Samuel dashed after Erica who ran all the way straight to the dining hall, leaving Samuel no time to ask what was going on until they entered the hall where she stopped running. "So whats happening?" He asked while panting.
Erica turned to him with a big smile on her face, "They are selling extra delicious chocolate cakes at reduced price! I needed someones help to carry a whole bunch!" She said completely innocent with what seemed like stars twinkling in her eyes.
Samuel hid his face in his hands and sighed. He was happy that it was nothing important but he couldn't help but be slightly annoyed at her method and she could easily read his expression and shrugged, "Would you have come if I asked? No, you would have continued training!"
She gave him a proper hmph and crossed her arms and he looked up and sighed again. "Alright fine, I will help you carry them... how many did you buy since you can't carry them yourself?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, with magic she could easily bring along several by herself after all.
Erica turned around quietly pretending not to hear him. "How many did you buy?" Samuel repeated his question now slightly more concerned. Erica shrugged, "Only like a hundred!" She said innocently.
Not a lot of things ever moved the unsurprised Samuel, but now he stood with his mouth left hanging and a concerned look on his face, his friend had gone crazy. "Right thats it, the world has gone crazy its all going under!" He spoke quietly to himself.
"Cough, anyway follow me and they are over this way." Erica proudly exclaimed and led them to a place where goods were retrieved or handed out inside the cafeteria. When they brought out all the boxes for Erica, he could only stand there rubbing his eyes in disbelief while groaning.
"Oh gods..." He repeated many times, Samuel wound up putting many of the boxes inside his shadow pocket, as many as he could fit inside it and the moment it was full they split the remaining ones by carrying with magic.
It took them many additional minutes to get all the way back home carrying all these boxes along. When they finally made it back inside they helped unpack most of them. Sonya had installed a cabinet that she had brought from home, it was a cabinet that worked like Samuels shadow pocket. Except it was mainly used for their food, since things would not grow old or stale inside of it.
Time had no flow inside item storing artifacts so that one could savor flavor and quality of items easily. Erica told Samuel to keep five of them for himself as thanks for the help, he sighed and pat her on the head before going back to some training.
One of the things one had to petition a license for at the college was for familiars or mounts in case they did damage to things. Now Samuel had not done anything with Night because she was a different case, but he did make sure to leave in a petition for a gryphon before going about the remainder of his day.
One of his daily things were to visit a gryphon down below and train with her, today was a different day for she seemed more docile as he entered the tower pens. She just looked at him in a very calm and collected manner.
He put on her saddle and everything properly and waited for a few seconds, expecting her to rush out like she had done all the other times, perhaps it was another trick and she was waiting for him to make a move.
So Samuel grabbed the saddle while eyeing her out of the corner of his eye, she still didn't do anything. "You don't feel like playing today Tenebris?" He asked gently and started stroking her feathers. The gryphon slowly turned its head to him before making a famous low eagle sound.
"Alright then! Thanks for the invitation!" Samuel nodded and slowly dragged himself up and swung his legs over the back and found himself seated in the saddle.
No crazy movements or attempts to escape, she instead slowly walked out and started flapping her wings before flying down to a lower level before taking them outside the tower. Samuel had to hold on for a bit, he certainly wasn't used to this kind of flying, it was different but somehow more free.
He felt free as she soared over the lands above, "Woooh! Now thats what I was talking about, you are the best gryphon ever!" He yelled out with a laugh as they flew up and dove down.
Samuel jumped off her saddle and then started flying next to her, he decided to use that time to train to fly back to the saddle and then jump off again. Together with Tenebris it became a dance, that went back and forth.
Samuel did not want to push his luck though, so after a little bit he took the reigns and started guiding her back, she looked a few moments at the horizon before turning her view to Samuel who proceeded to put a hand on her beak.
"If you still wish to be free, I won't stop you! Now is the time to leave!" He said and removed the reigns while holding out his hand towards the open horizon. She started flapping towards the horizon before stopping in the air.
She was a proud hunter of the sky, one of the most dangerous predators. She had never won a challenge against the young human however, he had proved to be the more dangerous predator. She stopped in her flight tracks and turned around and flew back to him.
He nodded and a few minutes later they were back at the tower, where Samuel removed all of the saddle gear before starting to brush her feathers with a specially designed brush for the gryphons they had at the towers.
She looked at him with surprise the first time and he shrugged, "What? It's just a brush?" He replied and kept going, it was comfortable enough to make the gryphon start purring and not being able to stand eventually.
Samuel chuckled at seeing a gryphon look so pleased from being brushed. After a while he also made sure she had water and food available, she had fallen asleep during the brushing so he quietly made his exit and went back to the college.
The day had grown late and the sun was settling on the horizon leaving only an orange circle that lit up what remained of the daylight. As he got all the way back to his home at the college the sun had completely set.
He opened the door and thankfully found no drunk Sonya or any mess. But he did see Erica and Sonya stuffing their face with chocolate cake. "Enjoying dinner?" He asked loudly as he stepped in and took off his boots.
"This is just an appetizer, while waiting for the chef to come make our food!" Sonya replied with a smug smile and Erica nodded enthusiastically, which made Samuel sigh. "What if you guys learn to make your own food? It really isn't hard!"
"No its not hard, but it won't be as delicious as your food!" Erica spoke shyly, if there was one thing they all agreed on was the fact that Samuel had become a master chef.
"Well I guess we'll just haveto survive without food tonight, at least there is plenty of cake!" Samuel shrugged and what followed were several minutes of chaotic bartering attempts by both Sonya and Erica, but Samuel didn't budge until they offered to both help with the food.
Together the three of them shared many laughs and talks that evening while eating some well deserved food, that left both Sonya and Erica groaning while holding their bellies. "Thats what you get for eating chocolate cake, before dinner!" Samuel mocked them and went to bed as several middle fingers and angry faces were aimed his way.
After a nice night of sleep Samuel realized that their studies had become way more open minded lately, as long as one did their tasks and followed the instructions it didn't really matter that they were studying at their homes instead. As long as one tried to show up to two classes per week.
Since so many second years were busy with sidemissions and not present often, then they also had specialization classes that of course did not require full attendance either. But only those whom could dilligently study elsewhere would hope to actually pass the specialization.
Samuel had made sure to offer Night some cake as well and she had eaten it with happiness. "I don't need to eat because I get all the energy I need from you! But damn that chocolate stuff is delicious, promise to feed me more enjoyable things!" She had asked him and Samuel could only accept.
Samuel started off his day by attending to a class by their main professor, he was there for half a day at least and noticed that only about half the second year candidate class was actually attending. Neither of his teammates were attending either. But he didn't care what others did, it was their choice on how to spend their time.
It was around lunchtime that Erica came looking for him with a mixture of fear and anger plastered all over her face. It only easened up a little bit when she saw him and she quickly approached him.