Mages: A Rise of Darkness

VII Water

As I arrived at the arena, Nick was already in chain mail, with a white tunic over his shirt. "Whats with the get up?" I asked. "What do you mean, this is the official fighting uniform of the mages!" He said proudly as I noticed the Circle of Magic in the center of his tunic. "Do I get one?" I was kind of jealous now. "Yeah, go over to the armory and grab a sword while your at it." That's when I noticed the long sword hanging from his back. I headed over to the armory and put on a chain mail shirt and a white tunic, I grabbed a long sword and a round shield with an oak leaf painted on it. "This'll be perfect." I said to my self, as I wasn't the best with a sword. I walked back over to the center of the arena and Master Brenton had appeared. He was average hight, with a short wispy beard and hair and his jaw seemed to be chiseled from stone . "Ah, good, your ready." He exclaimed. "Alright, first we'll see what you've got, then we'll let the Thirío harnessers go into the woods and find a prodigius to harness after careful instruction of course." With that he organized us into groups, I was paired with a brown haired girl called Sahra, and Nick was with a large guy with dark skin and black hair. Nick and I had trained together for years, because his father had paid for him to be taught, he also needed a sparing partner, and the teacher was my uncle, so I got in for free. I beat Sahra, though it was difficult and I got a few bruises in the process. When we were done, Master Brenton took me, Sahra, Nick, and the big guy, who's name was Mart, to the edge of the forest. Where he instructed us on how to properly harness a Thiríon. "First, you will want to approach it slowly, with your eyes averted and your hand out. If it allowed you to pet it, do so, and tell it your name and recite 'I will be your friend and you mine, we will help each other 'till death be upon us.' and then it will tell it it's name." He said with a sort of military edge to his voice. "You will be able to communicate with it once you have bonded though only you will hear its voice." As he said that he ducked and a large squirrel with wings flew onto his shoulder. "Show off." He said to it. "Everyone, this is Valtrix, he is a skíouros." Valtrix let off a little screech that seemed to mean "Hello" and we all replied. "Okay, You will go in the same pairs you where in when you fought." He then instructed us that if a Thiríon rejected us, that we should stand our ground and not run away.

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Sahra and I had been in the forest for ten minutes when she found a little Hippogriff foal. "Well, lookie here, she's so cute!" She exclaimed, she approached the foal as Master Brenton instructed, and amazingly, she was accepted. She recited the words that Brenton had told us and something something happened. I felt a warm wind, and humidity through my body. "Her name is Faura." She said, amazed. I said hi to Faura and she jumped on Sahra's shoulder with her hind legs behind her companions back and licked her ear. Then she looked at me and jumped over to me and nuzzled my hand. "Did she say something?" I asked Sahra. "Um, she said... uh, that she likes you." Came the hesitant response.