“Valendor?” Valendor woke up to Theodric’s gentle mental probing. He poked his head out of the shadows.
“What?”
“Ah good you’re awake. Do you mind taking watch for the rest of the night?” Theodric whispered as to not awaken the others, even though it was quite unnecessary when he was perched on a tree again, Valendor noted the ground far below them. “It shouldn’t be more than a few hours left till sunrise, you can wake me then. It's only for tonight, the other professors take watch for other nights,”
“I know you don’t like sunlight much, but could you keep watch from the shadows over six of my students for the next two days? They’re the more competent bunch that shouldn’t need much help,” Theodric added with a small grin. “I’ll pay you with extra donuts if you do,”
“Hmph, you drive a hard bargain human,” Valendor huffed with amusement. “Very well, I shall take pity and lend you my aid. I expect to be enjoying four-no, five extra bags of donuts. And some new human food that’s tasty like donuts,”
Theodric grinned and promised the Night Warden heartily, before swinging down the tree with the help of a vine. Valendor watched the human fist-pump the air with glee and did a silly dance before slipping into a tent.
The Lord of Night found it highly amusing that the human didn’t think that the ruler of darkness could see him perfectly in the dark, even better than hawks at day. And he turned his antlered head to gaze at the moon behind him, the treetop Theodric had chosen gave him a full view of both the entire camp, and the beautiful starry night sky.
The Lord of Night basked in the light of the full moon, enjoying the reemitted sunlight and its nourishing energy. He didn’t regret putting the moon up there, even if it meant the Night Kingdom now lacked one. There’s no one there to enjoy its light anyway, and the Lord of Night enjoyed having something to look forward to in his visits to the mortal realm.
He deemed it only fair that people had a beautiful light source at night if they could have one at day. For mortals often perceived the dark unknown as a lurking threat of untold dangers, where they were killed and their weaknesses exploited. And tragically fail to experience the tranquility and calmness that the Lord of Night had found soothing.
Which was honestly fair of them, but even though some of them blamed him for some reason and he generally didn’t really care that much about mortals’ deaths in general, there were some that he was fond of. And so, the Lord of Night wished to share the beauty of night and descended upon the realm the Blessing of Moonlit Serenity. Bonus points as he was created to protect them and their freedom to enjoy the world anyway.
The Lord of Night remembered the time he dragged his demons and the moon behind him to the mortal realm, so that his beloved chosen could enjoy the mortal realm and its wonders as he did, and he got to share with the mortal realm the beauty of his. All the while keeping both realms far apart, as life and death should be.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
It was all such a very long time ago, not long after his own birth, well, relatively anyways.
The Lord of Night wondered whether he made a mistake in introducing the mortal realm to demons, but all the mortals of all elements got along pretty well for quite a long time until recently, so it shouldn’t’ve been the case. Probably.
Something flickered in his peripheral vision. The Lord of Night snapped to attention instantly. Musings forgotten and immediately focused on the camp, he wondered if he had been so distracted that he did not notice a monster sooner. Already internally bracing for Theodric’s pestering prose.
But his worries were unfounded as it was a person, who poked out of one of the tents. The Lord of Night relaxed but kept a stricter eye on the camp, idly watching the human blob moving about.
To his surprise turned dark amusement, the Lord of Night realised that the blob was not headed to the pit latrines for a mid-night wee, but instead it bobbed towards his tree. Upon closer inspection, the blob looked like the little half-demon girl who had summoned him over a week ago.
The human brat comes and serves herself up on a silver platter. How fun…
Huffing in sinister delight, the Lord of Night might find a use for this bothersome twat besides entertaining as paste on the floor after all.
…
Kira had laid awake obsessing over what Camille had said earlier during the fight.
She’d truly be unbeatable in the tournaments. Heck, if she had bonded with the Night Warden, no one would’ve pushed her around like they had. Her father would never even entertain the notion of casting her away.
Instead of pinning her for all the blame, all the noble houses will surely seethe with jealousy, the smaller ones falling head over heels at her feet to gain favour. Why, a Night Warden familiar, a species unknown before had been captured by Kira just by herself.
Shouldn’t Kira be the one to have it? Why did Professor Theodric get to have him? He already has a freaking forest dragon already! Why couldn’t he just share for once?
The train of thought raged within Kira, unstoppable once it left the station. The more she thought about it the more resentful she felt towards her professor. She couldn’t help but feel that she lost her entire future when she lost her supposed familiar.
She heard Professor Theodric’s boots scraping against the grassy ground, walking past her tent. She laid perfectly still and waited a few minutes after the shuffling receded.
Holding her breath, Kira slipped out of her bedroll slowly, avoiding Camille’s star-shaped snoring form, and pulled her cloak on while strapping on her chest armour and gauntlets.
Cautiously poking her head out of her tent flaps, she glanced up and peered at the treetops around her, spotting a really tall tree with a small black silhouette on top against the moonlight. She shifted her body through the tent flap, careful not to let the cold air outside in, and tip-toed through the camp directly towards the tree.
There must have been a reason why she could summon a Night Warden when no one else could, Kira intends to leverage that unique quality, confident that she could still salvage something from the Night Warden.