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Moon slurped at the cricket stew hesitantly. In truth, his family was more accustomed to eating more flavorful meats like ham, and beef. Insect meat was usually for the commoners, not the regal nobility like the Solar Swords.

"I know it doesn't have the same refinement, but you're not back at your family's estate anymore. You need to make due until we reach the academy." Valo said, taking a spoon full of his own stew into his muzzle and chewing it down.

Moon grimaced as he noticed the black and purple meaty chunks, the caripace having been boiled off. He shut his eyes and took a spoon full, quickly chewing and swallowing it as he almost gagged.

"Urgh... gross!" he exclaimed, Valo just smirked at him as he plopped another spoonfull in and chewed calmly. "How can you eat this stuff?" Moon asked, covering his mouth as he watched Valo eating the stew without any problems.

"Well, unlike you, my family was lower class, so insect meat is pretty much what I had to live on until my magical abilities first awakened. Not every mage is a pampered pup like you." Valo explained, "Now eat, this cost me 2 copper per serving." He said, as Moon forced himself to swallow another spoon full of the stew, his body shuttering at the taste.

Valo was done with his stew in under five minutes, but Moon only managed to force down a third of his meal before he couldn't take it any longer and refused to touch another bite. Valo scoffed at him for being so childish, but picked up the bowl, refusing to let it go to waste.

"Fine, maybe your slave will be lest wasteful. I understand otters are omnivores." Valo said, heading back up stairs. Moon's stomach gurgled, but whether it was from hunger or revultion, he couldn't tell. Regardless, he got up from his seat and followed Valo up the stairs, back to the room.

By the time he got to the room, Valo was already inside, the bowl placed on the floor in front of Jakra as though she were a pet. She hadn't touched it yet, and Moon was about to remark that even she found it disgusting, when Valo spoke up.

"Another lesson in predator superiority, boy, the strong hunters get the first share of the food." He said, "Your lessers get the scraps after your done with it." He added, before turning to Jakra. "Your master finds this slop too revolting to finish his meal. As the final part of your punishment, you will finish every bite of this stew without using your paws." Valo declared, pulling the spoon out of the bowl and discarding it.

Moon watched in surprise as Jakra waited for his confirmation, Valo noticed this and turned to Moon expectantly.

"Its understandable your slave is hesitant to obey my commands." Valo said, "I may be your teacher, but she belongs to you, not me. Its up to you to enforce your superiority." he explained. Moon was still a little hesitant, but finally, he mustered up the resolve.

"Eat it, every bite. No paws allowed." He ordered flatly. Jakra nodded with a "yes, master!" and got to work. Still leashed to the bed, she bend over on all fours and began slurping and chewing up the stew like a feral pet. Her muzzle burried in the bowl as she ate. The sounds of slurping and chewing could be heard, and it was a couple minutes before she finished, leaning back to reveal the bowl was licked clean. After a few seconds, she gave a few burps, and covered her mouth, so as not to offend the others.

"Good, now I trust you'll properly enforce your will over her without me needing to help?" Valo asked, "I'm here to teach you about magic, not how to be a predator." he added. Moon nodded slowly as he watched Valo lay down in the bed that Jakra was not tied to.

"Good, then lets get some rest, I need a nap while my food digests, then we'll be ready to head out." Valo said, closing his eyes as he began to drift off. Moon approached his own bed, Jakra still chained to the foot of it. He looked back to the fox and could already hear him snoring, apparently the journey had been more stress on the old fox than he let on.

Moon passed glances from Jakra having to kneel on the wooden floor, and back to the bed large enough to fit one person. He finally sighed as he undid the leash from around the bed post, much to Jakra's surprise.

"Come on." He said, climbing under the covers, "You can sleep on the foot of the bed." He said. Jakra responded with an excited thank you as she climbed up on the bed, curling up at the foot of the bed post as her master lay above her. It was a refreshing change for the hard floor, and soon, they were both asleep like Valo.

Later...

Moon didn't know how long they had slept, but the light outside didn't seem to change too much from when he went to sleep, so it couldn't have been more than maybe a couple hours or so. Valo seemed to already be awake and repacking the supplies to get ready to head out.

"I see you gave your slave some luxury." Valo said without turning to look at him. "Treating your slaves like pets is another way to earn their submission, though its rarely practiced among non romantic couples." He said. Moon yawned and stretched, but as he stretched out his leg muscles, he accidentally pressed his feet into Jakra's sides, startling her as she went tumbling off the foot of the bed, falling on the floor.

"I'm sorry, master!" She called out, still shaken from the rude awakening, unsure of what was going on around her. "I won't be so lazy again!" She promised. Moon quickly got out of bed and tried to explain it had been an accident, which Valo quirked a brow in surprise. It was rare for non romantic slavers to treat slaves like pets. It was even rarer for them to appologize for injuring a slave, accidental or otherwise.

"Hmm, you're not as tyrannical as most other carnivorous nobles. You must have really been out of the family loop to have such a compassionate heart." Valo mused as Moon undid the leash from around the bed and helped Jakra to her feet.

"My family earned a reputation for a proud and noble heritage. I don't believe my family would be the kind to punish slaves for amusement." Moon replied, causing Valo to go wide eyed in surprise. "If Jakra messes up, I'll punish her like you taught me, but I'm not going to just abuse her because of my mistakes." He promised.

"Hah hah! Well I've got to admit, this is the first time I've ever met a newly awakened carnivore mage who had aspirations of being compassionate and respectful towards the lower species." Valo laughed, greatly entertained by Moon's attitude towards mistreating Jakra.

"Well, whatever, come on. It's another day's worth of travel before we reach the recall point." Valo said, but as Moon finally got Jakra to her feet and looked at him in question, Valo clicked his tongue and explained. "The mage academy is thousands of miles from here, you didn't think I crossed all this way on foot, did you?" He asked, "We mages have places we call Recall Points, special shrines that allow us to transport ourselves across the world instantly. It will cut months worth of time off our travels." he explained.

Moon was surprised, but relieved that such a convenient device could exist, in truth, he hadn't actually given much thought to how far away the academy was until just now. It would make sense to have a short cut system in cases like this.

It wasn't long before they got everything ready to go, Valo didn't need much supplies for the journey, thanks to the convenient transportation system, and Moon's only real possessions were the robe he now wore, and Jakra. Within minutes, they were back on the road, and Moon noticed that Valo was carrying a new addition to the supply pack he hadn't been carrying before. Once the town vanished from their range of sight, he handed the new aquisition to Moon.

It was tied up in folded cloth, with two rope knots on the ends of it. Moon curiously undid the ropes and peeled the cloth away to see what the package was, and was surprised when he saw it was a real sword! It wasn't anything impressive, Valo likely just bought it at the local black smith, yet to Moon who had only been using a wooden toy all this time, it was a very wonderful gift.

The scabbard was carved out of ash, with matching grip for the sword. It had an iron hand guard, pommel, and bindings, and as he drew it from the sheath, he found the blade was freshly sharpened, a 2 foot length of iron. When he saw the shortness of the blade, he soon realized the weapon was designed for smaller species to be able to wield, and due to his youth, it was probably a good starter for him.

"Your father gave you Jakra as a present, this one's mine." Valo commented, keeping his eyes on the road as they walked, "Much better than some wooden toy, don't you think?" He asked with a smirk. Moon was only able to stammer out an amazed thanks of appreciation as he felt the weight of the weapon.

Medium sized species like his were known for being substantially stronger than smaller species like Jakra's, but he was still too young to fully realize his strength, so to him, the blade felt heavy, and the balance kept tipping to one side or the other. The feeling of holding actual metal, rather than light wood was something he would need to get used to.

Jakra, who was once again fastened with the leash, accompanied behind her master as before, admiring his new weapon as he sheathed it, and with a bit of difficulty, managed to thread his belt through the scabbard's straps, securing it to his right hip.

"Thank you, mister, Valo." Moon said once more, "I've never held a real weapon before." he said as they walked, but Valo seemed a bit concerned as he kept his eyes focused on the road, causing Moon some unease.

"You shouldn't have said that, pup. I was hoping our uniforms would scare them off." Valo said flatly, and before Moon could ask what he meant, suddenly, they were surrounded by figures emerging from the brush on the side of the road.

"Well look what we have here." Said one of the figures, "A dottering old fox, a fresh young wolf, and... oooh, a sexy young slave otter." it listed off. Moon turned to the sound of the voice to see that it belonged to another predator, a leopard in species, and he looked ready for battle.

"Bandits." Valo said flatly, tightening his grip on his staff. "They weren't here when I last passed through, but I had a feeling this would make a good ambush spot, so I came prepared." He explained.

The leopard was holding an axe in one paw, and was dressed shoulder to feet in light, leather armor for ease of movement. He seemed to be the leader of the group, as the rest appeared to be waiting for him to make the first move. The rest of the bandits appeared to be cats as well, though domestic breeds. This leopard had most likely earned his position because he was bigger and deadlier than the others. The domestic cats weren't much taller than Jakra, but the Leopard stood almost half a food taller than Valo.

"Are you blind, fool? Two of us are mages." Valo warned, causing the smaller cats to tense up and some to even withdraw a couple steps in fear. The Leopard clicked his tongue in annoyance as he gave some thought to attacking the three travelers.

"True, but that slave looks too timid, your pup just admitted his lack of experience, and you look old and weak. I'm fairly certain we can take you." the Leopard replied before signalling the attack. Moon quickly drew the sword and held it with both arms shaking from nervousness, Jakra tried to move closer to the two predators for safety, and Valo just groaned in annoyance as he nonchalantly raised his staff in the air and slammed it back into the dirt.

The instant the staff touched the soil, a thunderous bang erupted as a dome of almost invisible force appeared around Valo, Jakra, and Moon, and then radiated outward. The charging felines that were caught in the expanding bubble were sent flying 30 feet through the air, smashing head first into trees, rocks, the ground, any obstacles that would catch their flailing, screaming bodies. The leopard managed to avoid the attack, but looked on in stunned amazement as his crew of what had been 20 bandits had been descimated in a single blow. He alone stood before the mages, ready to strike.

"Well look at that, I guess your chances were shit after all." Valo said in a cocky tone as he resumed his travels along the road, "Come along, pup!" he called back. Moon passed a stunned glance between Valo and the bandits who were either killed on impact, or at least rendered unconscious before hurrying after the fox, Jakra in tow. The leopard just continued to stare in disbelief, unable to think of a reaction to how close he had come to death.

"That was amazing!" Moon exclaimed a few minutes after they had left the bandits behind, "The only time I've seen magic up close was when I first used it, and then, it was too sudden to really take in what happened!" He said. Valo continued walking as Moon ranted off one compliment after another before he finally shushed him with a raising of his paw.

"My particular school of magic," Valo began, "Is sorcery, the power to control the elemental forces of nature. I happen to be very talented with fire and earth based spells." He explained. "I understand your first accidental spell was a fire type, so I'll be passing on my sorcerous teachings to you at the academy." Valo finished.

Moon was quivering in anticipation, while Jakra was even more ennamoured by the predator's superiority than she had been before. She heard the stories about mages, everyone had, but she had never personally witnessed their ability in action. He had done it so easily, as if that was one of the least powerful spells in his arsenal.

"In fact, I believe now is a good time to get started on teaching you how to control your power, if only so an incident like this doesn't happen again." Valo said, stopping their travels as he turned to face Moon, who almost bumped into him. "Draw your sword and kneel with it in your lap, its time you learned how we Focuser's channel our power." He ordered.

End of chapter 2.