Finally back home I looked down at my couch. With everything that happened today, it was just another rock to my barely banced pile of stones. Well, a bunch of rocks really, a lot to consider and more to prepare for. But one of those rocks lit a hunger within. After seeing how well Kathy and her team flew, it was like they owned the air. Damn! I need to feel that! I rushed to my room ready to change and get in a run and lift some impossible weights while I was at it. I passed by a door to one of Mom’s storage rooms, the door was open just a crack but within the moment I passed the crack I felt it. A wet feeling that seemed to rub my colr bone.

  I paused for a second, turning back to the open door. What was that? Why did that feel like that? It was like the cold air at Stawbae, maybe? As I poked an eye into the room, I saw a few bookshelves filled with titles like, ‘Pure Soul Parade’ or ‘Magical Doe Ray fray’, among cook books and something called ‘Mor and Their home’. A medium desk sat near the door with what looked like a paint kit with most of the red gone. And in the back was just a few boxes and a cabinet, eating up any remaining space in the room.

  But I didn’t feel anything, no wetness or any weird touching sensations. I stepped back, looking up at where the wall met the ceiling, spotting a small vent. “Must've been some crap from the vent then.” I turned around, rubbing my colr bone only to feel the annoying weights moving against my arm. With both a sigh and soured face, I lifted my elbow. “The things I have to do to get to my fun.” I muttered under my breath.

  As I changed into what was basically a sports bra hidden underneath a loose fitting jacket and workout pants? Yoga pants? Just pin bck tights that thankfully were easy to pull over these annoying hips and rge rear. Though as an added bonus the jacket covered some of the rear…. I wasn’t really looking at myself, just uh being sure things didn’t look wrong! Though my mirror companion, they weren’t half bad to look at. I could probably…. Watch their hips sway to the left and right all da-

  EHM!

  I made my way to the workout room only to pass by Cole who shifted closer to the wall and tilted his body towards me as we walked by each other. From how he positioned himself with his arms and legs bent, I thought he was about to run or start a fight. That didn’t feel good, kinda sour really. So I offered a friendly smile while respecting his space.

  “Did school go well for you?” I asked, hoping he might say something about something…A mean teacher or some cool thing he might’ve seen, anything would be better than his obvious hostility. Even a slight head nod. Please?

  But his narrowed eyes evolved into a gre as if I destroyed our mother’s sewing workshop in a drunken fury. He moved to get away before suddenly stopping. “Thanks.” Was all he said as he marched/stomped his way to his room.

  “Thanks?” I asked in confusion but before I could ask more, he was already turning the corner and disappearing. “What did you mean?” I called out but all I got was a door sm as a reply.

  What did you mean? Why say that out of nowhere? Was it my attempt to talk to him? Or was it something else? Did I do something that made him need to thank me?

  I wasn’t sure but I was at the workout room now. So I decided to think about it more ter as I moved to the treadmill and put my phone in the slot. After setting the treadmill to start at a medium speed, slowly raising to a higher speed. With this, I should make ten miles easy but I always wondered how fast I could go and how far I’d go if I really paced myself. I hope it’d be pretty far, maybe forty miles or more with a high energy meal? Maybe even further than what I could imagine?

  That’d be awesome! But I probably shouldn't test it now, I could worry Mom again if I randomly did. Pns for ter days I guess.

  With a shrug I started my run and hit py on the video on maju-mew calming abilities.

  “Maju-mew are quite the interesting sub-race of Nya-jin when comparing their almost human appearance to the other two sub-races. The si-cat appears as a small feline, the battle-jin as a pawed and cwed Oni, the Maju-mew sport only cat ears and a tail. They become even more fascinating when you consider how they use and channel their magic to a great effect. All maju-mew are known to have great senses, hearing higher pitches than humans and their rger eyes allow them to see in lowlight areas. Their senses are so keen that they have developed fine hairs in their ears to pick up on the location of fresh mana.”

  “This also allows them to sense emotions through that mana, often figuring out when an angry monster is actually acting and is really afraid or hurt. While monster kind can hide their mana, their breath always expels mana. which although is neutral mana, it is ced with a small amount of their own mana. Making hiding and even lying very difficult with one around. This emotional sense can be honed further beyond. When trained it can also pick up on weaknesses in the body, allowing them to find specific areas that are infected or even undetected injures.”

  “This is where their magic ability comes in. Through the use of their tail, they can channel a form of fire magic that releases a soothing scent not unlike incense or scented candles. When inhaled the scent will be like a familiar and favored smell that always brings peace to those that breathe it. This magical scent not only soothes the mind but also encourages the body to release endorphins, relieving stress and pain. With further research discovering the scent increases the viability of health recovery potions, salves and other medicines. When a truly focused maju-mew puts all their mana into the spell, they can even make non-magical medicines heal as if they were magical. Allowing for better recovery in situations such as jammed mana flow, mana frenzy or even mana poisoning in humans.”

  So that’s how my mana was so calm at the nurse’s office. Now that I think about it the pce did smell super nice and I even felt kinda rexed. None of the people there even acted weird or uncomfortable when I came through. What other types of work do the maju-mew find themselves in? They could probably be in just about any kind of job and make people feel better! I thought back to some of the most dead looking people in office cubicles, their baggy eyes and sore backs. If the boss hired a maju-mew then maybe people would feel better even after a stressful call? Might make cozy restaurants even better with one. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea of installing a maju-mew in the corner like some fan or tv.

  Will Belle’s house be like that? I mean I don’t know how many live there, Belle could be the oldest or many are too young to be able yet? It’d be kinda funny if I got help from a tot, if they can do that scent magic at a young age.

  A realization suddenly popped into my head, pausing my train. Although it didn’t say anything about their eyes being magical… I combed my hair back, trying to calm down. Belle can feel if I’m lying? No. oh no. I don’t believe for a second that he can’t peer into the deeper beyond. Into the shadows where I hide my worries. I refuse to think his beautiful eyes aren’t lenses of truth!

  After some thought and finishing the video, I looked up Oni next. Finding a history one on their famous battles. Though annoyingly, the first one to pop up was already the sixth video in the series, only finding part one when digging through the channel’s pylist………..it was set to newest to old, kinda weird maybe zy, possibly intentional. But really, I had bigger fish to fry.

  The video started outside a very small house that had walls made of some cherry red wood. Though it also looked like polished metal or coated in some resin. The video zoomed in to the window and there sitting on his legs was a guy with gsses and wearing some sort of robe with a very stylized wave on the chest.

  “Welcome back to-Sensei Prof!” The man said with a slight japanese accent. “Today we will be talking about one of my favorite topics! Oni war and battle! Today we will discuss one of the famous battles they had with not only orcs but with the demon feared hell hounds.” He cheered while raising two fists like a defensive boxer. The video transitioned to show a group of tusked orcs traveling with rge charcoal gray wolf monsters. The orcs were a deep green hue, had muscled arms and the rger ones had lion like manes that even flowed down their shoulders. The wolf monsters were all as big if not bigger than the biggest orcs. They had rge hands tipped with red cws, the ones with fewer scars grouping around those with many. In this band, many wore leather or a blue metal armor, some carrying short swords but most used spears.

  “Allow me to expin. This group is part of an infamous, ex-mercency turned bandit group, Ziemia. Though many like to add ragging and even berserker to their name. They were escaping the lord of the Tochi bone region, after pilging several towns and a part of the lord’s city. Killing many and hardly losing any of their members, if anything it seemed they were only getting more blood thirsty. Their escape led them right into the direction of the Iglica Grzmot. A rge mountainous region surrounded by pins and where four tribes of Oni lived.”

  The video showed tower like mountains surrounded by smaller shark tooth, jagged mountains. Then showed the giant Oni along with the smaller, human sized ones, hunting giant tusked goats, fighting each other and even climbing the tower mountains.

  “This region is also known as the training ground of the powerful Kijin. An Oni said to have reached god hood through their absurd strength and tactical mind, training everyday of their life here. And the Ziemia were about to learn why you don’t enter the training ground without proving themselves. The moment they entered a vilge near the entrance of the mountain range, all Oni there surrounded them. The sentinels walked through a hail of spells and arrows only to get into range to sweep away many of the orc with their bded clubs. The faster and more vicious hell hounds were handled by the smaller Oni, who grappled them or went blow to blow with them. The cws and fangs of the hell hounds easily cut Oni skin and muscle but many continued to battle. Using several hits to the ribs, chest and shoulders, they even threw punches at incoming cw strikes. This crushed their enemies’ cws or even distracted the hounds enough to be grappled, with the Oni aiming to dislocate their jaws or pull out their fangs.”

  The video showed the Oni smming their fists into hell hounds, some grabbed arms or legs to ram them into walls or boulders. The hell hounds bit into necks, sshed at knees and inner elbows, some threw Oni with a swing of their arm. One Oni had a hound in neck hold, trying to choke it but the hound’s eyes glowed a bright yellow and its body erupted into fme, creating a shock wave that blew back all Oni. the hell hound looked like living fire with a body of billowing ash and smoke, its cws were longer and turned pure white. And when it howled, bck and burning ash would bst out of its mouth like some sort of fmethrower.

  “The battle sted a full day due to the Oni never going for the finishing move and the ruthlessness that the hell hounds are named for. By the time the battle was over, many y battered, dead or beaten. Sadly for the bandits, the Oni had worn them out so much that when the Oni sentinels began to really cut loose, they had no choice but to pull back. Leaving behind many of their hell hound companions, who had won the Oni’s respect and even friendship. This retreat resulted in the lord of bones to capture many of them but left a bitter embarrassment that would one day lead him to aim his troops at the victorious Oni.”

  That was crazy. From what I saw, the Oni were trying to make the battle st longer, especially if the opponent was capable. Going for body blows and timing hits with their foe to effectively counter them, almost like a pyer that went for style in a boss rush. That Oni might be far more dangerous than I thought and that’s ignoring what the taller sentinel Oni could do. A single arm sweep and they threw three orcs! And the one I’m facing is one….

  Then the pn still stands, I need to keep myself guarded. Luckily she isn’t that much taller than me, just gotta look out for any sneaky moves from her. Thoughts of how that naga bitch’s student managed to dance around me and confuse me pyed in my head. She used magic to not only distract me but to attack. Hmm… A smile slowly grew on my face the more I thought about that fight.

  “That might just work!” I shouted. Might need a little workshopping but yeah! I won’t go down without dragging you through the earth.

  After a little weight lifting to burn off some anger, I finally went back to my room. Sitting by my computer, I sighed as I remembered the weird stuff that happened at Strawbae. The creature that wasn’t totally a mor. So I searched up dungeon mor.

  …..can’t live outside…….body melts…..sometimes explodes………………….Oh! A hypothesis on why they can’t survive. It’s believed that dungeons create mor from its own mana, magic or some weird gene hybridization. As seen with the Twin dungeon taking local fauna and stitching them together or adding their parts to existing mor. It is possible that a special type of mana exists within a dungeon’s zone of influence. Keeping what is normally an impossible creature alive. Which is further supported by how easily enchantable mor harvested materials are. Cws and teeth make great elemental daggers or swords, sinew used in power bows and cannon crossbows or even the skin used in protective clothing.