A Short Yet Long Road

Cyrus wakes up, fixing up his messy hair and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, revealing their dark colors for the world to see. He popped out of his tent and easily began to pack it up, as he had learned long ago. As he finished, he stretched while taking in the morning sights around him once again. A wide open grassy plain with rolling hills in the distance all the while the sun is shining and a cool breeze is lazily brushing past his face.

" I am slowly starting to get used to this scenery, this weather.." thought Cyrus, still breath taken by the new geography he was experiencing in person, but not as much as he was when his journey with Gabriel and co. started.

Finished stretching, and now mostly awake, he stored his tent and sleeping items in his jeweled sack that Cato had given him with little difficulty, as he had mastered using his own will to open the space contained within.

He then walked over to join his travelling companions for his now normal morning routine: Eat, be told the time till their destination, and get looked at like a zoo animal by some of the others in the travelling group. This had gone on for the past week they had been travelling, which at first somewhat irked Cyrus but he quickly got over it.

" I can only guess at as to why the treatment of me is somewhat off, my only glaring weakness at the moment are my social skills after all" thought Cyrus to himself, as he reminisced on the amount of people he had ever been close to his entire life…which amounted to a whopping one person.

" Either I have overlooked some major imperial custom on accident, have taken to doing unspeakable acts in my sleep, or perhaps my relation to Cato is causing the strange atmosphere…" mused Cyrus as he finally reached the center of the camp.

There he found Gabriel waiting alongside the others, sitting in silence. Cyrus immediately noticed a different type of atmosphere than usual, this one tense… with a tinge of excitement. Long have given up on figuring out the exact reason for his companions' odd reactions, Cyrus merely greeted Gabriel as usual

"Good morning Honoris Gabriel" said Cyrus with the usual high born imperial salute, one arm across the chest with the other straight at the side and a bow with the intensity of the bow signifying the level of respect towards the other party.

"Good morning Initiate Cyrus" responded Gabriel with a nod, using Cyrus' official mage designation. Gabriel then gestured with his large frame to the surrounding crew, "You have no doubt noticed the tense nature of my men and the curiosity contained within their eyes when they look at you."

Cyrus nodded at this, saying "Indeed I have Honoris, of which I have my guesses as to the reason but to that end I have little interest in. My preparation for my future endeavors takes priority over the ruminations of my current company" finished he, whilst never breaking the high level of formality in his tone and word usage.

Gabriel's eyes widened a bit and with a sigh he said "Well, it is not like they hate you or anything. You are Cato's one and only student, that is all. To us, his former retinue, he is an imperial hero who sacrificed everything for the good of each and every citizen of the empire itself. He is someone we all look up to for his moral character and integrity when push comes to shove, as well as a close friend we have had over the years. Not to mention he is powerful enough to take on even me assuming the conditions are right which inspires a certain level of awe. Knowing all that we do, when we see his student we would no doubt have varying levels of interest."

"Not to mention you look weak" spat one of the background cast.

Cyrus, surprised that the first thing that someone other than Gabriel said to him was an insult, focused on the figure of the one who spoke up. His figure coming into view, as Cyrus had relegated all his other traveling companions to an amorphous blob of something or other due to his utter lack of interest, he noticed that the one who spoke was a lean man of taller than average height standing at 6 ft tall but still nothing when compared to the hulk that is Gabriel. He was bald with a scarred face and no other facial hair to speak of for that matter, with his face being in what seemed like a perpetual scowl.

" All of us in this group are Cato's long time companions, might as well be family. Putting that fact aside, we are all powerhouses on our own with at least 100 times the experience of a runt like you…. we have our own duties and lives to attend to, yet here we all are guarding one piss ant kid" spat out bald head, the name that Cyrus internally called him as his name was yet to be known.

"All right calm down Fauve" said Gabriel as he broke down the earlier formality with a more casual tone, as he clasped bald he- Fauve on the back. " All of us have varying levels of thought on you so today I have planned to formally introduce you to everyone in order to break the ice. As Fauve put it a moment ago, we all have various expectations and thoughts about yourself. Thus, you will have to put up with our whims for today."

"While I would personally prefer to ignore the hassle and spend my time studying… if I were to gain the recognition of Cato's old friends I could perhaps gain more insight to my mentors history… not only that but being looked down upon could call into question Cato's ability to raise a competent student…" thought Cyrus as he made his decision to follow long with the whims of this odd group.

"There are many ways that you could prove yourself to us Cyrus but as most of us are warriors by heart a simple test of combat shall suffice. Come and ready yourself" Finished Gabriel as he pointed towards a nearby clearing while strapping on his war gear.

Understanding, Cyrus began to walk over to the clearing while also preparing himself.