A Werewolf's Promise (Scarwood Chronicles #1)

Chapter 8: A Friend Always Knows

If Knight knew he was going to have this much fun at Scarwood, he would've told his Pa to start teaching him magic earlier.

He was currently working on carving the lunar cycles into the wand wood he was given. Which wouldn't be too bad, if it wasn't for the fact that it was massive. But the teacher said that a staff-sized wand worked the best for Celestial Witches, so Knight couldn't really argue with that. Though he was kind of jealous that the others got easier materials... though, that was probably with the exception of two other people.

Knight looked over at Hugo, who was currently watching Rosa weld a lantern to her staff. Those two had to work with metal, since their magic would destroy the normal wooden wands, and their wands were also staff-sized. Mr Flintwood had taught them how to use the welding tools, but Rosa had given up around ten seconds in and was now resorting to using her magic whenever the teacher wasn't looking.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Rosa said, "who need tools anyway? Now, lemme do yours."

"Erm..." Hugo nervously eyed the smoke billowing from Rosa's staff, "I think I'll pass."

"Well, it's your loss." Rosa shrugged and went back to working on her staff.

Knight's nose twitched at the acrid scent of smoke. He didn't know how Rosa had managed to generate smoke from a fully metallic object, and he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to know. Instead, he turned his attention to Hugo's wand. Or rather, his design of a wand. It was a simple staff, styled to look like a tree branch, and what looked like one of those glass bottles that plants lived in on top. (Knight forgot the name... he swore it started with T... terra?) He couldn't really get too much of a good look, though, as Hugo was hard at work on it, though completely silent.

"Hey, you alright? You've gotten quiet."

"I'm, fine, it's just, this wand... it needs to be perfect," Hugo muttered, erasing and redrawing a pattern on the handle over and over again, "It's metal, so no retakes... damn it, messed up again..."

"I don't know Hugo, it looks fine to me..." Knight squinted at the lines on the paper. The designs all looked the same to him, so he didn't really understand how Hugo went wrong, but then again, he had never been the artistic type.

"Though, how are you sure about carving, if you're not sure about the design?"

"Please, Knight, you're stressing me out more..." Hugo said, pressing a hand to his forehead.

"I didn't mean it like that... it's more that... aren't wand handles made out of leather of something? Leather's easier to use than metal, and if you mess up, I'm sure Mr Flintwood has more.

Hugo blinked slowly a few times, before a small smile spread across his face.

"Ohhh, I see... Geez, why didn't I think of that? You're a genius!"

"I don't think I'm a genius. Pa says I have more people sense... what's it called?... oh yes right, empathy than smarts, but he also said that it wasn't a bad thing—"

Knight was cut off by a loud bang coming from where Rosa was sitting. He turned around to find her nervously poking the lantern that had once been on her staff, now shattered into several pieces.

"Miss Almenara?" Mr Flintwood approached, his voice halfway between concerned and reprimanding.

"Come on! No one told me it might explode!" Rosa said, embarrassed.

A few giggles came from where Charlie and friends were sitting, mostly from him and Salem. The others seemed too busy working on their wands to notice. Knight frowned a little at their intrusion. But, as he looked around the classroom, something occured to him.

"Hey, where's Sugar? He did his examination right behind me, didn't he?" he said looking around for his friend.

"Probably went off to the bathroom or something," Rosa managed to sneak in, as she was still being talked to by Mr Flintwood.

"Huh, it doesn't seem like it..." Knight said, as he took another look around the classroom, noticing Charlie and friends now whispering and giggling about something else. And he didn't know why, but he felt like it had something to do with Sugar...

Just then, Professor Ignatio walked into the classroom with a sigh.

"Ah, Mr Ignatio!" Knight called out, "have you seen Sugar?"

"Who?" Ignatio said, a little embarrassed, "Sorry, I need to make a mental note to memorise which name goes with which face..." he admitted.

"Oh, that's okay... uhm, he's got black hair... about this tall?" Knight's hand waved around at roughly five feet in the air, "he kinda behaves like a cat, but tell that to his face, and he'll get pissy at you... even more like a cat... but that's besides the point!"

"Oh, yes, him... he did run out a little while ago, and I'm afraid i don't quite know where to, my apologies."

"Ran out? What happened?"

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about. We get a few like this each year. They think they should get a magic fuel that's higher up the potency chart, but are sorely disappointed. Honestly, these covens..." Professor Ignatio sighed, "But it's okay, they just need a little time to get used to it. Now, how are your wands going?"

"Uhhh..."

There were still a few wisps of black smoke wafting around from Rosa's earlier mishap, so Knight just smiled and said:

"It's going..."

Before Ignatio could reply, he was distracted by a commotion coming from the table at the back of the class. The twins were now having a shouting match... well, a one-sided shouting match: it was mostly just Salem yelling, while Asteria gave disinterested answers.

"You jerk, stop copying me!"

"I'm not copying you. Your wand wood isn't even the same colour as mine."

"Yeah, but you're doing the same design!"

"Because this design channels our magic the best? Salem, sometimes I really do think that you forget that we have the same Mana type..."

"Girls, girls, please stop arguing," Professor Ignatio rushed forward, endeavouring to break off the argument.

"Tch, so annoying..." Rosa muttered from beside Knight.

"I kinda feel bad for her sister..." Knight mused, though his thoughts were still swimming, wondering where in the school Sugar could be.

"I wouldn't feel so sorry if I were you. She made her choice to be part of that group." Rosa shrugged.

Knight had a feeling it wasn't quite that simple, but he had bigger things to worry about.

"I'm going to go find Sugar," he declared, though only really loud enough for Rosa and Hugo to hear.

"Y-you're gonna get in trouble if you leave without telling a teacher," Hugo said, eyes growing wide.

"I'm sure he'll turn up eventually." Rosa said in her usual unbothered tone.

"No, I'm gonna find him. Sugar doesn't strike me as someone who would run off unless he was really upset. And don't worry," he turned to Hugo, "I won't get caught."

So when the teachers weren't looking, Knight snuck out of the classroom, and began his search, helped only by a vague idea of the situation from what Professor Ignatio had said.

What kind of places would a guy like Sugar go sulk in? Well, he was very cat-like, and cats like to rest in sunny spots, right?

Now that he was thinking about it, that was a very stupid comparison, but hey, it was a start. So full of perhaps misguided confidence, Knight began for these 'sunny spots' around the school.

┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐

𝔸𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖

└─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

Sooo, what  does everyone think of the Knight-POV? I think i might do a few more now hehehe

~Viva