“How did I do?” Seth asked Auna who was marking the assignment she had given him. Since the beginning of the semester Seth had come for help. Like a few other children Seth needed help with his classes. Auna had even taken some classes before him because he couldn’t test high enough to take all the necessary ones.

“I’m still marking it.” Auna shook her head looking over it. Jensen snorted in the chair beside her. “Don’t be mean. He is learning.”

“That bad?” Seth sighed as his friend patted his back.

“No, you got 75% of the questions right. Compared to a few weeks ago when you were getting closer to 60% you are doing well. Jensen is just being protective.” Auna patted Jensen on his head as he gave a playful growl to Seth.

“Wild.” Seth shook his head taking his assignment back with a smile.

“Well, he is cursed with runaway child. Being a little wild is reasonable.” Diego smirked as Jensen threw a balled-up paper at him.

“Anyway. Are you entering the hunting festival this year? You are ten now, it is the first year you are eligible.” Seth put away his assignment and books. It was late, lights out would be soon.

“I didn’t think about it. We have class for the entire week it is running. Why do we even hold a monster hunting festival in the pada season? Wouldn’t the rain ruin it?” Auna tilted her head.

“The rain makes the monsters more aggressive increasing the challenge. That is why the hunting festival is in pada. The adult events are during the first four days of the week. The last two days, the weekend, are for the under 19 events.” Seth explained.

“Oh, what are the events?” Auna asked.

“The adults have the four days to hunt in the great monster forest as singles and in groups of ten. Whoever brings back the strongest monster wins. The judges have a system to decide which is the strongest. The top three win: honor, prizes selected by the King himself, and a plaque with a custom message engraved magically at the time of winning. There are often commoners that make the top three. Though a noble usually wins in both the single and group events.” Seth took a breath as everyone was now looking at him intently.

“The children 10-14 inclusive event is held in an arena. Monsters are caught and raised for both the single and group events. Everyone participating fights monsters from weak to strong in ten stages of the arena. While this is happening on both days the older kids from 15-18 inclusive go into the forest to hunt. It is up to the participants to pull out of the arena or forest when they feel they can not handle it anymore. People have died in the past.” Seth took a drink of water; it was not often he had to talk so much.

“The prizes for our age group this year are a packet of seeds hand-selected by the king for the single arena event. People speculate the seeds are rare. For a child event it is not a bad prize as you do get a plaque and honor as well. The group event is a set of ten eggs. Apparently, the eggs have been placed under a spell so they are ready to hatch the moment the spell is removed. It is going to be a great show for the winners. The older group for the group event also has a set of ten eggs as a prize.” Seth concluded with a big sigh.

“Are you participating?” Auna asked as Ciela pulled on her shirt.

“I have for the last few years yes. I don’t place though so father gets angry.” Seth looked away. “No one wants to partner with me or our cousins because of it. Also, the recent public image revolving around you makes everyone else not want to. They can’t taint their family image. Mothers out burst at the Kings’ party also damaged our family image.”

“Yeah, my parents said I could not partner with Seth.” Seths’ friend gave him another pat on the back. Auna had not bothered to learn his name, no in their group had. They only called poor Josh Seths’ friend.

“Big sister, I want the seeds. Can you win them?” Ciela now on her lap had taken her face in her little hands grabbing her attention.

“Seth is registration still open?” Auna sighed in defeat. She should have known.

“It opens this weekend. There will be sign up tables on campus. You will have to put the king down as your guardian, and then they will reach out personally to get his permission for you to participate. Fun fact this will be one the rare occasions our King is not in the palace.” Seth laughed at the younger girls’ insistence over seeds.

“I heard the little farmer was obsessed with farming but wow.” Josh shook his head.

“I’ll sign up.” Auna patted Cielas’ hands still grasping her face. At her words the hands were removed with the girl laughing happily.

“Can we sign up for the group event as well?” Meredith gave a sheepish smile. “I still only have one tamed pet. Aren’t I supposed to be the tamer of our group? My second job is tamer I would really like to raise it a bit.”

“Okay we can sign up. It will only be seven of us though, say Seth are we allowed under the limit of ten people?” Auna asked as the rest of her group got excited.

“No, it must be ten.” Seth sighed. “Our cousins and I are three.” He gave a hopeful look.

“Count Jade will be very angry if they can’t find a group to participate.” Josh offered.

“We will need to train with you. I want an egg. So temporary truce?” Jensen gave a smile holding his hand out to Seth.

“Truce.” Seth nodded taking his hand. “Wait sister are you okay with this?”

“Call me Auna. If Jensen is okay with It I am. Are our cousins available?” Auna started to pack her things.

“They go to school in the capital school meant to help them get into this school. We can meet this weekend at the guild after we sign up. You remember their names, right? We all have to put each other names down for it to go through. You will need to use your legal name.” Seth stood looking happier than he had in a while. The children had noticed he didn’t really mean any harm to Auna, it was the opposite. He wanted to form a loving connection; one he did not get from either parent. He did feel love from his uncle and cousins though it wasn’t the same. He wanted his sister and him to be as close as his cousins.

“Sounds good. Yes, I remember Marell and Darell Jade. I am not nearly as forgetful as you.” Auna laughed as Seth dramatically held his hand over his heart in fake pain.

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

Auna and her group handed in their paperwork for both the single and group events for the weekend. They would travel with Duke Pearl as the Bloodwaves would already be at the forest. They had been grateful the Pearls would carry their child. They couldn’t moon door to the event without suspicion as along the way their lack of presence would be noticed.

“This looks good, you children make sure you leave Darday night. Your classes for Fiday will be cancelled, counted as a holiday, no impact to your grades.” The lady handling the desk explained as she filed their forms.

“Thank you miss, have a lovely day.” Auna gave a bow to a flustered lady and left.

“I forget you can actually be polite.” Mateo smirked at her. “Making the rest of us fairy born look bad.”

“You wouldn’t look bad if you also had basic manners.” Auna shot back with her own smirk.

This light-hearted ribbing lasted all the way to the guild. They had been assigned Kings guards as an escort due to the events last semester. The attacks had stopped for the time being though.

“Are you guys always fighting?” Marell teased as she came up to Auna giving her a big hug. She was a tall 11-year-old girl with fluffy black hair and green eyes. They looked fairly similar due to their fathers looking similar. She was fully human as far as anyone was aware. Their mother was not known though, her uncle said she died during birth.

“Can you not?” Auna asked pulling away as Jensen put himself between the two.

“You, okay?” Mateo looked between Auna and the girl he did not know.

“Yes, Marell has always been touchy. It is why I pulled my wings into my back.” Auna stretched giving a small wave to Darell, Marell, and Seth. “Ready for training? Can everyone enter the dungeon?”

“No, we are too young, and our father said no. We did rent out a training room though and father has a few monsters caught for today.” Marell gave a big smile motioning for everyone to enter the guild.

“I guess that will have to work.” Auna followed her to which everyone else did as well.

“Hello my little niece how are you?” Her uncle held his arms open for her; Jensen stood between them though. “I see. I guess that is reasonable. I am Markell by the way. Feel free to call me that.” Everyone gave him a look and his kids one. Their names were weird.

“I am fine uncle. Would you like to see us fight first? Then we can place these three into appropriate roles?” Auna took her mantle and sunglasses off, setting them on a bench to the side. She stretched her back releasing her wings again. It was uncomfortable to keep them inside and would rot if left inside too long.

“Sounds good. You kids do your thing. Instead of a monster I’ll be your first opponent.” Markell smiled moving to the middle of the training arena as a few other guild people stood on standby.

“Form three.” Auna gave a stern shout. Form three had Auna break to the front right, Jensen stood in the middle, with Bruno to their left. Diego would circle around the target from the right while Mateo circled around the left side. Diego and Mateos’ goal would be to move behind the target while the other three kept the targets attention. Meredith casted support spells, Ciela would usually be beside her doing the same. Chloe would stick near Meredith to protect her, and would enter the front line if needed.

“Oh, how organized.” Markell spoke before rushing the front-line crashing against Jensen and his shield. Quickly Jensen dropped into a crouch destabilizing Markell. Bruno grabbed the back of Markells’ shirt pulling him back, backing off as Auna rushed in with her blade. Markell managed to deflect her blade and push her off, though her wings allowed her to land softly. Bruno attacked again as Meredith covered him a warm orange glow.

The boys quickly managed to make it behind Markell which caused him to have to spin around often deflecting their attacks. Once Markell looked like he was going to be taken down the standby people around them joined the fight.

“Uncle! Unfair!” Seth yelled looking to help.

“Stay put Seth.” Auna yelled glaring at him.

“Show me what you got.” Markell laughed as he dodged a close call with Diegos blade.

The three men went straight for Meredith, looking to take out the support first.

“Are you not going to help your friend?” Markell smirked pointing behind them.

“No call for help was given.” Auna replied not looking back, or stalling at all.

Soon loud explosions could be heard behind them, Meredith had changed to combat spells. She was not great at them but she was efficient enough to defend or create a smoke screen. Wails of pain followed by laughter could be heard from the smoke. Auna gave a sigh as she dashed backwards as Jensen held Markell down with his shield.

“I give I give.” Markell laughed. “What is going on?”

As the smoke cleared Auna could be seen standing over a fallen man groaning in pain. Her blade was holding off the mace Chloe had brought down.

“Chloe this is training, not hunting. You need to control that bloodlust.” Auna was calm as she spoke. The Laughing Chloe seemed to begin to calm down wiping blood from her face.

“Ah sorry, I was not expecting them to join. My instinct just kicked in there for a second. Is everyone okay?” She looked around sheepishly. The smoke screen gone.

“Wow. You guys got your asses kicked by little kids!” A tall man standing near the door roared in laughter. “The Gary guild masters told me they would be crazy tough. Call me Capital Guild Master. Cap for short!” He walked over to the kids.

“Cap, didn’t know you would be watching.” Markell smiled.

“He came in around the time Diego got behind you.” Auna pointed out.

“Come on how did you know that?” Markells’ smile grew wider.

“Secret. Did we prove we are worthy?” Auna tilted her head.

“Most defiantly. I am worried these three will not be much help. Do you mind carrying them through the event?” Markell gave a shameless smile.

“I don’t mind we need the extra people. What can they do?” Auna asked. How kind of you. Shut up Mr. Voice.

“Seth is a magic shield and swordman. He uses a short sword and a shield not as big as that little boys’.” Markell pointed out Jensen. “The twins are great with magic and daggers. They prefer running around their target and inflicting small damage and magic debuffs.”

“Okay. We can incorporate that. Seth will stick near Meredith. The twins will take the place of the two boys who got behind you. While the two boys will switch to which line needs them.” Auna gave the plan to which her members nodded in agreement.

“Say, you are good at magic, aren’t you?” Markell looked at Auna confused. To which she nodded equally as confused. “Then why don’t you use it?” Markell finished.

“I didn’t really need to. We all are good at magic. We can weakly infuse magic into our weapons. We also have basic spells to use when needed.” Auna finished as Chloe came up asking for a cleaning cloth for her mace. Auna opened her storage and gave her a cloth.

“Wow, storage?” Markell mused; the children had arrived with the weapons in hand for security reasons.

“Hear that Markell? You didn’t pose enough of a challenge to make them use magic!” Cap laughed loudly. “Maybe the king will let them do the special challenge at this rate?”

“What is that?” Jensen asked his interest being caught. All the children had signed up for the individual event as well increasing their chances of getting the seeds.

“All four events have a special event. If the king deems the winner of the event worthy enough, they can challenge the special monster. The special monsters are monsters the king himself has caught alive, or if someone manages to bring a monster back alive that is stronger it becomes the special monster. If no one gets the right to fight them, the king puts on a show of fighting them himself. He is a king known for his battle feats.” Cap explained.

“Can we not make a harder goal for us?” Auna looked at Jensen who had excitement in his eyes. “Too late, isn’t it?”

“Yes, my moon. Much too late I want to fight it!” Jensen roared with a big grin.

The rest of the weekend was spent practicing and training together. The children would need to work together for the event. Just killing the monsters would not give them the right to pass to the next stage. The judges also scored other things like teamwork. Teams found to just have one or two good people in the arena would not move to the next stage. While the older children and adults could work this way any loss of a team member would disqualify them. While major injuries to team member would lower their ranking.

The next week was full of excitement as even some of their teachers had left for the festival. It caused some classes to be cancelled while others were covered. Auna had not noticed the last few years this many teachers leave for it. However, Mr. Merlin explained that the prizes were very good this year, even for the younger categories, so many more had gone this year.