"How is she?" Alred ask as he walk towards Agis. Jep, only steps behind him. Agis turns to look at Alred only to see Jep behind him. Agis launches off the ground. He grabs no weapon, his hands held out. He moves around Alred. Jep in his site. Jep pulls his sword out. Shift himself to a better defense.
"Calm down." Alred already turn around. Reaching for Agis. He gets a hold of him just in time. Pulling him backwards. "I know he's was fighting you and that he hurt her. He is now under my command with a mages contract."
The fight in Agis vanishes. He turns walking back to the female elf. He pulls out a dagger then sits down next to her. He tends to bandage.
"I believe you told me your name was Agis. I would like to offer you a deal." Alred says as he sits on the other side of Laena. The flicker of the fire casting their shadows.
"What kind of deal can a human offer me? I thought you were on our side. Then you bring him here." Agis points at Jep.
"Because he is strong and worth saving. Ten years. Here." Alred tosses over a scroll. "Mages contract, ten years. Fight through this war with me. You will get great rewards, including better weapons "
"I want revenge." They both look down to see one of her eyes open. The other one is sealed shut from swollen face.
"Revenge?"
"I will sign a life contract if you help me find the person who is responsible for the death of my people." She lefts her body up to lean on elbows. Her eye locks with Alreds. He can see the small girl weeping inside.
Alred moves back a bit to give her room. He knows dealing with revenge is a dirty job. Someone always gets hurt, if not killed. He already has Jep, but she has a lot of skills that he doesn't.
"I will do my best to help with revenge but we have to be smart about it. No sudden moves without me. I don't want to start a war over it."
"Understood." She holds her hand out. He tosses her a scroll. She snaps the seal, pricks her finer letting the blood stain the paper. A white orb floats out of her chest and into Alreds. She pulls her self up to stand in front of Alred, she bows. "My name is Laena, I will be in your care."
"Agis, I will give you time to decide. We will be here until the dragon hatches. Once that happens we will be moving on." Alred stands up, walking deeper into the cave. Jep and Laena close behind him. Agis walks towards his village. He has a lot he needs to decide.
"Good. Two out if three is better then I thought. She's a archer and he's a dual swords." Master Lake spoke up as they walked into the room with the world tree.
"Sir, I use a single one-handed sword." Jep spoke up.
"What is your name?"
"My Master has named me Jep." Master Lake turns to look at Alred.
"Once people find out I kept him alive they will try to use him to get to me. So I changed his name. Once we leave here, I plan to have him cut his hair as well." Alred rubs his head, unsure of how his Master will react to this.
"Now that was thinking ahead. I already sent word to one of my contracts. He will train both of you. Alred will train with me. For now, I need you two to process the dragon." They both look at him, then at each other. "We will eat her meat and use her bones and skin to make weapons and armor." They both turned and walked towards the dragon body.
"Now, Alred we need to work on your crystals. The first step in becoming a master mage is being able to forage a master element crystal." Master Lake pulls a long skin red crystal out of his shelve. "These are made by taking small crystals and using your mana to lock them together."
"What is a master element crystal?" Alred ask while looking at it.
"These will in prove your how fast you can cast and they also use less mana. They also don't have a limit on how many spells you can cast." He looks at the staff in his hand. Its shape looks more and more like a sword. "Although your fighting style doesn't call to be able to cast a lot of magic does it?"
"No it doesn't, I was planning on becoming a warrior mage." Alred holds his wooden sword up. "Casting is fun but I prefer to fight up close to the action."
"Just like your grandfather." He shakes his head. "Lets move on to your training. Here's a pouch of earth crystals." The throws a leather pouch over.
"There has to be at least a couple dozen crystals here!" Alred shakes the bag, then looks inside. "These are single use crystal. They can barely protect anything."
"Ah, Young minds don't think large enough. Sit on the floor. Hold a single crystal in each hand." Alred sits on the ground, his legs crossed. He puts a single crystal in each hand. "Channel you mana into the crystal. Make sure to." A loud pop catches his attention he turns to look at Alred.
There's a cloud of black smoke floating around Alred. Black marks all over his face. He coughs a few time then fans the smoke away.
"As you just learned. Making a master crystal is not an easy task. Learn to balance yourself. You have a lot more power in you now then you ever have. So don't blow yourself up."
Alred pulls two more crystals out, he has to figure this out. He's afraid that if he doesn't he will lose the dragon he was given to protect.
Time ticks by, Alred has only managed to get two to fuse. The others have all blew up in his face. Laena and Jep have most of the dragon broken down into piles of different resources. They can smell the dragon meat cooking on the fire. The rich aroma making their stomach hurt.
Master Lake tends to the fire and the meat. He uses a burnt stick and draws a hut looking building. It seems the world has gone quite for now. If only they knew what darkness lurked around the corner.