The Blaze bear attempted to stand, but the mud made it difficult to regain its footing. The mud surrounding the Blaze bear began to move, gathering around it then hardening in an instant. They had felt the change in the spiritual energy around them.

"Maddox, you better have a good explanation for all of this?" Sha'Carri spoke from up above them. She looked like she was descending an invisible staircase.

"Thank God you're here!" Maddox in his haste had hugged her, getting mud all over her wrinkled robes. For a brief moment he had forgotten that they weren't alone. "Sorry about that, ah, instructor." He quickly realized they were being stated when he tried to step away from Sha'Carri. She held him right for just a second longer before letting him go. Maddox saw the confused look on Emma's face, but also noticed the heartwarming smile Rebecca had for them. He didn't know why he got the impression that she was used to it.

'Weird,' he thought before shaking the thought from his head.

"Think nothing of it boy." She downplayed the scene with a wave of her hand. "Now what happened here? Two students said “your group attacked a Blaze bear and its cub?"

"The Fuck we did!" The three of them stood there stunned by the accusation, but it was Emma who broke the silence.

"Language!" Rebecca yelled.

"No, we are not getting in trouble because of those idiots!" Emma dId indignantly.

"Stop bickering you too!" Maddox raised his voice to stop them. "Instructor, we didn't do that, but we have more urgent matters. The forest is on fire from that bear's rampage and only those two students came out. What happened to the Senior pupil that should have been with them?"

"I'm pretty sure they were in a group of four." Emma recalled.

Sha'Carri scoffed. She was floating a few inches off the muddy ground as if standing on the bottom step of the staircase she walked out of the sky on. "I'm not going to clean up you, fools mess on my own. You are going to help put out this fire and fix this mess." Sha'Carri turned around, when Emma tried to speak up.

"What about the other pupils?"

A stern gaze from Sha'Carri put a stop to her question. Sha'Carri looked towards the woods once more. Her form floating towards the smoke wafting out of the woods. There was a 'pop' sound and in her hand was her long necklace of Chidi beads. "Use your Chidi beasts to put out as much of the fire. I'll handle the rest."

The trio nodded without further questions for their task. Using their water element Chidi beasts they started to blast the small wild fires with water, and the much larger more dangerous fires were put out by Sha'Carri, who had summoned her 'Royal Mountain Crab' to deal with the problem. Eventually the flames in the forest were all gone and the only thing left was a thick cloud of smoke.

"Good job. It would've been done quicker without you three in my way, but this was about teaching you fools a lesson." Sha'Carri stated with a large dazzling smile that made her look even more like an asshole for her statement.

Maddox noticed Emma looking at him while fidgeting, and he could only guess what was on her mind. "Instructor," he interrupted her gloating. "What about those students and the Senior pupil that was with them? Shouldn't we find them? " Maddox had spent enough time with Sha'Carri over the last six months to know when she was annoyed, but he didn't really get that feeling from her. Even though her scowl would say otherwise.

"Right. Those students." Sha'Carri rubbed her chin while deep in thought. "Doesn't concern you three. We need to get that blaze bear and its cub back to the academy to make sure you guys didn't cause any real harm to it." Regardless of how off he thought her response was, when he saw Emma let out a sigh of relief and her fidgeting stopped he figured it was better to leave well enough alone.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Sha'Carri was floating towards the bear stuck in the hardened mud. Its cub was right next to it licking her face. When Sha'Carri approached it began to growl at her.

"You cute little thing." Sha'Carri stated while letting the bear cub like it was just a teddy bear. "You just want to make sure your mama's safe huh?"

In that moment Maddox had to wipe a tear from his eye. Sha'Carri's kindness toward the animal reminded him so much of his older sister it was a little too much to handle on that moment. Luckily the sound of something running towards them broke him out of his stupor. Looking down the river in the direction the two students ran towards was a senior pupil riding a large orange horse with river like stripes and long whiskers. The pupil speed the horse down and had it slowly trot towards them.

"Is everyone out of the forest then?" Sha'Carri asked as if she expected him to be there.

"Yes instructor," he answered with a bow from on top of his horse Chidi beast. "All the pupils are on their way back to the academy escorted by instructor Von'Pebble."

"Good, ride ahead and let the Chidi Priest know that we're ringing in a Blaze bear and its cub to be looked after."

The senior pupil bowed while giving Sha'Carri a fist in palm salute before riding off towards the academy. The trio was left staring in confusion. with a shrug Sha'Carri just uttered; "I told you it wasn't any of your concern.

//////

The students gave Sha'Carri's 'Royal Mountain Crab a large breath as it walked down the paved walkway towards the tower where Chidi beasts were held and cared for. The massive crab was pulling a simple wooden wagon with the Blaze bear and its cub riding in the back, while Sha'Carri and the three students were walking alongside it. The tower where the Chidi beasts were looked after Sat behind a large metal fence, and at the gate was an instructor with two pupils. The instructor's robes had a pin that was an acupuncture needle with a snake wrapped around it while both pupils had an armband with the same symbol.

"This is the tower of the Chidi Priests." Rebecca responded to his inquisitive gaze. "Think clerics and healers but for spirit beasts."

Maddox nodded at her explanation while Emma scoffed and with a flick of her hair replied, "I knew that."

Rebecca gave her a scowl. "It wasn't for your benefit."

Maddox just filed his eyes at the two of them. He was too exhausted to stop them and had just started to tune them out when Sha'Carri shot them both with a glare. That put an end to any more conversation.

"Senior Instructor," the fellow instructor showed Sha'Carri respect with a deep bow and a fist in Palm salute while Sha'Carri simply bowed. "Is this the Blaze bear and the cub?"

"Yes. These three students subdued it. I just want to make sure it's not invited before releasing it back into the forest." She answered and at those words the Chidi Priest looked at the trio accompanying Sha'Carri with renewed interest.

"You seem to have found some interesting pupils, senior instructor." The Chidi Priest acknowledged, but Sha'Carri just brushed the statement off with a wave of her hand.

"You kids involvement ends here for now." Sha'Carri had stopped them from walking through the gate of the Chidi Priest tower. "Go eat and clean yourselves up, and for the love of God don't cause any more trouble." but as she walked away she said something over her shoulder that caused them to smile. "Good work out there."

With those words spoken they had left her. Now sitting in the cafeteria the trio was eating as if it was their last meal. It was some sort of bird dish with vegetables and rice. Maddox had enjoyed it so much that he was on his third plate. Only after he had cleaned his palate and let out a large burp did he sit back in contentment. Both Emma and Rebecca just shook their heads at him.

"I would normally scold you for your manners, but tonight I'm no different." Emma shrugged while wiping her mouth. She had also gotten seconds.

"My compliments to the chef." Maddox smiled, causing both girls to chuckle.

"I used to think you were so lucky Maddox," Emma started to say in between bites of her food. "You were very trained personally by Sha'Carri, the most recent immortal in the world, but after just walking next to her I have no idea how your heart just doesn't stop beating whenever she stares at you."

"It's not that bad." Maddox replied .

"You get used to it Emma." Rebecca added. She was quickly aware of her verbal blunder. "I'm assuming of course, seeing how Maddy isn't any worse for wear." She chuckled nervously.

"Right..." Maddox felt a little off by her statement but was willing to brush it off...for now.

Maddox had waved goodbye to both girls as he took the stairs up the first year boy's dormitory. All he wanted to do was to get out of his mud caked robes and into a shower, but first he had to release his angry squirrel. Up in his simple dorm room he released Buffy from her Chidi beads and she immediately started tossing Apple size acorns at him. Buffy hated being kept in the Chidi beads so when Maddox had abruptly stuck her in one when the roaring started in the woods needless to say she was not happy with him even as he apologized over and over again.