Hyro watched as Nail’s Spirit or essence left his body and floated in front of him. Then he felt as his own essence leapt out of his body. He was somehow both still inside his body and in the ball of his essence outside of his body. Floating right into Nail’s essence. Hyro could feel a connection forming, he knew what the pine marten went through growing up in the Ira forest. He saw when the Hogtork’s murdered Nail’s family and felt Nail’s anger and need for revenge as he went after the Hogtork’s right before he met Hyro. Hyro never felt this sort of connection that was forming; he truly knew everything about Nail, and it did not bother him that Nail was most likely getting to know everything about Him. They were becoming one, a bonded pair.

  ‘Hyro, we will be stronger, we will protect all of those that we grow to care about.’ Hyro was not sure who was talking until he realized it was Nail, somehow speaking directly in his head. Hyro thought deeply back in an attempt to respond, ‘Nail, we will continue to get revenge for those that have been wronged. We will be stronger!’ Hyro felt their thoughts seal the pact as they made their promises to each other and in turn accepted the promise. As their essences completely fused together they split and shot into Nail and Hyro, they were officially a bonded pair. Hyro’s eyes focused and he saw Nail, still in his hands, but all of his wounds seemed to have disappeared, Nail was also much heavier, and bigger than before. It took a lot for Hyro just to hold him still. He was still a pine marten in appearance, pointed ears, with a long body, bushy tail, and brown fur, he was roughly the size of a coyote. Where he was mostly just cute before, now he is a little frightening too. Hyro thought as he chuckled to himself when he suddenly heard in his head, ‘At least you admit I am still cute’ “What in the world?!” Hyro spat out as he heard Nail speak in his head. ‘Part of the side effects of being fully bonded, we are never alone now, we share thoughts and, well, everything.’ Hyro was shocked to learn this as he never read much on the subject.

  Well I promise to try to be too invasive to your private thoughts if you do the same, It might take some time, this is all new. Hyro thought back to Nail. Nail hopped out of Hyro arms and stood tall on his hind legs. When he stretched out, Nail was only a foot or two smaller than Hyro. Nail stretched out a paw as if to shake and Hyro responded by shaking his partner's hand. ‘Now we have to work on your messages with Cynthia’ “Nope!” Hyro shouted out loud, only to finally remember that he was still in the Ira forest, with Enris simply staring at him and Nail. Hyro looked over to Enris, releasing Nail’s hand, “Umm, Enris, this is Nail, my Animal companion I think. Nail, this is Enris.” Hyro knew that Nail already knew all about Enris from bonding, but felt like a proper introduction was in order. Enris laughed out loud. Hyro started thinking about how close they came to death and then couldn’t help himself. Somehow, in the aftermath of the adrenaline wearing off, he was laughing. It must have been contagious as Nail was laughing with them.

  As the trio laughed they forgot where they were for a moment, until they heard the loud roar, “IRA!” Hyro could not see anyone but knew they needed to go. “Run!” Hyro shouted as he ran off following the mini map to go north east, out of the woods. Hyro could swear that he heard noises getting closer but he felt faster and stronger, running was not bothering him, so he pushed forward, Nail right by his side. Hyro looked back for a moment and saw Hyro just behind them. They ran until they were in the less dense forest, but they did not stop there, they ran until they were at the safety of the main road. By the time they finally got there, all three of them were dead tired, they pushed themselves well past their limit, Hyro had more notifications that he pushed away for now, he would deal with that after they got some rest. Hyro looked up to notice the sun was setting. They left before it even came up this morning, and traveled the whole day in the forest, but they succeeded in their mission. While on the road Hyro was tempted to look at his character sheet and all of the notifications, but decided it would be best to wait until in a place he can sit down and rest. He did, however, open the message from Cynthia.

  Hyro was confused, What is going on? What should we do now? Hyro was thinking to himself but decided to fill Enris in on the little information that he had and get his input. “We should probably head right back, I wanted to get some rest but it seems that would be the best plan.” As if the universe felt it needed to give them another sign to head back to Terraqua immediately a folded piece of paper landed right next to Enris, floating from the sky with ENRIS written in bold red letters. Enris opened and read the note out loud, “Enris and Hyro, this message is being sent to every group still out in the field, please return to your current base: Terraqua Academy, as soon as possible. This is a direct order. Signed, Gregory Lakstout, Member of the high council of Adventures.” Enris paused after reading then spoke again, “What in Orabis is going on?”

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  Despite being worn out and just wanting rest, they decided to take the longer trek back to Terraqua, with them getting a letter from the high council it didn’t really seem like they had a choice at this point. The walk back was mostly peaceful, Hyro was able to fill all of the vials that Hurly gave him for samples, he forgot to buy more from Faras or Aquarine while he was there but there will be hopefully more time in the near future. For now he had a great assortment of new materials to experiment with. They did cross a few small creatures in the woods around Terraqua, but nothing seemed to bother the trio and they did not have the energy to take on anything currently. Nail was quiet for most of the walk, he did chase off the small animal or so as they got a little too close to the group, out of the three of them Nail seemed to have the most energy despite being at death's door just earlier in the day. Finally, close to the middle of the night they made it to the academy’s walls. The main doors were usually closed so that was not new, but seeing two people guarding the doors was new, and neither Hyro nor Enris recognized the pair.

  “State your business.” One of the two people guarding the door stated directly. Enris stepped slightly forward with the note in hand, “We were out on an independent study and received this letter from the High council saying that we needed to return as soon as possible, we came right here after getting the letter.” The guard that spoke took the letter and after giving it a courtesy glance he looked back up and spoke again while motioning for his partner to open the door, “You may enter, please head directly to Headmaster Buck’s office, he will debrief you once he is able.” Enris, Hyro and Nail all entered the doors, the two guards gave an extra glance at Nail as he passed though, but they did not say anything about him entering. Walking through the academy grounds, it looked like a ghost town. Normally it was not bustling with activity but students could be seen walking around or training outside, walking the halls at the very least and the staff could be seen doing their various jobs, no one could be seen doing anything. When they finally made it to Buck’s office they saw Tracey standing outside with a clipboard pacing the area in front of his door.

  “Ah good you returned, you were the last two out, now just give me a moment, I will inform Buck of your return and…” She started talking fast but ended abruptly as she looked and saw Nail, presumably for the first time. “What is that?” She pointed her pen at Nail, inches from his face. Hyro could feel Nail’s frustration at being pointed at in such a manner and being called ‘That’. Hyro thought to Nail to try and keep him calm, ‘Nail, Please let me take care of it, we need to show people here respect.’ Nail looked at Hyro and gave a slight nod, then Hyro spoke aloud to Tracey, “While we were out I found a small pine marten, to make a long story short we bonded and he is now my animal companion.” Tracey looked from Nail to Hyro before telling Hyro, “You will need to register your companion as soon as you are done speaking with Buck.” After that she motioned for Hyro and Enris to have a seat on chairs that must have only recently been placed outside of Buck’s office as they were not there before. It took a long time for Buck to be ready. Hyro debated checking his notifications but did not want to be interrupted while looking over everything so decided to wait just a little bit longer. After close to an hour of waiting Tracey walked back up to the two boys and let them know that Buck was ready to see them, both Hyro and Enris walked into the headmasters office.

  Buck looked tired. His office was usually clean and organized but right now it was like a horde of creatures rand through destroying everything. There was so much going on in Buck’s office Hyro almost forgot that it was after one in the morning. Buck looked up from the papers on his desk after hearing the door open, he motioned for Hyro and Enris to have a seat. Buck grabbed something from his desk and walked over to the three that just walked in. Before saying anything Buck leaned down and spoke to Nail, “Well hello there, I am sure you know this already but I am Buck, it is always nice to meet a student's new companion.” Buck’s demeanor changed from tired and stressed to caring and friendly instantly. As Buck spoke he laid a pile of fruit and nuts down for Nail and spoke again, “I am sorry that I do not have any meat or bowls for you to eat out of here, we have not had a student with a companion like you in a long time.” Nail sniffed the fruit and nuts for a moment before eating all that was in sight. ‘I like this one, he makes up for that woman.’ Hyro could hear Nail’s thoughts as he was eating. Buck then stood back up and took his seat behind his desk, finally turning his attention fully to Hyro and Enris. “We have much to discuss.”

  Buck went only to explain the basics of what was going on, that the adventurers authority was being challenged, specifically near Ryse and protocol was for all adventuring to cease until the situation was resolved. “There is not much more that I can share with the two of you for now. Have you two been in any towns or near other people in the last day?” The two boys shook their heads and Enris spoke up, “No we have been on the road or in the Ira Forest, we did see a barbarian but we did not exactly have a conversation. While we traveled the roads it was early in the morning and later in the evening so we did not pass many people at all.” Hyro and Enris agreed beforehand that Enris would do the talking as he had been involved in debriefings before and this was Hyro’s first. Buck nodded along in understanding as Enris spoke and when Enris finished Buck replied with, “Very well, I am sure you are all very tired, Enris, you may go to bed, I need to speak with Hyro a little longer.” Enris took his leave, giving a look to Hyro and Nail as he passed but did not say anything. When Enris left Buck continued, “Have you learned anything about the Order?” Buck’s tone turned serious. Hyro thought for a moment but decided then and there that he had to start trusting some people, it may end up hurting him later, but he already resolved to be the strongest so what did it matter if people learned some of his secrets.

  “Yes, I learned that there are multiple beings in the Order, and that their belief pillars are freedom, adaptability, flexibility and recklessness. They also have the ability to modify the System to an extent.” Buck had a puzzling look come across his face, “What do you mean by that boy?” Hyro thought for a moment then spoke, “I do not have the wheel of Luck in my contribution store, I have something called the Wheel of Chaos. There have also been some messages that the System allowed to come directly from the Order of Chaos to me.” Buck seemed to be in deep thought, “That is very concerning, please do not do the wheel of Chaos or pay too much attention to those messages until we learn more, it could be very dangerous. I have not been able to find out much except that they are a newer group and adept at hiding, they also appear to be the catalyst for what is happening near Ryse but no one is sure how exactly. I wish that I could tell you more but for now that is all I can say. Please try to get some rest, we all have an uncertain future in front of us.” Hyro started to get up but remembered what Tracey said when she met Nail, “Umm, I was told that I had to immediately register Nail here, how exactly do I do that?” Buck gave a small smile, “Nail you say?” He pulled aside a piece of paper on his desk, “That was actually the last piece of information I needed to register him, Nail the Pine Marten is officially the registered animal companion of Hyro Selk, Adventuring student of Terraqua academy.”