Reos Trainings

«As all cubs know, life always has a beginning and an end. In between is adventure, mistakes and hardship, but also fun and happiness. For many Reoseans, their whole life is filled with love in different forms, while others are alone, some by chose and others by necessity. Almost all Reoseans have the capabilites to learn magic, but only few can enrich and change their lives, as well as those of others, with immense powers, while others are cursed and stripped of their magic forever as a result of their –»

«BOOORING.»

Confused Esther looked up from the book she’s been reading out loud. In front of her sat three little Vay cubs: one a brown friesian, yawning loudly, another a white and blue puller who was apparently counting the wooden planks on the ceiling, and the third a slender, white and grey girl who seemed genuinely interested in Esther’s story. The pale adult looked at all in turn, the disbelief written in her face, trying to figure out who had interrupted her.

«Boring? But isn’t this the most exciting part?»

«But we’ve heard it so many times already», whined the pecan Vay with the long, fluffy ears.

«It is important for you to understand why you are here.»

«But we DO understand», the cub said annoyed. «All three of us are magical prodigies. We are here at this monastery to study and practice, so we can become spellmasters or clerics and make the world better.» «Indeed! It as a great honor, but even greater responsibility», Esther replied. The blue cub now stopped looking upwards and sighed loudly before he spoke. «Onehundredandtwentythree. Still.» The young female leaned over to him and whispered in his ear. «Did you expect it to be different now than last time, Seris?» But he had no time to answer her question, as the friesian raised his voice once more. «We don’t care about all of this! We just want to have fun, run around and play, not study all the time. Didn’t you say adventure and fun are part of life?» «It is for some Reosean, but not for you. You three have shown signs of strong supernatural powers and not taking the time and effort to refine these would be foolish.» The grey cub now turned towards their mentor and smiled. «I like studying», which resulted in Tesseract mumbling to himself «Apple polisher», and the brown one said at the same time «Well YOU are boring too, Shinto!» «Calm down, Kazegami! I understand your frustrations, but when I was your age –» «What, like one hundred years ago?» Esther frowned, but she could never get angry at cubs. She was aware they are brutally blunt and don’t know any better, but in time they would learn and better themselves, she was sure of that. 

«Well then», Esther got to her feet, closed the thick, heavy book and then pulled up her black stockings which had slipped down. «If you are so eager to explore the world, I won’t stop you. I can’t exactly follow you outside to supervise you, but you’ll be fine on your own I’m sure.» As she spoke, the eyes of the two male cubs lit up and they jumped to their feet in excitement, but the female was looking around nervously. «M…Mrs.Yetta, can I stay here please?» But the adult shook her head, her long pale hair swinging from side to side even after her head stopped. «I’m afraid not. You three are in training together and need to be able to rely on each other, which means this will be an important lesson for you to all together. And these two boys really need someone with a voice of reason beside them», she said and winked at the young girl. «Come on, Shinto! Let’s GOOOO!» The others were already running towards the door, unable to contain their joy. The female cub slowly got to her feet as well, turned around and slowly followed them, her tail dragging along the ground. She clearly preferred staying inside and burying her nose in the old books of the large monastery library. 

When their shouts became quieter as they ran through the halls, Esther made her way through the study room, which had books desks and scrolls scattered everywhere and stopped in front of a door to an adjacent room. She knocked and, after hearing the Reosean inside say ‘Come in’, she opened the door. Inside was a midnight colored Tyrian with stars on their wings and slowly spinning rings around her bright tail, sitting at a large desk, studying maps and other old looking documents. «Esther! How can I help you?» «Good Morning, Saturnalia.The cubs are mentally exhausted today and went for a walk. If it’s not too much, could you perhaps keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t get into any trouble?» Smiling, the Tyrian got up and walked around the desk. «Of course! It was only a matter of time until they got too restless. I told you most cubs can’t focus that intensely for so many weeks on end.» The Vay snorted loudly in dismay. «I have trained some of the strongest and wisest students of our monastery for decades and in the end they all thanked me for teaching them discipline and order», Esther said with conviction, but Saturnalia just sighed. «Yes, at some point they will, but those three are just too young to realize it now. Mistakes are often learned best by personal experience and they’ll understand the lessons from the books better once they see it in real life. But all in due time. For today, I would be happy to keep a watchful eye over them.» The two adults bowed their heads in mutual respect and the Tyrian left the building. Esther walked back to the study and looked at the mess the students had left there. Well, at least now she had some peace and quiet as she cleaned up after them.

In the meantime, the cubs had crossed the courtyard and were now halfway through the entrance hall, almost running into another Vayron who didn’t see them right away as he was carrying various tools and papers stacked in a tall pile. A few pages fluttered down, but thankfully he didn’t drop anything fragile. When the cubs opened the large, heavy doors together, they took their first glance outside the monastery walls for the past couple months.They’d been very young when they were brought here and have been growing up on the monastery grounds, along with lots of other gifted Reoseans who received their education and training from the scholars or masters at this institution. The boys ran outside without much thought, scampering down the bright green, grass-covered hill on which the building was located. Shinto followed them, but kept her distance, looking around attentively for any dangers or surprises. Far above them, Saturnalia was circling and watching the group, but they were all too busy looking at their surroundings on the ground to notice her. The smooth, stone plated path leading up to the monastery was decorated with artistic carvings and seemed to get cleaned regularly. To the left and right were slender cypress trees, framing the path all the way down to the closeby village. In the distance the group noticed a clocktower, peeking out from the other buildings, and decided to head there first. As they made their way through town, Kazegami and Tesseract were walking in the middle of the street, enjoying all the new sights and unfamiliar locations without running into any other pedestrians. What they didn’t understand is that there might be a reason all other other Reoseans were sticking to the sides. Suddenly a Vay appeared from around a corner, running at full speed and pulling a cart behind them, headed straight for them. When he saw them, he tried to stop, but his paws slipped on the smooth ground. «OUT OF THE WAY, CUBS!» They two turned around and saw the cart come at them at breakneck speed, but they were too surprised to move. Shinto, who had kept to the sideline, watched with eyes widened, but didn’t quite know what to do. She was afraid, but in her panic, she heard a familiar, soothing voice that seemed to originate in her own head. «No need to worry, I am here.» She looked around, but couldn’t see who had spoken to them, still she felt a wave of relief, knowing someone was there to help. Just before the impact, the two cubs on the street closed their eyes to brace for it, but suddenly felt something grab on to them and lift them up high. 

For a moment they remained like that, eyes closed and feeling a cool breeze brush against their bodies. Only after they finally felt the ground beneath their paws again as they were softly placed down did the cubs dare to open their eyes again, looked up and saw Saturnalias face hovering above them. For a moment they expected her to scold them, but for her there was no reason to do so when they were already scared to death and had to come to their senses first. «Are you all okay?» As they patted themselves down to check for injuries as only young cubs or kids would do, Shinto ran up to them. She stared at the Tyrian whom she recognized as a teacher for advanced students at the monastery, and realized the voice from earlier was hers. «M…master Saturnalia! You saved them!» «Of course, I could never let anything happen to you three.» After making sure the boys were okay, she turned to the young girl and smiled at her. «You were never in any real danger, but you couldn’t have known without using your powers.» That’s when Shinto realized. Her face lit up with excitement and she jumped around the Tyrian. «I heard you! In my head!» «You did?» Saturnalia pondered for a moment. While Saturnalia did develop magical skills as well, she was no mentalist. So the young girl must’ve used her own telepathic abilities, which was unusual for anyone her age. «Isee. I knew you were all gifted, but I didn’t think you’d be able to channel your powers like that just yet. I’m sure you’ll become a strong mentalist, Shinto.» 

Now the two male Vays had composed themselves again, they were trying to cover their shame and guilt by acting sulky. «That’s no fair! Why did Shinto use her magic but not us?» «Yeah! I would’ve lifted the cart up high and make it fly away…» Kazegami said with a spark in his eyes. «No no! I would’ve let it explode! POOOF!», Tesseract gestured a big explosion with his paws, but Gami shook his head. «Idiot, that would’ve injured the hauler as well.» «Nu-uh!» «Uh-huh!» «Nu-uh!» They kept going like that for a little bit, but Saturnalia assured them that their skills would show when the time was right. «With patience and practice, you will all become powerful Vays.» 

The cubs were extremely exhausted when the finally got back to their rooms and fell asleep as soon as their heads touched the pillow, recovering mentally and physically. The Tyrian had carried them to the monastery on her back, so additionally to all the previous adventures that day, they had also flown for the first time. As Saturnalia checked up on them and saw they were all sleeping peacefully, she already imagined them telling their tales to their friends the following day and how all of the younger students would want to go out afterwards as well. «I’m gonna need the help of a lot more eyes, paws and wings then to keep all these scamps safe» she thought to herself, then she extinguished the oil lamp the tired cubs had left on and closed the door behind her.