Chapter 2

Daine woke that morning surrounded by many animal gods, with Badger sitting on top of her. She sat surrounded by many gods she knew and a few she didn't. On her left sat Queenclaw, the cat godess. Then, there was her old friend, Broadfoot, god of the duckmoles, in front of her were Old White and his mate Night Black, the wolf god and godess. On her right was a female marmoset, Preet, the marmoset godess, and last was one she knew she had never met but was introduced to in her dream. It was Sky, the crow godess. A good friend of Kyprioth, the trickster god.

They had discussed last night that it was time to continue her training with her wild magic, and that they would be helping her progress. Some were there because they would help with training and some were there because they were her friends, and would be there to support her. She was informed that the horse god and godess had wanted to come as well, but due to their current location, it was deemed unwise that they come.

"Hello everyone... Before we begin, may I contact Ouna so that she knows I'll be gone for awhile? And so she can tell Cloud and Kitten?"

"Very well, you may.",answered Badger.

"Thank you."

She pulled out her travel writing case and proceded to write a letter to Ouna.

"Dear Ouna,

I hope this finds you well, I have been contacted by the animal gods. It is apperantly time to continue my training with wild magic. They have informed me that they will be my teachers this time. I need you to keep this a secret please, don't tell anyone else, they only let me tell you so you can tell Kitten and Cloud to stay put, and so that you wouldn't worry. The bird I will send with this letter will not leave until she sees you burn this letter after you read it. I will contact you every so often so you don't worry. If anything should happen to me, Badger says he will come and tell you. Should that happen, I will have the animal gods take Kitten to live with her family in the relms, and I will leave Cloud to you, I know you will take good care of her. You can tell the others I will be gone for quite awhile, but I'm afraid thats all you can say. Sorry.

Ever yours,

Daine"

With the end of her letter, she called to her a startling, asking if it would deliver the letter for her giving it a mental image of what Ouna looked like and where she would most likely be. With that information, the bird accepted the letter and quickly took off to deliver the letter. After that, Daine turned to the animal gods, and asked a simple question.

"When do we start?"

After Daine had left, Ouna set out to find Alanna and kill Numair, drunk or not, he should have known better to say that! She found Alanna attempting to carry an unconsious Numair up the stairs to his room.

"Hold on Alanna", Ouna said a plan forming,"I have a better idea."

It was probably one of the few times Alanna had seen such an evil and angry look in Ouna's eyes. Working together, they managed to drag the unconsious Numair behind the horses stable, found a chair, and tied him to it to keep him from falling out. Alanna was about to wake him up when Ouna stopped her.

"Wait, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?", Alanna asked warily.

"... First, I need to do something. Wait here."

"Okay..."

Ouna went to the field and called for Cloud. Cloud heard her and remembering Daine's instructions, went to her to see what she wanted.

"Cloud, we have a problem. You know that Daine left right?"

The horse nodded.

"Did she tell you why?"

Cloud shook her mane, meaning no.

"Would you like to find out why? I feel as her family you should know."

Flattered, the horse nodded and followed Ouna behind the stable.

Alanna saw them,"What's this?"

"Cloud is Daine's family, she deserves to be in on this, you and I both know she is smart enough to understand whats going on."

"True, you ready then?"

"No, there is two more things, first, Daine left, she was deeply hurt by what Numair said, and has decided to spend a few days away from here by herself in the forest."

"Hmmm, I see, I guess I can't blame her, I don't know what happened but, Daine looked really hurt. If she needs time then thats fine."

"And second, Daine realized that you had no idea what was going on,and she trusts you alot, so before she left, she gave me permission to tell you her story if you're interested."

"... Are you sure that she won't mind?"

"She seemed to be fine with it, I think it would be better for you to know anyway, especially for what I have in mind.", Ouna had that scary look in her eye again.

"Alright then, I would indeed like to hear her story."

So, Ouna proceded to tell Alanna Daine's story, just as she had heard it so many years ago, then proceded to tell Cloud exactly what had happened to make her leave. Near the end of the story, Numair started to regain consiousness. When he was finally awake, he looked around him, when he looked up, he saw a frightening sight. He saw Ouna and Alanna on either side of him, and in front of him, he saw a seriously pissed off horse. Shortly after taking in that scene, he remembered what had happened, and groaned.

"Someone please tell me that didn't happen, and if it did, please kill me!"

Cloud moved forward to comply with the latter request, but Ouna stopped her.

"Now now Cloud, patience, you'll get your turn, no worries, we will save all physical hits for you, but first, me and Alanna here have to make sure he will never forget this mistake he made. He knows he deserves this.", Ouna was talking to the horse, but her eyes were on the mage, with a look on her face that said, you disgust me.

They proceded to make his life a living hell by verbally abuseing and telling him how aweful he was, and how he had hurt Daine. By the time it was over he gladly welcomed the kick delivered by the horse, rendering him unconsious once again.

When he woke again, he was immediatly wracked with guilt, he also realized he was on the floor of his room where he had been uncerimoniously dropped with the help of a certain horse. By the time he got up, bathed, and dressed he had missed breakfast, it wasn't until he was leaving the mess hall, when he realized that everyone was staring at and whispering about him. When he went to find out what was going on, everyone avoided him. Then, later in the morning, he saw a bird fly by and sensed Daine's wild magic on it, after a closer look he saw a letter in its beak. He quickly followed, however he had to stop when the bird flew into the female's barracks. It flew to Ouna's window.

Ouna was startled to find a bird on her window sill, with a letter adressed to her in its beak. She had just come in to change her shirt after spilling juice on it this morning, when she had heard a flapping in the window and turned around to find a bird there with a letter from Daine, to her.

She gently took the letter from the bird with a word of thanks and quickly opened the letter and read its contents. When she was finished, she burned it as instructed and waved as the bird flew away. Then, she quickly marched down stairs to find Numair waiting for her, having seen the bird fly away without the letter. Suddenly she was mad at Numair all over again.

Glaring at him, she said,"I just got word from Daine, it seems she will be prolonging her time away, something urgent has come up. She said she would be fine."

Worry filled his eyes and laced his voice,"What happened? Is she okay? Does she need help?"

Seeing his worry for Daine, Ouna softened a bit,"She swore me to secrecy, so I can't say what has happened, all she wants me to say is that she will be gone for awhile, and that she will be fine. Now, I need to go tell the others."

Numair looked depressed,"I see, okay..."

After she left, Numair stood there thinking for a good long while, finally he decided, even if she says she doesn't need help, I at least want to know where she is so I can help at a moments notice!

He went back to his room and used the focus he had made for finding her, only to discover he couldn't! Something was blocking his magic from finding her!

End of chapter 2!