Spirit Animal: Pride of the Panther

Ch. 28: Palismen and Revelations

The two felt a small bit of relief at this, letting some of their worries fade away for the moment.

"So, with that out of the way, why don't you two go try out your new staffs?" Eda suggested.

"Oh! Right, I guess we should." Willow said, smiling at her new staff. "How about a test flight, Clover?"

"Bzzzzzz." Clover buzzed, eye-smiling at Willow as she nodded.

"Come on, Gus." Willow said.

"Right behind you." Gus said as he and Willow hopped on their staffs to fly.

Something other students began doing as well, playing in celebration of their first Palisman Adoption Day.

"Ah, nothing better than the bond between witch and staff." Eda said.

"Hoot." Owlbert hooted in agreement.

"It is a wonderful sight, young witches bonding with their Palismen partners for life." Bat Queen, protector of all Palismen, said in agreement.

"Thanks to agreeing to this." Eda said.

"No need. This is reward enough, seeing Palismen so happy with new partners." Bat Queen said with a smile. "I look forward to many more adoption days, yi yi."

"Alright, I should go see how my kid is doing." Eda said.

Bat Queen nodded to Eda as the witch pulled out a whistle to give back but shook her head.

"Keep. This one on me." Bat Queen said, making Eda smile as she put the whistle away and fly away on Owlbert.

While Eda was flying over the woods, a person in a Golden Mask was walking through the woods.

'Raine said they wanted me to meet them in the forest to talk but why the forest? The castle would've been more suitable if it's something important.' Golden Guard thought, using his staff as a walking stick.

He needed to get through the Bat Queen's territory, luckily, she was away at the moment.

"Hopefully the rumors about wild Palismen living in the woods is just a rumor." Hunter said out loud, thinking Palismen like wild magic are dangerous.

He didn't realized he was being followed by a red cardinal. It didn't see his face but something about the golden guard just drew the Palisman's interest.

Golden Guard walked through the woods, when he heard a voice.

"I'm surprised you showed up."

Turning to the sound, Golden Guard saw Raine was sitting in a makeshift bench with their violin on their lap being tuned.

"I figured you'd blow this off." Raine said.

"I almost did, but I couldn't help but wonder what the leader of the Bard Coven wanted." Golden Guard said.

"Hehehe, you speak very highly of me." Raine said with a smile.

"It's only right for a coven leader, like the others." Hunter said before sitting next to them. "So, what did you want to discus exactly?"

"I wanted to discuss you." Raine said, "Tell me, where did your scars come from?"

"My scars? They just came from the usual stuff. Training, missions, those sort of things." Hunter replied, like it wasn't a big deal. "It's the same for the other members of the coven."

"Really? So, Hettie was lying when she said she's healed the wounds that Emperor Belos has given you?" Raine asked.

"H-H-Hettie told you of that?"