For a moment, there was chaos as everyone worried that one of the students had been attacked by the Spirit Snake, but those who were close enough had seen Remi carefully boop him on the nose and knew that he wasn’t actually injured, just panicked and hyperventilating.
“False alarm, everyone, the snake just headbutted him and made him panic.” One of the students called out as the Elites began to run over to see what the danger was.
One of the other teachers stared at Remi for a moment, as the snake stared back at her.
“Is that Remi? I recall that she was much smaller than that. Or is she under the effects of a skill?” The mage finally asked.
“She advanced to Commander Rank, and wanted me to show her around for the afternoon, apparently. At least, that’s the impression that I got when she appeared on my shoulders.” Morgana explained.
“I know that you’re Karl’s advisor, but you don’t have to carry his pets around for him.” One of the teachers joked.
Remi circled Morgana so she could see who was talking more clearly, and the teacher laughed.
“It’s like she’s judging me for questioning her choices. I can see why she doesn’t want to travel in the dirt, but still, isn’t she getting a bit large to be carried around on your shoulders?” He asked.
The student beside him laughed. “That look is definitely offended. I think she took that as you calling her fat.”
The students laughed as they realized that was really what Remi was going for, and that the snake had no idea how much more she weighed now than she did when she was a third that length.
“Well, we should thank her for the rain, at the very least. It’s been so hot here that I’m beginning to wonder what’s wrong with the weather.” One of the students added.
That was a good point, Remi thought. She knew that it was supposed to be close to winter now, or perhaps in the middle of the winter. She didn’t actually know how long seasons lasted.
Plus, they were in the hills, and the weather should be cooler here than it was in most places.
It was much better than the Frost Giant nation, but they weren’t that far from their borders, so it shouldn’t be this warm, she thought.
The problem was that she had no way to express that without going through Karl. She was beginning to enjoy learning new spells, but learning to communicate with random humans still seemed like a lot of work for very little result.
There should be a Morgana specific way, she thought. She only really wanted to talk to people in the group, pretty much ever, and only wanted to talk to Morgana right now, so why did she have to learn a whole written language?
She had learned to read the letters, and she had seen Karl making them before, but she didn’t have arms, and while her innate water control was good enough to hold a spear, it was not going to make legible letters.
Plus, she only knew the runes for so many words. Certainly, not enough to properly express herself.
What Remi didn’t realize was that the only books she had been reading were spell books and other arcane tomes related to skills and history, so none of them were written in the much easier modern common language.
Their relaxing evening was shattered by the sudden thumping of the artillery, which had been silent all day with no targets in range.
Then, the attack alarm blared, and Morgana turned to the line, prepared to bring Remi back to Karl so they wouldn’t be shorthanded for the battle.
Not that they would be far apart, as Morgana was stationed with him for battles, but Karl could give his beasts orders to work together, so she assumed he would want them all back.
Remi was getting excited about the battle, as she would get to try out her new skill and her Commander Rank attack powers for the first time. Everyone had been excited when she made it rain for the pool, so they would definitely be excited when she made a full thunderstorm for the battle.
But she couldn’t see the Giants. Not even with her head extended up above Morgana’s.
“I don’t know where they are either, but they should be coming.” Morgana assured her, mistaking her excitement to show off for eager anticipation of the battle itself.
Morgana also had no way to know that the wave of disappointment that followed was because Hawk had reported that the Hill Giants weren’t coming to this end of the line, but moving past them to attack the artillery and the group beyond the students.
They had gotten close enough to make it look like an attack, but they hadn’t slowed their movement, and they were already past this flank.
“She’s sad that she won’t get to show you how cool her new Thunderstorm ability can be. The Giants were only passing by this end of the line, and they’re going for the artillery and the far flank.” Karl explained as Morgana comforted the dejected Spirit Snake.
“That’s the worst kind of disappointment. She was so excited to show me the skill, and now there is nothing to cast it on.” Morgana agreed.
But they didn’t stop their advance to attack the artillery either, they circled around, searching for something.
They didn’t get closer than artillery range, and didn’t come into sight of the line, so if it wasn’t for Hawk’s scouting, Karl would have thought that this was a false alarm, as many of the others did.
It didn’t take long before the other students remembered that Karl had a scout in the sky, who should be watching the action while dodging artillery shells.
“How long until they arrive?” One of the warriors asked.
“That’s a fine question, they passed across the line, as if they were coming for an attack, then they doubled back, looking for something. I have no idea what they’re up to now.” Karl explained.
“Do you think that they can sense something that we can’t?” The warrior on Karl’s left asked.
“Most likely. But normally, my beasts would sense it as well, and they haven’t noticed anything out of the usual in the area. If there was some hidden treasure, we should have picked up some trace of it by now.”
[Treasure?] Hawk asked as he soared above the Giants.
He didn’t sense any treasure, though. He was pretty good at it, but there wasn’t anything to find. The Hill Giants didn’t even leave their dead behind, so there were no loot filled corpses either.
The Hill Giants appeared to making a crude grid pattern as they moved back and forth across the territory at the edge of the artillery bombardment. They were definitely searching, but neither Karl nor Hawk could determine for what, and nobody else had any clue, even after he tried to explain.
Then, the guns fell silent as the Hill Giants retreated out of range.
[Hawk, scout a little longer and see if there was anything hiding underground while they were here. Maybe it’s a hidden ruin, like the Dwarven Village.]
[If it’s like that, there won’t be any mice.] Hawk reminded him.
Karl’s smile let everyone know he was talking to Hawk as he replied.
[Not everyone is as good at pest control as the Dwarves. There might be mice.]
