The next day Lupos awoke tired and sore, looking over at Darius he wondered how someone that looked so much like a little old man could be such a nuisance to deal with. Sighing in resignation, Lupos gathered Fenrir and Jormugand and went out into the forest to hunt for breakfast.

They took approximately ten minutes before they returned to the house with some Marsh bird eggs for Darius and Jormugand and a fresh deer for Lupos and Fenrir. Opening the door they saw Darius already awake and sitting up "So brat, where's my breakfast."

Lupos laughed "What makes you think I got you any?" Darius let out a savage grin "do you want to do more training?" Lupos gave Darius his breakfast. Five minutes later and they had all finished eating. "Lupos shouldn't you be heading off to see the Illio brat now?"

Lupos nodded in a resigned manner "Yes I'm heading off now." Darius smiled "What will you do if they ask about your family?" asked Darius "I'll just say they're hunters and that we live on the outskirts of the forest." Darius nodded "good luck kid, remember to try and stay in the Noble kids shadow but also to try and improve him so that you can pretend later victory is down to him."

Lupos nodded "Ok then, I'll see you later Darius." Darius grinned "I trust you will." sighing once more in resignation he let Jormugand slide around his neck and with Fenrir by his side, quickly ran until they reached the Illio's estate.

As they approached the gate he quietly let Jormugand sneak off and then knocked on the gate. Two guards opened the gate and stared at Lupos. "Who are you?" asked the larger of the two guards. "My name is Gale Foryst, I'm the young master's classmate and have arranged to do some training with him in the break."

The guards looked at a note they had received earlier and nodded. "Ok, you need to go straight down the path and turn left into the courtyard where the young master should be practicing." Lupos smiled courteously and nodded. He began to walk in the direction the two had indicated, when he heard Jormugand's mindspeak "Luposssss the head is coming from your left, hide quickly."

Lupos nodded and then slowly faded into the shadows of one of the surrounding buildings using dark magic. Just as Jormugand had said two minutes later a tall man with golden hair and green eyes with an arrogant face walked around the corner.

Lupos held his breath and waited two more minutes for the man to pass, once he had, he let out a sigh of relief. Although he could kill the man to stop him reporting back to the mysterious man in black about who he was, that might put the family on guard and he still planned to kill all of them once he'd dealt with Mervyn.

Seeing that the man was now completely out of sight, Lupos emerged from the shadows and continued into the courtyard to see Lucio. "Hello young master, thank you for allowing me to be here." said Lupos through clenched teeth. Unaware of Lupos' irritability Lucio smiled arrogantly.

"You're welcome, after all, it is the future Lord's job to look after his citizens and if you have family here I guess that makes you a citizen." Lupos shook his head. "Not quite young master, my family are hunters and have no affiliation to any city." Lucio pursed his lips and looked slight annoyed at the idea of not being able to rule over Lupos, but shrugged it off quickly.

"Anyway our instructor for today will be the ex-captain of the Royal Knights. He'll be here in a minute, so until then would you like to have a quick spar with me?" Lupos shook his head cautiously "no thank you young master, you are much too skilled for me."

Fenrir started laughing in mindspeak "and," said Lupos continuing with a sly smile "I'm sure my spirit is no match for yours." Fenrir stopped laughing while Lupos smirked. Lucio shook his head annoyed "tough this is an order not a request, I demand that you spar with me!"

Lupos sighed but didn't say anything more and simply nodded looking happier as Lucio called out "Elia bring me the two practice swords." a few seconds later a young girl scuttled through to the courtyard. The nondescript girl appeared with two swords, she then deposited the swords next to Lucio and gave a quick bow then scurried away.

Picking up one of the two swords Lucio threw the second one to Lupos "Ok, let's start, we'll spar until one of us is disarmed understood?" Lupos nodded. "Are we including the spirits in this battle and are we allowed to use magic?" Lucio paused and thought about it for a moment "no spirits but magic is allowed."

Lupos nodded, this could be fun, this way he could still beat Lucio without having to worry about looking overly strong. "Ok, let's start!" yelled out Lucio as he started accelerating forwards. He didn't get far.

"Sinking sand," whispered Lupos under his breath. At that minute a large sinking sand hole formed underneath Lucio's feet. While Lucio was struggling in the sand Lupos calmly walked up and grabbed Lucio's sword. "You are disarmed, I win" said Lupos in a cheerful voice completely ignoring the outrage on Lucio's face.

"I want a rematch!" demanded Lucio once Lupos had cancelled the sinking sand magic. "Are you sure young master? The only reason I had a chance this time was because I had the element of surprise, I could never take you on in a fair fight."

Lucio looked disgruntled and was about to say something when an older man with a pompous looking attitude and a fancy sword walked into the courtyard. Lucio's face quickly changed to admiration and respect "Master we are ready for your teaching."

Lupos bowed down pretending to be respectful but already annoyed with the instructor. Anyone who knew anything about swords could clearly see his was just for decoration and that his soft hands belonged to that of a noble who had known no hardship throughout life.

The old man sniffed when he saw Lupos. "So this is the plebeian that will be joining us?" Lucio nodded and Lupos grit his teeth. "Thank you very much for this opportunity honourable knight." Lupos could not bring himself to call the man master he had, had but three masters in this world, his mother, Laikos and Darius and he would not dishonour them by giving this wimpy noble the same respect.

The knight nodded smugly and started to teach the boys boring and repetitive drills until eventually the end of the day had come to pass, Lupos could see now why Lucio was only average in swordsmanship, his sword was a pretty distraction but nothing more.

Lupos gave a quick bow and thanked the knight for his time and was just about to leave when Lucio came up to him. "Gale seeing as you did slightly above average in training today I have decided to honour you by letting you see something interesting."

Wanting to refuse but not having the leeway too Lupos nodded and just prayed it would be over soon. However, the sight he was shown was not one he expected, and it made him feel rage to his very core. In the room he had been led into, there was a cage and in the cage lay a girl about the same age as him with night black hair and large violet eyes. However, atop her head were large black wolf ears. The girl was like Darius a magical beast given human form but she was not a snake, she was a shadow wolf.

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Hiya guys i thought I'd finish off the chapter before my exam starts in an hour so wish me luck sorry for the bit of the cliffhanger I'll try and resolve it tonight :)