The Hunter Mage

CHAPTER FIFTY

The look of surprise and admiration on Vernon’s face that somehow Dev had found a way to convince Nevil was priceless but it was still not as good as the look on Nevil’s face as he realized he had been duped. “You! Why would you do that?” Nevil cried, he looked genuinely sad and disbelief was written all over his face, one could tell that he could not believe Dev had done that to him.

Dev turned away for a little while, looking in Vernon’s direction for support as he tried to appeal his case in a way that would make it be about the children and the fact that they need his help than the appalling one where he tricked Nevil. Vernon however, had not figured out what was going on and the look of surprise had quickly changed to confusion at Nevil’s exclamation towards Dev.

“What did you do?” Vernon asked as he was getting very curious as to what had transpired between the two of them for Nevil to react like that.

“Well,” Dev started to say but paused to clear his throat but before he could continue, Nevil took over.

“He told me, Madame…”

“Shhh!” They both cried out, putting while -putting their index fingers on a vertical line across their lips. “You are shouting Nevil, some of the children are sleeping.” Vernon continued, still keeping his finger on his lips.

“Oh, I am so sorry,” gasped Nevil as he brought the volume of his voice down, and without missing a beat he repeated his earlier words. “He told me Madame Rebecca asked him to come to get me,” he said, his voice contorted a little as he spoke.

Vernon gasped a little and turned to look at Dev, ”Dev, did you tell him that Madame Rebecca was asking for him?”

Dev looked away and twirled his finger. “I may have said something like that.” He muttered, he felt embarrassed.

“Why?” They both asked.

“Well, I could not think of any reason why he would want to come with me if Madame Rebecca was not involved. I did not want to lie but Nevil is very stubborn.” Dev scoffed as he added the extra sentence but nobody countered because it was true, if Nevil did not want to do something only the teachers could make him do it.

Nevil rolled his eyes and turned around as he started to walk back the way he came, “I am going back to the room.”

“Wait,” Vernon cried and held his wrist. “Don’t go, I mean you are already here just hang with us for a while.”

Nevil pulled his hand and stiffly said, “No!” Then continue walking away.

“Madame Rebecca,” Dev suddenly called and Vernon saw Nevil’s movement still before he turned to look at Dev with shock in his eyes.

Dev smirked a little just as Nevil’s face changed from disbelief to anger and then his shoulders fell. He sighed and said, “Today is the last day. I won’t do this tomorrow, I know you guys find it fun, I don't.

“Yippee,” Vernon cried and they sat on the floor to play with the kids.

They played with the children until it was time for the first dinner. After that, they wanted to go their separate ways. Vernon wanted to take a nap while Nevil wanted to hang out with the rest of the boys but Dev had other ideas.

“Um, remember you guys promised to show me how you did the toys.” Dev blurted out as they started to walk away.

“What?” They both yelled and turned around to face Dev.

“You remember, don’t you?” Dev asked slowly, knowing he was already on Dev’s bad side he did not want to make it any worse than it already was.

“No,” Nevil said stiffly and began to walk back towards Dev’s direction. “I remember you trying to get us to make that promise, I do not remember making it.” He was taunting Dev and one could tell he was enjoying it.

“You owe,” Dev murmured. “Both of you.”

“Not me, at least not anymore especially after you tricked me with Madame Rebecca,” Dev muttered.

Vernon did not say anything as he watched the both of them, not that he did not have anything to say rather he was not in the mood to, he just wanted to get to the room and take a nap. These days he realized that he tended to run out of energy quickly, he did not know why yet but his body was still trying to get used to the fact that he could use magic now.

“Okay five minutes, just show me for five minutes,” Dev begged.

Nevil did not do or say anything at first instead he turned around and started to walk away. However, he was not heading in the direction of their room, rather he made his way towards the way out. “Five minutes, right? That is all you get, I will make sure to be counting.”

“Yes!” Dev cried and fist bumped the air before taking off after Nevil.

Vernon yawned and rolled his eyes, none of them even cared to ask if he was interested even though he knew he could not exactly say no since Dev had been really angry at him and at the fact that he did not ask for Dev’s help even though they worked with the children together.

He followed after them though catching up to them in no time. They did not stop moving until they got to the forest. They walked to the only tree they had used in the making of the toys, for some reason the urge to try another tree never crossed either of their minds. Not Vernon when he was struggling alone and definitely not Nevil when he joined him.

“Okay, now that we are here, what next?” Nevil asked sarcastically.

“Show me,” Dev muttered with a broad smile pasted across his face and Vernon felt himself wince at the idea that he would have to expel for a petty and unimportant reason.

Vernon sighed and his shoulders dropped. He swallowed as he tried to get his body and mind ready to do the task that he had just spent the entirety of his day doing. There was no better way to say it but one thing was for sure, he was in no way pleased.

“Okay,” Nevil repeated. “And like I said, five minutes, nothing more.’

Even as Nevil repeated those words, Vernon did not know how Nevil will know when it had been five minutes but there was one thing he was sure of was there was no way Nevil was counting the seconds. Vernon figured he would just show Dev and after some time had passed, he would scream that it had been five minutes.

Nevil got to work and Vernon decided to wait a couple of seconds before he too made his attempt but seconds turned to a minute and nobody was saying anything about the fact he was just standing there staring. He remained still, mentally telling himself not to join in unless he had to.

Nevil wasted no time in finishing up a toy while Dev stared unblinkingly. He looked so engrossed that Vernon started to feel bad about not including him, he would have been a big help and even if his skill had not been useful in the toy making, Vernonn was sure he would just be as supportive.

Nevil handed him the toy lieon and said, “Here you go, are we done? Can i go now?”

“Of course not,” Dev muttered, snatching the toy from his hand. “I am sure it is not five minutes yet, let me just try to see if I can try what you did but with wind, you know maybe like carving the tree.” Dev tried to explain, his voice sizzled with excitement.

Nevil glared at him as if to ask if he was serious. “You know that is not possible right but by all means have at it. I should be able to clean whatever mess you make as long as you don’t cut the tree in half.” At the last part Nevil chuckled.

“Ha ha ha, very funny.” Dev mocked and rolled his eyes. “I am sure I can be delicate too.

“Okay,” Nevil returned and took a step back, giving Dev the floor. He stood behind Dev but just at the right angle so he could still watch whatever Dev was doing.

It did not take long for Dev to discover that apparently wood carving was not for wind magic or someone without any knowledge about wood carving. He stopped after a couple attempts gasping and panting tremendously while Nevil and Vernon just stared at him.

“Fine, I guess you were right," he said stiffly, obviously bummed out that his plan did not work.

"Maybe attacking the main tree was not the way to go but I am sure you'll be able to do something about the toy Nevil made, maybe try to see if you can make tiny cuts or sharpen the edges. I don't even know if you understand what I mean." Vernon interjected, unable to stand Deb's feeling of rejection.

"Yeah that makes sense, I am sure I can use wind to make specific cuttings on it. Thank you Vernon." Dev replied happily jumping around slightly causing Vernon to blush at the unexpected gratitude. When he was done jumping around, he then made to get to work.

"No way," Nevil yelled. "Do that in your own time, I am sure it is way past five minutes already. I am going to fix the tree and we will be on our way." Nevil stumped towards the tree when he was done talking and Vernon and Dev found themselves laughing at his reaction.