A short drive ter and we were at the range. I figured the first thing on the docket would be to see if she’s a decent enough shot. Ballistics is a magic all of its own, one more occult than the depths of witchcraft and the arcane. This totally wasn’t an excuse to kill time while I thought of a way to evaluate her skill in magic. Honestly she was probably more well-versed in all that mystical stuff than I am, considering what she had done.

  I don’t like being relegated to the realm of meat-headed trigger pullers, I had primarily worked a desk job after all, despite my hobbies, but I’ll do my best. Come to think of it, I have a perfectly smart familiar here. Maybe I can just leave all that big-brained math and stuff to her.

  She sure seems to sigh a lot. “I know you’re just thinking all this to mess with me, but is making yourself the butt of jokes like that really healthy? You do just fine at math.”

  “I still dislike math.” I dragged several targets out of the trunk of my car, just standard cardboard silhouettes like they use in practical pistol competitions. We still had an hour before the range went hot, so I had no need to really hurry. I had managed to reserve one of the new shooting bays at the range, which is for the best since quite frankly shooting at paper at 50 or 100 yards wasn’t really going to help much. Even this was far above what I could in good conscience cim to be an expert at. “If I did something purely because I was good at it I’d probably be stuck in some mind-numbing contractor job sitting in front of a computer. It’s less self-depreciation and more a veiled celebration of my current life, for all its faults.”

  “I still don’t like it.” She said out loud. The only one allowed to make fun of you is me. She added as a thought sent directly to me.

  “At least get new material.” I muttered as I set up a folding table. I really hadn’t had anything too extreme pnned for this, just a few targets set up near the berm at the end of the shooting bay. I really just wanted to make sure she could at least get most of the rounds center of mass. Again, as long as she didn’t have too many fliers she’d be better than most cops out there. Since, unfortunately, we were as glowie fed as it gets.

  “Sandra, could you grab the cases?” I called out. After a moment of fumbling around in the trunk she came teetering over, bancing a few soft-sided guitar cases in her hands along with several ammo cans.

  “You could have taken a few trips. It’s like, 10 yards away?”

  “You didn’t say which case to get, so I just grabbed all of them. Anyways, guitar cases?” She seemed to think it was a bit too cliché.

  “I got them on sale. Besides, if we need to run around a built-up area it’d draw slightly less attention.” Some freak out over the smallest things. At least, I assume they might.

  I unzipped one of the cases, pulling out a rifle. I was honestly amazed we had gotten this purchase pushed through whatever bureaucracy was in pce above us at work. It was concerning, very concerning that the red tape had been dealt with so fast, but I’d rather not think about that.

  “I wasn’t exactly sure what we might be facing off against ter, but based on the st clusterfuck we got involved with, I figured it’d be better to err on the side of caution.” I expined as I showed off the brand new AR-15, fresh from the dealer. “Luckily, nepotism of the whole thing aside, I have a friend who’s an SOT, and since this was a federal w-enforcement deal there’s no absurd waiting times for tax stamps. I got a set of three in .300 bckout with Surefire cans. Fourteen inch barrels, Geissele triggers, giggle switches, and I grabbed a few different optics to choose from since I don’t know what you’d prefer.”

  “Aren’t we supposed to be fighting an immortal alchemist?” Sandra asked in disbelief.

  “Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work. Look at it this way; If we were tasked with taking down a mysterious sorceress capable of tearing apart reality, would these fail to work?” A reality-shattering sorceress really does feel miles above a witch running around cursing people with ctose intolerance.

  “Fair point.” She gazed off at the targets in thought. “But if I knew it was coming I might be able to think of a way around it.”

  “’Might’ doesn’t mean you can for sure and this guy ‘almost’ stopping a bullet wouldn’t help him much. It’s like the saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades. Although I’m still waiting on the request for those…” A few automatic rifles was one thing, but apparently you need a proper magazine for my other request. And training. I mean, I technically had a small bit training for the grenades, but the spicier stuff on my shopping list got me a stern “we’ll see about it”

  “Grenades?” Sandra asked.

  “And horseshoes. Although Liah is a bit uncomfortable around pure iron, it can’t hurt for us to have a few.” I expined just as much for Liah’s benefit as for Sandra’s.

  “But he’s an alchemist.” Sandra seemed very confused.

  “Who the hell knows what other stuff he can call up. He’s been around for hundreds of years, before this country even existed. For all I know he even has some corrupt politicians and cops in his pocket. That’s why I went through the effort of getting these legally and on-paper. I don’t want some corrupt ATF agent, which is to say any ATF agent, trying to say I illegally manufactured these machine guns. We need protection against everything we can get, whether it be against dirty, unholy entities willing to step over your mother’s corpse for the smallest slight against them, or demons and fae.”

  “For a federal agent, you sure seem to dislike the government.” Sandra muttered.

  “Likewise. We’re both in the same boat now.”

  After this I ran her through a few drills. She didn’t seem completely hopeless at it, even after I had her put on a pte carrier. I didn’t do anything too extreme, just the typical failure to stop drills and reloading drills. I was tempted to see how she handled the gun on full-auto, but I really didn’t feel like expining to the range ownership about having several machine guns. They were suppressed, but that doesn’t make them quiet, just “less loud.” I’ll need to try and find another location for anything more complex anyways.

  I ran Liah through the same set of drills, but she needed a bit more coaching. Which should be fine, it was more of a “just in case” sort of thing for her since I’d imagine she’d be working as my familiar when we actually perform the mission. But she didn’t seem convinced.

  “Is there any chance we could come back ter? I think I’m starting to get the hang of this.” She seemed peeved.

  “We can come back ter in the week” I promised, a small part of me thrilled that she might be showing interest in one of my hobbies despite the work-reted reasons for our current range visit. But now we’re on to the second part of today’s agenda.

  There was a state park nearby, which is to say, a few minutes from the range. It was often full of hikers, but on a chilly November morning they were few and far-between. Furthermore I knew a few remote spots that didn’t show up on the park maps. So not only was it a chance to see what things she could do with magic, it was also a way to test stamina as well.

  We both took rifles as well, cased, of course. There’d be no reason for testing her stamina if she wasn’t carrying weight at least somewhat close to what we’d be carrying during the mission. If anyone asked we could just say we were pnning a song-writing session out in nature. We’d just have to hope they didn’t ask too many questions about our guitars. Or the bck cat following us.

  I’m just more used to being in this form when in the woods. She thought at us, tail in the air, as she plodded alongside us on the trail. I’d be more understanding if I wasn’t dragging around the extra weight of her gear.

  Eventually we got to a bend in a river. The trail continued off, following alongside the river, but I stopped, crouching down and putting my arms out.

  Do I have to? Came the thought from Liah.

  “How’re your swimming skills?” It’s not super cold but I still don't want her swimming across a cold river.

  Reluctantly she jumped into my arms, and I walked across to the other side. It wasn’t magic or anything. It was just a few carefully pced stones. Pced by me, in fact, years ago before I even started high school. I had lived in the area for a while after all, and spent a lot of time pying out here growing up. I turned back to see Sandra hesitating.

  “Just watch where I step and follow me. Even if you slip, the river isn’t too deep in this part.” Was I showing favoritism? Maybe, but as funny as it might be to see a wet, irritated Liah, I wasn't going to share the sight with any coworkers. Sandra, however...I really couldn’t bring myself to care too much about her image among our small group.

  But it was a minor worry anyways. She nimbly hopped from rock to rock, joining me on the other side with an agility that betrayed her haggard, sleep-deprived appearance. I honestly was a bit impressed. Despite having a few screws loose and looking like an extra from a vampire movie with her gaunt, pale face, she was rather high-spec. It was almost unfair.

  It’s like there’s much I can do about it. No point worrying. Shrugging, I turned to continue down the trail, Liah jumping out of my arms; falling with a cat in my arms on the rocky trail ahead wouldn’t be pleasant.

  Not that there was much opportunity to fall. A few hundred yards was all it took to get to the tree-line, to a clearing hidden in the woods. The remains of a tree fort at the far end showed this to be a spot frequented by the more outdoorsy kids in the area, at least back in the day, but there were no fresh tracks to cause me to worry about interruptions.

  I hoped there would be no interruptions. This spot should be remote enough to allow us to cut loose and really grasp the depths of what can be done with magic.

  AnnouncementSorry for the dey! I've had a bit of writers block, and dealt with it by starting a new story. Luckily, I think I've gotten over it, minus a few uncertainty about research.