Once everyone had fiheir lesson, there was a time for people to move to roups before a repeat. This allowed people to learn multiple specialized teiques in addition to the general ones.

  While Dawn was busy, Niphru tinued his practice of force magic, trying to minimize how much he used this time. By the time the sed set of lessons was over, he had mao form a small pne of force less than half the size of his paw.

  This surprised Dawn, as she had begun to head back towards their residence before realizing that Niphru hadn’t followed her. Turning around, she saw he was still focused on the area just ahead of himself, seemingly doing nothing.

  “Niphru, were you going to e bae or stay out here?” she asked.

  Niphru’s head bolted up, looking around before notig everyone else was already finished with the lessons and most had left.

  Fog ba Dawn, he responded, “Sorry, I was lost in my practice; I think I will be able to actually use this soon! you help me find something to try to move whe back?”

  “Sure, what do you want to use? encils and my notebook, as well as the towels,” replied Dawn as she led them back to their residence.

  Thinking for a moment, Niphru tilted his head before remarking, “I think a pencil would be best for now; I don’t think I do anything but damage paper right now, and I’m fog on smaller magic, so a towel would be too big.”

  Nodding at this, Dawn opehe door to their home befoing to retrieve a pencil from her supplies. Pg it oable, she waited as Niphru jumped up and id down nearby.

  After a few tries, Niphru mao hold multiple ptforms of force simultaneously before attempting to move them, succeeding quickly. Now that he had the basics dowempted to push the pencil in opposite dires at each tip, managing to make it spin around.

  Remembering how Dawhe pencil, using three points of taiphru attempted to do the same with force magibsp; After several tries, he mao throw the pencil into the air, but couldn’t quite mao hold it. Eventually, Dawo make dinner, leaving him to his practice.

  By the time dinner was ready, Niphru had bee disced from the repeated failures, which Dawn quickly picked up on.

  Stroking his head, Daw his portion of food in front of him while expining, “You may not have managed exactly what you wanted, but look at how much progress you made today. Throwing things is a good step towards holding them. I’m sure you will ma soon!”

  Feeling happier, Niphru nodded and began to eat, trying to focus on what he had succeeded in aplishing.

  Dawn then suggested, “How about we just go to bed early, then practice together tomorrow m? That should hopefully help you feel better and clear your mind a bit.”

  “Sure, I didn’t notice it before, but I am rather exhausted,” Niphru replied, jumping off the table and heading toward the bedroom.

  After jumping up on the bed, Niphru waited as he heard Dawn doing the dishes before she came to bed. Once she arrived and got into bed, he curled up beside her and quickly fell asleep.

  Waking up, Niphru found that Dawn had already gotten out of bed. As he exited the bedroom, he heard water running from the bathing room and headed io join Dawn in the shower. She happily picked him up and helped him get ed up.

  While they showered, Niphru had an idea and asked, “Have you sidered trying to use water magi the shower? I think I’ll try it out sometime.”

  Dawn nodded, replying, “I’ve thought about it, but the shower already takes care of everything I think of needing, so I haven’t bothered. It is a good pn though; I’ll see what I manage ime.”

  Following this exge, they stopped the shower and dried off before heading to the baly, being sure t the pencil with them. While it was risking dropping it, that also gave them iive to be ready to act quickly to bou back, either with force or wind.

  This time, however, Niphru was much more careful, using four small pnes of force to lift the pencil into the air before rotating it and grabbing it he bottom. Surprisingly, he found himself succeeding on the first attempt today.

  Unfortunately, it appeared he was still too inexperieo make any use of it, the pencil falling to the table wheried to move it, having falleween the moving pnes of force, which had spread apart somewhat.

  Despite this setbaiphru was hopeful he could ma soon. After all, he had found it retively easy to manage fog on multiple things at a time, which he assumed was due to his experieh the foxfire and illusions.

  Fog on Dawn for a moment, he saw her trying what he had been before, pushing her hand down at the table, with it slowing for a moment on the way down. Grinning, he turned back to his practice, having realized something that may be causing a problem.

  So far, all of his attempts to use force magic had created smooth surfaces, but he knew smooth things were poor at grabbing or holding things. With this in mind, he spent a signifit amount of time trying to shape something with many tiny ridges, succeeding a good while ter. To see if it worked, he rested it atop the pencil and slid it to the side.

  When the pencil rolled to follow, he couldn’t help but yip in happiness, drawing a curious gnce from Dawn. Having do once already, it was much easier to repeat, and just a moment ter, he was holding the pencil steady, even when he moved it around.

  Seeing this, Dawn smiled and gratuted him on his success, getting halfway through saying she could teach him to write now before he interrupted, “I think I also handle books and paper now!”

  He then turned and raced baside, jumping up to where Dawn’s notebook sat. Tilting his head as he sidered it, he decided on a course of a. One gripping pne behind the notebook to try to hold it ihen a sed smaller oo slide across the front. As he proceeded, he found it goily as pnned, bending the cover up slightly, which allowed him to shift a third pne of forder it, and then flip it over while removing the grip on top.

  Dawn walked in and saw him flipping the pages, then waited for him to stop before trying to speak again, “Now that you do that, I help you learn how to write, and you apparently read on your own now since you flip pages. Are there any kinds of books you want that we don’t have yet?”

  Boung iement, Niphru excimed, “I noticed we only have an expnation of wind magiothiailed, so could we get that? And maybe something about water magic, too? We both o get better with that. I don’t know if there is anything about force magic, but you should look for that, as well!”