The Hunter Mage

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

It has been a week since Vernon started going to play with the children and he was still doing it. He couldn't deny that it did beat spending all day in his bed and it sort of helped the day go by faster which was a good thing as he had less time now to think of what it would have been like if he was at home.

He didn't miss his mother and father any less but it was a little more bearable. It also helped that the children were always super excited to see them. Of course, he would keep coming back. He also couldn't help but notice a lot of the girls took a liking to him and made him tell them stories.

He knew a lot of them, considering his parents always told his stories every night especially his mother but he couldn't help but think he preferred his father's stories as they were less restrictive and always about fighting, war and victory.

It didn't take him long after he started watching over the children whatever chance he got to find that a lot of girls tend to play with the children and one of them was his archenemy, Sandra.

The first time he had seen her, he had been unable to contain his surprise but then after that, he had then proceeded to ignore her and only greeted Sarah who he found out was her friend's name.

This unsurprisingly pissed Sandra off and she always tried to do one mean thing or the other to Sarah whenever she tried to reply to his greetings. He found it amusing and quite satisfying so, he made sure to always say hi to Sarah just to see Sandra scoff and puff.

He pushed the huge door open, more like the tiny section that the teacher often uses and some children. There was no way he could push the main entrance open all by himself. The main entrance was only open when a lot of the children needed to pass through it, otherwise, the small door next to it was often used.

He has a destination and he didn't really need permission for that. He could just walk his way to wherever he wanted outside as long as it wasn't late, it wasn't into the forest, and or trying to escape the compound.

Today, however, his destination was somewhat closer to one of the taboos about going outside when it wasn't time for training.

Aside from during training hours, children hardly paraded the premises. Only a few of them liked to play outside running around the courtyards and it was usually the boys though a couple could go toe to toe with the rowdiest boys this hardly happened as the girls tended to distance themselves from the boys as soon as training was over.

He didn't dwell too much on the matter as he stepped out through the door. He squinted a little, the sun was as hot as usual but the glare still affected him a little as he just stepped out of a place that was lighted by unnatural lights, actually, it was natural, it just wasn't sunlight.

It took him only a few seconds to get his eyesight back. He blinked and from where he stood he could see the gateman staring in his direction. He could see the gatekeeper clearly enough considering there were a lot of meters between them.

He turned his head and started in the opposite direction, he knew exactly where he was headed, he had never been there before but he had gotten several glimpses of it. It would have been shorter to take the other route but the gatekeeper's eyes on him made him feel like he was doing something wrong.

Technically, he was but also technically, he wasn't. He had also not asked anybody for permission for fear that they would say no to him and he wasn't even sure he could do it but it wasn't about to stop him from trying, he was a little excited and he skipped his way there, he wondered how excited the children themselves would be.

He soon got to the courtyard and didn't waste any time as he walked upwards. The courtyard was quite huge but he needed the walk to prepare himself for what was coming. He soon passed through the courtyard completely and appeared behind all the buildings. It was just one building but they were really a lot of buildings joined together, Vernon still couldn't comprehend how it was done and he could tell it wasn't made from wood.

He had just gone more than halfway around the building with a little extra walking, the other side was faster but Vernon was still sure he would still take this part every day. One of the reasons was, it was familiar and two, it was likely to arouse less suspicion.

Vernon looked at the view in front of him and could barely contain his surprise. It was the biggest forest he had ever seen, his father would literally twirl if he saw this right now. He just stood and stared for a couple of seconds as he admired the huge forestation in front of him and his second thought was what kind of animals would reside in the deepest part of the forest.

He shook his head, snapping out of his admiration. He didn't have much time. He needed to start because he could tell there was no way he could get this in one try, he needed at least fifty. He didn't plan to get a hang of it the first day but he did intend to make a lot of improvement.

He almost chuckled out loud at his thought, he had not even started and he was already thinking about making improvements when he had absolutely no idea if he could even do it in the first place. He swallowed and made himself look bigger as he psyched himself to get to work.

He slowly approached the nearest tree, its trunk was thick enough for what he needed, the only person that would stand in the way was him. He stretched out his hand and touched the tree, it morphed.

Unfortunately, not in the way it wanted as spikes popped out of the sides of the tree. This wasn't in any way close to what he wanted. He growled and sighed but he wasn't giving up, he didn't expect it to be perfect on the first try and this was the perfect magic exercise.

He was totally trying something new and a huge part of him couldn't help but wonder if this wouldn't blow up on his face and he truly hoped that wasn't the case. However, this was the first day and there was no point feeling defeated even before he started so, he got to work again intending to try as many times as it took.

The toddlers didn't have many toys to play with, there were only about six and they were over four times that amount. It was ridiculous and even though he had mentioned it to Madame Rebecca, she had glared at him and ignored him.

He had also found himself warming up weirdly to Madame Rebecca, she was still mean to him and the rest of the child but she was absolutely loving to the toddlers and they loved her. It also didn't take him long to figure out that she was in charge of the toddlers, a couple of Madames come in once a while to help but Madame Rebecca almost didn't leave her spot except she had a couple of errands to run or it was breakfast, lunch or dinner time.

He also discovered that feeding time was very irregular with the toddlers, some ate often than others, some ate more than others. It was hard to keep track but somehow Madame Rebecca was able to handle it. Somehow, somebody was always eating.

The lack of toys, however, was a major situation that everybody was pretending wasn't. It was so bad that they took turns and one thing was for sure as much as the toddlers loved Madame Rebecca, they were also terrified of her.

Whenever she yelled at any of them they cried even more only silently this time. They often held their lips as they tried not to cry out loud. It was adorable as it was pitiful and she would end up having to apologize and petting the said kid.

Even though there was a patterned way of playing with toys, it still bothered Vernon that there weren't enough for each kid. He has grown up with more than enough toys as his father was a wood Craftsman and made him wooden toys as often as he could, he hardly ever ran out.

Therefore, it was very odd that the kids didn't have enough and it was obvious this was normal as when he mentioned it to Dev, he just shrugged and Madame Rebecca had glared at him and nobody else acted like it was abnormal.

As he struggled with the tree, he prayed that the fact that he was familiar with his father's craft would make this easy for him, how wrong he was. Over an hour later and still all he could make were still spikes.

He gasped, exhausted, and leaned against the tree. He had to return before someone noticed he wasn't anywhere in the building and decided to look for him. He didn't think he was doing anything wrong but he didn't want to have to explain what he was doing.

He dragged himself from the ground and wished he could take a part of the tree with him but yeah, he has discovered that his magic didn't affect dead plants. He couldn't control them, none of them could, and the older the plant, the harder it was to maneuver.

He literally ran back but just before he would appear in the gatekeeper's line of sight, he started to walk slowly. The last thing he needed right now was questions and it didn't help that he was sweating a little. Also, he was never great at lying.

He slowly approached the entrance hoping it would appear faster as he could feel the gatekeeper's gaze on him from this distance, he, however, avoided the old man's gaze like a plague and just looked straight ahead.

He couldn't help sighing out loud in relief when the door closed behind him. "Where are you coming from?" A voice asked, ruining what he thought was a good escape.

He almost gasped but he was able to stop it when he looked up to find Nevil. "Nowhere, was just playing in the courtyard." He replied looking away, a little afraid that Nevil would press the issue but his friend merely shrugged.

"Whatever, Dev was looking for you," Nevil muttered and started to walk away.

Vernon groaned a little, there was no way to pass to his room without passing the hallway where the toddlers played. It was further upward but yeah, he would still be seen. He braced himself, since there was no avoiding this he might as well face it head-on.

"Vernon!" Dev called as soon as he appeared as if he had been on the lookout for him.

"Hey Dev," he forced a smile though he was genuinely happy to see him but he had to remind himself not to give anything away.

"Where were you?" Dev asked, matching his grin. "James was asking for you." Almost immediately cries resonated as he reached the toddlers. His name was being called from every angle.

"Sorry, I was in the courtyard and totally lost track of time," Vernon explained with his fingers crossed.

"Well, alright. They have been screaming that it is time to tell them a story." Dev replied and returned his attention.

Vernon chuckled mostly from nerves that the fact that what Dev said was funny. "Okay, Okay. I have a new one today." He muttered and the crowd cheered.