“All right!” Leon loudly said as he and his retinue spilled out into the main room of his fortified portable villa.  “Let’s see what we’ve gained!”

With a wave of her hand, Valeria summoned the eggs taken from the wyvern lairs.  A dozen in all appeared, all a light, pale gray.  Anshu, Anna, Gaius, and Alcander held between them a pair of large cages, within which lay two pale gray wyvernlings, still too young for their scales to have any color.

A great haul, as far as Leon was concerned, and a huge smile spread across his face.  Turning to Anna, the closest thing his retinue had to a beastmaster, he said, “Make sure those wyvernlings don’t die.”

“Got it,” she replied, and she immediately began pulling some food out of her soul realm to press through the bars of the cages.

Leon then turned to his personal assistant.  “Talal!  Get on the horn to Heaven’s Eye.  Tell them we’ve taken out eleven wyverns, and be sure to inform them of all this…”  Leon waved towards the eggs and wyvernlings.  “And tell Penelope to savor the taste of failure!”

“Ha!” Alcander shouted.  “She can eat a dick!”

Talal looked a little uncomfortable after Alcander’s outburst.  To Leon he asked, “Do you… really want me to pass that sentiment along?”

Leon’s grin slowly turned to a grimace and he felt Elise’s presence at his side.  “No,” he said, his decision punctuated by a groan of disappointment from Alcander.  “You don’t need to use as many words.  I think just hearing word of what we’ve done today will get the point across better than anything we can say directly.”

Talal looked a little relieved, though the feeling clearly wasn’t shared among Leon’s retinue.

Alix, perhaps out of frustration, loudly declared, “That bitch could use a direct rebuke, though… or maybe a swift kick in the ass.  Or other places…”

Leon shrugged, but it was Elise who responded with her usual cool, level-headed practicality.  “Though that may be true, it’s hardly our place.  Just focus on winning the wager, that’ll be rebuke enough.”

Leon smiled as he regarded his wife.  “I’d agree, but I think a little more rebuke may be needed.  Maybe turning that Heart of Whatever It Was into wearable jewelry and parading it around in front of her?”

“Ooh, I like that idea,” Alix responded.  “Rub her loss in her face every time she sees you?”

“Or any of us,” Leon said.  “It’s quite a big stone, maybe just to show her contempt I could have it cut up a bit and pass out some diamonds to us all?”

Alcander burst out laughing, but Marcus claimed, “Diamonds aren’t really my thing, Leon.”

“Same here,” Gaius added.  “If I had to choose, I’d rather not get involved in this little pissing match.  I don’t suppose it’s possible to keep the nose-rubbing to a minimum?  There’s no need to constantly antagonize Penelope, is there?”

Leon leveled a playful punch into Gaius’ shoulder.  “Now why do you have to go and say that?  Now I’d sound petty and vindictive if I were to disagree…”

“You are both of those things, though, aren’t you?” Gaius asked with an equally playful smile.

Leon shrugged.  “We can save our petty revenge for later.  For now, I can’t overstate just how proud I am of you.  Of all of you.  We moved quickly, completed our objectives, and got out without so much as a single injury.  That was no mean feat, especially after that black wyvern showed up.  For now, how about all of you get some much-deserved rest, and we’ll start heading back to Vyrias in the morning.  This hunt isn’t over, after all…”

Marcus and Alcander both cheered, and while they were a little quieter about it, the rest of Leon’s retinue happily dissipated into his fortified villa with only Anna staying in the main room to see to the wyvernlings, while Leon, Anzu, Elise, Maia, and Valeria left for their private room.

Elise led the way, entering the room and immediately sliding into a lounge by the wall, pressing a runic circle on the wall as she did which caused light magic to create a few screens on the wall.  These screens showed the outside in perfect clarity, acting as windows without introducing structural weaknesses into the building and projecting quite a bit of light into the room that was indistinguishable from natural light.

“So,” she said as everyone else, including Anzu, joined her on lounges of their own, “how did things go out there?”

She obviously knew how well things since she’d seen with her own eyes the fruits of their labors, but Leon knew she still wanted to hear from all of them how they’d achieved their triumph.

Leon wasted no time in regaling her with the story, enthusiastically telling her of their arrival and the initial battles with the wyverns who were there.  Maia added a few details here and there, and as she spoke aloud, Anzu excitedly flapped his wings a few times and chirped in support and encouragement.

Then it was Valeria’s turn, and she told Elise of her plundering of the wyvern lairs.

“Were there any huge piles of jewels and gold?” Elise animatedly inquired, her emerald eyes shining with curiosity.

“Unfortunately no,” Valeria answered.  “I don’t think that’s something that wyvern’s do, hoarding wealth.  They don’t seem particularly intelligent…”

“That’s true, though there have been some stories I’ve heard about wyverns stealing gold and other shinies…” Leon hesitantly agreed, though his thoughts turned to the black wyvern and those six others who’d furnished him with offerings the night before.  “That might just be a general thing, it’s not like they’re incapable of intelligent thought…”

Leon then told Elise of the fight with the black wyvern and the destruction of his Lightning Lance.  He’d picked up all the pieces after the battle, but it had been thoroughly destroyed.

“… it’s no matter, I guess,” Leon said, though his expression clearly indicated otherwise.

“Is it really?” Elise asked, clearly picking up on Leon’s mood.

Leon shrugged and scowled.  “That thing broke something of mine, and I don’t appreciate it.  That Lance was honestly just a proof-of-concept, a thing that would’ve been replaced soon anyway, but it’s still annoying that it’s been destroyed.  I’ll have to build another one, and the improvements I can make without a functioning version to test will be limited.  Still, I have learned quite a bit about the magic involved in these past couple weeks, so… it’s no matter.  Really.”

Elise laid a hand over his, giving him a sympathetic look before he launched back into his explanation of the day’s events.  After the fight with the black wyvern, Leon had reorganized his retinue and led them out of the vale, not wanting to press their luck.  They’d already acquired enough to launch them far into the lead against Penelope and Cassandra, so Leon led them back.  The eggs and wyvernlings wouldn’t count if they couldn’t return them to Vyrias, after all.  On their way out, however, they were attacked by two more wyverns carrying their kills back to the vale.  They didn’t attack with much fierceness, so Leon didn’t think they were the wyvernlings’ mothers, but he and his retinue still struck them down, adding two more sixth-tier kills to their score.

At that point, the story came to an end, for the rest of their journey back to the campsite had been uneventful.

“And you’re sure that the black wyvern didn’t follow you?” Elise asked, sounding a little worried.

“I’m about as sure as I reasonably can be, given its power,” Leon replied.

“As am I,” Maia added.  “We were not followed by anything I could sense, and few things can hide from me.”

“That’s good to hear,” Elise murmured as Anzu happily chirped his agreement.  Elise reached over and gave the griffin a quick head rub, eliciting a few more happy chirps.  “The thought that such a powerful creature is out there and acting with such intelligence… worries me, I have to admit.”

“Mm,” Leon hummed in agreement.  “Reminds me of that basilisk we rescued Anna from,” he continued.  “I haven’t heard any verified reports about intelligent wyverns striking at cities around the Scorched Fields, so maybe that black wyvern is content with his lot and only came out when he saw us looting the aeries… but if he wanted to, he could do an incredible amount of damage to everything around these parts.  It’s hard to figure out why he might not be doing so, or what he might do now that he’s been injured.  Guessing at the logic of an alien mind isn’t something I’m any good at, I’m afraid.”

“Not like there’s anything to really guess at,” Valeria whispered.  “He didn’t stop to talk.  Assuming he’s even capable of it.”  She nodded to Anzu.  “He seems perfectly capable of recognizing speech, though his beak makes responding difficult.”

If griffins could frown, Leon felt like Anzu would’ve done so.  The griffin chirped somewhat depressingly and lowered his head and eyes until Valeria got up and hugged his head, nuzzling her cheek against his.

“Don’t worry, Anzu,” she said.  “You’ll find a human form someday, just like Leon found his bird form.  You’ll gain a mouth, and we’ll talk then.”

Anzu visibly cheered up and fluttered his wings in obvious joy, nuzzling Valeria right back.

However, Elise gasped with mock-shock.  “Val!” the fire-haired woman breathed.  “Are you trying to seduce Anzu right here in front of all of us!  Think of the scandal!”  To complete the picture, Elise held a hand up to her heart, and then began fanning herself with the other hand.

Valeria just stuck her tongue out at Elise for a moment, gave Anzu a loving—though not romantic—kiss on the head, and returned to her seat.

For his part, Leon saw Anzu reacting with what seemed to be embarrassment, and he reached over to run his fingers through the griffin’s feathers.  Doing so had never failed to calm the griffin, and that pattern now continued as Anzu deliberately folded his wings, laid his head down on his forepaws, and closed his eyes to sleep.

“I think it’s time for a little celebration,” Elise said, moving on from her brief teasing.  With a wave of her hand, she conjured from her soul realm a bottle of the finest Ilian wine and glasses for everyone.  “I know you don’t much like wine,” she said to Leon, “but at least drink something with us, all right?”

“You say that as if it’s a strenuous task,” Leon light-heartedly complained.  “I don’t care what’s in the glass, just spending time with my ladies is enough.”

“Aww, look at you, getting all sappy,” Valeria playfully teased.  Maia added her own bit of teasing by lightly poking Leon in the cheek.

Leon acted like he’d just been attacked and almost dramatically threw himself out of his lounge, and once everyone had a laugh, they settled in for some quiet celebrations of a job well done.

Their quiet was soon disturbed when Alcander and Alix started a louder party in one of the other rooms, and after a few minutes, the four just got up and decided to join the rest of the retinue.

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It was mid-afternoon when Leon and his party returned to Vyrias.  Almost a week had passed since the beginning of the hunt, and during their return trip, they’d bagged three more wyvern heads.  Penelope and Cassandra, meanwhile, seemed to have been kicked into higher gear, for they’d each brought down more than half a dozen wyverns in the past couple of days after Leon’s group’s success.  However, since wyvernlings were worth far more than wyvern heads, and their eggs were worth even more than wyvernlings, Leon’s group was still comfortably in the lead.  Not so comfortable that they could relax for the rest of the hunt, but certainly enough to take their time for what time remained.

On their journey back to Vyrias, they encountered greater evidence for how the Scorched Fields had gotten their name.  The clear days had given way to perpetual clouds, and there was always at least the glow of fire lighting up the distance, if not closer.  Much of the land between the pass they’d journeyed to and the temporary hunter’s city had been scorched, leaving the fields blackened and barren—though the gargantuan trees still remained, and even seemed to thrive in the heat.  In those few places that still burned, Leon had noticed the trees absorbing some of the wyverns’ fire magic, though for what reason he couldn’t say.

Regardless, as soon as they returned to Vyrias, they made to turn in their hauls.  Leon had their eggs turned in and their wyvernlings accounted for.  However, those he didn’t turn in, and the reason why was Anna.

It seemed that she wanted to be more than just what passed as a beastmaster for his retinue: she wanted to be an actual beastmaster, the onyx bracelet and Attican Snapper that he’d given her lighting something within her, showing her what she wanted to devote herself to.

Leon was more than happy to have her be his beastmaster.  She’d done splendidly well with the snapper, and he couldn’t imagine his retinue being anything but strengthened with the addition of two wyverns.  So, once he rebuilt his modular villa, he helped her to take a few blood samples from the wyverns and add them to two of the gems within the onyx bracelet, which began to glow with arcane light, giving her perfect control over the wyvernlings.  She still had three gems left, so Leon resolved to keep an eye open for any more interesting or powerful beasts that she might find useful.

Once they were dominated by the bracelet, the infant beasts could be let out of their cages so that Anna could better take care of them.

At the same time, Leon’s retinue, led by Leon and Helen, began to properly catalogue all of their other gains made during the hunt.  Leon was going to wait until the end of the hunt to turn in his heads, but the rest of the wyvern corpses were fair game.  His golems had largely processed the carcasses by now, though they hadn’t done so with as much finesse as Leon would’ve liked.  Regardless, he had a small mountain of wyvern scales of varying sizes, pools of their blood and mana, more bones than he knew what to do with, and hide enough to clothe his family for generations.

To properly process all of these raw materials would require the aid of Heaven’s Eye, which Leon was more than willing to call for.  Talal facilitated the hand-off of materials and returned with a timeline: Leon could expect all of his materials back by the end of the hunt.  All of the hides would be tanned, the scales sorted, the bones either crushed or simply reduced in size, and the blood and mana properly bottled and preserved.

He was happy he didn’t have to do any of that, as was his entire retinue, though everything did have to be counted first.  Still, Vyrias was a city designed to provide exactly this kind of service for those taking part in the hunt, so it wasn’t like Leon was imposing upon anyone with this.

Once his work accounting for all of his retinue’s gains was complete, Talal came hurrying into the room he’d been working in, a look of extreme worry on his face.  He drew the attention of all of Leon’s retainers, but he remained quiet and made straight for Leon.

“Talal,” Leon said in greeting as the Samarid drew close.  “What’s wrong?”

“Boss,” Talal whispered as he leaned in to murmur into Leon’s ear, “we have a bit of a situation on our hands.  More than a dozen hunter teams have gone missing today.  By all accounts, it seems that a group of powerful wyverns are behind this…”

Leon’s eyes narrowed as he turned his head to look Talal in the eye.  He felt like he already knew the group of wyverns he was talking about…

“An eighth-tier black wyvern,” Leon whispered back, “and a seventh-tier of the other colors?”

Talal nodded gravely.  “Lady Penelope and Princess Cassandra have already been informed.  They’re making all haste west to try and confront these beasts.  Heaven’s Eye is requesting we do the same.  In just one day, almost a hundred hunters have been killed, and those were just the ones who managed to reach the western edge by now.  This group is moving further east, and they’ll encounter more hunters as they do so.  The daily kill count will grow rapidly if they’re left to their own devices.  It seems a lot of other wyverns are pressing east, as well, following this group.”

It was Leon’s turn to gravely nod, and after a moment of thought, he took a step away from Talal and addressed his people.  “Break time’s being cut short!” he shouted.  Most of them probably heard Talal despite the man whispering, but just in case, Leon repeated what he’d just been informed of.  “… so we’re going to head out as soon as we’re able!  These wyverns have to be stopped, and we’re uniquely positioned to do something about it!”

“Let’s do it!” Alcander roared, though his enthusiasm wasn’t shared among any of Leon’s retainers, not even Alix.  This wasn’t just an eighth-tier wyvern, this was six seventh-tier wyverns as well, and who knew how many others.  Even with just the black wyvern and his group alone, that level of magical and physical power meant that even if Penelope, Cassandra, Leon, and Maia all worked together, most who understood the power of the wyverns would say the fight would be a toss-up, perhaps even favoring the wyverns.

But that wasn’t going to stop Leon.  If these wyverns were on the move, then he thought it was probably his fault.  He was the one who stirred up this hornet’s nest, and his blood had already run cold with guilt and panic.

“We need to move quickly,” he said as he turned back to Talal.  “Can we commandeer the ark we used to get here?”

“That might take some convincing, but I’d say we can,” Talal replied.  “It wasn’t built for combat, though, so we can only use it to move, not to fight.”

“Moving’s enough,” Leon replied.

He wasted no more time getting his retinue on the move.  Not even an hour later, his entire party piled back into the ark, and it rose into the air and shot off to the east.  They had wyverns to kill.

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