After all the training they were going through, the three apprentices needed to unwind. Master Tosk allowed them a small two day 'vacation', but he had some stiputions.

  "No magic. No exercise. No thought battles. Focus on mentally and physically recuperating."

  They trio were currently rexing in an inn, the Bear's Paw drinking casked ale. Apparently the owner remembered him and his strange interest in fermented milk, kumis. The lovely old dy mentioned that would have some for sale in a few weeks.

  "We got curious and tried to make it, took some work and not everyone likes it, but we're going to try to have some avaible. It's like herbal liquors, some gushing grannies like me love it while most of those 'masculine men' despise it"

  She turned, winked and ughed merrily, leaving the three oddly confused.

  Several drinks ter, the strange awkwardness left them. It was awkward until...

  "Look at those fucking breasts boys," Nora 'whispered' loudly, using her paws as if she was hefting a grand weight. A group human guardsman easily heard her, turned and belly ughed.

  Vicktor turned his head to look, the alcohol causing him to sway slightly. Honestly, that might have been an understatement, he was about to say something when Ar spoke first, squawking drunkenly.

  "Breast's like that make me wish I had a cock to shove between them! It's a shame avian women don't have tits nearly that huge"

  The group of guardsman guffawed, beer dripping down the corners of their mouths.

  'You know her ass is just as proportional as her breasts' Vicktor thought to himself.

  The hippopotamus beastkin was easily seven feet tall and obviously had immense muscle under her curves. She wore retively conservative clothes, pink robes and her hair tied back in a rge bun. Her bust was held aloft from her waist with what must have been either extraordinary mundane fabric or a magically enhanced corset.

  She was so mesmerizing that her companion, a short mousekin ss of barely five feet was almost entirely hidden. Amber and Lynn, respectively ordered a truly inordinate amount of 'buzz balls'. The couple ignored everyone around them as they quickly became hammered, then cuddled. It was cute in its contrast to the otherwise 'single and ready to mingle' vibe of the inn.

  ***

  After several more drinks, the trio were right and truly drunk. The topics of love, and lust came up often just as often as talks about the soul and self.

  "Ahh so that's why Mx. Reshka wants to be 'Mx.' As part of their magic and therefore their themselves, they don't identify with the standard gender binary. To be within the binary would limit the words of powers they might be able to construct for themselves. It does open up some interesting possibilities compared to others who attempt to use their own versions of words of power" Vicktor said, happy to have grown his understanding with the world.

  "Yeah it's really not that hard. It's like magic, everyone has their own version of it. Even if people have simir fundamental principles but produce notably different effects on the world" Ar said, snacking on some jerky.

  "I had a crisis a while back because of my abilities. They didn't match with what I had originally constructed for myself as a feminine being. It was really peculiar. There are stories of strong women, plenty of them even. But I personally still considered women to be weaker than men. It being true on average didn't help me in the slightest. It was a good solid few months of mental confusion in my early teens, but what ended up happening is that I realized that it was all entirely within my head. I like my feminine body, I like my voice, I like myself and I realized I was only fighting against my internal definition of myself. I had no dismorphia, no dysphoria. Honestly I felt my soul do a little jig when I realized it" Nora was brushing her tail absentmindedly, it was a habit she often did to self-regute. She noticeably rexed when doing it

  Ar spoke up. "I definitely had some dismorphia and some dysphoria, but I genuinely grew out of it. I've learned to embrace my weaker frame and my androgyny. My ck of external genitalia was much harder to accept, so many men have penises, so of course I would want a big one, maybe something in the culture of masculinity? It's why I understood I was bisexual. I realized that my interest in penises wasn't about my penis, it was about being interested in other penises."

  "Humanity is to be admired in all its shapes and forms. I realized I was bisexual when my parents told me when I was six and wanted to be boyfriends with this cute turtle boy and girlfriends with this adorable penguin chick. Been ogling everyone ever since" Nora chuckled. "That penguin chick did the most lesbian thing ever by the way. She shacked up with the first person she dated and moved in with this beautiful scarlet macaw ss a few weeks after her eighteenth birthday. Their flock keeps getting bigger all the time. Up to six st time I checked. Two kids a year seems absolutely wild to me, but eggs are easier right?"

  The two bickered on until...

  "Viktor, you've been awfully quiet? Want to talk about it?"

  "...Honestly? I'm not so sure about myself in really any particur direction. I care more about learning about others than trying to force something upon myself. You know? I don't think my life would have been meaningfully affected if I was born a... instead, I was always more pre-occupied about what would have changed if I was born a beastkin instead of a human. Both my parents are beastkin you know? I am their child too, apparently it's easy to tell at higher levels of advancement. It's just...."

  He stopped talking. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to.

  Their friends didn't bring it up the rest of the night. They let them have their mental space, they were there as friends.

  ***Breakfast with Ar and Nora was a nice rexing beginning to their second day of their 'vacation'. Their hangover's manageable. They talked about their training and some funny stories. Vicktor had even taken out his manacy and used the cy to help tell a story, changing the cy into different faces...

  Out of the corner of his eye, Vicktor saw several heads turn towards him and look from him to the cy. During his sweep of the cafeteria, Vicktor also noticed 3 cat-sized lizards skittering into the room. Sealed scarlet scrolls held in a sheathe on their backs, between two rows of spines.

  Nora and Ar kept talking at him while he looked at the majestic creatures. Lithe scaled of blue and green. Cwed feet tapping on the stone floor. It took him a few moments to realize they were coming at him.

  “Hey, what're those” Vicktor said, pointing the cy phallus at the creatures.

  Nora and Ar paused before turning.

  “Oh! That must be from Master Tosk, those are Turquoise Anolites” one of them said.

  Sure enough, the lizards gracefully jumped up and presented their backs to the three of them.

  Undoing the binding and releasing the scrolls from the anolites, Vicktor had a thought.

  “Aren't lizards coldblooded? How do they survive the winters here?”

  “Master Tosk said he would expin how he and his lizards are able to stay up here in the winter when we reach a level of advancement. Other non-Mage lizardfolk generally migrate south.” Ar said while breaking the seal on his scroll.

  “It's a damn shame it can't be taught easily, lizardfolk make the best damn bakers. Something about the cold hands…” Nora said having skimmed the small scroll.

  “Thanks” Vicktor said, breaking open his only scroll and began to read:

  Apprentice Vicktor I have been called away urgently and will not be around for several weeks at the minimum, potentially far longer. Do not share my disappearance, the inscriptions on this scroll will incinerate itself around an hour after opening. Please do find somewhere private, it will not be quiet. Continue your studies Vicktor, I have specific goals for each of my apprentices. You must be able to create a foundation 2 meters tall as well as creating a moat 2 meters across. You need to be able to create the foundation in the time it takes a crossbow bolt to travel 100 feet. I will reward your success appropriately as well as some additional bonus goals. Extra points for additional foundation width and extra points for developing your pitfall traps. When I return, we will begin dry runs for our first mission, there is a small trouble brewing that is likely to escate. P.S. you all now have credit at ‘Allium's best engravers’. You all should go together after disposing of the scrolls.P.P.S Present any Inscriptionist with proof of your affiliation with the builders guild and they will get you mage-sight on the guild's coin.P.P.P.S. Don’t get anyone pregnant, you youngsters fool around without enough preparation, fatherhood will put a great damper your trajectory.

  Looking up he saw the others looking at him. The lizards were gently grooming themselves without a care in the world.

  “Let's go somewhere safe” Nora said and stood.