Hog had very unfortunately blinked as her friend had concentrated so hard that it had flashed. She blinked several more times as the bright light irritated her night-vision-ready eyes (not that she knew that's what the spell did) and made her head throb in pain. She continued to blink as those very same eyes began to water and sting. Why had that hurt so much?

The piglet groaned and lowered her head to rub her eyes on her legs, then fluttered her eyes a few more times before she finally seemed to recover from the light. Now her focus wasn't on her own eyes stinging; she could smell something... She gave it a sniff. Was something burning? And more alarmingly, when she tried to follow the smoky smell, it led back to her new friend, who was exclaiming that it was okay.

"Um," she started very intelligently. "You smell very cooked, maybe that means it worked?" She reasoned. That had to be right, surely. The first spell with its feet had also left it smelling a little burnt. So surely this one had also worked really well.

"How did it feel? Was it powerful? It smells powerful!"

@October

October agreed with Hog's logic. Pain and the smell of burning things usually meant its spells were working! But something was a little confusing. "It felt hot! I think that means powerful. And my vision went black for a second! That never happened before. Usually fire is bright instead!" It thought about this new development. "Maybe I found a new spell I can do?" If so, then this meeting was turning out to be a productive encounter indeed! There was so much learning from each other going on.

"I'm going to try it again," it decided. "Watch closely and tell me what happens!" Unfortunately, no matter how hard it concentrated, the thing it just did didn't happen again. Perhaps it could at least be of some consolation to October's poor eyeballs. The bird slumped in defeat. "Ahh... maybe it was just a one-time thing, then. But your magic worked really well!" it added, determined to push past this setback. "What else do you know how to do? Everything you've been doing seems to have turned out good today."

@Hog

It's with a pang of guilt that Hog watched her friend slump. Surely there was an easier way to do magic? Not that she knew, she'd never even tried to cast a spell before. As it asked what else she could do she hummed thoughtfully, what else did she know that may also cheer up her friend?

It liked fruit and bugs, it also liked fire. Surely she had to know something more about those things; it would hardly fit her claim to be the best knower-in-training if she didn't. "Maybe..."

Then it hit her. "Oh! Oh!" She scrabbled to her trotters to begin looking about. "Is there any fruit nearby?" She asked aloud as she tilted her head upwards towards the nearby trees.

@October

October stared intently, even leaning forward with anticipation, as Hog fell into thought, and jumped when she exclaimed out loud. "Fruit!? I'm not sure!" It did not usually attempt to look for fruit in the less densely vegetated rooms; the effort to reward ratio was far lower in places like Polaris and Orion than Pegasus or Eridanus. But Hog had suggested it, and Hog had had so many good ideas so far, so it must be a good idea to look for them!

"I'll look for some!" it declared and leaped into the air, rising up to get a better vantage point. Something brightly colored quickly caught its eye. A bush with enticing red berries on its stems! "There!" it trilled. It flew over and tried to grab some in its bill, but instead of firmly grasping onto the berries, its bill sank right through their flesh. Stinky liquid exploded over its bill and face. October choked and let out a series of raucous, upset chirps. "It's rotten," they cried out in distress.

@Hog

Hog had to awkwardly twist her head as her friend took to the air above. It was good to have friends like this, she thought, they could always look better than she could. It was the shadow of her friend moving that she followed, unable to look directly up to see where it'd gone to.

She couldn't keep the grimace off her face as rotten berry juices splattered onto her friend's bill. Ew. That was no good, she'd aimed to cheer up her friend, not make it feel worse. With a puff, she straightened out. Think. Think.

Hog rounded the berries, giving them a gentle snuffle. Most of them smelt really, really bad, she thought, beginning to doubt there were any fresh berries at all on this bush. She kept on circling until she spotted something moving, "look! There!"

With her snout, she pointed towards the rotten berries that'd fallen around the base of the bush, and when she squinted, she could see them. Ants! "More bugs!" Though after a pause, she continued, sounding a little disappointed. "They're a little small, though. Usually, some bigger ones like fruit too."

@October

October followed Hog's pointing to a trail of marching wind ants, their white heads standing out against the rocky ground. It did its best to wipe its bill off on the leaves of the bush, avoiding any more berries, and pecked up a few ants to get the taste of rot-juice out of its mouth.

They were a bit small, though. October had an idea: maybe this was a similar situation to the one with the sticks! "Maybe we already ate all the big bugs here," it suggested. "Should we look somewhere else?" Belatedly, it occurred to the bird that most of what they'd been looking for was what it liked to eat. It hastily tried to remedy this: "Or, what do you like to eat? We can find some and set that on fire as well." It would hate to ignore the preferences of its new friend.

@Hog

"My favourite is sandwiches!" Hog announced without hesitation. Yet, she paused with a childish pout. "I don't know how to make the soft outside parts yet. The nice Miss said it was grains but I don't know how to make them fluffy and soft like that." Hog rattled off, apparently content not to give her friend context for any of what she just said.

"I mostly eat whatever I can find. Sometimes there's really tasty mushrooms. But, I haven't tried making them hot yet." Hog hummed, pondering as she watched the ants. "Maybe that will taste good hot too?" She asks her friend with a tilt of her head.

@October

Sandwiches? October had never seen a sandwich, but it did know about a sandy place. "Do they live in Hydra? Do you hunt them yourself?" There was a clear note of admiration in its voice. Hog must be truly strong to take on any of the creatures in Hydra! To consider them her favorite food, even! Oh, but she said she didn't know how to make the soft outside parts—something about grains. October had no idea what that meant, other than—there was some processing needed for this prey that she didn't know how to do? So maybe she didn't hunt them herself after all. October sighed in disappointment.

Well, mushrooms were a good accessible option since braving Hydra for sandwiches didn't seem like a viable option right now! "All right! Let's go find some mushrooms and set them on fire!" It turned out that finding them wasn't hard at all, as the ones in Polaris tended to glow helpfully. It hopped over to a cluster giving off all sorts of prismatic colors and tilted its head askance at Hog. "Like these?"

@Hog

"What's Hydra?" Hog asked, all joy and curiosity, completely unaware of her friend's internal conflict. "Hm. No, you ask for them in the warm-place. I think the Miss called it Scorpio."

Hog trotted after her friend, giving the mushrooms a quick assessment; they looked like mushrooms. But these weren't the ones she usually tried; the ones she preferred were under the soil. Still, she wasn't about to let her friend's hard work go to waste.

Without giving it any further thought, she pushed her nose into the cluster, lifting her snout to delicately bite the base of the mushrooms with her teeth. Then, gave them a gentle pull...

They didn't exactly come off in one piece. She'd bitten too hard on most of them and ripped their stalks. Others she'd been particularly heavy-handed with, and only their caps pulled off. "Oh, rats." Hog huffed.

@October

"Hydra is... also a warm place," October tried to explain. "The lights are really strong and hot, and there's not much water, and sometimes there are really big or dangerous animals wandering around that you have to watch out for. And there is a lot of sand!" It didn't know if Scorpio, being warm, had any similarities to Hydra. "Is Scorpio sandy too?"

As for the mushrooms, "Oh well! They will look the same in our stomachs anyway," it reassured Hog. It concentrated on its feet, trying to make them super hot again, but they just felt... like normal-temperature feet. It blinked several times and looked crestfallen. "My magic's not working," it informed Hog, and sounded rather confused and sad. Why had its magic failed it so many times in a row? Was there something wrong with it?

"Can you make them hot?" Big golden eyes fixed hopefully on Hog. Her magic to make her eyes glow had worked really well when October's hadn't. Maybe she'd be talented at this spell too!

@Hog