Aire looked around as she waited with Yanaes and Eleris, her sister peeking around the entrance of the school.  The rest of the day had gone by about as typically as expected.  They’d greeted people they hadn’t seen all summer, returned briefly to home room, and were now waiting around outside for Arlee.  A tap on Aire’s shoulder jolted her so bad she almost jumped out of her skin, whirling around and slapping a grinning aren necromancer in the face with her hair.  

“Ha… I think my little prank was a little too effective.”  

“Oh hey, it’s Arlee.”  Yanaes pointed out the obvious as Aire was practically clutching her chest while her heart skipped several beats.  “We weren’t one-hundred percent sure if you were coming after all, but we’re glad you came.  Aire was afraid that I scared you off.” 

“I trekked through a jungle to learn necromancy in order to resurrect my mother.  I’m not afraid of anything,” Arlee said bluntly.  “Turns out, you eat a lot of animals doing so.   Except for tree lions.  Never mess with the tree lions.”  

“Yeah, that doesn’t… sound like the smartest course of action,” Aire muttered awkwardly.  

“Anyways, where’s Lea?  Is she not coming along?”  Aire, Eleris and Yanaes looked between each other, as the pink-haired sister was the one to finally speak up.  

“Lea’s parents are pretty strict.  We mostly see each other at school, and she has to be getting pretty much perfect grades to be hanging out with me… er, us.”  She blushed, and Arlee couldn’t help but manage a small smile at that.  “Her mom thought I was being a bad influence on her daughter.  That is, until I rubbed MY grades in her face,” the pinkette boasted, before adding, “she was less ‘impressed’, and more ‘begrudgingly respectful’.”  

“Hey El, some people had to work for their grades.  Not everyone gets to be a narcoleptic prodigy.”  Yanaes smirked as Aire voiced her jealousy of her older sister, before leaning in to whisper (loudly) to Arlee.  

“Aire has the weakest grades out of all of us,” he explained.  “She’s a smart girl, but she spends way too much time playing Classical RPGs and visual novels-what were we doing?  Oh yeah!  We need to pick up my baby brother from elementary school.  Let’s go get him!”  Aire stared daggers at the lamia as he scampered ahead of them with a playful grin.  “What, I enjoy them, too.  Just not as constantly as you do,” he teased.  

As it turned out, the elementary school was actually very close to the high school, just a couple streets down the suburban neighborhood they lived in.  Of course, this time of the year meant things were cooling down, as the cactus flowers began to wilt and fall away.  Sometimes it was hard to believe that the entire northern half of Grand Divide rested within a massive desert, a sandy basin that was once underwater before Kyril ascended.  Even as Aire was seething and embarrassed from Yanaes’s earlier comment, she always seemed to appreciate the change of pace from her life in Devoid.  

Arlee tensed up as she saw something distinctly not human milling about the road ahead of them.  “... Pests.”  She rested a hand on her hip, as the others turned to look at what she was talking about before backing up.  Speaking of all things desert, a desert wyvern was crossing the street, its tail swaying about to keep people away from its hatchlings.  It was the size of a large wolf, but it was an intimidating thing to see just walking around.  It kept its nose to the ground as the last infant wyvern crossed the street, its head on a swivel before it saw the group of teenagers trying to pass by.  Way too close to its young for comfort.  Aire looked past it, and saw the elementary school was letting out.  

“Okay so this thing is big enough to maul one of us, and also big enough to carry away a kid.  El…?”  Aire gestured to her sister, who just shrugged, and shook her head.  “Oy, shoo.  SHOO!”  It was quite a sight, honestly, seeing Eleris try to intimidate the scaly creature as it hissed, rearing up to try and intimidate her right back as it flared its wings out.  “Take your kids and beat it!”  

“... I’ll just take care of it.”  Arlee murmured, as she gripped something hidden beneath her clothing.  Aire’s eyes widened as she looked down, noticing a hint of something metal emerging from a small scabbard hidden under the girl’s clothing.  Had she brought a weapon to class?

“Wait, you mean kill it?” Yanaes reeled back before waving his hands in dismissal.  “Slow down there, we don’t need to do anything like that.  I got this.”  The lamia slithered toward the mother wyvern and loosed a shrill coo to pull her attention away from Eleris.  The creature and her children regarded Yanaes with scrutiny before he began to caw loudly at them with a note of distress.  It was at that moment that the creature hastened her collection of her children and pushed them all to take to the air.  

The outlander was dumbfounded, taking in the moment before asking him point blank, “What did you do?”  

“Long story short, I told her her children were in danger because a big beast was approaching,” he explained.  When the confused expression refused to leave Arlee’s face, Yanaes came to a sudden realization.  “Oh, my mother was a pretty famous hunter.  She taught me a few things here and there.”  

“Yeah, no need to get all… murdery with the local wildlife.”  Hands behind her head, Eleris sighed with relief.  “I’m more than a match for anything that skitters around here, but I don’t like my clothes getting all torn up…”  

“El, I’d worry more about property damage if I were you.”  Aire watched the wyvern fly away with her children in tow, disappearing over the roof of a nearby home.  “Honestly, I was pretty surprised at first when I moved here.  More animals wander in from outside the walls of Grand Divide than you might think.  Keeps you on your toes for sure.  If you noticed, people only tend to get elemental dog breeds around here, because they can fend for themselves.  Well, that, or they just keep their smaller pets inside.”  

“I just don’t like how wyverns hang around the elementary school like vultures nowadays.  It’s really unsettling.  I wish Animal Control was better at handling them.”  Eleris placed her hands in her pockets as she sighed, scanning around the nearby homes, and around the school.  

“Yeah, at this rate, the crossing guards are gonna have to carry weapons,” Yanaes chimed in with his concern.  However, it was shortly after this comment that Yanaes came to a realization.  “Wait a minute, where is he?  This is a main intersection, he should have been here at Fifteen-hundred.”  As the lamia pondered this, the bell of the elementary school rang to signal the end of class.  Shortly after, children began to leave the building, led by the principal.  The bovine beastkin was wearing a reflective vest over her suit, with a crossing guard cap covering her short, black hair and brandishing a stop sign.  “Well, at least Mrs. Warner is helping the kids cross now.”  

“... Yeah, this is weird.  What’s the principal doing on crossing guard duty?”  Aire was legitimately confused at this point, but thankfully they’d all gone to this same elementary school, save for Arlee.  Waving, she couldn’t help but try to gain the principal’s attention as they looked around for Yanaes’s little brother in the meantime.  Mrs. Warner glanced over toward Aire’s direction and saw the three of them (plus Arlee) and waved back warmly at her former students.  Amongst the children crossing the street was a little lamian boy who bore such a resemblance to Yanaes that it was unmistakable.  Upon seeing all of them, he hastened his slither and quickly came to greet them.  

“Hi, Aire!  Hi, Elly!” the small boy shouted as he threw himself between them.  Eleris quickly pulled the boy into a fiercely affectionate hug, with Aire ruffling his hair as she looked over to Yanaes.  

“Hey Maro, did you know we saw a whole family of little wyverns out here juuuust before you came out here?”  The little lamia looked up at Aire in wonder.  

“Really!?  How many?  Where were they?” he bombarded Aire, hungry for details.  

“Six babies, and a mother,” Yanaes answered, pulling Maro’s attention away from Aire.  

“Yeah, and your brother shooed her out of the intersection so they wouldn’t get hurt,” Eleris chimed in, pulling Maro’s attention away from Yanaes.  The boy’s eyes sparkled.  

“Really?!”  It was Aire’s turn to ruffle Maro’s hair again.  

“Yeah, your brother’s a hero.  Just don’t let it get to his head, though.”  The little lamia came back round to Yanaes, hugging him tight.  

“You’re the best, Yaya!” the little lamia exclaimed.  Yanaes hugged him back with a giggle.  It was at this moment that the boy noticed Arlee and seemed to shy behind his brother at the sight of the dark, young woman.  

“Maro, this is Arlee Zealan,” Yanaes spoke up.  “We go to school together.  Go on, say ‘hi’ to her.”  The little lamia came out from hiding behind his brother and approached the outlander.  Perhaps it was a natural reaction.  There were precious few arens in Grand Divide.

“H-hello, Arlee.  I’m Maro Akonda,” he introduced himself.  Unfortunately, Arlee just didn’t look very friendly, so it was hard for Aire to blame him for reacting that way.  Arlee had to try to wipe away the constant look of disinterested annoyance she wore, the aren girl shifting to a brief smile, and giving the young lamia a small wave.  She thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to endear herself to him. 

“Hey, nice to meet you, Maro.  I’m going to be coming over to… uh, hang out, I guess.”  Maro waved back reflexively, her words seeming to take a moment to reach him.  Suddenly realizing that she announced she was visiting his house, the little boy seemed to relax.  

“Oh!  Are you Yaya’s new girlfriend?” the little boy asked without reservation.  His older brother snorted in amusement, barely holding himself back from having a giggle fit.  Arlee suddenly went rigid and turned her head.  Aire could see a bit of a blush there, as she scratched at her cheek.  

“Yeah, um… no.  Into shorter guys.”  Maro’s eyes widened at Arlee’s words, his tail nervously rolling.  

“I-I’m sorry, but Mama told me not to date older women,” Maro anxiously apologized.    “She said it can be really complicated.”  

“...By the Queen, he’s precious,” Arlee spoke (mostly to Yanaes) before shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I meant shorter guys closer to my age.  Your mom, though… Yan, just what is your mom accidentally putting into his head? And why do I feel like our parents would get along too well?”  

“Personally, I think it’s an invaluable nugget of wisdom,” Yanaes said as he crossed his arms and nodded.  “But you’re probably right, our mothers would get along pretty well.”  

“... Frighteningly well,” Eleris posited.  “Arlee, you sure your mom is busy?  I would love to watch chemistry in action.  I’d even heat up some popcorn and everything.”  She bounced on her heels as she spoke, that ever-present smile on her face widening as Arlee was clearly groaning internally.  

“Not… n-not in front of the kid.  For the love of..." Arlee massaged her temple intensely before continuing.  “...Gods, I do not want to think of where that might go.”  Maro looked back and forth between Arlee and Eleris, puzzled by their words.  

“What’s wrong with my mom and your mom getting along?” the little boy asked.  

“Believe it or not, Maro, there is such a thing as getting along too well,” Aire chimed in.  The little lamia nodded slowly.  

“You mean like you and Yaya?  Because that’s what all of Yaya’s girlfriends said.”  Arlee covered her mouth, trying not to laugh at Aire’s expense.  

“They didn’t respect childhood-friend rules,” Aire spoke dryly, her hands behind her head as they walked.  “But enough about our stupid teen troubles.  How’d your day go, Maro?  And…”  She paused, not sure how to phrase the next thing she was about to ask.  “Do you know why the principal is being the crossguard?  What happened to Mister Gris?”  

“Nobody knows where Mister Gris is,” Maro answered.  “Principal Warner said that he didn’t show up today, so we weren’t allowed to cross the street without her.”  

“I hope he’s okay, I can’t ever remember him not being here on a school day,” Yanaes remarked.  “It’s like he’s immune to illness.  Except for today, apparently.”  At the end of the day, though, he probably was just out sick.  It wasn’t too much to worry about, to be honest.  

“... So, enough about that.  It’s not really any of our business.”  Aire was trying to change the conversation, move stuff back to what they were doing today, which was primarily hanging out.  “Whose house should we hang out at, Maro?”  Their families were such good friends that they’d opted to connect their backyard fences and share a much bigger backyard several years ago.  It didn’t make much difference, at the end of the day.  

“Mama should still be at work…” Maro thought out loud.  “So let’s play at your house so Arlee can meet Mom.”  Arlee glanced at Maro for a moment, unsure if she misheard him.  

“Oh, we call Missus and Mister Leerhart ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ respectively,” Yanaes explained.  “And we call our mom, ‘Mama’.”

“Aww, that’s… actually kinda cute,” the outlander remarked.  “Well, um…  Lead the way!”  Of course, on the way home, none of them would notice it in the dry desert heat.  The scent had all but dried up.  Yanaes and Maro may have smelled something odd, from a small alleyway between the fences of two homes.  Scraps of cloth, and dried blood stains.  However, they were on the way home, and an unfamiliar city smell was the least of their worries.  

“So, Arlee…” Eleris started in, edging closer to the girl in question.  “You said you were gonna show us your… familiars?  Thralls!  What exactly are they?  Kinda important, cause, uh… you know.”  

“Potential destruction of property, or someone’s garden?”  

“Our parents don’t garden.  Neither does Aunt Vrelli.”  Aire added, in an offhand manner. 

“That’s our mom!” Maro explained exuberantly.  

“Just… don’t have too much… rowdy shit happen.  Like… you can control these things, right?”  Arlee blinked, and laughed nervously, rubbing her arm as they walked.  The sisters looked at each other, a touch worried about that.  

“They have… personality.  If I really have to spoil the surprise, then… one is named after my dad.  Adonis the Shadow Wolf.  One is… a Fireseed Tiger, and I named her Stripes.  The last one is, um.  Well.  Sort of… a Boreal Allosaurus.  Got sorta lazy, and just named him Cryo.”

“Wait, Stripes was a clever name?”  Aire swiftly punched the back of Yanaes’s head before adding her own two cents.  

“For real, though.  Stripes?  Do we… want to ask?”  It wasn’t long after Aire spoke up that her sister tag teamed her way in, leaning over in front of Arlee as they walked.  

“Because it’s fucking adorable, and we will.  We totally will.”  Eleris had her hands behind her back, and was leaning one-hundred percent into Arlee’s personal space, all with that wide smile of hers plastered all over the part of her face that Arlee could see.  

“It’s the name of a stuffed animal I had when I was… really, really young.”

“Awww~.  That is adorable,” Yanaes admitted.  “I’m sorry for calling childhood-you’s intelligence into question.”  

“No offense taken.  ...I think.”  

“How are thralls different from revenants, anyways?  Still a bit confused about that.”  Aire had a good point there.  To any average person, the words were basically interchangeable.  

“Well, I suppose I should explain some terminology first,” Arlee began.  “A thrall is any undead entity linked to a necromancer.  My mom, a revenant, is my thrall.  Now, a revenant is like a full-packaged undead.  Body remade, soul put back in, a surge of mana, some arcane mumbo jumbo, and you have a dead person being not so dead anymore.  What I’m going to show you are my eidolons.”  

“Eidolons are spirits of the dead that I’ve enthralled, and their spirits are housed in mediums that I’ve attached to my dagger until I manifest them.  If I pump enough mana into my summon ritual, I can give them a physical form, albeit one made of mana.  Each one is bound with a magic ‘code’, and I can release and reinstate that code pretty much whenever.”  

“I didn’t bring this up in my presentation, because, well… eidolons are often confused with familiars, and I didn’t want to go through the hassle of explaining the difference when my presentation was about my mom anyway.  Familiars are basically elementals that have been tamed, whereas eidolons are ghosts that I’ve stuck in objects that I’ve enchanted.”

“So, wait, what’s the difference between an eidolon and a fetish?” Aire asked curiously, prompting the outlander to wear a delighted grin.  

“I’m… actually glad you asked.  Didn’t think you would know about those.  A fetish is a very special kind of eidolon.  First, you take a segmented object, like a puppet or a doll, or-”

“Or an action figure?!” Maro cut in excitedly.  

“…I was going to say ‘a suit of armor’, but I suppose you could use an action figure,” Arlee mused.  “Although you generally want something strong enough to move without breaking, and big enough to write and draw on.  Which brings me to my second point.  You need to enchant the object to maintain its form properly.  That’s really difficult, and tedious, because you’re basically outlining and programming a skeleton made of magic.  But once you have the object properly enchanted, you can take a spirit and attach it to the enchanted object to use as a body.  And that’s how you make a fetish.”

“Do you have any fetishes, Arlee?” Maro asked innocently, prompting his brother to snort.  Yanaes opened his mouth to jest when Aire smacked the back of his head.  

“No, I don’t,” she answered with a straight face.  “Fetishes require a lot of complicated set up, and while the pay off for that set up is a thrall that has a physical body ready to go… well, the nice thing about a regular eidolon is that you can attach it to something small, like a charm or pendant.  A suit of armor isn’t very portable.  Most of the time at least.  What’s more, when you attach a spirit to a fetish, that spirit is confined to the limitations of that body.  When you manifest an eidolon properly, the form it takes is of its original body.”

“Ah, I get it… probably important not to sacrifice any of your big beasties’ strength, speed, or size, yeah?”  Eleris strolled along, bringing up the rear by Maro.  “... Though that can’t be convenient, yeah?  Materializing something big, like …. An elephant.  A dragon.  A big ole’ allosaurus like you told us about?”

“...I would be lying if I said intimidation wasn’t part of it.”  A sigh escaped her lips as she reminisced about a time only she could know.  “My… my sister told me once that the best fight is one where no one gets hurt.  Or in my case, where someone doesn’t get mauled.  People tend to back down from trying to mug you when terrifying creatures pop up out of nowhere.”  

“Wait, someone tried to mug you?  Around here?”  Aire seemed skeptical, and she had every right to be; their neighborhood, their city, didn’t have much crime to speak of aside from very petty theft.  It wasn’t Grand Divide Arlee was speaking of.  

“No, I… it’s not much of a story.  It would be quicker to say that the whole thing ended in soiled trousers.  It’s why I always have my eyes open for something new I can… add to my repertoire.”  As they walked, Aire perked up as she saw her and Yanaes’s homes.  

The two houses were close together, and the yard had a sort of cohesion that was only possible through the care of their parents… and an experienced yardman, of course.  Both homes shared the same sort of marble block that was common throughout Grand Divide, but one house was distinctly more angular than the other.  Between them grew a huge desert willow, its branches reaching from house to house, practically connecting the upstairs windows and sporting a sturdy looking treehouse pathway at that.  Aire’s eyes flicked up, and a smile lit her face for a split second as Arlee stared, her mouth agape ever so slightly.  

“... You guys live here?”  

“Yeah.  Our parents are super close, and they’re well off enough to afford all the fancy renovations.”  The question was odd, and Aire couldn’t quite put her finger on what Arlee was having trouble with, as she glanced back to Yanaes, her sister, and Maro.  Trying to read their new friend’s face wasn’t an easy task.  She just looked so distant, as if what she was seeing was something she’d wanted for a long time.  Maybe not the houses themselves, but, something beyond the structures.  Something emotional and personal for her.  

“.... Helleeeew?  Kyril to Arlee, you in there?”  When Arlee didn’t answer, Yanaes slowly placed a hand on Aire’s shoulder, raising a finger as if to say, ‘give her a moment’.  Maro watched intently, curious about what was happening.  After just another moment, Arlee blinked and glanced over her shoulder, as if returning to her senses.  

“Right so… your parents’ home?  Are we asking for permission?  Or am I going to introduce you guys to my eidolons without telling?”  

“Dad’s still at work, but Mom should be home.  Key word is ‘should’.”  Aire only saw their mom’s car, so that seemed to be right on the money.  That said, convincing their parents to permit an act of necromancy in their backyard was probably easier said than done.

“I’m sure Mom will be cool with it,” Yanaes shrugged.  “Come on, you’re not going to meet her by just standing out here.  Well, maybe you might, but… just come on inside.”  

“Yeah!” Maro agreed enthusiastically, grabbing Arlee by the hand.  For a little boy who was hiding from the outlander behind his older brother minutes earlier, he was very eager for Arlee to meet Mrs. Leerhart.  Her eyes briefly flitted down to meet his before she looked up at the Leerharts’ house.  

It was still strange to her that marble was so common in Grand Divide, and considered a rare luxury, imported at a high price everywhere else.  Of course, to the rest of them, it was normal.  Unlike the curved structure of Yanaes’ home next door, this house was constructed at a hard slant with white marble brick walls, and large, tinted windows, all of which helped to keep the heat out.  Aire stretched as she walked in ahead of Arlee, looking about for her mother, while Eleris yawned behind them.  

“Mom?  Are you home?” Aire called out.  The interior of the house was clean, efficient, and the kitchen sported high-end appliances, likely imported from Devoid.  However, as Arlee was admiring the cookware, a low growl made the hair on her neck stand on end.  She barely had time to turn her head when a large dog with long, white shaggy fur began barking at her, causing the outlander to enter a defensive stance.  

“Boey, down!  Guest,” Aire commanded, silencing the old dog.  His droopy ears perked up, sitting with interest.  Arlee relaxed as the old dog sat there patiently.  “Go on,” Aire gestured to Arlee.  “It’s okay to pet him.”  The outlander gingerly approached Boey and gently patted his head.  “Good boy,” Aire said as she ruffled the fur on his head.  “Sorry, I probably should have mentioned we had a dog.”

“It’s okay,” Arlee shook her head.  “I’m just… not used to interacting with dogs as pets.”  

“How do you usually interact with dogs?” Maro asked curiously, but Yanaes quickly stepped in.  

“Maybe it’s better if Arlee doesn’t answer that.”  

“Hello!” a voice called from upstairs followed by hurried footsteps.  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.  My um… my volume was too high.  For work.  Yeah.”  The owner of the voice finally came into view from the staircase.  She was undoubtedly the mother of the Leerhart sisters; Aire was her spitting image, only the mother was shorter and sported deep, sea blue hair.  She wore a worn down black t-shirt under an apron stained with many colors of paint.  Her jeans were similarly abused, with frayed openings in the knees.  She only briefly flinched at the unfamiliar face she found in her living room before calmly greeting this apparent new friend of her daughters.  “I’m Rerrarie, Aire and El’s mother,” she introduced herself to Arlee with a kind nod, extending her right hand while resting the other in front of her apron.  

“Hi.  I’m Arlee.  Arlee Zealan.”  The outlander awkwardly shook Mrs. Leerhart’s hand.  

“It’s… nice to meet you, Arlee.  It’s been a while since Yan brought another girlfriend over to visit.”  The sentence was punctuated by Arlee’s grimace and Eleris’s snicker.  

“Oh no, we’re not dating,” Yanaes interjected.  “Not yet, at least.”  

“Oh no, not ever,” Arlee added in flatly, the unamused expression on her face leaving little doubt on whether she was joking or not.  “Anyone trying that hard stays strictly in ‘comic relief friend’ territory.  A bit of wisdom from my mom, that’s all.”  Eleris’s snickering elevated to full on laughter as Yanaes twirled dramatically before collapsing onto the living room sofa, holding his heart.

“O Arlee, fair’st Arlee, thou doth woundeth me,” the lamia feigned.  Boey walked over and licked his face, causing him to sputter.  

“It’s okay, Yaya.  Boey still loves you,” Maro added.  

“Ouch.  Good boy, Boey.”  Aire was more than used to how the brothers played off each other, and never could help but find it amusing.  More than anything, she was just glad to be home for the day.  Of course, now that she was, they had a new problem to deal with; seeing if their mom would be kosher with Arlee summoning what pretty much amounted to undead servants in their backyard.  

“Hey Mom, can Arlee summon stuff in our backyard?”  Aire almost felt the bones in her mother’s neck creak as she looked to her eldest daughter, happily wearing her signature wistful smile as the question was so odd that their mother looked to Arlee, and then back to her daughters.  

“I.  Um.  Sure?  What?”  Yeah, that was about the response they expected.  “Like… summoning familiars or… what are they called.  Thralls?”  

“Necromancer stuff.  But pretty much, yeah.”  To her credit, Mrs. Leerhart didn’t immediately freak out as Arlee crossed her arms and tensed up, waiting for the seemingly inevitable tongue lashing.   

“Will they wreck the yard?”  Arlee pursed her lips at Mrs. Leerhart’s question and laughed nervously, raking a hand through her hair and drawing her bangs in front of her other eye as well.  

“I… uh… how badly do you want to pet a friendly boreal allosaurus?  See one up close?  A fireseed tiger?  A shadow wolf?”  

“I think one of those might be concern for the yard burning down,”  Mrs. Leerhart flatly pointed out.  The yard was pretty dried out from the summer drought, and Rerrarie and Vrelli had jointly given up on trying to make anything that wasn’t a cactus grow back there.  The old tree was still hanging in there, but that was only because its roots went deeper than the other plants back there.  

“I don’t see the problem,” Arlee spoke bluntly.  “If Stripes accidentally sets anything on fire, Cryo will put it out.  And Adonis… will probably lick someone’s face, not gonna lie.  I think I let him get too used to being a house wolf….”  

“That sounds oddly adorable,” Eleris muttered wistfully.  Aire had to agree with her sister on that.  Of course, talking about it was one thing, but Arlee was already heading out back, with Maro following closely behind her, practically bouncing with excitement.  As she opened the sliding glass door to the backyard, the outlander wasted no time in pulling her dagger from its sheath and a book from her bag, to Rerrarie’s horror.  

“She has a knife?!” she practically screamed, but that was largely ignored by the rest of the spectators.  

“She has a grimoire!” Yanaes practically screamed, joining the excited Leerhart sisters as they crowded around her with Maro.  “Why didn’t you show it off during class?  It would have been so cool!”

“Well… I didn’t want to make a big deal over it, and I didn’t need it for my presentation,” Arlee bashfully answered.  Eleris gave her a pat on the back that almost knocked her over.  She really was strong.

“Aww, don’t be so shy, even if it is kinda cute.”  The elder sister brought a blush about Arlee’s face, and the outlander shook her head with an emboldened smile.  

“Okay, who’s ready to meet some exotic animals?”  The brothers and sisters clamored about her with excitement as she held her grimoire open, and the black ink on the pages began to glow pale blue as it reacted to Arlee’s mana.  She knew the page she needed, and the pages turned by themselves until the one she needed lay open.  A glowing, complex diagram, a heptagram sigil, began to take shape under Arlee's feet, until it matched the one on the open page of her grimoire.  The charms dangling from the pommel of her massive, jagged dagger glowed in response.  “Spirits of the dead beholden to me, heed my command; Come forth and take shape!  Adonis!  Stripes!  Cryo!”  

Suddenly, three large animals began to materialize in the backyard, forming up from the ground and grass, as if they were being stitched together by the very earth.  All of the Leerharts and Akondas present stood awestruck as the creatures took form before their very eyes.  The first was a massive, jet-black wolf, whose shoulders stood even above Aire’s head, its eyes a softly glowing lavender, and sporting incredibly thick fur that seemed to only increase the intimidatingly giant canine’s profile.  Of course, that sense of awe was cut down when he pushed his nose under Arlee’s hand with a low-pitched whine.  Almost to punctuate that moment, Boey hopped up on his hind legs to put his paws on the glass, the Leerhart’s family pet clearly just as stunned by what was manifesting in his backyard.  

The next thrall materialized almost immediately in front of Maro and was no less intimidating at first.  A large tiger sporting luminous, red and orange fur, broken up by ashen stripes… promptly sat down in front of the young lamia, and tilted its head in curiosity.  The lamian child instinctively hid behind Arlee, his earlier enthusiasm cowed by newfound awe, and fear of the unknown.  Of course, owing to its namesake, its tail seemed to open up into a flare of blazing fur at the end, resembling a flaming flower, complete with embers rising out of it.  A deep yawn, and low yowl from its open maw were all it needed to relax, and put its head down on its crossed paws, its eyes flicking between Arlee, and her new friends.  With another yawn, it flopped onto its side, and stretched out, earning a nervous laugh from Mrs. Leerhart as she watched all of this unfolding.  

That said, the last one to appear towered over its fellow eidolons and could nearly look into their second story window.  A large, bipedal, and reptilian countenance, and yet it sported pristine, snowy white feathers around its neck, like a big, bushy mane.  A pair of horned crests pointed upwards, just above its eyes, its skin otherwise covered in ivory scales, marked by royal blue stripes.  A cold mist suddenly gathered along the ground, dropping the temperature to an honestly pleasant degree.  It hissed and looked up, looking back at Arlee, only for a moment, before inhaling.  

“... F- D-Drat.  Forgot where we were.”  Everyone immediately looked at Arlee, right before the icy saurian belched out a cold, icy mist straight up into the air, that just seemed to hang in the air above their home and condense.  It began to snow in their backyard, fueled by an animal clearly out of its element who had figured out a way around this little fact, from the looks of things.  

They all gazed in amazement at the three beasts while Arlee let out a heavy sigh, the glow of her charms and the sigil under her feet slowly fading away, leaving a pattern of scorched grass where it once was.  She was drenched in sweat, breathing deeply after putting so much of her own mana into the summoning.  Yanaes’s ears perked as he heard Arlee’s strained breaths, and he turned to her to see her putting her grimoire back in her bag, panting.  

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked her as he approached, and she gave him a hard nod.  

“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” she tried to assure him.  “It just takes a little bit to summon all three of them.  Don’t worry, I’m okay.”  

“That’s... normal, right?” Aire spoke up, unable to believe what she was seeing.  This creature was making it snow in the Vannash Desert.  In their yard, and it was fast, to the point that they could see their breath in the plummeting temperatures.  

“Oh yeah, totally normal if I pull him out during the day.  He can’t stand the desert heat, so he causes a local… cold zone, I guess.”  Seemingly satisfied with itself, the large dinosaur shook its entire body, before sitting on its haunches.  “This is Cryo, of course.  The lazy cat is Stripes, and the big puppy is Adonis.”  Of course, with all the snow collecting in the backyard, Stripes was having none of it, and she got up and shook off the snow from her coat.  Rerrarie stood back and watched as the beast approached her backdoor.  Boey barked furiously from the other side of the sliding glass door, doing absolutely nothing to intimidate the enormous cat.  

“B-Boey, down.  Guest,” Rerrarie nervously commanded as she opened the door, earning a confused look from the old dog, but he nonetheless obeyed.  Stripes muscled her way inside, and sprawled across and over the sofa.  The entire sofa.  Boey, curious as he was, ran up to the massive cat, having never seen anything like it.  One lick from the huge feline’s rough tongue, however, had the big dog rubbing his face in the carpet, shaking his head as he sniffed around the big cat more in curiosity.  

“It’s… can I just say, I’m in awe, concerned, and … in more awe that it’s snowing on our house right now?”  

“I’m surprised Stripes is giving up so quickly today.  Normally it’s a whole… thing between the two of them.  Cryo puts up snow, Stripes burns it away because she wants to sunbathe, rinse and repeat until someone gives up, and squeezes inside.”  Rerrarie pursed her lips at the thought of the large dinosaur trying to fit inside their house instead of the tiger.  

“... This is fine.”  The admission came as everyone finally seemed to exhale, literally and mentally, from the spectacle.  Three large beasts, the likes of which they’d never normally see in their lives, not even in a zoo, all in their backyard, was, as Aire put it:  

“This is so freakin cool!  How often do you get to see a shadow wolf outside of Arkus?  A boreal allo that doesn’t want to turn you into a frozen dinner?”  Arlee turned to Aire, smiling and brushing her hair back into place, relieved that she hadn’t ruined her first impression with her new friends and one of their parents.  

“Not often.  Now who wants to pet them?”  Adonis had had his nose under the outlander’s hand the entire time, now rubbing the large wolf behind his ear, but those same ears perked up when he heard her speak.  With a bit of a look around, the large wolf lay down next to Arlee and Maro, its large, bushy tail swishing in the collecting snow.  A low whine emanated from the huge canine as it looked at Maro and Arlee, as if begging someone to scratch him behind the ears.  Maro apprehensively approached the wolf and reached his little hand out, making contact with Adonis.  The big wolf pushed his head up under his hand, eyes staring up at him as he loosed another whine.  Like a big dog, his tail began to swish faster immediately on contact.  Meanwhile Eleris fearlessly walked out into the yard, where Cryo sat.  

“Hey there big guy, don't you agree with the weather?  I get that.”  Honestly, Aire had a hard time believing what she was seeing, even after their absolutely surreal first day having an elemental studies class in a pocket dimension with a questionably-dressed teacher.  And now, here Eleris was, reaching up and scratching a huge dinosaur under the chin.  Cryo blinked, looking down at her for a moment before allowing it, closing his eyes and seemingly enjoying the contact.  His breath fell from his mouth like a cold mist, as Aire drew the sliding door a bit.  No one was dressed for a sudden weather shift like this, that was for sure.

“See Mom?” Yanaes said to Rerrarie.  “Everything worked out fine.”  He slithered up to Maro and Arlee and rustled his little brother’s hair. 

“Yaya!  I’m petting the wolf!  He’s so big… but really friendly.”  Yanaes gave him a big grin, the huge black wolf content to let the small lamia pet him as long as he wanted.

“You’re pretty brave, Maro.”  Arlee couldn’t help but roll her eyes as her classmate encouraged his little brother, the tension easing from her muscles as she relaxed.  Eleris was getting along with the large dino, Maro was enjoying petting what amounted to a super-sized dog.  Aire turned her eyes toward her mother as she sheepishly approached the massive tiger.  

“H-heeeey Stripes.”  She opened an eye and watched as Rerrarie drew closer.  “Everyone’s interested in the snow, but not you, huh?  Do you like scritch-scratches?  I bet you do, don’t you?”  Watching her mother rubbing her hands through the tiger’s fur was surreal for Aire, but Stripes just stretched and purred as she received the attention she felt like she clearly deserved.  

“They’re… honestly, Arlee, you’re kinda amazing.”  Aire’s words caught the outlander off guard, as she tugged her muffler up to hide the fact that she was blushing.  

“I… w-what?  Do you think so?  I, um… am not used to that sort of reaction.  If I’m being honest.”  Arlee glanced back outside, as Cryo shook off the snow from his body, while Adonis rolled over in it, clearly begging the lamian brothers to rub his belly next.  “... I’m not sure if it’s because I’m so comfortable with you people, or if it’s just because they took a liking to you.”  

“Oh?  Not pulling any strings behind the scenes to make this happen?”  Arlee winced at the insinuation, if only slightly, looking up at Aire.  

“N-No, no, this is all… you guys.  Them.  They have a way with people that I don’t, really.  Seeing them get along with you helps me relax, actually.”  Aire leaned down, scrutinizing her face as she leaned away, glancing to the side and trying to avoid eye contact.  

“... That’s actually really freakin 'cute, little miss ninja necromancer badass.”  Arlee continued to bring her muffler further up her face until her cheeks were fully hidden.  

“Come on, Aire, don’t tease her like that,” Yanaes chimed in.  “What Aire is really trying to say is, ‘you’re awesome’ and ‘thank you for showing us your thralls-slash-pets’, right Aire?”

“You and your pets are so cool, Arlee!” Maro added, rubbing Adonis’s belly without hesitation.  The huge wolf kicked his hind leg in response, panting in the chilled air outside.  A growing layer of snow was collecting and piling up around the paired homes, even as Eleris used both hands to scratch the underside of Cryo’s neck and mane.  

“Hey, Yan.  Compliment.  You know how I compliment.”  Aire crossed her arms, as she stuck her tongue out at Yanaes, holding back a laugh as she saw the dinosaur outside duck low so Eleris could get the back of his neck next. “El’s made a new friend.”  

“Yeah, he likes that spot,” Arlee clarified quickly, before looking around.  Defying all the odds, everyone seemed to be having fun, and no one was freaking out.  They were chatting, first about Arlee’s thralls, then about the strange class they’d started, with the even stranger teacher.  The more they spoke, the more things moved indoors, out of the cold, as everyone settled in.  Aire could tell as she watched Arlee that this was the girl’s first real hang out with a bunch of friends her age.  What seemed like an awkward and cold exterior at first was loosening up, and she seemed to be letting herself laugh and relax.  It was quite a contrast from the girl who was ready to gut a sand wyvern in the street.  What had started as a spectacle for nearly all of them was slipping right into their usual sort of afternoon.  

“Alright kids,” Rerrarie spoke up.  “I’m going to order some pizzas… and hope the delivery man isn’t freaked out by a miniature snow storm hanging over our houses.”  She looked outside, still a little dumbstruck by the creature so casually ‘chilling’ in their backyard.  Every now and then, it would look up, and exhale a gust of icy breath into the snow cloud hanging over the house, pushing the edges of it outward a little more each time.  Aire couldn’t help but realize how strange the scenery looked outside, as the setting sun filtered through the unnatural snowfall surrounding their home.  

Everything had settled down at this point, and it felt like just another day with Yanaes and Maro, with a fresh new face thrown in.  Of course, Aire couldn’t restrain herself from playing video games with Yan’s little brother, both of them resting against the big cat taking up some decent real estate in their living room.  Meanwhile, Eleris couldn’t help but manage a smile at the snow angels they’d made being filled in and fade away.  Arlee didn’t speak much for her own accord, but nonetheless seemed awkwardly pleased to answer any questions.  Like her talents were something she didn’t get a chance to speak about a lot, especially not with other people her age.  It was as if she had found a new method of catharsis she had never tried before.  It made Yanaes wonder what Arlee had been through.  

A sudden knock on the door grabbed everyone’s attention, but the new arrival neglected to wait for permission to enter and simply slithered on in.  Boey barely gave the visitor a glance, while his tail nonetheless wagged happily.  She wore a black jacket over a white dress shirt, with a matching black pencil skirt and a holstered hand cannon on her hip.  Her long, green tail supported a supermodel’s body, topped with a nervously smiling face.  Mossy brown layered hair outlined her face before being pulled back in a short ponytail, her soft blue eyes looking about the room, from Yanaes to Eleris, Aire and Maro, the undead tiger, Boey, and finally Arlee.  Seeing as everything was (relatively) normal, her shoulders relaxed before shouting out with a loud, “Well howdy, now!”  

“Mama!”  Maro practically threw his controller aside before bolting at who could only be “Missus Akonda”.  “How was work?  Are you okay?  You look scared.”  

“Well, I right think I saw no less’an three ghosts today, an’ all b’tween now and when I parked m’car!” she laughed as she picked her youngest son up and pecked a kiss on his little cheek.  Hardly surprising considering what was hanging over both houses.  Just to punctuate that moment, the frigid allosaur in the backyard blew another burst of its breath into the air, peering over the fence before curling back up into a ball.  Between the menagerie of normally incredibly dangerous animals, and the look on her kids’ faces, it was hard to gauge what was going through her head at the moment.  

“Hey Vrelli…”  Rerrarie laughed as she walked down the stairs, pulling her headphones off of her ears as she stretched out, exhausted from keeping an eye on things, and working on her latest commissions when she had the chance.  “The kids made an… interesting new friend, to say the least.  Before I knew it, we were hosting the strangest nature documentary I’ve ever seen.”

“Ya don’t say!” Vrelli laughed back, before slithering on into the living room and turning towards Arlee.  “I’m guessin’ yer the lil’ doll what summon’d them critters ‘round here, yeah?  What’s yer name, sweetie?”  The outlander shied away ever so slightly while being put on the spot before looking up at the lamian woman.  

“Yeah, that was me,” Arlee admitted.  “I’m Arlee Zealan, nice to meet you.”  Vrelli’s eyes seemed to widen ever so slightly before returning to her previous expression.  

“Ya don’t say.  Well howdy, Arlee.  You prob’ly gathered as much, but I’m Yan an’ Maro’s mama, Vrelli Akonda.  I take it ya got swept off yer feet b’mah baby boy, didn’t ya?  Guess it was a matter’uv time ‘fore he picked up a necromancer.”  Arlee’s face scrunched in annoyance.  

“I didn’t get ‘picked up’ by your son.  We’re just friends- why does everyone think we’re dating!?”  Rerrarie couldn’t help but cover her mouth as she listened to that response, and no one could really blame her.  

“It might surprise you to learn this, but it’s sort of weird when every single one of a teenage boy’s friends is female, Arlee.”  Aire snickered at her mother’s catty remark, looking up from the couch.  

“Yeah, pretty much everyone at school who doesn’t know him well pegs him as a notorious womanizer.  If you hang around him and your name isn’t ‘Aire’, ‘Eleris’, ‘Lea’, ‘Revvet’, or ‘Tsubaki’, then you’re probably his next fling.”  A look of apprehension overtook Arlee’s face at Aire’s words.  

“Oh gods, what did I get myself into?”

“Now, now,” Vrelli cut in.  “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with hangin’ ‘round girls.  ‘Fact I’d say it gives a healthy boy ‘n edge when it comes to interactin’ with the fairer sex.”  

“A-men~,” Yanaes chimed in.  “Besides, I’m done fooling around.  Keeping my eyes forward this year.”  

“If you say so~,” Eleris snickered.  Aire rolled her eyes as her sister giggled, still playing her game as she leaned up against Stripes.  

“So, I take it you have no impromptu choice comments for our new necromancer friend, then?  Or anyone else we meet at school?”  Her choice of words was pointed straight at Yanaes, as her eyes remained glued on the screen.  A hack and slash game boomed through the TV as Arlee peered over the back of the couch, seemingly ignoring the ongoing conversation.

“Now, that’s like asking a rooster not to crow,” Yanaes chuckled. “But, you have my word that in spite of how attractive I find girls to be, or how much I flirt, I am past the point of dating random classmates.  No more practice or experiments.  This year… I’m narrowing my sights.”  Aire glanced over her shoulder to see Yanaes looking squarely at her.  She quickly turned her attention back to the TV as Eleris and Vrelli began to giggle.

“That right, son?” Vrelli asked sarcastically.  “Ya got it planned out, now?  Figured what’cha gonna do?  Need mah help pickin’ out a ring?”  Yanaes blushed as his mother called his commitment into question.  

“N-no, sorta, and no!” he answered defensively, before whining, “Mama, I got this…”  Vrelli, Rerrarie, and Eleris snickered and giggled at Yanaes’s expense, while Aire sunk into her seat and Maro looked about them all confused.  Arlee, on the other hand, couldn’t help but look at Vrelli’s hand, which was conspicuously barren of any sort of jewelry.

“Uh, Missus Akonda, what happened to your ring?”  

“Oh I ain’t married no more!” she laughed heartily.  “I threw that spit away af’er mah ex tried t’ice me!”  Arlee couldn’t help but find the ease with which Vrelli laughed that statement off to be alarming.  

“Fuck that guy.”

“El!  Not n’front of Maro,” Vrelli scolded the pinkette.  Even the seemingly unflappable Eleris shrank at the sound of Vrelli’s tone, and Yanaes did, too.  At the same time, however, he leaned closer to Eleris and whispered, “Fuck that guy,” trading timid fist bumps with her.  Maro was forcing a hard “F” from his lips when Vrelli lifted him up to her eye-level.  “Imma ground you if ya finish that word.  That what’cha want?  You want me t’ground ya n’front of Yan’s new friend fer havin’ a potty mouth?”  Maro gasped before looking over to Arlee.  The little lamia shook his head frantically.  “Then be’a good boy, and don’t go sayin’ nasty things like that n’front of guests.”  

“Yes, Mama…” Arlee couldn’t help but watch the exchange between Maro and his mom with interest.  Her own mother never reprimanded her like that, being a much more liberal speaker.  However…

“Queen of the Dead…” Arlee muttered out loud, gaining Aire’s attention.  “My sister was more like a mom than my mom.”  Aire snorted before devolving into full-on laughter, having to pause her game until she regained her composure.

“Now that’s a sister,” she finally said.  Aire could only wonder what kind of person Arlee’s sister must have been for their relationship to be the way it was.  ‘A sister that was more like a mom, huh?’  She gave a sideways glance to Eleris, and she could barely hold back a giggle-fit at the thought.