Chapter 27

Hot in puuurrrrsute * Nyan*

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AUTHORS NOTE

Character sheet update in the Stats & misc forum

Sorry sometimes i ahve the urge to name my chapters idioticaly

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2 days had passed since the revelation. Both ate their food in silence while Ren had stalked a deer in the close by forest and was enjoying its bloody meal.

Sturm checked the direction of the wind and it was going east. But even the flow of mana indicated east. He had watched the mana going in that direction ever since this morning.

" Our first target is getting away from us. " Sturm said after he was finished.

Now Aya coughed up because she tried to gulp down a too big chunk of meat combined with bread. She was behaving strangely , now that she knew he was the Ruby prince. Allways very attentive and was VERY close by.

It annoyed Sturm to no end , but he had not said anything about it yet. But if this would continue he would. As much as he enjoyed company , as good company always makes for better travels , it was almost and obsession of her to be of his service.

She had finished Rens saddle yesterday night , as she had the materials at hand , and had missed quite some sleep because of this.

" We can ride now. I also got a mount. " Aya said matter of factly.

This was the first time Sturm had heard about it , but not really surprising as they only knew eachother for a few days. Aya called Ren over and put the saddle on her back. Sturm had to supress a fit of laughter as he saw the human girl try to hoist a saddle almost her own weight ontop of the tiger that was standing as tall as herself.

Sturm walked towards them and with one swing of his arm the saddle landed in the perfect place , right behind the tigers shoulderblades. 2 straps of leather were slung across the tigers chest and another 2 were lead through the backlegs back towards the top of the saddle and secured with buckles on the saddle itself.

It looked kind of odd , but Aya reassured both Ren and Sturm that even if the tiger wanted to use her front paws to attack the rider would not be affected. Even jumping and securly landing would be possible with this contraption as the lower spine was completly exposed as well as the belly.

Ren walked around a little bit and then broke into a spurt. She jumped ontop of a tree and then landed gracefully back on her feet. With some growling and hissing she told Sturm it was perfect.

But different from a normal saddle , besides the straps , were also the place for his feet. With a normal saddle the feet would be outstretched and you could stand through this. This design had the ' footrests ' directly at sides of the tigers belly. If Sturm wanted to sit properly he had to arch of his knees to the front.

This was brought into account with the increased size Sturms body had so it wouldn't impede the tigers shoulder blades. Sturm saddled up and it felt very comfortable. But he could also push his feet back a little stronger to remain in a standing position which in turn adjusted the footstands into a horizontal position. It was a genious trick.

" Good work , Aya. " Sturm said and the girl blushed.

Sturm almost let out a sigh but Ren , that wanted to test out everything , already leapt forward covering a great distance. After 1 minute of riding east , Aya caught up to them riding a boar the size of Ren.

As he took a closer look , this could not be a normal boar. It's eyes told a story of its intelligence and Sturm was sure it could talk. Its tusks were coated with metal as well as its body armored. The blue tribal marks that covered its black colored hide made Sturm think of Thalia for some reason.

Not that Thalia had any markings but something about the beast seemed familiar , he just couldn't pin-point it. A change occured in the manaflow that coursed through the air and Sturm shouted out.

" Head East-south-east , leave the road behind just run generally in that direction , Ren. " Sturm shouted.

Ren as a reply just purred loudly which reveberated completly , from head to toe , through Sturms body. She increased her speed at a blinding speed and he swore that it feels like riding a very smooth car.

" Hey slow down! " Aya shouted from behind them.

They had left her and the boar in the dust , but Ren , even though she had heard it , was in her element. She started to zig-zag. Sometimes she jumped up a fallen tree just to run along its bark , even though they had to go in another direction.

She had fun and was curious at the surroundings. Once she jumped the next time she ducked underneath a tree that had toppled over. On other occasions she even clawed at trees leaving deep scratch marks in them.

Aya with her boar was not far behind , but even though Ren was having fun playing they couldn't catch up. The ups and downs hurt Sturms back from time to time , as the back of a cat archs alot more compared to a horses , but he never uttered a word of complaint as he knew what delight Ren felt.

After 6 hours of straight running Sturm halted Ren for a pause.

" Ren you can have fun , i just want to eat something. Then we can have even more fun! " Sturm told the big white cat while taking the saddle of.

She rubbed her head , that was bigger then his own oversized ribcage , against his head and purred loudly before she stalked out into the forest again. Aya had also dismounted , but she left the saddle on her mount , and was leaning on her boar that seemed to sleep.

" You are a Fae too , right? " Sturm asked without hesitation between bites of Ironbear steak.

The boar lazyly lifted one lid and looked at Sturm. Sturm had always thought Fae and the high-elfs had some kind of connection , but this one was just stubborn as it grunted as a reply.

" He is a little arrogant from time to time. " Aya said to excuse her partners behaviour.

" No worries. But now to the main point , we will arrive at our destination shortly. Judging by the flow of mana above the trees , that is coming from all directions now leading south , it should be a 1 or 2 hours max. " Sturm breached the topic he wanted to discuss.

" But now as you maybe have read , it could be any race. Draconian , elf , Orc , dwarf or human. Don't be prejudiced against any of them. Me and them , but above all my godess , will have something in common with them. " Grim finished what he wanted to say.

Aya thought about this for a few seconds and just nodded as a reply.

They finished their meal and Sturm mounted the saddle once again. It took 5 minutes to readjust the straps but he wanted Ren to enjoy her ' free ' time as much as possible.

" Master you promised we would have more fun now , how? " The big cat asked Sturm.

" ... My name is Sturm ... But how about this. " Sturm said.

Sturm had noticed her behaviour of adjusting her muscles for whatever she did. If she wanted to duck beneath a tree she bent her front legs slightly while running. While jumping she bent her back legs and she had fun with each one of the different situations.

He used Deep freeze and created a thick and large cube of ice a few yards away. Not big enough to just run over , but almost to low to jump over. Ren just stepped on it and jumped off of it propelling them even farther into the air.

As Sturm was pushed upwards by Ren , he froze a nearby limb of a tree and Ren immediatly realized what he was doing. She jumped on it but instantly kicked off again. Sturm froze another one and so they jumped through the trees instead of the ground.

This was only possible to the freezing. Ren easily weighed 1200 pounds to her size and even if it was a big tree and a big limb it would just break at the force. With the extra stability Sturm had offered Ren could easily jump in the middle of a big limb without it snapping.

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Ren still only jumped close to the bark if she had to use a thinner limb as support in the trees. She was laughing loudly while doing this nonetheless and puring at the same time.

" Ren look at this. " Sturm said over his own laughter.

As the tiger looked back 5 Shards of ice gained speed and were aimed at the Girl ontop of her Boar.

" What the heck stop that! " She said disgruntled.

Both , Sturm as well as Ren , just laughed at her attempt as 5 more shards flew towards her. The boar was quick to catch on and he had a superior look in his eyes , telling Ren and her Master he would never be hit.

" You shouldn't challenge my master you useless piece of pig! " Ren said mockingly towards it.

Ren felt , through her soul bond , that her Master was delighted at the scenery and their little game , but he was also ambitious. He sent out enough mana for 25 ice shards and all formed simulteiously over his shoulders. All of them were aimed this time at the boar but he easily side stepped them.

The boar just grunted with a very pig like sound and smiled , which definetly looked grotesque with the tusks and all. Now Sturm was smiling a wicked smile in return and Ren saw a shiver running down the boars spine.

In his hands he held a piercing bolt of energy and over his shoulders formed 50 ice shards. Ren was surprised at her masters power , considering he only summoned a few in her presence so far. Especially , if he could summon so many at will , why had he not done so when she was about to attack him?

Ren also knew he had not taken her lightly or she would have never shared a soul bond with him. So she was wondering where this power in her Master came from.

The arc lightning hit the limb that was still frozen , where Ren had jumped off and bounced off a nearby tree aiming down at the boar. As it sidestepped 50 iceshards were aimed at the same spot where the Boar would be in a split of a second.

The boar closed its eyes , as it already knew this would probably kill it , but just short before him the ice disappeared into thin air. Sturm had dissolved them mid flight and took the mana back into his own body.

Just now the boar steeled its heart to never underestimate this high-elf again.

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They came closer as the concentration of disdirectional mana flow of the air told Sturm. But they entered marshy land. This was the borders to the kingdom of draconians. Many venemous opponents lurked in the murky waters with only a few solid passage ways through it.

But Sturm had another plan. They slowed down and had a quick rest on a solid piece of land as he regained all of his mana. As they were ready to go Sturm spread out his mana in a 5 yard large span right infront of him and frooze the marshy water creating a new way for Ren and Ishdruk , the boars name as itself had introduced himself to Sturm and Ren , to pass through.

Their speed was slower , considerably to before , but instead of having to look for solid pieces of earth to wander across they gained on their target fast. But it was still moving only slightly slower then them.

Dusk broke in over them , but as they were so close Sturm decided to keep going to finally catch his target.

He constantly had to drink the spicy herbal tea he had bought from the shop owner to upkeep the amount he needed for creating the icy path way , but the 50 portions had disappeared quickly. He had 1 vial left , so 10 times 300 mana , then he needed to use his own 10 canteens of reserve he vowed to himself only to use in emergency situations.

During all the fun and deep freezes to create a path , Sturm skills had gained proficiency quite noticeable. All of this amounted to nothing though as they saw that their target had stayed put a few hundred yards away from them now.

At least Sturm and Aya concluded that somewhere between them the target had to be. A band of Draconians were dragging and pushing along 4 carts. Those carts were covered in oiltarp and they had no idea what was inside. But Sturm knew , judging by the whirlpool of mana on top of the 50 Draconians pushing these carts somewhere between them his target lurked.

" Now what? " Aya said looking at Sturm with bright eyes.

He told her to be a little more considerate of the possible hearing advantages the Draconian race had , but Sturm knew they had not heard them from this far away. Sturm concentrated on the 50 Draconians again and saw 10 targets breathing in massive magic amounts and almost releasing none.

' Magicians i guess , the others seem to be only some foot soldiers. ' Sturm thought.

Now he looked around their camp and noticed that a few used earth magic as stones were neatly floating inside of the murky water to allow the heavy carts and themselves a easier footing.

This was the first time that Sturm saw draconians live and he was absorbed in studying their anatomical structure. They had small stubby little wings that would allow them to 'glide' through the air but they couldn't possibly fly. The scales that covered their reptilian faces was also something to behold.

But after studying some more he noticed their scales had different colors. Some were silverish some goldish and other cooper colored. Even others had something like a ' comb' at the back of their heads in different sizes and shapes , but this was mostly reserved for the 10 Magicians.

" See those 10 over there with the big combs ? " Sturm whispered in Aya's ear.

She flinched slightly at the unexpected close proximity , but she didn't move after this and nodded.

" All of them are magic users. I can tell they are not our targets , but about the other 40 Draconians i have no clue. " Sturm said.

Now as she looked over the group herself she noticed a few discoordinations Sturm had obviously missed so she spoke her mind.

" Those guys are probably players. " She told him.

Even though Sturm had not let his surprise show on his face , he was nonetheless. They were uncoordinated , unruly and in general uncordinated. But he believed Aya's judgement without any concern.

Sturm had meet a few players , but he never really conversed with many. Also he had played a insane , or ill minded person for quite some time where he had the chance to mix himself under the people. But this missed chance has lead him to not notice the difference from afar.

In return Aya had , at least judging by the storys she had told Sturm about her adventures. Now there was only one slight problem left. Their armor looked very well treated , new and overly expensive , as Sturm concluded by the material the armor was made from.

Another bad sign for them was the setting sun. Normally it was better to ambush people during the night , but most likely they could see better then Aya and they could definetly see better then Sturm.

They had nightvision as a racial ability. 60 foot without the support of Moonlight and 120 with Moonlight could Draconians see black and white in the night. But even so it had to be during the night.

Mana , at least the raw kind that was attached to all the elements , was easier to spot during the night and Sturm did not have the slightest intention to kill his target during the day just because it would be so much more convinient for them.

Sturm told Aya his plans and even gave Ishdruk and Ren a plan they had to execute.