Astrid lays down on her bedroll, eyes wide open, she didn’t get much sleep last night due to the events of the day before. She reaches over and grabs a piece of hard bread she got for free on the way out of town last night, the vendor was going to throw them away due to they were hardening, but instead they gave them to Astrid when she asked. She sits up, causing Viele to shift out of his tent form and turn into his tree ent form.

“Massssster…. Are you alright?” Viele asks, his voice drenched in worry.

Astrid’s face turns red as she starts to remember again that she kissed Shortclaw, the kiss, her first kiss. Astrid then covers her face with her hands and flops down on the bed roll again. “I don’t know Viele.”

Viele eyes Astrid. “Issss it due… to the mating…. Rituall performed… with the foo… mea… male?”

Astrid pulls herself back up. “Nooo.. it wasn’t anything like that! It was a friend kiss!”

Viele just stares, not sure what to make of the current circumstances. “Then sssshall we… get going… massster? Many…. Meals… I mean… humans… have been going by… into the town… more than… usual… I think it is due to… the festival…”

Astrid’s eyes grow wide when she remembered that the festival was today, and that she had a date with Shortclaw. “Oh no no no…. why did I do it, I can’t even think about him and that stupid kiss without getting embarrassed!”

Viele reaches down and pokes Astrid in her stomach repeatedly. “Viele… wisssshes…. For massster… to stop… being… ssstrange… confusing… me…”

Astrid swats at Viele’s hand, she hits the bark like appendage hard, hurting her hand. “Owww… grrrr… fine Viele you win I will get up!” She then stands up. “Happy now?”

Viele nods as he rolls up the bed roll and shoves it into Astrid’s pack. “I live… to sssserve…. Masssster.”

“Yeah yeah.” Astrid says as she stomps off towards the gate, Viele in tow. She storms through the gate, the guards watching her, a few recognizing her.

“Hey if it isn’t the little elf girl!” One of the guards yells and waves.

Viele just walks past them, an angry scowl on her face. “Not in the mood!” She yells at the guard, as she walks through the gate.

Viele pulls out a sheet of paper, and hands it to the guard, the guard looks over to the elf then at the paper. “Errrr…. Is she on her… err… monthlies?... Do elves have that?” The guard asks Viele, handing the paper back to the ent. “This is the first time I have seen her like… this.”

Viele just shrugs. “I… am… not ssssure… what… that is….” Then walks off after he stuffs the paper back in the pack.

“It’s where… err… no never mind, just go on.” The guard turns around as he hears laughing behind him. Two of the other guards are holding onto their sides laughing at the poor man, tears flowing down their cheeks.

Astrid continues storming down the crowded streets, random people turn and stare at the aggravated elf and her ent. “Pushy familiars.” She repeats over and over. Each step she makes towards the academy she thinks more and more about everything, calming down as she realizes that after what they went through yesterday with the guardian, she had truly formed feelings for the beastman.

As she reaches the front gate she sees a large crowd of people outside the academy gates, all slowly going inside. After waiting in line for what seems like hours she finally gets inside the academy grounds. She then goes to where she is supposed to meet up with Shortclaw. When she finally gets to their appointed meeting place she sees Shortclaw, standing around and scanning the crowd of people. “Okay Astrid, collect yourself, all you did was kiss, you can do this.” She says to herself before she walks closer to Shortclaw.

“Is she going to not show up?” Shortclaw asks himself worriedly, not sure what got into him last night, he is now worried that he may of scared Astrid away since she still isn’t here. When he catches sight of Astrid he raises both hands into the air and waves them at her. “Thank Gaia!” he says to himself as he heads towards Astrid.

When they meet up they both stare at each nervously. The one to break the awkward silence was Shortclaw.

“For a little while I was worried you weren’t going to show up after last night.” He says as he rubs his head nervously.

“Sorry…” Astrid says as she looks down. “It was… just I felt so awkward after the kiss and…”

Shortclaw interrupts her. “Please don’t be, I …. Errr… enjoyed it… and it made me happy… I thought you were going to say no to be honest.”

Astrid looks up and smiles. “Well to be honest, I kind of… like you so it made me happy too.”

Shortclaw returns Astrid’s smile. “Well since you like me so much, how about I treat you to some food! There are stands with food from all the city states here!”

Astrid nods, the only food she had lately was the old bread.

Shortclaw grabs Astrid’s hand and starts leading her through the crowd heading towards the food stalls. Astrid starts to blush as she feels the warmth from the hand around her hand, Shortclaw’s fur brushing against her hand.

Shortclaw looks back at Astrid as they walk. “And as a payment for the meal can you do me a big favor?”

Astrid nods. “Sure.”

“Yesterday, after Viele turned into the… armor… I remember him biting me, then the last thing I remember is waking up on Viele shoulder. And where is my mace?”

Astrid and Shortclaw continue walking as Astrid explains everything that happened in the fight, and about how Shortclaw was so brave defending her. By the time they reach the stalls Astrid finishes filling Shortclaw in on the fight with the guardian.

“I really did all that? I wish I remembered any of it.” Shortclaw says, a frown on his face.

“Yep!” Astrid smiles and looks around at all the various food stands, crowds of people around each one. Her jaw drops as she sees the variety of races here, humans, trolls, giants, goblins, dwarves, some that looked like humans but had insect like plates on their body, and for a moment it looked like there was even another elf in the crowd. She starts gripping Shortclaw’s paw tightly as she starts to get nervous around all the people.

Shortclaw notices the squeezing and looks at Astrid. “Are you okay?” He asks, concerned that she is scared.

“It’s nothing… just nervous seeing all these people.”

Shortclaw smiles and pulls Astrid close, wrapping an arm around her and kissing her forehead. “Don’t worry you got me here.”

Astrid freezes, blushing a crimson red again, not sure what to do as she is held, the warmth and the fur, all surrounding her. “Okay.” The only word she can squeeze out.

Shortclaw releases her and looks back to see Viele staring at him, an obviously angry glare on Viele’s face. “I… I guess we should hurry and get in line before they get any longer.”

Astrid just nods and follows Shortclaw into the crowd.

After looking at a few stalls they finally choose one, it served a mushroom and earth bear steak bread bowl.

Shortclaw orders three of them, giving one to Astrid, and one to Viele. Viele reluctantly accept it and devourers it in a matter of seconds to the horror of the crowd around him, not expecting snakes to come from the ent. After quickly getting out of that area they find an area nearby with not many people so they can sit and enjoy their food.

“So… Shortclaw… what are you going to do about your mace?” Astrid asks before she shoves a piece of earthbear meat in her mouth, the tender meat seeming to just fall apart in her mouth.

“Not sure yet, I will probably find a cheap one here at the festival, they always sale a lot of decent weapons and armor for cheap at the festival.” Shortclaw then takes a large bite out of his bread bowl like he is eating a sandwich.

“How much is cheap?” Astrid asks, remembering the seven silver coins she has in her pocket.

“Anywhere from three to ten silver, for a decent one that is.” Shortclaw says as he finishes off his bowl. “So are you planning on buying anything?” He asks.

“I was told that I should buy a minion or two since I am going to be using nature magic. I also want to buy a surprise for you.” Astrid says smiling.

“Oh?” The surprised Shortclaw looks at Astrid. “I heard extra minions can be expensive, are you sure?”

“If they are too expensive I won’t get it so don’t worry.” Astrid smiles at Shortclaw as she finishes her bowl.

“How about I buy one for you? I have a bit of silver due to me working for my uncle.” Shortclaw reaches into his money pouch but Astrid just shakes her head.

“No, I can’t do that, you already spent too much on me already.”

Shortclaw frowns hearing Astrid reject his offer. “Well… if you need my help buying anything I will gladly buy it for you if it’s a reasonable price.”

Astrid just shakes her head.

“Well since we are done eating do you want to see how uncle Blackclaw is doing?” Shortclaw says as he stands up, offering a paw to Astrid. Astrid takes the paw and stands up.

“Sure, lead the way!”

Astrid and Viele follow Shortclaw through the throng of people again, heading to a different area. As they push their way through the crowd they hear various people yelling. “STAVESS, MAGIC JEWELY, WANDS THIS WAY!” A tall tanned human yells, but they just continue passed him and the crowd of people in front of his stand. Eventually they see a familiar black beastwoman on top of a large crate, yelling “LEATHER AND CLOTH ARMOR FOR SELL! HIGH QUALITY MATERIALS, ALL LOCALY MADE!”

Shortclaw and Astrid make their way around to the back of the stall. Several large crates are stacked up making a wall behind the stall, with just enough room to walk through between two of the crates. They walk through it to see Blackclaw distracted, he is going through a stack of leather armor like he is trying to find something.

“Hey uncle, guess who!” Shortclaw says with a chuckle.

Blackclaw turns around. “Shortclaw!” He gives Shortclaw a big hug. He then looks back at Astrid. “Lass!” He then lets go of Shortclaw and hugs Astrid, lifting her up off the ground. He pauses for a moment as he smells Astrid. Putting her down he looks over at Shortclaw. “My little nephew is finally a man!” He goes and hugs Shortclaw again. Squeezing him tightly. “Now don’t hurt her you little scoundrel you, and I thought it would take years!”

Astrid’s ears perk up. “Nooooo it’s not like that!” Astrid says, her face turning red again in embarrassment as Blackclaw releases Shortclaw.

“Sureee lass… just remember to take good care of him.” He then pauses again and looks at Shortclaw. “Speaking of taking care of him, I am going to need your help Shortclaw, Razorclaw injured his back carrying merchandise around. So, I need you to help out here till the crowds die out.”

Shortclaw lets out a groan. “But I’m on a showing Astrid around right now.”

“Then you can finish your date later this afternoon.” Blackclaw says as he throws an apron to Shortclaw. “Now hurry up and put that on and get up there. I will pay you extra as a thank you.”

Shortclaw grumbles as he puts on the apron, he then turns to Astrid. “Ummm sorry but I have to help my uncle out.”

Astrid nods. “While you do this I can go shopping and get your surprise, and hopefully a minion!”

“Are you sure that you don’t need any extra money?” Shortclaw questions as he reaches for his coin pouch again.

Astrid just shakes her head and smiles. “I am a big girl I got this.”

“Hurry up you two love kittens we have a line of mone… customers out there and we need to make sure they are happy.” Blackclaw says as he brings a leather chest piece covered in a black fur to the front.

“Then I guess I have to go.” Blackclaw says with a frown, he then leans forward and kisses Astrid causing her to freeze, her ears standing on end and her face turns red again. “That is the payback kiss from last night.” He then turns around leaving the elf there, frozen.

After a few minutes Viele gets bored of his master not moving so he pokes at her. “Masssster?”

“Oww… What?... Oh Viele it’s you.” Astrid says in a daze.

“Master…. Find… minions?” Viele asks waiting for Astrid to do something besides stand there.

“Yeah… sorry was just distracted…” Astrid says as she turns around, heading out between the two crates. She starts looking around the various shops in the area, most selling armor, or magical trinkets, but after going through a few stalls one caught her eye. It was a larger stall surrounded by various cages and she could see various creatures in them. As she watches she can see the people all leaving with various small creatures in cages, or with an egg. “This must be the place I am looking for!” Astrid says excitedly. She then joins the line. When it finally gets to her turn she walks up to a heavyset dwarf.

“Why hello little lady, my name is Sam Brightstone! And I would like to welcome you to Creature Emporium’s stall! We are the largest and well known creature store in all the city states! We have any creature you can possibly imagine. You want a Flaremole? We got them! A dreadsteed? We breed them by the dozen! If you have the coin, we can even procure a phoenix.” He says grinning. “Now little lady, what attribute of magic are you so we can pick out what minions are good for you!”

Astrid pauses for a second trying to break down everything she just heard. “Ummm… I use nature magic.”

Upon hearing nature magic Sam pauses, like he is thinking. “Nature magic! A tricky one but not outside the expertise of us here at creature emporium!”

“Why is it tricky?” Astrid asks confused, her ears perking up, peaking out of her hair.

“Oh my! Little lady was an elf! No wonder you actually had nature magic!” Sam says, a smile on his face. “And to why it is tricky, there isn’t many people in the human territories that actually have nature magic affinity, so the demand for nature magic creatures is very, very low. That and the nature affinity creatures are… problems… like my caravan found out on the way here.”

Astrid raises an eyebrow. “Problems?”

“Oh nothing to worry about, just a nature creature we were able to catch decided to break out before we were able to enter the city. The damn guardian ripped a cage open and ran right into the woods before we could do anything about it.” Sam says shaking his head.

“A guardian?” Astrid’s eyes grow wide looking back at Viele who is just staring at a thick wooden box on the table then back at Sam.

“Oh yes, they are nature creatures that appear in elven forest ruins, they usually don’t leave the ruins and are usually docile unless you enter the ruins, like they are guarding it, that is why they are called guardians.” Sam says. “And unfortunately that was the only nature creature we had that is…. Err… born. But the good news is we have a decent collection of seeds!”

“Seeds?”

“Oh you don’t know?” Sam asks surprised. “Well, creatures that have magical properties are usually born in an egg, and that egg draws mana from the surroundings till it has enough to hatch. But, nature affinity creatures are different, they are born from seeds, which is all fine and dandy, but it is near impossible to tell what is in the seeds unlike with the eggs. So if you buy a seed it’s like playing a game of chance, you may get a lowly tree ent, or you may even get a bark hydra.”

“Then… can I see some of these seeds?” Astrid asks.

“Of course little elf!” Sam turns around and lifts the lid of the box Viele was staring at. Both Astrid and Viele peer into the box.

“Each seed is five silver a piece, no returns if it’s a creature you don’t want though.” Sam says smiling.

Astrid eyes the seeds, contemplating getting one, but she only had seven silver to spend. “I’m sorry but…” Astrid starts to say but before she can finish it Viele reaches inside the box, grabs a seed and quickly swallows it.

Both Astrid and Sam stare at Viele, their mouths open.

“Spit that out right now!” Astrid yells at Viele.

“Sorry massssster… already… eaten….” Viele says, like he did nothing wrong.

“That was five silver!” Astrid yells again.

“Yes mam, that is five silver.” Sam says with a large grin on his face. “And as an unspoken rule of the company we aren’t allowed to give refunds for eaten property, like in this case. But how about this, since it all happened like this, as a sign of good faith I will part with the seed for three silver. It was probably another ent seed anyways.”

Astrid reluctantly gave the man three of her hard earned silver, eyeing the remaining four in her hand before she puts it back in her pocket.

“Thank you for the business little elf, I hope you return next year, or come to our actual shop!” Sam says, a smile still on his face.

Astrid walks off, a frown on her face, Viele following close behind. After she gets far enough away to make sure the salesman Sam couldn’t hear she turns around. “Damn it Viele, why did you do that! Now I only have four silver coins.”

“Sorry… Masssster…. Ate… needed power…. To protect…. Masssterrrr…..” Viele hisses, he seems to be in pain.

“What is wrong Viele?” Astrid says, putting a hand on the ent’s shoulder.

“I… am fine…. Massster…” Viele hisses as he doubles over. “Jussssst… seed… fighting… butt… it can’t…. win...”

“What kind of seed did you eat you glutton!” Astrid yells, attracting attention from the nearby crowd.

“Alpha… Deathscythe…” Viele’s body seems to shake violently as he falls down, then as fast as it started it stops. He then suddenly stands up as if nothing happened. “I have completed… devouring him master.”

Astrid’s eyes grow wide. “Does this mean that you can transform into this… alpha whatever now?”

Viele shakes his head. “No massssster… just like… the guardian… neither… of us… strong enough… yet… for me…. To use… the form…”

Astrid just nods her head. “And are you sure you are okay?”

Viele looks around at the people that are still watching the strange ent. “Yes masssster.”

“Okay then, we need to go and see if we can afford to get a new weapon for Shortclaw.” Astrid says as she turns away from Viele. “So… tell me… Viele… what is this alpha deathscythe that you ate, and why did you eat it without my permission and make me use that three silver?”

Viele grins. “When I…. wasssss… jusssst a little one…. I… watched a deathscythe…. In action…. It wasssss…. Like death…. It… wasssss a large green insectoid…. Huge glowing blades…. And wings that blurred… with every beat… a large group of Dryads… tried to capture it…. The Dryads… they were all slaughtered and devoured before… one could finish casting a spell… remembering… that…. Is why….”

Astrid’s eyes go wide in surprise. “And the one you ate, you said it was an alpha one, does that mean its bigger and stronger?”

Viele nods. “It… was not even born…. Tried to… devour me… insssstead...”

Astrid starts giving Viele a dirty look. “Then don’t EVER do anything like that again, understand? If I ever lose you I do not know what I would do.”

Viele nods. “Viele livessss…. For masssster.”

“You better!” Astrid says as they reach another stall, this one has a bunch of muscle bound people in heavy armor. That and there was a person in front of the stall hollering about all the weapons they have. “This one looks promising.” She says to Viele after getting in line. After a while of standing in line, dealing with all the strange glances the various warriors give, Astrid finally arrives to the stall. Picking the nicer looking of the three salesmen she goes to a very muscular beastwoman with magnificent white fur, and two black stripes running down her back. “Umm… Hello…” Astrid says as the beastwoman eyes her.

“Yes? What is it?” The beastwoman growls.

Viele steps closer to Astrid getting ready to defend her.

The beastwoman sees the ent and bursts out in a fit of laugher. “Silly mage, you are at the wrong stall, we don’t sell wands, we sell only powerful weapons for powerful warriors.” This causes several people in line to laugh.

“Umm…. I’m not here to buy a weapon for me. I am here to buy a weapon for my bo….. my friend. He had a large mace, and he ended up breaking it when fighting.” Astrid says as she starts to cower slightly under the gaze of the beastwoman.

The beastwoman sniffs the air around Astrid. “We don’t sell weapons for elves, their bodies aren’t made for melee combat, they should stick to magic and their archery. Now scram so I can deal with actual customers.”

“Umm… my friend isn’t another elf…” Astrid says. “He’s a beastman.”

Hearing this, the beastwoman’s pauses for a moment, looking the elf up and down. “Okay then, what is this friend’s name?”

“Shortclaw.” Astrid says proudly.

The beastwoman’s eyes grow. “Shortclaw you say? That little pup has an elf for a friend?”

Astrid nods. “And he is even enrolled in this school, we are starting this year.”

The beastwoman strokes her chin thinking. “Well… if it is that runt Shortclaw then I may be able to do something for him.” The beastwoman then puts on a smile on her face that scares Astrid, causing her to step back. “Oh I am sorry elf girl, I was just thinking of the perfect thing for that darling Shortclaw. Oh, and by the way the name is Snowtail.” Snowtail says as she starts to let out an almost evil laugh.

Astrid starts backing up more away from the stall. “Are you sure? I can just go to another stall if it is to…”

Snowtail beckons Astrid to come back over. “No no no, elf I insist, sorry about laughing like that, it is just you can say that I am a… friend… of the claw clan. And how about this? Since you are also such a close friend to Shortclaw, so close that you are actually buying him a weapon, I will even give you a discount! So how many coins do you have to spend?”

“Four silver.” Astrid says, almost sounding depressed as she does so.

Snowtail taps her chin then smiles again. “I got the perfect weapon for him, and it is only four silver!” She quickly goes and searches a crate. After a bit of rummaging she returns with a large mace, the entire mace nearly as large as Astrid, it has a long metal handle with a leather grip, the head of the mace is a black metal and it has random spikes jutting out. “This right here is what you need, it’s made out of shadowsteel so it is lighter than that steel those humans like to use, and it retains its’ strength that pup will never be able to break this bad boy.”

“This sounds… very expensive…” Astrid says almost accusingly.

Snowtail just waves a paw and shakes her head. “Since it is going to Shortclaw I am giving you a discount so it’s only four silver.” She then puts the mace in front of Astrid.

Astrid reaches and attempts to lift the mace but she can only grunt as the mace doesn’t move.

“Oh sorry, it’s a little heavy for elves, let me help.” Snowtail says, reaching for it. But before she can grab it Viele wraps his hands around it and lifts it up, putting it on his shoulder.

“I shall… carry for… massssster.” He says proudly.

Snowtail eyes Viele up and down. “Interesting ent you have there. But make sure that it is you who gives the mace to that runt Shortclaw, not the ent.”

Astrid nods, slightly confused by the request but hands over the four silver to Snowtail and walks away, laughing as she watches Viele walk trying to stay balanced with the heavy mace in his hands. “Lets go see how Shortclaw is doing and give him his new weapon!” Astrid says with a smile.

Back at the weapon stall Snowtail is still smiling as she watches the two walk away.

“So Snow, why did you sell that elf a twenty silver shadowsteel mace? Why did you sell shadowsteel anything to a non beastman even.” The larger red furred beastman asks. “Did you not remember our rules?”

Snowtail looks back. “Oh, it is just you brother Redtail, and if you asked me that you definitely didn’t hear the conversation in its’ entirety.”

Redtail raises an eyebrow. “Well, spit is out woman!”

“Well… do you remember the chief of the claw clan, Wraithclaw? The one who ran our clan name through the mud?” Snowtail asks.

“Yeah what about him?

“Well, that elf just left with the shadowsteel mace to give it to his oldest pup as a gift.” Snowtail gleefully says before she busts outlaughing.

“Does she know the significance of what she is about to do?”

Snowtail just laughs louder. “I don’t think she does, and if Shortclaw accepts it, I can finally get my revenge! And top it off knowing Wraithclaw, he will be pushed to do something drastic that will just help further our clan name!”

“But what if he refuses the mace? We are out seventeen silver, that is not cheap.” Redtail says, annoyed at his sister’s antic.

“They say love is blind, and it looked like the elf had feelings for him, I can just hope he has feelings back.” Snowclaw giggles in delight, the warrior in front of the line staring at her like she is crazy.