Back in the carriage, Lucio stared sourly at Gale who was several meters ahead of the carriage, riding bare back of all things! Even he himself couldn't get the horse to do as he wanted even with a saddle on and whip in hand! Lucio sighed, it wasn't fair why could Gale ride that damn horse when he couldn't?!? After all he was far superior being born of noble blood!

Of course there was more to it than that, Lucio just had a hard time admitting it "that time at the new student competition....did he let me win?" he thought to himself. During the final move of the fight Gale had moved in a way that left him completely open to be attacked, and for a while now, Lucio had been wondering if he had done it on purpose.

There was only one problem with his theory, he had absolutely no idea to why this could be if it was true, "I mean why would anybody ever want to lose a match?" he thought to himself still confused. This was in fact one of the reasons he had invited the other boy into his house, so as to see if there was a deeper meaning behind it.

However even with all his suspicions he still believed himself superior and thought that even if Gale was hiding his true skills he would be made to pay for underestimating him. How wrong he could be?

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Three hours of riding later and Lupos could finally see the forest he called home as well as the Illio's estate "We're almost there kid." Yelled out the old carriage driver "I presume you'll be staying with the Illio's in the servants quarters?" Lupos hesitated a minute, before he had been ready to stay with the Illio's but being this close to home made him long for the forest.

Unsure about what to do he devised a plan "Jormugand," he started in mindspeak "if I left you near to the Illio's estate would you be able to get the information then find me again?" "yesssss," hissed Jormugand "Where should I meet you?" Lupos smiled "In the centre of the forest I'm going to go see an old snake."

Jormugand laughed "would this be the infamous Darius you're going to see?" Lupos continued smiling "Correct and you'll meet him soon enough too." the snake laughed and then fell silent for the remaining ten minutes of the journey.

As they approached the Illio family estate, Lupos slowed down his pace and trotted besides the carriage so as to talk to Lucio. "Young master, you have showed me such a kindness by allowing me to train with you so I could not possibly take advantage of your hospitality any further by imposing on you. As such I have decided to stay with some family around here and only come yo your estate to train!"

Lucio nodded in understanding "Of course but you must turn up to training at nine o'clock every morning or you shall make me lose face." Lupos nodded "Yes young master. I thank you for the usage of this horse and I shall see you tomorrow." Lucio smiled as Lupos dismounted Amazon and turned to walk away into the direction of the forest.

What Lucio didn't notice is that as he was talking to Lupos a large green snake slithered out from Lupos' bag and was currently hidden under his carriage. As the carriage departed Lupos smiled and immediately took off running towards the forest.

As he saw the familiar paths and trails, Lupos took off running towards Darius' hut happy to finally be home.

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Authors note

Hi everyone I'm sorry for the short chapter but I won't be able to do many more releases this week because of exams so figured I'd try and get out one more chapter before then hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave a comment :)