All At Play (discontinued)

Chapter 2

Sylvain stomped in to the dining hall. "Claude! I wanna spar with you!"

"Oh? Did you catch girls talking about me again? Well, I won't pass up your challenge. I'll see ya later, Raph. Let's go then." Claude would stand up, following Sylvain to the training grounds.

All the Blue Lions were in the training grounds, and so were quite a few other students. Even Felix had stopped his training to watch this, most likely to get the joy of watching Sylvain get beat.

Sylvain picked up a training sword, Claude doing the same. "Prepare to lose!" Sylvain grins at Claude.

Claude would laugh a bit. "Don't get too cocky." 

They would begin their sparring, and after a few minutes of constant countering one another, Claude decided to use his normal trick. He'd lean forward, his face inches from Sylvain, and while Sylvain was in shock and flustered, knocked the sword from his hand.

"And I believe the victory is mine?" Claude smirks at Sylvain's shocked face.

"That- wow. You have no limit with your schemes, do you?" Sylvain sighed.

Dimitri seemed rather shocked at what he just witnessed. Did Claude really just do that with no embarrassment at all? He's so comfortable with everyone. I wonder if he'd do that to me...

"I'm really not trying to steal your girls. Don't have interest in them anyways. I can't really stop whatever they find attractive about me. Would if I could." Claude put the training swords back where they came from, looking at the others, who were looking at him in awe.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" He'd be rather confused.

"That was such a surprising trick! So effective too! Wow!" Caspar smiled at Claude, giving him a thumbs up.

"Eh, it's not much. Any of you can do it, really." Claude shrugs.

Seteth walked in to the training grounds. "Claude! Dimitri! Your presences are needed. Come along." He waited for the two to start following him, before heading to Lady Rhea, Edelgard and Byleth already being there.

"Thank you for coming on such a sudden note. We've received reports of three giant, ancient stone beasts wandering near the monastery. They attack villages with magic that has no noticed source as far as we have looked. We are more curious due to the animals these beasts are in the shape of." Lady Rhea would begin her explanation.

"Giant ancient beasts.. Go on." Claude would think of something he's heard before from Professor Hanneman.

"The three beasts are in the shape of a deer, an eagle, and a lion. We would have destroyed them had they not had any resemblance to the three houses. They seem to be uncontrolled, so we wonder what happens if you three were to go and interact with them. We will send knights with you, and your classmates are free to come along, in case they have no way of being contained. As soon as you are all free, it would be preferred to deal with them quickly." Lady Rhea continued, looking at each of the leaders with a curiosity she hasn't had before.

"I'm free whenever. That sounds like it'll be fun." Claude says, seeming to be lost in thought about these beasts.

"I will also be available any time. I'm sure Hanneman won't mind. This would be valuable for his research as well!" Dimitri nodded.

"Professor and I are available as well. She's rather curious about these beasts." Edelgard said.

"It is settled, then. How about tomorrow, you can find them quicker when we have their position locked." Rhea would smile, pleased that they could take care of this sooner rather than later.

The three leaders agreed on the day, rushing out to go tell their classmates about it.

"I wonder if I would be able to paint the beasts! I think it would be a new sort of thing for me." Ignatz seemed extremely curious about the beasts when Claude mentioned it.

"I think we'll all come along. Who wouldn't want to see a giant stone deer?" Hilda smiles at the thought of it. "I wonder if they're just covered in dust, and are actually made of different things other than stone. It'd be fun to clean them up!" 

"I doubt they're made of stone. You're probably right with the dust idea, or maybe they're just really mossy. I'll have to go to the library and look for information about this." Claude said with excitement.

"So tomorrow is a big day for us then, eh? I was wondering when we would have something fun to do!" Lysithea nodded, excited at the thought.

They all went back to doing their own things after a discussion of what they would do if they can clean the beasts up. Claude headed to the library, and started searching for books.

Before he knew it, it was 11pm, and he had read only four books with any knowledge relating to the beasts. He was struggling to keep himself awake, but managed enough to take more notes as he read. "Divine Beasts.. hm. These ones are loyal to only the descendants of their creators. Interesting.." Claude mumbles as he writes. He wasn't writing in English, but rather Almyran, to prevent others from reading his notes.

Dimitri would walk in to the library. "Claude? You're up late. Studying?"

Claude would shake his head. "Notes on the beasts. They're called Divine Beasts! There was a whole bunch of them a while back, but most of them rotted away after their creators bloodline died." He said, sounding rather sleepy.

"Huh. They're near the monastery, and seem to be working just fine. I wonder if they're meant for you, me, and Edelgard?" Dimitri sat next to Claude, looking at his notebook.

"How on earth can you read those notes?" He'd look at the notebook again, confused.

"My handwriting tends to only be legible to myself. Oops." Claude laughs a bit. "What brings you here so late, anyways?"

"Same thing as you. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to look in to the beasts." Dimitri sighs, looking at one of the books and picking it up.

"Page 84 is a good start in that one." Claude mumbles, resting his head in his arms, falling asleep almost immediately after he did so.

Dimitri would smile at Claude. "So hard working.." He mutters, falling asleep after a while of reading the book.