----------------------------------------------------------------------- > You Continued From (Engage the Mysterious Boy) -----------------------------------------------------------------------
~ "Wait" Zephyr cried out as Flint relaxed his arm a second from the drawstring, "Ion? Is that you?" Zephyr called out as he slowly reached his hand out, the mysterious boy made a small chuckle as he slammed his two swords together, making a familiar weapon which caused Flint to lower his bow and place the arrow back in his quiver as the boy placed the sword on his back, "hey" Ion said as he pulled down his hood and mask, the reveal of his face making his two friends smile, "it's been a while" Ion continued, his voice a lot more deep then the last time Flint and Zephyr had talked to him, as they also noticed his hair was much longer and he was sporting a small ponytail on the back of his head, Ion had really grown the past seven months he was away. Emotions overwhelmed Flint and Zephyr as they ran towards Ion, catching him a bit off guard as Flint jumped up on him, somewhat knocking Ion to the ground as he threw his arms around him and held ion in an embrace. Zephyr, trying to give Ion a bit more space, took the newsboy cap off of Flint's head and placed it back on Ion's, as Ion reached out his hand which Zephyr took as he too was pulled into the embrace, "your late! what took you so long?" Flint said with tears in his face as Ion made a small laugh, "oh, you know, I kind of had to pause my training for about a month, had a little tussle with Lazar, got stabbed in the gut, my spleen exploded so it had to be removed and..." Ion started answering as a look of shock presented on both Flint and Zephyr's faces, "oh my gosh, are you ok? Did he do anything else to you? Where is he? He's got a scythe to answer to!" Zephyr cried out with a bit of anger as he looked around for the dragon, Flint let go of his embrace as he noticed Ion wincing a little from his hands around his sore spot but Ion gestured for the both of them to calm down. "Don't worry, it was all an accident, actually I kind of provoked him and deserved it, we already patched things up anyways" Ion said with a small smile, trying to reassure his friends, "so since I missed over a month of training recovering from that, I couldn't leave knowing that I had not fully completed what they expected to teach me, so I decided to stay until it was all done which took me until just after Christmas, then the new year is a big celebration for the dragons and all the shadows and shinobis wanted me to experience their celebrations with them and I couldn't say no, so I decided to stay for that, then graduation was the weekend after, so instead of having to venture up the mountain again, I just spent a week enjoying some off time enjoying in Ryutatsu, so sorry about making you guy wait a bit longer" Ion continued, "it's ok I think we can understand" Zephyr said still shaken from Ion's news as Flint nodded, "fully understand." "Great! And besides I have not told you the cool part, because I lost a lot of blood from my spleen exploding and being in a dragon village, there wasn't really any fox blood, especially for my blood type, lying around so they had to put some dragon blood in me, so in essence I have actual dragon blood running through my veins, I am basically part dragon" Ion enthusiastically said with another smile as Zephyr still looked a bit on edge from Ion's injury reveal but Flint's expression changed, he grabbed Ion by the shoulders and looked straight into his eyes, "they put dragon blood in you???" Flint asked in a bit of a hectic worried tone as he continued to look all around Ion's eyes as Ion was taken aback a little, "yes, kind of cool right?" Ion replied back placing a free hand onto Flint's shoulder, "is there something the matter?" he continued as Flint let go of his grasp, "no... no not really, at least there doesn't seam to be" Flint said as he stood up, "you sure? You looked a little worried there for some reason" Ion countered as Flint shook his head and put out his hand down towards Ion, "it's nothing, forget about it" Flint said as Ion took his hand in which Flint helped him back to his feet, "more importantly though, that is quite a nice new outfit you are sporting and what did you do with your swords?" Flint asked trying to change the subject.
"Oh this, my fellow shadows, which is what the dragons call ninjas or shinobi, which was the group I was placed with, with the type of skills I have, made this for me to show that I am one of them" Ion started saying as Flint and Zephyr listened closely, "it is modeled after the shadows traditional garb but customized with things that suite me, every shadow has something like this, that usually related to their family and colours" Ion continued on. "As for my sword, well I reconfigured them to something more akin to what I was training with, a sword type which they call a ninjato, both halves of my sword looked like one and since I showed promise in dual wielding, I figured I would recraft my weapon into something that suites me more" Ion finished as Zephyr looked amazed but Flint looked a little down, "so you gave up on the bow then?" Flint said with a bit of disappointment but Ion shook his head, "no, not quite, "Ion replied as he drew his sword and sprang it open to bow form, "see it can still be opened up into bow form." "But the drawstring mechanism, it is missing, so how can you fire an arrow now?" Flint asked still seaming a bit disappointed as Ion held out his had and motioned Flint to let him borrow an arrow to which Flint handed him one, "I had to think about that, as if I wanted the swords to split into two, the drawstring would need to be removed" Ion started saying as he started making some blue sparks with his fingers, "I didn't to loose the ability of the bow so I had to figure out a way to make the drawstring work and then it hit me" Ion continued on as the sparks gathered around the opened blades of his sword and made an electrical arc from one tip to another, making what looked like a drawstring from lightning, "I can use lightning as the string!" Ion called out as he fired the arrow out into the valley from the Rivergate, "not only that but I can also do this" Ion said once more as the arrow's tip got covered in blue flame which when it landed on the stone road, the flame waved outwards, followed by rings of blue sparks, Flint and Zephyr could feel the energy pulsing from the arrow that Ion had fired, see that his abilities had grow quite a bit since the last time they fought side by side, surpassing the growth they could manage in the same seven months, "I am kind of a spellsword" Ion finished making a small laugh. "Not only can you apply your power to moving abject, but you can use fire as well as lightning, there is no way we can catch up with you now, compared with what you accomplished in these month, we kind of wasted them" Zephyr said with a bit of awe and frustration as Ion place a hand on his shoulder. "You didn't waste them" Ion said as he looked Zephyr in the eyes, "I mean look at what you are wearing, you became the Windfox, won a whole tournament and all that" Ion continued as Zephyr looked a bit surprised, "how... how did you know that? I though you would have question about my attire but how do you know all that" Zephyr asked as Ion laughed once more, "because my friend, I saw it happen, I was in Galerune during the tournament of Zephyrs, I saw you become the Zephyr of Zephyrs!" Ion answered and both Flint and Zephyr made shocked expressions. "Wait you were there? How did you... why didn't you come meet us?" Flint asked as Ion made a smile, "to not put too much pressure on Zephyr that I was watching, he seamed a bit, how should I put it, on edge and I didn't want to make things worse" Ion answered in a more serious tone, "and besides, it looked like you two had things covered, the way you both managed that small airship in the air race, being the youngest pilot and navigator to ever win the challenge in the tournament of Zephyrs, you looked to be doing quite fine without me, I didn't want to throw off your game." "Ok, but still, how did you find out about Galerune or the tournament of Zephyrs? We or at lease you and Flint have never been there before all this and never even knew lands existed above the clouds" Zephyr asked. "Oh, the dragons know about it and those lands" Ion replied, "actually we were doing a bit of a contract for them as shadows, providing security and making sure none of the Zephyr's cheated, actually you asked why I never came to see you when in fact at one time or another I was only a few meters away and you never noticed" Ion continued making another laugh. "so is that the real reason why you never showed your face to us?" Flint asked but Ion shook his head, "no, it was not like I couldn't contact you or any of the other Zephyrs, heck even some of them noticed we were around so it was not a secret or anything, it is just as I said, I needed to let you guys do this on your own, it is the only way sometimes we can grow as individuals so we can make a better team" Ion replied with sincerity.
"Sure, but what about the after party, when everyone celebrated Zephyr winning and it was all over, you could have just said quick hi" Flint retorted, "I couldn't stay too long, once the tournament was over, we had other placed to go, other missions to complete, Galerune was not the only place the shadows needed to be" Ion answered as Flint and Zephyr's interested peeked again, "other places, do you mean placed around Norland or..." Zephyr started asking but Ion made a big smile before he cut in, "oh, I have been all over, not just Norland" Ion said cracking another grin, "I have been to Thyracta, Cantrei and even Ernsvale just to name a few countries, the dragons took me all over during my training with them, I felt... felt what it would like to be as a Hunter" Ion finished as his statement invigorated both Flint and Zephyr, as like a first small goal towards their dream had been achieved with Ion's experience, "and I can't wait to show you all around when the summer come, when we can finally set out on our journey." "We can take my airship, the winds and the sky above can take us wherever we want to go" Zephyr added in, "I can pilot, we got a navigator in Flint and I was just waiting on you, we need a strategist" Zephyr continued as Ion held out his hand, "I am at your command" Ion said as Zephyr took it, "thanks but I would sleep better knowing you are in control of things, I am a good pilot and could captain a crew but still need someone who can lead the charge, you are the only one I can trust with that" Zephyr replied as Ion made a small chuckle, "you still don't get it" Ion commented before making a determined look, "ok I can take the lead, but only until you get your feet under you" Ion continued as Zephyr cracked a small smile, "ok I guess I can live with that but just don't expect that to ever happen" Zephyr retorted as Ion gave him a look. "You will get there, don't worry" Ion said as the boys started walking towards Eios, "speaking of getting there, Flint it looks like you have found your affinity" Ion said as he eyed Flint's geomancer garments "would love to hear the story around that, sound like you also have been on quite a adventure of personal growth." "Sure thing, just as long as you recount us with more tales of your as well" Flint replied with a smile, "It's a deal" Ion answered as Flint took Ion's hand and started running, leaving Zephyr to catch up on his own. "Come on! Lets go to my workshop, we can stay there for the night and recount stories!" Flint said in a cheery tone, "wait, workshop? You have a workshop in town?" Ion asked confusedly, "oh ya, when you were gone, after one of our adventures, when Flint discovered his affinity for Gaia, he kind of got caught up in scrapping and tinkering around with these old technology things and gadgets" Zephyr started answering as he was running from behind, "he is actually quite good at it for someone who grew up tribal, a real machinist, so good in fact he has been repairing things around old town in his spare time which has earned him some fairly nice coin, as well as selling some of the scrap he has managed to collect along the way, all of this had allowed him to buy a small building in old town" Zephyr concluded. "Really? That's amazing!" Ion said ecstatically, "I mean, it is a start, the building s really run down, looks like it used to be some sort of bar or pub but it has this great upper level that is like a loft where I have been able to set up three workspaces, one for each of us to do what we want with" Flint said with a big smile, "I figured once we were all together again, we could fix it up ourselves, give us something to do on downtime when we can't adventure and if we can get the main floor running again, have something that can help fund those adventures as we work towards our dream" Flint continued. "Wow, you have really thought this all out haven't you? It all sounds great to me, really lucky to have someone who is a friend like you, both of you!" Ion said to both his friends, "don't mention it, we are all in this together, this will be our place, a place that we can grown to help us grow, and once we get there, achieve that dream, it can be the place we use as a home base, our own Guild, the envy of all the Hunters!" Flint finished in a determined voice as Ion cracked a grin, "I am with you all the way!" Ion said as he looked towards Zephyr, "right, same here!" Zephyr chimed in as Flint made a big smile as the boys finally returned home all together, the adventure they started all those months ago, was finally at an end as a new one was just waiting in the wings. ~
-END-
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