The week had passed in a moment and soon enough Tai and Mary were on their way to her tribe. They would meet them two hours from the capital so they started early in the morning. Mary planned to stay for a day and return home once Tai and her family moved on, they would meet again once it was time to return to the academy.

“So anything I have to know if I don't want to grievously insult someone?” She inquired as they left the capital.

“Not really, as long as you don't speak with anyone before you meet my father you'll be alright.”

“That's good to know, I take we will go to him directly?”

“Yes.”

The rest of the ride passed in companionable silence as they both readied themselves to meet the tribe. The forest around the capital was, unlike any other forest, peaceful. You could move through for hours without meeting single monster, not that there were that many that could do anything against the two of them.

They arrived at the meeting point, a big clearing, just on time to see the tribe come out of the forest.

“You don't use roads?” Mary whispered to Tai.

“We don't need to, we don't have anything that requires wagons so we just go where we want.”

That logic didn't seem all that logical to her but beastkin were different from all other civilized races so she just took it as cultural difference.

Taimanu's father stood out, a head taller than everyone present with a presence that rivalled her dad's. His coloration was similar to Tai but the rest was different. His tail was a little shorter and he had considerably more bulk, so much in fact he looked a lot like a normal human if one ignored all the animal features.

Taimanu jumped off her horse the moment they were near him, practically flying towards him, yelling:

“I am baaaaack.” Loud enough to scare anything within a few kilometers.

Judging by the speed she took off with there was no doubt in Mary's mind that her friend used body enhancement to be faster yet her father still caught her with ease. As Mary arrived at her friends side she could see the lynxkin pouting at her laughing father.

“How could you still catch me, I even used magic.” After laughing for a little more he finally answered.

“I got ready the moment I smelled horses, I know you. Why don't you introduce your grinning friend here hmm?” He said with a deep rumbling voice.

“Sure, she is Mary. How have you been? Did anything interesting happen while I was away? Did you meet other tribes? How is” Mary interrupted her by poking her with a small tendril of mana, a signal they had agreed upon should Tai’s old bubbly personality get hold of her again.

Mary jumped off her horse and bowed to the man.

“My name is Mary Falconbridge, pleased to meet you.”

“I am Toranq, chieftain of the Moonlynx tribe, pleased to make your acquaintance young noble.”

“How did you know she was noble, I never told you?”

“It’s written all over your friend, her mannerisms, name and pose all cry imperial noble. That's something you will learn if you live as long as me.”

Mary thought about interrupting the two, but ultimately decided against it. Tai's dad seemed to catch it anyways.

“You are free to talk now that you were introduced to me.”

“Good to know, you know you can ask me anything, don't you? I’d be happy to teach you imperial etiquette if you ask me, I may not like it but am perfectly capable of teaching you everything you want to know.”

“You are a strange noble, most imperial nobles I met adore etiquette above all.”

“You only met capitalbredor southern nobles then. Northerners like my father are a lot more relaxed.”

“So your father really is the infamous grand duke?”

“Yes, he is.”

“It seems I'm in luck than, my daughter befriended the daughter of the most important noble in the empire.” Mary laughed.

“I'm sure there are a lot of people that wouldn't agree with you.”

“You didn't include yourself.”

“I didn't, for all I care the rest of nobility can go bury themselves.”

“That's not what a true nobles would dare say.”

“There are plenty, you just have to meet the right ones, I'm adopted though.”

“Oh yes, the Tradition, a curious part of your culture.”

“I take it you travelled the world a lot?”

“Oh yes, I did, why do you ask?”

“Do you recognize these words?” Mary repeated what she had heard her mother say in her memory.

“I can't say I know the language I'm sorry.” Mary deflated a little, it would have been wonderful if he did. “But the words sound a lot like languages from the far north would, beyond the monster lands.”

“That's more than I knew so far, thank you.” That was encouraging, if the language actually came from the north she would have to visit a lot less language experts than she had thought.

The beastkin tribe was efficient, they managed to transform the clearing into something livable in less than an hour, something Mary would have thought impossible without magic beforehand. She had been introduced to the rest of the tribe as well, there were about fifty persons present with another ten hunting for dinner.

There didn't seem to be all that many children and no one present was Taimanu’s age. After asking Mary was told that young beastkin usually left their tribe for a few years to explore the world by themselves. That seemed reckless to her but beastkin were the better suited for stuff like that than any other race.

Taimanu’s mother, Tolisu returned with one of the other hunters three hours after they arrived, carrying the body of a deer with two bites taken out of one of the legs. Tai repeated her enthusiastic fretting but managed to reign in her excitement without Mary's help. Mary helped with dismantling the deer and they were sitting at a low table of earth soon enough, waiting for their dinner to finish. Meanwhile Tai's parents started a conversation.

“How was your first year outside of our tribe?”

“It was great. I met lots of new people and my magic is beyond anything I was capable of before.”

“That's good to hear, very good indeed. How did you meet your friend?”

“She smelled my familiar in my room.” Mary answered. She got an astonished look from everyone present though the reasons were different.

“You and my daughter are of the same age yes?”

“We are.”

“How did one as young as you get a familiar?”

“I was doing my ranger test and found a falcon chick that fell out of its nest and rescued it. We hit right of and he was my familiar a few months later. He already evolved once.”

“That's astonishing for one as young as you.” The small talk continued for quite some time and soon enough dinner was ready. While not as good as her father's cook the meal was delicious and Mary was throughoutly satisfied after dinner.

The tribe met around a big bonfire once they finished eating and Mary was asked to tell a story about their adventures. Her story seemed to satisfy her listeners and they gratulated her on the planning she had done to ensure the safety of her team.

It seemed beastkin culture dictated stories must be repaid in kind so Tai's dad started telling them one of his own.

“I was an adventurer once. I left my tribe as every young has to and decided that I wanted to meet a human so searched for one of your roads and waited for one to appear. Only a day after I arrived a team of adventurers found me. I had been waiting in the forest next to the road and was stalking them for an hour before they noticed me.

They thought I was a monster stalking them and ran at me with weapons drawn. I was so shocked that they would attack me like that that the first one nearly killed me, he managed to divert his stab just in time.

After they assured themselves I was no threat they decided to take me to the next city. They thought I was a lost child and didn't believe me when I told them it was normal for young beastkin to go on a journey to find themselves.

That lasted until the first monster attack, few kingdoms are as safe as the empire and it was quite common to meet random monsters on the road. So when the crazed evolution of a bear came crashing through onto the road they told me to stay back and let them handle it.

I had none of that once I noticed they were rookies and would be killed without my help. Being the reckless youth I was I enhanced my body and charged right in instead of using my wizardry to help them from afar.

I didn't account for the fact that the monster was crazed by pain already and as such it wouldn't be fazed by even the most deadly of injuries.

My charge distracted the monster from a deadly attack on one of the humans, it looked straight at me and he was able to dodge.

Once I was in range I jumped on its back and started tearing at its neck, further adding to its rage. While I was tearing at its back the adventurers were forced to retreat a bit as the bear started rampaging around with no possibility to reach me.

In the end it ran for the forest, trying to crush me between a tree and its back. I got of just in time but had a bear charging at me afterwards so my situation didn't improve. It was then that I remembered my magic. I only had to evade once, which I nearly managed. It hit my arm with its shoulders, sending me spinning and breaking my arm.

By the time I got up it was bearing down on me again and only a desperate jump to the side saved my life.

This time I got up in time to hide behind a tree and start using the roots around me to obstruct its charge. It lucked out and managed to trip it. Before it managed to get up again I restricted it with as many roots as I could and then killed it by piercing its eye.

The humans came looking for me once the forest got silent, cautiously approaching the site of battle. They found me sitting there, shaking.

I got myself under control fast enough and used my knife to carve out a small part of the monsters flesh to honor our fight. That earned me a strange look but once I explained they what I did they ignored it.

I accompanied them to the city where they sold the materials we got from the monster. I was offered to join their team once they knew I was old enough.

That was how I met the team that would travel with me for the next years.”

The tribe went to sleep soon after, leaving Mary and a few others to keep watch of the forest. The story had been interesting but also served to remind her to avoid fighting monsters with anything but her magic. She liked Tai's parents well enough, though her mom was a bit intense. She didn't talk much but nothing seemed to escape her notice.

Mary would return home tomorrow. She would take Tai's mount as well, her father's stables had enough space and the tribe didn't seem to want to use ways a great horse could follow. She looked forwards to returning home, her dad had hinted he wanted to discuss something serious.