All morning, the fish squad fought against the rest of the candidates as druids watched. And that was how their mornings went for weeks. Afternoons were spent on field craft, and how to work with a druid, or with a mixed team of druids and rangers.

They learned the history of the druids circle, and of the various houses of the circle. One by one, the unattached druids came to River seeking to bond them to one ranger or another.

Chip spent the first week exhausted, though Sam made him stay up each night reading and studying the beasts of the warrens. Each day, he got better at fighting, but Sela still had them outmatched.

In the second week, Sela brought him a gift. A serrated swordbreaker that Chip was able to use to great effect. He was easily able to block and parry many of the other rangers who had taken up the sword. However it was their wife's idea to make it also a functional spatula and easy to clean.

Sela had apparently flummoxed the workers at the hammer and anvil shop with his request and it had taken a month's wages from him. Then he was asked to bring his druid to bond the blacksmith to his wife, which she did graciously. This cost Sela even more because each bond took River a few meals worth of food to recover from. They had gotten lucky when she bonded the three of them.

In the third week, Spring called upon Chip to present him with a present of a different sort. She brought out a gorgeous box of lacquered cards and bade him to use it on at least one drawing a day. Giving him a small book on the descriptions of the cards, she was horrified to see that the deck, upon coming into his possession, was larger than it had been when she’d had it made.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“What do you think it means, Druid?” Chip asked.

“I think it means that you’ve more power than I have even thought. It’s too bad that you’ve no knack for the rest of the magical arts.”

The two had met at Vendetta’s rise as Sela and Sam were off on some special instruction mission that Chip was supposed to attend. But, one didn’t keep a druid waiting, especially one such as Spring/

Spring had had him tested extensively, but the only thing he showed an aptitude for was the deck itself. She said that his was a rare and special gift, but haven’t said more on their rounds.

“Do you think it means I’m cursed?” He asked as he counted all of the cards, careful to now start a drawing.

“No, it means that your presence has changed the deck. I wish I’d given you a deck sooner. In fact I should check my own to see if it has also changed.”

She reached into her own robes, and counted out her own cards, gasping as she came to the same count as before.

“Chip, do a reading again please.”

Renard, fox ranger barged into Vendetta's rise as he reached into his pocket. Behind him, Andrea, ever the initiate, stopped at the door warily looking around.

Spring waved her over, as Andreas' face grew dark. She hadn’t expected the druid, that part as much was clear.

“Monsieur Chip, I have seen you monster and she,” he held Chip's shoulders in a wide embrace, “She is beautiful.”

“The way he speaks about this monster, you’d think that she is a lady or queen. Large and regal she is, but queen she is not.”

“Madame, she is surely a queen of the sea and she has been sighted coming close to ortho’s docks.”

The long running joke about Ortho owning every inch of the valley made Chip smile. He often told the candidates and the rangers that he owned everything even down to their clothes, and if they complained he said that he could easily repossess them should he want to.

“Truly, is this so?” Chip said, “I hope that Ortho doesn’t mind me taking his fish then.”

Spring and Andrea looked at him puzzled. Only Renard knew his mind, and his smile told it all.

“I wouldn’t mind a bite myself,” Renard said.

He was never more thankful to Sam for making him read about beasts then when he was able to finally recognize that the sea creature they passed on their morning runs was actually some sort of delicacy. That was when he realized that perhaps he could get Sela and Sam a gift himself.

The queen was finally in town, and he was going to get his gift from her.