Chương 171: New And Old Friends

Amos Flannery continued to profusely thank Damion as he left Quality Surplus Artifacts with Elicia. Once outside the store, Damion looked around to make sure the three troublemakers were long gone before turning to Elicia.

"I think I'm going to fly back to the academy. Would you like to fly with me?" Elicia watched silently as Damion summoned his Ice Sword in its flying configuration and then step onto it. He turned and offered his hand to Elicia to help her up, but she did not move.

"No thanks, I'll take the ground car back."

"I can secure your feet to the Ice Sword like I do mine. You won't fall," Damion told her, but the look in her eyes told him she was not interested in flying.

"Its fine if you don't want to join me. I'll see you back at the school." Before Elicia could say goodbye to Damion he was gone. Flying off around the corner and up into the sky. Since her job was to look after Damion, Elicia headed to ground car stop to catch the next ground car heading to the academy. On the way back to Silver Spire, Damion decided to test his flying skills. When he tried flying as fast as he could control his Ice Sword, he quickly realized a problem with flying, the wind.

He was forced to slow down because the speed he was traveling at made it hard for him to keep his eyes open. He contemplated taking his hood and mask out of his pack. Since the mask was made to be used in deserts, it protected his eyes and would make flying much easier. In the end, however, Damion simply flew a bit slower and pressed on towards the school. He would make better preparations the next time he wanted to try a highspeed flight.

Once he cleared the boundaries of Argentum and entered the school grounds he stopped and took a look back at the city. The tall colorful towers of the cityscape were quite impressive. He had read that the population of Argentum was in the tens of millions. Looking at the towering buildings, he believed it and he felt the city probably held a significant portion of the population of Nerotath. After admiring the view, Damion started heading towards Silver Spire Magic Academy again.

When he reached about the halfway point on his way to the academy grounds, he noticed an object in the sky coming towards him. At first Damion thought it might be an air car, or someone that had a flying artifact, but as the object approached, he saw that it was a large bird. Pausing his flight, Damion hovered in place while he waited to see what the bird would do.

As the bird grew closer Damion considered the possibility of the bird being a Ferocious Beast or a Demonic Beast and thought he might want to head to the ground, but in the end, he decided to wait. In a few more seconds, the bird would be within range of True Sight, and he would be able to tell the strength of the bird and still have time to escape if needed. When the bird entered his skill range, he could see it was at Rank C.

With the bird flying right at him, Damion thought the bird figured he was an easy meal and readied himself to cast Ice Shard. However, as the bird got closer, he felt it looked familiar. The snow-white colored feathers with golden beak and talons along with ice blue eyes let Damion identify the bird as a Snow Hawk, since he had seen one of the rare Ferocious Beasts before. The Snow Hawk circled around Damion in the air, letting out a few short shrill cries.

As he considered the Ferocious Beasts behavior he could not help but wonder.

"Phil?" Damion questioned the Ferocious Beast. The Snow Hawk let out a loud shriek. Damion knew the bird was answering him. It was hard to believe, especially considering the distance between Bufort and Argentum, but he was convinced this was the same Snow Hawk he had encountered several times at Galen's farm. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"Did you come looking for me?" Damion could not help but ask, though he was not sure if he really thought the Snow Hawk would answer. Phil let out another loud shriek and Damion started thinking that the Snow Hawk was smarter than he gave it credit. Perhaps all Ferocious Beasts were. Damion was about to try and continue his journey to his dormitory when he noticed another person quickly moving towards him. After a few seconds, he could see it was Professor Moretti standing on an air board flying towards him.

"Mage Wells are you alright?" Professor Moretti called out.

"I'm fine, this is Phil," Damion said as he realized why Professor Moretti was here. The Snow Hawk let out another affirmative shriek when it heard its name. A C Rank Ferocious Beast in the air above the school could pose a danger to the students. If it wanted, it could swoop down and injure or even kill a student before most people in the academy would even realize what happened.

Most likely, the school had some sort of warning or detection system to spot Ferocious and Demonic Beasts that made their way into the school grounds. This was probably how Professor Moretti knew to come out.

"You named a Snow Hawk?" Professor Moretti questioned.

"No. A farmer living near Bufort did. Phil lived in the Benault Forest and ate the Fire Scorpions plaguing Mr. Galen's farm."

"And you are sure this is the same Snow Hawk?" the Professor questioned.

"Pretty sure, but it isn't like Phil has a name tag or anything," Damion said as Phil once again cried out at the sound of its name.

"It would seem the Ferocious Beast has formed a bond of sorts with you. Perhaps because you both have a similar affinity." Professor Moretti said scratching his chin.

"I'll let the rest of the professors know that Phil is not hostile towards people. Though I'm not sure how the Headmaster is going to react."

"What do you mean?"

"Headmaster Sorin has a strict policy of no Ferocious Beasts being allowed on the grounds. It stems from a case a few years ago of a young mage from a noble family who brought a pet Ferocious Beast to the academy."

"What happened?" Damion asked curious. He had never heard of anyone keeping Ferocious Beasts as pets before.

"Accounts differ, but something caused the Ferocious Beast, a Rock Mouse, to attack a student. Some people claimed the Rock Mouse was defending its owner. Others claimed the Rock Mouse went berserk. Either way, the Headmaster disallowed all Ferocious Beasts."

"I can probably find him a place to stay nearby. I'm not sure if he came here just to find me or was just wandering and happened upon me."

"A Ferocious Beast normally doesn't venture far from its hunting grounds. Either something forced it to leave, or it decided to leave with a purpose."

"What if its hunting ground dried up?" Damion asked.

"What do you mean by, dried up?"

"I killed off a large portion of the Fire Scorpions, including a giant one that appeared to have been the one laying all the eggs. If Phil finished off the rest or more adventurers came and cleared the rest out, then Phil's main food source would have dried up."

"I suppose the Snow Hawk could have been searching for a new hunting ground and stumbled across you. In any event, I'll let the faculty know that the Snow Hawk they might see around is proven friendly to humans. Just try to find it a place far enough from the grounds that it doesn't cause any of the students to want to try and attack it."

"That would probably be a good idea," Damion agreed. As far as Damion knew, Phil had never attacked people, but like any wild animal, if you attacked it, defending itself would be a normal reaction. Damion flew for a few minutes over the perimeter wall of the academy grounds before coming to a small stream running through a meadow. The place looked quite nice, and he figured where there was water, there was sure to be wildlife. After landing, Damion thought this would make a good home for Phil.

"Phil, stay here in the meadow. See if you can find food around here. Don't go up to the school. I'll come visit you when I have time." Damion told the bird that landed on the ground next to him.

'Great, I'm already talking to it like it knows what I'm saying.' Despite his doubts, Phil let out a small cry and flew over to a tree near the edge of the meadow. Seeing that Phil was settled, Damion climbed onto his Ice Sword and flew back to the school. For the next few weeks, Damion would travel to the meadow every weekend to visit Phil. He had tried to visit the Ferocious Beast during the week, but he was not allowed out of the school grounds during the week.

Despite being able to fly, Damion was intercepted by a teacher the few times he attempted to sneak out. The Snow Hawk seemed genuinely pleased to see him each time he visited. After the first visit, Elicia started to relax around Phil, though she was still rather nervous, it looked like she would also become friends with the Ferocious Beast.