The Game is On

Chapters

01 - The Summoning
02 - Keura Rangers
03 - Family Ties
04 - Griffin Essence
05 - Hunting Lessons

01 - The Summoning

“They will reach us soon, my Queen,” a bulky male griffin said, bowing in front to his queen. The feathers of his chest and head were, as usual for griffins, white, but his also had a few brown spots scattered and the same dark brown color around his eyes. On his back he had a bow perfectly held in its straps and, to his side, a quiver filled with arrows.

“The fools…” even in frustration the voice of the queen was beautiful. She was hidden behind a rather fine curtain which only allowed for the griffin to see her silhouette, but it allowed him to see a mare a bit higher than average with a long horn. “Are my other champions ready?”

“Yes, my Queen,” said a voice out of nowhere. Slowly, a pegasus appeared at the griffin’s side. He was male and had special ponyshoes with curved blades, like daggers, he used as a weapon against his enemies. The pegasus was strong and had a deep red coat and bright yellow mane and his cutie mark seemed to be completely destroyed over the years. “They were only waiting for your call, Your Highness…”

Following that cue, there was a bright azure light and an azure unicorn appeared at the griffin’s left side. Her mane was purely white with two trances from just behind her horn making a small curve, each one around an ear, circling them. The robe she used prevented from seeing her cutie mark.

The door opened in the following second as another pony entered, followed by a hippogriff and a zebra. The pony was strong and wears a full heavy-looking armor set with an adapted blade on his back, with a base that allowed his ponyshoes to lock inside so he could use the sword.

The hippogriff had a dark garment over most of her body. As the more common hippogriff, she had no wings but had the amazing ability to use magic without having a horn. Her forelegs only showed her yellow talons as most of her body was hidden under the black priest robes, as well as her light gray face with white eye halos.

Maybe the most different of all them was the zebra which refused to wear any kind of armor at all. Instead, she had an assortment of amulets, rings, necklaces, earrings and such and on her back stood a large tribal mask as well as a spear over it.

The three newcomers bowed in front of the queen, “Your Highness, you wished to see us?” the unicorn asked.

“You are the champions of my army and my most trustful subjects,” the queen started. “Razor, head of my Rangers; Crimson Burn, leader of my Assassins; Azure Dreams, most powerful of my Warlocks; Sandstorm, most loyal of my Paladins; Selena, most dedicated of my Sages; and Netoak, most virtuous of my Shamans. You know that our enemies have summoned heroes from other worlds to aid them. However, they’re growing closer to the kingdom by the second. I want you to kill every single one of them. Use whatever means you think necessary, magic or weapons. Just don’t fail me my champions, or you will suffer by my hoof for all eternity.”

“Your wish is our command, Your Highness!” the six said together and turned to depart side by side.

“The Queen is nervous about these ponies… They’re that strong?” Sandstorm asked, his voice somewhat muffled by his armor.

“We’re going to find out,” Razor answered. “Netoak, what can you tell us about them?”

“I’m afraid that there is nothing to be told about our opponents,” the zebra answered. “The spirits are silent when speaking of our combatants.”

“My sources say they advanced greatly in mere months,” Crimson Burn said. The pegasus, as everyone else, kept looking forward as they walked. “They managed to reach their respective clans’ top rankings and are growing to be called legendary ponies.”

“So we’re going to fight legends?” Azure Dream said with a gently smile. Her unicorn horn had given off a small spark due to her excitement. “Just hope they put up at least a decent fight. I’m getting tired of all this commanding without actually fighting…”

“That’s something that we all do,” Netoak answered. “But act naïve you should not do. They may be better than we believe, so it’s better stay in the defensive.”

“Netoak is right,” Sandstorm agreed from under his helmet. “The battles where our enemies were naïve were the easiest so far. No reason we should give them this edge. If the Queen is worried, and based on Crimson Burn’s information, we should take care.”

“Just remember not to utterly finish with their bodies,” the dark monk-clothed hippogriff answered. Selena passed an aura of darkness that nopony liked much to stay around. “We could use them after their souls are gone.”

“Necromancers…” Sandstorm said. “Fine, I’ll try, but I can’t actually promise anything. My skills are rather… sharp…”

“Okay, let’s go,” Razor said. “Our objective is to reach them, not them to reach us.”

And after saying so, he left to prepare himself for battle. “Geez… Who made him our leader?” Azure Dream asked.

“Our Queen,” was the answer Sandstorm gave her.

After a sigh from Azure Dream, each of them left to make their preparations.

***

The day was bright and a gentle breeze blew from the mountains into the valleys, relieving a bit of the summer heat. And, besides they all hopped otherwise, it was indeed a very calm day.

Razor lay in a tree’s large branch, wings playfully opened and falling at each side of the branch in his battle armor and his bow in his talons. Selena just lay under the same tree, catching a pleasant nap, with gloves covering both her forepaws, from talons to shoulders, which held a small pinkish orb each. Sandstorm was examining his blade and gently cleaning it as his next opponent didn’t come. Azure Dreams had gloves similar to Selena’s, but hers held three times the number of orbs, one at the shoulder, one between the shoulder and the elbow and the lest half way from the elbow to her hoof, where nested a beautiful crystal in the back of each glove. Netoak was meditating with her spear stuck at the ground and balancing herself upside-down over it. Crimson Burn was practicing wing lifts while he waited for his partners.

“I can’t believe we were dragged there for that!” Azure Dreams said somewhat angry. “I really thought they would be a bit more… well… challenging!”

“That’s what Equestria now call champions?” Crimson Burn said as he kept his self-lifting. “That zebra, Aloe Vera, said she was a Ninja… She did have the potential and such, but she wasn’t much of a challenge…”

“We can’t actually blame them, can we?” Sandstorm finished cleaning his blade, placing it on his back again. “I mean… they had just a few months to learn everything from the very basics, haven’t they? And we’re here for what… seven years already?”

“I, for sure, don’t mind a bit of that,” Selena said with a smile, noticing that a zebra was coming to her with a mice hanging in her mouth. Taking the mice and quickly swallowing it down, he looked at the zebra, “But I would have liked even more if you haven’t cut this deep into her neck, Crimson Burn… This cut is unsettling…” The zebra in question had a deep cut into her throat, made easily by the sharp daggers of the assassin pegasus stallion. Following the zebra, there were a few other zombie ponies, each of them bringing small animals for her.

“You talk about unsettling but look at the results of your effort,” Netoak replied her. “Our enemies are back and doing our escort? Dead they are, of that sure I am. Their souls are gone for another realm.”

“Zombies aren’t unsettling,” Selena said as if it was natural to her. “They’re just bodies that I’m playing with, just like dolls! Deadly dolls that can kill our enemies, alright, but dolls nonetheless that I can dispose if I get tired of them… Hey, Razor? Wanna some mice?”

Razor though, was deep in thought. His mind raced about the battle that ended all too fast, but he would never forget what he saw. The group of six ponies charging against the six of them, one of each clan like they were, and they decided to take their own classes to prove their superiority.

He and his challenge took the air, a pegasus named Blizzard Bash, a very skilled Ranger, just unlucky to find a better Ranger than himself. While fighting against him (Rangers don’t actually fight, it’s mostly a competition of evade and hit), Razor could see his friends defeating their opponents one by one.

Crimson Burn was the first to do away with his enemy, cutting deeply into the throat of Aloe Vera, a zebra assassin. The next was Azure Dreams, efficiently blocking the magical attacks of the unicorn known as Ice Crystal and utterly killing her with a Blood Purge spell, which expelled all the blood of the body hit by the magic. The shamans duel took the third place with Netoak striking her spear at her opponent’s side, a hippogriff called Emerald Prism, right into the heart. In the meantime, Razor was avoiding the attacks of his opponent Blizzard Bash

Sandstorm and his opponent were more evenly matched, but not by much. Sandstorm slashed from side to side of Silver Armor, allowing him to bleed out from cuts along his legs and left wing. Selena, however, took more time because she tried something new, a spell she learned from the Queen herself. It took her quite some time, and the agonizing screams of her victim never stopped during the process. She was converting the water into his veins into poison, or so she told us.

But then Razor looked at Blizzard Bash. He had stopped shooting at him. The pegasus had special ponyshoes that allowed him a firm grasp on the bow, as earth ponies’ to their swords, and on the right hoof, it had a small indentation to place the arrow and pull the string. After not quite grasping how he could release his grip on the arrows like that, he noticed that the arrow placed into the string was now glowing on its head in a gently blue. Suddenly, Blizzard Bash shot upwards.

“Are you an idiot?” Razor had asked.

“I’m gonna kill you all!” was the answer that Blizzard Bash gave him.

Tired of playing with him, Razor just dragged his arrow and shot, right between Blizzard Bash’s eyes. “Not while you’re dead,” Razor added to the falling corpse.

Razor then landed, but before anyone could say anything, a rather large ice rock hit the ground, missing Razor by mere inches. With everypony looking up, Azure Dreams quickly raised a fire shield and an earth shield just under it in case the fire one wasn’t enough. Everyone could hear the huge ice stones that came from the hot clean sky smashing against the earth shield…

“Hey… Azure…” Razor called from his tree branch. Upon receiving the glare of their Warlock, he continued, “Is there anyway a pegasus can use magic?”

“It’s utterly impossible, Razor,” she answered. “Other than flight and weather magic, pegasi are as much magical creatures as earth ponies.”

“Are you thinking it was that pegasus' doing?” Selena asked after gulping down another mouse. “Don’t be silly, Razor! That would imply that griffins also can do that! And if that is true, you would have already learned something from the Queen!”

“The last arrow he shot was shining. It wasn’t when he brought it up, I am sure of that. He shot it up and then a few moments later a hail is falling over us…”

“Are you sure of that, Razor?” Sandstorm asked.

“I’m not, and that scares me,” Razor answered. “If I am seeing things, it means my vision is failing…” not even folding his wings back, he took his bow, an arrow, placed it on the string, took barely any aim at all and released. The poor squirrel never knew what hit him, staying pinned against the tree behind it, the arrow piercing precisely through its heart. “No… it’s not… It was a hallucination by the heat?”

“We should go back now,” Selena said with a smile, sending a pegasus, the one once called Blizzard Bash, to fetch the squirrel Razor just killed. “If anyone can help in this matter, it’s the Queen. Let’s report it to her and hear what she thinks of it.”

***

“They are still the best champions ever summoned,” said a deep female voice, resonating far from the battle, in the middle of a desert, inside an old temple. She was a large griffin completely green in color, but slightly translucent. She ‘wears’ (since it was also translucent and in the same shade of green, it didn’t mean much to wear anything) what was a typical ranger’s armor, hardened leather suit to help in defense, but would not weight too much and also wouldn’t stop her from having her mobility to shoot. “After they get corrupted, no other champion we summon can deal with them…”

“We surely made a mistake with those six,” another voice, this time an orange pony-shaped translucent being with slightly darker stripes all over her body, a zebra, and with translucent lighter orange ornaments, like rings along her neck and forelegs, earrings and a huge tribal mask on her back, where a spear was also held. “We shouldn’t have added Equestria in the mix…”

“Ah was always against this idea of ya six!” said a red translucent earth pony clad into a heavy-looking armor, also translucent and in the same shade of red. On his back was a heavy-looking weapon, a two edged axe adapted to fit into a pony’s hooves. “It’s our fight! Outsiders should stay outside! But anypony hear me? Oh no… they don’t!”

“It’s not time to discuss whom to blame, my brother,” another translucent being, this time wearing a robe that only left her forelegs out, which were covered in a long glove with two orbs imbedded on it. She was a blue hippogriff and looked around the others in the room. “But if we should keep trying or break the laws we’ve imposed ourselves,”

“The law has an escape route which we haven’t yet reached,” this time it was a pegasus, a translucent purple being wearing a hooded mantle with the hood pulled back. Her wings were covered by special added clothing above from where the wing holes were found. “We must give it one more try. The walls are filled with champions chosen from Equestria to fight this cause. The law is clear: when there’s no more space, we are allowed to intervene directly.”

The last one in the room gave out a sigh. A yellow, translucent unicorn, like all other beings in the room looked back at them all, this one clearly a male, “The time has come for the last summon. As the law dictates, if the chosen champions don’t succeed, we’ll act directly, but let’s hope we won’t need to do so, and to ensure that, we’ll not use only magic to summon them. We’ll scatter and look in Equestria for anyone that would qualify as our champions. After finding them, we’ll look into a way of summoning them.”

The six beings nodded and one by one, they disappeared as if they were made of smoke…

***

“Welcome to the world of Myakros, champion. Amongst many, you belong to a few bold ones which dare to face the dangers of a complete new world. Many before you have tried and failed. Do you think you have what it takes to face this adventure and save this, and all other worlds?”

“Yes, I do.”

“A brave warrior you are. Please, tell me your name.”

“My name is Sparking Thunder.”

“ I see… a name fit for a champion. Here, at Myakros, we have seven main tribes.

“Earth ponies: great physical strength and resistance, a great contact with the earth, but low in magic and knowledge. Most earth ponies are powerful knights.

“Pegasi: winged, extremely fast, great maneuverability and weather magic. Pegasi have average strength and magical power, but a rather low resistance, and are usually rogues.

“Unicorns: gifted with magic and knowledge, but with low physical strength and low speed. Unicorns more often join the magicians.

“Zebra: great knowledge, concentration and dexterity, zebras are balanced in both the art of fighting and the arts of mixing magic and herbs together.

“Griffins: winged half eagle and half lion creatures, very fast and even better at high-speed maneuvers. Keen vision and sharp talons, they often join hunters.

“Hippogriffs: cross between griffons and ponies, they can have different builds. Some are winged and others aren’t but both are gifted with magic normally related with healing.

“Changelings: pony-like insect creatures that can change form at will within certain limitations. Very little is known about them, changelings mostly live secretly between other tribes.

“In which of the tribes were you born? ”

After listening carefully to each of the tribes, Sparking Thunder made his choice, “Griffin.”

“So you’re a griffin called Sparking Thunder, very interesting. Besides your tribe, in Myakros you have to decide on a class you’ll join. There’s a total of six class for you to choose from.”

“The Archers learns the way of Keura, Goddess of Hunters. Their bow and arrows are deadly and they also scouts the land and are the best guides to cross the wilderness.

“The Knights are sturdy followers of Horgen, God of Battles. More skilled in using medium to heavy blades, most of them are extremely physically resistant and wield deadly force.

“The Mages are dedicated students of Shivon, God of Magic. Knowers of powerful spells, they can do massive damage from afar and cause all sorts of afflictions on their enemies.

“The Clerics devote their lives to the teachings of Irilka, Goddess of Healing. They are great with regenerative and support magic, and hold a mastery of martial arts.

“The Botanists follow Lenya, Goddess of Life. Their strength lies in brewing potions and enchanting weapons and armors, even though they are very good around a spear.

“The Rogues are followers of Ternatta, Goddess of Travelers. They are fast and stealthy, preferring to use shorter and lighter, but even so deadly, weapons.

“Which class do you wish to join? ”

He was ready to answer immediately, “Archer!”

“So you’re Sparking Thunder, an archer griffin dedicated to the teachings of Keura. Your hometown is called Austarak, a city of griffins at the heart of the deadly Austarak Forest. Austarak is the more developed griffon city and is home to the biggest of all Keura’s temples. The forest around the city provides hunting and nourishment not only for Austarak’s inhabitants, but is the most source of meat to the tribes that don’t feed exclusively on vegetables.

“Along with the largest of Keura’s Temples, Austarak also holds the main training grounds for Keura’s teachings. The clan, dedicated to Goddess Keura that teaches all the tribes in the way of archery, has grown within the city’s heart, just at the side of the Goddess temple. Other clans also have their space in Austarak, as is tradition between all the tribes, though they’re not as developed as other tribes.

…

Why don’t you return to your city? Let’s see how much it has grown over the years you have left!

And then Sparking Thunder’s vision was completely taken by a sudden flash.

Author's Note

FINALLY! This very first chapter has been read, edited, refined, altered, changed, modified, ripped apart, destroyed, burned, glued together and revised.

And FINALLY it's just up and about! hope you like it, guys! ^^

02 - Keura Rangers

Sparking Thunder raised his head, looking around. He didn’t remember why he had a headache or why everything seemed so… strange. Colors and lights were brighter, smells were stronger, and the gentle, cool breeze that slowly passed through his feathers felt, somehow, different.

When he was a bit more lucid, he began to notice small things. There was a cool refreshing breeze… but he remembered they were in winter. The breeze blowing slowly through his feathers wasn’t only on his wings, but all over his head and chest. He positioned his hooves so he could get up, only to feel them part in four at the contact. Looking at his hooves, he had instead found four sharp-looking talons at the end of his bird-like fore-legs.

Looking around the room, he noticed it wasn’t his: a wooden room not very large, enough for a bed, a wardrobe and a small table at the center, but still large enough for him to stretch his wings, or so he hoped. Looking at the window at one side of the room, Sparking Thunder noticed it was opened and was ample; there was a door that took up the span of the wall, allowing him to reach the balcony. Careful not to stumble on his own new body, Thunder walked to the balcony to take a look around.

The city wasn’t one he knew. Mostly wooden houses and buildings with plenty of griffins walking here and there, but a few other races also appeared once and again. He then noticed that his vision was a lot keener than before, enabling him to notice details he wouldn’t normally, like how many ponies walked around with armor and weapons strapped on their backs.

Stretching his wings, he noticed he had full control over it without problems, but instead of taking off, he folded back his wings and walked back inside. Inspecting the wardrobe, Sparking Thunder found what he wanted: a mirror that would show him his full figure. What looked back at him was a tall male griffin with white feathers on his face and chest except for the golden yellow ones under his eyes and from the top of his beak’s base up. Remembering that griffins don’t have cutie marks, he wondered if those feathers would be the reminder of his.

Talking about his cutie mark, he decided to finish looking himself over. His lion back body had a gold coat and supported his long wings as well as his wildly moving tail. Just to be sure, he gazed at his strong lion flanks and, much to his surprise, there were the three thunders that had appeared on his flank after his first attempt at weather magic.

After he blinked a couple times out of the surprise, he looked inside the wardrobe, but it was utterly empty. Not surprising exactly, but he still waited on something for him there. Besides he preferred to walk around nude, like most other ponies, he preferred having a choice to go nude or clothing as he saw fit.

Shaking his head, he decided to look for somepony to help him sort out what had happened there. Before he could reach it though, someone opened the door. A female griffin stood in front of him, white feathers on her head and chest, but for the red halos around her eyes. The side of her beak had a rather large scar that continued until half way under her right eye. Some of the plumes from her forehead were carefully pointed backwards, giving her an appearance a bit frightening. And it didn’t help that her lion back torso was strong and powerful and also sustained a few scars, almost hidden under her mud-brown coat. She was clothed in a garment that was mostly a hardened leather armor specially designed to let the wings of the griffins free and a bow resting on her back, with a quiver of arrows strapped to her left side.

“Finally you’re awake.” the unknown griffin had said as soon as the door opened. For some reason, Thunder couldn’t take his gaze away from the griffin’s blue eyes. “That’s good. Where are you from?”

“What?” Thunder asked in confusion.

“With so many griffins it had to be a deaf one…” she whispered to herself, even if Sparking Thunder’s keen hearing allowed him to listen. “Let’s try again. My name is Karyn Feathercrown, lead Instructor of this facility. And what’s your name?”

“I’m Sparking Thunder, sir!” he answered.

“Sparking Thunder… That’s a pony name, isn’t it?” she asked.

Wow… no game ever had such great interaction systems… he thought. “Yes, ma’am, it is. I was raised in a pony village since I can remember, so I received a pony name.”

“Whatever. Around here, Sparky, better you call yourself Thunder,” that got a lot of Sparking Thunder’s curiosity. How they made an NPC able to create nicknames? It was amazing! The degree of interaction the NPC’s managed to have there in this game! And allied with his magical headset’s virtual reality, this world could not be more real to him! “Now we should get going. We need you to have a bow and some arrows so you can get started. Also, we need to give you some guide about our world before you can be left by yourself.”

“I’m up to it, Ma’am!”

“Good. By the way, what's your experience with bows and arrows?” she asked seriously.

“I… never shot an arrow in my life…” Thunder answered nervously.

Not seeming to be much surprised, she only nodded, “So we should start your training now if you’re going to be of any use. Follow me.”

Karyn then headed outside the room. Thunder quickly followed her with a smile. He wondered for an instant if she wasn’t another of the players testing this expansion of the game. His vision then, focused on the graphics. The flanks of the griffin in front of him swinging from one side to another, those muscles working as she just walked around… He just loved this game!

They walked for about a minute when she stopped in front of a door. “This is the armory,” Karyn started and opened the door to reveal a few pegasi and many griffins busy working inside. “In there, we craft the best ranger suits of all Myakros, as well as the best bows known.”

She entered the armory as Thunder looked around. The pegasi there were working more on organizing everything while it was the griffin that did most of the craftsmanship. Thunder stopped at Karyn’s side by the counter.

“Hi there, Karyn, so this is the new guy sent to join our forces?” asked a strong male griffin. He didn’t wear a ranger suit, neither had a bow. In his white face, though, he had two red stripes bellow his eyes and a few feathers spiked above his head.

“Yes. This is Thunder. He’ll need to be instructed from the very start. As we guessed, we couldn’t truly trust in receiving an army of useful warriors. Bring something simple for his training and take measurements. Start preparing a basic ranger suit for him to get some protection,” then turning to Thunder, Karyn said, “This is Baldok Grimclaw, Sparky. He’s the best at crafting both ranger suits and bows, so you should be proud in getting armor from him.”

Thunder nodded and bowed to Baldok. “Thank you, sir!” he said.

“Sparky, eh? Don’t let any more griffins know that nickname or it would be hell for you,” Baldok chuckled. Then, the bulky griffin took from under the counter a simple wooden bow and a quiver with ten arrows. “Here, I guess it’s enough to start your training.”

Karyn raised an eyebrow. “Are we in shortage of arrows?” she asked.

“No, we’re not.”

“You, damn chicken, gave me two full quivers and said I was to return when those were gone… And you say he’s set with ten arrows?” she looked a bit more angry.

“You keep forgetting that I’ve learned to see more than just the body and the determination. I see the potential of this little fella. He’ll do fine by his tenth shot.”

“Thank you, sir!” Thunder nodded and took the arrows, bow, and the quiver, strapping them properly on his body.

With a small snort, Karyn turned to Thunder, “Come on, Sparky. Let’s see this ‘potential’ of yours.” He only nodded and followed her.

Their next stop was the training grounds. Thunder quickly noticed the differences between all tribes, and yes, there were ponies of all tribes. Hippogriffs and griffins didn’t have any problems due to their talons. Ponies and zebras though had a major problem. They had to use special horseshoes that allowed them to grip the bow and hold the arrow. But he quickly noticed that none of them had ranger suits, so they should be at his level.

Karyn though made Thunder stop as she talked with another instructor. Suddenly there was laughter before Karyn cut it short. She seemed to agree with something that instructor said before both of them turned their attention to him. This new instructor was also female and had a strong build. Thunder noticed that her right foreleg was badly hurt and she had no way to shoot anymore.

“Hey you, new guy!” she called his attention. “I was told…” Thunder noticed her eyes focusing on his flank. He got a bit embarrassed but stood still. “Is that a fucking cutie mark?”

“Yes, ma’am! I have come from Equestria, where I am truly a pegasus, ma’am!”

The two griffins cast a glance at each other. Then turned to him, “That’s not important right now, but we’ll discuss about that later,” the new instructor told him. “Karyn said you only received ten arrows from Baldok and that you had never shot before in your life. Well, my name is Garuna Razorwings and I was instructor back at time when Karyn here was an egg. You’ll find out that my training is hard and not something you’ll enjoy much if you’re not into giving your damn best. See those targets? For you to be qualified, your last, or better, only ten shots must sum at least four hundred fifty points. The black area is worth ten points, the blue twenty, the green thirty, the red fifty, and the center is one hundred points. If you miss the target, it’s minus twenty points.

“To shoot arrows, the easiest ways is to be flying or to use your wings as back weight. I guess that the flying way is an easy enough concept, let’s try the back weight,” Garuna said. “Raise on your hindlegs, open your wings to balance yourself, aim and shoot. Like this…”

Karyn then took the signal and rose on her hindlegs and stiffened her wings back of her. Pulling her bow, much better looking than his, she took out an arrow and slowly placed it on the bow’s string. Pulling the arrow three times and relaxing, she first took aim and then pulled the string to its fullest. The wooden bow made a nice curve as the string was tensed and the arrow pointed towards the targets. As she let it loose, the arrow traveled through the air very quickly and found its home on the red area of the target. A pegasus then went to the target and took off the arrow before the next shot would be fired.

Thunder was looking with appreciation. All those hours spent playing the Kinect system would finally be worth it! He assumed his position and, as Karyn did, he got on his hindlegs, opened his wings, brought down his bow and took off an arrow. His eyes then focused on the bow: somehow, he knew something was wrong. He did as Karyn did, and on the third pull, he could swear he heard a small crack. Replacing the arrow on the quiver, he placed a paw on the ground and presented his bow to Karyn. “I heard it crack,” Thunder said.

Raising an eyebrow, Karyn took the bow and pulled it one time. Then she noticed that he was right, there was a small cracking sound. “Some brute student must have pulled it too hard,” she said. “Garuna, find a bow for him while I go have a talk with Baldok about lending a broken bow to an apprentice.” After that, Karyn left them alone.

Garuna nodded, turning around and grabbing an unused bow laying there. Lending it to Thunder, she asked, “Are you sure you never shot before?”

Thunder prepared himself and again tested the bow. This time he was sure that it was alright. “Yes, this will be my very first shot…” he said as he readied the arrow.

“You seem confident.”

“If I miss, I only have to try again, right?” he said with a smile and pulled the arrow. The string tensed and the wooden bow curved nicely. “And besides… I’ve always dreamed about shooting a true bow…”

Surprised by his confidence in talking and shooting at same time, Garuna didn't even notice when he let the arrow loose. Looking at the target, her eyes widened even more: a hundred points first try!

“How did you--” Garuna looked at him and Thunder just chuckled.

Preparing another arrow, he took aim and released. The arrow missed the target by a few centimeters. “Dammit!” he cursed. However, the smile never left his face. “Well… at Equestria I had a few play bows and arrows. I loved shooting with them…” he explained as he readied another arrow. “The real thing is very different, but it’s also awfully familiar…” another arrow left his bow, hitting at the edge of the green area, almost on the red. “But it was a lot harder to shoot without talons. This is a great help, you know?”

A couple minutes later, Karyn returned. Looking at Thunder’s quiver, she noticed it was full with arrows and Garuna was now instructing more closely about techniques of handling the bow.

“What are you two doing?” Karyn asked as she approached them.

“Training of course,” Garuna answered simply.

Karyn shook her head, “Only after he reaches the minimum required with ten shots.”

“Four hundred sixty,” Garuna informed.

Karyn only raised her eyebrow, “You’re kidding me, right?” She then noticed the next arrow hit the red area of the target.

“He scored three bull’s-eyes among the ten shots.” Garuna managed to receive a raised eyebrow from Karyn. “And I assure you I didn’t help at all.”

Upon hearing that, Karyn returned her gaze at him and watched. Thunder relaxed, slowly placed the arrow on the string, and took aim. Karyn noticed that he breathed deeply again, and again. With his next breath, he held and released the arrow. Managing to surprise both instructors once again, Thunder hit the center of the target with another arrow.

Karyn looked at him wide-eyed, “No way that you managed to do that with only ten arrows! Most other cadets work months to do that, even a few work days is hard to manage!”

“Well… Baldok did say I had potential…” Thunder answered with a grin. “Well… what’s next?”

Karyn looked at Garuna. She only laughed at that. “Know what, boy? You remind me of a pegasus archer I trained a few years ago,” Garuna said with a smile. “Karyn was still an explorer back then. He didn’t managed what you did, but even so he all but smashed all the records that we had. He even learned a few tricks of his own that we’re still trying to understand…”

“Oh really? And what was his name?” Thunder asked.

“Blizzard Bash, known as the Blizzard Archer,” Garuna answered. Suddenly, Thunder’s eyes widened. “He was ferocious. Always heading to the next class until he was completely out of our grasp…”

Karyn, though, noticed Thunder’s expression and said, “Sorry, Garuna, but Sparky here has more training to do.” She then gave a small yank at Thunder’s tail. Brought back with a quick yelp, Thunder turned and followed Karyn. After they entered the door, Karyn said, “You know him.” And that wasn’t a question.

“Not exactly, but yes, I have heard of him back at Equestria…” Thunder admitted. “About a year back, there were six foals that mysteriously disappeared… One of them was a pegasus colt called Blizzard Bash…”

“That’s too much of a coincidence?” Karyn asked.

“Just too much…” Thunder agreed. “Only strange thing is that Garuna called it a ‘few years back’…”

“Your demeanor changed,” Karyn commented. “Before you seemed to be having fun, now you’re more worried. What happened?”

“Look… I’m just a sixteen year old pegasus colt where I live. Here, it seems I’ve turned into a prodigy sixteen-year-old archer griffin, but that’s not what I truly am,” Thunder answered. “If what happened to Blizzard Bash also happened to me… That is, considering it was the same Blizzard Bash we’re talking about to start with!”

“Your next lesson is with another tutor, it’s one thing I never truly mastered and I don’t see much of the reason for that. While you’re at it, I’ll try digging into some information to tell you if it’s something for you to worry about or not. But while it’s still unknown, better not hang onto the worst scenario you're thinking of."

Thunder nodded. When they stopped walking, he was again at Baldok’s door and Karyn rushed him inside. “Don’t you get tired of being right?” Karyn asked as they entered.

“Ha! That’s what you get by not believing my words. So, perfect score?”

“Just 460. Not as much as you guessed, I take it?” Karyn said with a smile.

“He’s still over two hundred points the usual newbies and ten points over the admission rate, so he’s just as high as I guessed, just not as much as I wanted,” the bulky griffon answered with a chuckle. Getting around his counter, Thunder could then see him fully and finally understand what a strong griffin is. Damn! His muscles were showing under his fur and those talons were really sharp! “Stiffen those wings chick. Let’s get a few measurements so I can start on your ranger suit.”

Following his order, Thunder looked at him curiously, “But I have no money…”

“Don’t worry about that!” Baldok answered back with a large smile. Mostly using his own vision, occasionally a tape for more precise parts, the old griffin never stopped conversation. “So, what it is like in where you came from?”

“Mostly, Equestria is a peaceful land. It has been like that for over a thousand years, since when Princess Twilight Sparkle officially moved to Canterlot Castle and ruled alongside Princess Luna and Princess Celestia…” Thunder answered.

“Equestria, eh? Hmmm… a peaceful land… I dream about that every day,” Baldok said. “Since that damn necromancer took power we don’t know what peace is.”

“Necromancer?” Thunder asked a little puzzled.

“A dark wizard that uses a horde of dead and demonic monsters to attack us,” Karyn answered. “We’re waiting for someone to defeat him, but so far not one ever appeared, as you can guess…”

Thunder looked at Baldok that was now measuring his wings, “And don’t you have someone fighting that necromancer as yet?”

“The Irilka Sages almost declared war on the necromancer already. But mostly all six clans fight the necromancer’s forces whenever we can.”

“All six clans?” Thunder asked.

“What’s this, Thunder? You have a cutie mark?”

“Long history, Baldok, and I would like if you focused just on the measurements, please,” Karyn said. Turning to Thunder, she continued, “The six clans are Keura Rangers, Horgen Paladins, Shivon Warlocks, Irilka Sages, Lenya’s Shamans, and Ternatta Ninjas. Each clan follow the teachings of one of our gods and, for that, they receive their names. We, the Keura Rangers, follow the teaching of the Goddess of Hunters. She provides us the meat that feed both griffins and hippogriffs.”

“Each clan is responsible to teach its members their trades without discrimination,” Baldok continued, measuring now the tail of Thunder. “You must have noticed we have zebras and earth ponies training In our facilities. Because they want to follow the teachings of Keura, and if that’s their wish, it’s up to them or the goddess to say when they have to stop.” Recollecting the tap, Baldok gave a slap on Thunder’s flank, “Tomorrow morning your suit will be ready.”

“Thank you,” Thunder said, looking then to Karyn. Then he took his bow and handed it to Baldok. “There… I’m done with it.”

The bulky griffin just smiled, “I’ll have something better for your first hunt tomorrow morning. See ya, guy!”

Thunder nodded and followed Karyn outside the room. Again on the corridors, Thunder asked, “Hunting?”

“You will learn the teachings of the Goddess of Hunters. One part of that is learning how to hunt. And pony or not at your Equestria, here you are a griffin, and griffins need meat as much as they need vegetables, or even more. Haven’t you noticed that you’re a mix between lion and eagle? Both of them are carnivorous…”

Thunder got a bit worried now, “And… how does meat taste?”

“Like meat. Sorry guy, only way to know is trying it," she answered.

“I was afraid you would say that…”

They walked a bit more in silence until Karyn stopped at the door, “This is your next instructor’s room. I won’t enter, or else she will talk me into trying this again and as I said, I never understood where an archer could use these teachings…”

With that, Thunder nodded and entered alone. The room was illumined by a single blue gem on the roof, he noticed. The windows were closed and, as soon as he entered, the door closed behind him. After no sunlight entered the room, he could see something different in the air. There were about twenty ponies there meditating, and all of them had a small smoke-like thin cloak around their bodies.

One griffin turned her head and looked at him. She had a soft expression and beautiful color of feathers in line that started under her eyes and turned up after leaving their range. Thunder judged the feathers to be pink, but at the blue light, it was rather hard to guess.

“Be welcome, young apprentice,” she almost sang at him. “Come and take a seat near me. I’ll be teaching you about the power that lies within your soul, the power we call essence.”

Curious, Thunder took a seat close to the griffin, “Is this power the source of that smoke around their bodies?”

Uncomfortably, Thunder felt a few eyes focus on him. The griffin though just said, “He seems to be a bit more gifted. That’s no reason for being angry at him.” She turned at him again, “It’s not easy to see the essence of other ponies, young one. Your sensibility is higher than usual for you to do that without any prior training. My name is Hira Hawkeye, by the way.”

“I am… Thunder,” he answered.

After a long and slow nod, Hira grinned and said, “Well, Thunder, shall we start?” After he sat and nodded, she continued, “The essence is basically when you focus your inner power to enable amazing results. Different from magic, it can be used by anyone and it’s often unconsciously. Griffins and pegasi use their essence to enable their flying, for example, while unicorns and hippogriffs are always converting their essence into magic. Earth ponies uses theirs to intensify their strength, speed and other aspects and zebras often use it to enhance their charms and brews. Of course, these are examples as how the tribes more often use their essence, not the utter truth of the essence.”

“Is… this real?”

“You tell me,” he looked at her puzzled. Only then Thunder noticed that she was actually floating a few inches above the ground with her wings folded. His eyes widened.

“Wow! This is incredible!”

She just gave him a smile. “I will be teaching you to reach your essence and easily manipulate it. But essence isn’t as simple as that. Essence users have to focus their essence in some way, and that focus varies from pony to pony,” nodding, Thunder waited for the next instruction. “Close your eyes. I need you to remember your past, look for any moment you had used your essence before, flying is the easiest to griffins. Hold the sensations of that moment, focus and try to feel the part of you that your essence is flowing stronger, as in the wings.”

Keeping his wings folded, Thunder focused the most as he could. Remembering how happy he was the first time he flew by his own. He held those moments and he remembered how his wings felt. They were open; the wind was passing through the feathers, the pressure both above and under the wings… Trying to remember something else, he imagined he was flying now, even if with the wings closed. He felt the flight magic warming his wings and focused on that sensation. He had always been told it was magic, but… if that was essence? He focused on that warmth, trying to isolate it from the flying imagination. Suddenly it began to spread from his wings to his back, then to his belly and neck, through his legs, talons, even the tail he could feel. There was special warmth around his flank, on his cutie mark especially. The three crossed thunders seemed to draw more of this, if it was essence.

“Are the essence and the ponies' cutie marks related somehow?” he asked, holding that feeling.

“Yes, Thunder,” Hira answered. “They’re related in the most intimate of ways. The cutie marks only appear after they find their true vocation and as such, they are part of who they are, their essence. That’s why each cutie mark is unique, because each pony has a proper and personal essence.”

“I feel… warm… as if there was lukewarm water flowing within me…” he said.

“This is your first lesson, Thunder. Learn to feel this flux. That’s what the first class is about, so just focus on this warm sensation. Learn to call this sensation as easily as you can. Do not try anything more than that for now.”

Thunder just kept easing himself up and focusing on his essence. Meditating, he never felt the time passing by, only when a few talons touched his shoulders. Slowly opening his eyes, he met Hira’s face and she had a large smile.

“I guess your first lesson is finished already,” she said with a smile. “Now you should go and have something to eat. It’s almost midday.”

Getting up, Thunder looked at Hira, “And where is the mess room?”

“I’m headed there myself,” Hira answered, walking towards the door. Thunder just nodded with a smile, following her.

“So… what else could somepony do with their essence?” Thunder asked curiously.

“As I explained to you, the essence is the truth behind everybody,” Hira answered. “If that person’s goal is to be the fastest, the essence will grant that, if it’s strength, then no one else will match that one body’s power. Some persons even focus their essence in their common senses, increasing their perception to even foresee events in the near future.”

“Wow…” Thunder looked rather impressed. “Let’s say someone’s talent is magic… how would the essence work?”

“That pony would have an absurd magic power, both in amount of essence converted into magic and the degree of manipulation.”

“There are no limits known for essence?”

“No, there isn’t. However, your essence is deeply integrated in your body and mind. It’s impossible for you to fake your true nature to yourself, so if you’re supposed to be the fastest pony, no matter how hard work you try, your essence will never build up strength, because you know deep in your heart that your talent is speed, not strength.”

“I see…” Thunder nodded. “It’s not the essence that is limited, but it’s us. A pony that really believes in being the strongest pony will be able to build strength…”

“Exact,” Hira said with a smile. She then opened a room that Thunder quickly noticed being the mess room.

Plenty of tables and seats were placed all around. Lots of ponies were there to service them, offering all kinds of foods and refreshments. Thunder quickly noticed that mostly persons gathered with their own tribes, even if there were some groups scattered around that had multiple tribes. He quickly placed himself in the line to get something to eat.

Looking ahead the line, Thunder was behind a gorgeous female griffin with white body and an equally feathered head with golden feathers pointing up, creating the illusion of a feathery crown. He was appreciating her so much that he only noticed someone talking to him when he was poked in the shoulder.

“Hey! You! Will you have mice or fish today?” a male griffin asked behind the counter.

The cutie female chuckled and answered for him, “Place a large fish in his plate, please?” She then touched under his beak with her lion-tail.

“Yeah… fish is fine…” Thunder answered, and received a chuckle from the male griffin. Following the line, he also placed a nice amount of vegetables and decided for an orange juice for lunch.

“Never knew a griffin to eat this much salad,” she said with a gentle grin. “Care to join me?”

“I would love to,” he answered with a smile. “I am…” about to say his full name, he remembered Karyn’s advice. “I am Thunder. I’m new around here so I’m still learning…”

“My name is Karmyl. I saw you shooting at the range,” she said with a smile as she walked at his side to an empty table. “How much prior training did you have before joining us?”

“None, actually,” Thunder answered as they sat down on a table. “I hadn't shot a single arrow in all my life… only a few toy ones…”

“You managed that on your first try?” Karmyl expression showed how shocked she was with that. “Wow… It took me like two months to reach that score…”

“I guess I got lucky…” he said with a smile.

“Don’t be modest. I was there watching you,” she remembered him with a smile. That thought made him blush. “You had the breathing technique, your position wasn’t perfect, but was nice enough, and your aiming was great. You only have to learn a bit more technique and you will be a Hunter like me in no time.”

“But I don’t need to be a hunter. I have to leave and find my friends.”

“So you’re going to travel? I would like to join you,” she said with a warm smile. “I’ve been training to be a guide all my life.”

“Didn’t you say that you’re a hunter?” Thunder asked puzzled.

Karmyl chuckled at that. “No, silly,” she said. “Here, into Keura Rangers, we have mainly three qualifications in hierarchy: Archers, Hunters and Rangers; from the lowest to the highest. When you receive your suit and your first bow, you’re entitled as an Archer.

“After hard work and some probation, you can advance for the title of Hunter. And, if you’re brave enough and capable, you can try joining the Rangers. They’re the best around and their voice has the highest weight into decisions concerning the Keura’s Rangers.”

“I see…” Thunder said.

“Besides I don’t know their hierarchy, all other clans had similar build, I’m sure,” Karmyl said with a smile.

“And where can I find those other clans?”

“Well, as you already know, the Keura’s Rangers live in Austarak city, at southwest of the capital,” she said with a smile. “Horgen’s Paladins lives in the frozen lands at north, in a city called Cryzal; Ternatta’s Ninjas are settled into southeast, at Keokora city, surrounded by the Kora Desert; Shivon’s Warlocks took living in the mountains in a city called Shikan, at northwest; at northeast, Lenya’s Shamans build up Urarta city into Ura swamp. Oh, and of course there are the Irilka’s Sages at the capital, Teonat.”

“So, there you are!” Thunder heard Karyn talking to him. “Having fun already, Sparky?”

Turning to Karyn, he quickly noticed that she was going to sit with them. “I’m in my lunch break, right? It’s not time for training, is it?”

“Don’t you worry, chick,” she said with a smile. “And about you, missy, how are you doing?”

“Pretty well, actually… That bite in my wing doesn’t hurt anymore and the doctor said there’s no lasting damage, mom,” Karmyl answered.

“Good.”

Thunder looked at Karmyl wide-eyed, “You said… Mom?”

03 - Family Ties

Thunder still refused to believe his ears (now that he thought of it… griffins have ears?). Karmyl, that gorgeous and gentle-looking female griffin was Karyn’s daughter? Well… not that Karyn was to be called ugly; no… she was beautiful indeed. But… but Karmyl was… she was a princess!

“What, Thunder?” Karyn asked looking at him. “Is there a problem with her being my daughter?”

“NO! No… It’s just that she seems so… delicate…” Thunder quickly tapped his beak with his talons before saying anything else.

Karyn raised an eyebrow in mocking anger. “Yeah… please continue…” she said looking at Thunder.

Karmyl just chuckled then. “Stop that, mom. He’s getting nervous. It’s just because you’re his master. It’s always hard for a student to learn their masters can have a family.”

Thunder just nodded, trying to have an easy escape from this. “Yes, sorry… it was just a bit of a shock…” and to avoid saying anything more to put him in a dangerous situation, he just took the fork in his talons and took an amount of salad with a piece of fish down his beak.

Karyn gave him a smile, “Tell me, Sparky… How does fish taste?”

He was looking at Karyn curiously when the fish touched his tongue. Thunder’s eyes widened suddenly and he looked at the fish in his plate. No way could it be that tasteful! Thunder couldn’t even choose his words to say how it tasted! All he did though was eat with gusto from his plate.

Karyn chuckled at the sight as Karmyl looked at her puzzled, “Am I missing something, mom?”

“I guess you are, dear,” Karyn said with a smile, “Thunder here is our reinforcement. He claims to be from somewhere called ‘Equestria’ where he is a pegasus and by means beyond my comprehension was changed into a griffin when coming there.”

The other two griffins also started to eat by now. Thunder just nodded, looking at Karmyl, “Back at Equestria I was studying weather magic in a city called Cloudsdale. I was going to be one of the weather patrol ponies of my birth town, Ponyville, and my parents wanted me to have the best education on weather magic and weather control.”

“But I thought that pegasi couldn’t use magic…” Karmyl half asked.

“Weather magic isn’t exactly like unicorn magic. Don’t you have weather patrol teams here?” he asked a bit surprised. Karmyl and Karyn both gave a headshake, Thunder decided to explain with a bit of pride in his voice. “You must at least know that, while compared to birds, both pegasi and griffins’ wings are far too small and weak to lift our bodies. There’s where the flying magic comes in…” he then opened his wings a bit, so he wouldn’t hit anypony. “It’s a natural magic that both pegasi and griffins have and know how to use by instinct. Another magic inherited by instinct is the weather magic: pegasi and griffins can touch and manipulate clouds with their bare hooves or talons.”

Karmyl gave a quick glance at her talons holding a metal fork. Thunder continued, “Thanks to that magic, we can hold, compress, open and even walk, sit and sleep in the clouds. And hear me when I say… a cloud mattress is unmatched to any other. It's the best for us, winged beings, to sleep on. If you happen to have stiff wings, they won’t wake you up in discomfort.”

“I didn’t know griffins could do that,” Karyn said surprised. “I mean… if we can, we could create villages above the clouds and avoid most of our enemies’ attacks.”

“But think about your non-flying friends for a bit, Karyn,” Thunder said pointing around. “How would they get up there? If you had some griffin to take them up, your enemies would figure it out and if you used some kind of transport, they would see it flying from miles way. Griffin and pegasi would not have a problem, but haven’t you told me that it’s only the goddess and each pony by themselves that can decide when they stop learning? If you move the whole city up towards the clouds, many of them will have no choice but to stop their learning.”

“And all of Equestria has weather patrol teams?” Karmyl asked with wonder in her voice.

“Yes,” Thunder said with a smile. “Well… almost. Some towns are still too small to afford a full weather patrol team. And while in subject, for ten years running, Ponyville’s weather patrol team received the title of the best weather patrol in all of Equestria!”

“Sounds impressive,” Karyn agreed with a smile. “So you were going to join them?”

“Nah….like everyone else, I started from the low ranks, with something rather simple… I didn't actually join the main teams straight away,” Thunder answered. “But I was aiming to do that someday. And there I’m no different! Before I return to Equestria, I pretend to be on the top ten of all the Keura Rangers!”

“You don’t aim small, do you, chick?” Karyn chuckled. “But that’s the spirit. Don’t let anyone put you down, Sparky.”

“And about your parents, Thunder?” Karmyl asked. “What can you say about them?”

Thunder had a smile from ear to ear, or whatever equivalent griffins used, when he was asked that, “They are the most loving parents of all Equestria! My father is actually the leader of Ponyville’s weather patrol and he always, made sure it would be a sunny day on my birthdays and whenever I had some special celebration.

“And whenever he couldn’t be present, my mother was there for me. She wasn’t as good with weather magic as my father, but she is the descendent of one of the most important mares of all Equestria, she’s a descendent of Fluttershy, bearer of the Element of Kindness.”

“Element of Kindness?” Karmyl and Karyn looked puzzled at Thunder.

“Yeah. The Elements of Harmony were six magic gems that held the power of the ponies’ main virtues: loyalty, kindness, laughter, honesty, generosity and magic. They were so powerful that they could imprison Discord in stone for over a thousand years!”

“Imprison… Discord? No way!” Karyn said not exactly surprised, mostly just unbelieving what she heard. What puzzled Thunder, though, was that they knew about Discord at all. “Keura and our other gods tried that with all their might and they didn't manage that in ten thousand years until Discord fled!”

Then it was Thunder which looked at them puzzled, “Now would you care to tell me about how you know Discord?”

“Well… It’s not only Discord…” Karmyl decided to answer that. “We have a total of thirteen gods and goddesses. Six of them you already know, they are the creators of the six grand clans. Keura, Goddess of Hunters; Horgen, God of Battles; Shivon, God of Magic; Irilka, Goddess of Healing; Lenya, Goddess of Life; and Ternatta, Goddess of Travelers.”

“There are seven other gods though,” Karyn explained. Gyara, Goddess of Sun, and Deora, Goddess of Moon, are the main ones we venerate but for the six gods of clans, of course. Discord is also one of our gods, as you may know, the God of Chaos. The other four are Ilixia, Goddess of Knowledge; Rahirin, God of Agriculture; Nyaky, Goddess of Creation; and…”

Thunder noticed as Karyn trailed off. He made a quick mental count and there was still one missing, “Karyn… the last one is…?”

Karmyl looked at her mother and looked at Thunder, “My mother believes that calling his name announces your death. Many believe in that actually. He’s Keonte, the God of Death. That’s why many ponies don’t like calling his name. It’s said that Keonte had started his own clan, but we’re not sure. We are sure, though, that he has taught someone, as Keura and the others taught the original of all our clans.”

“Teaching of the God of Death?” Thunder looked somewhat puzzled.

“A forbidden kind of magic…” Karyn answered. “It’s called necromancy, the magic to control the dead, used once when priests and monks tried to restore life to people. It was then forbidden, banished and everypony that kept using it was sentenced to death without a second thought.”

“I guess I never heard about this necromancy magic…” Thunder commented.

“Not surprising. It has been banished for generations…” Karmyl said.

Thunder nodded, “I see… well, returning to the family subject… who’s Karmyl’s father may I know?”

Karyn just chuckled at that, “A bunch of bright feathers with a beak too big for his size. All talk no actions, but I was young and foolish and he was kinda cute. And I was drunk. I never again wanted to see him until I felt something strange. A few days later, I visited a Shaman and a Sage to be sure, but neither had ever been wrong in this matter before: I was pregnant. Then, when I wanted to find him, the bastard disappeared and I never heard from him. He probably doesn’t even know he has a daughter.”

“Oh… that must hurt…” Thunder commented.

“Well… I can’t really say it did,” Karmyl smiled. “After mom confirmed she was pregnant, she decided to make a living so both she and I could live comfortable, so she joined Keura Rangers. Since then, she met Baldok and he had been a father to me. Not my sire, but my father same way. Trying to mimic my mother’s strength and independence, I decided to enter Keura Rangers as well and I would do my best to protect our world.”

Thunder grinned, “The big guy? So you like it big, Karyn?” he chuckled.

“It was not me staring at flanks on the food line, Sparky,” Karyn counterattacked. “Or even after barely waking up in a completely unknown place. Before saying whatever you want, try being an example yourself.”

“Wait… you knew that?” Thunder blushed under his white fears.

“What kind of Ranger would I be if I didn’t know what was happening around me?” Karyn answered with a large smile. “Don’t worry, Sparky. Looking isn’t a problem. But if I see you ‘touching’, you will get lessons of shooting with pegasi, got it?”

Folding his wings back and curling a bit in fear, Thunder just nodded. Karmyl though chuckled at the scene. Karyn then got her plate and left.

“Mom likes you. A lot, by the way…” Karmyl said.

“What? Hello! She threatened cutting my talons!” Thunder reminded her.

“Yes, she threatened. If she didn’t like you, you would have already lost them.” Karmyl said casually, but with sincerity in her voice. “She has always been hard to deal with; after all she had to raise me alone. It’s a bit of an understatement that she’s a bit overprotective of me, but she'll also listen to what I want.”

“You love her dearly, don’t you?”

“She’s a good griffin, her heart is always in the right place,” Karmyl said. “She was just thrown around a lot through her life. Her mark is her will, though, never giving up. She can bend, but she never breaks, and she will always return stronger from it.”

Thunder gave a smile. “My mother is a lot softer than her. But from her side of family we inherited what is called the stare… Well… not all of us. Just the mares actually, and my mother was not an exception. When she stared at you with the stare, you got rooted to your place and simply couldn’t take your gaze away. Also you never think on what happens if you dare give her a ‘no’ during a stare. But beside it, she always did whatever we wanted and whenever we wanted it. More often than not, it was our father to place some limits on us.”

“But even being born in a family where you were that free to do whatever you wanted you decided to make something worth with your life?” Karmyl asked.

“In Equestria, being important doesn’t mean you’re rich,” Thunder answered. “My family is very simple and besides we had great freedom to do things, we normally didn’t have resources. That lead us to valorize every little thing we had, so my sisters and I decided to do something constructive with our lives. One of them followed the family’s tradition of animal care; the other became a mechanic and now lives in Cloudsdale with her husband. Last I heard they were already planning on a foal even.”

“And you were kinda of deprived of these choices, being summoned here to help us…”

“As I said, my family is from the line of a bearer of the Elements of Harmony. Back at her epoch, Fluttershy and her friends were called to solve the strangest problems all around Equestria!” Thunder said with a smile.

Karmyl chuckled with that, “Seems like you’re just living by your family’s standards then?”

“At least I can say that I had my share of crazy adventures. That is, if I ever manage to return home…”

“In due time we’ll find a way to send you back, Thunder, I promise,” Karmyl said with a smile.

Thunder nodded and smiled back at her.

“Tell me more about your sisters!” Karmyl grinned, just pushing her empty plate aside and placing her elbows on the table.

Doing the same, Thunder asked back, “What do you want to know of them?”

“How is it having sisters?”

“Well… At one side, it’s great because you've got ponies that you can trust both in getting you out of troubles or to help you create them,” Thunder chuckled. “There are fights of course, we’re still different ponies with different minds, but no matter how angry I am with them, or them with me, any of us would give our lives to protect each other. The downside, though, is that you have to share your toys…”

Karmyl chuckled at that last comment, “The advantage of being the only child, it seems. However, it sometimes feels lonely, like something is missing… even more when you don’t have a sire to look over you.”

“You had Baldok, right?”

“Having a true sire is completely different, Thunder,” Karmyl answered him. “I like Baldok a lot; he has done many things to help me grow like only a father would do. But there's still something missing. My sire is out there and he doesn't even know I exist…”

“Do you at least know his name?” Thunder asked.

“No… not even a photo to tell the truth… Only that he was the only griffin to ever lay with my mother in bed. She has been pretty much closed ever since.”

“Not that you can blame her after what happened…” Thunder said. He then took Karmyl’s talons on his own and grinned to her. “Know what, you promised to help me find a way back home, so I will promise something for you: I will find your sire and have him chat with you.”

“That’s very kind of you, Thunder, but you can’t just go around asking all and every griffin if they had an affair with my mother,” Karmyl said with a smile.

“Never said I would do that, but I will think of something…”

“So what else do you have to do today?” Karmyl asked.

“I guess it’s just more training, why?”

“Do you happen to know what training?” Karmyl said getting up. At Thunder’s headshake, she grinned. “Better stop by Baldok and get a bow and some arrows for you first. You’ll meet your instructor at the northern exit.”

With a nod, Thunder got up and they parted in different ways. Thunder quickly made his way to the armory looking for Baldok, and as it always seemed to be, he was there and working.

“Baldok… I need a bow and some arrows…” Thunder said as he approached the counter.

The efficient griffin just reached under the counter and brought a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

“Survival training, I guess?” the bulky griffin asked while Thunder donned all the straps.

“I don’t really know…” Thunder answered.

“Very big chances,” Baldok said with a smile. “I heard your instructor is known to break the weak.”

Thunder just chuckled, “So there will be a good battle for her to fight!”

“I don’t doubt it,” Baldok said with a chuckle.

Thunder then gave the older griffin a smile, “And also thank you for the bow.”

“You’re welcome, Thunder,” Baldok answered with a smile and saw Thunder leaving the room just after. As soon as he was out of the room, though, Karyn came out of a shelf in Baldok’s side of the counter.

“‘I heard your instructor is known to break the weak’?” Karyn asked.

“Better than saying she might have a crush on him,” Baldok said with a chuckle as he returned to his work on a ranger suit. “And about you, Karyn? Why pairing him with her for survival training?”

“She’s training to be a guide. This way, both can be trained properly and without wasting the time of anyone else.”

“You being practical? Now I've seen everything!” Baldok laughed.

Karyn was about to say something, but decided not to. Turning around the counter she only looked at him. “You big old chicken! You know I’m better than what my cadets make me out to be!” Karyn called from the doorway.

“Well… then you should start acting like that a bit more, don’t you think?” he asked teasingly. “You aren’t getting any younger if you’re to find a mate, and that attitude of yours doesn’t help a bit.”

“You only think on that, you sick bastard…” Karyn said with a head shake and left just after. Even so, she had a small smile in her face.

***

Thunder reached the north exit gate before his instructor, so he used the extra time to check on his bow. Making sure it has a good tension in the string and that it wouldn’t break anytime soon like he did in the training range, he grinned and placed his bow on his back, where it would rest until needed.

He then used his time to watch the ones that composed Keura Rangers. Griffins were in large majority, followed by pegasi. From other tribes, only hippogriffs had a smaller increase in number, probably due to their shared blood with griffins. Like in Equestria, females greatly outnumbered males, and by what he could count, Austarak had a rate of 4 females for each male. And very few of the females he could call anything less than beautiful, he agreed.

He sighed. His instructor was probably putting on her suit. Baldok did hint at a female instructor after all. Thunder looked up and saw the white clouds. In order to pass some of his time, he opened his wings wide and flapped them strongly, getting higher and higher until he came to a cloud. Using his talons, he began playing with it, shaping it and a few others around him into a large cloud-sculpture of a flower. When he was satisfied, he came back to the ground and noticed Karmyl there, admiring his work.

“So that is what your ‘weather control’ is all about?” Karmyl asked with a smile.

“You said you've never used your weather magic before…” Thunder answered with a giggle. “It’s a pretty fun way to pass the time around when you’re in weather patrol and it’s scheduled to be a bit clouded. You can be very good at shaping clouds.”

“I see,” Karmyl said with a genuine smile. Then she looked back up at the large flower-cloud in the sky. “Are you able to do anything else but a flower?”

“As you can see, it’s a very simple flower at that. I’m not that good at it,” Thunder said with a smile. “True cloud-sculptures can be found all around in Cloudsdale, a town back in Equestria. The whole city was crafted using clouds as the primary materials.”

“Wow, that’s neat!”

He just chuckled at that, “It’s a talent some pegasi had. Hmmm… do you know, by any chance, the name of my instructor?”

Karmyl looked at him with a smile, “Yes, I do. Her name is Karmyl Feathercrown.”

Thunder’s eyes widened and he looked at Karmyl again, “WHAT?”

She giggled at his reaction for a bit before looking him in the eye. “Here in Keura Rangers, we have a specific training structure that you won’t find in any other clan. When we decide to join the Keura Rangers, we're assigned a proper Master who will follow us along our whole process, and it’s the Master’s job to assign instructors fit with each part of the cadet’s training. I happen to be very good when it comes down to survival training, so your Master, Karyn Feathercrown, asked me to be your instructor.”

Thunder’s beak just hung open with that revelation. After threatening to cut of his talons, it was Karyn herself to place him in survival training with her own daughter?

Karmyl then smiled, “Well, I guess we’re ready to go.” That took Thunder out of his stupor and he closed his beak again. “Remember to always listen to what I say and if I order you to return and leave me there, I don’t want you to argue with me, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Thunder said, deciding to go all cadet-in-training with her in order to keep things from getting awkward.

“Good. Let’s get going then, we have a lot to cover. We’ll be entering this forest and walking around aimlessly while I instruct you on our way in. On the other claw, it’s you that will be guiding us back, as a test to see how fast you can learn.”

“Yes, sir!” Thunder agreed.

Karmyl chuckled and lead Thunder outside the gates to the forest behind it. A very dense forest surrounded them, the path out of it almost invisible to Thunder’s eyes while Karmyl walked about sure of herself. She walked in silence a while before taking in a deep breath.

“The forest air is very different from the city’s air, isn’t it?” Karmyl asked.

“Yes…” Thunder said also taking a deep breath. “It… feels more alive…”

“And it is… more than you know,” Karmyl answered with a smile. “Look here; can you see these markings in the trees?” Thunder approached her to see what marks she was talking about. Three deep claw marks were on the tree she pointed out. “These marks show you that predators live in the area. Which ones depend on the number of talon marks and, of course, the area you’re in. Basically, it’s an indicator of danger level and can vary roughly from one to the other. The higher the number, the more dangerous the predator living there. An acceptable level, that means predators which prefer not to face you unless you attack first, have three talons. Keura’s Rangers have almost catalogued every single part of our world, so whenever you see these marks, you can believe them. Of course, there are creatures that roam around and do not have a set territory, so there’s no way to foresee them. Always keep your guard up. And as a side remark, all the marks will be like this, horizontal. If you happen to see one crossed with a vertical talon, it means ‘pack predators’. These attack in groups and if you attack one of the pack, all the others around would probably attack you in a kind of pack defense.”

Thunder nodded, and they continued down the track. Karmyl was teaching him what he could and couldn’t eat, how to track prey and predators and find water among the forest, what was poisonous and what was safe, and even how to identify something that is safe but disguised as poisonous. Thunder learned everything she said with keen interest and for him it was as natural as his weather magic, as if he was born to be a Ranger.

Karmyl took him down a longer route, deeper and deeper into the forest, so she could explain more about survival to him. They had even taken some time hunting down a few mice and squirrels before she sat down at a small pond and looked up at the sky.

“I hope you enjoyed your time here?” she asked, sitting down and then leaning to take a sip from the pond. Thunder did as she did to refresh a bit. The forest could be beautiful and relaxing, but it was surely hot in there.

“Yes, I could say I did,” he grinned.

“Good. Let’s make a half-hour camp there and you get us back. Only clue I give you, is we’re northeast of Austarak. You have a limited time. It’s getting dark as you can notice. You must take us back before night fall.”

Thunder nodded, even if he suddenly felt a bit unsecure. He was going to start a fire to cook the small prey he caught when he glanced at Karmyl all but swallowing down a small mouse whole. A bit stunned, he just sat there, looking at her.

Karmyl giggled at his reaction, “Like the view?”

04 - Griffin Essence

Reaching Austarak barely three minutes after the night fall, Karmyl chuckled and, walking past him, softly whipped her tail against his face. “Well, chick, you managed to make a good time for a first-timer. Come, it’s time for dinner. And you should really get some good sleep. Tomorrow morning, your training continues.”

He just shook his head and followed her to the mess room. The line was already big enough by then and he looked at her, “Well, we do have quite some preys left from our survival training.” When Karmyl looked back at him curiously, he smiled, “Maybe we could have dinner somewhere else?”

She smiled, “What do you have in mind?”

“You taught me so much today. Let me teach you something new? Follow me.”

Curious, Karmyl followed the newcomer, trying to think what he could teach her. After he cleared the last of the roof, he opened his wings and took flight, she following quickly.

After a little while, though, she called him, “You sure it’s a good place, Thunder?”

“What? Are you afraid of the height?” he asked back playfully.

“As if!” Karmyl answered him. “I just… don’t see where we’ll be eating dinner up there!”

“Just a little higher!” Thunder assured her.

He then, with a smile, made a slight turn to his left. She followed and, after passing above a cloud, Thunder turned and hid behind it. When Karmyl cleared the cloud, she could see Thunder sitting down there, on the cotton-like surface of a cloud, looking at her and, to her surprise, his wings folded.

“Just take it easy. Put one of your hindpaws first. Touch the cloud and wait until you can feel a slight resistance,” he said with a smile.

“Clouds offer resistance?” she asked dubiously, slowly placing one of her lion paws on the cloud.

As if to prove the point, Thunder got up and jumped three times on the cloud, which seemed firm as a brick still. “A lot more than you give credit for.”

She quickly withdrew her paw. It had got through the cloud and now her paw was a bit humid. “It has none!”

Thunder was about to say otherwise when something clicked in his mind. Closing his eyes, he brought that sensation of his essence and noticed that a large amount of it was directed at his paws and claws. Smiling, he opened his eyes. “Have you had your lessons about essence?”

“Yes, a bit… Is it related?”

“At first, I thought it was natural magic. When I looked deeper into it, I felt my essence there.”

“So… if I think it’s impossible…” Karmyl closed her eyes and took deep breaths, calming herself. She cleared her mind, calmed her heart and tried again. A couple seconds later, she could feel her paw touching the cloud and something resisting to being pushed deeper. Putting a bit more of weight over it, the cloud sustained and she got the courage to try the second hindpaw. With a smile, she opened her eyes and slowly sat down properly, looking at him. “Yeah, like you said, it does offer more resistance than I give credit for. But why dinner up there?”

“Please, don’t get me wrong or anything but…” he then looked up into the sky, “This is the best view anypony, I mean, anyone could ever dream.”

Looking up, Karmyl found the bejeweled sky completely clear above them. The moon glowing bright, the stars like small diamonds in the dark sky… she could help but let a sigh of sheer admiration escape her. “It’s… beautiful!”

“Yes, it is,” Thunder’s voice called Karmyl back to reality and as she downed her gaze, she saw a mouse right at her face’s height. With a quick move, she snatched it and gulped down effortlessly and then looked at the other griffin, which was chuckling at her.

“What’s so funny?”

“Do you have any idea how much like a pet you looked like right now? ‘Learned a new trick? Good girl! Here’s a prize!’”

“Why you!” she screamed with mock angry and half a laugh behind her words, jumping against him and making both of them roll above the cloud. She ended above him looking deep into his eyes.

A couple seconds passed as they exchanged that long look before Thunder himself broke it offering her a small squirrel, “Better we eat and get back down, right?”

She smiled, nodded and snatched the squirrel from his claws before raising and giving him space. Walking on clouds was, at same time, hard and easy. The closest thing that came to her mind was trying to walk over an extra soft mattress, only it was a lot more fragile.

Thunder, though, had no such problems for that he had mastered already a long time ago. Sitting up properly and smiling at her. Both continued to eat in silence, contemplating the sky above them. She admiring another night brought by Deora, the Goddess of the Moon, while he was thinking how beautiful a night it was in comparison with Luna’s.

After their dinner was done, Thunder looked at Karmyl and smiled. “See you down there.”

She was about to ask if he was racing her when all of a sudden, he just fell right across the cloud, as if it’s resistance had finished out. She was quickly in the sky and flying turning around the cloud to try and find Thunder, just to see him slowly gliding back down as if nothing has happened. Then he looked up and chuckled. You just turned it off, right? Your weather magic? she thought and dived to get closer to him.

Not too long ago, both of them were on the ground and walking towards the sleeping quarters. They parted their way with a friendly hug and promises of another time together soon.

***

Razor stood up on his usual tree, over his usual branch, gazing at the moon as he always did. The Queen’s Castle held plenty of luxury and had more than enough rooms for the whole troops, but the Captain of all those troops still refused to sleep in his room.

His mind drifted into far different problems and places, things that his teammates would never understand. Since the day he joined the Queen’s forces, he wasn’t able to have a full night sleep. Horrible nightmares always came to him, so he preferred to stay awake. Sensible to his fate, though, the Queen has cast on him a spell that allowed him to recover energy while awake, mostly vanishing his need to sleep. All he had to do was stay utterly stopped.

But even so, he couldn’t forget his worst nightmare ever, as for that he was alive when it happened. He remembered how he and his family were constantly traveling from town to town; such was the fate of a family of traveling merchants. He never made any true lasting friend, but made plenty of very good friends in plenty of towns with which he would hang out whenever they revisited a particular town.

It was during one of the travels that his life fell apart. He was travelling with his parents and his older sister when all of a sudden they were surrounded. There must have been about ten ponies, three of them pegasi, all with malicious looks in their faces…

“RAZOR!” the combination of his name and a rather heavy stone hitting his flank returned him to his senses. Looking down the tree, he saw Sandstorm stopped, looking at him expectantly. “In name of Deora, what were you thinking on?”

“None of your business,” the griffin answered, ‘falling’ from the branch and landing first on his hindlegs before gently placing his talons on the ground, his wings folded on his back. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s your turn to make the survey already,” Sandstorm answered. “They related movement at western sector, but it was unconfirmed.”

“Watch over a few more minutes while I get ready, will you?”

“Kinda knew you would say that, so I called you a bit earlier…” Sandstorm giggled. “And don’t give me that look! Just get on with it.”

Razor just sighed and walked to get his gear, his bow and arrows and also his armor were his most loyal company since his destiny called him. Gearing himself with expertise of years of practice, Razor was ready to assume his post within minutes. Allowing Sandstorm to stand down, he looked around and took notice of many other ponies working there.

“What are these movement reports?” Razor asked.

“Unconfirmed movement of a heavy being in the western sector,” answered a pegasus stallion. “The movement is erratic and is slowly approaching the castle.”

“Do we have a team investigating it on the spot?” Razor asked.

“Not yet, sir,” answered a female earth pony.

“I want a team in the air, Rangers and Assassins, to figure what is happening there. Have them with magic-detecting gems,” Razor ordered. “I want a map of the region in question.”

“Coming right up, sir,” a unicorn mare focused her magic and an illusion map formed in front of Razor.

“Six teams of four, two Assassins and two Rangers shall investigate sectors from M17 to N19. Paladins and Warlocks will make the first line of defense in case it’s aggressive.” Razor called.

A couple mares left the room to pass forward the orders. A long silence has insured as Razor just looked at the map apprehensively. Suddenly one area of the map glower red, area I18, which was perilously close to the castle. A message reached Razor by the Warlock that created the illusion. The map turned into the face of another Ranger from the front lines.

“Sir! Visual contact was made with aggressor! It’s a rock eater and is heading straight towards the castle!”

“Damn it! Everyone to your posts! Brown alert! Rock eater coming to the castle!” in the next second, Razor himself gained the sky, flying through the windows in the chilly night. Bringing his bow to attention, he turned to the east and waited. Ahead of him he could see the lines of Paladins and Warlocks, as the other clans slowly added their forces.

Placing one arrow on his string, Razor pulled it three times, making sure everything was fine before just relaxing and waiting. Rangers’ lines were the last to be formed, just behind the Warlocks’ lines, while others stood mixed in forward battle. Between them, there were Monks and Shamans with their healing capacities, so Razor hoped the lives lost in battle could be minimal. Suddenly, a pegasus started hovering at his side. He was about to have it go forward when he noticed a hole of an arrow between his eyes. This was Blizzard Bash’s body, and the damn zombie wouldn’t listen to a word Razor said, only Selena and the Queen had power over it.

The roar of the rock eater reverberated through the whole castle as it approached. As soon as massive-movement was visible in range, Warlocks flared their magic casting an Earth Crush spell. Having to leave not to be completely crushed, the giant snake-like creature showed its face with a mouth wide enough to swallow a whole battalion in a single gulp.

A circle of fire erupted around the huge snake, trying to make it get into despair, as Paladins and Monks attacked simultaneously to break the scales as much as they could before the monstrous serpent extinguished the flames around her and attacked back. Razor pulled one of his special arrows, it was enchanted with fire and would incinerate upon released from the bow. When the first crack appeared, Razor’s aim easily allowed him to release the arrow and saw it incinerating mere few seconds upon flying in the air.

As it struck on the skin of the monster, it left another loud roar and the beast began to struggle, extinguishing the flames around it and even taking a few Paladins and Monks that weren’t quick enough to evade. When more of the scales where broken, the whole line of Rangers began shooting flaming arrows and the Warlocks casting their fire magic against their enemy. No matter how hard the beast struggled, there were always flames aimed at her, so it decided to hit the ground. Quickly downing its body, plenty of troops were absolutely smashed by sheer size and strength of the monster.

Using the moment the creature hit the ground, earth-specialized Warlocks used their spells to break even more of the scales, so when the creature was back up, another volley of flaming arrows and fire spells quickly burned its way into the body of the monster, making it fall another time. After a few minutes of apprehensive care, uproar took care of the whole surviving troops.

Razor landed and stood at one of the Ranger’s side, “I want a report of all we lost in the battle and what it cost us in fire enchanted arrows.”

“Yes, sir!” he answered and Razor walked back to the castle.

He opened his wings again and flapping them violently, he quickly entered into his post once again. The griffin didn’t expect anything else to happen during his shift, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. After all, if only he had stood guard that day…

***

Next morning, Thunder stretched fully, both his forelegs and hindlegs, and then his wings. After that, he took proper care of his wings, looking for loose or imperfect feathers. After he was satisfied, he got up, placed the bow and quiver around him and walked towards the mess room. Walking around the corridors, he got the impression he was an early bird, and then chuckled when he thought about that.

Getting to the line, he put a nice amount of vegetables and even more meat than before, the patron commenting something like “That’s more like a griffin” or around those lines. With his filled plate in a claw, he looked around to find a place to sit. A smile parted his beak when he saw Karmyl calling him.

In the same table were Karyn and Baldok. With a smile, he said, “Good morning!”

He was about to say more when Karyn, from across him, somehow managed to grab her knife and stab it in the wooden table, right between two of his talons. A shiver ran down Thunder’s spine.

“I thought I said that anything more than looking would have you taking lessons of shooting with pegasi!” she menaced.

“Actually…” Thunder managed to say after a while, “You said about me touching her, not the other way around, so I’m quite free…”

Baldok actually chuckled at his answer. Karyn, though, took back her knife and pointed it at Thunder. “I’ll let it slip this time. First warning, Sparky. I hope you don’t get beyond the third.”

“That’s enough, mother. You’re scaring him and he has hunting scheduled with you today,” Karmyl called.

“At least he has the guts to fight her,” Baldok said with a smile. “Many failed her tests for not putting up when they should. Anyway,” he said getting up, “even with your pleasant company, girls, I have work to be done. And I expect you with me in a few minutes, chick. Gonna teach you a bit about weapons and armors before you try your luck in the wilderness with her.”

Chuckling at the glare Karyn was giving him, Baldok just left the room. Karmyl then got up and nuzzled her mother, “I shall go too. My hunting team will be waiting me at the eastern gate. See you at night, mom!”

When they were both alone at the table, Karyn let out a sigh. “My daughter came to me last night saying she had a wonderful dinner under the moonlight. Care to explain, Casanova?”

“Hey! Calm down! It wasn’t like that!” Thunder said defensively. “Look, after we got back from my survival training we went to have dinner. The line, though, was way too long and along the way we made a little hunting, small game, like mice and bunnies. So we decided to have dinner somewhere else. I decided to show her something new as well. I took her to the clouds and taught her a bit of weather magic. Basically, I taught her how to sit in a cloud.”

Karyn looked deep into his eyes. She had a look that was examining him, maybe to see if he was lying. After another sigh, she let it go. “Alright, I’ll trust you and her judgment. However, the day she comes back to me crying and it’s your fault…”

“Don’t worry. I like my neck where it is…” he said.

She nodded and sat in front of him while he ate his breakfast. “As Baldok told you, this morning you’ll train with him, learn about weapons and armors. Then you’ll join another three hour sessions with Hira, learning about essence. I still don’t know why they insist on teaching that, though.”

Thunder nodded. “And after lunch, we’ll go hunting?”

“This will be most your routine. During morning you’ll have theory classes and the afternoon is mostly for practical classes like survival and hunting.”

“Why I’m not returning to the shooting range to train with Garuna?” he asked.

“The high council decided we, Keura Rangers, should pay more attention to our essences for some reason,” Karyn answered. “You must have six essence classes, and three armory and archery classes. That covers the basic and will be your next four days as well. The practical classes required are three survival classes you’ll be doing with Karmyl and three hunting classes with me.”

“Then come the advanced stuff?” he asked.

“No,” Karyn chuckled, “They you’ll be called an Archer and will be on your own. Of course, you can hire instructors to teach you one thing or another, but that must be with your money then.”

“Isn’t… it too soon?”

“Actually, that’s the minimal period required,” Karyn pointed to his chest with a talon. “However, you were supposed to have those classes while you faced our entry requirement. You, though, aced that in your very first day…”

“I guess being a prodigy has its downside…” he chuckled.

“If you’re finished, ‘prodigy’, you’re getting late to your first class today.”

He nodded and got up, quickly running towards the armory.

“Children…” Karyn said still at the table.

“You weren’t any different, Karyn.” Garuna said coming from behind her.

“Shut your beak, will you?” Karyn looked at her over her shoulder. “You were my babysitter thirty years ago, not nowadays.”

Garuna chuckled at that and then helped Karyn take the used dishes back to the kitchen.

***

“I wait you the day after tomorrow, chick!” Baldok called as Thunder left the armory.

After exhaustive three hours learning about armors and weapons, mostly bows, Thunder finally was on his way to the essence classes with Hira. Basically, he learned how the leather must be properly cured and the means to harden it to higher protection without stopping the movements of the body, how to properly tense his bow and the importance of checking it every single day, how to properly craft an arrow that would improve the chances to hit the target instead of diminishing it, and how to make a proper weapon to combat close range when his arrows were gone.

He also received some reward of sort: a proper ranger suit, albeit one proper to his level, a bow made with his size and strength in mind, and two full quivers of arrows.

As he entered the essence class room, he was greeted by Hira alone in there. Not sure what was going on, he decided to ask, “I’m not that late, am I?”

“No, you’re not. Neither you’re early,” Hira answered in her almost singing voice. “You’re my only student for today.”

“And all those others I saw last time?” he asked.

“They were on the last sixth class already. From now on, it’s optional and there are very few that choose to continue. And for that, you’ll be able to choose where you want to have class today.”

He then chuckled, “Maybe above the clouds?”

She smiled back at him, “That sounds good. Guide away.”

Thunder then walked away, followed close by Hira, “Know what, let me see if I can’t get a couple more students for you.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” she chuckled. “I tried everything in my book and nothing made success.”

“Maybe you should try something a bit more artistic?” he smiled. He guided her to a large opened area in the center of the training complex, before he looked at her with a smile. “Well, let’s go. I can’t wait to see what else I can learn with essence.”

After saying that loud, surprising a bit Hira, Thunder opened his wings and gained the skies, his instructor following him close behind. “May I ask what that was about?” Hira asked.

He moved around a cloud above them and when above it, he sat down. Thunder smiled at Hira and chuckled. “Karyn told me she doesn’t see where a Ranger could use the essence and I think most of your other students are the same,” he guessed.

Hira smiled, “Sitting on clouds. Clever use of your essence, but I thought I told you not to try anything else?”

“I’ve been doing this my whole life even before knowing about essence,” he answered. “Now, I just know the reason why. Before, I called it ‘magic’.”

She nodded. “Answering your question, though, yes, that is the main reason I lost my students.”

“If you want to know more, I tell you while we talk at lunch. Now, I want to learn more about essence if you would?”

She smiled and, with apparently practiced easy, she landed her hindpaws on the cloud graciously and sat down softly over the cloud. “Then let’s continue from where we stopped,” she said. “Can you call the sensation of your essence by now?”

“Already did that in fact,” he answered.

“Good,” she said with a smile. “Next step would be controlling it, but it seems you already have a natural ability to do so. Come to think of it, what else can you do besides sitting on cloud?”

“I can fully manipulate it,” he answered. “For example, I can part a cloud in two, or fuse two together, I can condense one more so it become a raincloud or even a thundercloud. I can also set them off or just dissolve them.”

“Hmm… show me how you fuse them,” she asked.

A simple request, Thunder just took a hunk of cloud they were sitting at and then parting it in two. Then, he grabbed them and approached the two parts. Hira was listening carefully to each step. When the two clouds touched and began to fuse into one only, Hira nodded.

“Interesting,” she said.

“What?” Thunder asked.

“When you part the clouds, your essence focus only on your claws, but when you pulled them together, your essence was leaving your talons to keep the shape of the cloud intact. It was your essence to keep it intact while you pulled it,” Hira answered. “Then came fusing the clouds. This surprised me even more because I was not expecting you to be able to extend your essence outside, much less actively controlling it that way. You used your essence to make the two clouds accept and fuse with each other, as if your essence was some kind of glue.”

Still holding the cloud in a claw, he looked at his other curious, “I never thought it was so complex… It always came natural to me.”

“You have no issues about controlling or externalizing your essence,” she admitted. “Your only lack of knowledge around this is actually doing so consciously. You are, at same time, in the proper time to the second class with me and advanced enough to be on the fifth already.”

“I want to do it properly,” Thunder said. “If I lack conscious control, I’ll have the second class as if I couldn’t do it at all.”

Hira smiled and their class started. For the next few hours, Hira worked with Thunder to consciously control the flux of essence inside his own body. She said only this was enough to strengthen one area he needed to use, like his claws or hindpaws. Thunder had to agree that this was a lot harder than he initially had thought, but he could actually feel progress being made with every new attempt. In the end of the class, controlling his essence was easy enough he only had to focus a little to start it.

With a smile Thunder grinned to her and said, “Now it’s my time to keep my word and try to get you a few more students.”

“I still want to know how you’ll do that,” she grinned.

“I don’t recommend you be sitting on this cloud then,” he smiled and took flight. “If you wanna see it, the show is better from the ground level. Please, act down there as if it was a test you passed me to do, right?”

She grinned and also flapped her wings, clearing out of the cloud and then diving back towards Austarak. Thunder flew around the cloud a little, looking it in every direction, both to decide what better to do with it and to give Hira time to reach the ground. A quick glance down and he noticed that quite a few griffins were reunited there, curious.

Then he started, darting right in the middle of the cloud, he focused his essence on his wings and parted it in half, save for very small paths on both sides. From his point of view, a griffin would only think he had gone crazy and was flying in and out of the cloud. But his great finish was a spinning dive. When he crossed a proper part of the cloud, from the ground it was able to see what he was working at. The cloud that was once like any other was turned into a griffin talon pointing at all of them.

When Thunder landed and looked up, he smiled. He had told Karmyl he wasn’t an expert at cloud-sculpture. And in fact he wasn’t, but it was one of his preferred hobbies to kill some time, so he got some practice with it. With a smile, he walked to Hira, “Was that good enough?”

The instructor just giggled and nodded, “I guess you’re coming a bit ahead of schedule in our trainings, but yes. That’s enough proof you dominated today’s class.”

More than a few beaks were parted. Thunder called all his will-force not to laugh at them as he and Hira walked towards the mess room. “I hope I didn’t overdo it a little?” he asked.

“I think it will be fine,” Hira answered. “Essence isn’t a class that will be hard to teach a whole clan at once.”

“I really wish to have our next classes. However, if you think you can’t handle it, tell me. I think I got it and I’ll be able to learn the rest on myself.”

“I would suggest against it, but after what I saw today I won’t. You’re very careful when exploring the unknown while still braving it with all your might. A very rare combination to find nowadays, I must add.”

“Well, thank you,” he smiled.

“You did promise me to explain how you could manipulate your essence so instinctively through lunch,” she called.

“And I pretend to tell you!” he nodded and both joined the line to get their food.

05 - Hunting Lessons

After a pleasant lunch time chatting with Hira, the time had come for Thunder to bite another bullet, or peck another arrow, or whatever term they used around here. At the southern gate, he was supposed to meet with Karyn for a hunting practice.

She was already expecting for him there and nodded upon seeing him, “Right on time.”

“I thought we were going to the northern gate as with Karmyl,” he commented.

“Level three areas are too tame for a proper hunting. Training or not, you must know that it’s at same time your life on the line and those which you are committed to finding food for,” she explained. “We’ll venture deeper into the forest, looking for level four and five areas. There, monsters will attack you just because you’re approaching their territory, so keep your guard up and your senses fully alert to your surroundings. And above all else, Sparky: Don’t fuck up with me.”

“I’ll try my best, sir!” he answered.

“Good. The same directories my daughter gave you are in vigor there. If, anytime, I say to you leave me there and go back, you do. No second thoughts and, above all else, no playing the hero. That’s a very good way to die out there. In order to go back to Austarak, fly high above the trees. I see you and Hira flying to the clouds, so I know you can fly that high.”

“You said as if griffins couldn’t fly above tree’s height,” he commented curiously.

“Most griffins can’t keep flying that high for long. Thankfully you can, thanks to that weather magic you told us about. And I’ll be glad a lot to you if you can teach that to my daughter.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” He nodded with a smile. “Anything else?”

Different from the survival lessons, hunting with Karyn was always pushing Thunder to his limit. More than just identifying if something has passed nearby recently, Karyn made sure he knew which direction it went before they followed. When they reached the level four areas, Thunder was almost instantly forced to drag his bow to defend himself against a wolf-like creature with large canine fangs and dark green fur all over his body. Karyn said that was a cedar wolf and, much to Thunder’s surprise, she pointed to a marking and said it was typical of lonely cedar wolves. The packs normally roamed level five areas and the loner knew better that to try those same areas without the help of a group.

Thunder understood now when Karyn said he should always keep his sense into full alert mode all times. Many times, it was a faint bush rustling that warned him he was target of a creature or another, while other times it was a sweet and delicious aroma that warned him of a trap. By the time they returned to Austarak, both had a nice amount of cuts and bruises, but nothing deep enough to leave a scar. They also managed to bring back a couple lonely cedar wolves they killed on their way back. Karyn said it has been a long time since she had eaten a succulent cedar wolf grilled steak.

When dinner time came, Thunder found himself sharing a table with Karyn, Karmyl and Baldok again. They shared a couple more histories about their lives, taking laughs out of the others in the table. And then, even before their dinner was properly finished, Thunder heard a sound echoing the whole training complex. Karyn and Baldok quickly got up and rushed outside along with many other griffins around. Thunder was about to follow when Karmyl held his forepaw.

“That was the alert we use when an enemy is attacking,” she explained. “If it was a wild beast, the signal would be different and both Archers and Hunters would be expected to join the battle, mostly as a training session under the eyes of their Masters. An enemy, though, means it’s a matter for the Rangers to solve.”

“And… what are we supposed to do?”

“Be safe. Come!” she then ran along a flux of other griffins.

Their path eventually guided them across the main atrium. Looking outside one of the windows there, one thing called Thunder’s attention. A sole hippogriff was there, covered mostly by a dark mantle with a symbol on its back that resembled a skull with a dark grey halo above it.

Three Rangers came to attack her, but were easily defeated. Truth be told, Thunder couldn’t actually identify how she managed to defeat them, but she seemed secure enough of herself.

Stopping, Thunder took his bow and drew an arrow, quickly pulling the string and releasing the arrow against the aggressor. However, he haven’t stopped to see if it had hit or not, he continued to follow the stream of griffins, ponies, zebras and other hippogriffs to wherever they called safe. Soon, they all could hear the pain scream of the hippogriff. She looked around, the arrow still stuck to her flank where it hit.

Sudden, she turned to see a volley of arrows from other Rangers shooting at her. Thunder could actually see her beak moving as if she was cursing and, as if nothing had happened, she disappeared and all the arrows hit the ground.

When he noticed it, Thunder stood there, eyes wide open. He then felt someone pulling his tail. Looking back, it was Karmyl. “What are you doing?”

“She was looking for something…” Thunder answered.

“What?”

“A hippogriff was right there. She was wearing a black mantle with a skull and a halo on it…” Thunder said, focusing all his senses around him. “I shoot an arrow at her and hid among the other refugees. I hit her and distracted her enough for the Rangers to come but…”

He then jumped out of the line and followed exactly to where the hippogriff was. “HEY! THUNDER!” Karmyl took flight just after him.

There, Thunder started looking around. All his senses were fully listening to his surroundings. Suddenly, he felt something. “Karmyl…” she looked at him worried, “… what you have in that direction?” Thunder asked pointing with a claw.

“Inside the complex? Nothing that much important. I mean, it’s the playground for children when their parents are on missions and facilities like that, but…” she answered.

“And out of it?”

“Hmmm… Austarak’s main square, the western exit, and Keura’s Temple too…”

“Wanna make something crazy?” he asked.

“What?”

“I think they’re attacking the Temple.”

Karmyl’s eyes widened at that. “You want to raid them yourself? That’s crazy!” then she looked at him and he smiled.

“I know,” he chuckled, and then took flight. Karmyl followed him soon after, both going right towards the sky. A couple minutes later, they were in front of a cloud. “Do you remember your lessons about sitting on clouds?” he asked.

“Focus your essence on paws and claws… I know…”

“This one will be a step further! You must expand your essence into the cloud so it keeps its shape. We’ll both pull from opposite directions,” he ordered. “My plan is to reduce the density of the cloud and turn it into a fog. We’ll use it to enter Keura’s Temple then.”

“But with only two pulling it would only stretch the cloud, right?” the voice of Hira behind them got both by surprise. “I saw you two flying while running to one of the safe areas.”

Thunder smiled, “Yes, you’re right. It would work better if we had a fourth one to pull but we can’t stretch our luck that much. Then you two can pull on the extremes, I’ll make sure it stretches both directions in the middle to reduce its density.”

“Can you do that?” Karmyl asked.

“I was a junior member of the weather patrol back in Equestria… Things like stretching and squeezing clouds are basic for us… Trust me when I say that I’ll work faster than you due to familiarity, so we should keep more likely the same pace. We don’t have time! GO!”

Both griffins nodded and flew to each side of the cloud, grabbing it and then pulling it. Meanwhile, Thunder flew straight into the cloud, working from the inside to stretch it in most other directions to keep the cloud proportional. It was about two minutes effort before he judged it was thick enough to work against their enemies and at same time not so thick to work against them. Karmyl did agree that Keura Rangers were supposed to hunt under some adverse climates, like foggy, so the only problem was Hira herself. She, though, surprised Thunder by telling she was not one of the Keura Rangers, but actually of Irilka Sages’ clan. It means she knew how to heal wounds and was more efficient at martial arts, so her claws alone were weapons.

With a team effort, the three griffins pulled the fog-cloud towards Keura’s Temple and, when it was in place, they could hear people screaming inside, some saying it was the Goddess claiming vengeance on intruders, other just common obscenity at unforeseen scenery.

Either way, Thunder and Karmyl entered the temple ready for the kill. Before they were spotted, two dark-mantle persons were down, arrows stuck at their heads. The others began screaming louder at the sound of someone falling hard. One by one, they cleared the main hall of the Keura’s Temple and, by then, the fog was already starting to dissipate.

“Thunder!” Karmyl looked at him, only to see something completely unexpected.

The male griffin was up on his hindpaws, bow and arrow ready on his claws and using both his tail and wings to keep balance in a bipedal fashion. “Don’t worry, I was counting on it. Clouds don’t hold together for long this low, even more when they’re so thin,” he answered looking back at her as if nothing was wrong. Then he looked around and noticed the bodies of griffin across the whole hall.

When he noticed the hall itself, it was with awe. Large enough so griffins could actually fly in there. Pillars were few, but those were sturdy enough to support the whole ceiling. Dominating the scene, though, was a statue of a griffin ranger with a simple bow, nothing fancy like he thought it would be on the claws of whom he supposed to be the Goddess Keura.

“These…” Hira started to say. “I can’t believe it! It’s the necromancer’s symbol!”

That called both Karmyl and Thunder’s attention. “You mean to say our enemy is the necromancer?” he asked.

“This changes everything…” Karmyl said.

“Either way, they’ve gone deeper that way. Let’s go and find what they’re after!” Thunder said already moving on.

As they followed, Hira approached Karmyl and whispered, “I didn’t know Rangers could hunt like that.”

“It’s because they can’t,” Karmyl answered back. “So far, the only one to do that efficiently was the first Ranger that learned under Goddess Keura herself!”

“He does seem sure of himself, though…” Hira finished and they trotted up a bit faster to follow him.

The trio moved deeper into the less public parts of Keura’s Temple. The corridors weren’t all that big but they could move side by side there. Following the smell of burnt flesh, they soon discovered the body of two Keura’s priestess burned to a crisp. Turning around a corner, a fireball hit Thunder in the chest. With the impact, he was sent backwards, but quickly rolled on his sides to get out of their sight.

With a claw over his chest, he looked at Karmyl. Using the other claw, he extended two talons and pointed to each side of the entrance. She nodded and readied two arrows in her claw. She then whispered something to Hira, which nodded back and then she all but jumped in the gap. Another fireball would hit her squarely in the face when a shining white shield popped in front of her. Before the spellcasters could find a place to hide, Karmyl had already aimed and released her both arrows, each of them finding a target in her opponents’ heads. Hira then crossed the gap towards Thunder, taking out the claw from his chest.

“You’re crazy! How you go into territory filled with enemy without a plan?” she asked, one of her claws shining a soft pink light and then she touched it on his chest.

Thunder hmmmed as a pleasant and relaxing sensation took care of him. The burnt mark gone and nothing of the damage remained at all. “I guess… I just haven’t thought things through.”

“We can go back and take another fog-cloud down…” Karmyl offered as she approached them, making their guard.

Thunder got up and shook his head, “It will take too long or it will be so thick even I would find problems within this cramped space.”

“The idea then is go sneaky,” Hira suggested.

“I guess I’m going ahead this time then. Are you ready?”

The group nodded and, following Karmyl, the walked deeper and deeper within Keura’s Temple. They were actively hunting their enemies now, and, with Karmyl’s lead, were doing a reasonable job. Crossing a room filled with many kinds of treasure on shelves, a thought crossed Thunder’s mind.

“If they’re attacking there, it means the others are distraction. For such a huge attack be a distraction, they must be after something really valuable. What’s the most important or powerful relic they could find in this temple?”

“No, surely they weren’t coming all this way to try their chance at the Ranger Pride,” Karmyl commented.

“What’s this ‘Ranger Pride’ thing?”

“When the clans were started, the gods had given their students a very powerful amulet,” Hira started. “They became known as the Clan Prides. It was a matter of honor to protect it with their lives above all else.”

“Then, to protect it from those that weren’t worth, each clan created a maze under the main Temple of their Guardian God,” Karmyl continued the tale. “The maze itself would only open for those who had the blessing of the God or Goddess in question and then there were the monsters placed in there to test the abilities of whoever tried it to the limit. Many Rangers lost their lives looking for the Ranger Pride!”

Even though she didn’t believe it, Karmyl guided the group straight there after they made sure that most of their enemies in the corridors, if not all, were dealt with. And then, to their dismay, the dead body of a Ranger laid in the doorway. It was open.

“They… they’re after it!” Karmyl was pale under her feathers. “There’s no telling what another clan’s warrior will be able to do against these creatures!”

“You should calm down Karmyl!” Hira called. “I don’t think it would be that simple to fool a Goddess.”

“But they weren’t supposed to enter!” she yelled.

“That’s why they brought him,” he said pointing a griffin Ranger. Then Thunder looked deeper inside the maze’s open doors. After a couple seconds, he turned to the other two, “Hide!”

Both females looked at him and then at the labyrinth, deciding to hide on one side of the heavy doors. Not much longer after they were hiding, five hippogriffs came running, badly damaged, as if they were facing their worst nightmares. After confirming they were also enemies, Thunder shoot an arrow at one of them and Karmyl at another two. Hira then jumped over the two left, her claws at the side of their heads and she all but smashed them together. Such force she had that both hippogriffs couldn’t do anything but tremble and fall. With a properly placed punch, she terminated the life of another one and grabbed the other by the collar.

“We got ourselves a prisoner!” she said with a smile.

“Huh, not that he’s going to be useful anyway,” said another female voice from the labyrinth. Thunder’s eyes widened when he recognized her as the one he shot before. “Keep him. Play as you want. I have to go now.” And then, all of a sudden, she disappeared again.

“Who’s she?” Karmyl asked.

“I don’t know. But I know who can answer that and many other questions we have…” Hira said, her claw tightening around her captive hippogriff. “Unless, of course, she prefers to be dead… That can be arranged…”

“Sorry but… I never thought I would see an Irilka Sage talking like that…” Karmyl commented.

“Don’t forget I’m still a griffin at hear, dear,” Hira smiled at her, all but pulling the hippogriff ahead.

***

“YOU DID WHAT?” Thunder was making no effort to hear them outside his room. Even with Hira’s ministrations, they insisted he would see the doctor of the Keura Rangers to a full check-up just in case something else happened. As he continued to refuse, they took a doctor to see him.

“IT’S NOT LIKE THERE WAS ANY RANGER AVAILABLE TO DO THAT!” No, no effort at all required.

As soon as Karyn had found out what Karmyl had done, she has gone mad with fury and all that just outside Thunder’s room. His injuries weren’t so bad that he needed to stay in infirmary. So the doctor just patched up what she could and sighed, “Your body recovered just fine and there’s nothing else I can do or that need to be doing at all. Will you be alive to resume your duties by tomorrow morning?”

“Barely,” he agreed. “Call them in, anyway. We must get this done and over with.”

She nodded and left the room. A few moments passed as well as a few more shouts exchanged, before Karmyl and Karyn entered the room. The first looked glad to see him patched up properly, the second looked so angry that he could almost feel the daggers being thrown at him.

“Are you feeling better?” Karmyl asked, her voice clearly a bit higher than normal, as if she was forcing herself not to scream her lungs out anymore.

“A little itchy in the back but I’ll live,” he answered with a chuckle, making Karmyl also give a faint smile. The doctor had placed a kind of magical healing bandage around his torso, where he received the fireball, and where he had received a few more bruises due to him always going forward when they couldn’t foresee the output.

That though set on Karyn’s nerves, and she not even tried to hide her anger, “It’s not a time to make fun of matters!”

“Actually, I think it’s the perfect time,” he answered her. “The danger is gone, the enemy was defeated, the prisoner is willing to talk and the loss among ours has been minimal.”

“It was a battle!”

“Try war!” Thunder called, looking her in the face. Even Karyn was taken aback by his seriousness. “They killed no less than twenty Keura Priests, those that we counted! They invaded Keura’s sacred grounds or whatever you call that maze down there and they tried to steal the Ranger Pride! Even in the peaceful land I grew up in this would scale things up to a war!”

“We don’t even know our enemy!” Karyn tried.

“The necromancer!” Thunder shot back. “Hira came with us and she recognized the symbol on the attackers of the temple. It was the symbol of the necromancer. Something is happening now that is forcing her to act. She tried once and she’ll probably try again and again! If I was you, I would even warn the other clans, for she must be after all other Clan Prides for something!”

“You’re making this up!”

“Say whatever you want! I know why you’re upset but it’s not her fault! I decided to go there, I was willing to sacrifice my life and above all, what I wanted was that both Karmyl and Hira would grow some conscience they were following a crazy griffin and they would return to protect themselves!” Thunder rose on his bed to look Karyn in the eye. “You want to blame someone, blame me all you want for it was my actions that put them in danger! But as Karmyl pointed, I saw a problem and there was no Ranger around to tell what I thought was happening. I decided for a little proactivity, acting before things got sour. Turns out that this time it wasn’t required, however would you like to find out too late that you could have done something to stop it?”

That put Karyn in silence. She continued to glare at him but seemed content to do so. Instead, she decided to turn and leave. “This is the second warning, Sparky. You’re getting closer to the point of no return…” and then she left.

Thunder lay back on the bed again and sighed. “Sheesh… What sins have I committed to pass through it all?”

“Maybe you took the eyes of her daughter?” Karmyl offered. “Thank you for protecting me but it was m-”

Two talons from Thunder closed Karmyl’s beak. He then smiled and looked at her, “It was my fault. If I haven’t put into my head to do something you wouldn’t have tried to help me.” Then, he chuckled, “I agree that she’s a bit overprotective…”

“A bit?” she asked.

“Fine, she is an overprotective mother,” he laughed. “But considering how you were conceived, can you blame her for that?”

Karmyl looked at the door, “She thinks I’m still weak.”

“No. She knows that you’re strong. And that’s what scares her the most. She fears she will lose you. Give her time and let someone else deflect a bit more of her anger and fury.”

Karmyl closed her eyes. “How could you know all this?”

Thunder chuckled. “I’m adopted,” he said. “Both my birth parents died while some adventure or something. I was the only to survive. When my adoptive mother discovered my adventurous nature, she got overprotective with me, just like your mother, but after a little coaching and deflecting focus, she accepted my nature and my vocation. I’m sure your mother will accept it too.”

Karmyl smiled and took his claws on hers. “Thank you for being there for me,” she said.

Thunder used his free claw to caress her face, “Now that’s something I can actually accept you being thankful.”

“It has been just two days I have met you. How could you know me so much in those times?”

He chuckled, “You couldn’t leave me alone. Every time you could grab me, you would!”

“Hey!” she said with a smile and then punched on his shoulder. “I’m trying to be sensible there!”

He smiled, “Let’s just be friends for now. Very good friends. Maybe something more in the future.”

With a nod, she just nuzzled him a little. “Can you fly?”

“The doctor asked me to rest until tomorrow, but said that I could do little things as flying.”

“Let’s go lay on the clouds then?”

“Better not to stir your mother too much after so little time,” he said. “Tomorrow, though, I have survival training in the afternoon.”

“Yeah… maybe you’re right…” she said with a sad look. Then, she smiled up again, “I’ll be waiting for you then!”