The cat

When Joseph woke up he was still alone in the shack.

'How much did I sleep? Right... The clock is not working, because I don't have mana infused.'

He looked around again. There was a new black fur rug under the table.

'Seems like she came back while I was asleep.'

He pulled out his book from his back and read some of the more complicated spells again.

'Just as I guessed. It's pretty boring, because I know it just by reading it once. I should try something else. What do I have in the backpack?'

He found all of his survival equipments he bought earlier and a few dry wood probably to use it to make fire.

'It might be good for some carving.'

He took out a knife and started to carve the wood. He never did it so he couldn't really do it well. He wanted to make a simple house. After a while he was done. It looked really bad and crude. At some place he cut too deep and it looked like someone hit it a few times.

'Hahaha... I'm really bad at this.'

As he looked up he noticed that the rug was in front of the cage. It wasn't a rug, but a little thing that looked like a big fur ball with a cat head.

"Oh! Hello there little buddy. I didn't see you there."

It tilted it's head. It looked curiously at the carving.

"Do you like it?"

As he moved it around the cat followed it with it's head.

"You can have it, if you want it."

He pushed the house outside of the cage. The cat was looking at it, like it was bewitched by the house. Than readied itself and jumped on the house, while jumping it looked like a normal cat, but as it stopped it turned into a fur ball again. It started to scratch and bite the carving.

"Hahaha! It's just a piece of wood!"

Joseph was facinated by the cat playing with it. Then the cat bit throw it up in the sky jumped up and hit it with it's paw while it's claws were out. The house fell on the ground in four pieces.

"What the hell? Is this thing a magical beast as well?"

It bit the middle part into pieces and than it got bigger. Now it was almost double in size.

"What the hell is this thing?"

The cat lazily walked back under the table and started to clean itself.

At this moment the door opened. The cat looked up. The hag holding a branch entered the shack and looked at Joseph.

"You are still fine? Interesting."

She walked next to the table and set down the wood she brought in. At the moment she went there the cat readied itself and waited. When she turned to say something to Joseph the cat jumped on her leg and bit in it. She screamed.

"What is this thing doing in my house?!"

She grabben the cat by the back of it's neck. Walked to the door and threw the cat out. It flew like a little ball.

"This annoying thing has to always sneak in and bite me at the worst times!"

After the intermission she walked to the cage. She was panting and looked white.

"So... Do you... want to talk now?"

Joseph didn't understand what she was talking about.

"Talk about what?"

"How you damaged my serpent! What else?"

"I already said it. It was a simple spell, nothing else."

She looked upset.

"Then you'll show me that spell."

She pointed at him and then outside. He flew out through the door. Literally. The door was closed. As he flew he broke through it. He heared the hag curse. Then she followed him outside.

"Now cast that spell on one of the trees around here. Don't try anything or I will kill you."

"Whatever. I'll need time though. I've lost all of my power in the cage."

She hit him with a wand and he felt his manna recharge.

"Here. Now the spell!"

"Okey! Okey!"

He held out his wand.

'I can't show everything.'

First he restored his infusion, then put almost all his manna in the wand and waited for more manna to regenerate.

"It might take a while. Last time it took around 15 minutes to cast it. But I can show a weaker version with only this much manna if you want."

She hit him again and his manna recharged again. It really annoyed him.

"If you need more manna I'll just give it to you."

He put all this manna in as well.

"Then once more please."

She hit him again.

"Is it really necessary to hit me?"

"No, but it feels good."

'Damn you!'

He put that manna in the wand as well and then made a ball of concentrated manna in front of the wand from all the energy. He tried to condense all the manna in the smallest form he can, it was around as big as a baseball ball. But it didn't look as strong as last time.

'It seems I can't do it without the condensing lenses. Whatever. It should be enough!'

He shot it into one of the trees close to the shack. The bullet blow up the tree into small pieces and only the base was left.

"Happy now? I said it. It's a simple spell."

She looked annoyed.

"It really is simple. The only not simple thing here is you. You can condense the manna so easily like it is natural to you."

Joseph was confused.

"Isn't it that easy to you? You have a lot more manna as well! You can make it even stronger."

"Not really. To condense it this much you have to have great controll over it or use a magic that condenses the space into a smaller one."

She repeated the same process he did, putting her manna in her wand. It was around the same amount.

"Look how much is possible usually."

Then she made a ball out of it. It was at least one and half times as big as Josephs. As it hit a tree, it broke the tree in half, but both of the halfs were in one-one piece.

"Seems like it is not that good as yours."

She looked bored now

"You know what?"

Joseph got a bad feeling.

"What?"

"You are just as annoying as a little cat I know."

He had an even worst feeling.

"And you know what I like to do with that cat?"

He was shaking his head slowly.

"Oh no..."

She was nodding slowly.

"Oh yes!"

She pointed at him with her right hand, he slowly flew up in the sky. After that she yanked her hand to the right.

Joseph flew away in high speed screaming. He followed her hand's direction and flew into a lake.