Coming of Age (2) :

A/N: Sorry for not publishing Skyrim yesterday! I was not feeling well!

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"Frejya! They are coming!" (A girl)

"What? Impossible!" (Frejya)

"I told you Jon will make something happen!" (Jullanar)

"Even if Senior is with them, how can he command these idiots around?" (Alina)

"Focus on riding! We still have the lead!" (Bjorna)

"What is that? Horses on fire?" (Frejya)

"These are the horses that young Signi talked about! It seems that Jon can summon them." (Veka)

"They are Flame Atronaches!" (Alina)

"Can you make them?" (Frejya)

"Only four!" (Alina)

"Jullanar?" (Bjorna)

"Two!" (Jullanar)

"Dammit! Jon can make twelve on his own?" (Alina)

"He spent yesterday training hard!" (Jullanar)

"... Not fair!" (Alina)

"I told he is too selfish to even let a child win!" (Jullanar)

"... Line Formation! Block their path!" (Frejya)

"TOO LATE! HAHAHA!" (Hafthor)

"Vladimir Push forward! Get those puppy loving heathens!" (Me)

"Spare me from that! Hold tight, we are going through!" (Vladimir)

And that was the apex of the competition!

We caught up the girls just after we went out of the mountain tunnel, Vladimir who was in the front advanced and I followed. The girls didn't put up much resistance.

***

After a while, we passed through Kynesgrove and took the road to Windhelm. When we reached the platform from I where Hilda's ship docked last time, we found three small ships waiting for us and Uncle Vali was there too.

"So Hafthor's team won! That was unexpected!" He said.

"No thanks to him though!" Vladimir who was all smiles looked down on Hafthor.

"Are we taking the ships now?" I asked.

"No, wait for the girls!" Uncle Vali said. He is the youngest uncle we have and had a daughter in the girl's team. Due to his age, he is the closest uncle to the boys' team.

He praised my Flame Atronach Horses nonstop, to every Firemane, these horses looked so glorious and amazing that they begged me to teach them the spell. Due to my superiority complex, I decided to develop the spell and give them the normal version that I use.

Anyway and after half an hour, Alina and Jullanar appeared on Flame Atronach Horses while the rest of the group was riding theirs out of breath horses.

"Frejya! Never make light of me again! Hahaha." The competitive freak, Hafthor, started making a tantrum.

"The one I am not making light of is Jon! You will wait until I deal with you." Frejya said.

Facing her first loss, Frejya, who is considered the princess of the Firemanes, was completely frustrated. She looked at me and glared.

"We are not done yet! We will race in the sea to the Serpentstone Isle, then we will compete on who hunts their share first, and lastly who returns first! Do you accept?" Frejya put up a series of challenges. It seems that she wants to beat me at least three times to feel satisfied.

"I do!" I said.

Alina was grinning and Jullanar was shaking her head.

I could already understand how Frejya's head work. She just wants to defeat me three times in a row so that she can feel good. Also, I noticed that she has a plan for everything already.

From what I see, there are three ships. A big one for uncle Vali and that one will be used to monitor us during the hunt, the other two are the same size as the ship of mine which were prepared for us.

"Fine! Stop glaring at each other. Each team takes a ship and start moving before the winter is over already." Uncle Vali said.

We moved each to his ship and started sailing, the winds weren't really in our favor but we noticed what the girls prepared.

"Haha! Senior will be waiting for you ahead!" Alina said as she was making wind for the ship by her magic.

So it can be used like that too.

"Hmmm!" I went into some deep thoughts.

"Jon, the girls are already far from us!" Hafthor went pale.

Vladimir and the others lost their competitive souls too.

"Sigh! We will do it again." I said.

"Wait! You will make the horses drag the ship... on water?" Vladimir asked.

"Nope! Just give me the staff and I'll think of something. Hafthor, we need more speed. Wulfur, all the ropes we can use."

"Yes!" "Fine!" "On it!"

The one captaining the ship was Hafthor due to him being the most talented in sailing and many other things among us. Still, I was taking the lead.

"This speed good enough?"

"Maintain it!"

We were sailing in the right direction but we had enough speed.

I started doing the summons too.

"Ropes!"

"Tie them there, there, and there..."

I started giving another set of instructions until everything got ready.

"I don't want to know what are you thinking but that looks dangerous." Hafthor said.

"Just tie them to the ropes and make sure the sails doesn't slow us when we turn."

"Ready!" "Ready!" "Ready!" "Ready!"

The boys were already done.

"Vladimir, you take control of the staff like last time."

"Understood!"

"Now, Fly!"

The Flame Atronach Hawks flew in the air and started going slowly into the direction of the ship until they became the force that pulls it.

"Good! Now, let's turn together. Hafthor, take down the sails!"

The ship was now an Atronach powered ship pulled by seven flying Atronaches.

"Shor's bones! This is working!"

The ship has already taken a turn and started chasing after the other two ships.

Our speed was... FAST!

The Flame Atronach Hawks doesn't follow the same principles real birds follow for flying. They are actually 'Floating' by magic then 'Gliding' into the air. This made the ability to slow down greatly in the air and also has the ability to pull something like that. For birds with their size, flying on that low speed is impossible but they could achieve that and even accelerate more.

"Hehe! It is the same trick but it feels much better!"

"I know! We will get them in an hour though!"

"Can Alina make the Fire Birds?"

"No! This is exclusively my personal spell!"

"Still! Here Wind Magic is sure useful for sailing."

"She will run out of Magicka soon! She can't maintain it all that time."

"Here they are!" Someone shouted.

We looked towards where he pointed and found our sisters sailing their way forward. Also, Uncle Vali's ship was already ahead of them.

Our three ships were all Nordic Longboats so it they mostly had one large mainsail and that's what Alina focused her magic on.

"Look! What is that again?"

"Hey, don't tell me it is them!"

"They are sailing with no sails?"

"They are pulling the ship by Atronaches!"

"Do you finally believe me? Jon doesn't even let little children win no matter how much they cried."

"Senior! Not fair, this is not sailing. You are cheating."

The girls saw defeat once again.

"Hafthor!" I said.

"Yes!"

"What did you learn from today?" I asked.

"..."

Sigh! He learned nothing.

"If we want to win, let's win dirty, if we are going to lose, we lose with style." I gave him some of my wisdom.

He looked at me and scratched his chin then smiled.

"Aye!"

***

The trip to the Serpentstone Isle would take three days or two at the very best. We sailed for two days till now.

"So, how was life treating you the past week?" I was sitting beside Wulfur and eating some dried meat.

"Nice! We couldn't talk the past week."

"Well, Jonrad and Hilda didn't let go of me. I am sure you have a bear to raise now too."

"Hehe! Yes." He was smiling.

"Things between you and Bjorna?"

"Fine, I like the way things are getting lately."

"Good for you. I heard you were training in the forge of the keep lately."

"Yes, it was really a good place. I need to ask you about something though..."

Wulfur was worried about something. He thought about his choice of weapons lately and he feels a bit uncomfortable. I knew about his late-blooming talent though. It may cause him a bit of worry but he will discover himself later.

His talent is Weapon Mastery, Wulfur is just too scary when you put a simple dagger in his hand, I dare to say that a straw in his hand will turn into a weapon. I, who likes to use a lot of weapons lose in no time if I clashed blades with Wulfur now. He is that scary.

He still is confused about that. He can use any melee weapon very well to the point that he thinks of himself as a person with no talent in weapons. I tried to convince him otherwise but he is a bit stubborn.

"So, wanna see a new weapon?" I tried to lure him away from his heavy mood.

"A new weapon? Hehe, you are too obvious but let's hear it."

I started telling him about a weapon from fantasies, the weapon really suited him greatly with his talent of destroying stuff. The weapon was the 'Armorslayer'.

[A/N: from Fire Emblem]

Wulfur loved the idea of the weapon and started making plans on how to forge it and make it balanced. Well, I guess he is now less frustrated than before.

"Jon! We arrived!" Hafthor called for me.

"Good! That's our win then!" I said.

"I am afraid we'll have to put that aside now!" Vladimir said and pointed out. "Bloodsails Ship!"