Thistle Forest

With the added members of Hawk Academy, the Wilderwolf party returned to the path towards Falcon City. Inside, the constant chatter of the children could be heard.

Well, the constant chattering of Andria could be heard mostly, as Sandra, Jared and Seph mostly listened as she rambled on, only putting in a word every now and then. Despite her chatty and bratty nature, the three couldn't help but hold some warm feeling for the little girl. She was only a four year old after all.

"Ah, that's right!" Andria seemed to come to a sudden realisation. "Andria never got to see the finals! Who won?!"

"Oh. I did!" Sandra answered, a smile forming her lips. Seph added in a nod of agreement, his emotions couldn't be seen in his, as usual, cold expression.

"Whoa, I knew you were cool!" Andria clapped her hands, disturbing Lexa's rest as she was lying on her thighs. Andria looked down at her with a wry smile. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, I had long given up sleeping with your constant bickering." Lexa didn't bother with her retaliation as she turned to Sandra and spoke. "So you won in the end. I thought as much."

"Why's that?" Jared chirped in and asked with narrowed, accusing eyes. "Are you saying Seph is weak?"

Seph stayed silent.

"Keep a hold of yourself, lover boy. I'm just saying that Seph didn't show me any magic that could hold a candle to Sandra's Volcanic Eagle spell." Lexa quipped, enjoying the reaction it got out of Jared who instantly turned red in the face and began shaking anxiously.

"I-It's n-not li-" Jared stammered, his eyes darting left and right as his brain worked like a cog, thinking of the right response.

"You're right, I couldn't find a way passed her Volcanic Eagle magic." Seph finally spoke, interrupting Jared halfway through his blubbering's.

Lexa looked at Seph with knowing eyes. 'Saving Jared some face, huh?'

Seph avoided her searching eyes.

"Hehe. I was really lucky when I stumbled upon such a great inheritance." Sandra sighed with a smile. "It's really pushed my magic forward, and my cultivation. Without it, my victory over Seph wouldn't be so certain."

"Wh-, wait, it helps your cultivation as well? Did you got a Cultivation Technique as well?!" Jared asked, his mouth hanging wide open in shock. Even Seph held his eyes wide for a second upon hearing this.

"Hmm." Sandra hummed positively, adding onto Jared's shock. Seph just let out a defeated sigh.

"What is a C-Culi, Culdu-" Andria stumbled.

"What's a Cultivation Technique?" Lexa asked at the same time, her words overlapping with Andria's.

"What she said!" Andria smiled cheerfully and giggled as she ruffled Lexa's fur, to the little kitten's annoyance. "We're like twins!"

"Let's see, how to explain it..." Sandra placed her fingers on her chin and thought about the best words to explain it. She wasn't used to being the teacher, always being the student so she had some trouble coming up with the right words. Eventually, she turned to face Jared and Seph, but gave up immediately when faced with one shaking his head anxiously and the other looking out the carriage window silently.

"Haha, I can answer this one." Alexander spoke up at this point and explained. "A Cultivation Technique is simply a method one can use while cultivating to enhance the process, speeding up one's cultivation. Our Wilderwolf family has quite a few as well. None that was left behind by one of the Five Legendary Beast's though, that's quite the precious item you found there, little Sandra."

"Hmm." Sandra responded a little shyly. She couldn't help the smile on her face. It wasn't every day you were praised by a Magician at the Sky Realm after all, especially one who held such a grand position as Alexander Wilderwolf.

'A Cultivation Technique... I definitely want to read one of those when I have the ability to...' Lexa thought.

The carriage continued on for several hours with the sound of cheerful conversation until eventually, one could see the darkening of the world outside the carriage and the rising of the silver moon. It was not recommended to travel at night due to the danger's involved, and despite the serious fire power of the Wilderwolf Soldier's lead by Alexander, they chose to settle down for the night as well. If only to let the young student's have a rest from the long days travel, especially after the incident earlier in the day. Several of the children were still holding onto lingering fears that night, and several of the teacher's had to lull them to sleep.

The next morning, after a nice morning breakfast, it was decided that they would rest a little longer and leave at evening to allow some of the students some extra rest as several of them had found it difficult to sleep a full nights rest the night before.

Eventually, about the time the sun was reaching its apex in the sky, everyone was ready to set off after a small dinner. On the road again, it only took two hours before the endless plains of the Northern hills came to an end and they found themselves in front of a large span of forest that extended from Falcio's Western Region and into the Northern Region.

Falcon City was only a days journey from the other side of the this forest and lied on the intersection of three out of the four Regions that make up Falcio. These Three regions are the Northern Region, Eastern Region and Western Region. Where these borders meet, split up Falcon city into three districts, known as the North District, East District and West District respectively.

These three districts are also know by other names as well however. The West District is also known as the commoners districts, the East District as the Magician's District and the North District as the Noble's District. The Wilderwolf estate lied in the Northern Noble's District.

When Lexa laid eyes on the forest in front of her, she couldn't help but drop her feline jaw in awe. This wasn't a normal forest, none like she had seen before anyway.

"It's amazing right?!" Andira laughed happily, holding herself and the kitten as they leaned out of the window. "Andria saw it when going to the North, its so pretty!"

"Hmm." Lexa absentmindedly nodded, her eyes not leaving the forest ahead of them. In fact, she wondered if it was appropriate to call it a forest at all, when the things in front of her were clearly not trees and more like large, expansive flowers that reached high into the sky. These flower's had a purple top with several jutting spikes, beneath that were prickly leaves that extended and intertwined with the leaves of the the other flowers of its kind. And then on its long and thick stem, further spikes could be seen. Despite the dangerous looking nature of it all, it still held a look of beauty as they let out slight azure glow every now and then, hinting to their magical nature.

This was the first really magical location Lexa has seen in this world, and it blew her away with its natural beauty and grandeur.

"Those trees actually hold magical properties and are cut down to create several magical items. This forest used to be a lot larger." Seph stated with a dry voice, his cheek leaning on the palm of his hand, the elbow of which was also leaning on the carriage's window ledge.

"..." Lexa felt like she had been slapped in the face. 'Here I was marvelling at the beauty of nature and you go and say such a horrid thing!'

Seph didn't bother with the kitten's glare and continued looking out the window absentmindedly.

"Don't worry. A previous monarch started the initiative that for every one of these trees we cut down, another would be planted." Sandra chipped in cheerily, happy to speak on something she knew about.

"What are those trees, I've never seen anything like them! Are they flowers?" Lexa asked.

"Indeed. They are a flower called the Rising Earth Thistle, a type of magical flower that start as small flowers but quickly grow in length to the size of large trees." Jared explained, letting out a pleasant reminiscent sigh. "My mummy grew one in her back garden once!"

"Once? What happened to it?" Sandra asked quizzically.

"Well... It grew wrong and bent into the neighbours garden... And collapsed on their pet..." Jared pouted. "...We had to cut it down and pay for the pet's medical fees."

The story got a laugh out of the children and the kitten, much to Jared's embarresment.

All the while, their carriage was gaining on the forest and Lexa noticed that she still didn't know what this place was called and asked to no one in particular. "So what is this forest called?"

"Oh, I know." Andria chirped. "Its called Thistle Forest!"

★★★

Unbeknown to them as they entered the shade of Thistle Forest, a figure watched with a dark gaze, his sight never leaving them until they disappeared into the darkness of the forest's shade.

"This is the perfect place to act!" A sinister gleam passed the eyes of the shady figure called Savre. "That item our client gave us will work perfectly in this forest..."