Hello everybody and welcome to chapter 10! Thanks again to all those who have read and reviewed, it means a lot. Also next week I may not be able to get a chapter of Fan fic up because I'm going to be away for most of the week, so sorry about that. Anyway, on with chapter 10!
Disclaimer: I do not own FOZ.
They lit up the air around her like little stars. Thousands of them, and she was captivated by their beauty. For as far as she could see, these little lights were hanging, suspended on invisible threads. She looked around, as far as she could tell, she was alone. She looked up to see the stars stretched across the sky, almost every inch of sky was filled with stars. Then she heard something, the sound of beating wings. She turned towards the source of the noise, expecting to see Hiato approaching, but instead of Hiato, there was something else, and when she saw it, she wasn't sure if she should be scared or be amazed.
There was a dragon flying towards her through the sky, and Louise could feel the force of each beat of its wings. As it drew closer, the force of its wings scattered the little lights away from Louise, she held up her arms to shield her face from the gusts of wind, and the dragon landed in front of her. The dragon was enormous, it dwarfed Louise, which made her feel uncomfortable, because it could step on her and not even notice. However, it did notice her, and looked down at her at the same time Louise looked up at it. Its eyes were light blue, in contrast to its dark blue scales, and Louise just felt that from simply making eye contact with this dragon, it was a being of possibly immeasurable power.
"Greetings, Louise Valliere." It said in a voice that sounded old. Old and powerful. "Do not fear, I mean you no harm, nor do I mean Hiato any." Louise blinked at the dragon. She was confused as to how the dragon knew who she was, or who Hiato was. "W-who are you? How do you know who Hiato is and how do you know who I am?" The dragon chuckled. "My my, you certainly can fire them off quickly can't you?" The dragon said, and Louise felt a pang of annoyance. The dragon chuckled again.
"My apologies, it's been a while since I've talked to anyone, so I'm lacking in the social department. As for your questions, I'm afraid I won't be able to answer the first one, but I can answer the next 2." Louise's annoyance faded. "Why can't you tell me who you are?" She asked.
"Because who I am isn't important right now. As for how I know Hiato, I've known him my whole life, and I know you because Hiato knows you." Louise just looked at the dragon, and all she could say is. "What?" The dragon sighed. "You'll understand one day, but I must warn you. This group, the order of the grand hunt, do not underestimate them. They are a small part of a greater evil; one which I fear will soon be moving soon to try to conquer the world. You must train as hard as you can to unlock your true powers as a void mage Louise."
At this Louise got more confused. "Greater evil? True power? And did you call me a v-void mage?!"
"Yes I did, and your powers will mean the difference between saving this world and it being destroyed. We have talked enough, you must go now, and do not tell Hiato about this, do you understand?" Louise just looked at the dragon.
"Why?" Louise asked, more confused. "Because he must find out who I am on his own, and do not worry, knowing him, he will find out very soon. Now, morning is here, you must awaken." Before Louise could say anything else, the dragon disappeared, and everything went black.
Louise's eyes slowly opened. She was still wrapped in the warmth of Hiato's arms, and she smiled. Her dream was hazy, she could barely remember anything about it, except the dragon, the lights and some of what it said, but what she remembered didn't make much sense. She decided it wasn't important, and wouldn't bother Hiato about it. She lifted her head from his chest and looked at his face. She had to supress a giggle when she saw his face; he looked silly when he slept. His mouth was hanging open, but only a little bit, and in a cute way. She leaned up and kissed him gently on the lips.
Hiato suddenly became aware of something soft pressing against his lips. He had been having a rather pleasant dream about being at a food contest and winning, but not before managing to eat enough food to feed a city for a month, and then taking Louise for a flight. He had been just about to kiss her, when his brain had said "Nope" and yanked him out of slumber land and back into reality. However what he was greeted with when he returned was rather pleasant. He opened his eyes, and was surprised to see that Louise was kissing him, so he decided to return the kiss.
They broke apart and Hiato smiled at her. "To what do I owe the pleasure of being awoken in such a way?" He asked jokingly, and Louise just shook her head. "Just you being you." Hiato sat upright and assumed a proud air. "Well I am totally amazing you know, the best there ever is or was." Louise chuckled and playfully hit him on the shoulder, to which Hiato responded by making a hurt face.
"That realllllyyyyy hurt, why are you so meaaaannnnn to me I didn't do anythinnnnng." Louise raised an eyebrow at him, and then just jumped on him and kissed him. They held the kiss for 10 seconds before breaking apart. "Does that make it up to you?" She asked. Hiato nodded. "But some food would be nice too." Louise just smiled. "Don't worry; I'm sure the chefs are cooking up a feast for you right now." Louise jumped out of bed and started to get changed; Hiato got out of bed and stood by the window, his back to Louise.
"I guess were going to have to start training today, if we want to be ready for this "Order of the grand hunt" or whatever their called." Louise finished changing and walked up next to him, taking his hand. Hiato opened the window as she did. "Yeah, but we will be ready for them, and we'll beat them, together." They looked at each other, and Hiato smirked. "No, I'll beat them, you can just sit on the side-lines and make a few of them blow up." He said in a joking tone, and a small tick mark appeared on Louise's forehead.
"Or I could blow you up instead you know." She gave him an evil look, and nervously scratched the back of his head. "I-I'm kidding, we will beat them together, of course we will." Louise just glared at him, and then his face turned serious. "It isn't going to be easy; we'll have to train as hard as we can." Louise nodded. "I know, but we don't really have a choice."
"Well we could always go live somewhere secluded, buy a house, get married, have some kids..." Louise went as red as a Tomato at this, yelled "SHUT UP!", and punched Hiato out the window , who had only a second to realise the pain of being punched, one to realise he was outside a window, and one to realise he was plummeting towards the ground at an incredibly fast rate, with no sign of slowing down. Managing to spread his wings and slow down, Hiato prevented creating an impact crater and flew back up to the window, where there was a rather red looking Louise, who had a worried look on her face.
"Jeez I was joking relax, we aren't going to go hide somewhere, we are going to fight." Louise looked relieved he was ok, and then sighed. "Don't ever say something like that again, ok?" She said to Hiato, who just nodded. "Promise I won't. Anyway, we should go see the headmaster and the princess and see what they know about these guys." Louise nodded, and the two of them walked out her room and to the headmaster's office.
When they arrived, they were greeted by the princess, the headmaster and professor Colbert. Louise gave the princess a small curtsey, and Hiato bowed. Once they gathered around Osmond's desk, Osmond shot a threatening look at Hiato, who responded in kind, and there was friction in the air between them until Henrietta defused the situation before the tower got blown up.
"Now is not the time for petty grudges, we must work together if we are to handle this threat." Osmond and Hiato broke their glare and looked at the princess. "Firstly, Osmond I would like you to inform Louise of her mage status." Osmond looked surprised but regained his composure. "Well Miss valliere, here's the thing, we figured out why you're so bad at magic." Louise shot the old pervert a look of death, and Hiato quickly scanned the floor for a certain white rodent to roast. He was impressed when he saw the mouse on the old man's shoulder. Good, the old bastards learnt his lesson.
"It's because you're a void mage." Colbert said, saving the headmaster from the over bearing glare he was receiving from Louise. Louise's face promptly turned to one of total shock. "W-what?" She asked.
"You heard the professor young lady, you are a void mage, now stop acting surprised, we don't have time for it." Osmond said, looking at Louise seriously. Louise's brain was in overload. M-me a void mage?! But that's impossible! Void mages are supposed to be ones of great talent and- Suddenly her dream flashed back to her "...Your true powers as a void mage Louise." Those words echoed through her mind, and it felt like an eternity until she regained awareness of her surroundings.
"Oh dear it looks like you've sent her into shock." Hiato said, looking at Louise, who regained her senses as he said that. "Never mind." He quickly added. He then looked at the headmaster. "What is a void mage?" he asked
"A void mage is one who can control the legendary element of void." I would have never guessed, I really don't thing you needed to clarify that old man Hiato said to himself "They are powerful, extremely so, the founder brimir himself was a Void mage, and that brings us to how we know you are a void mage, because you are Gandalfr, Hiato."
Now Hiato was confused. "Gandalfr?" Osmond nodded. "One of Brimirs legendary familiars, he was said to be the master of all weapons, able to use any of them without any difficulty and master them instantly upon touching them." Sounds useful he said to himself. "Ok, so what about these Dragon hunters?" Hiato asked.
The princess stepped forward. "They are fairly new, we only learnt about them a week ago, and what we've heard is not good. They mercilessly hunt dragons, and sometimes even kill the mage if it's a familiar they are hunting." Louise grabbed Hiato's hand and held it tight. "They appear to be active in all major nations except for one..." Hiato looked at the princess. "Which one?" he asked. "Albion, for some reason we have no word of them being active in that kingdom, but it may just be due to the rebellion taking place there." Hiato nodded. "Anything else?" He asked.
"Yes, it's about them knowing about you. They have started making inquiries about you to the nobility and the academy, they are asking if you would be willing to meet them at a specified location so they can 'observe' you, they promise no harm will come to your person, nor any to anyone you bring with you. They have also been trying to gleam as much information about you as they possibly can from us."
"What has been your response?" Hiato asked.
"We have provided them with as little information about you as we can, unfortunately they do know you are at the academy, and they do know about your powers and that Louise is your master, we have no idea how they found that out." Henrietta looked at Osmond. "They also made inquiries about Tabitha, but they fortunately know far less about her, so it has been easier to keep them from finding out about her."
"Has she been told about this?" Louise asked.
"She will be, Professor Colbert, I think you should inform Miss Tabitha right away about the situation." The professor nodded and left the room quickly. "What's this about a rebellion?" Hiato asked.
"An unknown faction has risen up in Albion, and is currently fighting the crown for control of the country in a massive revolution, last I heard, it was not going well for them." The princess said.
"Is it possible the 2 are connected?" Hiato asked the princess, with a thoughtful look on his face. "Possibly, but we cannot be sure, as we do not know if they are active in Albion or not."
"It would make sense... send them in as saboteurs... take out any mages with dragons... remove a significant threat..." Hiato looked at the princess. "Do the rebels use dragons?" he asked. The princess nodded. "According to reports we have received, yes they do, why do you want to know?"
"Hmm... well IF these guys aren't active in Albion, I reckon they could be connected to these rebels you're talking about." Hiato looked at the princess. "But as you said, we don't know fully what's going on over there, so they could really be just a rouge faction with their own aims, but we don't know for sure." The princess nodded. "Indeed, you seem to be able to analyse things like this quite quickly." Hiato shrugged. "Hey I'm not an idiot; my brain does work, despite popular belief." Louise smiled at this. "No one said you were an idiot you know."
"No one said I wasn't either." Hiato pointed out. Louise rolled her eyes at him. Hiato looked at the princess. "And we have no idea where their bases are or anything?" The princess shook her head. "No we don't, in fact as I said before, we only know they exist because they willingly revealed their presence to us, had they not, they would have gone unnoticed for a long time, perhaps until it was too late."
"So what's the plan?" Hiato asked. "We will be stepping up security here at the academy greatly, to ensure none of these dragon slayers can get in and harm either you or Tabitha's dragon." Osmond said. "I will be doing my best to try to find out what I can about this guild, and see if I can locate its base of operations. It is a threat to many mages in this country, and I will not allow them to go around slaughtering dragons as they please." Hiato and Louise nodded. "And we will be training as hard as we can so if we do have to fight them, we can win." The headmaster and princess nodded. "You can get started today. Louise Valliere, I give you permission to miss classes today in order to train with your familiar." The pinkette bowed to the headmaster. "Thank you sir!" Hiato bowed as well. "Thank you sir."
The princess smiled. "Good to see you are committed. Well I guess we should all get to work then, I will see you again Louise, train hard." Louise smiled and nodded at the princess. "I will, and good luck to you princess." Henrietta nodded back, and the 2 girls embraced each other. As they did, Hiato and Osmond exchanged a glance. "This isn't over." Osmond growled. "You will pay." Hiato smirked. "I look forward to it, grey hairs." Osmond was about to stand up and yell at him when the 2 girls broke their embrace and Hiato and Osmond looked at them with smiles on their faces.
"Come on Hiato lets go." Louise walked up to Hiato and took his hand and led him out the office. As the door shut, Hiato sneaked once last glare at Osmond. "Do you think they will be ok?" Henrietta asked Osmond. "I'm sure they will, that Valliere girl never has been one to give up, and I doubt her familiar is different." The princess nodded. "I hope your right."
Outside in one of the courtyards, Hiato and Louise were preparing to start training. Hiato decided he would practice some of his martial arts, and Louise would try to cast a spell without it blowing up in her face the whole time. After about 10 minutes, Hiato decided it would be best for him to help Louise. "Need help?" he asked walking over. Louise was breathing heavily, she had spent the last 10 minutes firing off explosion spells without stop, and it had taken a toll on her.
"N-no I'm fine." She said.
"You clearly aren't because you look like you've been dragged through a bush backwards, so let me help." Louise glared at him, but she didn't say anything. "Ok, how should I start?" she asked him.
"Well to be honest, I don't know how to train someone who uses magic, but I'll give it a shot." He walked up to her and gave her a hug. She was about to ask if this was part of the training when she felt her stamina being restored suddenly. When Hiato let go, she felt like nothing had happened. "What did you just do?" she asked. "I just restored your stamina, turns out If I concentrate hard enough, I can restore someone's stamina and heal their wounds."
"Really?" Hiato nodded. "Yep, now let's get to training shall we?" Louise nodded. After an hour of intense training, the 2 of them relaxed under a tree in the court yard. "How you feeling?" Hiato asked Louise, who gave him a look that asked said 'Are you really asking me?'
"I feel great Hiato, thanks for asking." It took Hiato a second to realise she was being sarcastic. He was stunned. "Hiato are you ok?" She asked him, waving a hand in front of her face. "No I'm fine just recovering from the shock of you using sarcasm, it sounds weird, but I like it, good to see you aren't so stuck up anymore." Louise looked at him and she frowned. "Stuck up?" She asked. "Yeah, when I met you, you had a lot of pride, too much; but now, you're more down to earth, and I like that." Louise blushed at this and looked away. Hiato just laughed and hugged her from behind.
"It's a good thing, and every day I can see your slowly turning more into a person other people can like. You know what Louise?" Louise looked at him. "I have an idea, and I know you won't like it, but I reckon it's a good one." Louise raised an eyebrow at him. "And what idea is that?" She asked.
"You should become friends with Kirche Zerbst."
Louise looked at him for a full 10 seconds to comprehend what he had just said. "Friends." Hiato nodded. "With Zerbst?" Hiato nodded again. "Are you stupid? Her family and mine are rivals; I would never stoop so low as to become her friend." Hiato sighed this is gonna take a while. "Well don't you think you should try to fix that hatred?" Louise just looked at him. "Why should i? What could I possible gain from it?"
"A chance to right the wrongs of the past and perhaps make a friend? You know what we are going into right? If these rebels in Albion want to spread their revolution, there could be a war, and if that happens, were going to need all the help we can get, and having rivals isn't going to help. Plus, and I know I'm sounding really dark here, but if you die, or she dies, do you want that to happen, and be left wondering if you could have ever been good friends?" Hiato was looking seriously now at Louise.
She had never thought about that, and frankly, she knew her mother would never approve of the idea, yet thinking over what Hiato had just said, she felt a sense of rebellion swelling up inside her. She then got an evil smile on her face. "Ok, I'll do it, on one condition." She looked at Hiato, who got a worried look when he saw her face. "Ok, what's that?"
"After our next training session, you have to fly me around the school, and then when we are above the central tower, you have to kiss me." Hiato raised an eyebrow. "Ok... that sounds easy enough..." Louise smiled. "Thanks Hiato!" She said in a really high pitched voice which scared Hiato a little bit, but he smiled.
"Alright then, lets get to work."
And that's that! Sorry it's a bit shorter than usual, but I reckon it's good. Please read and review, and I will see you in the next chapter, bye bye!