The three stayed like that for a time before Alissa gave the good news to Belle.

“Congratulations Belle! I think you’re good enough to give hunting in the forest on your own a try!”

Belle’s face showed a mixture of nervousness, joy, and excitement. Alissa easily read the emotions on the small rabbit’s face and patted her head reassuringly, “Don’t worry, we’ll be right there beside you until you’re confident.”

Hearing the soothing voice, and feeling the warm weight on her head, Belle felt her worry vanish and raised her head to give a firm nod and a cheery “Yep!”

With that, Alissa grinned like a mischievous child and scooped the girl into her arms while extending her wings like carved amethyst before shooting into the sky, all in what felt like an instant to Belle.

Adrest shook his head and flew above to follow the prankster and the girl who let out a loud startled shriek as they flew into the distance. He followed the pair for only a handful of minutes before they descended to a few dozen feet away from a lone panther-like beast known as a dark cat. They were on the weaker side of feline type monsters in this world, on average in the D rank, but their claws were still lethal and its teeth sharp.

Alissa waved her hands, and after a light swirl of wind she spoke, “Right now it cant hear or see us, so Belle what beast is that?”

After landing from the embrace Belle had been held in, she looked at the cat in the tree a few dozen paces away answering, “A dark cat, it’s a common D rank monster known for it's agility and tough hide.”

“All correct, so when you’re fighting remember to go for its weak spots, and a cornered beast is the most dangerous. Good luck!”

With the encouragement and a wave of her hand, the circling wind stopped and Alissa grabbed Adrest before forcing him to ascend with her to the leaves above. Flustered, Belle found herself alone on the forest floor suddenly, and as fast as she could manage, grabbed her twin swords from the sheathes on her belt. Belle warily eyed the cat who was now looking at her because of the noise from the other two taking off.

It seemed to glare at her with narrowed eyes, its ears tucked back, and she could hear a low snarl escape its muzzle. The standoff continued in a deathly silence, the cat with all of its muscles tensed in anticipation, and Belle who seemed to calm now that she was focused solely on survival. With both blades sitting parallel to her legs in a seemingly lazed manner. It may seem lackadaisical, but Alissa had taught her that it was the best stance for adapting to opponents, and reacting to attacks from odd angles.

It proved correct as with no warning the large cat pounced, closing the dozen meters in a scant few seconds and clashed claws to sword with a metallic ringing as it gashed at Belle’s throat as well as trying to gore her stomach.

Belle let her mana flow through her whole body, strengthening it to the extremes of what she could safely handle. She felt inexhaustible energy in every inch of herself, and knew that currently her skin was nearly as hard as stone, though that meant nothing to the black claws currently trying to rake across her chest.

With a well timed parry, and a quick slash at the limb, the cat retreated a few meters. Belle was thankful for the space as she got her breathing back under control before shooting off, using earth magic to create platforms that push against her feet.

The cat swung its body to avoid Belle, who tried getting behind it, but still made a small cut on the tough hide, and tried to take some steps back but the small girl would not let up. Quickly small cuts were appearing all over its body as it tried to land even a single claw or bite in return to no avail.

Minutes passed and under the watchful gaze of her older brother and sister above, Belle soon made dozens of cuts on the cats body, and it was getting slower. Belle wanted to try to impress the two watching and closed in for the kill.

As if sensing its impending death, the cat did the unexpected. It threw itself onto the oncoming sword sliding straight through, the cat continued forward with death in its eyes but still ferocious as it sent it’s claws reaching, and just barely scratching into the skin of her forearm before a spike of earth shot out of the ground and into the throat of the beast, lifting it's entire body up and away from her.

Belle’s heart pounded as she realized just how close it had been, looking at the thin, red lines that streaked halfway from her wrist to her elbow. If she hadn’t used her earth magic, which had been a reflex more than a decision, her left arm would’ve been mangled at best, detached at worst. Belle went a shade paler at the thought, and this time took Alissa’s advice to heart, having learned her lesson.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As she was lost in her thoughts a pair of warms hands landed softly on her back, one large and callused, the other slender and soft. She looked up to see Adrest with a smile and traces of worry still present in his face. She looked up to see Adrest with a smile and traces of worry still present on his face. To the other side, was Alissa with an exasperated grin and a vein twitching in her forehead, Belle cowered slightly in reflex.

Alissa saw the action and sighed before crouching down and giving the girl a warm, reassuring smile saying “You did great Belle. But you made your big bro Ady worry, right after I warned you to be careful.”

“Sorry…” Belle said in a near whisper with her head pointed down, avoiding eye contact as much as possible to not show the start of tears in her eyes.

While Belle was looking down, Alissa wrapped her in a tight hug and rubbed her back saying “I’m not mad, okay? The best way to learn is from mistakes, and you learned your lesson right?”

Seeing Belle look up with glassy eyes and giving a big nod, she felt that looking that cute and pitiful wasn’t fair but put that to the back of her mind before patting the sad rabbit’s head and saying “Good! Now lets go home and eat, and tomorrow you can try all it on your own.”

Adrest chose that time to step up in front of Belle, and said with a stern face “But before you do Belle, you have to promise that you will come back safe and sound. I thought my heart was going to stop when it's claw hit you.”

Belle hugged Adrest, saying into his stomach, “I promise Big bro Ady, I’ll be more careful next time.”

“I know you will. Now let’s go home.”

With a swoop and a familiar startled shriek, Belle found herself on Adrest’s back, between his large, raven black wings as they sped back home.

Later that night, long after Belle had gone to bed, Alissa walked up to Adrest who was absorbed in his work, slowly carving out the scales of a fish that they commonly caught. Smiling to herself, she crept up to his defenseless back and suddenly hugged him from behind, eliciting a jolt and a startled half yelp from Adrest.

As soon as he saw the arms around him, Adrest knew it was Alissa, so he tilted his head back and asked, “What’s up?”

Alissa lifted her head up to make eye contact with Adrest and said, “I need you to do something for me.”

Saying that, she broke the hug and took out two items, a necklace and a ring. They were obviously made to be a pair, both a shining silver and similarly etched designs, with the necklace holding a swirling latticework of silver surrounding a many faceted, deep blue gemstone. The ring on the other hand, was a simple band of silver, with the gem inlaid and what looked to be runes carved around it.

“The necklace is for Belle, it already had an enchantment to sense a fatal attack before it lands, and summons a barrier of wind around the wearer for about 20 minutes. I also added the runes for it to send a signal to this ring when the barrier is activated.”

“That’s amazing! Sounds like it's really hard to make.” Adrest said in awe of the artifacts that were taken out and modified so casually by Alissa.

“I wasn’t finished, the necklace can even fend off A rank monsters for at least a few minutes. Kings wouldn’t hesitate to send thousands to their death to acquire one for themselves. The ring will also be able to sense and track the location of the necklace, but that’s where I need you.”

“That sounds like way too much for me, you haven’t even taught me much about runes and enchanting other than the absolute basics and what to watch out for when buying artifacts.” Adrest said, wondering where she was going with this, as he couldn’t think of anything that he could do that the woman in front of him couldn’t.

She said with a chuckle and smile “I don’t need you specifically, I need your mana. To make the location runes sync to one another, I need to borrow some of your spacial mana.”

Adrest nodded, as that made sense to his limited understanding of magic concepts and asked, “What do I need to do?”

Alissa was happy to see Adrest ready to help and grabbed one of his hands in hers.

“You’re still not very good at using your spacial mana, so you just need to completely relax and not fight me.”

After Adrest nodded, she sent her own mana into Adrest and sent it to his core in the center of his chest and gently tugged at the nearly invisible, shifting section of mana, pulling out enough for the enhancements. She was happy with how much trust Adrest had shown her through the process. Alissa knew how much trust was needed to open yourself up in this way, all it would take was a thought and she could cripple him.

Soon enough, she had the spacial mana in hand, sending it into the accessories to her side. They seemed to hum to life afterwards and looked to glow slightly in the low light.

After inspecting the two accessories carefully, Alissa put them in her bag satisfied. “Good, now I don’t have to worry as much tomorrow. Thanks Ady!”

Adrest flicked the cheeky dragon’s forehead, hurting his finger while she stuck her tongue out in victory.

“Serves you right, hitting a beauty like me.”

Adrest worked the pain out of his finger, and gave Alissa a look, “If that’s all you needed, shoo. I’m almost done with my fish.’

Adrest went right back to carving the last of the scales and did appear to almost be finished with the life-like wooden sculpture. Alissa just stood with a smile on her face as she leaned over Adrest’s shoulder contentedly watching each individual scale take shape.

They stayed like that for a time, happily listening to the crackle of fire and slightest scraping from the knife carving off the smallest bits of wood. They stayed like that until the fire burned low and Adrest set down the knife yawning as he stretched.

“Uhhg, Its getting late, and I’m sure Belle will want to get started early. Have a good night, Ali.” Adrest teased as he walked to the stairs.

As he turned towards the stairs, he suddenly felt a stinging pain on his forehead and groaned in pain.

As he massaged his forehead, he heard Alissa say as she went up the stairs “Goodnight, Adrest.”