The Raven Shield soldiers prepare to head back to the capital, gathering up their gear and mounting the horses, they set off at a slow pace. The three wolf siblings are hitching a ride in one of the wagons the soldiers brought, that had previously been used to carry supplies for their journey to Kalda.

The wagon has no seats and is a bumpy ride. The wolves are having trouble getting comfortable for the long journey ahead. "How long did they say it could take to get there." Skoll asks.

Luna responds to him while trying to get into a comfortable position. "They said it would take a week."

"An entire week of dealing with this bullshit." Fenrir says. 'I would have liked to concentrate on training my magical aura while on this trip, but I guess that's not happening, at least not while riding in this.'

Fenrir turns his head and looks at Skoll. "You like to exercise don't you? What do you say, do you want to walk instead?"

"I wouldn't call that exercising, but it does beat having to ride in this wagon for the entire journey. " Skoll doesn't waste any time getting out of the wagon to start walking, Fenrir does the same.

"More room for me I guess." Luna says as she looks around the wagon for something to lay on to make the ride more pleasant.

The first mage that they had seen before running into Elenor in the woods comes riding up behind, Fenrir and Skoll on a horse wearing chain link armor. "I believe I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Gabriel Payne."

Fenrir starts to get a little annoyed. "What with you mages and always wanting to introduce yourselves?"

Gabriel chuckles at his reply. "It's common courtesy for soldiers to introduce themselves, It makes people more at ease."

"Well, it's kind of annoying to have three people introduce themselves within the past few hours."

"That's understandable, to be honest, I don't like doing it myself. But in this case, it's not every day that we come across new magical creatures that we can converse with."

"Well if you want to talk to us then how about teaching us how to use magic."

Gabriel pauses for a moment to think. "I would have to ask Mortas about that to see if alright. We'll talk later when we make camp for the night."

With Mortas leading the group of soldiers, they eventually reach a wooden bridge that they had previously used to cross over on their way to Kalda. However, the stone bridge seems to have collapsed since they last crossed it.

Elenor comes riding up to Mortas from the middle of the formation and sees the terrible sight. "How do you think this happened?"

"Stone bridges don't just collapse like this, at least not this one that was in good shape. Either way, we can't cross the river at this point, we'll have to take a long way around."

"But that would mean traveling into dangerous territory, you remember the reports about the Dark Territory."

"We would only need to traverse along the boundary. Besides, there is no way we can get our supplies across this point on the river. If anything we could try to find a shallower point and cross from there."

The Dark Territory is a place that used to be home to vast forests and mountains as far as the eye could see. However, due to the substantial amount of portals popping up in that area has given rise to untold mythical and legendary beasts that have made it their home.

Mortas orders and leads the group north to find a safe place to cross the river. Later in the day before the sun starts to set over the horizon the soldiers prepare to set up camp.

Their tents are made of leather held up by five wooden poles, four holding up the ends and one taller pole in the middle. Each tent can shield four soldiers from rain as they are only meant to do. There are a total of twelve tents in total surrounding a few campfires.

After everyone has finished setting up the camp and getting situated, Gabriel finds the wolves sitting at a campfire along with a few soldiers in the background telling stories about the battles they fought.

"How are you three holding up?"

"Could be better if we didn't have to take a detour." Luna snaps at him.

"I understand that you are upset, but if it will make you feel any better your mother's trial won't be for another two and a half weeks. This detour will only put us back a day behind the soldiers escorting your mother. So there is plenty of time to make our way there so you can have time to talk to her."

"That's some good news. But this detour is cutting away at our time to spend with her."

"We are trying to get the three of you there as fast as we can. There is nothing we can do to speed this up."

Luna stares at the campfire not wanted to talk anymore. Her desperate desire to spend as much time as possible with her mother before her trial is nagging at her.

"You said you could teach us more about magic before." Fenrir says trying to start up a conversation and to lighten the mood.

"Yes, I almost forgot about that. Mortas told me it was alright if I taught you while on our way. So, what would you like to know?"

"Well, we have mostly trained on our magical aura but we haven't been told how to manifest our aura into physical spells."

"Have you been taught how to make a connection with a magical beast yet?"

"No we haven't, and this is the first time we are hearing about it."

"I should explain that you first then. It's basically like making a contract with a magical beast from the other realms. We do this because it benefits both parties. For example, it usually takes a full twenty-four hours to restore all of your magical energy from the surroundings if you use it all. However, if we have a contract with a magical beast then we can exchange our energy between both of us at will but it's usually only ten to twenty percent of our total at max."

"I can see how that would be useful in a fight. The stronger the magical beast is the more energy you could get. But how do we make these contracts?"

"Well, you can only make a contract with one monster at a time. Both parties have to agree on the details before it's complete, the same thing applies when you want to get out of a contract as well, both parties have to agree. This is why it is usually a life long contract, so you have to be cautious about which one you want."

"So how do we find these beasts to make contracts with?"

"You have to concentrate on the sources that your automatically drawing energy from. They should look like ribbons with different colors, then it's as simple as finding the one you want. I would recommend that you take your time searching for the one you want. Now for your second question as to how you manifest your energy into a physical form, all you need to do is imagine it taking a specific shape that you want. It's that simple, although it does take a while to practice getting it right."

"Fenrir I need to talk to you in private for a second" Luna says as she stands up looking angry.

"Sure I guess."

Fenrir follows Luna just outside the camp where no one can hear them. "Listen Fenrir, I know you want to learn how to use magic and all. But now isn't the time for that, right now we need each other. I know you're trying to act tough and hide your emotions but right now we need you, I need you. I'm not as tough as you think I am, this past day has been rougher of me than you think."

Fenrir lowers his head and stares at the ground clenching his fists. "I'm sorry I ju....just couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn more about magic. I promise I'll be there for the two of you whenever you need me from now on. I hate seeing the two of you like this, I thought all I needed was to get stronger to protect both of you. But now I understand that I need to be there for you and Skoll emotionally. My obsession with power drove me away from what was really important."

Luna smiles at Fenrir. "I'm just glad that you're starting to be your old self again. We were starting to get worried about you, about what you were becoming." Luna wraps her arms around Fenrir and hugs him. "Please don't go down that path again, we need to stick together right now to get through this."

"I know, from now I will focus on what's important to me, and right now that's you and Skoll."