Chapter 10: Bloodline
With less than a year remaining of Rain’s trial, their father decided it was about time that he took her to gain some fighting experience. Decidedly, he had taken her to hunt a couple of times, but they were more like picnics than actual training experience.
Ember also had nothing else to do and decided to tag along. Well, it took a lot of whining for his father to agree, but not before setting various rules for him to follow once they were in the woods. Obviously, he was not a fool to wander off into an unknown place on his own. He was merely there to sightsee. For half a decade, he had never been outside of the clan's territory, save for the couple of times his parents took him around the capital. And they lived in the capital, but the city of Seynhold was so grand and majestic that two trips were hardly enough for it.
The hunting ground should be somewhere far, outside the city walls. Regrettably, it wasn’t far enough that they had to take a warp gate. Ember was dying to experience teleportation in any form they had available. Hell, he’d have been elated if they flew on a ferry.
Unfortunately, his father took them on horses. The stallions were swift as the wind, but he couldn’t say he very much liked the hours-long journey on the back of the saddle, despite having his father’s stalwart figure to lean on. An hour more, and perhaps he might have red patches on his arse.
The place they were travelling to was much more impoverished compared to the city or even the towns around Seynhold.
Ember felt it prickle on his senses. With his mastery of mana sense, it didn’t take much effort to figure out the drastic decrease in the density of ambient mana, and it was still going down as they travelled along the snaking paths and found themselves on the edge of a developing town.
“Finally!” Ember could not help but exclaim.
While he was with his father, Rain rode on her own, a white mare as tall as her, with stocky legs and wiry muscles. With the full body armour, along with the bow and sword she bore, Rain looked far more gallant riding the horse.
“Already tired?” Cliff smiled. "How are you going to hunt down a great demon with this bit of stamina?"