Raveena

It had been two weeks since we started travelling together with Maggie and Nick. It was really nice to have the company of someone my age. We really enjoyed spending time together, despite the fact that Anna and Maggie were not so discreetly appreciative of us spending time together, which was kind of off putting. The only time we got to spend alone without any parental supervision was when we went into the forest together to gather food. That was the only time we really let loose and talked as we wanted, the other times, it felt like we were in front of an audience.

I was still trying to cast using nature energy. Neither of us had any success in that endeavour. Anna, Kate and Maggie had advised us that it was nearly impossible to perform that level of magic at our current level, but I felt that there was something there. I was just missing something.

Nick was a fairly proficient air mage in my opinion. He could create barriers with air and perform attacks as well. It wasn’t enough to cut trees in half or anything, but it did help a lot on our hunts. Nick seemed almost as nervous as me about Magicis Collectio, even though he’d been preparing far longer than I’d ever been.

“Ah, you don’t understand Veena. Air mages are dime a dozen and what I can do is really not at a level that anyone would call impressive, at least according to mom” Nick said.

“Still, you can’t be doing a whole lot worse than me. I think your talent is a lot more useful than mine anyway.” I replied.

“Mages with shadow affinity are kind of rare Veena. What you can do with magic is much more nuanced than what an elementalist like me does. I don’t know the details, but I do know that your brand will be more prized at the gathering.” Nick said.

We were walking through the forest as my raven was tracking our prey. We had decided to go for something more substantial today and was tracking a doe.

“Alright groucho, have it your way then. I shall be crowned as the queen of the gathering whereas you shall be a lowly servant, staring at me in awe” I said in a tone laden with sarcasm.

“You can joke about it, Veena, but I think you might become just that.” Nick said with a smile.

“Shut up” I said, shoving at him.

“Just the thought of performing magic in front of strangers has my stomach in knots. I’d be happy just to not throw up in front of them.” I said with a shudder.

“Don’t worry Veena. I know you’ll do fine” Nick said. There was such confidence in his words that it was hard not to be swayed by it a little.

Nick had been a good friend to me ever since I met him. But, I had the feeling that he wanted us to be something more than that. I didn’t quite know how I felt about that. Even though I’d accepted and even embraced my womanhood, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for dating boys yet. I really didn’t want to lose what Nick and I had now. There were moments like this when I felt that he might confess to me and everything would get ruined.

I was broken out of my reverie by something. To be more precise, the lack of something. The forest around us was eerily quiet. The last few months of training had taught me that there were always noises in the forest. Unless, of course, there were predators around that commanded enough magic to make the forest go quiet.

“Nick, do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” He asked.

“Nothing. The forest’s gone completely quiet.”

Nick understood the implications of my words and grew tense immediately. I immediately gave the order to my Raven to give up the pursuit of the doe and come back to me. We started tracing our steps back to the camp as I instructed my raven to scout the area around us to look for danger.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Our progress was a bit slow as we cast our senses about looking for danger. Nick had a mild shield of air maintained around us. My raven had almost made it back to our location when we heard a rustling of leaves nearby. That sound was followed by an even more ominous low rumbling as two yellow eyes appeared from behind a nearby tree.

“Oh shit. That’s…that’s..” Nick didn’t have to finish his sentence. I knew what that creature was. It was a Strygian wolf. One of the apex predators in any magical ecosystem. This one was almost as tall as me and was regarding us with its teeth bared. There were tiny arcs of lightning flying from its mouth as it growled. I felt Nick intensify the strength of the shield of air around us. This was way out of our league. We needed help. I sent a little of my physical energy to the ring I was wearing. A flare of energy immediately went up into the sky, notifying Anna and Kate that we were in trouble and needed help. They could probably get to us in a few minutes. We just had to hold out till then.

There was an explosion of motion as the Strygian wolf suddenly charged at us. We were both knocked back into the ground as the beast struck the outside of the barrier. We were pressed further into the ground as its assault intensified. I called on my raven and I saw a black blur descend from the skies. The wolf took a step back from us, as it now had to deal with my raven attacking its face.

Unfortunately, that barely got us time to get up on our feet before I felt the link to my familiar snap as the beast’s jaws closed around my raven. There seemed to have been no lasting damage done to the wolf, but it definitely looked angrier as I saw the arcs of lightning around its mouth. I felt Nick intensifying the barrier again before I saw a blinding flash of light. I felt myself flying through the air till I hit something hard with my back. My vision darkened for a second before coming back into focus and I found myself lying at the base of a huge tree. Nick was lying about 40 feet away from me on the forest floor.

I tried to stand up, but my limbs weren’t cooperating. The wolf was moving in the direction of Nick. I had to do something. I summoned up my physical energy, struggled with my mental energy and managed to eke out my magic. A small black snake suddenly appeared near the front paw of the wolf. The beast yelped as it felt the snake bite before proceeding to trample it underfoot. The attack didn’t accomplish anything other than shift its attention from Nick to me.

The wolf let out an angry growl before jumping towards me. My mind was blank. There was nothing that I could think of. But, as the wolf got within striking distance of me, I cast my magical senses out, looking for something in it to latch on to. I felt like I found a thread and I latched on to it with all my might. I felt the wolf stop inches away from my face. There was a look of disbelief on its face as if to say

‘A puny mage like you trying to make a familiar contract with ME?’

I was sure that it was pointless, but I had nothing else. Suddenly I felt the string that I latched on to in its soul thicken until it became more like a rope that I could barely hold on to. Still I held on to it with all my might. It felt like a tug of war with me barely holding on. I saw the wolf’s eyes narrow just as I felt a huge jerk that was pulling me along with the rope. In my mind’s eye, I saw that the other end of the rope ended in a void. Something deep in my mind told me that it would be my end if I got sucked into that void. I tried to pull back with all my might, but the force opposing me was too strong. My energy reserves were almost depleted by this point. I was going to lose.

No, I couldn’t just die like this. Not after all that I went through to get here. I had people I needed to get back to. I needed to protect Nick. I couldn’t just give up.

I focused on my physical energy and mental energy which were almost non-existent at this point and then tried to pull in any energy that I can from outside. I was covered in a layer of sweat as I pushed every ounce of willpower I had into sucking in nature energy. My body and mind were screaming against me in protest, but I refused to give up. I didn’t know how I knew, but there was something cracking somewhere. Whether it came from my body or my mind, I didn’t know. I was only a short distance away from the void when I felt something rushing into me. It was like washing your face in a cold mountain spring after an exhausting trek.

I suddenly felt rejuvenated and some clarity returned to me. I saw the wolf’s eyes widen in surprise out in the real world as I started pulling back away from the void. Nature energy was coursing through me as I directed every bit of it to pulling back the rope. I saw the wolf’s body start to shake as I pulled farther and farther away from the void. By the time I stepped over what I felt was the halfway mark, its knees were starting to buckle. There was an eerily human expression of shock on its face as I channelled more and more energy through me.

I pulled harder as I felt that I couldn’t keep this up for very long. There was something with an iridescent glow that was starting to come out from the void at the other end of the rope. Feeling my limit approaching, I channelled as much energy as I could before heaving. I felt rather than heard a popping sound as a huge ball of energy popped out of the void. As soon as the ball was out of the void, I felt the rope go slack before disappearing entirely.

The ball of energy morphed into an iridescent wolf who stepped toward me. I extended my hand to touch his muzzle. He let out a low contented growl as he felt my touch. At that moment I felt a rush of power enter my mind. I had felt something similar to this when I made Lavender my familiar. But, comparing the two energies was like comparing a babbling brook to a raging river that tore mountains in half. I realised that I had actually managed to make a strygian wolf my familiar just before puking all over myself and passing out.