A/n howdy once more folks! time to kick off the next phase of the story, The Nico War! heres the ch16 ruff enjoy! as usual ill proffread it more tomorro

Howl 16 Education by Example

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It’s the next morning, I wake up but I refuse to open my eyes and acknowledge that the sun is up. I feel a familiar feeling beneath my head, thighs. They’re not as thick as Lupa’s, must be Mora.

Ah, that’s right; all three girls were waiting in my room last night. Gods that was a sight, but like usual, I barely made it to the bed before passing out. Large fights leave me so drained; I’ll chalk up last night as a tragedy.

Mora begins running her thin fingers through my hair, it feels amazing. Her whole body always gives off a cool aura, I think I can feel an actual chill radiating from the small, smooth scales on her hips that lead to her tail. These thighs are definitely a gift from the gods.

She must have noticed a grin on my face or something because she just poked my side with her whip like tail. I peek at her with one eye and give a slight smile before closing them again and continuing to enjoy her petting.

With a pleasing scratch of my ear, Mora whispers, “Naughty doggy.”

She continues like I’m still asleep. The sheets feel warm, I can smell the burn wood from the fireplace.

From elsewhere in the room I hear a yawn.

Ulfa calls out to the room, “Mora, make sure he gets to Patra’s shop before midday. I’m going to pay my Mauggy a visit; it's been over a week. I’ll be back by dinner so just keep him out of trouble till then.”

Mora replies, “Yes Ma'am. Have fun!”

Ulfa laughs, “I don’t need you to tell me that, have fun yourself.”

I don't hear any door open so I assume she left through the fireplace.

I hear the sound of something wooden being set down, likely on my desk. I can imagine Lupa is sitting there working on that always elaborate hair of hers.

“I don’t think I’ll mourn the day she no longer has to be at my mate’s side at all times.” Yup, that’s Lupa.

Mora stops for a second, “That will be my duty till the day he dies, I do hope you won’t mind.”

“No, oddly you don't bother me as much. It might be that it’s because you aren’t a beast race.”

The petting resumes, “Is that so, what about little Iris? She’ll be quite the beauty one day, and is promised to Lord Nox.”

“Iris is too adorable to hate, besides it's not like she’ll even be able to have pups with him if Queen Emese and the Fenrir are the usual case.” Lupa seems to be motivated to keep her lead female position.

Not that I mind, although if Mora keeps this up every morning Lupa is in for some competition from my point of view.

Something stirs around my legs.

“Is it time to get up?” the lovely voice of a half asleep Asta.

I can hear Lupa’s tongue click, if there is a real threat to her status as my mate, it’s Asta.

It takes every ounce of self-control not to sit up as I feel a hand reach between my legs and grab on to something it shouldn’t.

Mora asks, “Asta what on Terra are you doing?!”

Asta giggles, “That Patra girl told me he likes this, I spotted her sneaking into his tent a couple times during the trip here. Apparently she was in heat and Miss Stick over there wasn’t even speaking to Fuzzy at the time.”

Mora obviously would be interested, “I thought your family was strict on the waiting till marriage tradition.”

Asta tightens her grip, “they lost that authority over me when they let me be with Nox here. Hmm it’s longer than Walt’s.”

I feel wetness close around it, did Patra tell her about using her mouth!?

I can feel her tongue playing with it!

No way can I keep the sleeping act up much longer.

I hear Lupa’s evil giggle from near the bed, “Careful Asta, he likes to bite, and if you bite him back he gets excited…”

Don’t do it Lupa, I was already excited enough from Mora’s petting.

I can tell by the shifting of the bed, Lupa is now next to me.

“Like this...” I feel her lick my shoulder before slowly biting down.

A quick throb was the only warning Asta got.

Now I’m awake….

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Breakfast has become an interesting change, we have the hall to just Mora, Asta, and I.

Most likely because of the two baths we ended up taking, reason being somewhat obvious if anyone was to see the way Asta is hanging off my arm even now at the table. Her white hair is still only half done and her clothes are hardly presentable, but it’s not like she even cares right now it seems.

In between her attempts to feed me my own food I ask, “Are you sure you’re not in heat?”

She pauses, pressing the fork to her lips before stealing the bite for herself.

After licking her lips, “I can’t be right? Mother said Lycans don’t usually enter their first heat until around their third year.”

Like I would know, that sort of thing is the stuff I’ve already grown used to looking to Ulfa for the answers to.

I can only shrug, “Whatever I won’t mind if you are a little extra frisky.”

I steal her fork from her plate and grab a bite of eggs for myself. As always the cook made them perfect, super fluffy with the yolk popped. I wonder if he received notes from the den cook.

Asta grabs some of the boar sausage from my plate, as she brings it to her lips I quickly chomp it away myself.

She gives me a sour look but I smile, “I think you've had enough of my sausage for one morning already.”

She laughs and once more reaches down between my legs and into my pants.

As she begins to play, she feeds me another bite of eggs before saying, “You thought wrong Fuzzy.”

Good thing Lupa left early to return to her family, I can see this as being an issue if she was here.

As Asta lowers her head below the table I ask, “Um, you’re doing that again? Here?”

She looks away somewhat shyly, “I know what that bitch was going for earlier, but honestly I kind of liked it.”

Mora from the seat to my right leans over to Asta, “Did it taste good?”

I can only look at her, this girl has the strangest personality sometimes….but did it?

Asta giggles, “Try it sometime and find out.”

Mora turns bright red and returns to eating a bite of potatoes, sneaking a glance at me before rushing the bite and choking slightly.

I pat her back gently between her wings and try to resume eating myself. Slightly difficult considering Asta is still attending to a meal of a different sort.

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As we walk out to the carriage waiting for us I notice it’s slightly colder today.

The winter must be coming within the next month or so. Last year we weren’t allowed out of the den except to learn to hunt. The massive pines kept out all but a few flakes from reaching us on the forest floor and shielded us from the cold.

With a shiver Asta finally fixes her clothes, I imagine the fur lined, white dress should keep her fairly warm despite being slightly revealing of her chest.

Mora however seems perfectly fine in her blue toga dress. I wonder what a full blood ice nymph looks like, or a dragon for that matter.

Once on our way to the craft district I ask, “Mora, what where your parents like, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Seated across from me Asta leans forward and asks Mora next to me, “Ya, what does a real dragon look like?”

Mora pouts, “Hey I am a real dragon! Well, half anyway, well whatever, no I don't mind Nox.”

She composes herself before leaning on the window and looking out as she continues.

“My mother was the picture of beauty, slender, white skin, white hair, ears longer and pointier than a psotnik”

I interrupt, “A psotnik?”

She puts her finger to her chin, “Alve, aesir, I think the common tongue for them is elf?”

Oh those tall, skinny people with the pointy ears, even now I believe we just passed one looking at a cart of veggies. Ulfa said they tend to stay away from cities but the outcasts of their clans usually end up here.

Mora goes on, “The other women in father’s lair said I would look just like her if I didn’t have so many traits of our monster of a captor. Those women always said such nasty things about him, greedy tyrant, rapist, terrible beast. Personally though, he was actually quite nice to me. He had no human like qualities aside from being intelligent. He walked on four limbs, rarely standing upright to reach some random treasure in his hoard within the lair.”

She pets her own tail and looks like she might cry, “He was very handsome, lean, strong, I loved how cool is ash grey scales felt. Everything about him gave the impression of a sleek and stealthy predator; he could even breathe icy wind!”

She really does start to cry, “I used to run around after him on all fours just like him. You should have seen how happy he was the day I first flew, he gave me this silver tiara. He called me his princess.”

I pull her to me as she pulls a small pouch from somewhere within her dress and takes out a dazzling silver crown like object that she wore when she fought me, the design almost looks to be made of silver thorns.

I take it from her and put it on her head. This gets me a small smile but she continues to cry.

She wipes her tears and finishes, “It was the next day he was killed before waking in the morning. With one of his own prized spears no less. He always said they had belonged to the champions that had come closest to defeating him. The women claimed they wanted to be free, but I bet some were just jealous, he had never given any of them a gift.”

Asta plops over to my lap and pats Mora’s head, “It's beautiful on you, and I bet you looked adorable chasing your daddy around.”

Mora laughs, “I assume so, thanks.”

She leans against me as I return the favor of petting her hair like she did for me this morning.

Looking for a change of subject I look out the window.

I see a short barrel of a man, “Hey what's that?”

Mora looks, “A karzelek, metal troll, dhvaras, dwarves to the humans. You’ll see more as we get closer to the crafting district.”

We pass a black skinned elf, Asta gets in on the game, “What about that?”

Mora laughs, “I forget the way your race ages so fast sometimes. That was a dokkalfar, drow, most just call them the dark elves. I can't pronounce what they call themselves, they come from north of the human’s kingdom. The can be every bit as evil as the humans, and twice as crafty.”

Mora stretches out and sits up as she continues, “One of their girls came to the bastion. None were able to match her with a blade. She was chosen by the goddess you're named after, Nyx, one of the greater gods. Everyone at the bastion was so excited to have someone sent to the middle sea pantheon and a greater god no less.”

I feel dumb, “There's multiple pantheons?”

Asta poke my side, “If you hadn’t slept away class on Lupa’s lap you would know.”

Great, that comes back to bite me again, “So miss good student, please explain.”

She looks away, “Um I didn’t really understand what the grey one was talking about, but I do know there's more than one!”

Mora laughs again, I think we’ve successfully cheered her up, “Every region has their own pantheon governing all the races located there. For example, Mistress Freki was formerly a minor goddess for the northern winter pantheon. She stepped away after her descendants, the black wargmen, committed several atrocities on the human’s side of the last Great War.”

It makes sense for a girl who grew up in an order dedicated to serving the gods to be well versed in this sort of stuff.

We pass a large man with white hair and large red, bull like, horns.

I go back to the game, “Hey what race is he?”

Mora frowns, “Likely some variant of the demon race, I’ve never studied them individually. Under the current peace agreement they are allowed in Yoden, same as the humans. It’s hard to say what is more dangerous, a human or a demon, we are better off staying clear of both.”

As we round down the last hill into the craft district I can smell the forges.

I just thought of another question, “Are the races just divided into the humans, the beasts, and the demons?”

Mora giggles again at my ignorance, “No, if that was the case than how would you categorize me? There are the fey race and the monster race whom are often confused with the demon or beast races. If you want a proper explanation you should visit the academy.”

I might do that, “So what are you?”

She grins, “Hrmm I suppose it depends on my mood between monster or fey.”

She ends with a wink and prepares to get out as we’ve arrived in front of Patra’s shop.

I don’t bother hiding my attention to her rear as she stands up to exit, it’s been that kind of day after all.

Asta notices and puts her arms around my neck while still seated on my lap.

She leans forward and whispers in my ear, “I bet you can have fun with us both when we get back tonight.”

She slightly bites my ear before getting up to get out, I’ll ask Patra but I’m positive this girl is in heat.

Speaking of Patra, she is looking at me quite angrily from outside the carriage.

She calls in to me, “Hurry up! You’re late, I expected you before I opened, now I get to take care of you in the middle of my shop’s grand opening.”

As I get out I notice the immediate attention of the large crowd in the district in general and outside of her shop. I almost forgot about the festival week, oh well this should be good for her business.

I grin at her, “Don't get your panties in a wad, I’m here aren’t I.”

She doesn’t even hesitate, “What panties? Come on in, I’ll have my cousin man the counter.”

I’m seeing her black and green silk skirt in a whole new light right now.

I see a familiar black furred pup helping customers in the shop while wearing a green and tan apron. He spots me and growls, Patra swats his head as we walk back into the work area.

Mora and Asta stayed out front to look around, the shop is really quite beautiful with its equipment racks set between white stone, water features and large, green, leafy plants.

I ask, “So what are the plants with fat bases?”

Patra doesn’t look at me as she goes about opening a chest, “Those are ferns and palms from my homeland, I had never seen them before but mother has apparently been growing them in a greenhouse in the castle gardens.”

Hmm I don't know what it is exactly her mother does beside sleep with my mother but it must be important, I assume it’s something similar to what Patra does for me.

She steps aside and gestures to a number of metal rods barely longer than my hand spread out across her work bench.

“Come on over here and pick them up one at a time and put a charge in them. Try not to overdo it and start a fire or melt them. I promised the other craftsmen in the district permissions to borrow my new forge in exchange for these materials.” she looks upset at having to make that sort of deal.

I proceed as instructed picking up the first one; it has the feel and weight of the iron weapons I’m used too. Patra has a board with paper and a quill for notes as I begin to put a small charge into it.

Nothing spectacular happens, it puts of a small bit of static. I increase the charge and it starts to turn hot in my hand.

She raises her hand, “Stop, move to the next one.”

The next one is darker and heavier, and despite my efforts nothing happens.

She raises her hand once more before returning to writing notes.

The next one is slightly blue-ish and looks almost like glass. It begins sparking slightly faster than the first rod, the sparks also seem to make a bit of noise and appear a blue color similar to the rod but I can see bits of the rod breaking off with the sparks.

She slightly panics, “Oh stop! I was gonna make some nice pieces with that. Go to the next one.”

The next one is a kind of paled or smudged looking silver, I put a charge to it and for a second nothing happens. Then out of nowhere the end bursts into a blinding white flashing fire and jets out of my hand. Fortunately it shot straight against the wall and bounced into the open forge.

Patra uses a rag to clean the burn mark from the wall as best she can before messing with her hair in frustration.

She picks up the board again while muttering, “That damn old gnome is going to pay for that. Next!”

The next one looks like the same quality of silver as Mora’s tiara, a glance over at the nervous look on Patra’s face tells me that this was probably fairly expensive.

As I charge it I see an immediate response of slow arcs crawling along the metal till reaching the end and creating a rather fantastic light show. After a moment a small flake falls off as it rapidly heats up and Patra immediately raises her hand.

I wait a moment before she points to the next rod, which if I’m not mistaken is solid gold. The effect is slightly less impressive but it still heated up faster than the iron bar.

The next one is an orange color and by the weight I recognize it as copper. It arcs up fairly fast and gives off some green ish sparks.

The last rod is a bit slower but begins to melt quickly so I set it down in the water bucket by the forge.

Patra scribbles for a moment before setting the board down, “Well that was interesting, I’ll have to chat with some people to make sense of some of that. Let’s go back out.”

Once in the shop I see Mora standing with her boot on Patra’s cousin’s neck.

He struggles but she doesn’t relent, I look at her.

She shrugs, “He was speaking ill of you Lord Nox.”

She steps aside and the idiot stands up awkwardly rubbing his neck.

Patra steps in front of me before I can speak and whacks him across the head once more, “Get back behind the counter dumb ass, I swear all your good for is sweeping.”

He gives a pained expression before glancing at some girls looking at the dresses in the females side of the shop, they’re giggling at him before returning to their shopping.

Poor guy, but I can’t help but chuckle slightly resulting in a particularly nasty look from him.

Asta comes up to Patra, “Soo I know you mostly work for Nox’s litter but pleeeease make me one of your dresses? I’m sick of always wearing the practically the same white fur dresses.”

Patra looks at me and grins quite sinisterly, “Sure, but I get to borrow your mate sometime.”

Asta immediately shakes her hand, grinning like an idiot…. I just got sold for a dress… I’m going back to the castle.

As I leave I spot the cousin looking at me even more angrily, I simply raise my hand and hold up my middle finger while walking out the door… not sure what it means but it felt right.

Mora follows me out, looking lost in thought as she sits next to me and crosses those glorious legs.

I poke her nose, “Hey what ya thinking about?”

She smiles, “A few things, I’d love a spear from Patra, her work is amazing. Also about how you occasionally do weird things. And lastly that I dare you to poke me again.”

As I get ready to pounce on her Asta climbs in the carriage, “Hey don't leave me out!”

I laugh, “Oh? I pull her into what has become an official dog pile”

We play for a bit trying to see who can stay on top, Mora’s wings being slightly in the way.

After a bit I hear a banging from the front and a muffled voice, “Hey! Knock it off before we tip over!”

I poke my head out the top and look down at the driver who’s always been quiet previously.

It’s not our usual driver I can tell just by the height. Looking closer I spot brown feathers popping out the sleeves of his hands holding the horse reins.

I drop back in without saying anything to the driver and take my seat.

The girls look at me questioningly from the floor and I put my finger to my lips, “Trouble.”

After a while the carriage stops, looking out the window I notice the sky has gone threateningly dark.

I climb out the top and stand on the roof, dozens of assassins similar to the one from the castle that night begin coming out of the surrounding alleys. All black robed with brown wings for arms, hoods drawn over their faces.

This is a problem, I’m still incredibly drained from yesterday. The now thundering cloud cover might help me out but not likely.

From a nearby rooftop one of the birds fires an arrow that I narrowly side step. On contact with the roof the arrow breaks and what looks like a glass vile lies shattered, grey liquid oozes out.

Looking about I see the assassins wiping their blades with soaked rags. Well whatever it is can't be good.

Ah shit, I just now remember I'm completely unarmed again, seriously, and I just came from a weapon shop dammit.

I flex my forearms and form black clawed hands amidst swirling black mist. Guess these will have to do. I’m actually kind of excited.

At this point a loud crack echoes across the sky as a bolt of lightning comes crashing down. In an instant and a flash all the assassins lay charred on the ground.

Asta and Mora jump up through the roof opening.

Asta looks around and whistles then looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

I shrug, “Wasn’t me.”

A last bit of lightning flashes across the sky before the clouds begin disperse.

The flash revealed the silhouette of some kind of hulking beast.

As the sky brightens I see before me as what I can only describe as an upright, wingless, red dragon in eastern looking armor.

He jumps down to the street with a crash that breaks the stone paver tiles.

His body is covered with deep red scales, his fur mane is perfectly white and trails along his back all the way to a tuft at the end of his incredibly long tail.

As I hop down to stand in front of our rescuer I realize he must be twice my height at least, especially with his massive branching and twisting horns.

I have to ask, “How do you fit through doors?”

He chuckles and strokes his pointy beard at the end of his snout, showing off incredible fangs. As he shifts I get a better look at his plated blue, shoulder and waist armor. It’s similar to the things Patra makes for Akane. On his belt are two eastern swords, long and narrow. Around his neck a massive necklace made of large pale yellow beads with black symbols on them. He also has a pair of incredibly long whiskers.

He puts a massive clawed hand on my shoulder, “Come boy, I’ve been itching to meet you since I received word of you from your mother.”

Mora runs up to his side and bows, “It is an honor to meet you finally Lord Raijin!”

He gives a toothy smile, “Ah you must be the little ice dragon girl from the bastion that I've heard about.”

She has an enormous smile, “Morana Zmaj, again it is truly an honor.”

He chuckles, “Oh stop that, what is true is the shame of what happened to your father. No matter what the peasants claim he was an icon of power and one of the most honorable dragons I had ever met.”

I can see the stars light up in Mora’s eyes.

Ah that’s right, “Now that I think about it my mother did mention something about a Raijin.”

He turns back to me, “Well she could have only meant me; come let us reconvene in my office at the academy.”

I look at him and then the carriage, “Guess we’re walking?”

Another deep chuckle, “Aye, it’s just around the corner, I felt you passing by and was coming to stop you anyway when that lovely troop showed up.”

We begin walking back down the hill amidst the towering homes crammed into each other on either side of the road. The sun is back out and revealing the true vibrancy of his red scales and white mane contrasted with the blue armor.

I ask, “You felt me, and does that mean the storm was yours?”

He looks at me with one eye from the side, “Tell me boy do you ask many obvious questions? Ah right you can’t be more than a couple years old still. Silly age rates of you beasties, and time passes funny once you pass a couple hundred years old.”

I mean I figured he was old by the beard but I guess he's more of mother's age.

He looks back at me, “I guess I can introduce myself a bit on the way, I am this era’s Raijin. Similar in the way your mother is the Inari, we actually fought against each other early on in the great war, gods it's unfair that she hasn't aged a day.”

“Against?” I ask.

Mora answers for him, “The Lord Raijin is always chosen when a rare bloodline in the sky demon clan is born once the previous one dies.”

“So he’s a demon, and I thought you said you didn't study the demons?” I look at her with narrowed eyes.

She blushes slightly, “Well they're only demon race in the general sense, like I said it's a grey area. Besides the Raijin is special, he's a war hero after he switched sides to the beast race effort.”

The Lord Raijin nods, “An easy enough summery, basically I’m from an eastern dragon clan that is very powerful with magic. It’s similar in concept to yourself boy, I’ll show you once we reach my office. Here we are in fact.”

We stand at the base of the great black twin towers of the academy. The grand double doors out front remind me of the den. One side shows a sun, waves, and a storm cloud. The other depicts a massive strange symbol behind a tornado rising from a pile of books.

Once inside a cute receptionist lynx girl greets us, “Welcome back Lord Raijin and your guests as well, welcome to the Yoden Academy of Magic and Science.”

So she says with a perfect smile, I hear Asta make a slight hop.

Turning around she looks absolutely giddy, “Sassa is going to be so jealous I got to come here first without her.”

That would be the case, I smile and look around.

It’s an amazing hall lined with hundreds of bookshelves and young people reading on couches, at tables, and armchairs. A bit of sweet smelling smoke sits in the air from the several pipes I spot being smoked throughout the room.

Two grand staircases lead in separate directions, presumably to the different towers. The Raijin begins leading us to the left towards the staircase which has a railing crowned at the start with a sun and a moon.

Mora questions, “The science side Lord Raijin?”

As we travel up past two more open balconies of book shelves and students he replies, “Yes you’ll find this to be the busier side in fact, in terms of this country's locals and myself. Despite being a portion fey, we dragons, like the beasts, use mostly instinctual magic abilities closely tied to our natural appearance and affinities. The boy here is a perfect example.”

We begin to pass countless doors, some of which emitting strange noises from beyond them.

The Raijin goes on after spotting my distracted and clueless look, “Come, I’ll give you an afternoon course on several useful things worth knowing, and who knows maybe you’ll pay attention to some of it.”

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a/n

as always i love chatting with yall in the comments. ill try and get the next chaps out fast til 20.5 at which point i plan an doing some cleaning up and ill move the updates and info section.

I appreciate the reviews and love when yall try to dive deeper into the research I put into the story. ill toss a piece of art that i loved when looking up ideas for the Raijin into the comments.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/dragonmen

love the artist's work, this thing is amazing