Danny, Faerie, and Faeth sat together on a bench next to a massive clock tower, multiple sacks surrounding their feet. The third bell had rung just a few minutes ago, the time they had agreed to meet up with Reid.
"Do you think he got lost?" Faerie asks casually.
"Nah, it might be his first time being here, but it's pretty much impossible to not find this massive thing." Danny says while pointing a thumb at the imposing stone clock tower behind him.
"He probably just got excited while shopping and lost track of time. He should show up soon." He concluded.
Almost as if on cue, they finally see Reid walking down the street. He has an exhausted look on his face as he slowly walks over.
"Sorry I'm late. I tried to leave this store a while ago, but a certain someone insisted I couldn't leave until I had seen everything they had."
"Hey, that was for both our benefits. Once I read through all of these books our spell arsenal will expand dramatically." Amadeus rebukes his hidden snarky comment.
"Oh it's no problem. Some of these merchants can be super pushy." Danny replies, misunderstanding what Reid was actually complaining about. "C'mon, I can't wait to show you this spot. They make the best stew in town, and it's a good price too!"
Danny picks up the sacks at his feet leaving one for the twins to carry together.
The group only had to walk a short distance before they arrived at their final destination. The restaurant in question was a rustic style cabin that looked more like a lodge you would find in the woods than a restaurant in a busy city. The cute bear illustration on the sign stood in odd contrast to the rest of the building's theme.
"Let me introduce you to the Hunters Den!" Danny says with a smile on his face.
"I don't mean to be rude, but that doesn't exactly sound like the kind of place you'd want to bring kids…" Reid replies with a worried look on his face.
"Maybe back in the day you'd be right, but after the place was passed down to the original owner's daughter they worked really hard to make it more inviting."
"Well if you say so." Reid answers hesitantly.
Danny leads the group onward, boldly pushing past the double swinging doors and into the restaurant.
The inside was far roomier than you would expect when looking at the outside of the building. With a bar at the far end, booth seating along the walls, and 4 large circular wood tables evenly spread out in the middle, the restaurant could hold quite a few customers. Given the odd time, between lunch and dinner hours, the restaurant was nearly empty.
"Welcome back to the Hunter's Den, Danny! Table for four today?" A beastkin waitress wearing a white apron with green accents calls out to the group. Her two brown tails swished happily behind her.
"Yep!" Danny shares her excitement as he answers with a wide smile on his face.
"Alright! Follow me then." The waitress brings them over to a booth in the corner of the room. As they sit down she pulls a thin slate out of her apron and puts it out on the table. "Here's a copy of our menu, if you need any help reading, let me know."
"Oh, we'll be fine, thanks."
"Then I'll go grab y'all some water."
As she walks away a group of 4 cloaked men enter through the swinging doors. They briefly glance over at Danny's group before the waitress arrives and leads them to a table at the other end of the restaurant.
Something about them felt 'off' to Reid. An unsettling sensation builds up inside him the more he looks at them, but his thoughts are interrupted by Amadeus.
"Is literacy not that common here?" Amadeus asks.
"That depends on where you are. In small villages or remote towns it can be pretty rare, but in cities like this it's pretty normal. Especially if you have a job where it's needed, like the guild receptionists or the guards."
Reid relays the information that had originally been taught to him by his father, leaving out the mans disdain for the 'illiterate villager filth' that he loved complaining about.
"What about you Reid?" Danny's voice interrupts him from his thoughts.
After missing the entire conversation Reid had no idea what he was being asked.
"Um, I'm not sure?"
"C'mon there's like 3 options how can you not decide?" He says, pointing at the menu.
"Well, in that case… I'll just go with whatever you recommend."
"Alright then two hunters stews, and two cream stews it is."
As the waitress comes back with their water Reid looks over at the unsettling group once again.
All four were staring back at him before quickly looking away. A chill runs down his spine as their odd behavior forces him remember something. The first night he arrived in town, he thought someone in an unusual dark blue cloak was watching him. The same color cloak all four men were currently wearing.
Reid continues to glare at the men as Danny grabs his shoulder.
"You alright there?" He asks.
"Yeah, just a little paranoid I guess." In the time it took for him to look at Danny, answer him, and look back, the men had disappeared. "Or maybe not... I feel like we were being watched by those guys. Do you know who they are?" Reid asks the waitress.
"Nope, I've never seen them before. I wouldn't take it to seriously though, a lot of the old customers don't like the changes that boss lady made. They probably miss the old feel of the place and don't want to be eating in a restaurant with kids. But that's their problem, not yours." She shrugs her shoulders as she responds.
"Yeah, don't let it bother you any. Just focus on the delicious food!" Danny says.
"Okay, you're probably right." Despite what he said, Reid couldn't help but feel something was wrong.
The rest of the meal went well. They enjoyed delicious food, went home, and were promptly scolded by Mary for 'spoiling their dinner'.
⁘⁘⁘⁘
"Good. Now that you can enter the trance the next step is to begin to circulate the energy around your body. It can move through your skin, bones, muscles, or blood vessels, the choice is yours."
"Hold on. I can barely keep this up, don't go asking me to do more!" With Reid complaining at Amadeus' instructions, he loses focus and was promptly kicked out of his meditative state. Sweat covered his body as he stands up from the floor.
Over the past few days Reid had been doing his best to keep busy while waiting for Anna to wake up. Whether it was sparring with Danny in the evenings, doing chores for Mary during the day, or, just like now, training spirit manipulation in the morning.
He was doing everything he could to keep his mind busy.
Deciding that was enough training for the day, he cleans himself with a damp cloth before putting on a new head wrap.
"That was a pretty quick session." Amadeus points out.
"Yeah, sorry. I can't really get into it today."
"That's fine, if you can't do it, you can't do it. You don't have to force it. I'm honestly surprised a teenage boy could manage to meditate at all."
"Oh wow, I didn't know you could make jokes." Reid responds sarcastically.
"Iwasn't… anyway you've progressed very quickly, according to the hunters guide it can take weeks to be able to reach the 'trance' state. It's honestly quite impressive. Soon, you should be able to start moving your bodies' natural spirit energy."
He explained.
"With your rate of progress, I'd estimate that in just a couple weeks, you should be able to use it in combat. Just thinking of all the tests we can run for this new type of energy…"
Amadeus' unrestrained excitement could be felt through their connection. It concerned Reid deeply.
"Please don't think of me as some kind of test subject for your experiments."
"What's wrong with being a test subject? Thanks to my experiments we learned that your enhanced sense, when applied to touch, allows you to feel your spirit energy. Thanks to that you made such incredible progress."
"Yeah, but I get the feeling that if I don't draw a line at some point those experiments will get out of hand."
"…" Amadeus' silence spoke volumes for his true intentions.
With their training done, Reid finished getting ready and set out to Ava's.
⁘⁘⁘⁘
As Reid walks down the halls of the local clinic, he couldn't help but feel the head doctor was acting strange.
"You don't have to escort me Mrs. Ava, I remember how to get to the room."
"Oh nonsense, it's good manners to escort our lovely customers." Ava flashes a sneaky smile as she leads the boy to the room. "Well, here you are." She says, opening the door.
Reid looks at her with suspicion as he enters. He notices that the first bed is strangely empty. As he wonders where Lance ran off to, he notices the bed on the far end beginning to stir. A golden-haired girl rises from under the sheets and begins to wipe her eyes.
"Anna?" Reid asks as he stands there in shock.
Ava savors the shocked expression on his face before giving the two some privacy.
"Reid! I'm glad your finally here. Come over and take a seat!" Her voice was weak yet excited as she gestured to the stool next to her bed.
"Lance and Cynthia left already, so I was getting pretty bored being here by myself." Her warm expression draws him in as he sits down next to her.
"How are you feeling?" He asks.
"A little tired still, but nothing hurts anymore, so that's good."
The boy looks around at the empty room. "Where did the others go to?"
"Oh, well a bit after I woke up, I found out how long Cynthia's been staying here. I told her to go home and rest. She was really stubborn at first, but then I asked her what would happen if Aron were to come in and smell her like that. Thankfully that was enough to convince her." A troublemaking smile took over her lips.
"Okay… Wait why was she so worried about Aron?"
"Oh, no reason." Her voice feigning ignorance.
Reid was confused but decided it was best to move on. "So what about Lance?"
"The Doctor said he was good enough to leave, so he did just that. He's never been the kind to sit around, after all. He left about half an hour ago."
"Really? That's weird. I didn't see him at home or on my way here. Did I just miss him?"
"No, he said wasn't going home right away so you wouldn't have run into each other."
"Where else would he go?" He said in confusion.
"He was headed to the hunters guild. He said he was going to go and dissolve our party…" Her happy expression turned somber.
"What!?! Why would he do that?!?" The boy was shocked.
"Well, after I woke up, he spent forever apologizing to me. I kept telling him not to worry about it but he wouldn't listen. He said he wasn't cut out to be a hunter with how weak he was. Instead he'd join the town guard with Danny and get strong enough to keep people safe."
Her voice was tinged with regret as she continued.
"I never thought I'd see a day where he actually gave up being a hunter. I mean all he ever talks about is how great of a hunter he'd be… how everyone was gonna know his name. It... really took me by surprise."
"That's... rough. I'm sorry to hear that. That must've been difficult for you too, you two seemed really close after all."
"Yeah, he was like my annoying younger brother… Well, a spazzy little brother that I always have to keep out of trouble at least. But seeing him depressed like that…" Anna looked down, trying to hide her watery eyes.
Reid reaches out and holds her hand in his. "It's alright. I haven't known him long, but Lance doesn't seem like the type to be down for too long. I'm sure he'll be back to normal soon."
"Yeah, you're probably right." She squeezes his hand as she continues to look down.
Some time passes in silence before Reid restarts the conversation. "So what about you?" He realized after he said it just how uncomfortable that question could be for her.
"Me? Well I'm not really sure…"
She takes a moment to think.
"I think I still want to be an hunter, but I realize I have a long way to go… If you hadn't been there, we both would have died…" Her eyes went wide with realization as she looks back up at the boy. "Oh right! I still haven't thanked you yet!"
Her intensity causes Reid to back up slightly.
"Seriously, thank you so much! You risked your life for us. Even when you told us it was too dangerous you still came to save us. I don't know how we could ever repay you for that."
Her genuine emotions were too much for the boy. His cheeks went bright red as he struggled with the reply.
"Ah, umm, it was nothing. Just glad to help my party, you know and uh… yeah… I'm just glad I could save you both." His unoccupied hand flailed wildly in sync with his awkward response.
Anna giggles a little at his display. "I didn't think you'd get so embarrassed by a simple thank you."
"Sorry… I'm not really used to being complimented."
As he apologized he remembered another thing he needed to apologize for. He swallowed hard before he continued.
"Anna." His voice was low and serious.
"Y-Yes?" She responds, confused by the shift.
"There's something else I need to tell you about…"
Anna stares at him, nervous about what he's about to say. After a brief pause, he finally musters up enough courage to continue.
"When I was healing you, at one point I had to bandage you up, and when I did… I… Well I- I saw them… So, I'm sorry." Reid closes his eyes and puts his head down in apology.
"Saw what?" She asks in confusion.
"Your… things." He said, too embarrassed to say the actual word.
"Things." She thinks for a moment before her eyes flash in realization.
"I see… So you saw them…" Anna's voice went stern and her expression hardened. "And now you want to apologize?"
"Yes." He responds with his eyes still closed.
"Unfortunately, for a transgression like that, a simple apology won't be enough. You need to be properly punished, do you understand?"
"Y-Yes."
"Good. Now bring your head closer to me."
Reid complies with her demand and brings his twitchy head closer to her. He waits nervously for her to exact her punishment when he feels an oddly pleasant sensation on his cheek. The unfamiliar feeling was warm and slightly wet. Reid reels back suddenly grabbing his cheek and gives Anna a baffled look.
"And there's your reward!" She said with a smile on her face.
"H-Huh? I thought you said you were going to punish me?"
"Sorry, you were just too fun to tease, I couldn't help myself." She puts her hand over her mouth and giggles again.
"Reid, you saved my life. It's a little embarrassing knowing that you saw them… but I know you were just trying to save my life. Did you really think I would get mad at you for that?"
"Well yeah… I'm used to people getting mad at me for a lot less…"
"Well I'm not like those people."
Her warm smile helps put him at ease.
"So what has everyone been up to since I've been gone?" She asks.
"Oh, well the twins-"
The two continued to talk like that for quite some time, never once letting go of each others hand.