Hours upon hours of training gone by, Samuel had finally started achieving basic fune tuning control over his own spell movements. The sun had started setting and it was pretty late in the afternoon but neither Samuel nor Ulma felt like resting yet.
Ulma had gotten quite the control over perfecting her power herself. Somewhere in the middle of Samuel's training he had noticed small tornadoes and powerful lightning being emitted from the grove they were training. He had flown close enough to see it was Ulma controlling the power.
He had realized it to be a bad idea to approach from above when she was trying to control her power so he hovered down and gently flew between the trees until he reached the grove near ground level again.
The dragon somehow slept through all the noise as Samuel took a moment to look at Ulma's power firsthand, as he hadn't had the time to do so properly the last time she had unleashed it. Her eyes shone in bright white but fluctuated sometimes into bright green.
She continued for several minutes trying to control her power until she felt a flood of sweat running off her body as she sighed in pain and collapsed back unto the ground catching herself with her arms as she sat down very quickly. She started breathing heavily from the exertion of power and looked around for Samuel.
She had not paid attention to where he was during her own training, but since she was connected to the forest she could roughly tell where he was by the information network shared by nature. She had noticed how he had gone from one place to another really fast and she certainly didn't miss how he had left the grove and appeared a long way from it later.
He had literally jumped between places for a long time, thats why she felt safe to unleash her power because she knew he was far away, she also knew that he wasn't stupid enough to fly into it if he saw it from far away. She smiled at Samuel after finding him with her eyes.
"I think I am going to take a break and replenish my strength before I continue!" She said with a dazzling yet tired smile. Samuel could do nothing but return the smile, "I think we are better off not continuing the training for more than an hour if you look at the sun!" He replied after a while.
Ulma looked confused before she realized that the sun had started setting, "It's weird because... when I am connected to nature it's almost like I completely lose myself in the network, I thought we had been here for no more than half the day."
Samuel nodded "Yes I can sort of understand that feeling, I lose myself in time when I focus on my mana breathing for a long time." He walked over to her and sat down next to her. Putting his hand on top of hers as he looked at the last remaining sun stooping below the treeline.
She intertwined her hand with his and together they both sat and breathed in nature, one absorbing the magic of nature through the flora and fauna and the other literally breathing it in from all around.
After a short duration of relaxation Samuel smiled, "I will take one last attempt at using my spell inside the grove. See if I can make any improvement from before, I kind of crashed into them all!" He sighed and Ulma chuckled while pinching his cheek.
"I know!" She replied, "I can kind of feel the impacts you leave behind when I am connected to nature!" She gave him a teasing smile and Samuel suddenly stood up almost in shock horror. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?" He asked and she shrugged.
"It's not like you did it a lot of times before practicing in the sky... but if it helps you train better, then just imagine that it hurts me when you fly into trees!" She chuckled seeing his cute expression and sudden silence when she said that.
Samuel didn't know what to say and simply nodded. He turned around and casted his spells once more, now he could almost see every tree as him unintentionally hitting Ulma and it scared him. "Flight, Weightless, Feather, Force!" He repeated those words as he took several steps away from Ulma, almost walking to one edge of the grove he finally turned around and reared his body back.
Ulma sat and watched with a small smile suddenly he was gone as a shockwave was left behind where he had previously been, Thwop, Thwop, Thwop, Thwop, Thwop, Thwop, the soundbarrier kept breaking as he continued to fly in a triangle inside the grove.
He was too fast for Ulma to see exactly where he was, she was almost shocked when she suddenly realized that that was what he had been practicing this entire time. But from everything she had learned from the mage college, there were no such spells.
Samuel was literally bending the forces of nature and magic to his will, he had created his own spells... Unprecedented potential, Ulma had overwhelming power but Samuel had extreme potential. She was amazed as she tried to catch even a glimpse of where he was.
Never before had she seen such a spell with such speed and flight, eventually she heard a crash and Samuel slowly skid over the ground as it soon became a tumble as he lay on his back silently. "Samuel?" She yelled and ran over to him. She came upon his landing location when he suddenly jumped up with a huge "WOOOOH" both arms raised above his head as he jumped.
She fell back in shock from the sudden surprise, Samuel turned to her and started laughing and soon enough the grove was filled with both their laughters. Samuel lay down next to her on his back again, groaning slightly at the many dozen upon dozen of bruises he had aquired.
"Want me to heal those?" She asked with a smile and poked one to which Samuel groaned slightly, "No they are the proof of progress, so I'd rather keep them!" He replied and turned around and gave her forehead a quick kiss before sitting up and dragging her with him to their feet.
"I think that returning and getting some food and drinks would be nice now though!" He sighed as he spoke while hugging her tightly. "Well if you want me to open the portal back then you haveto let me go you know!" She replied but received only silence in return.
Samuel stood still embracing her without saying a word until she finally felt a few tears running down her cheek. "It was.. So - So hard! All those wounded people, so many I couldn't save... So many lives gone! Just like that!" She cried into his shoulder.
Samuel had seen her pain the entire time, she tried to stay strong all this time. But now that they were alone and exhausted in the forest, all he needed to do was stand there by her side and hug her. She needed it, she spent several minutes venting her frustration and crying into his shoulder. Before he also shared his own frustration about the mission and how powerless he had been to act in time.
Ulma leant back and looked at his face when he spoke, removing a tear or two from Samuel's eyes and gave his cheek a kiss, once more they stood in silence only clutching eachother, afraid to let go almost as if they would lose one another if they ever let go.
"Sorry If I am disturbing your majesty!" The forest dragon suddenly spoke up. Both Samuel and Ulma flinched from the sudden scare before realizing who it was. "Could I offer you a ride home?" The dragon continued. Ulma opened her mouth to refuse before looking at Samuel with a smirk...
"You know what! Yes, I would love a flight back to the city! Although it's probably best if you drop us off at the edge of the forest!" She said while walking towards the dragon that bowed its head to her.
"Your wish is my command!" The dragon spoke as she walked up its wing to sit on its back. "Coming?" She raised an eyebrow at Samuel who smiled and followed her, taking a seat behind her. "You better hold on young ones!" The dragon said while starting to flap its wings. Not quite as large as Sonya had been in dragon form it was still the size of a small house. Soon enough the dragon took off into the skies.
Flying all the way up close to the few clouds that were in the sky. "Are we not going to the mage college?" Samuel had to speak loudly even though he was sat behind Ulma. "Tere'he told me, that we should take the next few days off, like the original plan was for the mission! So we still have 3 days before we 'haveto' return to classes!"
"So I thought we could go to your home?" She replied in an equally loud voice. Samuel raised his eyebrows and realized she meant home as in the Gillfall mansion. He nodded his head, "Alright!"
The dragonflight was very nice and went pretty fast. Dragons were indeed quick creatures when it came to flying, most of them at least. Ulma enjoyed herself a bit more than Samuel, she also knew how to use basic flying spells, but none of them were fast like a dragon. Whereas Samuel could fly at immense speed so he wasn't impressed by it.
But what impressed Samuel instead was that he could instead take time to just enjoy the view as he could relax. Especially when Ulma was leaning back on him. A scaly dragon wasn't super comfortable to sit on though but it was tolerable. So the journey went on before they finally arrived at the edge of the forest where the dragon landed.
The dragon gave them a bow and left with a draconic grin, he could tell the other creatures of the forest that reveered the queen just how he had been of help to the queen. Dragon pride was strong in all forms of dragon. Some were just nicer than others.
"Mind flying the rest of the way ourselves?" Ulma asked and Samuel took the lead by taking her in his arms as he started flying as she eventually casted her own flight spell. Flying at a regular speed slowly approaching the city on the horizon.