Goodnight

"Well that was awkward!" Sonya said the moment the entire unfriendly group had left. "Like they were totally thinking they was though shit!" She suddenly bursted into a happy laugh. "Yeah, I was this close to kicking him in between his legs!" Ulma said while holding two fingers really close to emphasise her point.

Samuel lifted his shoulders in a long shrug, he was prepared to find some troublemakers, but he didn't think they would have no backbone like that. But Samuel also realized the point that he was a regular looking commoner type that was on a team with three ladies that all seemed talented enough.

"Thinking about it, I have never seen what you two can do?" Samuel ignored the situation that had just happened and tried to move to a different subject. Making all his teammates look at him with raised eyebrows and wonder why he so obviously tried to change subject. "Well!" Sonya was the first to speak, "Since you do not seem to know! I am the Archons oldest daughter, and I can already cast spells of the third level. I just got an easy time learning." Sonya said with a smile, but something inside Samuel stirred, telling him there was something more to her. He wanted to say 'but what is it you are trying to hide?' But he actually just nodded and said, "Third level? Thats amazing, I cant even cast first level yet." Samuel kinda looked away in shame.

"Well, you can do things with cantrips I never thought possible or even thought to try!" Sonya quickly replied. "So thanks for teaching me something new!" She quickly threw her head back in a smile.

She may be an archons daughter, but she did not behave stuck up or anything of the sort that Samuel or Erica had expected a child of the most powerful mage to be. Ulma just shrugged and started leaving to the hall to get food and the others quickly followed suit. With Sonya and Erica talking about all kinds of things about their past.

Even though Samuel wasn't too interested in the conversation he still listened, Sonya was the oldest daughter of the headmaster, but she had a brother that was in his second year of the college and she also had two younger sisters that were in classes for youths.

While Erica was an orphan that had been discovered with early magic talent and had been adopted by Tere her mentor when she was only 6. Tere had made her hone some magic and then told her to do whatever she wanted with her abilities, but she thought magic was amazing so she worked hard and applied to the schools.

Samuel never had any idea that Tere was her adoptive mother, which explained how close they were. In fact, Samuel had never asked her a lot of questions and always been distant to her even when she tried to be his friend. So he made a silent promise to himself to at least try to be a better friend to her.

In the same train of thought, he noticed Ulma was still walking a bit ahead of them so he actually walked a bit faster to walk side by side with her. "Hi" Was the first thing he said and she just looked at him and rolled her eyes and continued her fast pace. Samuel slowed down a bit and walked next to the others, "Whats her problem?" Erica quietly asked while looking at Samuel and then Sonya.

"Well you know that orphan I told you about from my time training with my first mentor, that was Ulma!" Samuel said without any tact, which made both Sonya and Erica's jaws drop.

"Well why didn't you say so when you told us your story of how you came here?" Sonya asked really flustered, thinking of how all of Ulma's spite for her made a little more sense now.

"But I did when I told my story? Didn't I?" Samuel asked, really confused. "Well you never said the name, although you did refer to thief girl many times so I figured it out myself." Erica said with a shrug, "Still doesn't explain what her problem is right now!" She followed up with a huff.

"Of course it does!" Sonya quickly said. "She doesn't really have any family that loves her and here we are - chatting away about our respective families and how people have cared for us and that we have people who love us." Sonya trailed off, "I bet she doesn't have any of that...." She sighed.

"Well in that case let's be the best teammates ever!" Ercia almost yelled out with her fists clenched in victory and dedication. Making Sonya chuckle and Samuel sigh, to which both the girls looked at him like he was a devil. "I mean! Yay!?" Samuel tried saying it as positively as he could. Erica became happy with a wide grin and Sonya facepalmed at him.

Something started clicking inside Samuel though, he was enjoying their company and their banter and just generally being around the chatterboxes. He could still be his quiet self, but they didn't care, they still all tagged along.

'So this is what a team is supposed to be' he inwardly thought to himself with a hidden smile. The group eventually caught up with Ulma, she had not went too far ahead and together they ate some dinner at the dining hall. Samuel and Ulma sat mostly in silence while Sonya and Erica chatterboxed away the entire evening, it didnt even stop after they finally came back to their house, Samuel stayed up and continued writing to catch up some of the lessons he had missed, but he still remained with Sonya and Erica on the bottom floor. Ulma had decided to go to bed or at least go to her room the moment they had come back home.

She will come around eventually was what Sonya and Erica decided. Before long the hours passed and the girls bid him a goodnight and went to sleep. He sat up for another hour before deciding to go to bed but as he finally had put all his things away in a bag, Ulma came walking down the stairs almost falling down. "Mommy? Where are you mommy?" She asked almost stuttering the words.

"You okay?" Samuel asked quickly. But he received no reaction as Ulma kept slowly walking forwards almost falling or knocking into things several times. Samuel realized then that she was sleep walking, so he quickly got behind her and took her by the shoulders. Only then realizing she had a very revealing nightgown on her, he ignored it and started turning her gently to go back up the stairs.

After an excruciatingly slow walk he finally got her back to her room and gently made her go back into her bed, and he slowly turned to leave the room as quietly as he could when he felt something tugging at his hand. "Don't leave me! Mama, Papa! Don't go!" Ulma started sobbing in her sleep and grasped onto his hand like it was a lifeline.

So Samuel decided to stay there and hold her hand until she felt safe again. He gently reached for her desk chair and put it next to her bed and sat down as comfortably as he could to hold her hand until she had calmed. After a while she was finally calming a bit, and thats the last Samuel remember before falling asleep sitting there in a really uncomfortable position.

"Mmh, Goodnight!" Ulma whispered in her sleep as she was getting tucked in by her parents in the dream.