Valendor sneezed behind Theodric.
“Bless you,” Theodric glanced back at him.
“Hmm,”
Patting his nose daintily with a handkerchief, the Lord of Night had a strange feeling that some mortal somewhere was up to no good, and required a gentle smite of reprimanding. But he couldn’t care less though, not that he could do anything about it anyway.
Pocketing his handkerchief, Valendor caught up to Theodric, who had stopped in the middle of their trek through the hunting grounds, and patiently waited for the rest of their little group.
“Alright class!” Theodric clapped and turned around to face his students, all twelve of them plus five familiars of various creatures, halted their ungraceful crash through the woods. The rest either failed their summoning this year or were unlucky enough to miss out this year due to a certain teeny-tiny ‘accident’. “Those with their new familiars will have pair coordination training with me. The other seven of you will be supervised by Valendor and Morvax as you hunt down that Oakmane Boar we marked yesterday,”
A large shadow briefly passed over them and a slight breeze could be felt as the Forest Dragon flew past overhead.
Theodric added. “Remember, my familiars are only there to supervise, so you shouldn’t let your guard down because of it. Treat it like a real hunt: you will always be both hunter and prey. Do not be the mantis, too focused on the cicada to notice the swallow behind it.”
A chorus of agreement sounded and the group split up to go about their businesses.
…
“Hey you. Wake up.”
Valendor was rudely awakened from his light nap within the shadow of the Forest Dragon's leafy underwing.
“Morvax, is it? What do you want?” Valendor did not bother to hide his annoyance, poking his head out of the comforts of the shadows.
“Stop piggybacking on my shadow. And stop that, I look like I grew another head under my armpit.” Morvax curled his neck down to glare at the invading Night Warden upside down. “Also, you should be keeping an eye on the students,”
Valendor snorted in derision. “Why the dramatics? It's not as if you could be weighted down by a shadow. I also doubt there’s anything in this playground that you can’t immediately detect and annihilate.”
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He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “You are a Forest Dragon, right?”
“Obviously,” The Forest Dragon growled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just double checking,” Valendor shrugged, nonplussed. “Since the students’ safety are all but guaranteed, Theodric obviously had me come with you for another reason,”
The dragon looked contemplative.
“What else could the master have meant for us to do?” Morvax asked himself aloud. “Knowing Theodric, he probably wanted something chummy, like tooth-rotting fluff…ugh, he probably wanted us to spend time together, as friends.”
The pair shared a look of thinly veiled disgust.
“And here I was hoping for a more convoluted task,”
“You don’t know him like I do, I’m pretty sure of that.”
“While I would prefer to meet under better circumstances, Morvax,” Valendor sighed. “You have me sold on leaving.”
Valendor removed himself from the Forest Dragon’s armpit—wingpit?—and dived into the shadows before emerging from Kira’s shadow. It was easy to track the girl’s location within the planes of reality when she’s got the only hint of demonic lineage within a ten mile radius.
A few surprised shrieks and gasps later, Valendor squinted blearily at the bright noon sun unforgivingly bearing down on him. It didn’t hurt anymore, after he recovered some mana from the Ancestral Memorials, but the Lord of Night’s light allergy wasn’t going anywhere soon.
Valendor sneezed at the sudden exposure to sunlight again. Pulling out his handkerchief again, Valendor spoke to the group, but no one in particular. “How is your progress?”
Kira hurriedly answered. “Valendor! Not far now, just another kilometer or so from a grove of Swamp White Oaks. The sow we marked yesterday probably made a den there.”
She pointed to a small stone tablet with tracking runes inscribed upon, glowing intermittently in Camille’s hand.
“Alright, keep going. Call me if you’re in danger,” Valendor muffled a yawn with a gloved hand and slipped into Kira’s shadow. While possessing a nocturnal body, staying up until noon was seriously messing with the Lord of Night’s sleep schedule.
…
Camille turned to Kira. “Well that’s random,”
“Yeah well, get used to it,” Kira stared at the dark patch on the grass connected to her feet, where the Night Warden had seemingly sunk into the floor and disappeared. “It’s not the first time he’s popped out of nowhere.”
“He teleports a lot?” Riven Emberholt, a middle class dual affinity fire and earth combat mage, poked the grass where Kira’s shadow fell with the butt of his spear. Nothing happened. “I thought teleportation uses a lot of mana. Makes sense though, if he’s that powerful.”
“He didn’t teleport. I’ve seen my House’s guards use teleportation spells before and it definitely didn’t look like that,” Cassia Brightwood chimed in, the noble tapped her wand on her chin, while tucking her long blonde hair behind her pointy elvish ears.
“Well, duh? Valendor obviously used [Shadow Jump],” Thrane Duskwraith, the other noble snorted haughtily, nose in the air. “My family will teach me that ability once I get a familiar. But maybe Valendor will agree to teach me before that. I can’t wait to see the Head of House’s face!”
Kira felt a flicker of jealousy at that, Valendor wouldn’t take in another disciple, right?
Her question was unanswered as the group of seven continued on their hunt, all but Camille, oblivious to Kira’s internal strife.
