips and glowered for a bit. “Now that you’re a Trainer, officially, you’ll want to try your hand at the Badge Challenge.”

“Okay!” Button said. “What’s that mean?”

“It means beating the stuffing out of Corvin and his stupid birds,” Jazz said. “He’s... actually not usually that hard of a challenge. Most people’s first challenge is supposed to be easy. It’s the second badge that everyone says is a big challenge, but this will be my third time challenging him. His School is the Elemental School of Air. Beat him, get the Air badge, and you have proof that you’ve got the bare minimum competency as a Trainer.”

“I don’t know if I’m quite ready for that,” Button said. “He’s an expert, right? He probably knows a lot about fighting.”

“Oh, well, each challenge asks you a few questions before you can even fight the leader, and you need to fight with some Trainers the first time, to make sure you’re even worth the leader’s time. Then the leader will tailor their team to you, based on how many badges you have.”

Bunny looked up and saw Button’s eyes light up with understanding. “So the second badge is harder, and the third even harder?”

“It’s mostly linear, or so I’ve heard,” Jazz said. “By the fifth or sixth challenge, you should have a full team, and then there’s another big jump in difficulty with the seventh and final badges, but that’s a long, long way off!”

“Okay,” Button said with a grin. “So, what do we do now?”

Jazz worked her jaw, then pointed across the city, to a building sticking out from above. It was that same tower they’d seen when coming in. It looked old, even to Bunny who really didn’t know much about human buildings and such. “That’s the Pine Tower. There are some old monks there that don’t matter, and a few wild creatures in the tower. There’s one I want to catch. A Poison-type creature that might give me the edge I need to defeat Corvin this time. And... well, there are some weak creatures in there too, we can train against those.”

“Okay,” Button said. “If we’re going to be doing any amount of fighting, then I think I’d like some time to teach bunny here a few tricks.”

“What? What kind?”

She smiled down at him, then gave his forehead a peck. “Well, my signature move is witch magic, of course! But I had to start small too. I don’t know how useful that would be against birds though... maybe I can teach you fireball?”

Jazz nodded, then pulled out a rectangle from her pocket. She tapped it a few times, and it lit up with lots of words. “Looks like wild rabbits and bunnies spark relatively frequently. There’s a type-evolution distribution chart here... lots of Normal-type evolutions.”

“Evolutions?” he asked.

Button was the one to nod this time. “If you learn a kind of magic and practice it a bunch, you can then evolve! See, I got these wings from doing some witchcraft, and the bunny ears too!” She waved her arm and wiggled her ears.

Jazz snorted. “Every companion can gain new traits. Usually that just means growing bigger, tougher, faster, but if you practice enough moves of a certain element, you can gain elemental traits. I think I saw a Poison-type rabbit once. It was covered in pustules and boils and looked halfway rabid, but it was strong.”

He shook his head. He didn’t like the sound of that at all! If he got covered in boils, would they stick him with an even bigger needle?

Button laughed. “How about it, Bunny? Want to learn how to throw balls of fire around, and use some Friendship-element magic?”

“I just said, that’s not a thing!” Jazz shouted.

“Yeah!” he cheered. That sounded way more fun than boils!

This Jazz lady might know a lot, but he trusted Button more. If she said it was possible, then why not?

“All right! Let’s go get this companion of yours, Jazz, then let’s see about getting some training in. I’m kind of excited too now!”

***

Chapter Nine -

I was more than happy to follow Jazz around this new city.

Well, new to me. It didn’t take a genius observer to see that Forsvollr wasn’t a new- new city. The homes here were well settled and some of the older brick and mortar buildings looked like they’d been here forever.

It was just weird to think that this city didn’t exist to me just a few days ago, but it had probably been here for a couple of hundred years.

I hummed, turning my head this way and that with my bunny friend nestled between my ears as I took it all in. A car--one of those weird metal carriages not pulled by a horse or by the strength of a companion at all--rumbled past on one of the strangely paved roads. It was moving pretty fast to me, but Jazz said that the limit in the city was thirty. She didn’t say thirty what  but she made it sound like it wasn’t a lot.

“Oh, crap,” Jazz said.

I blinked and turned her way. “What is it?” I asked, expecting a bit of trouble, but Jazz was looking at me.

“You’re... you don’t have any other clothes, do you?”

I looked down a little--not so much that I’d drop the bunny--and took in my clothes. It was just that jacket I’d grabbed and those big pants and boots. “Nope, this is it,” I said.

“Right, okay, detour,” Jazz said. She pointed out ahead and I followed her. We walked along a busy street called Main, then off across a little bridge that spanned a thin but fierce little river. I paused as I saw a few kids talking to a fish on the shore while an old man was reeling in a fishing rod. “Come on!” Jazz called.

“Yup yup!” I said before bouncing after her. Forsvollr was a nice place, I decided. The area along the edges of the city was mostly made up for low, sweeping hills, some of them covered in little furrows for farming. There were only a few small patches of trees here and there, mostly pines.

If I recalled  correctly, that was... pretty normal for this area. It was very rocky soil where not much grew except for tough grass. This had been a space for deer to frolic and for people to pass through in a hurry.

Probably a great place for Air-type training, actually.

Jazz did say that the local... what had she called it? A School? There were a lot of birds overhead, now that I bothered to look. I saw crows on those weird poles with the wires and plenty of pigeons on the road pecking away at scraps. There were more, of course, smaller birds and bigger ones. I saw a hawk way, way up in the air until it burst into flames and whizzed away like a comet.

Some Trainer’s Fire-type companion? Neat!

“This,” Jazz said, catching my attention. “Is the local library and the local thrift shop.” She gestured to a large, low-build building. It was all brink with a tin roof. Old, but well-maintained, even though the parking space out front had a lot of cracks running through it. A few old ladies were chatting away by the entrance. I caught a faint odour of mothballs in the air.

“Wow! Impressive!” I said.

“What’s a thrift?” the bunny on my head asked.

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “Jazz, what’s a thrift store?”

Jazz stared at me, then groaned. “A thrift store is a store that sells used clothes. Stuff people don’t want or need anymore.”

“People have that much clothing?” I asked.

“Yeah?” she said. “Come on. It’s used, so it’s pretty cheap. We’re on a very  tight budget, so we’ll just grab like, the  bare necessities.”

“Well, I kinda like this coat, it’s warm, and it’s got my name on it.” I touched the nametag on the front.

“That’s only your name because you stole the name at the same time as you stole the coat,” Jazz grumbled. “And I’m not convinced that your first name is really Button either.”

I pouted but followed her into the thrift store. It smelled even more like Mothballs in there.

The store was divided into three sections. A large one for women’s clothing, a smaller one for men’s, and an even smaller one for Companion clothes. I never thought I’d see a place that sold old clothing made for animals with Sparks before, but here it was.

Jazz and I hopped--well, I did--over to the women’s section and started to search for something to wear. There was more clothing to pick from here than I’d ever seen in my life! The tricky bit was finding any that fit. I apparently didn’t know my sizes, which was fair since I didn’t know clothing had sizes to begin with.

“Why is this skirt so short?” I asked as I lifted a skirt up for Jazz to inspect. It was very cute, a nice khaki-ish green with pleats in a way I’d never seen before and a white strip at the hem. I pressed it to my hips and... yeah, this wouldn’t reach my knees!

“You’d wear it with shorts underneath. It’s pretty common for Trainers to wear shorter skirts.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you look cuter that way?” she said.

“Won’t your legs get cold?” I asked. “And in fights there’s wind and stuff! Boys would see your knickers!”

“Shorts. You’d wear shorts. And tights,” she said.

I tilted my head this way and that. “Okay. I’ll try it. Even if it’s horribly scandalous!”

“That’s the spirit,” Jazz said.

I ended up finding a few simple blouses to go with it, all in natural colours. Jazz said that my complexion would go better with brighter colours, but I wasn’t a city witch, and I liked my greens and browns.

The last thing I picked up was from the men’s section, something Jazz called a ‘hoody.’ it was a sort of thick sweater with a hood built into it and a large pouch at the front. My bunny friend could snuggle into the pouch for warmth and snoozes, and I didn’t care that it was a little large for me.

We got shorts too, and these stretchy things Jazz called pantyhose, and other underthings which would be far more scandalous to mention.

We paid... well , Jazz did, and then I got changed right away. The nice lady at the front complimented my wings and new look, so I felt very floaty as we left. Plus, while my new skirt didn’t have pockets, it was  fantastically swishy.

“No witch hats though,” I muttered as we left.

“Hmm?”

“You know, large brim, pointy top,” I said as I mimed the size and dimensions of a witch hat.

She snorted. “Maybe in a costume shop or something. Witches mostly belong in fairy tales.”

I felt my heart skip a beat. “The fae own the tales of witches now?” I asked.

“What? No, there’s no such thing as a fairy either.”

I gave her a look, opened my mouth, then shut it. There were some things that it was better to keep to oneself. Not believing in the fae was as dangerous as it was likely to save someone.

“Where to now?” I asked.

“The Pine Tower,” Jazz said. “Before it closes for the day.”

“Neat!” I said. “Where is that, anyway?”

Jazz glanced my way, then pointed ahead and up. Across the little river, in what looked like a small dip in the hills where some trees were growing, was a big wooden tower. The point was narrow, but the rest of it grew out in stages, each progressively larger than the last, like a pine tree.

“Oh,” I said. I felt a little silly. “That does look like a tower made of Pine.”

“It’s where I hope to find my next companion,” Jazz said. “If I’m lucky.”

“What sort of companion?” I asked. A tower called the Pine Tower could only be a house for plants with Sparks, like Jazz’s little Thorn who was still hiding up her sleeve. Or maybe it was a giant roost for birds? Birds that got the Spark almost always got Air-type magic in no time at all since they were so naturally attuned to it.

“You know I’m trying to be a Poison-type expert, right?” she said.

“So, another plant that knows Poison-type magic? Or a Poison-type bird?” I asked. I’d never heard of a Poison-type bird, but it wasn’t impossible.

“No, that tower has ghosts in it. I want a Death and Poison-type companion,” Jazz said.

I almost tripped. She wanted a what?

***

Chapter Ten

Sage Alfson didn’t always feel his age. After all, the life of a sage was calm and yet still required motion and movement, and it encouraged healthy eating. Even now, he spent a few hours each day in the gardens, tending to their little patch of managed nature, and playing with his oldest, best friends.

Sometimes, however, things happened which reminded him that he wasn’t a spry young man any longer. Mostly this happened at the start of every circuit, where the entirety of Lithos was swarmed by bright-eyed young travellers, just starting on their journey.

The circuit had started some three months ago, in early spring, so the majority of the youngest hopefuls from Forsvollr and Agoir and the other little towns in the vicinity had moved on already. It was slowly edging into the quieter moments.

Oh, there were some coming in now, searching for Corvin to get their second badge, but for the most part, the city was quieting down.

The progress that young travellers made wasn’t merely about the number of badges they collected. It was about personal growth as well.

In that light, he couldn’t look down upon them too harshly.

The previous head sage of the Pine Tower had started something when he encouraged every sage here to carry a few Grass companions to challenge newcomers with. They weren’t a difficult fight, but they still gave travellers a bit of a challenge, something to work against and a reason to talk to the sages that were here.

Young hotheads wanted fights, and it was sometimes the only time to converse with them.

“Visitors,” said a figure in the boughs of a nearby tree.

Sage Alfson looked up, then smiled at his oldest friend. The elemental owl was hidden in the darkness, eyes glowing faintly so that the sage could make him out against the darkness. The owl had been with him for... oh, fifty years now. The owl had turned white as well, and perhaps wasn’t quite as fit as he once was.

Sage Alfson liked to spring a surprise on young challengers, taking out one of the owl’s great-grandchildren to fight against the more hotheaded travellers. The owl himself... well, his fighting days were behind him.

“Well?” the owl said before turning his head towards the tower.

“Ah, I’m going old man,” He said.

He straightened his back with a satisfying pop, then flexed his bad knee a little. Time to see what this was all about. The sage picked up a walking stick, a gnarled staff shaped like an elongated plant companion, and started his way towards the front. It had been a gift from one of the sentient trees planted around the edges of the Pine Tower.

What he found there were two young ladies and two young companions.

The first was quite familiar to him. Oh, he had never seen her before, but he’d seen a lifetime of travellers like her. Young, brash, masking an ocean of insecurity with a pool of confidence. She had a plant companion by her side, which did amuse him.

The little Grass-type companion wiggled this way and that, beady eyes looking at the statues around the entranceway to the Pine Tower. These were, of course, statues of plants with sparks, so he had a right to be amused by them. He seemed lively, though perhaps not as strong as some. He still had a ways to go before reaching the next stage in his life, Sage Alfson determined.

The other girl was interesting. A round-faced, wide-eyed child that seemed to carry innocence around her like a cloak. She wore a ranger’s coat over a hoodie and skirt that was shorter than he’d find appropriate, but no weapons. A strange choice of attire, but not as strange as the pair of ears on her head, or the... was that a bunny parked between her ears? So, a young lady who’d gone through an evolution already.

He reached one hand over to the other and ran a thumb over the back of his hand. His skin there was tough, literally. Bark like an ancient pine had replaced much of his skin on his arms and back and the parts of him that didn’t need to flex as much. A sign of his dedication to plant-type elemental powers.

“Greetings,” he said with a nod.

“Hey,” the hotheaded one said.

“Hello, mister,” the other said with a bob of her  head. The bunny bowed his own head too, mimicking his trainer with a serious face. “How are you doing today?”

Sage Alfson chuckled. “I’m doing quite well,” he said. And it was true. The weather was staying warm, the sun was masked by a few thin clouds that parted on occasion to warm him up. The wind was cool, the air smelled of flowers, and he had had a fantastic bowel movement this morning. Many little things to make for a light but fantastic day.

“We want to capture a ghost,” the hotheaded girl said. She clenched her fists, then pointed to the tower. “I know there are some in there.”

Alfson raised an eyebrow and was about to reprimand her when the other girl placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. “Sorry, mister, Jazz here is very excited and forgot her manners. My name is Button, this is Jazz, this is her companion Thorn, and this little guy is Bunny.”

“A pleasure,” he said as he cracked a little smile. “My name is Sage Alfson, of the Pine Tower. And yes, we do have a couple of ghosts haunting the tower, though they don’t usually appear during the day.”

“I’m going to be honest, I don’t actually know much about ghosts, just that Jazz really wants to see one. I think she wants to become one’s trainer?”

“Yeah,” Jazz said. “I’m going to be a Poison-type master, and ghosts with sparks are usually prone to learning Poison-type moves with ease.”

“I see,” Sage Alfson said. He hadn’t heard that particular reasoning in... ever. There were a few rare Death-type experts out there, but they were extremely uncommon. No one wanted the evolutionary traits that came from being a Death-expert. Pale skin was well and good, but constant tiredness, lethargy, depression, and the strange wispiness that came from being so close to death was... not conducive to a long and healthy life. There were generally four kinds of companions that required that their trainers be very careful, and which might bode ill on any and all if they weren’t held on a tight leash: Dragons, the Fae, Death-type companions, and those rare companions whom most would consider legendaries.

The last was not truly a concern, the number of captured legendaries could be counted on one hand. Most were forces of nature that the League and anyone sensible would do well to avoid angering. Poison-type companions were... bothersome to keep as lifelong companions. His own plant-like companions knew how to use poisons, they could evolve to know more moves and be stronger in that regard, that could be a bit of a pain, but they weren’t a threat to their handlers.

The ghosts of the Pine Tower were pranksters and pests, but they were mostly harmless, if mean-spirited companions. A haunted creature, their evolution, took that a step further, and could be a threat. A full ghost... was a danger to any and all that it didn’t enjoy.

It was hard to understand the mind of a companion at times. Moreso the mind of a Death-type, whose allegiance to the living was fleeting and rare. “If you are to enter the Pine Tower and remain overnight, then I will have certain requirements for you,” he said.

The young Jazz fixed him with a glare. “What kind?” she asked.

“I merely wish to talk a little,” he said. “Would you not spare an hour or two for an old man that wishes to spend a little time with the young? It helps me remember what it was like to not have knees that ached.”

“We don’t mind at all, Mister Sage Alfson,” Button said with a great big smile.

Ah, she, at least, was a kind-hearted soul. He was good at reading such things. A gift given to him by age and experience. Jazz... well, she was perhaps capable of such goodness as well. “Come, we will ascend the tower in the meanwhile. I will bring you to the second floor. The third is where you will find your ghost.”

“So, Mister Sage Alfson,” Button started.

He laughed. “It’s just Sage Alfson, sage is my title.”

“Oh! Thank you! Well, Sage Alfson, what’s it like being a sage then? Do you live in the tower?”

“Oh no, I live in one of the buildings behind it. Though I do live on the tower grounds. The tower is... a monument, a space for us to study and reflect and train, but while it is important to our way of life, it is, at the end of the day, merely a building.”

Button was nodding along, her little bunny too, though he had the impression that the little companion wasn’t quite keeping up.

Next to her, he could tell that Jazz was impatient. Hotheaded youth often were. They had yet to learn the value of moving slowly and speaking softly. They followed him into the tower, where other sages were calmly taking care of some things. The floor was being swept and a garden of Grass companions were being led through some stretches near the back.

Alfson escorted his guests up the stairs, past a small group of middle-aged tourists and into a space where mats were set on the floor next to an electric kettle. He had them sit, got some water, then started to prepare some tea for the three of them. “Tell me, Miss Jazz, what makes you want a ghost so much?”

Jazz was quick to answer. “Ghosts are incredible. Poison-type companions are the best, of course, but Death-type isn’t too bad. The Death-typing actually gives ghosts a huge boost. Lots of great immunities. Plus, ghosts are gaseous, meaning that they can get into tight spaces and have plenty of potential for movement in battle.”

“What about outside of fighting?” Button asked her friend.

Sage Alfson brought his teacup to his lips, hiding his smile. Yes, that was what he meant to ask next. This Jazz girl was overly focused on battle and didn’t pay any mind to what happened beyond that.

“What?” Jazz asked.

“What about outside of fighting?” Button repeated. “Do ghosts make for good friends? Do you have what you need to take care of one? Why do you want one besides it being a Poison-type and it being good at fighting?”

Jazz stuttered for a moment before closing her hands into fists. “I... mostly want a ghost because they’re strong, or they have the potential to be,” she admitted.

At least she wasn’t lying.

“You know,” he said. “Ghosts are companions that a lot of people look down on.”

“I know,” she said. It was almost a snap. “They’re a Poison-type. All of us... all of them are looked down on. People are afraid of them. It’s stupid. People don’t understand how great Poison-types are!”

Sage Alfson smiled openly now. He had a lot to say about hotheaded youth, but the reality was also that for all of their brashness, it was nice to see some passion as well.

“The sun won’t set for a few hours yet,” he said. “When it does, I’ll show you to the entrance to the third floor. There, you’ll find the ghost you’re looking for.”

It would also, he reasoned rather secretly, be nice to have one less prankster ghost in their attic.

***