A loud crash jolted me from bed. I quickly grabbed my sharpened stone dagger from my nightstand next to me.. My senses sharpened as adrenaline flooded my veins.

  Was Grok’s men back to kidnap me again? Was it wolves? No.. wolves wouldn’t be that noisy. Gleeblets? Definitely not, Sensei had put up talismans around the clearing.

  I jumped to the ceiling and opened the latch to my roof before climbing out.

  Every muscle on my body relaxed and I closed my eyes. Just as Sensei had taught me, my cat ears perked up and I listened carefully. The cold air bit into my skin, and my heart hammered in my chest.

  After a moment, I heard the loud crash again and my ears swiveled towards it. Opening my eyes, I shifted towards the chicken coop in the corner of the clearing.

  I activated my Blink skill. I felt as my core pulled forth air mana that created a path of emptiness in front of me.

  The second half of the skill activated and a burst of air pushed me forward at an immense speed. I stopped directly at the very edge of the cabin I was standing on and looked around.

  It was the perfect place for an ambush! Dagger at the ready, I scanned the area. But when I saw what caused the noise, I let out a breath of frustration and disbelief.

  "Aw, come on! Not again!" I cried out. Jiggle, my pet boar, was ramming himself into the chicken coop. No doubt he was after the eggs again.

  I was like, super sure boars weren't supposed to eat eggs. I'd named him Jiggle because of the way his fat wobbled adorably, but also because he was always wiggling his way into the chicken coop!

  Jiggle backed up as I watched before ramming into the door to the chicken coop. My ears flattened in pain at the noise. Sensei definitely heard that. Extra chores were inevitable now. I watched as Jiggle began to back up again. I had to stop Jiggle before he became bacon.

  Frowning, I threw my dagger down into the enchanted wood, embedding it there. I activated blink and appeared next to the massive boar. "Alright, Jiggle, knock it off!" I snapped in irritation.

  My tail lashed in irritation. First the nightmare, then this. Jiggle was a problem, sure, but he wasn’t an enemy. Still, I smiled as I kicked him. My ears pinned flat as Jiggle’s squeals assaulted them.

  My tail fluffed to twice its size and I activated my Water Veil. Chains of thick water flowed around me forming a loose cocoon of sorts. It should protect me from the worst of his attacks.

  I leaped back as a wild tusk swung toward me. I dodged to the right while my heart pounded. “Ha! Too slow, Jiggle!” My feet barely touched the ground as I danced around him.

  His squeal echoed through the air while he spun, searching for me, but I was already behind him. I smacked him on his butt and he spun to face me, clearly enraged.

  “You’ll never catch me, Jiggle,” I purred in amusement. I grinned widely at him and winked. My heart was pounding and I let out a giggle in excitement. I jumped into the air before using blink to land on a nearby tree branch at the edge of the clearing.

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  The Trelloark Trees were massive, the smallest being three times as thick as jiggle, and so high you couldn’t see the top. As such, its branches were like mini platforms I could run around on.

  Jiggle charged at me and I jumped as he passed under me and landed behind him before smacking his butt again. “Not fast enough, Jiggle!” I laughed hard before blinking over to another tree.

  He charged me again and I blinked to the right only a few feet right as he reached me. He slammed his tusks into the trunk and got them stuck. He began trying to pull them out.

  I giggled before blinking again over to his no-no cage. The ten feet tall in hight and 8 feet in width cage was made of enchanted steel and had at least a dozen dents from when Jiggle had attempted to break free.

  The door was left ajar and the key was in the lock. I winced, I had let Jiggle out to play last night. Sensei had told me to put him away before bed. I had forgotten…

  But in my defense, Jiggle was just so… I giggled and blushed. I heard a ripping sound and turned to see he had finally managed to break free from the tree.

  He charged me again, as expected. I jumped at the last moment directly over him and landed on top of the no-no cage. He slammed hard into the bars in the back.

  I jumped down and instantly slammed a large sphere of water into his face forcing him back as he tried to charge out. Slamming the cage door shut, I closed the latch. "Silly Jiggle! That's why control is important!"

  I used my blink skill to teleport around him a few times to show off before I ended up on top of his cage. My ears flattened as tusk met metal and failed to penetrate the enchanted steel. I clapped my hands together.

  "That was fun, Jiggle! Next time, don't get stuck in a tree! It makes it too easy!" He would give up eventually. I sighed as Jiggle rammed into the cage door.

  The sweat on my skin cooling me off. Letting the cold morning air wash across me. Closing my eyes, I just relaxed.

  After a long moment, I took a deep breath and stood. At that moment, I heard the door of the cabin open. My eyes shot up, and panic filled me.

  Sensei stood at the door to the cabin. He calmly looked around the destroyed yard and the broken chicken coop. I felt my face drain of blood as I remembered Sensei instructions clearly from last night. Remember Tama, if you don’t return Jiggle to his cage, he will destroy the chicken coop and you will have double training.

  I swallowed and began looking for a way out. "What happened here?" Sensei’s words were light, but I felt like I was just slammed by a brick. Swallowing, I held back a cough. A chill crawled down my spine and I quickly smiled as brightly as I could.

  He was already next to me… I hadn't even seen him move. He loomed over me, a towering figure at six foot three inches.

  He had a clean-shaven face etched by decades of stern judgment. His black hair with the occasional streak of gray running through it stood in its normally short and trimmed state.

  Each of these alone would have been intimidating. But it was his eyes that pinned me in place: piercing blue, sharp as winter ice, glinting with amusement. My stomach dropped. That look never ended well.

  “Well, Sensei, you see…” I raced to think of an excuse.. Any excuse. My tail lashed and I looked around at the destruction Jiggle had caused. That.. Jiggle.. Has caused..

  I considered what I had actually done wrong. Nothing came to mind. Well, nothing Sensei could prove was me.. Right?

  Technically, I had forgotten to put Jiggle in his cage last night. But Sensei had been asleep. Anything could have happened! I pointed at Jiggle with a look of pure indignation on my face,

  “It was terrible, Sensei. There Tama was, minding her own business! Then there was a loud crash outside. As the responsible apprentice Tama is, she of course investigated! Only to find Jiggle going after the eggs again!”

  I looked at Jiggle below me shamefully before looking back up at Sensei. “Tama of course knows how much her Sensei’s eggs mean to him! So Tama did the best thing she could!”

  Sensei raised an eyebrow, a slight grin growing on his face. “You used your extensive Ninja training to safely herd your pet safely back into his no-no cage? The one you forgot to put him back in last night?”

  Even as he spoke, his eyes traveled over the destroyed chicken coop and Jiggle ramming hard into the cage under me. He even looked at the tree where Jiggle’s tusks had impaled it.