The old (skeleton) hermit teaches me magic.

Mom did throw a fit when I got back home.

Well, first was the screaming (because I brought a skeleton to the house), then the crying (because they thought I was dead) and then the grounding (because talking to skeleton strangers is bad).

Not all that happened once I came home was bad though. I mean, mom and everyone else were scared by Mr. Skeleton but I managed to convince them that he wasn’t a mean person and that he was the one who saved me from the bandits.

It was hard, especially when Mr. Zombie showed up again and scared my parents, but thankfully, Grandma was there to help me convince mom and dad, she’s always there to help.

Another good thing (I think) is that we don’t really have guards in town, which is maybe why we got attacked on the first place, but that makes it easier to explain the nice skeleton mage who saved me.

In the end, Mr. Skeleton said his goodbyes and left back to his cave with Emile, leaving me alone with my family who were somewhat upset with the girl that led a skeleton necromancer into their home.

So I was grounded for some weeks, mom didn’t let me leave the house and that just left me to help around with chores. I started to wonder about Mr. Skeleton and his magic on my free time to try and distract myself. And once I was grounded no more…

I decided to sneak out at night and head into the forest to look for Mr. Skeleton, hoping to find more about him.

But it was all for nothing, every time I step out of town I was brought right back to my room! Like if I was being teleported around, that thing Mr. Skeleton does that brings people to other places really quickly!

It was definitely Mr. Skeleton’s doing (because he’s the only one I know that can do that), he was trying to make me stop, I’m sure of it! I don’t know why though…

So after screaming in frustration (and apologizing to mom for waking her up), I keep trying (and failing) to leave town. I was caught once, by Grandma of all people, who just looked at me with a wrinkly smile of hers and gestured for me to go on with my little adventure.

Grandma is really nice. I think I even saw her walking around during one of my nightly adventures, I don’t know where to.

Sometime after that I got to actually step out of town. Only to then be sent back to my room once I made it back to the dead forest. I really do have to wonder why exactly Mr. Skeleton doesn’t want me going out.

And speaking about Mr. Skeleton…

“Again? This is like, the third week you go into the dark spooky forest” He says, hand on his head while speaking to me.

I made it to the forest, again, this time Mr. Skeleton didn’t send me away and instead decided to speak to me.

Mr. Skeleton continues “Do children nowadays just like to go into dark spooky forests alone? Is that a thing you do now?”

I look at him and respond “We do when we want to talk to a living skeleton-man”

Mr. Skeleton lets out a sigh and his entire body sags. He takes a moment before he speaking again.

“Alright, go on” He sighs again, gesturing with his hand in an exasperated manner “What did you want to talk about?”

…

“You know? I… uh… I think I forgot.”

“…Really?”

“W-Well! To be honest, I didn’t really think I would get this far, so I just… focused on leaving instead of what I wanted to talk about y’know?”

Mr. Skeleton mutters something under his breath, pinching the part of his head where his nose used to be.

“Alright then, off with you then, back home you go” He says, lifting a staff that just appeared from midair, his other hand extending and lights appearing around his body. He was doing magic. No doubt about it.

“Wait! Stop!” Once again, I was speaking without realizing the words had left my mouth.

“Huh?” And just like that, the magnificence and lighting show from Mr. Skeleton disappears “What now?”

Alright, quick! What do we say to not be sent away!?

“I want you to teach me how to do magic!”

Mr. Skeleton simply stares at me and stays silent while doing so. The stare down extending for a long moment before Mr. Skeleton spoke again.

“No.”

What.

“Why not!?”

“I don’t wanna.”

“What lame excuse is that!?”

“Hey, teaching people takes time. Time that I don’t have”

“You’re a walking skeleton! You have all the time in the world!”

“I’ll give you that. So I’ll just change what I said: teaching takes time that I don’t want to spend”

“That’s even worse!”

The back and fort continued for a while, our screaming match increasing in volume, somewhat reminding me of the times I argued with my little brother. After some more screaming (a lot of screaming) Mr. Skeleton sat down next to a tree, exhausted, with me sitting in front of him.

We don’t say anything more for a while, instead choosing to just stare at anything but each other, trying to not start another shouting match again. Mr. Skeleton for his part begins tapping softly on his leg and looking around the forest. I do nothing but think on how I could convince him to teach me.

Mr. Skeleton sighs, once again, his voice soft as speaks.

“Why do you even want to learn magic?”

I just stare at him with wide eyes.

“Well… I mean” I start “The village doesn’t really have anyone keeping an eye on it anymore you know? Bandits can just… do the same thing they did before.”

I stare at the ground, tracing some lines on the dirt.

“…Also, because it’s kinda cool I guess.” I mumble that last part to myself.

Mr. Skeleton chuckles a little under his breath and then he stares at the sky for a moment, reclining a little on the tree behind him.

“Alrighty then” He says. My gaze snaps right back at him, stars in my eyes as soon as I hear the skeleton’s words.

“You mean you will-”

“Teach you magic? Sure, why not? It’s not like I’m going to get any older.” He says, standing from his position on the floor and dusting off the dirt on his cloak.

“Besides it’s been like… two-hundred, maybe three, since the last time I taught someone.”

Mr. Skeleton extends a hand to me, I grab it and he helping me get off the floor faster.

“You’ve taught other people?” I ask in amazement.

“Yup. It get’s boring when you live in the cave for so long by yourself, so sometimes you need to spend time teaching people to do things”

My head tilts in curiosity “But what about Mr. Zombie? Don’t you live with him?”

He seems taken aback for a moment, before responding “Emile? Ah, you clearly haven’t lived with him. No one who’s been living on the cave long enough thinks of him as good company”

“Isn’t that kinda mean?”

“Well yes, but Emile makes it hard to like him, he's a very negative person.”

“Huh…”

Once again, I was talking and walking next to Mr. Skeleton as we made our way back to his cave, happiness and excitement washing all over my body, the idea of learning magic making me energetic on the spot.

From this day on, little old me will start learning how to do magic.

There’s literally nothing that can ruin this day!

“We will have to speak to your parents about this though.” Says Mr. Skeleton.

There was one thing that could ruin this day.