Aster

I sat crisscrossed, wiping my face and clothes with a rag as I tried to get the blood out. I looked up at the dragon, who didn't seem to have any remorse for me or my blood-drenched outfit.

Hugging Umbra as soon as I'd seen her had been a mistake. When she returned the favor by rubbing her snout against me, she had forgotten that it was still covered in her last meal. It had been a mess.

Giving up on my clothes and deciding to let the self-cleaning enchantment hopefully work out the stains overnight, I took a quick shower. While cleaning up, I listened to Umbra tell me about her new status, attributes, and skills. The first two of her new skills had obvious uses, and both applied to fighting, but her last one, the one she was currently grumbling about, didn't seem too bad.

“I can't see any use for fighting with Harbinger of Winter, but if it pulls ambient cold, you're skill Glacial Essence actually aids the skill. One will create the cold with frost, and the other can use it to create and shape ice. You can use it to create a few things that don't involve straight-up fighting, like making traps or making a cave nice and cold. I do think that it'll be a lot more useful after your next advancement.” Finishing with the soap, I started to rinse off in the icy water, smiling at Umbras grumbling. I didn't think the new skill was as bad as she was thinking.

“Anyway, enough about my skills. You've hardly told me about what happened when I was asleep,” Umbra said, and I could feel her settle onto the bed, still roughly the same size with only about a foot of actual growth. That was one of the surprising things about the evolution. Apparently, a dragon's initial growth, while fast, was entirely dependent on their race levels. It was another reason to be upset about her being limited to the tower.

The new horns that had started to appear on the back of her head were also an eye drawl that sparkled in the light.

“Well, not too much. I finished all my course exams except the adventuring courses exam that's happening in two days.” I hesitated, trying to keep my emotions steady as I dried off, got dressed, and left the room before I continued. “There was also a small fight, nothing too big,” I added, trying to make it seem like an afterthought.

Umbra lifted her head, watching me as I sat at the desk and started to brush my hair. She had picked up on something through the bond by the look I saw in the small mirror I used. “What do you mean a fight?”

“Well, I went out with Kat and Fernand to this really cool place, and there was…” I started, but my attempt to try and bore her with a long story earned me a hiss from Umbra, and she drew her head closer as she repeated herself, “What do you mean a fight?”

My shoulders slumped, my tail dropping as well. I looked up at Umbra as I turned around and forgot my hair. “Just know I'm fine, and everything turned out okay.” I started. That apparently wasn't a good way to settle the dragon, as I heard part of the frame shatter as claws dug into the frame. Before any more damage could be done, I started to explain what had happened. The idea of telling her half-truths was out.

Umbra didn't interrupt me at all this time as I told her about the idea Kat had had and how the day had gone leading up to the fight. It was only when I told her about the end of the fight and showed her my scar she made a keening noise. “If Emyr hadn't been so close, I would have lost you all because I decided to advance!” Umbra moved closer, wrapping her tail around me and curling up, making soft hisses of distress. Her emotions through the bond were mixed with anger and fear.

The entire time she fretted, I rubbed her snout, letting her work it out like Kluni let me do. It did take Umbra a lot longer than it took me. When she had calmed down enough, I added a bit of my own thoughts. “Both of us agreed it was a good idea; neither of us knew something like that would happen, and it was better to evolve sooner rather than later.”

Umbra let out a rumble of displeasure as she raised her head. “There had to be a reason that it was in the city; grade-five monsters don't just appear anywhere, do they? Did someone know I was advancing? I don't like being stuck here. If I could level up, we would be at grade two in less than a few months, and I don't like being stuck here.'' Her voice turned into another growl.

Raising my hands up as high as I could, I reached up and rubbed her neck. “That's a thought I had, but I don't really know what happened at the end of the fight. It's a blur still. Baldwins is looking into it, and Silt and Rolsin should be back soon, and then we can go out and level.”

“What if Silt and Roslin aren't back in a week? What then? What if they get back to land? I'm still not able to level. You've only leveled a little since we've left the forest.” I tilted my head at Umbra as she spoke. Her points were fair. Not wanting to break her train of thought, I left her to continue to think as she used Glacial Essence to fill the room with a cold mist that started to turn to frost. My wet, half-brushed hair didn't hold up too well as I felt the water that was still there begin to turn to ice.

After a long pause where I felt her emotions slowly calm down, she spoke, “How about we leave if things stay like this? You've learned the basics of what you want, and we know enough to become adventures. The event is coming up as well. How are we going to be strong enough for it if we don't level?”

Not immediately dismissing the idea, I wondered how it would work out. I could get more books from stores to study and learn from. It would also give me a chance to level before the event. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. It would take a bit to get everything we needed from shops to not have to worry about living in the wild. The only problem was Kat and also Fernand. I thought of them as friends and didn't really want to leave them, but still, Umbra had a point.

“You're right. We do need to level, and we can do that while I learn, but let's at least wait until after the adventuring exam. If Silt hasn't come back by then, we can think about it more. There is probably still a lot you can learn from Silt, and I wanted to see what the other dragons looked like. It's weird that we haven't seen any others, and they've been at the borders for so long.” As I spoke, I leaned against Umbra’s leg, letting her wing half cover me as the temperature in the room reached a nice low and a small cloud started to form on the balcony.

“I can agree to that, but we need to get stronger, and we can.” Umbra shifted as she rested her head near me again. “But I'm not going to let you go to that exam without me nearby.”

Letting out a sigh, I nodded. “I'll have to figure out how far away the forest is, but maybe we can find a way to get around it. But for tonight, we should celebrate, and I know the perfect way to do that.” With a small bit of thought, I pulled out one of the cakes I'd bought from the bakery.

Looking around the arena, I hoisted the leather pack onto my back as I shook off the slight tiredness I still felt. The past three days had been a mess of academy work and planning with Umbra and had left very little time for sleep. With it only being early morning, I hadn't had too much time to sleep.

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The weight of the various items almost tipped me backward on my first step, but a slight adjustment of my feet was enough to balance out myself.

The talk around was a mix of excitement and anxiety, but I just felt a bit bored. The forest was only twelve miles outside of the city and apparently visible from the wall. It meant that there were no big monsters or anything about our tier that would be worth fighting.

I looked to my right at Kat and Wren, who were getting ready as well, and couldn't help a small smile at the grimace Wren had. He wasn't as happy as most people were about the course exam, but my smile was wiped away as I thought about our fourth member who wasn't here.

Kat and I had tried to visit him yesterday, but we had been turned away at the gate to his house by a guard. Kat hadn't been wrong in her statement that Fernand hadn't taken the fight well.

“All right, listen up! I'm only going to explain this one more time, then you're all on your own!” Henry's voice quieted the crowd of students as we all turned to focus on him.

“We're going to send you to random parts of the forest by teleportation spread out enough that you shouldn't encounter another party. Suppose another party is found. It's up to you how you handle the situation. Each party will have a minder watching them but not interfering. You will be required to spend a week in the forest to simulate how long an average trip between villages would be on the way to a dungeon. If you suffer any injuries that render your team unable to continue, it will result in a failure for your entire team. When you've finished the week, your minder will show you the way out.” Henry crossed his arms as he continued to explain what to expect. It was all a repeat of what he had said, so instead of listening to him, I nudged the bond.

“Are you ready? I don't know what this distance will do to the bond. Baldwin said it wouldn't be as bad as the trip to the dungeon, but he also said it's different for everyone.” As I spoke, I slightly felt some excitement from Umbra.

“Oh yes, I'll be there at the end of the night, and the bond will give me directions. Emyr doesn't sleep every night, but my scales will blend into the dark. I'll be able to avoid him.” Umbra replied, and I could almost feel her claws rubbing against the balcony stone

I smiled, resisting the urge to add my excitement to the bond. “Remember to stick to the forest's edge and hide during the day. Having other students find you could be a disaster. I'll try and slip away a night and meet up with you.”

Umbra let out a grumbling growl. “I might be a dragon, but that doesn't mean I can't be unseen.”

I was pulled out of the conversation as people started to move down the stairs where a teleportation circle was set up. Adjusting the back, I bummed shoulders with Kat smiling at her as I spoke, “This will be easy. Living in the forest is a lot better than a city for a lot of reasons. I think I might even be able to teach you a few things after we get set up on the first day.”

Kat snorted. “I'd be surprised if you have any problems with this. I am curious to see how fast you can earn skills; you might even get enough experience from doing it that you'll gain a level.”

My smile grew bigger at the idea of gaining a level purely from skills. My smile lasted until Kat smiled and tapped her teeth, and I realized I was showing fangs again. Rubbing the back of my head, I sighed. I didn't really get how it made humans uncomfortable to see longer teeth.

The line moved forward at a steady pace, and the crack of lightning as the teleportation circle sent students to the forest. I was looking around when Kat asked a question I expected: “Why do you have a travel pack? Can't you just carry everything in your storage?”

I nodded with a shrug. “Yeah, but I have a lot of things stored in there, and this exam is meant to be a bit of a challenge, so besides my bow and arrows, I thought I'd try to carry everything I needed on my back.”

What I was saying was mostly true, but the other part of why I wasn't using my storage was that I'd visited a lot of merchants to stack up on as many things as possible in preparation to leave if Umbra and I had to. There was still a few cubic feet of room but not much else. I had a bookshelf filled with notes from my courses and books for tailoring, runecraft, leather curing, Archery, and any subject that looked interesting. There was also the box of needles, cloth, and other tools for making clothes, the two crates of dried meat, and the barrels of water I still had from the Claw Woods, not to mention the camping supplies I'd bought and I still had a half list of things I wanted to find a way to add. All of the purchases had drained the gold I had, and I wished I could have gotten Kat to help me bargain, but I didn't want her to know about my idea to leave yet.

“Well, I suppose it makes sense.” her words didn't match her eyes, which focused on me, and I looked away.

When the time came for us to teleport, I stepped into the circle. With only three of us, there was plenty of room, which let me look at the runes before we were teleported. The detail on each individual rune made my runes, that I had spent months learning to get right, look like the scribblings I made on trees when I was smaller. From what I had learned and understood in both Enchantment Basics and Fundamentals Of Magic, a teleportation circle was only one part of the system. There was either a set of mages or a gem that could hold enough mana to activate the runes and set the destination. Still, the ability to teleport without a skill was still more efficient for smaller, wealthier groups, apparently.

The slight crack as the mana activated blinded me for a second as my view changed. My head only swam for a second. I took in the area with a smile as I let out a laugh of joy so of the sleepiness leaving my body. Around us, trees stretched in every distance.

“Ugh, I don't understand how you think this is better than a proper road.” I heard Wren's voice, and I looked over to him, lifting his foot from a particularly wet spot of soil.

I rolled my eyes as I gestured around. “The proper smelling air, the space, the sounds. It's much better than being surrounded by houses and walls,” I said

Wren grunted, and I sighed. I could understand how a city was safer, but they could have at least added more trees inside the walls.

Kat spoke up next. “Well, let's find a place to make camp, Aster. Do you have an idea of which way to go? This place doesn't look good for camping.”

I shrugged as I looked around. This forest was quite a bit less dense than the Claw woods, and the trees were only half the size, if that. Mentally, I felt for the bond. It was stretched and thin, but it was still there. Trying to get anything more than a direction didn't work. Still, it was enough to know that at least Umbra would be able to follow.

“There are no signs of any rain for now, but let's aim for uphill. If we're lucky, we can find a beast burrow and set camp there if we can't find a cave.”

Wren let out a disapproving sniff but surprisingly didn't object, and with a nod from Kat, I drew my bow out of storage with an arrow. While Herny had said there weren't many beasts in the forest, I wasn't going to take a chance. With the lack of any major undergrowth, we had a good view around us. It made moving through a breeze as we set off. The signs of wildlife were everywhere, with squirrels and birds making noise in trees and signs of foxes and deer every so often. Nothing attempted bothered us as we made our way through the forest. It was almost our luck that I found a cave. With a tree blocking the view and moss covering the sides, the only reason I noticed it was the movement inside.

Gesturing, I pointed out the cave entrance and then smiled at both of them as I recognized the beast that was inside. We had just found a place to camp and dinner as well.

Telmok Graves

Graves looked down at the document, rubbing his beard as he read over the documents the other three of his group had procured. After the incident at the gate, their timetable had sped up drastically instead of slowing down. With the new information, the Event, and the Iron Wraith that had been summoned, someone was hunting the Princess and the girl she was with. The initial idea was to let her finish her first year and then pull her out, but that wasn't an option anymore.

There would be another move soon, and Graves had to be read this time.

“Elliot and Sara got the portal ready and were leaving the city. Josh contacted Ren and let him know what's happened and our plan is moving forward. He'll have to make his move a lot sooner as well, and the Emperor can't find out.” As Graves distributed the orders to the rest of the group, he couldn't help pride at how fast they worked to pack up the items in the room and start the process of engraving runes.

It was the result of twenty years of working together, and he'd have no other team with him right now. There was only one question left: how did he deal with the traitorous boy and the bonded girl?