Natalie looked at the boy they had found. He was a little more than 4 feet tall and had messy grey hair though after looking at it for a while she thought that it might be white under a layer of grime. He was wearing a grey cloak with a light brown shirt and pants beneath it. she also noticed that he was barefoot.

Upon meeting his gaze she was struck by two things. First of all his eyes were a startling shade of light blue, but what was really shocking was that his pupils were purple and around the iris of one eye there was a black and red band, “what is someone so young doing alone in the forest of kaar.” she asked the boy with a bit of confusion in her voice.

A look of confusion came over the boy’s face as well and he didn’t answer. before she could ask him another question there was a shout from behind her. “Watch out there’s a monster.” it was spencer, Natalie realized. and after his shout spencer ran forward with his mace held above his head. Cal heard the shout and looked over to see a large boy who he assumed was a human running at kaze.

After assessing the situation cal ran towards kaze, who upon seeing the danger also ran towards cal. However, this did not dissuade the boy with the mace and he continued after kaze. The boy let out an ear-splitting shout, which appeared to be an ability or spell as it caused kaze to be frozen for a second. this was all the boy needed to catch up and he started to swing his mace towards kaze.

However, by now cal was close enough to scoop up kaze and cover him with his body. The mace which was already on a downwards trajectory struck cal on his shoulder and its momentum carried on slamming cal into the ground. The clearing was quiet for a second, everyone there was in shock.

Natalie who was the group’s leader was the first to come to her senses, “Olivia come heal the boy and spencer what were you thinking.”

“there was a monster, and it’s still here, it could be dangerous,” spencer said defensively. Kaze squirmed out from under cal and started growling at spencer. After seeing the pup reappear spencer raised his mace to continue what he had started, but his arm was caught from behind. Upon turning he saw Caleb. Caleb was their scout and was the one who had noticed the smoke from Cal's fire, and led them here.

“I scouted this clearing before we entered it right,” he asked with an annoyed expression. Spencer nodded and was about to say something when Caleb cut him off. “And because I scouted it you would think that I would have noticed any monsters that were a threat to us.”

spencer gritted his teeth and nodded again. “So let’s say that when I scouted out the clearing I saw a boy playing with his admittedly rather unusual dog, so I decided that there was no threat and let you guys enter the clearing.”

spencer nodded again and grumbled. “Still you should have told us about the dog.”

Caleb let out a grunt and turned his disapproving eyes to Natalie. “We can blame that on your squad captain, who decided not to listen to my report and went straight in after hearing me say it was safe”

it was true, during their expedition into the forest of kaar their group had been assigned a temporary scout which their squad was currently lacking. Caleb was one of their upperclassman from their academy and took on the roles of both scout and supervisor for this expedition.

There was an unforeseen problem with the situation which had caused the current problem. Natalie had never had a scout in their team and was not sure how to effectively use one. this had caused her to make a number of minor mistakes, but the only serious one had been not listening to the report which led to the injury of the boy.

Natalie who was watching as Olivia try to heal the boy did not hear the others’ conversation. “Will he be okay?” she asked with a bit of worry leaking out of her voice. The dog was still growling but after seeing that his master was not in danger did not try to attack.

“There is nothing I can do,” Olivia said with a sigh. “The shoulder is not only broken but also dislocated. we will need to take him back to the instructors.”

this caused the last two members of the group to complain “come on Olivia can’t you just bandage him up and let us be on our way,” asked lustro.

“Yeah and if we do have to take him back why not have spencer do it. he was the one who hurt the boy in the first place” added ros. The two were identical twins they both had long blonde hair held behind their heads in ponytails and wore sleeveless leather tunics which exposed rippling muscles along their biceps.

“We will not have any of that” Caleb shut down there complaining quickly. “You guys have already failed this first attempt. you can start again tomorrow but for now, we need to take this boy back to our camp.” the twins continued to quietly grumble but they did not argue. after all, Caleb was their supervisor.

The group had been on a mission that worked as something like an exam for the academy of holland which was the most prestigious academy in the kingdom of kilayen. There were many other academies located throughout kilayen, however, the holland academy was not only located in the capital but was where almost all of the children of nobility and royalty attended, making it by far the most prestigious.

The mission they were currently on, which was to find a rare herb in the forest of kaar, was the first-year’s mid-term exam. This exam could be completed with a group of at most four and an upper-classmen who would act as a supervisor.

Each group was given three attempts to complete this task and they would fail if they failed to return by sundown. Each attempt could be failed at any time if the supervisor told them they failed, though the supervisor would have to provide proof to the actual instructors that the group deserved to fail the attempt.

As soon as he had told the group that they had failed Caleb took control of the party and started ordering them about. he had spencer look around the clearing for anything that may belong to the boy and the twins were told to build a stretcher for him.

As soon as the stretcher was complete and the boy loaded onto it, Caleb bent down and grabbed the boy’s dog by the scruff of his neck, and pretty soon the group was heading back towards their camp. they didn’t run into any monsters on the way back to camp but the dog spent the entire trip trying to bite and claw at Caleb.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, Natalie asked Caleb. “Who do you think the boy is.”

Caleb glared at her for breaking the silence but still answered. “I have no clue. the only settlement in the woods, that I know of, is greenwood, the goblin village run by threynar the cursed.”

Natalie looked over to cal then back to Caleb. “He isn’t a goblin,” she said unhelpfully.

“I know that is why it is so confusing.”

they both looked over at the boy when lustro commented. “The boy looks no older than ten, even if he were a race that looked young, I would be surprised if he was fourteen. so we can assume he is not awakened.”

after he finished, ros added. “He is also not of a race that I recognize. out of the common races, only humans can have white hair without albinism, and even then only a rare few have it.”

Spencer let out a grunt and asked “what are the common races again.”

In answer, Ros launched himself into a lengthy reply. “Well, there are ten common races that are put into three groups: the altar races, which are made up of humans, elves, and dwarves. The natural races which consist of merfolk, gnomes, nymphs, and satyrs. And the fallen races the goblins, orcs, and dark elves. Each of those species has subraces though so he still might be just a rare subrace of one of them.” after ros finished spencer nodded, satisfied with the answer, and turned his eyes back to the road.

At this point, Olivia started adding to the conversation. “If he is a subrace of a common race he is probably either a subrace of the elves or the nymphs.”

that comment made Natalie curious and she asked. “Why would you say that?”

Olivia nodded at the question and started her explanation. “Well just by looking at him you can tell that he isn't any of the fallen races, merfolk, or a satyr. And you can see that he is still a child, so he is most likely going to continue growing which makes both gnomes and dwarves unlikely. and humans always have rounded ears no matter what subrace they are so that leaves nymph and elf.” after she finished her explanation, Olivia glanced over to Caleb to see if she had gotten any of that wrong, but he was nodding in agreement.

Pretty soon they exited the woods and saw their camp. The camp was set up about a hundred meters from the woods and was currently almost empty except for 5 teachers who had come from the academy to help if it was needed. As they approached one of the teachers got up and walked over to them. He was a dwarf and from his robes, you would assume he was a mage. As he got within talking distance he started talking to Caleb. “For you to return this quickly they must have messed up pretty bad.”

Caleb let out a sigh and nodded. “They failed to listen to my report which caused the boy on the stretcher to get injured. Also, while walking through hostile territory they were talking which is distracting to them and will attract enemies in the area.” the last comment made Natalie angry, hadn’t Caleb been talking with them too. Deciding to hold her peace Natalie settled for glaring at Caleb

the teacher nodded and asked. “Is there anything else?”

Caleb shook his head and answered. “No, mister talon.”

Mr. talon let out a sigh and bent down to look at cal. After a quick inspection, he called over Olivia. “Olivia you are this party’s healer correct.” after getting a nod from Olivia he started asking her questions about how she would treat the boy and what was injured.

After being satisfied with her answers Mr. talon bent down and placed his hands on cals shoulder, and with a yanking motion popped it back into place. The pain woke cal up and he sat up and let out a scream. At the same time, kaze started yelping in pain and thrashing around. Before cal could get up and try to escape Mr. talon grabbed his shoulder, and this time a green light bled out from around his hands. after a second he let go and cal took a step away from the group.

To cals surprise, his arm didn’t hurt anymore and he realized that the man in front of him had cast a healing spell. Calm down kaze but stay vigilant. Cal said over the bond. He felt understanding come from across the bond and kaze stopped thrashing around. Cal stood there in silence.

After a second Mr. talon started talking. “Hello, my name is mister talon who might you be.”

cal who couldn’t understand shrugged his shoulders and said. “I can't understand you Mr. dwarf.”

Mr. talon raised an eyebrow in surprise. he couldn’t understand the language cal had spoken either but he got the gist of what Cal was trying to communicate. He once again pointed at himself and spoke clearly and slowly “Mr. Talon”

cal nodded in understanding and pointed at himself. “Calaeris” he used the unshortened version of his name. Mr. Talon nodded and then pointed at the dog. He seemed to be waiting for cal to answer so after a second cal pointed at kaze and said. “Kaze”

Mr. talon once again nodded and spoke to Caleb. “Put the dog down but be careful.” Caleb nodded and slowly bent down and set kaze on the ground. Upon being freed kaze ran over to cal and started sniffing at his boot, and once he was sure that cal was ok he turned and faced the group.

“Mr. talon what are we going to do with him,” asked Natalie.

Mister talon thought for a moment then called to one of the other teachers. “Haiden would you come over here”

one of the other teachers let out a sigh and started walking over. All of the teachers had been watching and listening to what had been happening but, not wanting to get involved had remained silent.

After walking over haiden looked over cal. “I don't have a clue,” he said after a second. “He is likely a nymph of some kind but the language he spoke wasn't nyllian which, other than common. is the only language that nymphs will often use.”

while the teachers were having this conversation, Cal had been sizing them up. The newcomer seemed to be human and had long brown hair that reached just past his shoulders. He had a kind face with a hook-shaped nose. Cal looked over everyone in the group. He had only seen the boy with the mace in action but he wasn't that much faster than cal, and cal assumed that the boy was only a few levels higher than he was.

If I were to run I might be able to lose them in the woods cal thought. But it was a maybe and he didn't know if any of the people here were stronger than the boy with the mace. and he didn’t want to risk their anger. Cal decided to stay and watch the situation and hopefully find a chance to escape.

He looked over the group again and this time made eye contact with the girl that hadn’t talked to him yet. She was shorter than most of the others, except for the newcomer that cal assumed was a dwarf. She was staring intently at him and cal was slightly unnerved and quickly looked away. Mr. talon and the new person seemed to be having a discussion and cal decided that he didn’t particularly want to stay with them, and decided to see if they would let him go.

He coughed and after getting their attention. He waved his hand in a farewell and said. “I’m sorry, you all seem overly nice, except for the kid who hit me with his club. but he looks rather stupid so we can forgive him. anyways, I don’t think we should stay together so I will take my leave.” and with that, he turned and started to walk back into the forest with kaze following him. No one there could understand him and just watched in confusion as he finished speaking and turned to leave.

“Wait you shouldn’t go in there alone it’s dangerous,” shouted Natalie after recovering from the confusion. Cal not being able to understand her continued walking. After a second the twins ran in front of cal and blocked his way.

After he tried to go around them they quickly took out their spears and tried to block his path. Cal after noticing their weapon got down in a defensive crouch and held his fists in a boxer’s stance. He wished he could have gotten his sword out but he didn’t think he had time. He quickly sized up the situation and gave kaze his plan

Cal quickly lunged forward and grabbed each spear by its shaft. The twins, who were not planning on fighting cal only stopping him from leaving, were caught off guard by his actions. As soon as he had both of their weapons caught in his grip cal shouted now through the bond. Kaze then leaped forward and activated frozen aura.

Earlier cal had read its description and was quite pleased with it. It was a stamina-based skill that would temporarily cause all of a person’s physical stats to be one less effective, for every five stamina put into the skill. the effect would only last about five seconds, but that was plenty for cal. Kaze had put 35 stamina into the skill which would lower the twin’s stats by seven points.

still being surprised by what was happening the twins were not prepared when cal yanked the spears out of their weakened grasps. after, dropping the spears cal bent down and picked up kaze, who was nearly out of stamina, and started sprinting into the woods. The interaction only took about a second, and everyone except for the teachers and Caleb was still in shock about what had happened.

The teachers and Caleb were both at significantly higher levels than the others and so calmly watched as the boy ran off. “Do you want me to get him?” Caleb asked.

After a second of thought, talon nodded, and without a word, Caleb sprinted after cal. He was currently moving at a speed triple that of what an ordinary person could go and quickly caught up to cal. He got in front of cal and held up his hands hoping that the boy would stop. He had wanted to just grab cal but he was moving fast enough that if he had it could have heard cal.

However, cal who saw Caleb appear in front of him had an instant to decide what he wanted to do. He didn’t want to hurt any of the people here because that might cause them to actually get angry and just by watching the older boy’s display of speed, he knew he would most likely lose in a fight. He decided to cast miniature shadow summon twice, and four shadows peeled away from his own and surrounded one of the boy’s feet.

Just as cal reached Caleb he dodged to the left and simultaneously cast corporeal shadow. Now all of his summonses stood up and grabbed Caleb’s foot. Caleb who was not expecting the resistance on his foot lost his balance for a second and this allowed cal to continue running.

He still couldn’t escape though, as soon as Caleb noticed the shadows on his foot he kicked at them and they dispelled. he then, quickly got up and ran after cal again. This time he ran in front of cal and stuck out his foot cal who had no time to dodge tripped over his foot and face planted into the ground. Cal had the wind knocked out of him and could do nothing when Caleb bent down and picked him up. After they got back to the clearing Caleb set cal down and went back to stand next to the instructors.

“I believe he is awakened.” Caleb quietly said to the teachers. They both nodded they had seen cal cast his spells and noticed when kaze had used his ability.

“The dog is too.” added haiden.

“Well it appears to be a monster so I am not surprised,” said Caleb.

“You guys stop being lazy and come help” Haiden shouted over to the other instructors. With some reluctance, the rest of the instructors got up and came over. This was one of the few times during the school year that they did not have to deal with anything and they were all slightly annoyed that their vacation was being disturbed. cal was now facing a semicircle of 11 people who were all staring at him.

“This is interesting,” said one of the teachers she was an elderly gnome who wore a suit coat and had a small pair of glasses perched on her nose. “And you said he was awakened.”

she directed this question to talon who nodded and said, “yes miss Elina he cast at least one spell and the dog used an ability too, I think they may be familiars.”

“That’s surprising I wouldn’t think he was older than ten, thirteen at most.” she quietly commented to herself. She took a few steps towards cal and he took one back but quickly stopped when he remembered what had happened last time he had tried to get away. She was now about a foot away from him and looking up at him with squinty eyes

“Hmmm, we will take him back with us, until then, as punishment for failing your first attempt Natalie you and your group will watch after him.” After saying her piece Elina walked back over to where she had been sitting, and pretty soon the rest of the teachers went back to where they were before. Cal now stood with the six people who had originally found him.

Caleb let out a snort and started walking away he called over his shoulder. “I am not in your squad so have fun babysitting. The boy”

there were now five people in front of cal. Olivia took half a step forward and pointed at herself. “I am Olivia”

cal nodded and pointed at Olivia. “I am Olivia”

Olivia realized her mistake and shook her head then pointed at herself again. “Olivia”

Cal nodded in understanding and said. “Olivia” Olivia now smiled and quickly introduced the rest of the group. The twins both seemed annoyed but cal thought that was because he had disarmed them so easily. Spencer seemed apologetic, but cal had decided not to forgive him just yet, he had tried to kill kaze and had broken his shoulder.

Lastly, she pointed at Natalie and said. “Natalie”

cal nodded and was about to repeat when ros coughed and lustro spoke in a slightly angered voice. “To a commoner who isn’t one of her retainers she should be princess Natalie or your highness.” they both were glaring at Olivia who seemed embarrassed at her slip up.

“Yes yes your right that’s my mistake.” she turned back to cal and pointed at Natalie. “Princess Natalie”