Wren

Wren angrily swatted at the branch that was hanging too low. He didn't understand how people could stand to be in a place like this when it wasn't a dungeon. There were perfectly good taverns and inns along the roads that led to the main dungeons. This training was for the peasants who couldn't afford to travel the right way. Wren paused as he felt his anger grow. In reality, he could have been out of this excuse for an academy and halfway to a dungeon, now leveling and advancing, if only the others had just fallen over and died.

Still, all he had to do this time was place down a crystal and pretend that he had been exploring the forest while Kat and Aster magically found themselves attacked by a beast and killed.

Looking at the small area between trees, he decided this location would be as good as any. Pulling out the purple crystal he'd been given. He infused the tiniest amount of mana before throwing it to the ground. It hadn't even touched the dirt before a set of runes lit up on the crystal.

“Just what do you think you're doing?”

Wren was startled as he turned around to meet the gaze of a face he vaguely recognized. It took him a moment to realize it was a minder who had been with another group during the dungeon run. Not the one he had seen in the dungeon with them but one who had been watching another group. His mind raced as he tried to come up with a reason, but every possible reason left his mind as the minder's gaze turned to the crystal as the air above it tore open, revealing an endless blue expanse. Frowning, he looked to Wren again.

“There were rules stated before this exam that teleportation skills were not to be used; this could result in….”

The minder only got those words out before an arrow flew from the open portal and straight through the man's neck. Wren stared at the body as blood started to pour from the hole, and the minder collapsed the group before he turned to the portal, taking a step back as a figure covered in black robes stepped out, followed by two others. Each of them wore a mask and hood. The last of the three out was the first to speak.

“Number one, our time is short. Go and continue the plan. We'll finish up here and clean up.”

Without speaking, one of the masked people set off through the forest, and Wren wondered how he knew which direction to go.

Turning back, Wren put it all out of his mind. He didn't want to get caught up more than necessary. "Where's the payment?” He asked

As soon as he got the gold, he could leave.

His only response was a sharp pain across his neck, and he looked down in surprise as red flowed over his armor, and he felt cold creep into his thoughts. Reaching up, he felt his neck and looked blankly at the hand that came back red. Then he fell to the ground as he lost all feeling in his body.

Aster

Perhaps I shouldn't have felt relieved as I did when I saw the bow in the figure's hand, but I did. A Wraith didn't use a bow, which meant this wasn't one. Even still, my initial terror had been enough to snap Umbra from her sleep, and her anger rose to heights I hadn't ever felt when she used the bond to take a look through my eyes. The emotion from her was enough to get me moving as well. In the back of my mind, I knew Umbra had already taken off and was on her way, so this was a time game until she arrived.

Moving backward, I kept my eyes on the archer as I pulled out my bow, but before I could aim an arrow, the archer pulled his bow back and released an arrow at me. His shot had been almost too fast for my eyes to follow, and stepping out of the way had been more a guess than a reaction, but it was nothing compared to the way the figure moved as I sent an arrow at him. The figure blurred, and my arrow went through him into the bushes, beyond doing nothing regarding damage.

“Lass, just stand still. The arrows are coated in a paralytic poison that'll make it nice and painless.”

His words were definitely male but were also distorted, which made them hard to make out, but he didn't wait for a reply as he sent another arrow my way.

I sidestepped it, but a second arrow sent from him didn't give me time to react, and the only reason it didn't hit me as I avoided the first was because of Kat pulling me backward by a strap on my armor.

She had taken longer to recover from the attack, but as she moved to the front, I received a message from the party system.

[PMS, Kat: I can't identify him, but he has to be at least in grade three with how fast he can shoot those arrows and move.]

My ears twitched in frustration. I didn't mind trying to fight above my grade, and at times, I enjoyed it, but having monsters and random people I didn't know try to kill me was really getting on my nerves and confusing me. Ducking under an arrow, I thanked the gods that I'd spent so much with Sandath that dogging most things was second nature. I grabbed Kat by her shoulder, and after checking my mana, I spent another hundred points of mana kicking backward off the ground and sending us through the trees over fifty feet away. I didn't doubt that whoever was under the robes could catch up in just a moment, but we only needed to keep stalling. Focusing on my party skill, I sent Kat a message.

[PMS, Aster: We just have to stall. Umbra is almost here.]

Another arrow flew from the trees, only dogged by another use of Stalkers movement. The arrow was followed by the archer, and this time, he didn't bother to talk as his hands blurred, and another rapid shot sent two more arrows at us before his bow disappeared and a sword replaced it.

Kat deflected the arrow aimed at her, but the momentum of it sent her stumbling back. I almost took the arrow to the side as my foot slipped on roots when trying to move out of the way, but Careful Step showed its worth as It kept me upright, letting me avoid all but the edge of the arrow, which left a line on the leather of my chest.

It only took a second for the man to close half the distance, and my mind raced as I tried to think of a way to get away that wouldn't leave me absolutely dry on mana.

If he even got close to me with the sword, that was it, another body to grow the forest. Kat moved to be in the front, but her face told me she felt the same helpless emotion I felt. We couldn't run away, not when this man was two grades higher and used a bow. There was nothing we could do.

Then the sky fell out, or rather, Umbra fell out of the sky. Her descent through the trees was the opposite of graceful as branches and leaves fell with her, but through the bond, I could only feel anger and rage, her mouth open and Frost billowing out. The man who had made a steady approach looked up at Umbra and, however good with a sword he was, decided that it wasn't enough to fight a dragon and rapidly retreated, moving backward. Umbra wasn't going to let her prey escape, and even as her breath drew a line through the air, she landed in a run, barreling towards the man swiping out with her claws.

He avoided the first swipes as Umbra tried to rake him with her front talons and somehow bent around a second, but he used the same skill that he used to phase through my arrow to phase through a swipe from Umbra that he couldn't dodge before taking the opening the missed attack left to move backward and away from the increasingly enraged dragon.

Umbra started forward, but the faintest glow behind the man was all I needed to see to push a warning through the bond, and even with her anger, Umbra dug her claws into the ground, dragging herself to a stop but still let out a jet of frost, managing to catch the arm of the man as he suddenly dropped and rolled to the ground as the air above him was encased in a burst of fire an attack probably meant for Umbra.

The man stood up and looked down at his arm, which he flexed, breaking the outer layer of ice that had appeared, letting blood seep onto the ground. Two more figures moved from the tree line behind him. They both were covered in the same dark robes.

Umbra snarled, her tail lashing, but she kept her distance, staying close to me and, by proxy, Kat. Neither side approached the invisible line that would start another fight for several seconds as the man Umbra had hit with her breath flexed his fingers. At last, the man in the middle, the tallest of the three, spoke.

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“It seems our records regarding new riders were incomplete. How unfortunate. Number two, gather number one. There's been another teleportation nearby, so we don't have time to finish this now.” His voice, clearly male, was equally as distorted and monotone as the other man's voice had been, sending a shiver up my spine. At his words, a staff made out of spiraling silver metal with a red crystal inlaid on the top appeared in the hand of who I assumed was number two as they nodded.

With words spoken faster than I could understand by the staff wielder, fire rose from the ground in a circle, moving around the trio and upwards, engulfing the three of them.

Umbra seemed to understand what was happening faster than, and her mouth opened as a stream of frost lanced forward towards the orb of fire, but as it dispersed the flame, all it passed over was a scorched piece of grass. I blinked at the spot before I noticed the runes on the ground that the flame had made.

They had used a teleportation spell to leave, and it had only taken seconds.

A roar of anger was the only noise in the forest as Umbra let her temper out on the closest tree, nearly snapping it in half with her tail. As it toppled to the ground, I tried to reassure her with thoughts through the bond until her breathing evened out slightly.

“Well.” Rubbing one of my ears, I turned my head to Kat after checking the area and seeing nothing. “Umbra, meet Kat, and Kat, meet Umbra.” While it wasn't the way I planned for them to meet, I had to say I was getting better at introductions.

Kat's expression was one of shock that turned into an emotion I didn't recognize as she yelled, “Your bond is a god's damned dragon? A dragon?” Kat had put away her daggers, but she still snorted before she laughed, “Saved by a damned dragon.”

My half-smile faltered, and I reached up to rub Umbra's leg. “That's right?” I mean, I could understand the surprise, but Umbra wasn't going to hurt her. As if to agree, Umbra let out a rumble as a greeting.

“Perhaps she's nervous because dragons killed one of her brothers.” The voice made me, Kat, and Umbra jump slightly, and we all looked up to see a man sitting in a tree not twenty feet from us. He had green eyes and wore what looked like ordinary brown clothes but had leather armor fastened over the top. His hair was clean, and his beard was shaved short, but nothing stood out. He looked average in every sense of the word.

In the next moment, he vanished as a jet of frost turned the portion of the branch he had been on into an icicle.

I looked around, and my eyes landed on the tree behind Kat, where the same man relaxed. My eyes moved from him to Kat, who looked more annoyed than surprised. Mentally, I turned and asked Umbra to wait, stopping her as she took in a breath to shoot another jet of frost and took a position sitting behind me.

Turning to watch, I saw Kat look up at the man incredulously as she narrowed her eyes, “Uncle Graves, Are you fucking kidding me? You're here? Could this day get any more confusing?”

“Little Kathleen, it's been quite a few years.” He started, but Kat raised a hand, and the man paused.

“How long have you been here? You do know we almost died a minute ago?” She asked, crossing her arms

“Yes, we got here just shy of catching them. As for how long we've been in Arilon? Months.” Graves said, rubbing his chin, "That tattoo did give us quite a bit of trouble.”

Kat's cheeks flushed before she straightened slightly. “Why are you here?” She looked around, and her expression soured. “And who did you bring?”

I watched them talk before I looked up to Umbra, who had her head above me. We were equally confused; the rapid change from sitting and waiting on food to fighting, then to watching Kat talk with someone she knew was a bit much to understand, but I decided it was best to watch and see what played out.

“Kat, now is really not the time. We do need to get moving, so I'll tell you what I can, but then we have to go. Ren is the one who sent us. And before you ask, No, we're not going back to the Karvum capital city. Yes, we were keeping an eye on you.” Graves leaned forward on the branch he was sticking on. “War is about to start, and regardless of what you believe, you can't be in the Kingdom's capital when the horns sound.”

Kat opened her mouth, then paused, and her shoulders slumped as she spoke. “I never really expected I wouldn't be found, but I was really hoping to have at least a year away.”

My ears twitched at seeing the defeated look. While I didn't understand one bit what was going on, it was obvious that it didn't concern me, but I didn’t want to see Kat down. Out of curiosity, I tried to identify Graves.

[Unknown - Unknown - Level: Unknown]

Well, that wasn't too surprising, but the look he sent me with the narrowing of his eyes sent a shiver down my spine. Somehow, he knew I had tried to identify him.

Kat

I felt bitter, while I wasn't surprised that someone had managed to find me. I had hoped it would take a lot longer, and I'd be at least grade three by then and be somewhat able to defend myself. What made it worse was the person who had come to get me was Uncle Graves. Out of all the family I had besides my brother, he was probably the only one who was honest with me, so I didn't even doubt what he was saying was mostly true.

Turning my head slightly, I caught sight of Aster and Umbra. Thinking back, it wasn't exactly hard to connect the dots, but it still didn't make a lot of sense why someone not connected to the kingdom had a dragon bond. They would have probably already killed her or tried to get her to sign her life to the kingdom if she wasn't the daughter of a Guardian. That thought had me looking back to Graves, and I felt a slight worry. Graves wouldn't hurt Aster. He couldn't with who her mother was. It would create way too many issues, but who would know out here in the forest? It gave me an idea: if I was leaving, maybe she could too. The thought of taking her away from the academy made me feel slightly guilty, but first, I had to ask Uncle Graves.

“What about Aster?”

Graves ever so slightly turned his lips up in a very small smile, and I felt a faint spark of relief. He spoke casually, but his eyes didn't leave the two of us. “Well, you might ask her. With the purchases she's made in the last week, I don't think her plan was to stay here much longer.”

I watched Aster stiffen slightly behind me and felt amusement at watching her tail flick. Turning to face Aster fully, I hesitated at seeing Umbra. The first time I'd ever met a dragon was only a few days ago. Up until then, all my knowledge of them had been from the few books I read and from seeing them in the distance. Then there was also the fact of what had happened to Teran, but I shoved those thoughts away as I cleared my voice.

“Aster, it appears I'll be leaving the Kingdom.” I shot a look at Graves, but if it was Ren who had ordered him, then I would get back at my brother later. “I know leaving will bring a lot of issues along, so I wanted to start with being as honest as I can with you and ask if you wanted to come with us.” I looked to Graves again, wondering where we were actually going. Taking a deep breath, I told Aster the truth.

“My official title and name is Princess Kathleen Kavita, fourth In line for the throne of the Karvum Empire.” I waited for a second, seeing no surprise or resentment in Aster's face but only curiosity as I told her who I was.

“Sure,” Aster said with a shrug as she looked up at her dragon.

I blinked, surprised. “Sure?”

Aster

I kept my face as calm as I could and cursed my tail as it twitched. I didn't really care that Kat was a princess or whatever, although I did want to ask her if it was like it was in the books with evil stepmothers and sisters.

What I was excited about was that I really didn't have any other secrets, and joining Kat wherever she was going would work out perfectly. It would mean that Umbra could properly start to level as well.

“Sure?” Kat echoed my words, and I elaborated.

“I planned to see all of the continent at some point after I finished school and became an adventurer.” I looked at the man on the tree hesitantly. I had no idea how he knew what I'd bought, but it sent chills up my spine. Graves was right, though. “Umbra was on such strict limits here that it wouldn't be fair to stay longer, although I was planning on waiting a little longer to see if there was any change.”

Rubbing one of my ears, slightly embarrassed, I added, “But I probably have to send Kulni a note so she knows I'm fine.”

Kat nodded slowly, then asked, “You don't mind leaving the Kingdom then?”

Umbra let out a huff of air, echoing my feelings as I said, “I don't really care for politics or understand them. I mean, I know there will be different laws, but as long as Umbra and I can level, then we're happy.”

I felt a mental prod from the bond and then added, glancing up at Umbra. “Umbra says she'll agree as long as I don't get attacked by high-grade monsters and people in the middle of the night.”

Kat nodded. “Those attacks were planned by someone, and I'm sure Graves already has some idea.”

Graves, who had at some point moved to the forest, nodded slowly. “We can accommodate those terms, Lady Aster, and we have a few of our own, but I much prefer this solution to other ones, and as time has pressed rather short, let us be going. Josh, is the circle set up?”

“Yes, Sir.” The response came from the forest to the right, and I turned to see three more people I hadn't noticed or heard watching from only a few trees deep into the forest. Two men and a woman all dressed in equally as simple clothes as Graves.

Looking at Umbra, I tilted my head and mentally made sure this was what she wanted. After all she would be leaving the only place she could really talk to dragons. Her response was in words instead of just emotion: “Unlike wolves, dragons are not pack animals, and from what I've been taught, most wild dragons live in neither kingdom or empire and instead live alone or with a mate in places the wingless races can't reach. I think following Kat Is the better choice for now.”

Smiling, I rubbed the side of Umbra's leg and followed Kat as she went to greet the people seeming to know them. I didn't know exactly what I was getting into, but it was a step towards my future.