[[Shortly after his death]]
“Well hello there young man. I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.” A familiar elder gentlemanly voice resounded from Kiefer’s side as he opened his ethereal eyes.
“This voice…Grandu?” Kiefer called out, turning his line of sight, searching for the owner of the voice. It was really dim, with an eerie moss green glow around. The only lights came from images of all sorts of people and animals who seem to materialise from thin air and float mindlessly towards a giant glowing green sun that roiled and turned some distance away.
“We meet again, ya sneaky brat. I will forever remember the day you tricked me and escaped from my academy.” Another familiar voice spoke.
“Drigor too?” Kiefer asked again, this time fixing his sight on a group of 3 people floating next to each other. There was an old man, whom he had seen only once in Drigor’s memories. Next to him was the unshaven man he remembered as Drigor’s human form. Lastly, on the other side, hugging the old man’s arm was a young lady, with features that resembled Isana. She seemed a little shorter and more slender, without the same womanly curves that Isana possessed.
“Where’s Gondor and Desir? Don’t tell me they didn’t die?” Kiefer asked, looking around, searching for a translucent giant turtle and a giant snake.
“Don’t worry about him. The 3 of us overpowered them the moment they came through. Their souls are now being torn asunder along with billions of others’, being reassembled to form new life as they return to different realms through a portal in the middle. Grandu proclaimed, pointing at the glowing green sun.
“I see. Well sorry I couldn’t keep up my end of the bargain. Isana is now alone again on Aioa. And Drigor, I’m terribly sorry about killing you. If only I had talked to you more, then…” Kiefer apologised, looking down at his ghostly legs. They seem to be spirits, but still possessed feet.
“You did your best.” Grandu comforted him. “Plus you brought together the rest of the titans. No one has been able to unite the titans like you did. Isana is not alone. I don’t think she ever will be.”
“So how come every soul I see is heading to the sun immediately after appearing, but you three are still hanging around like its tea time in the netherworld?” Kiefer probed now, his curiosity taking over his guilt.
“It’s not just the three of us. See over there? And there? There are other like us, Titans and overlords of their own worlds. Worlds like Aioa which have mana. We can control our own ethereal bodies in the netherworld thanks to our unique makeup. Being able to generate our own mana, the netherworld registers us not as souls that need recycling, but foreign object that don’t belong here. That is not to say that we cannot reincarnate. We can, as long as we enter the sun, be we lose all our memories, abilities and our proof of existence.” Drigor explained. He was the one with the utmost knowledge of the netherworld, being a prime necromancer himself.
“And what about our powers and skill?” Kiefer asked, itching to experiment with this new knowledge.
“I’m not sure about yours, but ours are severely limited. I’m Wanda by the way. Isana and Drigor’s sister.”Wanda replied this time, having kept to herself for the duration of the conversation.
“I see. I guess there is only one way to test things out.” Kiefer commented, as he began to feel around his ghostly body for signs of his favourite particle.
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[[Deep within Forest north of Portal city, present day]]
Growls and laughter could be heard as undergrowth was flattened and trees broken by the rough horseplay of 2 big cats and a young human boy. The young Seraplors already had 2 tails each, only a year away from reaching the age where they leave the den. The young boy was naked, and covered with scars, but was smiling brighter than a summer midday sun. He was enjoying his last year together with his siblings before they each went their own way.
As they tumbled and tackled each other, play biting and pawing at one another, they heard a low growl and all perked their heads up. Their mother had returned. She was a full grown female Seraplor with 3 flowing tails that cracked as they whipped the air. Compared to the young 4 year old boy, it was a wonder he had not been crushed by his mother or his siblings yet. Despite being only 4, his physique seemed to indicate otherwise, with well-built body rippling with muscles, clear sharp eyes and sharp canines.
In the mother’s maws, was an icy blue wyvern, its body limp as the cat had a firm grip on the neck. Dropping the wyvern’s carcass on the floor in front of the den, she licked each of her children once, her blood soaked tongue leaving a red trail on their bodies before heading towards the nearby river for a drink.
The younglings wasted no time tearing away at the wyvern’s scales, making quick work of its armour and biting chunks out of the sweet raw flesh that hid underneath. As the young boy finished his fill quickly, he thought of a mischievous idea. Slathering his hands in the fresh red blood from the carcass, he suddenly leapt onto his brother and sister, smearing their faces with his bloodstained hands and laughing loudly at the silly looks of the 2 cats.
Of course, they retaliated together, pouncing towards the boy as he agilely moved from tree to tree, nimbly swerving barely out of reach of their paws. Out of the three, he was the smallest, but by far the most dexterous. With that little gameplay started, they gradually moved away from the mostly eaten carcass and back into the forest, resuming their game of tag.
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[[Elsewhere, not too far away]]
“Hey Sarge, why are we out here again?” one recruit uttered as he slogged through the dense and humid forest with his squad.
“You know what it’s like. Orders from higher-ups. Those lab-junkies just need to ask and they get the support from the superiors at the drop of a hat. To think the job would fall on Spectre trainees was unexpected, but orders are orders.” The sergeant replied, indicating that he had no say in this. He himself was a fully trained Spectre, leading a group of battle hardened marines who were just starting out the Spectre program.
“The least they could do was give us proper weapons, not tranq-darts… this is so last millennia.” Another recruit complained, tilting his rifle side to side and inspecting the harmless weapon.
“The orders are to tranq and tag. These beasts are endangered and the Lab junkies don’t want us killing anything. They only want to monitor the animals and keep tabs on the range of the demon queen’s influence.” The other sergeant in the squad explained, as he sliced through a thick vine with his military machete.
“Yea right... demon queen my ass. Nobody even know for sure if she exists. They are just putting a face and person to the phenomenon to make it seem like they know the cause of the beast’s behaviour. No one’s seen anything resembling a demon queen in centuries.” A third recruit vociferated, irritated by the pointless mission they were sent on.
“Well we know something powerful is in the north, be it a person or not. You’ve seen the records. Artillery, long range ballistics, low orbit strikes, high orbit strike, all useless in the north. They say the projectiles simply disappear without a trace. There were even records of stealth bombers going on a one way trip without so much as a distress signal, never to be heard from again.” The first sergeant reminded, avoiding a pile of dung at the foot of a tree. “Careful, this is fresh. Seraplor, maybe Hexbears, judging from the size. Get out your thermals. Keep your eyes peeled.” He alerted the squad.
The recruits stopped their chatting and immediately got into high alert, stopping in their tracks as their scouts scanned the surrounding with their thermal goggles.
“What’s our windage?” one of the recruits whispered to the scout as he studied the information on his HUD. The scout remained quiet, as tension grew in the squad of 10 soldiers. They may be trained soldiers, but when facing the magical beasts on this planet, tranq-guns were hardly enough to leave a wide enough safety margin for them to relax.
After a short pause and a scan around his surroundings, the scout raised his hands and made circular motions in the air to direct the soldier’s attention to him. Using 2 fingers to point to his eyes, and then far off into the woods, before changing his hand signal to raise 1 finger followed by a 5 and then a zero.
Everyone understood that the scout was indicating the target animals at 150m in the direction he pointed. Waiting for more information from the scout, everyone tensed up, some eager while other reluctant to face the beasts. Again, his hands made a circular motion, then pointed left to the direction of the animals. Trusting the decision of the scout, the sergeant made the hand signal to move in the direction the scout pointed, with the squad eventually moving downwind of the target.
After a few more directional changes, the scout tapped his visor to check if there was some kind of error. They were now only 20 metres downwind of the animals and his thermal imaging showed 2 Adolescent Seraplors seemingly attacking a young human. Transmitting the image to the Sergeant’s HUD, everyone waited nervously for the final decision to engage the targets.
The order was swift and decisive. Everybody moved in formation, quickly closing in on the 2 startled Seraplors and the young boy who was slathered in blood. The 2 cats had bloodied snouts which made it seem like they had been attacking the boy.
Reacting immediately to the intruders, the two young Seraplors camouflaged themselves, staying deadly still, making it seem as though they disappeared to the naked eye. This was their first time meeting these strange black creatures carrying long rods. The boy stood there eyeing the squad of soldiers.
With a single shout, the soldiers squeezed their triggers, hitting the first camouflaged Seraplor with 5 darts. As the camouflage dispelled, the Seraplor slowly tried to steady itself as it fell to the ground. Seeing their sister slumped on the forest floor, the boy yelled threateningly at the soldiers.
“Gah! Gah kah Gao!” he yelled to the male Seraplor who quickly dashed back through the forest as the soldiers fired a second volley of darts towards him.
The young boy flew into a rage, watching his sister get knocked out and his brother attacked. As quickly as a blinding flash, he dashed forwards and used a thick branch to aim a downward swing from the back on one of the recruit’s necks. The recruit barely reacted in time, blocking the swing with his rifle, which broke the branch in half. However, this did not stop the boy as he grabbed the recruit’s shoulder from mid-air and twisted, swinging the full grown man overhead and slamming him down.
Next, he aimed a punch at the nearby recruit’s stomach, only to hear a sickening crunch as his fist met the titanium carbon nanotube blend of fabric. Wincing from the pain of broken fingers, but not stopping, he aimed a large rock at the trunk of a tree. The impact crushed the trunk and caused the tree to fall, blocking the squad from the fallen Seraplor and impeding their vision with the thicket of leaves and branched.
Without turning to look back, he quickly hoisted the giant and heavy cat on his shoulders and dashed back towards the den, leaving the soldiers stunned at what just happened.
“What’s a Nat doing all the way out here alone?!” the downed recruit groaned as he got up and dusted himself.
“No idea, but it would seem that he was protecting those cats. Everyone check your gear. We will be following the tracker on the unconscious Seraplor.” The sergeant ordered as everyone hustled around, feeling each and every piece of their gear.
“There will be a full grown Seraplor guarding their den. Priority target is the adult, then the boy and finally the remaining youngling.” The second Sergeant instructed as everyone formed up into their patrol formation once more, following the scout’s directions.
As they trekked through the jungle, they eventually reached their target destination, where they saw the young boy licking his hand that he broke trying to punch the recruit. It wasn’t bleeding, but very visibly swollen.
“I got this.” Said the recruit who was thrown to the floor earlier, as he took aim at the boy. The young boy noticed the group of intruders and growled menacingly, his unconscious sibling behind him.
As the recruit opened fire, the young boy swiftly grabbed a large Frisbee sized flat rock and deflected the incoming dart, keeping his eyes locked on all the men before him. Standing guard over his sister, the boy did not move an inch, not willing to leave his family behind.
“I’ll handle this.” The sergeant quipped as he raised his hand and pointed it towards the boy. [Earth Prison] he yelled as his suit lit up with a rustic brown glow, causing the ground to suddenly rise and swallow the boy up to his neck.
“Hmph. Show off.” The other sergeant scoffed, looking at the now helpless boy. “Anyone can do that once they get augmented.”
“Contact Rear!” the scout yelled as everyone pivoted on their feet to turn around, seeing 2 giant Seraplors pouncing atop them. A rain of darts shot out and soon, both giant cats were down on the ground, the boy yelling and screaming as tears rolled down his cheeks. The Spectre trainees only got away with one sprained foot on one of the recruits tanks to their superb reflexes and intuition.
The soldiers got to work quickly, hoisting the cats back into the den and then tagging them with a radio receiver and a mana flux transmitter. This way, they would know when the animals came under the influence of the demon queen’s aura and the scientists back in the city would be able to determine the range of the aura.
Walking over to the boy, the sergeant took off his helmet to reveal a fatherly face with sharp eyes and a gentle smile. As he stretched his hands out to pat the boy, he attempted to take a bite, and he did, only to be unable to bite through the suit. As his hand was firmly clamped in the jaws of the 4 year old boy, the sergeant raised his other hand and patted the boy on his head gently.
“I know you don’t understand me, but see?” He gestured to the 3 cats that were in deep sleep. “They are still alive.” Gesturing to the large chests heaving up and down visibly.
Waving his hand over part of the earth prison, he chanted the word [Dispell] and the part came undone, revealing the swollen hand. The sergeant then signalled for the medic to come over and he prepared a shot from within his medkit. The cylindrical tube had 4 prongs extending from one end and looked quite menacing.
With a quick jab and squeeze, the biodegradable nanomites were injected into the boy’s bloodstream, quickly targeting the broken bones and mending them, stimulating the surrounding muscles to contract at the precise angles to position the bones while interfereing with the synapses of the sensory nerve that ran from the hand and up the arm.
The hand reformed and quickly healed as the swelling decreased substantially, all painlessly. The boy was shocked at the magic that healed him, quickly calming down after he was released from the prison and allowed to hug his family. He could tell that they were alright, only sleeping deeply. Deep inside, he knew he was different from them, and yet he couldn’t bear to leave them. The man who healed him was with the rest of the intruders, smiling kindly at him from afar, gesturing him to follow.
Making up his mind, knowing his family was safe, he decided to see what this man had to offer. If he could truly become stronger, he thought he would return and protect his mother once more, just as she had protected him all his life. Grabbing a tuft of her hair, he cut it with a sharp piece of rock and tied it into a small bundle with a string provided by the soldier. He kissed his mother goodbye and turned to leave, tears dropping on the forest ground.
It was not his place to be. His siblings were growing much faster than he, and they would leave soon, making him a burden for his mother. He had already intended to leave once his brother or sister left, so this was but a mere advancement on his departure. Knowing they were safe was enough. He could not ask for more from the creatures that overpowered them but chose not to kill them.
The Spectre trainees cut short their trip with the kid in tow, bringing him back to base in a Twin jet light aerial transport they termed the Falcon.
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[[Deep in the North]]
The mountain rumbled as a strong heartbeat could be felt radiating from within. A small cavern within the mountain housed a precious egg as tall as a man. The egg was mostly silver in colour, with faint blue speckles and dark grey swirls that littered its surface.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
It sat on a thick mat of blankets, as if being incubated by a human rather than an animal. While the outside of the cavern maybe so cold that temperature drop several tens of degrees below zero, within the cavern, it was warm and humid, almost sweltering like the middle of a rainforest. There, the egg sat for almost one and a half centuries, slowly developing, slowly growing.
The cave was silent, nay for the howling chilling winds outside. Then from the calming throb of the mountain’s heartbeat, a tiny scratching noise was heard. At first, it was almost inaudible, then, the scratches grew louder, accompanied by a pecking sound, like someone hitting a thin ceramic tile with a stick. Eventually, cracks formed on the smooth egg surface and from within, a tiny talon emerged.
Having found its way out of the confined space, the single black talon hung over the opening for a while, as if resting from its ordeal. Then a twitch. The talon wiggled and started to break away pieces of the eggshell, slowly causing the opening to enlarge. Finally, when the hole was about the size of a large dinner plate, a sharp snout stuck out of it, along with another talon.
With a talon on each side of the opening, the snout slowly opened as it took in its first breath of fresh air. In on swift motion, the talon ripped a crevice diagonally downwards from each side of the opening, shattering the eggshell to reveal an exhausted dragonling, bathed in amniotic fluid and panting on the floor amongst the remains of the shell.
The dragon resembled Kiefer’s titan form, only a little skinnier and much much smaller. With a black body and spikes along the back and on each side of her head, the dragonling sneezed, coughing out some amniotic fluid stuck in her lungs. Her body was mostly a glistening black colour, with the scales turning white at the tips of her spikes. Her tail swished around on the damp floor, sweeping away the eggshell crumbs and the fluid, slowly opening her eyes to look around. Green. Like her mother’s, her eyes were bright emerald green.
“kyuu.. kyuuu..” *sniff sniff* “Kyuuu!!” she called out with her tiny voice. She was barely 5m long from snout to tail, but already outsizing a fully grown wyvern. As she stumbled on her new limbs, trying to crawl outside of her cave, the mountain began to rumble as the cave suddenly began to grow in size.
What was once and had been a mountain for the past few centuries was now transformed into an enormous white dragon, layers of snow and dirt piling off her back as she stretched her mighty wings. With a tremendous roar that shook the ground and cleared the clouds, she stretched her long rugged neck and looked at her child. Bending close to the ground, the newly hatched dragonling measured up to one of her smaller tooth that protruded out from her closed jaw.
*HUUUFFF….*
Isana gently blew on her child as she breathed out through her nostrils, blowing away the egg shells and amniotic fluid. Then came a sudden blizzard that caused the little dragonling to shield its face with its wings and forearms. As quickly as the snowstorm appeared, it dissipated and from within, walked out a beautiful curvaceous woman in a flowing sky blue silk dress. She no longer had her usual long waist-length hair, but instead sported shoulder length silvery hair that only served to make her eyes stand out even more.
“My… child…” She whispered, her lips quivering as she gently stroked the dragon’s cheeks. Tears were rolling down her lustrous eyes as the black coloration of the dragon’s body showed proof of his legacy. How long had she yearned to see his face again, or even anything remotely similar to him that would remind her of her fond memories? And there, standing in front of her, was his child, with the same black body he possessed after their first and last night together.
The dragon understood immediately who she was, lowering her head and snuggling up to her mother. Isana hugged her baby girl, letting their respective manas intertwine with each other. This was what she had waited for centuries. Ever since she found out she was laiden with the egg, she had pulled back her attacks on the wretched enemy, choosing instead to stay low and defend her treasure at all costs.
Looking at the dragon once more, she smiled gently, caressing each individual scale on her face, before her eyes lit up brightly. Her lips parted, and one word resounded through the northern region.
“Kina”
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[[Meanwhile in an office in portal City]]
“Sir, you have a visitor. She doesn’t have an appointment, shall I let her in?” a young arachne secretary opened the door slightly, poking her head in and asking the youthful man sitting behind a brobdingnagian desk.
As the man looked up from the stack of papers strewn over his cherry oak desk, he smiled after sensing the mana signature of the woman seated outside his office.
“Let her in.” He said, putting down his pen and smiling.
“To what do I owe this nice surprise?” He asked, observing Isana enter his office, slowly stepping across his polished wood floors on her high heels and sit across the desk from him.
“My child has hatched. Just mere minutes ago. I’m here to ask if you want to reconsider your side in this war, and maybe take this opportunity to meet your niece. Kiefer, after all treated you like his brother.” Isana coldly replied, not amused by Rashael’s carefree attitude.
“As I have answered you so many times before, no I will not help you. You know as well as I do that Kiefer would not have wanted this. You are merely venting out your anger and sorrow on these lesser beings. You’ve seen the images just as I had when Gondor died. What his last actions were. The human was being controlled by Gondor. Why won’t you forgive their race already? It was an entire millennia ago.” Rashael sighed at Isana’s stubbornness.
“Do you want to see my daughter or not?” Isana asked coldly, the room dropping a few degrees.
“Yes of course!” Rashael replied quickly, pausing before continuing. “Isana, I’ve been meaning to say this since a while back, but don’t you think you have been a little too selfish? Especially with Kiefer when he was alive. He would do anything for you and Sher, and yet now, you oppose humanity and wreak havoc, striking fear into their hearts. Why don’t you spare a little thought about how Kiefer would have felt if he saw this? I’m not telling you to stop blaming them for his death right this instant, but it’s just something for you to think about.” Rashael continued preaching.
“You know where to find me.” Isana muttered, ignoring what Rashael had said. And yet, she had a slight prick in her heart, knowing there was truth to what he said. However, the person to blame for her beloved’s death is gone, and the humans were the only avenue for her to exact her grief. She knew they were not to blame but she kept convincing herself otherwise, hoping it would lessen the pain if she could target her frustration, sorrow and heartbreak at someone.
As she got up from her chair, she shattered into tiny ice crystals that fell onto the wooden floorboard and melted, forming a puddle of water.
“Haaaah….” Rashael let out a long sigh. “At least consider what kind of water damage you will do to my pristine maple floorboards. And I had them specially imported from earth too.” Rashael silently thought to himself, pressing a button that lit up a buzzer outside his office.
“Yes?” the Arachne girl earlier came in immediately after knocking.
“Priscilla, please clean this up before it ruins the wood. I’ll be going out for some time, maybe 2 or 3 days. Inform the teachers of my absence.” Rashael instructed as he took out a thick coat from his closet.
“Of course Principal Ray” The girl nodded and quickly called for a janitor on her phone.
Briskly walking out into the field, Rashael admired the institution he had upheld for almost 5 centuries. It was a huge compound, bigger than any of the old cities that existed while Kiefer was still alive. And yet, the institution was merely a spot on the map of the city, the biggest and most populated one on Aioa – Portal city.
His institution was a combination of schools catering for students from elementary all the way to post graduate studies. There was even a new wing opening up for athletic scholarship students in the University branch. As per Kiefer’s vision for equal opportunities for everyone, the school was cheap despite its high standards and reputation. Anyone without a criminal background was allowed in, and they could choose to study either non-magical courses or magical course, or even a combination of both.
Of course, running an institution as large as that was not cheap, with the school mainly being funded by the military as well as other companies from the private sector who specialise in technology that were dependant on mana. As with anything that consumed copious amounts of mana to function, they all required a mana storage unit, which happens to be produced only by a single company owned by none other than Rashael.
The mining factory located on his moon, there were no workers, only drones and automated machinery, mining as very limited supply of moon stone. No more than 5kg is supplied per year, but that was more than enough to run the school. They fetched astronomical prices and most buyers would use a blend of moonstone and a subpar manmade replicate to produce mana storage devices. While the storage capacity was severely limited, it was sufficient to run the current level of equipment and devices.
Sighing at Isana’s stubbornness and thinking of what his niece would look like, Rashael quickly sunk into the ground while there was no one around. His identity as a Titan was known only a few, and while famously known as the legendary healer, no one outside of titans and the world’s leaders have seen any of his other titan abilities.
He was the last to arrive, seeing his sisters already seated and enjoying some wine. He inwardly thought of how much they have changed, all having matured and their taste buds introduced to new and wonderful delicacies. What used to be a nice aromatic tea, has now been replaced by a sweet bottle of rose wine. He found it weird that while Isana hated, or claimed she hated, earth humans, she found no trouble enjoying their food and drinks, and to some extent even their technology.
Somehow, sometime unknown to him, Isana had moved her house from the mountains north of Mutatis to this cold desolate mountain side, with an entire back yard carved out of the mountain side where the young black dragon was frolicking in the snow.
“Hello brother. How goes your school?” Luna greeted him first, setting her wine glass down.
“It’s all fine. The new athletics wing is giving me a headache though. I’m more inclined towards intellectual beings, so having those muscle heads around makes me feel like the overall intelligence quotient of my school is plummeting quickly.” Rashael complained. “How about yours?” he quickly asked.
“Same as always. I’d have to say, those earth humans are quite ingenius. The newest model and software for the augmentation is actually decent. One of my Nat(ural) students actually lost to an augmented earth human in a magic battle. Have you been helping them design those new suits?” Luna asked suspiciously.
“No no.. that’s all them. I have nothing to do with their little magic imitating device. To think they would implant a processing chip into the back of their heads to replicate the function of our mana centre. These humans really know no limits. Only after meeting them did I finally began to understand Kiefer’s thought processes.” Rashael shook his head and denied.
A slow lull overcame the room as the topic moved to Kiefer, everyone avoiding eye contact. Then, Fiora broke the silence, pointing at the backyard where young Kina was playing.
“Guys, look!” Fiora exclaimed. “Looks like she is about to start flying!”
Little Kina stretched out her giant white tipped black wings, inspecting them by turning her head side to side. With a strong downward swing, the snow on the ground immediately kicked up, swirling away from where she stood. Inspecting the effect of her actions she tried swinging one side, then the other, and then both together again.
This time, she kicked off the ground as she flapped, causing her to shoot up into the air quite a distance before crushing back down to the hard rocky floor. A crack was heard, but she didn’t seem injured. The 3 avian titans winced, Rashael letting out a small ‘Ooo!’ when she hit the ground. A small crater was left in the floor which Kina observed, then resumed her wing flapping.
This time, she jumped harder and flapped harder, continuing to flap her wings to keep herself hovering off the floor for about 30 seconds. She came crashing down again when she was tired of flapping, seemingly disoriented and a little anguished.
“Haha. She’s still young. Not even a day old yet and trying to fly?” Rashael commented, returning to his drink.
“Well, she’s curious. Give her time, she’ll eventually come to realise her own skills. Even Isana took a year to be fully aware of her skills before she used mana to fly instead of her wings.” Fiora added on, proud that she knew more about Isana than her siblings did.
At that moment, Isana came floating down from the sky, landing in the back yard and kissing her child before proceeding into the house through the back door. As she strolled to the dining table where the 3 were seated, she pulled out a steaming pot of stew from her PD, laying it on the table as everyone cleared the wine bottle, making way for the meal.
Following behind her were Sher and Feir who similarly landed in the courtyard. While Sher walked into the house, Feir stayed behind in his giant wolf form and began rough housing with Kina, tackling her to the ground as they tried to bite and claw each other. Kina smiled gleefully at her playmate as she rolled around on the floor, the snow painting her black body in blotches of white.
As they were about to start their meal, the titans were interrupted by a loud audible growl that trailed off into a squeal. They turned to look at Feir who shook his head and looked at Kina. Kina seemed to be concentrating on something in the sky as her tummy rumbled once more, illiciting chuckles from her mother and the titans.
Abruptly without warning, Rashael felt a surge of mana explode from Kina as she bolted up into the sky, spreading her wings to help her stabilise in the air. He sudden movement stunned everyone as Isana and Sher rushed out of the house while dropping the ladle she was holding. She needed to follow her baby, not wanting to lose her child.
What they saw shocked them even more, as Kina came shooting down towards the ground, creating a crater as she landed. In her jaws was a poor wyvern still struggling for its life while in one of her front legs, clasped tightly by her talons was another, already crushed to death. Looking at her mother with a wide grin, she presented the one in her hand while snapping the neck of the wyvern in her mouth.
“hahaha... looks like she learns fast, like her dad.” Rashael laughed at the gory scene of splattered blood.
“And she’s as vicious as her mum.” Luna added, watching Kina devour the wyvern bite by bite.
Isana smiled, placing the offered wyvern in front of her child and patting Kina on her head. Slowly, she took out a towel from her PD and cleaned up the blood around her child’s mouth, before heading back into the house. The titans followed behind her, Feir already in his smaller dog form and trotting along into the house.
[[Back at Portal City Spectre training Facility]]
“So what’s the meaning of this Sergeant Sanders?” The Lieutenant asked, looking at the boy dressed in cheap clothes that were obviously bought at a discount store, with the price tag still attached.
“As I’ve mentioned in the report, we found this boy living with a family of Seraplors in the northern woods. From what we’ve seen, he may not have been taught by anyone, but he’s a Nat Enhancer. Im not sure of his casting abilities, but he lifted a 400lb Seraplor like it was his laundry and sprinted with the weight. I want to register him for a Spec training regime as my son. Of course, he will need to be taught to speak with words.” Sander paused, looking at the boy grabbing papers off his superior’s desk. “And some manners.” He continued.
“If he really can do what you say he can, then I see no problem. We could use a talented individual like him. And if he turns out to have an aptitude for casting, I happen to know an associate of mine who runs an excellent school that will teach him how to be the best caster.” The lieutenant said, rubbing his unshaven chin as he assessed the boy visually. “Let’s hope this investment of your turns out well.”