The Moon Calls

31

Adira woke them all up the next morning and, once they ate breakfast, put them through some rigorous training. It would be an understatement to say that, by the end of it, Varian was ready to knock her off her feet with a wave of black rocks. And he did just that, which she laughed about as she narrowly dodged it.

"Save your energy, Little Moon." She said teasingly. "I don't know if you have much left. Wow, look at you all. We might have to wait another day before going into the for—" She gasped and cut herself off as she dodged a hawk dive-bombing her before she had to dodge Donella's knife. "Phew! Looks like one of you can still stand, then! But, I think we're done for today."

"Alright, then." Donella nodded, putting her knife away.

"Whoa..." Cassandra breathed. "Did you just team up with your hawk to attack her?"

Hawk landed on Donella's gauntlet and she smirked. "Hawk is my partner, not my pet. Don't you do this with your Owl?"

"No, he's my eyes in the sky, but usually not my partner in battle." Cassandra pushed herself to her feet and walked over to her. "How do you bond with a hawk so well?"

"There's a lot of trust involved." Donella smiled. "Here, put out your arm."

Cassandra put out her arm and gasped as the hawk tapped her glove with its talon before climbing on. "Hey, does he like me?"

"She." Donella corrected with a fond smile. "And it seems she does."

Hugo groaned and pushed himself to his feet. "Donella, are you looking to adopt me a sister?"

"Got a dad already, thanks." Cassandra laughed.

Rapunzel helped Varian up, followed by Eugene and Lance.

"I feel so alive." Lance swooned.

"Come on, you masochist." Eugene laughed.

"Masochist? Only for Adira."  Lance said adoringly.

"Varian, let's get started on your meditation." Adira suggested.

"Ohhh, meditation!" Rapunzel said eagerly. "Can we join you for it?"

"If you would like. Anyone can join us for it." Adira sat down cross-legged and Varian sighed before sitting next to her in the same pose.

The others all followed suit, Hawk deciding to fly up and sit on top of the caravan instead of participating. Ruddiger and Pascal kept close to Varian and Rapunzel, eyeing the vicious bird of prey warily.

"Ugh...maybe...next time, we do the meditation before the ass-kicking." Hugo said with a wince.

"Agreed." Eugene and Varian said in unison.

Donella chuckled.

--

The following day, they finally got back in the caravan and headed on, Eugene taking the reins this time while Adira rode on top of the caravan and everyone else rode inside, the windows all open.

"Eh, anybody who's spent time in the woods knows that Slayer Wolves have extremely sensitive hearing." Eugene said as he held the reins with Rapunzel and Eugene in front with him, referring to an event earlier that day where they were attacked by Slayer Wolves and he'd put coins in an empty water flask to create an extremely noisy rattle.

"See that teamwork?" Lance commented with a grin, leaning out the window closest to him. "I distract them by pretending to cry, while you chase 'em off!" He chuckled nervously, then said "Thank you!" in a low voice.

Eugene smiled. "I just did what had to be done."

"Maybe if you, Rapunzel and Lance hadn't wandered off, you wouldn't have had to." Donella remarked as she read Gothel's books with Varian and Hugo.