One with the mouse

Mrs. Hornsbury had finished her introduction and settled into today's lesson.

Mrs. Hornsbury : "Alright girls, for your first attempt at beast magic we're going to start with something simple. Each of you will come up here and retrieve a cage with a Fargovian mouse in it, along with a wand if you didn't bring one of your own. What I want you to do is command your little friend to sleep, something a mouse would never willingly do around this many people. They're naturally nervous creatures, but also with some of the weakest wills of any beast."

The girls all form a surprisingly orderly line while Mrs. hornsbury continues. You can't help but imagine that the boys you were used to would be a little more rowdy.

Mrs. Hornsbury : "As for how you'll do this, simple commands are actually a spell you cast on yourself. Humans, and particularly casters, like to think of themselves as above animals, and we certainly have a few tricks few of them are capable of. But we too are beasts."

You found it peculiar how she said 'themselves' and not 'ourselves' but she was definitely right. You had never considered humans a type of beast before. From your time on the farm you knew they ate, slept, fucked, suffered and sometimes even showed surprising intelligence like humans but you'd never actually considered them the same type of thing as you were. A disturbing thought came to your mind, could powerful enough beast master tricks magic work on people?

You finally retrieve your mouse and consider it with a newfound respect.

Mrs. Hornsbury : "To calm any animal is simple, you cast a spell on yourself to make your emotional state radiate out to the beast around you and then become calm yourself. When you're practiced and in control of yourself you'll be able to direct your emotions to particular beasts and even send different ones to different beasts. But for now you'll just try to radiate calmness into your mouse. Beasts with stronger wills will more strongly resist your influence but the Fargovian mouse is unique in having practically no resistance to this type of influence."

you find a small plot of grass to get to work. Well, you try to. It quickly becomes clear you have no idea how to do this. You look around, most of the other girls seem lost as well. After everyone has a mouse Mrs. Hornsbury continues.

Mrs. Hornsbury : "To actually cast the spell you will focus on the emotion you want to impart and imagine it growing larger than your body. I recognize several of you from our specialist group yesterday, please help your fellows and I'll go around as well."