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I walk back towards the city after a couple of long days discussing the vampire envoy with Defeck Largechest, who will come to our city tomorrow with some crafters to build an ambassador's quarters above the council chambers. The only thing is as it is above the council chambers it'll be designed with humanoids in mind, We also discussed the possibility of nonhuman quarters for other ambassadors and he'll present the council with ideas. This set of rooms takes precedent however as he'll be here within a month anyway.

As I approach my back gate, I notice that Starburst is watching something intently in the training yard instead of watching for me. Which I found odd, as Shadow is walking with me so it can't be that him and Ecthelon were sparring. Zander notices and comments, "well something has the old lizard's attention;" he grins. "Shall we find out what?" He indicated I should mount onto his back so we can hurry inside the gates and I hop on. Having a centaur teach you about proper equine mounting really excels your ability to leap onto an equine form.

He canters to the gate taking mere moments verses the at least ten minutes it would have taken at the walk we had been at. Upon reaching the gate he swings it open and trots in as quietly as he is able with shod feet. Yes centaurs get shoes put on them as a way to help protect their hoofs from being badly torn by stones.

We enter the training area and I see a grizzled old human shooting my impossibly hard to pull bow at the archery target with the children watching. Ecthelon standing nearby speaking, "yes it's Dragon bone. Not from the same one as her sword is made, but from one that was killed. I had commissioned our mage smith to make it when I discovered she excels at archery."

Zander stops not terribly far away from the group and I slide off his back as he speaks to the old man. "Interesting you can pull that bow old man, very few can. Our Hunter can't pull it even yet." The man turns towards us an I gasp as he speaks at Zander, "that horse ass. Is because I foolishly did not realize my niece had the Hunter trait active."

I step forward still shocked, "Uncle Lance?" HE smiles at me nodding, "sorry Gwen for not teaching you as I should have. Your ma would have skinned me alive if I had tried, she was sure that my 'secret job' was a load of horse manure." I rush over and hug him, "it's good to see family alive uncle."

He pats me on the back and hold me at arms length a moment looking me over then peers at Ecthelon. Who holds up his hands and says, "hey before you complain about how untaught she is. Remember I haven't been here all that long, and we have to teach her how to use the evil sense and I only know what Mordred told me of the ability."

Uncle Lance nods his head and looks at me again as if in thought, "odd 'gift' that one. Not one I myself have ever seen, though I was taught how to train it. It's never been seen in our line before, neither has a female Hunter."

I notice the large wolf laying calmly but attentive near the wall, and I turn to walk over there when Zander steps in front of me his head turned to Uncle Lance. "Why do you have a man eating Norse wolf? I thought they were all dead." My uncle looks at the wolf and then back at Zander, "that is an interesting story; mind if I sit down first?" I then notice that Shadow had appeared behind my uncle as if he was going to restrain him, and I give everyone a look of curiosity.

Starburst responds, "go sit and I'll explain the species for Gwen's benefit." He looks to the children, "I believe you all have swimming lessons;" they quickly leave as I head to the outdoor seating area with my uncle.

Starburst lowers his head into the training area looking at me and starts talking, "during the time that the Norse people were the rulers of the seas. There existed a species of Dire wolf that only lived in the coldest reaches of their lands. This wolf species hated humans and would attack human villages and kill them eating those they killed."

He looks at the wolf who was pretending to be sleeping through the lecture. "We do not know why, but they did not seem to become insane from eating of intelligent beings flesh; however. Many postulate that is due to the fact that most other intelligent people think they are born insane." I hear a canine chuckle and Starburst continues. "Young Norse men would seek out lone wolves of this kind as an 'adulthood' hunt to prove they were grownup. Usually they would take only a large dagger and no armor to do this, as you can imagine not many survived this 'trial'." The wolf chuckles again, "once the Christian church gained a foothold in their society the Norse people sought out their kind and slaughtered them. As to them it was a piece of their old Pagan ways and they couldn't let the wolves eat their people now."

The wolf snort and my uncle nods his head, "yes and all of us who know the true state of the world had figured they were all dead. Yet I have this one, and he's not old for one of his kind; so there are probably more of them." He turns to Shadow, who had been; well shadowing him. "You must be my niece's body guard, I am not likely to kill my own family. You can back off, or I'll remove your stone." Shadow froze, and Ecthelon's head whips up. "He's a simulacrum? I wondered why he was so good, who is he a mock up of then?"

My uncle grins, "not sure totally; but I get a feeling he is from a gladiator. That would explain his insane skills yet being a young 'human'." I tilt my head, unsure of what they are talking about; and Starburst responds. "A simulacrum is a built 'model' of another intelligent being, they have all the skills of the person who was copied. They can learn and can live a long time as long as they can stay powered. Some of the great mages of old created them as personal guards from top warriors." He nods his head, "a gladiator would have been used if they fought exceptionally well."

My uncle sits back and changes the subject back to his wolf, "as to Loki. I was called to a Russian village with stories of some creature stealing children and them being found dead and partially eaten later." He looks at Loki who had his head up watching my uncle, "I went looking for the 'monster' who was doing the killings. Near a cave I saw Loki tearing the throat out of a man and I started fighting him. When I had Loki in a position when I could have killed him with one swing of my sword I noticed a couple of dead wolf pups and a steal leg trap that one of the pups was still in. So I lowered my sword and told him to leave and never return. I had not seen the female wolf, or if their had been more; I turned my back on Loki after telling him to leave and headed back to the town. After a bit of asking I found out the fur trapper had discovered their den and had been trapping them for their pelts."

Loki growls when hearing of the trapper, "the town lord had a new wolf fur coat and had been quite proud of it. Until I challenged him to a duel over the coat, when he lost I took my sharpest dagger and shredded it. Warning the people that they need to be careful what they decide to kill, and that the 'dumb wolves' the trapper had been killing weren't so dumb and were retaliating for the deaths of their own." Uncle Lance looks over to Loki, "when I left the town Loki limped in front of me and demanded to become my guardian."

I shake my head, "so you wound up with a man eating Norse wolf as a guardian because you beat him up?" I toss my hands into the air, "men!" The men in my life all chuckle at the comment, and I shake my head again.

My uncle gives me another hug, "Sorry about your brother Gwen. You know he had limited foresight of about a week prior to an event. So my guess would be is he had a feeling something was going to happen in Denver and went there to help. I saw the aftermath, there is no way he could have fought her alone. I am still surprised you took her out alone," he looks thoughtful a moment. "I wonder, we don't truly know the limits to your ability Gwen. It could be that it enabled you to know when to move out of the way from a blast. I imagine it would feel like some insane urge to move," he looks thoughtfully at Starburst who nods his head.

He then shakes his head and grins at me, "so before I decide to move on your Arms Master wishes for me to help train you and to pass onto him some of the knowledge for training Hunters. I do not see a problem with this," I blink and speak. "You're not staying uncle?" He gives me an apologetic look, "no I'm afraid not Gwen. I am a loner, I prefer to not live in cities surrounded by people."

I sigh inwardly sad that I would not get to see my uncle all the time, but once I thought about it what he said was true. He had not lived near any city when I was a child, he had lived out in the woods. I did have an idea though, "uncle. If you could stand to live in a city for a period of time provided they would let you go off when ever you wanted could you stand it for a time?"

My uncle leans back in his seat and give me a long look as if trying to figure out what I am after. "I suppose so Gwen why do you ask?" I pull out the letter with the request of a Hunter from the Egyptian city and hand it to my uncle. He takes it and looks it over for a minute then gets a thoughtful look on his face.

He looks up at Starburst and says, "alright scaly you and that fur ball have about two years before I want that boy Lance to be my apprentice. Get that gryphon flying before then, I expect a flying guardian when I request the boy to be brought to this city." He turns to look at me, "I will accept this request only until I deem Lance to be able to handle a city on his own. I will give your people two years to get him ready to be an apprentice, you should be able to have Mauve apprentice to you about then."

He glances over to the hippogryph, "the babe I might have a place for once he's old enough. It would be along the eastern ocean, I have friends there and he could be a traveling Hunter there. That would probably be best considering his guardian." I nod my head, and he chuckles. "A city with vampires as citizens, this will be most interesting. I hope they will give me the ability to govern their bad behavior as well," I hear a growl escape Loki again and my uncle looks at him. "Quiet you, they aren't going to snack on you. They have to have your permission before snacking on you and a Hunter's guardian would be considered sacred." He chuckles, "especially after that jeweler makes you that collar. The holy silver will make you an unpleasant treat to them, from my understanding holy silver makes the blood taste off to vampires."

I filed that piece of information away for later, making sure that Lance and Dawn both had their holy silver before sending them to my uncle. I sat back happy to have one person from my family alive when a thought came to mind. "Uncle, what is your Hunter ability? Is it related to why you don't like being in cities?" He chuckles and gives Starburst another look before answering me, "it does my dear. I can tell by a look what a person's lineage is, which has the added benefit of telling me when I am dealing with a simulacrum. It even lends to certain object like weapons made from Dragon bits." He turns to Ecthelon, "you hadn't needed to tell me where the bow came from I had already known. Though my niece might like to know it was from a Dragon Mordred killed, I had heard that Lady Morrigan had sent him out to kill one."

I look over to my bow where it was leaning in a rack near the archery range, surprised at the history behind the bow. My uncle looks as well then eyes Starburst again, {I wonder what the looks are about?} Alberich responds, {that is for Starburst to tell you when he is ready}. I mentally shrug, my uncle says. "You know scaly, I am aware of the fact that your people say the Wind Dragons all died before humans existed. Why is it that Mordred killed the last one then?"

I look at the bow and then up at Starburst, who looks sad and steps into the yard and sniffs the bow. He turns his head to us, shaking his head, "I didn't know him personally. Though I do know the Matriarch had kept one underground before the asteroid hit. He was the only one to survive the ordeal, though." Starburst sighs deeply, "from my understanding he wasn't sane at that point due to being underground. That is how they knew the wind Dragons could not be brought down to safety with the rest of us."

He looks back at the bow, "when my mo-she sent him back out into the world he was a crazed monster who needed putting down. My own kind could not safely contain him at that point, Mordred provided a service in killing the poor creature." I look at the bow in askance, "Starburst. What was his name?" Starburst leans toward the bow and says at the same time as sending out a small line of flame etching the handle, "Zephyr."