It pleased Ginger to no end that he didn’t have to linger in the Stalwart Stallions ‘office’. The interior of the Hunting Limb’s shabby, lopsided building was as untidy and wet as he remembered. It was all too understandable why some people didn’t give the place a second glance.


    But as odd as the building was, Ginger didn’t find its inhabitants to be bad as company. As soon as he arrived in Proin, mid-morning, Fai had struck up a friendly conversation with him while Shan locked up.


    Fai was a tall, thin man with great volumes of grizzled grey hair and sharp green eyes. He didn’t look all that old, but his grey brows gave the illusion that he might have been in his late centuries. To Ginger’s great relief, Fai wasn’t adorned in another plain white shirt blessed with sweat, and an old pair of wrinkled corduroy pants. The mature head of the Stalwart Stallions had on what looked like a stylish long-sleeved jerkin the color of straw over some kind of maroon shirt, and tight-fitting pants.


    He looked like a different person. The only thing that tethered him to the versions of him Ginger remembered was his default cheerful personality.


    But quite different from her father, Shan was dressed in a similar fashion to last time. She also wore a jerkin, black, sleeveless and with pretty silver patterns. It hid a short of soft fabric under it. The girl paired the gloomy jerkin with a fairly long black skirt that bordered the sides of her waist with what looked like steel tassets. The tall black boots that she wore on her feet completed the moody look.


    The only thing remotely out of the ordinary about her (to Ginger) was that her long purple hair was tied in a ponytail.


    Her oddly black eyes turned sharply to Ginger when he spent a few seconds too long staring. He didn’t hurry to look away though. That would have only made him feel even more embarrassed.


    He coughed awkwardly as he, Fai, and Shan walked up Good Yield Street.


    “So… where’s Long?”


    Long was the only member of the Stalwart Stallions that Ginger hadn’t been properly introduced to. The last time Ginger was in the Hunting Limb office, Long had been fast asleep and the plump dragonling hadn’t even gotten a good look at him.


    Shan adjusted the way she was carrying the large duffel bag that hung from her shoulder before answering.


    “He’s off handling some of our other… business.”


    If it had been Fai who gave the response, Ginger would have felt free to ask what this other business was, but since it was Shan, he lost the will to.


    The girl was not at all the cold type, at least from Ginger’s present assessment. Last Breather, she didn’t treat him any differently before or after she and Fai discovered that Ginger had a high aptitude for manipulating Mana Essence. She was just… Shan.


    Fai must have sensed the awkward dissatisfaction in Ginger because he laughed and gave the rest of the information the boy desired.


    “Working as a Hunting Limb is noble work. It pays, but with the amount of competition we have in Proin, it just isn’t enough to cover all our expenses. So, aside from that, we run a few farms. Shan and Long are animal and plant lovers. When they were both younger, I invested in a few plots of land, seeds, fertile breeds of different sorts, and we sprouted endless grace from there. You should have seen the look on Shan’s face. She rarely beams like she used to back when we lived among the poppies.”


    Ginger donned a wide smile and glanced at Shan.


    The black-eyed girl turned to her father with a barely expressive face and sighed.


    “Why do you always bring up the poppies?” she said exasperatedly.


    “So you know that soon, we’ll be living among them once more. I know you miss them,” Fai said and nudged the girl’s shoulder. She inched away, creating distance between them.


    Ginger didn’t want to intrude on the intimate moment between father and daughter, but at the same time, he was quite curious about what they were talking about. What was all this talk about poppies?


    Thankfully for him, Fai was quite conscious of his presence and didn’t exclude him from the conversation for long.


    “Do you have a green thumb, Ginger? Or perhaps a fondness for animals, Ginger?” he asked.


    The plump dragonling sucked in his lips and his eyes popped out awkwardly.


    A fondness for animals…


    A vision of him being chased by a Death-Seeking Mouse with Ancor chasing after it in turn, surfaced in his mind.


    Another whipped by. It was of Ginger getting the snot poked out of him by a Rooster Fiend. The plump dragonling remembered almost crying after finally managing to get rid of the thing. The only saving grace he remembered from that time was the fact that Ancor had cooked the creature for him. It was delicious.


    But of course, whether or not Ginger preferred red meat or white meat wasn’t the subject of Fai’s question. He couldn’t say he particularly liked animals, but he couldn’t bear to say that to the father and daughter duo.


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    Noticing Shan’s piercing gaze on him, Ginger became even more determined to not give a negative answer. He wouldn’t give a blatant lie though. The Wild had taught him how easy it could be to spot a liar.


    “Well… I suppose. As fond as any average dragon can be of animals,” he said with an ugly cough. “But honestly, I never really got a chance to be friendly with most animals. But…I would like to learn and see if I am an animal person.”


    Fai beamed and Shan went back to staring ahead with barely a reaction.


    “Ah, then I was right. You were meant to join us, Ginger. We’ll convert you thoroughly,” Fai said passionately, and he smacked Ginger on the shoulder. His eyes then shimmered as a wide smile bloomed on his face. “Right, right, we were talking about Long. He is tending to one of our farms. There were a few snags in the season. Some weird, new type of pest wiped out a third of the gobbly cabbages. He’s investigating it.” He shook his head. “Long wanted to meet you, you know? He gave me an earful for letting him sleep through your induction into the Limb. I have a feeling you two will really hit it off if you’re willing to suffer through his spontaneous rants about animal rights.”


    “I don’t think that’ll be a problem. I’m looking forward to getting to know him,” said Ginger with a smile.


    He hoped Shan didn’t take his statement the wrong way though. He was looking forward to getting to know Shan too, but that was unlikely to happen as soon as he would have liked.


    The trio moved at a brisk pace. Proin was small by a measure and it would not take more than half an hour to see its end after a good trek.


    Ginger was pleased to see some of the sights he had seen last Breather while exploring. He saw some of the eateries that had nearly prompted him to buy their products, or at least, he caught whiffs of their fresh, delightful goods. Some of his upperclassmen were regulars in some of these places, he noticed.


    Ginger also spotted some of his fellow First Years going to their respective Hunting Limbs. Some were boarding gorgeous carriages and getting ready to leave for their Hunts accompanied by humanoid handlers.


    The plump dragonling didn’t exactly feel jealous of his fellow schoolmates, but seeing all this made him wonder how exactly they were going to be traveling to their destination. Surely, they weren’t going to walk. Right?


    Fai seemed like an accomplished Sorcerer. Perhaps he could fly.


    Ginger didn’t dwell on this, however. Instead, he obliged Fai’s inquiries about the nature of classes at Draggard-Phoenix Institute for the Cinder-Born. The older man likely knew already but seemed to enjoy hearing people talk. He was trying to get to know Ginger better, the dragonling noticed.


    As they neared Proin’s End though, Ginger felt conflicted. The more Fai probed him politely, and about subjects that were far from sensitive, he wondered if he should tell Fai and Shan about his true nature. Not about his second soul, of course, but about his origin and his hybrid nature.


    This dilemma was forced to a halt soon enough though.


    The buildings dwindled, and the crowds wilted the closer one got to Proin at this time of day. A large assortment of vehicles, some more advanced than carriages in Ginger’s eyes, lined up in front of two great stone pillars positioned on either end of the road. Four individuals, two male, and two female, all from different species, were inspecting the vehicles, dictating their entry and exit.


    Pedestrians were allowed to filter in and out as they pleased. Or so Ginger had thought.


    As they passed the marker that stretched to the sidewalk from one of the pillars, Ginger felt a powerful, invisible field of energy block his way. Fai and Shan had passed through without any problems though.


    The former turned to Ginger and smiled.


    “Oh. Don’t fret,” he said when he saw the confused look on the boy’s face. “Just put in a bit of heft and you’ll pass.”


    Ginger nodded nervously and then did as he was told. He pushed as hard as he could and surely, the barrier gave in and let him through. After he stumbled forward from the excessive force he had applied, the plump dragonling turned and narrowed his eyes.


    He couldn’t help but wonder about the nature of the barrier.


    “It’s a high-level screening field. It performs checks through twenty or so criteria programmed into it by the town’s security,” Fai explained succinctly before beckoning Ginger onward.


    Ginger followed.


    Soon, he had forgotten all about the barrier.


    The world seemed to expand endlessly before him. It wasn’t confined to Draggard-Phoenix Institute and all its extraneous facilities. The road past Proin dipped once before continuing into the distance, cutting through the lively green grasses that seemed to flourish to and through small houses and large farms.


    Everything beyond Proin had a different sort of vivacity. A series of creatures Ginger had never seen prowled and strolled as they pleased. They seemed friendly… friendly enough to not trigger a shudder in the boy at least.


    As for the farms, neat fields of well-tended crops, most of which he – of course – couldn’t recognize, expanded endlessly into the horizon with odd species of sentient, civilized creatures watching over them.


    ‘Wow.’


    As he marveled, Ginger recalled what Professor Hennigar had said.


    To the credit of those unwilling to learn about the Wild and humans though, Ravi is vast. The world on this end is very broad, Ginger. That is a fact.


    Indeed it was.


    Fai and Shan led Ginger towards one particular farm about half a kilometer away. Ginger didn’t complain about the trek. He actually enjoyed it.


    Shan didn’t seem to get that impression from him though.


    “You’re surprisingly fit. I expected to hear you wheezing,” she said. It sounded rude, but Ginger didn’t think she meant to come off as such.


    He promptly defended himself in a scholarly fashion.


    “I actually do a lot of activity. Well, I did. The point is, dragons have unique physiologies. Even though I look a little… round, I’m probably just as fit as you are. You can’t judge a dragon by their looks. It’s very hard to change what we look like simply by exercising more.”


    And indeed, Professor Lyall had taught the First Years this basic trait of dragons.


    At first, Ginger had not been too pleased to hear it. He had grumbled about it, screaming that it wasn’t fair. He and Ancor had always wondered why he continued to look out of shape despite being quite athletic.


    Shan wore a smile.


    “Oh. I didn’t know that,” she said.


    Fai merely chuckled. He reserved his comments.


    Soon, the trio was approaching a large barn from behind. The smell of dry grass, dust, animal excrement, and manure bombarded them. It was quite new to Ginger. He crinkled his nose.


    But it wasn’t the barn they were aiming for. It was the large, fenced field housing a stable that they headed for, next to the old, two-story house Ginger had been wondering about as they made their way here.


    Someone was by the stables, yelling something in an old, rough voice. A moment later, there was a whinny, and two horses – geldings – stormed out of the stable and began racing energetically in the field. Three more followed afterwards, stallions all, shaking their heads and excitedly crashing their hooves together in the air.


    Ginger gaped.


    “Ah. It always feels so foreign, seeing them so early,” Fai said. “Ginger, welcome to one of our many farms. This just so happens to be where we raise our transport.”