RedFox21 hated arguing with his father, the ever righteous Constantine Le Forge headmaster of the Andorians guild, "I am an adult pa", he found himself shouting, "stop treating me like a little boy".
"Then act your age Jeremy" his father's voice was louder, "why can't you pick a more sensible class like a fighter or rogue?" their usual argument progressed.
"Because magic is awesome dad", he couldn't let that point go since he was thirteen, "I always wanted to be a mage".
"We can't afford a second high ranking spell caster", sounding frustrated, "and if you are stuck in the middle ranks you aren't contributing to the Andorians guild", knowing what came next was the point of tension between them, "I need to win the next election or your brother will lose his sponsorship", money made the world go digital, "we want what is best for you son", the words came slowly in a quiet tone.
"If Julian cared about his sponsors he wouldn't miss out on so many tournaments", was their other point of conflict, "if you let me take over Afriat I could get the sponsors without you licking their boots", going too far before he could stop himself.
"Apologize at once young man", Esensha barged in, "I will not have you talk to your father like that", averting his eyes in shame from his mother's glare.
"I didn't mean it like that pa", trying to mend some fences "it's just that I wanted to practice my debuffs this weekend and you sent me to babysit the strangest couple of adventurers I ever heard or read about".
His dad sighed then, "you were just playing around with those brats from the Williams family", getting caught red handed by the guild headmaster put a halt to their friendship for a while, "I did you a favor by pulling you out and you are doing me one back by keeping an eye on those two".
"Yeah thanks a lot dad", unable to stop the sarcasm from painting his words.
"I thought you liked dragons" Constantine seemed puzzled.
"When I was ten", Jeremy replied, "although that Allen guy is really funny", looking to his mother before averting his eyes again, "but I can't talk with that woman", trying not to make eye contact with either of them, "she hates my guts since I gave them the slip in that cave".
"Well there isn't much left of the dungeon for them to explore", dad sighed, "so it's only a couple more days", then thinking about something, "besides Towrine said they bought a whole stack of magic books", adding "maybe you could exchange some lessons with them?"
"She just sends me away 'to scout' and they practice cantrips and minor utility spells" Jeremy answered, "It's like he doesn't know any skills or spells at all", shrugging at the impossibility of his statement, "I should probably get back in to make sure they didn't get into any trouble", smiling at his own joke before going to his rig.
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"Ah the wayward son returns" he heard the mocking familiar voice.
Opening his eyes to make sure he was still in the camp "What are you doing here Julian?" spitting the words out.
"Your job apparently", the mockery never receding, "actually I was escorting this lady to your camp", Jeremy looked for his brother in the shade of the sparse wood, "Uncle Belemy sent me to find you for her", seeing Afriat leaning casually against their legendary staff made Jeremy cringe, "and what do I find when I get here?" tapping the staff of life against one of the trees, "my brother sleeping in a nest of vipers".
RedFox21 scrambled up the tree as fast as he could when he heard the hissing sounds, "don't do it Julian", he warned his brother from going against the strange couple.
"Afraid I will get your friends mad at you little brother?" emphasizing the 'little' to annoy Jeremy, "too late now though", leaning down he picked a small item from the ground near where Kyatha was sleeping.
"What are you doing?" Jeremy wasn't familiar with that voice, "give it back" the strange woman said in a threatening tone.
"I just found it in the forest", Julian teased her.
"I will find your dead body in the forest if you don't give it back", she hissed.
"Very scary", mocking reverberated with every word, "do your worst".
"Shadow Shackles" she cast a quickened spell but all Julian had to do was raise his staff and one of the vipers he summoned collided with the spell.
"Nice" putting the staff of life to the ground adding, "entangle", the spell emanated from the staff moving roots and branches in a wide area surrounding the woman, "strangle" came the next command in the legacy chain of their great grandfather, "drain" the last part of the spell made the roots already constricting her so dry they sucked the life out of everything they touched, the moving tangle of roots where she stood dried up and crumbled leaving nothing in their place.
"Well done" the voice came from very near to where Jeremy was hiding, "but you wouldn't catch a ranger with s tangle spell" pulling out a small bow she fired an arrow that split to three and then to nine, a signature barrage shot skill that took years to master and required at least a minute and a verbal command was just executed silently with a flip of the wrist.
"Bramble wall" Julian cried in panic, "strangle", he added when the arrows were all stopped short from hitting him, the already agitated branches around the woman moved faster than the eye could see but she was already tumbling away when they closed on her location.
"Piercing shot" came her command followed by "thorn sprout", the arrow broke through the bramble wall and hit the ground in front of Julian, sprouting a bell shaped flower that spit needle like thorns at the surprised man.
"control plant", screeching in pain from the successful attack, "guardian of nature", using his second legacy spell the sprout shot up to become a seven meters tall hulking behemoth, keeping the bell shaped head as it turned to where the woman was preparing her next attack its needles spit was more like javelins and although some of them struck the timbre around her at least two hit her directly before she vanished from Jeremy's sight.
Julian didn't wait before he called "Bloodhound sprout" Pulling its roots from the ground the enhanced guardian trampled their camp as it walked around the clearing following the scent of the wounded woman.