Blackfeather Woods Red eyes, blue eyes, white eyes

Yo, @Kendra! I hope it's ok I started a thread without telling you :P

With the swarm came the time for bats to feast. Although it brought entire forests down to bare bones and drove the large game away from the claws of wolves, smaller hunters like Azul had been blessed by the darkest of gods. The old warlock had been rather distracted with the carpet of dead locusts ever since the plague flew by, to the point where he had neglected even his young pupil.

He fluttered down the cave where he knew he'd find the dark princess hiding away from the light. Her aura was dull, darker than usual, and he could see, for the way she faced the wall that she had fallen asleep under emotional pain. Pain was an underestimated, but powerful source of energy.

The warlock flew around her three times, casting the circle while chanting...

"mazverdagon se grevenka hāre jēdi nūmāzma,
mazverdagon se grevenka hāre jēdi nūmāzma,
mazverdagon se grevenka hāre jēdi nūmāzma..."

When the circle was drawn, Azul landed on her back as gently as a bat can land, trying not to wake her, and crawled up to her ear with slow moves. Once there, he closed his eyes and started chanting once more...

"Mele laesi, kasta laesi, timpa laesi...
Laesi bona nehugon, maghagon kustikāne naejot issa..."

Kendra realized she had passed out once she felt something hitting her and crawling through her fur. The girl was not startled because she knew the sensation of the bat climbing to her. The girl kept her head low, but her eyes were open. Her ears twitched too, signaling to the bat that she was in fact awake.

She was not sure if she wanted to be awake. Her curiosity had helped her stay on her feet and learn more things, but it was still difficult at night when there was nothing to spike her curiosity that she mourned her bother once more. She had to keep her eyes open, if she had scented that cat Pietro didn't have to save her. "Azul," she spoke. She had not seen him in awhile she realized.

The bat had seen the girl's ears flicking up while he chanted, but it would have been dangerous for her if he broke the spell before it ended.

"...Syt isse ōdres konīr iksos perzys,
Se rȳ mundari māzigon ābrar,
Pryjagon aōha ōregon naejot bisa tala hen ōños,
Se māzigon naejot issa, iā voktys hen zōbrie,
Syt iā sȳrkta gaomilaksir ao kostagon dohaeragon..."

The words were chanted and the spell completed, thus breaking the circle and linking the girl's pain to the warlock. Perhaps that energy could be used to teach the young witch a spell. She was ready.

"Sweet, sweet girl... It's been a while for us two, hasn't it?" squeaked the little bat right into the princess' ear, ending in a toothy grin that would have been unsettling to most.

Kendra listened to the strange words, if they were even words. She had no clue what they meant or what he was saying but it was good to see the bat. She was tempted to lick him all over but, as always, Azul was smart enough to sit at a spot her tongue would not be able to reach him.

The girl smiled when listening to his words she could understand. They were still high and sometimes difficult to listen to, but she could understand them. "Yes. Have you been feasting on the bugs?," she asked which was basically rhetorical because she knew that Azul probably had. "Why were you not around? I lost my bother. I am so sad," she admitted to him.

The old bat laughed with a high-pitched shriek when Kendra mentioned the bugs. He had DEFINITELY been feasting on those things, so much he didn't think he'd need to eat for a couple days or more.

"Locusts are tasty things, you should try them, little princess!" Azul suggested jokingly although he knew that the bugs wouldn't change much for a wolf with such food scarcity. Well, they could always try new things, couldn't they?

But then the joke was swallowed by the girl's next comment. Azul had not noticed the absence of Kendra's noisy brother, strangely enough, and he felt even more guilt for leaving her behind in such a deep moment.

"I can sense your sadness, sweet girl..." he commented on a colorless tone, "but everything happens for a reason... The gods have plans for us all. The dark mother is known to interfere on the fate of mortals by pulling her obscured strings up from her own plane... Don't you think she had a better plan for him?"

Kendra thought about eating the bugs, but then again, Xan had provided a lot of food for her to make her happy. So she was not really that much of a need to eat bugs. "I am not a princess. I'm Kendra," she corrected, she liked Kendra better than princess. Azul knew that but she was going to tell him anyways.

Kendra listened to his wisdom. She wondered... "But I was in danger. He fought the cougar for me. So that means... That the night mother want more with me than she wanted my brother?" She sounded so confused. Because Pietro was the fighter and the strong one. She even disliked hunting. "Why would the Night mother favor me?" she whispered.

Azul chugged when the little princess corrected him. He'd been corrected before, but he often found himself calling Kendra princess again. But how could you blame him? Her blood was of importance to him as it was the same blood that ran through Meldresi, the night priestess' veins. He just couldn't get that out of his head, Kendra would always be the princess of Blackfeather Woods.

"Yes! You are Kendra," he agreed with a malicious little toothy grin, "And your mother was called the Night Queen... You may not like it, girl, but you are a princess..." he explained. "But there's no need to call you that if you don't like it. You are Kendra..." he said, nodding calmly.

The mage listened to Kendra's voice as she spoke her thoughts on the old bat's theory. How clever she was, how smart her voice sounded... It was like hearing echoes of the priestess' voice again. "How can you not see?" he said with a devious grin. "Minds like yours are what this world needs, Kendra. There are plenty of fighters, like the wolves in your pack. But thinkers... There aren't enough thinkers here. There are never enough thinkers. There is never enough knowledge." he explained passionately. "I believe Pietro was brought to this world to protect you... And he has done his job wonderfully. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have no one to pass my knowledge to. That's you, Kendra..." he spoke as his eyes shimmered with darkness.

Kendra rolled her eyes a bit as the bat repeated that she was the night queen's mother and blah blah. She had heard it several times. But she just didn't want to take away potema's title. She seemed keen on it. Kendra was not. "I am kendra," she agreed. The young girl shifted closer to the bat.

She nodded slowly, understanding for the first time. So that was how things worked. She talked with Potema and as it turned out she liked the mental stuff, she liked to think and have weird thoughts. The girl looked at the bat. "I like to learn. And I think you are right then," she agreed with him. The young girl looked at the bat curiously. "Do you have more to teach me?"

"You have no idea!" the old bat squealed at Kendra's question. There were a ton of things Azul wanted to teach Kendra, about the forest, about the plants, about the energies and the superior planes, about history. Kendra was going to be where the old warlock would deposit his knowledge for it to live on.

"Just ask the things you want to know first," Azul offered, feeling that overwhelming the girl with his extensive knowledge would not help. She was still a child, a growing one, and when the right time came he would be able to start talking about the deeper, darker things he's learned.

Kendra was pleased to hear that Azul had enough to learn her. The girl was curious about most things, but what she really liked doing was making the potions. "I liked making the dye!," she commented to him. That was what she enjoyed, but the girl was also open to learn something new.

"I want to know more about toxic plants!," she decided because she was close to having her botanist trade, and well, she was very curious about toxic plants. Maybe she could make a toxic paste for other to be poisoned over.

Wow this turned out very differently from what I intended lol
@Kendra

The memory of the time Azul had taught Kendra where to harvest the rosebuds had not faded from the old mage's mind. He remembered her enthusiasm for learning, which that had fueled his own interest in making her his legacy.

"I can teach you everything about plants, but I would rather do that when I have samples available..." shamefully explained the old bat once he realized that the plants wouldn't be ready to gather, or even observe for quite a while.

"Ah!" gasped the old bat at the realization that there was probably something left in Meldresi's stash, which he had been dying to go through for a long while. "Come with me, Kendra. Maybe we can find something interesting in your mother's herbstore!" he suggested and took off to flutter his way through the tunnels down to the little chamber of secrets that the pack knew as the infirmary. He landed atop a bed of dry, golden herbs, which Azul identified as yarrow by it's smell.

"You should keep away from these unless you wish to vomit," warned in a high-pitched squeak, "It is called Yarrow. You would find it very useful if you ever ingest a poisonous agent..." he explained further as he crawled down to the next bundle of herbs. He found many common leaves and roots, and many kinds of seeds that Kendra might have found useful if she wanted to grow her own stash. None of those things were interesting enough to pick up Azul's interest. But at the very bottom, wrapped in large, scent-less leaves, was a patch of dry purple flowers, hidden away purposefully, and for a good reason. Was Kendra ready for this?

Probably not. But she had asked for it.

"This is a very dangerous plant. It must be handled carefully," explained the old mage with cryptic voice as he un-wrapped the deadly nightshade. "It is a very potent poison on it's own, capable of creating seizures and awful pain... But if mixed with the right herbs it can drag out the symptoms for days,. Some call it the wrath of the gods." he warned, and looked up at the girl to gauge her reaction. Would she be interested? Would she be scared?

Kendra watched as Azul started to be very mysterious. At first she was very curious what he was going to show her. After all it had been her main interest, plants, and for them to be poisonous made it even more fun. The girl perked up her ears and sniffed the air.

Kendra instantly recognized it and deadpanned a bit at the bat. "That is nightshade. I know this already," she commented, after all Cicero had explained this already. "I want to learn something new Azul! I thought you knew everything!," she teased him a bit.

Fun fact, I saved a bat (much like Azul) from drowning a couple days ago!
They're so cute omg

Azul fell quiet when Kendra revealed she was already familiarized with the deadly nightshade. He did not realize before that Cicero had been sharing his knowledge with her too, but he wasn't mad about it. This meant that Kendra was actually ready to jump to the next level, which the old mage was dying to talk about for months.

"Oh! I didn't realize that you were an expert botanist already... Perhaps you'd be interested in something more... Mystic, then?" offered the little warlock with a mysterious grin.

Kendra wagged her tail and nodded. "Please, explain! I want to know it all," she spoke and quirked up her lips, smiling at the bat. She was quite ambitious on that topic. She wanted to be good at being a botanist, being a master botanist that was for certain, along with a dash of Toxicology. The female had a knack for it, she realized.