Road of the Heavenly Light

3-2: Hunt for Love

Felix and Levi immediately sat down in their dorm to think of a plan to help Glen, who had gone to Earth to sit in a tavern and drink his sorrow away. One hoped he would stay away from alcohol.
"Maybe we could take him out into Earth and let him flirt with some girls there?" Felix suggested.
"No, we need to get his mind off of flirting for now, otherwise he'll be reminded of how he failed today," Levi said.
"It's the middle of the week, we can't exactly go far away from Royale High..."
"Then we could go hunting in the forest?"
"Levi, you know just as well as I that weapons aren't allowed in Divinia, the church would arrest us for hunting, and we could get expelled!"
"Oh please, almost every student has a weapon secretly with them. I have my sword with me, and I know you do too. As for the church, they would never go into the forest of all places, and whatever we catch we can just sell to a foreign merchant with the story that we found it like that."
"I suppose that would work. How about we invite some of the other guys too? We could ask Apollo, who probably will ask for Howard to come too, and Howard's dormmates could come too."
"Hm... Cheston knows the forest well since he lives in Earth, and he's good with a bow too. Bayard is the only Theros noble I'd call decent besides Margaret, and he likes hunting too. But there's also Drake..."
"He'll tag along the moment we taunt him, and he's quite the amusing company when he sees something as a competition," Felix laughed. Now all that was left was to wait for Glen to return. Thankfully, he arrived rather quickly, having only sat in a tavern for a bit before deciding to go back to Royale High.
"Hunting? I don't have much better to do, so I guess I'll come..." Glen said.

Thankfully, the other guys also immediately accepted, except for Drake, who accepted once Levi asked him if he was perhaps bad at hunting. And so, Levi and Felix waited for everyone in front of Royale High once classes had concluded. Glen quickly arrived, with a bow and quiver filled with arrows in his hands. Felix and Levi were going to use daggers as their weapons of choice. Next up were Bayard and Cheston, who both also had bows and arrows with them. They were quickly followed by Howard and Apollo, who seemingly had nothing with them for hunting.
"We're going to use magic for the hunt," Howard explained.
Felix's eyes widened, "please don't tell me you're going to use fire magic."
"No, I'm using light magic and Howard uses dark magic," Apollo answered.
"What's the sudden concern about fire magic?" Glen asked.
"Laura's been practicing it lately, you don't know how many fires I've had to put out. If I see one more fire I'm going to scream..." Felix sighed. Everyone laughed.
"Now where is Drake? He's certainly taking his time..." Levi wondered. Everyone waited for a bit longer, until he finally arrived with a hatchet in his hands.
"This is Wyvernston's finest kind of hatchet, no doubt I'll get way better catches than you guys with this!"
"Yeah, yeah, we should go now, before we won't be able to hunt at all," Felix said, and everyone went off into the forest.

Once they arrived deep in the forest, they split into two groups of four. One group consisted of Glen, Felix, Bayard, and Cheston, while the other consisted of Levi, Howard, Apollo, and Drake. Glen's group went north, towards a clearing, where they had a better view of their surroundings. Glen really enjoyed hunting with his friends like this, it made him forget all about what happened yesterday. He especially loved the thrill of trying to catch an animal in time before it fled. Suddenly, everyone heard something in a bush nearby. Everyone turned around, and Glen gestured for them to be silent. The bush wasn't that big, so at best it was a fox. They all readied their weapons, but they heard a small screech, which made Cheston lay down his bow and walk towards the bush, where a squirrel popped out.
"I knew it! Hi there, mister Squirrel! It's been so long since I last saw you."
"Ches, don't tell me you talk with animals..." Bayard sighed.
"I do! They're all so cute and friendly, and I've known them for years!"
"Let's go back to hunting, please," Felix said. They all went back to the clearing and looked around the nearby bushes. Glen decided to look near a small pond, and he heard something walking around. He immediately drew his bow and started aiming around. When a pheasant popped out of the bushes, he managed to hit it first try, taking it out.
"I did it!"

Meanwhile, the other group had gone to the northwest, towards some small ruins. They were looking around, but didn't find much.
"I can't find anything... How come the forest is suddenly empty?" Levi asked.
"Because you damn amateurs probably scared away all the animals!" Drake shouted.
"I think that's on you..." Howard sighed.
"Shut your damn-"
"I found something!" Apollo shouted. The three others quickly went towards Apollo, who was looking at some footprints in the grass. Apollo slowly followed the footsteps, and stopped in front of a destroyed stone wall covered in vines. Behind it was a pheasant. Drake pushed the others away and grabbed his hatchet, carefully aiming at his target. Once he threw it, it immediately took the pheasant out.
"Easy."
"We should probably regroup with the others, there's nothing else left in this area," Levi suggested, and everyone went back to where they started. On the other side of the forest, Glen's group had also gone back to the meeting point, and the two groups were quickly reunited.
"Looks like we both didn't have the best of luck..." Felix sighed.
"At least we had fun, right?" Levi turned to Glen, "just us guys, out in the woods, with no girls in sight."
"So that is what this was all about... I suppose I owe you an explanation," Glen said.
"I don't flirt with women because I'm some kind of creep that wants to date four women at the same time. I flirt and show off because it's the only hope I have of finding a girlfriend."
"What do you mean?" Levi asked.
"If I'm not in a relationship when I come of age, my parents are going to marry me off to whoever can get them the best alliance. In fact, they tried it when I was young too, since I was almost engaged to Laura. Because of that, I made a deal with them that if I was in a relationship when I came of age, I wouldn't have to marry someone they choose."
"Glen, that's awful..." Apollo said.
"Please, I really don't need your pity, just your understanding."
"Then how about we go to Earth and leave this for some other time?" Felix suggested.
"Yeah, I ain't going to sit here for some damn crying party," Drake said, and everyone laughed. When they boys arrived at Earth, they quickly hid their weapons and sold the pheasants to a merchant, earning them a small sum. They decided to use the money by buying some drinks at their favorite tavern, but on the way there, something else happened.
"Well, if it isn't Glen and Felix!" a familiar voice said. It was Sigrid, followed by Adrian and Christian.