Chapter Seven: Preparing For a Hunt

The morning after Aura and I had dinner with her family I thought that I was just going to head to a hunting grounds and go searching for quarry, but the Silvervein family had other plans for me. 'This shower is amazing' I think as I am admiring the steaming hot water, afterwards, I get dressed and then go to leave my rooms and walk into a pair of maids. "Good morning sir, we are your escorts for the day although we shall soon be collecting lady Aura, as you two have a busy day ahead of you."

"What do you mean, by a busy day ahead of you, I was just going to head to a hunt." I say as a half question

"Dressed like that, if you lasted more than an hour out there I would sponsor you myself." says a young man from down the hall, one of Aura's cousins "Never mind if you want to go out there naked I won't stop you" as he leaves

"What's his problem?" I say pointedly to the retreating elf's back

"Well the manner in which he stated it was rather callous, but you and Aura, are both woefully under equipped to handle beasts near Silver Vine city, so for the next few weeks you'll be training while the family finds gear for the both of you, as the heiress we cannot allow her to go out unprepared and unprotected, you are one of her friends and until a full body guard detail, can be established You Farina by my side and the butler who escorted you to the manor as well as I will be her guards when out on a hunt. is this ok or were you thinking differently?"

"I understand the logic but I'm not naked I have my scales and I did want to hunt with Aura, but I didn't want to be sponsored by the Silvervein family."

"why did you not want to be sponsored? we are aware that you have bonded a rare draconian species, and the master thought that you could have some protection in that."

"Debts, I was relatively debt free and I didn't want to have to pay someone undue respect by being in their faction, I just wanted to be a solo adventurer killing unevolved monsters and selling the cores and seeds at the public markets, Haggling my way from trash tier gear to stuff that I can be proud of having bought it with blood sweat and tears." then I look at the two elves in front of me whose eyes are misty with tears of their own.

"Well, young master, I can't say that I disapprove of what you are saying, but you must bear with it for now, and contrary to popular belief the Silvervein family isn't that important outside the country." the second maid says adopting her previous schooled face then we start walking down the hall towards Aura's room. When we arrive, August is waiting near the door as he notices us he raps on the door twice. It takes almost a whole minute before Aura comes to the door, she looks a little pale.

"What's all the noise about?" she says, yawning and then she notices that it's already day. "Oh my gods, I'm so sorry guys, I just had trouble falling asleep, and I must have overslept my alarms!"

"It's ok you don't have anything to worry about, today is a shopping day apparently and signing up for classes." I reply calming her down.

"Actually you are the the one who will be signing up for classes, Hunter, as depending on which of the skills she prefers to use, Lady Aura will have a tutor from the family, or maybe several, if she decides to practice more than one elven art." the maid Farina says.

It takes Aura a little while, but then she is ready to head out. Our day in the city starts strong as we go to register with the guild, and after that August and the head maid whose name I found out is Elizabeth take her to the training facilities, run by the Silvervein family. I tag along, because they want me to get a handle on the three fighting styles practiced by the elves of silver vine city.

"Welcome young Aura and you as well Salamander, what bring you here?" One of Aura's aunts asks

"I am here to take a trial run at which of the family fighting styles I should choose, and Hunter is going to spectate so that he can better choose and understand for when he goes to enroll in other classes." Aura replies "I have heard that there are three types of fighting styles taught in the Silvervein family could you explain further?"

"Of course, my dear the first is elven song magic it is used for buffing allies and debuffing the spirit beasts, the second is elven archery or bow related combat, and the third is the Silvervein rapier school it is a close combat that uses, a slight bladed sword, although there are cutlass and spear variations as well." The Aunt says

"Can I take courses in all three?" Aura asks

"Yes it was actually expected you would choose all three." and then her Aunt begins going through the different beginning courses of the styles. Aura has always liked to sing and she has talent with the magic songs. The bow is a challenge that she will have to work for as she had never held a bow, and without resorting to the elf inside her she could barely pull the string back. As for the sword she has mediocre natural talent. "Well after three hours of that I think I have aura's plan made, now on to the salamander."

"I can see that I will be ranged support, either with a bow or cross bow, melee heavy with my sword, although I may want to try to learn other weapons, as well as throwing knives or axes." I say giving my first assessment of my value to Aura's skill

"Very well. but the maids will be ranged support so unless you really would like to learn the bow Take it off the list, I understand multiple weapons, for your build I would suggest dual wielding as well as the chain whip, and bladed staff. Throwing axes and knives are good, but not extremely necessary." the instructor says then she writes down a list of schools around the city as well as arms dealers and apothecaries

"Thank you, and I will be trying my hand at the bow." I reply as Elizabeth leads me to the first school, it is for my katana, the instructor looks at my letter and has me try a few techniques, they don't feel right the school was named 'Earth God's Sword' so I didn't actually have much hope in it. we go through a few other's until and none of them really click until we enter the last one for katana 'Rising Heaven' the school was called, it uses a quick-draw type technique and remains low and flowing I like it. It is almost evening by the time we finish up, I tried the spear schools and had almost no luck, I'm not very lanky so the spear was mostly too long, for dual wielding I found myself with cutlass type swords in a school called 'Thunder Dragon's Wrath' which Rexis found hilarious. I tried the chain whip and there is only one school in the city 'Noir Spiral' it was called, I also found a hand to hand combat training gym and the local knife and axe range. I will take the archery with Aura. It is night almost midnight by the time we get done shopping for the day, so August just has the cooks bring us a light dinner and tells us to get some sleep because in the morning we begin training for a month before we can go on our first hunt.