Lauric Isbala’s POV
“Oh crap,” the Viking said, “you’re pretty big huh?” I could not communicate with the Viking, not through Loyalty at least, so I had no way to answer back. Not that I would know what to say to such a statement anyway. Was he trying to talk to me? No, he was talking to my familiar. Sentinel began to back up and slowly make his way around Loyalty, never once taking his eyes off him… it seemed he was afraid of Loyalty. “Suma, as soon as you arrive at the exit, summon me.” He was talking to his master, planning to get to the exit quickly so as not to fail the trail. “Then don’t land, just get close to the ground before summoning me.”
“How far will you push yourself… if properly motivated?” I wondered, and came up with a plan of my own. The familiar turned and started quickly moving away from Loyalty; I ordered him to follow it from a distance. “I want to see how far you will go… Sentinel.” It ran for quite a while, but it was not very fast, not compared to Loyalty at least. He had an easy time following as the familiar tried and failed to lose him on several occasions, all the while talking to its master, at least until he was summoned away. “Fine, Loyalty, proceed to the gate, forget about the Viking.” I myself took to the skies and went to the gate as well. I saw Lady Suma heading away from the gate just as I landed on a perch near one of the instructors. A moment later, Loyalty arrived and officially completed the course.
“Well Lauric,” the instructor said, “you finished sooner than expected. Well done. If your familiar needs medical attention, tend to him and send him away, then report for your evaluation at field one with the rest of the recruits who participated today. They are waiting for everyone to join them before they get started.”
“Yes sir.” I cast a single healing spell on Loyalty just in case he had any damage I did not know about, then sent him away. After that I flew straight to field one. I created a perch and landed amongst a group of other recruits awaiting their evaluation. I found myself wondering how our familiars performances would be scored. Shortly after my arrival, Lady Suma and Lady Vindicta approached me and grew perches of their own.
“Lauric... why did your familiar follow Jake? Were you trying to hurt him?!” Lady Suma asked. “Having familiars hurt each other is against the rules, you know that!”
“I am aware of the rules Madam Suma. Loyalty did not injure your familiar in any way.”
“But he did follow him?” Lady Vindicta asked.
“Yes he did,” said Lady Suma.
“I admit, I had Loyalty follow your familiar closely after finding him lakeside.”
“Why?” Lady Suma wondered. I thought about how to answer, I knew why I did it, but how do I explain my reasoning?
“I wanted to find an answer to a question.”
“There is no reason to speak in riddles,” Lady Vindicta said, “just tell us why.”
“Your familiar is a Viking, at least according to the rumors. I wanted to find out what he would do and how far he would push himself.” My statement caused everyone who had been pretending to ignore our conversation to turn in shock towards us.
“That is a lie!” Lady Suma denied. “Jake is no Viking!”
“It’s true, Jake explained that-” Vindicta tried to say, but Suma covered her beak with a wing to silence her.
“The point is, Jake is not a Viking.” She said. I imagine the conversation would have continued, but the final recruit and all of the instructors of the course arrived together. The recruit grew a perch near one of her friends, and the instructors, six in total, grew theirs together in a place where everyone would be able to see.
“Alright recruits, quiet down, we are going to begin your evaluations.” Vindicta and Suma left and went to the perches they were on before I arrived. The instructors announced how each familiar and master would be scored. They would point out areas where they were impressed, and where we fell short. The goal was not to pass or fail us, everyone here had already passed by completing the course before the recruit who came after them. These were the instructors of the ones who passed, only six of the original fifteen recruits to partake in the course made it. Once they announced how everything would work, they called out to the recruits whom they were evaluating; mine was instructor thirteen. His feathers were a bit lighter than mine, but he was also a fair amount larger.
“Okay Lauric, I have a few notes about your familiar Loyalty.” My instructor said after we had flown away from the group to talk. “Don’t worry, most of its good. He performed well, as did you, but there were a few instances where I feel like you could improve.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I look forward to any advice you may have sir.”
“Firstly, Loyalty seems to have handled each obstacle well, save for the lake and crossing Delabi River. I take it your familiar can’t swim?”
“That is correct.”
“That’s something you will need to be aware of moving forwards and in battle. A familiar’s limitations can be deadly, so you need to plan for them. I think you should try coming up with a way he can cross water.”
“I will try sir.”
“Good, now I noticed he can’t move at a consistent pace, why is that?”
“I believe Loyalty is an ambush predator sir, he can move quickly in bursts, but not prolonged events. He also has the ability to blend into his surroundings.”
“Those are useful traits, but not being able to keep up with faster allies could be a hindrance. There might also be times where you would need him to travel long distances without stopping, so be aware of that.”
“I do not know how I would fix that sir,” I said confused.
“You can’t, but you may be able to think around it. The limitations of our familiars force us to think strategically and creatively.”
“I understand.”
“That’s all I have in regards to improving your familiar, but I also wanted to point out instances I noticed and had questions about.”
“Yes sir.” We talked a while longer. He wanted to know about why I had him do certain things rather than more traditional routes, and he also wanted to know why I had Loyalty follow the Viking. “I was simply curious about him sir. I was careful to make sure Loyalty knew not to hurt him or interfere with his attempt at taking the course.”
“Hmm, I see. Well, it’s true you didn’t interfere with the Vik- I mean, Suma’s familiar, and I suppose I can’t blame you for being curious. However, I would like to know why you didn’t pass him and finish sooner?”
“I dislike the idea of having a Viking as a familiar… no, I loathe it, but the matter at hand is that we are at war. I can tolerate it for now, so long as it benefits the kingdom”
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Suma’s POV
“The point is, Jake is not a Viking.” I declared. I had more I wanted to say, but the final recruit and all of the instructors arrived. The recruit grew a perch near a group of her friends, and the six instructors grew theirs together on a small raise in the terrain.
“Alright recruits, quiet down, we are going to begin your evaluations.” I swallowed my frustration and Vindicta and I went back to the perches we were using before Lauric arrived. The instructors announced how each familiar and summoner would be scored. They would point out areas where they were impressed, or we fell short. They were not going to pass or fail us; everyone present had already passed by completing the course before the recruit who came after them. These were only the instructors of the ones who had passed. Which meant only six of the original fifteen recruits to partake in the course actually completed it. They announced how everything would work, then called out to the recruits they were evaluating.
“Suma, please come with me,” my instructor said before flying a little way away and growing two perches for us.
“Good luck,” Vindicta said. I thanked her and met with my instructor. My instructor was the same one who I met earlier, the one I talked to when Jake entered the underground portion of the course.
“I did not realize you were my instructor ma’am,” I said.
“That was the point. We needed everyone to give their best, whether or not their own instructor was nearby, so we kept it secret.”
“I suppose that makes sense. Before we begin, did you have a chance to talk with anyone about the runes Jake found yet?”
“Jake? Ah right, your familiar has two names. No, I haven’t had the time yet, but I will. Anyway, about Sentinel’s performance. He is... rather slow isn’t he. If Lauric hadn’t slowed down towards the end, you wouldn’t be in this room right now.” Hearing her say that… she was right, Jake is slower than most familiars. “However, you guided him well and used his strength to his advantage.”
“Thank you ma’am.”
“It’s no secret that you have an unusual familiar. Not just that he can talk and use magic of his own, but also in the way he approaches problems; especially in the later half of the course.” I could not help but feel a swell of pride as she complimented Jake, even though I did not actually do anything, I still liked that he was getting the credit he deserved. “However, there are still areas where he needs to improve. He can use magic, but not a remarkably diverse amount. His approaches may be unique, but they are often simple.”
“Yes ma’am, but I am not sure that we can blame Jake for that. He is a Chaos Mage, most of the magic he is able to use has been made illegal.”
“The enemy doesn’t care about a familiar or summoner’s situation, they only care about if it plays to their advantage. Sentinel needs to improve his skill with magic, as well as find a way to increase his speed further. I saw him use enhancement magic to cross the lake fast, but that isn’t enough.” Again, I could not disagree. “That all being said, I was extremely impressed with his and your performance.”
“You were? But I assumed… based on what you said...”
“Yes, he has areas he needs to improve, but his mana reserves and stamina are astounding, and his ability to rapidly learn new magic techniques is unlike any I have ever seen. Not to mention the way he handled some of the obstacles was impressive.”
“Thank you ma’am.”
“If he were my familiar, I would use his strength and stamina to compensate for his lack of speed. That’s where he shines anyway.”
“But I thought you said he needed to get faster?”
“He does, and as soon as possible, but there is no getting around the fact that he is still going to be slower than most other familiars. So, you should look for ways to use what advantages he does have.”
“I will ma’am, thank you.”
“Now I want to talk to you about his magic, I was there during the battle training. I saw what he is capable of, so why is he not training to use more spells like that?”
“Well... most familiars do not know magic, and I am a healing mage, so-”
“Have him report tomorrow to the training in the battle mages section of camp. It will be going on at the same time the Healing Mages have their training. I want him to start participating in their training to improve his abilities.”
“I- um… yes ma’am.”