[center][h2][color=F0E68C] Asteria [/color][/h2][/center][hr][hr]
The lake and stream did not overflow as Asteria had feared, and even Mother Rat gave her approval to the dam. [color=F0E68C]“Safe journey, guys,”[/color] she said to the leaving trio, then added her own warning to Ed. [color=F0E68C]“Just as Oberon said, you’d be in more danger returning by yourself than the three of them would be leaving. But if you insist,”[/color] she shrugged her shoulders, an action that seemed a bit awkward and odd on a rat.
 
Asteria then moved into Jason’s tunnel, and settled right next to Mother Rat. Before going to sleep however, she wanted to try something she’d been inspired to do at seeing Jason’s chant-type of magic (even if it had been a failed attempt). She was relatively safe and still had just enough energy for an experiment or two. Asteria was curious to find out how best to focus intent when working with mana, as her attempts to direct magic with pure thought, intent, and will had not yet been successful. It was true that she might have been too vague or had not done enough repetitions, but for now, she’d test something new. So, she set carefully to work, and used her right forefinger to draw a circle into the earth. Even with the dextrous skill and giving herself plenty of time to make a circle, it obviously wasn’t perfect, but maybe it didn’t need to be. Then, she drew three lines inside of the circle in what amounted to an (approximation of an) equilateral triangle. That done, she moved a pace or two away, dug out a medium-sized rock, and put the rock into the centre of the drawn triangle. Before trying anything with the rock, she decided she would write the “spell” on the ground. She switched on her mana sense, and while focusing on the rock flying exactly two feet off the ground and staying there, wrote the letters L-E-V-I-T-A-T-E around the circle so that the letters were arranged starting with L at the top of the circle, and ran clock-wise around the circle, the spacing between each letter roughly equal.

[hider=Magic circle][center] [IMG]http://i63.tinypic.com/302m8mx.png[/IMG] 
Hers is probably even worse.[/center][/hider]
If the rock wasn’t yet levitating at this point, Asteria would put her paws down right next to the drawing, stare at the rock, and quietly mutter [color=F0E68C]“Levitate, levitate, levitate,”[/color] trying out different intonations and tempos, occasionally moving her paws around the circle just as a fortune-teller might with a crystal ball, to see if any of the variations had any notable effect besides the simple one-minded focus on the rock and it levitating. All the while, she’d keep mana sense on just in case the skill gave her any pointers regarding the spell. She’d keep this up until she either succeeded or ran out of mana.

After that, Asteria dedicated the rest of her time before going to sleep to physical training exercise. For this, she simply wrapped her tail around the rock and did the weight-lifting again. After all, it was that simple exercise that had prompted the system to give Asteria a progress notification. In fact, as far as she remembered, the only other thing that gave her an obvious sign of advancing was trying to stand up on her hind legs back when. After several weight-lifting repetitions and unless she was already too tired to do so, Asteria dropped the rock, then tried the whole bipedal thing again, disregarding the fact that she could get that if she picked what to her wasn’t the most desirable evolution option. Cautiously, she pushed herself to her back two legs, leaning on her tail for support, trying not to flail too much with her front two paws that were left in the air. Perhaps she’d even notice an improvement in her ability to stand from the last time she’d tried it.

Utterly tired after all of these activities, Asteria cuddled up next to Mother Rat, curled into a ball, and did one last thing before letting herself sleep. [color=F0E68C]“System, I want to review my evolution options,”[/color] she muttered. She didn’t know if she’d get to see all the info again or not, but she tried this only because she was curious if there was any more information that there had been initially. If she didn’t receive any other options or new information, she’d settle on the most boring, risk-free, but what she still considered a worthwhile option… [color=F0E68C]“Alright then, grow me up to Adult Dire Rat.”[/color]

[hider=Action summary]
Draws magic circle into the earth.
Turns on mana while writing the desired effect of the spell-circle.
Writes "levitate" around the circle, focusing on the rock flying.
Focuses on chanelling her mana into the circle, chants "levitate".
After either a success or running out of mana, does the tail weight-lifting excercise.
With the last of her energy, tries to stand up on hind legs again.
Asks the system for info on evo options.
Providing those have stayed the same as when she was first given them, she chooses Adult dire rat.
[/hider]