On the first night of their time on the mountain, Team Bootknife had set up their tents in the clearing. Logan had fabricated a more permanent cooking station, with a blacktop and a pot. Crickett was more than amenable to them setting up at his meditation spot.

  “I have other spots further down. We will train closer to the peak, it’s better for Resolve there.” Crickett nodded as he sipped on some beans that Logan had simmered in the pot.

  The sun was sinking below the peaks, the day winding down. All the birds of the day had gone to their nests, and the night birds were beginning to come out. Calvin could hear the hooting of an owl which had perched itself on a nearby tree. It appeared to watch them as they sat around the campfire. Logan’s eyes flicked to the bird, sensing familiar Resolve on it, and Crickett only snickered a bit.

  “No privacy anywhere…” Logan shook his head.

  “Yeah, don’t let it get to you, youngin.” Crickett muttered, scratching at his beard, “I’m sure the Cobb boy means well.”

  “So… We are sleeping in tents?” Elise looked unimpressed. She looked to Mavis, whose cheeks were flushed a bit.

  “Oh, I’m sorry princess.” Logan had gotten over the day’s events and sounded like his normal self, “I didn’t bring your palace with me.”

  “We might have to share tents…” Mavis grinned to herself at the idea.

  Elise shot her a sideways look. “Not gonna happen. We know what to do.”

  The boys watched curiously as she stood up and moved a few yards from their campfire. Mavis reluctantly joined her. Crickett leaned back on the stump he was sitting on, Observing the witches with mild amusement. It was always nice for him to see other kinds of magic at play.

  The two young women held out there hands and began to whisper a chant that John couldn’t hear. He raised an eyebrow as he went Resolute. Observing the swell of swirling purple energy, he marveled at its intensity. Elise’s blonde hair floated above her head as if she was under water. In front of the witches appeared a short oak tree, its bark twisted into elegant patterns. Sitting within the carefully positioned branches was a sturdy-looking treehouse. It had lanterns lit with purple witchfire, tossing a lavender glow across the dark wood planks and glass windows. The process took only minutes.

  “We will be staying here.” Elise’s hair had fallen back down over her shoulders.

  John pointed, eyes wide with amazement, “Did you just make that?”

  “No.” She came and sat next to him with a smirk. “We summoned it from the Coven grounds. We were given permission to borrow it if we needed to. You look impressed, Mr. Calhoun.”

  “Uh, well, maybe.” John tried to keep his composure.

  Mavis looked a little disappointed, sitting next to Buster. The rodeo clown figured it was best not to make any jokes at this time. Logan could see he was catching on very fast.

  “So.” Crickett set his plate down, “You five are going to be examined on All Hallows Eve this year. I can see why Denton took you up to me, and I have to say I’m glad! Not enough whipper-snappers come up here to make use of my knowledge.”

  “I wonder why…” Logan grumbled.

  “What’s the reason for this, though?” Crickett put his hands on his knees, “Resolve is about patience and understanding. Why the hurry, youngins? Where’s the fire?”

  Logan began, “Well-“

  “I’ll tell you.” John cut him off. “I’m a Calhoun, from the family out in Texas.”

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  Cricket nodded, “I know about your house. Your grandfather was a good gun. I can see you have inherited their Resolve.”

  “The trouble is with the Willerbees.” He continued, “Vince Willerbee. He’s at the Sanctuary, he wants me gone. I’m sure he wants me dead. So he wants me to go to the Exam. I know what happens then, he will probably take the opportunity to kill me if he can.”

  “You want to make sure he can’t.” Crickett nodded. “I take it he won’t wait until next year, and it’s not in a Texan to shy away from a challenge. That explains it for you, but the others?”

  “We just wanna help out our John Boy!” Buster grinned, “We can hang! Promise!”

  Crickett shook his head. “These blood feuds are so tiring. Always have been. But I take it there’s more to this, youngin.”

  John looked him in the eye a moment. The sage’s brown eyes, pocked with black spots, were like camera lenses. He could tell his every expression was being filmed and closely examined. John sensed in him decades of fighting, decades of killing, decades of victories and defeats. He could see the American countryside as it evolved over the decades in his eyes. In that moment, John was struck by the profundity of this man. He felt humbled by the greatness of a true master of Resolve. All the magic he could muster was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the might of the sage before him. He blinked, lowering his eyes.

  “I wanted to show that I was a good Calhoun, like my brothers.”

  John had given his honest answer. As simple as it seemed, this was what drove him to the challenge. This was why Vince Willerbee had dealt such a blow to him. To let himself be beaten down by their rivals would bring shame to his name. It would mean he had failed where his brothers had succeeded. He couldn’t go back home carrying that on his shoulders. There was no other option.

  Crickett reached beside his stump and withdrew a cloudy glass mason jar. Within was a clear liquid. As he unscrewed the lid, he sighed. “I miss the days when youngins had guts. Seems rare in this century.”

  With the lid off, the group could smell the strong alcohol within. It hit John like a freight train. He stumbled back a bit into Elise, who had likewise been struck by the smell.

  “That’s gasoline!” John coughed.

  Crickett threw back the rest of the alcohol as if it was water. John could feel his resolve shimmering with power as he gulped it down.

  “That’s my custom shine..” Crickett grinned, “It is imbued with power. It’s Elixir. The good ole Mountain Dew.”

  “Oh, like the special whisky.” Cal nodded.

  Logan shook his head, “Not at all. There’s the tasty stuff we make to improve our bodies and minds, then there’s this stuff. Elixir is an entirely different breed. One shot of that would kill you. Stuff like that is ancient, way older than Resolve. There’s only so many running around who can drink it and benefit from it. It tastes like piss from the Sun, if you ask me.”

  “You’re a lightweight, youngin. I’m almost out too… Where’s Uno?” Crickett grumbled.

  The old man held his left hand out in front of him, palm facing the ground below. John watched his Resolve stir a bit, now Resolute himself. With his right hand, Cricket formed a sign and swiped left. A ball of rubbery-looking flesh formed from his left palm, seemingly from his own body. It fell to the ground and shuddered as it began to take shape. The group watched in amazement as a small man-shaped mushroom developed from the ball of flesh. It formed two little stumpy legs, and two stumpy arms. It did not have a face, but had a prominent white cap. The little man appeared to be fully made of mushroom flesh. It had a soft and unassuming appearance, and stood only about two feet tall.

  The little mushroom man peered up at its creator. Mavis and Elise both gasped, forcing it to turn to them in curiosity. It bumbled a bit on its stumpy legs as it turned its whole body.

  “It’s so cute!” Mavis squealed, “Look at its little legs!”

  “And its little arms!” Elise was equally enraptured.

  Crickett patted its cap a little and it turned back to look up at him.

  “You are my number four, up here. Your name is Quatro.”

  The mushroom nodded, as if it possessed a head beneath the prominent cap.

  “Now, I got a job for you, Quatro. Go and find Uno, tell him to bring me back more Elixir.” He tapped the empty jar.

  Quatro raised an arm stump to his stem, as if issuing a salute, and began to teeter off into the brush. Both the young women were enamored by the little mushroom.

  “Whoa…” Cal too was stunned, “Did you summon that little guy?”

  “No. I created him myself. Fungal Neurogenesis, I call it. I can use my Resolve to generate both the flesh and neural pathways of many fungus species. I understand the mushrooms better than other fungi. Using my Resolve, I can further enhance the neural network of the fungus such that it actually develops consciousness.”

  “That’s a living thing?” John tilted his head, “Honestly, you just made a person?”

  Crickett nodded, “This is what happens when you study the world very closely, Calhoun. You unlock its secrets. Quatro is a person. He has thoughts and feelings within his fungal neural networks. He has Resolve, this is how he will track Uno, his brother mushroom. There’s other fungus of the same species in the ground like a big web. They will talk to each other remotely this way. Like a radio machine, kind of.”

  They watched as Quatro diligently marched off down the mountainside.