Day 32: A Plan
Sentence: Breed/Scroll/Adopt a Dragon
Sentence: Breed/Scroll/Adopt a Dragon
Enser had barely slept in a month, and Ifor was getting worried. Ever since Eigrigg's death, the wildclaw had been insistent on finding the monster that killed her, but none of his searching yielded any results. Now, it was drawing close to the end of the year, and he was growing more antsy. He kept saying that the monsters appeared in a cycle, that Talfan's lion must have heralded its arrival the same way his Snippers had, and that time was running out.
His performance was suffering in his classes, but Enser didn't seem to care.
Ifor had done what she could to help him between her own classes. (Magiere was better than the previous year, but was still difficult to work with). But even she was beginning to lose hope. She was beginning to wonder if it all was worth it, if he was running himself into the ground like this.
Thankfully, Ifor had been able to enlist Midnight and Sasha's help. The imperial was less than pleased to turn from his own pursuit of learning, but Sasha had talked him into it. Ifor wasn't sure what it was, but he had a soft spot for the pearlcatcher. They got along very well, and he seemed to have more patience for her than for anyone else. Maybe it was just the way they were able to talk for hours about some mundane theoretical topic. When they got going, Ifor could hardly understand what they were talking about.
"We've got it narrowed down to two potentials," Midnight explained as Ifor dropped in to check on them one afternoon. He and Sasha had made regular trips to the Starwhisper Crescent library in the hopes that the towns proximity to the portal would allow for some stock of information about the beasts that emerged from it.
"It seems to be one of the leons," Sasha added. "There are two varieties in the Forbidden Portal - the medusa leon and the deeprealm leon."
"Not much is known about either, but the medusa leon was so named because it turns creatures it encounters to stone, which makes it unlikely that this is the one that killed Eigrigg," Midnight said. "But we don't want to write it off entirely, because it matches the tracks Enser found, and the marks on her body."
"Great, thank you both, I'll pass that on to Enser," Ifor vowed. If I can find him.
"No problem! This stuff fascinates me, so if you can find more about this portal and these creatures, let me know!" Sasha beamed. "Maybe, if you succeed in your fight, you can bring me back a trophy of some sort! Like a tentacle or eyeball or something!"
Midnight wrinkled his nose. "Ew, gross!"
"Hey, buddy, you're going to have to get a lot more comfortable with gross body stuff if you want to be a healer," Sasha reminded her friend. "You should hear half the stories Belria has to tell me!"
Belria was Sasha's new teacher. She had been hired in Eigrigg's place a couple months ago, and the pearlcatcher seemed to be in rapt awe of her. The wildclaw clearly had lots of experience dealing with powerful and dangerous magic. Sasha never said what exactly they learned, but her eyes were always gleaming with excitement and hidden knowledge whenever she returned to their shared dorm after a day of classes. Ifor wished she could find that same passion with Magiere, it was hard not to be jealous sometimes.
Ifor grinned weakly. "I'll leave the two of you to get back to your homework."
"What about your homework?" Midnight asked, though Ifor knew he already knew the answer. He was asking to make a point.
"You know Magiere is too lazy to assign any," Ifor reminded him. "And Enser won't be able to get back to my evening lessons until this beast is dead."
It was the early hours of the morning when Enser finally got in. Ifor had almost fallen asleep many times waiting for him. She had no idea where he had been, but she was glad to see him to pass on Midnight and Sasha's finding.
"You should be asleep," Enser narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of Ifor's form on a large couch. The enchanted pink fire was crackling low in the hearth.
"So should you," Ifor shot back. "You're going to meet Eigrigg's fate if you tire yourself out this much before you encounter it."
"We're running out of time," Enser mumbled.
"So you've said," Ifor narrowed her eyes back. "Why are you so set on this though? Why you? Is it not enough to focus on your studies? Why are you so obsessed with the portal?"
"I can't tell you," Enser sighed, turning to go up the stairs to get what sleep he could before waking early to continue his search.
"Bull-," Ifor called him out, attaching a rather unsavoury word to the prefix. That was enough to get the wildclaw to stop in his tracks.
"I don't know if I've ever heard you swear before," Enser looked almost proud.
"I'll say it again, if that's what it takes to get your attention," Ifor let her frustration spill out, grateful that she had the type of friendship with the wildclaw that would allow her to be this blunt and open.
"You've been getting bold this year," Enser was clearly impressed.
"Yeah, well you better listen then," Ifor growled. "You don't have to do this on your own, okay? Whatever this crazy quest of yours is, it's killing you. What's worth that? Seriously? At this rate, you're going to end up like Talfan, and I'm sure that's a place you don't want to be."
"I'm looking for my mom," Enser admitted.
That was not the answer Ifor was expecting, and she found herself staring at him in a stunned silence.
"She went missing, before I was born. My dad said that she had discovered a strange portal to some other dimensional plane, and was so driven by fascination with it that she just... left." Enser explained. "He always said she'd be back, but she never was. I have to know what drove her to such an extreme departure. I have to find her, and to find out if it really was worth it."
"Wow, Enser, I'm so sorry, I had no idea," Ifor breathed.
"Eh," The wildclaw shrugged. "I grew up well enough. My sister and I had our Dad. There was a whole school surrounding us. I never really felt alone. I just want to meet her, you know?"
Ifor thought back to her own family, so far away. She missed them like hell, but she knew where they were, and that they were okay. She wrote letters to them regularly. She couldn't imagine not knowing.
"Well, let me help you. Please, you can't keep doing this on your own," Ifor offered. "I already got some information from Midnight and Sasha about what it is we're facing. If we can find out where it is-"
"Oh, I know. I know where it is too," Enser said in a sudden burst of anger. "Talfan's been hiding it under his nose the whole time. My nephew recently moved to the area, and apparently he had an encounter with it, and it was dragged away by the ridgeback who works for the tavern. Now, I'd say that's a pretty easy description to fit."
"But he would have killed it, right? He seemed pretty upset about Eigrigg, I thought that might shake some sense into him," Ifor offered.
"This is Talfan we're talking about," Enser rolled his eyes. "I don't know what he wants with the portal, but he's not going to give up so easily. No, this is the worst case scenario. The only reason I came back was to get some sleep before going out and strangling the life out of him and that beast."
"I'm coming too," Ifor repeated. "You can't do this alone."
"And there's nothing I can say that will make you stay?" Enser gave her a pleading look.
"Nope!" Ifor grinned. "You're stuck with me as your monster-hunting partner for life!"
"Heh," Enser smirked. "I like the sound of that. Alright. We leave at noon. We're going to need all the energy we can get. I hope you don't mind skipping class."
"Oh, half the time Magiere skips them anyways, we'll be fine," Ifor shrugged.
Enser grimaced. "We've really gotta get you a better teacher."
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I don't know what it is with all the apparel pulls lately, but I'm glad our teacher/student ratio is back to what it should be! There wasn't any good way to introduce Belria in the flesh today, but maybe we can get a teacher scene in soon, and give Mia a proper introduction as well.
Here's some more lovely art done by @Tirtouga678 , of baby Iapetos!
