A/N: Huzzah! Finally! A new chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!


Chapter 10: The Hunt

March X792

Both Lenz and Lucas were looking anywhere but at each other. Lucas was annoyed that he was currently stuck with Lenz, and Lenz was annoyed about, well, everything. He had been forced on yet another mission with other people, and he had barely recovered since the last one. And the person he was most annoyed with was right next to him.

"Tch!"

Lenz released the irritated sound without realizing it. He was just frustrated at the entire situation, and it seemed to have bubbled over.

"You got a problem?" Lucas asked, still not bothering to look over at the other man.

"What isn't a problem right now?"

Lucas didn't have anything to say to that, having a similar feeling at the moment. Though, he soon noticed that Lenz was a few steps ahead of him and he had been following his lead.

"Do you even know where you're going?" he asked as he moved up to not be behind Lenz.

"I've known Lili for years. I know how to track her."

"You make it sound like she's some kind of animal."

Lenz pointed to a half-broken tree in front of them as if to prove a point. Lucas's eyes went wide at it, but refused to say anything that would indicate that Lenz was right.

"So, what? Are you two like an item?"

Lenz gave him a disgusted look, "No. She's my sister."

'Good, she's fair game then,' Lucas thought.

"That doesn't mean she's fair game for you, though," Lenz said without looking at him, turning at some smashed bushes.

Lucas just rolled his eyes as he turned with him.

"So, how are you two related then? You don't really look alike."

"Are we really going to play twenty questions? I'm certain that it's a mutual dislike between us. Do you really care?"

"Good point. I don't."

Lenz felt a small amount of relief wash over him when Lucas finally shut up. Lili's spontaneity was already a lot to deal with. He didn't need idiotic chitchat on top of it. They walked through the woods for another calm few minutes before they heard the echoing of someone's shouts.

"Stop! For just a second!"

"Pretty sure that's Liv," Lucas said.

"Lili, wait!"

Lenz let out another sigh, "Yeah, that's them. Let's go."

Lenz began running towards the shouting, Lucas not far behind him. It took them a good ten minutes or so before they could see the two girls. Lili was still running, dragging Liv along with her. Liv was trying to get her to stop, not that it was working at all.

"Okay, Lili, that's enough!" Lenz shouted.

"Enemy bandits!" Lili said when she heard Lenz's shout, throwing Liv straight up in the air towards the boys, "You hit them from above and I'll go low!"

Liv could only shout as she was launched backwards. She would have felt relief upon seeing Lenz and Lucas if she wasn't barreling towards them.

"Catch her," was all Lenz said as he moved forward to block Lili. He managed to dodge the punch Lili was throwing and caught her in a chokehold.

Just as Lenz stopped Lili, Lucas managed to catch Liv as she came down towards him. It was a rough catch, considering the speed she was thrown, but he managed to stay standing.

"Thank you!" Liv said as he sat her on the ground.

"Oh, it's you guys!" Lili said when she registered who the two boys were and stopped struggling in Lenz's grip. Lenz then let her go, "You're getting better at dodging me, Lenz!"

"You need to learn when to slow down still," he said, rubbing the arm that had been holding her back.

She laughed as she rubbed the back of her head, "I did go a bit overboard again. Whoops! Sorry about that, Liv."

"It's fine," she said as she pulled a stick from her hair.

"Well, I'm ready to start hunting if you all are!" Lili announced, "Where should we start looking?"

"You have us in the middle of the forest now," Lenz said, still not overly thrilled with her running off the way she did, "It shouldn't be too hard to come across one. We should look out for tracks or tufts of hair on branches or bushes."

The group started to move together. Lili bounced around eagerly, hoping that they would come across a boar quickly. She was more than ready to punch something. Lucas walked closer up towards her rather than being back near Lenz. And after getting thrown like a bowling ball, Liv opted for the calmer walk back near Lenz, figuring he would have the most experience tracking something.

They continued that way for a while, Lenz making sure to remember where they came from for the eventual trip back home. Though, he kept glancing up at the sky as he watched gray clouds rolling in and feeling the wind start to pick up. It wasn't long before he could smell rain on the wind, and he knew a storm was on the way.

'Great,' he thought, 'Not only am I stuck on this mission, but it's going to be overnight out in a forest with all of them.'

"Okay, we need to stop and find shelter for the night," Lenz called out, surprising the rest of the group.

"What? Buy why?" Lili asked. She had been disappointed it was taking so long to find a boar and now it would take longer if they stopped.

"A storm is heading in, and I don't want to be caught in it."

"We can just fight the boar in the rain!"

"Look, if you want to fight a boar in the cold and the rain at night, be my guest. They'll likely be taking shelter as well, so good luck finding one to begin with. Otherwise, those of us that aren't crazy can follow me to find shelter."

Lili pouted but before she could say anything further, Lucas spoke.

"I hate to agree with him, but finding shelter should take priority. I've had plenty of nights out in the rain in the middle of nowhere and it's not fun. It's going to suck being out here to begin with, but if we can find somewhere to take cover for the night, that's the better choice."

Lili looked to Liv as her last hope of someone being on her side.

"Sorry," Liv laughed nervously, "But I'm with them. I don't want to get caught in a storm, and the boars will be here in the morning."

Seeing that everyone was against her, she let out an exaggerated sigh, "Fine, I guess finding shelter it is."

"Good, let's head this way," Lenz pointed to his left, "I have a feeling we'll find something that way."

Lenz's hunch had been right as after twenty minutes of walking, they came across a large cave that was tucked away into the side of a cliff. Lenz motioned for them all to be quiet as he took in their surroundings, wanting to make sure nothing lived in it. While the cave was a bit musty, it didn't seem like anything had lived there for a while. There were no carcasses or bones from a predator, and no droppings or fur in or around the cave.

"Looks like we lucked out. The amber boar that lived here previously has been gone for a while. It probably moved on or died."

"Wait, how do you know a boar lived here?" Liv asked.

"The size of the cave fits them, and they tend to hollow out caves like this with their hard heads."

"Oh, cool!" Liv said.

"It would have been more interesting to find a cave that had belonged to a spring wyvern," he said more to himself than Liv.

Though, she picked up on it and smiled to herself, 'Seems like he likes wyverns,' she thought, tucking that information away for later, 'Though, that shouldn't be surprising. Still, it's something that he actually likes.'

"Lili and Lucas, why don't you two go collect some firewood. And no running off to find a boar!"

"Awwww!"

The pair wandered into the forest around the cave to collect the wood.

"Liv, you can help me collect some stones for the fire and get a few things out of my pack."

She nodded at him, picking up stones that matched the size of the first one Lenz found. It didn't take them too long to find enough to create the circle needed. They made their way into the cave, Lenz stacking the stones while Liv went through his pack that he called forth from his requip space.

"There should be some blankets in there as well as a couple canteens of water and some ration bars. They won't be all that great taste wise, but at least it's better than nothing. We won't be catching anything to eat the closer the storm gets."

"You're really good at this stuff," she said as she began pulling out the specified items. Then she realized it was Lenz she was talking about, someone who had been in the military and would have had training on all of this. Of course, he knew what he was doing, "Sorry, that probably sounded dumb."

"It's fine, and it wasn't dumb."

The two fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"Sorry about Lili, by the way. I know she can be overbearing and excitable."

"No worries. I don't think she means any harm by what she does…mostly," Liv added, thinking back to how the redhead launched her, "I like how friendly she is!"

Lenz stared at her for a moment, trying to think on what to say in response. It seemed like Liv was unbothered by Lili and her antics, but then again, Liv seemed unbothered by most things. She seemed happy just to be a part of the group. If she was trying to appease everyone by not saying how she felt, that seemed problematic in the long run. But Lenz felt it wasn't really his place to comment on it, considering he had his own issues that he was dealing with in his own problematic ways. He decided to leave the subject alone for now.

Luckily, a burst of wind seemed to blow the other two back to the cave as they suddenly appeared, holding piles of wood and their hair a mess.

The team quickly worked together to get a fire started in the cave and pass around the blankets. They ate the ration bars that Lenz had packed, though he had been right in saying they didn't taste great. After eating and passing around the canteens, the rain finally started, and the team settled in for the night.

Lucas had immediately called the back of the cave to be the furthest away from the opening and the rain. If he had been a normal person, he probably would have let the girls have the back of the cave, but it had only been a short time since coming to Vermilion Wyvern and he still vividly remembered all the times he had to sleep outside in the past three years. There was no way he was sitting near the opening to tempt fate with getting wet or otherwise.

Lili, on the other hand, didn't mind being on the side that faced the opening, announcing it as a challenge against nature. Lenz and Liv didn't argue with her and let her have that position. Lenz also knew that if anything tried to come into the cave, Lili was the best one to have in the front position to deal with it.

Eventually, it seemed like Lili had dozed off and Lucas was on his way to sleep, at least the other two thought so since he had laid down and covered up with a blanket.

"I feel bad leaving her all alone there," Liv said.

"Don't," was all Lenz said.

Liv stared at the redhead, looked at Lenz, then back at the redhead and sighed. She got up and dragged her blanket over towards Lili, figuring that both of them next to each other would be warmer. She settled down next to her and all seemed well for about a minute. Without warning, a sleeping Lili grabbed onto Liv and pulled her in close to cuddle her, smashing her face into her chest. At first, Liv thought it was a bit closer than she planned, but ultimately she would be fine, but then she realized that she was pulled so tight into her that she couldn't breathe. She tried to push Lili off her, but there was no budging her. She began to flail her arms in hopes that one of the boys would notice her.

She soon felt a hard yank on one of her arms, her face suddenly breaking away for air. She took a deep breath and looked up at Lenz.

"What the hell?!"

"I told you not to."

Liv felt Lili trying to pull her in again, "Pull me, pull me!" she shouted at Lenz, not wanting to be sucked back in.

Lenz rolled his eyes as he pulled her to her feet and away from Lili. Though she lost her blanket in the process, it now being help captive by Lili. It was a sacrifice Liv was willing to make to be able to breathe.

"Learn when to take my advice," Lenz said, moving to sit back down.

"Yeah, thanks, I will," Liv said as she sat next to him, the pair situated in the middle of the cave, leaning back against the wall.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but a noise interrupted her. It didn't take them long to figure out it was coming from Lucas, the two seeing his shoulders shake.

"Um, Lucas?" Liv asked, "Are you crying?"

"It should have been me," he said quietly.

"What?"

"It should have been me!" he shouted.

"What should have-"

Lenz stopped her and pointed over at Lili and her crushing grip on her lost blanket.

"Oh. Ohhhh. Lucas! Come on!"

"Just leave him."

The two then ignored him, despite the few whimpers he let out after that.

"Here," Lenz said, handing over his blanket.

"Oh no, I couldn't! It's my fault I lost mine."

Lenz sighed and threw it over her, "You're taking it. You're obviously cold."

Liv realized then that she was shivering a bit despite the fire they had going. She looked over at him, "And you're not?"

"This is pretty mild in comparison to other weather I've dealt with. I'll be fine."

"Well then, do you want me to take the first watch so you can get some sleep?"

"No."

Lenz knew it came out too quickly, too harshly. He didn't mean to snap, but he was not chancing sleeping in front of everyone here.

"No, I'll handle the watch," he said more calmly, "You just get some sleep."

Liv stared at him a moment longer, knowing something else was going on, but felt like she couldn't ask him about it. Not with everyone here. She didn't think he'd give her an honest answer even if it was just the two of them.

"Thanks," was all she could muster up to say, turning her gaze back towards the fire.

. : + : .

It was late at night in a town called Garnet, located up in the forest just north of the Adamantine Mines. Within the town sat a young man in a dim waiting room, a guard on either side of the door to the room.

Bison could only roll his eyes at all of it. He wasn't sure if the sorry state of the room was genuine or if the unit of knights that had picked him up made it like that. If it was a tactic to get him to talk, it was a stupid one. And if the state of the room was genuinely shitty, well then, they needed to look into a better electrician.

Either way, he wasn't impressed. And no way in hell would he be talking. He was certain they'd be trying to get him to tell them all about his pitiful past that led him to his current situation, they'd give him some fake sympathy about it, and then send him on his way with a warning. He knew the process and was over it already.

He looked at the two guards that stood in the room with him by the door.

Bison lifted his handcuffed wrists, "Could you at least take these off? I ain't going anywhere."

The guards didn't give him any kind of response, not even a glance.

"Tch, whatever."

He laid his hands and upper body out across the table in front of him, trying to find some way of getting comfortable while he waited. He listened to the rain pelting down onto the building and his own breathing and thought he might go insane from it all. How long did they intend to make him wait?! They had picked him up midday, after all, and it was definitely well into the night. Was this really how the Knights, and a Royal Knight who led them no less, conducted themselves?

He eventually moved his gaze from the table to the metal cuffs around his wrists. Etched into them were runes, ones that made it so he couldn't use magic. He understood why they did it, but it was still annoying. It felt like a weight had been put on his shoulders, pushing down on his magic, which just made him feel physically heavy. He couldn't wait to have these damned things off.

At that thought, he finally heard movement heading towards his room. Slow footsteps scraping against the ground, like the person walking had to force themselves to move. Those footsteps came to a stop in front of his door. He heard the twisting of metal for a moment, a short silence, and then the twisting of metal again, like someone taking a cap off something.

After that, the door finally opened to reveal a relatively put together man. At least, Bison thought he was more put together for someone who sounded like the walking dead when they moved. His military clothing was ironed neatly and tucked in and buttoned in all the right places. A few medals even hung from his jacket that had clearly been cleaned regularly by the way they managed to shine even in this dim light. Even his boots looked newly shined. It wasn't until Bison got to the man's face did his appearance look like what he had imagined.

His face looked sunken and tired, bags under his eyes and a frown that seemed permanent. While most men and women in the unit of knights had clean shaven faces and neatly cut or tied up hair, this man had a scruffy face, and his bright green hair was left to hang around his face and over his shoulders. It looked unkempt and a bit greasy. Even Bison, who traveled constantly as a freelance mage, managed to keep his own hair and face neat. His black hair was always a bit windswept, but he couldn't help that. Still, it was a hell of a lot neater than this man's.

They man walked to the chair that faced Bison and unceremoniously dumped himself into it, letting his head fall backwards to stare up at the ceiling for a moment. It took him a few minutes, but he eventually rolled his head over to look at Bison. The pair stared each other down for a long moment, Bison scowling at him while the man just looked at him with half-lidded eyes.

Eventually, Bison couldn't take it anymore and voiced his initial thought on the man.

"You look like shit."

Bison heard one of the guards' sharp intake of breath. Out of fear or to keep himself from laughing, Bison wasn't sure, but really, he didn't give a shit. Was this man really supposed to intimidate him? He looked like he could barely hold himself up let alone take on Bison.

"These fucking kids nowadays," the man across from him grumbled as he fished into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a flask.

'Ah,' Bison thought, 'There's the culprit.'

Bison was honestly surprised that the man had even pulled it out in front of him. Weren't knights supposed to have some sort of moral code or some shit like that, that kept them from drinking and turning into a pile of shit?

"Look here, kid," the man said, turning in his seat to face Bison and straightening himself out some after finishing with his flask, "You're in a lot of trouble. Really, I should be sending you to Alexandrite to stand trial. But that's a lot of fucking paperwork I don't want to deal with."

"I'm sure the Magic Council would see things differently," Bison said with a smart tone.

"The Magic Council doesn't know dick."

'Well,' Bison thought, 'We can agree on that, at least.'

"They don't know half of what's going on out on the field, but that's besides the point. If you want to keep running your mouth, I'll gladly deal with that paperwork. Otherwise, you'll shut up so I can tell you what's going to happen."

"Wait, so you're in charge here? You?"

"Yeah, me," he said gruffly, "Royal Knight Theodore Holt, at your service," he said with a sarcastic flourish of his hands, "Can we move on now? Or would you like to be shipped off to Alexandrite?"

"Can you at least uncuff me?"

"You gonna lose control again?"

"No," Bison huffed, rolling his eyes again, "I'm not using my magic. How the hell would I lose control?"

"We had to take some precautions with you," Theo said as he threw the keys to the cuffs over to Bison, "You really did a number on those bandits outside the town. They were supposed to be brought in alive."

"I know that," Bison grumbled more to himself than the man in front of him as he worked at unlocking the cuffs, "It was an accident."

"An accident, huh? Ten bandits dead, including their leader, and another six heavily injured. It took several of my own men to get you under control, and even a few of them were injured in the process."

Bison just gave him a look that said, 'what do you want from me?'. He really didn't know what to say in response to that. He already knew he fucked up badly, but what could he do now?

"What is your magic exactly?" Theo asked, watching the boy carefully as the cuffs came off. When a few moments went by with nothing happening, his shoulders went slack again.

"Tornado Magic."

Theo was quiet for a moment, waiting for Bison to continue. When he didn't, Theo looked at him directly.

"Look, kid, I wasn't born yesterday. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not stupid. A simple wind magic doesn't make someone do what you did. What else you got going on?"

Bison just stared at him in response, not wanting to out himself yet. Any time he revealed what else he had for magic, people always got weird around him. And it's not like he cared what this shitty man in front of him thought, but he just wasn't in the mood to watch another person pull away from him in fear.

"You either tell me what else is going on, or I send you to the capital."

"Tch, fine! I'm a Wind Devil Slayer."

The two guards in the room seemed to take a single step away from the table, but Theo just stayed where he was.

"Is that all?" Theo asked, surprising both the guards and Bison, "I've heard of worse things to happen to a person. I've seen worse things happen to a person. Just because it's got the word 'devil' in it doesn't make you one."

"I wasn't expecting something so inspiring from someone like you," Bison said.

"Yeah, I have my shining good moments," Theo said, waving him off as he grabbed his flask again. After taking a few gulps, he put it back into his pocket, "Don't let these wimps here make you think that magic is evil. Most magic isn't evil, it all involves the person wielding it. You're gonna have a tough time with a magic like that, I ain't gonna lie about that, but it's not something you can't overcome."

Bison just nodded at him, unsure of how to respond to all that. Most people usually ended up afraid of him or angry at him when they found out about his magic. So, it was a bit strange to meet someone who wasn't either.

"So," Bison began, wanting to change the subject, "If I'm not going to the capital, where am I going?"

"A mage guild."

"What? I'm not looking to join up with some yuppy guild to have fun adventures with and run around with kitties and rainbows and have tea parties with."

"You don't have much of a choice here."

Bison was quiet with for a long moment, "Fuuuuuck!" he said, sliding down into his chair.

"And besides, it's not going to be what you think it is. Mage guilds are still required to answer the military's call when needed, so you may end up in some harsh battles still. And the one I'm sending you to is a fairly new one, so it's going to be a hard time getting their feet off the ground. You're gonna have to work hard, kid."

"But why a mage guild?"

Bison wasn't keen on the idea at all. He had left one mage guild already. Why would he want to join another one?

"You need help learning how to control your magic. The woman running the guild, while not a Devil Slayer, is someone who has expert control over Wind Magic. She'll be able to help you more than any other guild master currently out there. She was also a general in the military, so she knows how to handle people like you."

Bison scrunched his nose at the term 'handle you', but he said nothing else in response to it. Even if the guy was helping him out, he kind of really wanted to punch him in the face.

"Why help me out? This seems like it'll be more trouble than just sending me to Alexandrite."

Theo looked him up and down while taking another swig from his flask.

"I have a daughter your age…at least I think she's around your age."

'What the fuck?!' was all Bison could think after hearing that. How did he not know how old his own kid was?

"You remind me a bit of her, being so headstrong. It makes me feel for you. You're also young and you need a second chance. What happened today was an accident, but you still hurt people. Granted, they were bad, wanted people, but still. You're gonna have to deal with the weight of what you did, and I see it going better for you at a guild than in a prison cell. You'll thank me for this later."

'Yeah right,' Bison thought with another roll of his eyes.

"One of my men will take you to the guild in the morning. You are to take this letter with you," he said, handing over a crisp envelope with a dark green wax seal on the back of it, "Give this to the guild master when you get there."

Theo stood up then, leaning backwards to stretch out his back. He once again pulled out the flask from his breast pocket.

"I'm sure you won't waste this opportunity, kid."

"What is the name of this guild?" Bison asked before Theo walked out of the room.

"Vermilion Wyvern."

. : + : .

"We're going to split up," Lenz said once everyone was up and out of the cave the next morning, "We'll have better luck at finding a boar that way."

"What? But I wanted us to do this all together!" Lili protested.

"We already wasted a lot of time since someone just ran off into the forest," he said, narrowing his eyes at her, "This should have been a one-day mission."

Lili just huffed as she crossed her arms and turned away from him, grumbling quietly to herself.

Lenz just rolled his eyes at her, "We should break off into teams of two and hunt in different directions. Though, we shouldn't wander too far from each other, that way we can meet back up quickly if one team finds a boar."

"Oh! I choose Liv as my partner!" Lili said, pulling Liv towards her.

Liv looked nervous while Lucas looked irritated. Lucas hadn't been having a great time, between getting stuck with Lenz alone for a while the day before and having to sleep in a cave, it had kinda been a shit time. Liv was certain that Lili would probably throw her at a boar if the day before was anything to go by, and she wasn't sure she would have an attack at the ready if that happened. This was all still so very new to her, and while Lili was great, learning how to be a mage from her felt…overwhelming.

Lenz seemed to know that this was going to happen and that the other two would have some reservations about it.

"You'll be teaming up with me, Lili."

"Awww! But why?!"

"Yeah, but why?!" Lucas repeated, still upset that it hadn't been him last night who was almost suffocated by Lili.

Lenz could feel his eye twitch, but he managed to stay calm, "I know how to work with you and your magic, Lili. The other two aren't quite on that level yet. You're…a lot to handle. And this will give the other two the experience they need on their own to be mages. They need to learn how to fight on their own."

"Couldn't we learn to fight back at the guild with training?" Liv asked.

"Yes, you can," Lenz said, "But hands on experience is the better teacher. This is an easy mission, all things considered. Take then now and learn from them while you can. Once the guild starts to build a reputation, harder missions will come our way. Besides, we already told Wes we would do it."

"Yeah, alright," Liv said, still feeling uncertain about the whole mission and hunting an amber boar with someone who was just about as unskilled as she was when it came to magic. She just wanted to make it back to the guild alive.

Lucas didn't have any further complaints about the pairings. He wouldn't be stuck with Lenz, and he still had a pretty girl with him either way.

"Let's get going then!" Lucas said, already feeling better about everything.

"You two will start heading east and Lili and I will head west. After about ten minutes, we'll all start heading north to keep us in close proximity to each other. Liv, since you have the magic for it, make some noise if you two come across a boar, but just be ready for it to charge you when you do so. Lili will do the same if we come across a boar first."

"I can yell really loud, so be ready!" Lili said, her hands proudly on her hips.

With that, the pairs separated and started making their way through the forest.

"Do you really think they will be okay by themselves?" Lili asked once they were far enough away from the other two.

"They'll be fine," Lenz said, "Like I said, they need to start learning things now unless they want it to be worse later on. This is to help them."

"I could believe that if it was just Liv," she said with a grin, "But I think you're also doing this to throw Lucas to the wolves, or I suppose boars in this case."

"Yes, well, there's that too."

. : : .

"Are you and Lenz really still hating each other?" Liv asked once the ten minutes had passed, and they were heading north.

"Yes. The man came at me with a sword, Liv, why wouldn't I?"

"It's just that, I feel like you two would really get along if you tried."

"Get him to apologize for the sword and I'll consider it."

Liv could only laugh awkwardly in response. She hadn't known Lenz long, but she knew enough to know he wasn't going to apologize to Lucas, at least not for a while. They both felt like they had been in the right and they were both the stubborn sort. She understood why both were upset, but it could make things easier between them all if they just worked it out, especially if they were going to continue going on missions together.

She decided to set aside that issue for now, knowing she couldn't do much about it. She instead focused on the forest around them. She hadn't really gotten a chance to go out into the forest that surrounded Carnelian yet. She hadn't really had a reason to, and she didn't want to take the chance of getting lost in it. She was bummed she had missed out on what it looked like in the full swing of summer, but spring was right around the corner. She could see peeks of spring coming through, but the trees were still bare here aside from the pine trees dotted around the area. Though, if you looked close enough on some of the tree branches, there were little buds of mint green, canary yellow and peachy pink just waiting to burst open. Some of the bushes had started to change from their winter coloring of icy blue to their spring coloring of purple, indicating that berries would soon be on the way. She could also hear birds flittering about and a few smaller animals skittering across the forest floor.

"Are the boars even going to be out this time of year?" Liv asked, realizing they hadn't really asked more questions about the boars before leaving, not that Lili had really given them a choice in it.

"Well, Wes seemed confident that we would find one when he told us about the job, so I don't think they migrate out of this area, or they already migrated back here. We should be good either way."

"I hope so. It wouldn't be great to go back empty handed all because we forgot to ask more detailed questions."

As they discussed how they would find one or the best places to look for them, they happened to pass another cave just as large as the one they stayed in the night before. The only difference was that this one had something living in it.

"Maybe we should have asked Wes if he had, like, a boar call whistle. Ya know, like those duck whistles," Liv said.

"Yeah, probably, but we'll have to make do with wandering around for now. I don't think either of us have tracking skills, at least not any to brag about."

"No, I don't think we do."

She kicked a small stone in frustration. The stone skipped a few times, eventually skipping right into the cave just as they passed it. It smacked a large, sleeping amber boar right on snout, causing it to wake up. It snorted a few times as it realized that something had been thrown at it right before noticing the walking pair outside of its cave. It soon stood up and shook its body, making its way out of the cave and following the pair.

Liv and Lucas were still talking when they felt a large shadow envelope them. They stopped in their tracks, took a moment to look up at the sky to see that it was relatively clear despite the rain from the night before, and then heard and felt a large snort from behind them.

"Um…Lucas?"

"Yeah, Liv?"

"Is that a…"

"Yeah, I think it is."

"So, like, what do we do?"

"We have a tea party with it. What do you think? Run!" he shouted, grabbing Liv's wrist in the process and taking off.

The boar let out a squeal that sounded more like a bellowing shout. It began chasing after them, the pair barely managing to stay ahead of it.

"Do you think we should climb a tree?!" Liv asked, now running side by side with Lucas.

As she asked that, they heard a ripping sound behind them before a tree was falling towards them. The boar was large enough to rip trees out of the ground and fling them with its hard head and tusks.

"Nope! I don't think so!" Lucas answered as they swerved to dodge the tree. They turned to the right, hoping to find something in their path to use against the boar. While they ran, Lucas once again found himself shaking his fist like a lighter in hopes of getting his magic to work, "Why doesn't it ever work when I want it to?!"

"Watch out!" Liv said, now grabbing onto Lucas's wrist and pulling him out of the way of the boar as it tried to charge him.

She finally got a decent look at it, and it didn't help her nerves at all. The thing was bigger than she had imagined, easily towering over them. It was covered in bright amber, shaggy fur with matching amber eyes that had their sights set on them. Its tusks were thick and pointed with some moss hanging from them. There was a large patch on the front of its head that had no fur, and it instead looked like a slab of amber-colored steel. Wes hadn't been joking around when he talked about how dangerous these things were!

"Come on!" Liv said, continuing to drag Lucas with her.

She hadn't tried the next move before, but it had to work, right? It made sense in her head anyways. She focused her magic down to her feet, letting out a large burst of it from them. There was an overly loud 'pop' and then suddenly both her and Lucas were shot forward like a cannonball.

"Liv! What the hell?!"

"Just hold on!" she said, somehow managing to hang onto Lucas.

They both screamed as they rocketed forward through the forest. It had done what Liv wanted – it got them away from the boar, but she also had no idea how to stop it.

'Stop,' she thought, 'Stop, stop, stop!'

They quickly made their way towards a break in the forest, but they were heading up a hill that eventually became a cliff.

"LIV!"

"STOP!"

The magic that was shooting them forward came to a sudden stop, causing them to crash and roll up the hill a few times. They eventually came to a complete stop, thumping hard onto their backs. Heavy breathing was all that filled the air for a long moment. Liv lay there with her hair flipped over her face while Lucas was trying to get the loud ringing in his ears to stop.

Liv finally pushed herself up onto her elbows, flipping her hair over and pulling some sticks out of it, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Lucas answered, wiping a hand across his face, "What was that?"

She gave him a nervous smile, "I…don't know. I just kind of did it?"

He gave her a deadpan stare, "What?"

"I don't know! We just had to get out of there and I thought, what if I push my magic through my feet, and ta-da! Here we are! But it worked!"

"Oh my god," he said, and then realized he sounded like Lenz, "Oh my god!"

Before either of them could say anything else, they heard thundering hooves coming towards them while the trees shook.

"Shit," they both said as they pulled themselves to their feet.

The boar broke through the forest, stopping for a moment to look around. It didn't take long for it to spot Liv and Lucas, letting out another angry snort at them before charging towards them again.

"Come on!" Liv repeated, pulling Lucas up the hill. Though, that decision was one she quickly regretted since there was nowhere for them to go once they got to the top of the cliff. The boar was coming at them from one side and there was a sheer drop on the other. Lucas moved closer to the edge to see if there was some way down while Liv stood a little way from him watching the boar. Then it hit her, "The wings!"

"What?" Lucas said, looking back at her.

"Your wings! Remember when you met Lili and then the wings popped out! Do that again!"

"I don't think that's gonna work."

"Why not?!"

"I didn't even know I could do that until yesterday! I can barely get my magic to cover my fist let alone create wings and then use them!"

"Well, I don't see any better options at the moment, unless either of us can suddenly aim a good blast at that thing! We lucked out with my earlier move, but I haven't ever done a concentrated shot!"

"I can't make them pop out like daises!"

"Lucas! You have to try!"

Lucas let out a groan of frustration as he shook his hand again in hopes of getting the magic to work. He almost wished Lenz was threatening him with a sword again. At least then it had worked.

"Too late! You have to try while we're falling!"

"WHAT?!"

Liv started running towards him when they had no time left. She aimed right for him and then tackled him off the cliff.

"LUCAAAAASSSSS! USE THE WINGS!"

. : + : .

Lenz and Lili were peacefully making their way through the forest, not having spotted any signs of a boar yet. So, Lenz enjoyed the quiet moment while Lili took in their surroundings.

That peace was quickly ruined by a loud popping noise soon followed by screaming.

"Do you think that's them?" Lili asked, staring in the direction the screaming was coming from.

They waited a moment longer to see if anything else came from it when things got quiet again.

"LUCAAAAASSSSS!"

Lenz sighed, "Yeah, that's them. Let's go. Be ready to punch a boar."

"Always!" she said with a smile, clenching her fist in front of her.

. : + : .

Liv and Lucas were holding onto each other tightly as they began falling from the cliff. Lucas quickly realized how close they were and how pretty her eyes were this close and-

The bright purple wings suddenly popped out from his back.

"The wings! You did it!" Liv said, and then it registered that he actually did it, "Hey, wait a minute! Lucas!" She then realized he was blushing which caused her to start blushing, "Okay, whatever! At least you have wings now!" she added, wanting to quickly move past why the wings appeared, "Now use them!"

"I told you, I don't know how!"

"It can't be that hard, they're wings! You flap them!"

"Easy for you to say! I don't know what I'm doing!"

"Neither do I!" she cried, reality setting in that they were crashing to the ground and fast. Another idea quickly popped up in her head, thinking about the backlash her magic could have, "I think I have an idea!"

"It's gotta be better than having no ideas! Do it!"

Liv waited another few seconds, wanting to make sure that they were close enough to the ground for this to work. She threw one hand out towards the ground and shot off a boom of magic. It caused an impact against the ground, allowing Liv to fall much less violently. She still crashed against the ground, but she was at least able to tuck and roll at a slower rate.

Lucas hadn't been so lucky. As soon as she shot off the boom, his ears were ringing again. And with him being under Liv, he was pushed down as she pushed against him into the tuck and roll. This had him smacking against the ground much harder than her, albeit it was still better than the original impact would have been. It still hurt a whole hell of a lot, and it caused the purple wings to disappear.

They both rolled and skidded to a stop, heavy breathing filling the air again. It lasted a bit longer this time as the reality of falling from a cliff and surviving donned on them. They both started to softly laugh until they were both full on cracking up over it.

Though, they didn't have long before the boar appeared again, squealing in rage as it began to run towards them. The pair screamed again before two shots of magic flew over their heads like bullets. The magic shots hit the ground in front of the boar, launching it up into the air.

A streak of red soon followed the bullets of magic.

"Grand Calamity!" Lili shouted, her left fist glowing with a red magical energy. She brought that fist down straight onto the boar's hard forehead. A loud crack echoed through the area, followed by a crack appearing on the boar's head. It fell straight to the group with a heavy thump, unmoving after it landed. Lili soon landed after it, posing right in front of it when she did, "We got it!"

Liv and Lucas stared at her and then each other with wide eyes.

"Did she just one-shot the boar?" Liv asked.

"Yeah, she did," Lucas said, looking back at Lili in awe. The purple wings popped back into existence.

Liv just rolled her eyes at him and fell back to the ground.

Lenz smacked the back of Lucas's head as he entered the scene, the appearance of the other man causing the wings to fade away.

"I just fell from a cliff," Lucas grumbled at him, "Maybe refrain from hitting me."

Lenz just ignored him as he looked over the boar, making sure that it was indeed dead, "Good job, Lili. Now we can head back to the guild."

Lili looked at him before looking over at Liv and Lucas and motioning Lenz to say something to them.

He let out another sigh, "You two did good as well. You didn't die and you were good bait."

Lili let out a sigh, but thinking that at least he tried.

"Um…thanks, I guess," Liv said. It was more than she had expected from him.

Lucas just flipped him off.

"Wait, how are we going to get this thing back to the guild?" Liv asked.

"Oh, I got that covered!" Lili said as she easily lifted the boar over one shoulder, looking ready to face the day.

"You're amazing!" Liv said.

The group managed to gather themselves up, Lenz checking over Liv and Lucas to make sure they didn't need any immediate medical attention. Once he was satisfied, the group moved out to head back home.

. : + : .

Rhia sat in her office, looking over some paperwork and some new missions that came in. Though, all of that was pushed to the side for the moment as she stared down at the letter she had received that morning. She was just now finding time to read over it.

A violet wax seal was on the back of it, the letters 'KN' showing in the wax. It had been addressed to her in neat, fancy cursive but with no return address. Rhia found that a bit odd but decided to open the letter to see who it was from. The letter itself was not long, all of it fitting on a single page. And it seemed very precise, not using a lot of words to overinflate the writing.

Guild Master Rhiannon Ward,

I will be making a trip out to Carnelian very soon. My plan is to meet with you to discuss some things about your guild and my potential of joining it. Below is the date I intend to reach your town and will be waiting for you at The Magic Bean at 1pm. Please do be prompt. I hate to have my time wasted, and I promise not to waste yours.

Sincerely,

Kendra Nova

'Kendra Nova,' she thought.

She hadn't heard the name before, so it was even odder for someone to just assume she would show up to a meeting she hadn't planned or requested. Did this person think they had enough sway to just have her show up without question?

Though, she couldn't help but be curious about it. And they sounded like they had confidence at the very least. She looked down at the date to see that it was the next day's date. The person also had impeccable timing if they planned the letter and their trip out like this.

"What the hell," Rhia thought, deciding to go to the meeting. Worst case scenario, she declines whatever they're offering and picks up a coffee on her way out.


A/N: And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed it!

Credits

Bison Aeolus – Captain Vexas

Once I finally got this chapter rolling, I had so much fun with it! There was so much going on and I loved all the different aspects I got to write about! I do apologize for the wait. Real life has been busy, and I had a slight case of writer's block.

I hope all the characters are still how you all imagined them!

Thank you all very much for those awesome reviews and favorites/follows! I greatly appreciate all of them!

That should be it for now.

Until next chapter!

MyDearWatson