In most homes a child speaking their first words would be a momentous occasion but to the scholars in the college of Silversong the ushering of the first words was a sign that she was ready to begin her education. At the age of two they moved from teaching Zoe the basics to her being in class with some of the greatest teachers in the known world. With access to some of the most extensive troves of knowledge, the likes of which most people would never get access to.
By the age of four Zoe was reading better than most adults, by the age of five she wrote her first research paper on some of the local wildlife. At six she was preforming advanced calculations that sailors used to navigate the oceans year round. At the age of eight she was already growing bored of the lessons, everyday studying along with the older students and able to grasp it far better than most of them ever would.
After Zoe’s recent experience in the forest with the Fae she had grown to be very fearful of going into the forest, even with guidance of the professors they would barely get past the walls of the college. This went on for weeks despite numerous lessons that would take her beyond its walls she refused to set foot outside. Professor Belltower had grown increasingly desperate to get her some confidence for going back into forest. Her lessons on the local wildlife were falling increasingly behind and her appreciation of the lessons she used to find extremely boring were suddenly the ones that she looked forward to, like the history of Arilidien with professor Blackburn or the scientific method with Professor Mercer and even Arithmetic with Professor Angelmen. As long as anyone could remember Zoe loved being out in the wild, where there was always something going on and it was nice to escape the confinement of the college walls.
Almost dragging Zoe into the forest by force, Professor Belltower took her to go check on a family of deer she had been tracking since they moved into the area to give birth to the fawn. Together they snuck around the outskirts of their territory hoping to get a good look at them. They were able to easily spot the fawn from their hiding spot. Professor Belltower frantically took down notes and pointed out to Zoe the various parts of the fawn as she recorded its movements. Zoe was starting to feel better about being out in the depths of the forest when she saw the furry head of the creature rear up behind a bush on the other side of the clearing they were in. Before the mother deer could escape with the tiny little fawn, the werewolf had emerged from the bush and was already on top of the family of deer. Zoe watched the split second of fear in the eyes of the mother deer as the wolf got its teeth into the baby and blood started to spurt from its tender flesh. Zoe’s heart rate jumped as her instant hatred for the werewolf caused her blood to boil and Professor Belltower struggled to hold her back from charging in to fight the wolf bare handed with nothing more than a can do attitude.
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The fawns mother knew there was nothing it could do for its child, the werewolf would kill them if they kept hanging around so they bolted for safety, choosing not to look back and see the last remnants of life fade from the fawns eyes. Professor Belltower stood, grabbing Zoe by the scruff of her neck to drag her as fast as she could away from the gruesome scene. There movement alerting the werewolf to their prescence in the bush and as fast as they ran the werewolf kept gaining ground on them.
Professor Belltower was on the verge of collapse from carrying Zoe by the time they reached the walls of the college. The werewolf was so close to catching them now and was growing increasingly desperate to do so as like most creatures it could sense the magical wards surrounding the college and knew instinctively that it would not be able to cross them to catch the pair. It was so determined to catch them that it it crashed into the invisible wards forming a solid wall for monsters. Inside the barrier both Zoe and Professor Belltower watched the creatures face become distorted by the burning and melting caused by the wards as even several bones snapped in its face as it tried to push its way through.