Spirit Academy

Lance looked to what spot Shiro had pointed out and smiled slightly at her choice of places to wait for prey. Taking his spear off of his back he spun it around a couple of times before vaulting up to a branch in one of the nearby trees. Shiro sees his spear go into the tree brush and disappear before he moves to offer a hand up to Shiro.

"Nice choice of places to stalk Shiro. Now come on up here so we can watch."

He praised her quietly.

Shiro looked over at him and watched as he jumped up into the tree, her head tilting some until he offered her a hand up. That made her smile slightly as she took his hand, getting up along side him in the tree as she looked around.

"We should just watch, and if it starts to get too late we should head back. I would prefer not to have anything then to stay the night out here."

She told him quietly as she went to sit nearby carefully on a branch.

Lance gave her a slight grin as she voiced her concerns about staying the night in the forest.

"You scared of the dark or something?"

He teased her, sitting back onto his branch and relaxing while he kept his wits about him in case something should disturb their peace.

Shiro looked at him when he teased her and pouted slightly at that, she didn't like being stuck outside at night much just because her sight wasn't that good.

"Are you scared about falling out of trees? I could test that out for you if you want help."

She told him as she sat on her branch and watched the clearing below. She was ready to wait for a while at least, they had made some noise at least so they might have scared a few animals away.

Lance chuckled and sat back to watch the clearing with her after hearing her remark about his joke. He was prepared for pretty much anything at this point considering that he'd been here a couple of times before and spent a couple of nights by himself.

Shiro smiled some when she heard him chuckle, and she stayed quiet after that point. She knew they would be out there for a bit, just watching and being as quiet as possible. Maybe eventually they would find something to do together but she couldn't think of what. She did notice a little plant spirit float through the clearing after a while, just looked like a few flowers from here, but it told Shiro that at least it was quiet and calm enough for animals now.

Lance watched the plant spirit quietly as he and Shiro waited patiently for any kind of prey to come walking around for a drink of water from the pond in the clearing. At the very least Shiro knew to keep quiet while they waited so that they could hunt something as quickly as possible.

Shiro leaned up against the tree she was sitting in after a while of waiting, as she ended up yawning from boredom as well as how late it was already getting. She didn't want to go back just yet though, since it wouldn't be getting dark for a bit longer. Though when seeing some movement of the bushes nearby she sat up a bit slowly, watching as a few deer walked into the clearing right when she was going to ask to go back. Then she looked over at Lance with her head tilting slightly as if asking what he wanted to do.

Lance spotted the deer soon after Shiro did and crouched down, reaching for his spear. He moved slowly to Shiro and whispered into her ear to make sure that they wouldn't spook the deer that had just now shown up.

"I'm going to hurl my spear at one of them and knock it down, you pick a target and I'll follow up on a second one after you okay?"

He tells her, putting his hand on the grip of his spear before nodding to Shiro to show that he was ready whenever she was.

Shiro listened to him and nodded as she picked up her glaive again, looking at the group of deer as she tried to pick a target. She decided on one near the back of the group, nodding to Lance after that.

"Ready to go, let's see how many we can get."

She said quietly as she readied herself, waiting for him to throw his spear so she could jump at the same time.

Lance watched the deer and nodded to Shiro as he saw one of them finally drop its guard and start to drink from the pond in the clearing. With a great leap out of the tree, he spun his spear, twisted his body in midair and tossed the weapon straight at the biggest deer that he saw. The deer gave a loud cry as the spear skewered it and knocked it to the ground.

Shiro jumped out right after Lance did, going after one of the deer closer to the edge of the clearing. She threw her glaive quickly since she knew that if she waited until she got there it would have run off. Landing though she went over to grab her glaive quickly, turning to see what deer where still around to take down but most of them where already running off and wouldn't be easy at all to catch.

Lance walked up to his catch and used a small electrical charge to put the deer out of its misery before turning to Shiro.

"Leave the rest of them alone. We have all the food we need."

He told her, taking his spear out of the now dead deer and flicking the blood off of it before sheathing it on his back.

Shiro nodded as she made sure the deer she caught was dead quickly. Nodding though as she watched the other deer leave.

"I almost think two of them is a bit much. I guess we will have to share with others, do you have friends we could share with?"

She asked as she looked up at him and tilted her head some.

Lance shook his head as he started to help Shiro with her deer and getting it ready to cook.

"Ikari doesn't really eat meat and my only other friend tends to get sick a lot. Nothing contagious really, she just has a weak immune system."

He told her, setting his deer aside for the time being. He's probably take it home with him to use for lunch meats later in the coming weeks.

Shiro nodded as she worked with him getting her deer ready.

"I guess we may find a couple of people to share with... though I only really have talked to you. Maybe there will be a way to make the meat last longer."

She said quietly but kept an eye on the sky. She was worrying because it was starting to get dark and she wasn't sure how long this was going to take.

"Are you going to spend the night out here?"

Lance noticed how dark it was getting to be too when Shiro mentioned staying in the forest for the night. He sighed and nodded.

"Yeah probably. Doesn't look like we'll make it very far out of the forest before we finish cooking up our food so I guess we'll have to spend the night here tonight."

He turned to her with a calm expression on his face.

"Do me a big favor and go and gather some firewood for us. We'll need it."

He asked her, finishing up the preparations on Shiro's deer.

Shiro looked at him a bit nervously when he decided they where both going to stay the night out there. She thought that there was a chance of being able to make it back, though she saw the calm look he gave her when asking for the firewood. Sighing quietly she nodded and turned to walk into the bushes nearby, carefully going to gather anything she saw close by. She could grab a decent amount in one go, to her it looked like enough to last the night as she wandered back over to him.

"Are we going to end up taking turns sleeping like you wanted? If so I don't mind taking the first half."

She offered him quietly, shivering some though from a few noises that where starting as the sun was going down.

Lance went around and found a bunch of large rocks to make a big fire pit out of by the time Shiro came back. As he set up a pit to start a fire in, he listened to her offer of taking first watch before noticing her shiver from some of the small noises that we're starting to come from the forest. He nodded slowly at her offer.

"If you're sure that you can handle it then after we eat I'm going to get some rest. I'll tell Raiken to keep an eye on you while I rest in case something happens so don't worry. Is that okay?"

He asked her as he continued to finish up the fire pit.

Shiro looked surprised some when he offered to have his spirit friend keep watch on her, blushing lightly as she helped finishing the fire pit.

"If he needs sleep too you don't have to ask for such a thing. I am an not that scared about being out here you know."

She said quietly as she went to make sure the meat was ready for the two of them to eat. From his reactions she could tell that he noticed how nervous she was getting, but she just wanted to get her half done and over with easily hopefully.

Lance chuckled when Shiro mentioned that Raiken might need sleep too.

"Raiken? Sleep? That lazy lizard might nap all the time but if I tell him to keep watch over us while we get some rest then he'll do it for sure. He's reliable like that."

He mentions to her, going to help her with the cooking as much as he could.

Shiro listened to him before she nodded slightly, starting the food to cook since she was getting pretty hungry.

"I don't mind taking a watch for a while though, the nap earlier today was enough for me. If you would like to go ahead and let him stay awake with me as well I wouldn't mind it."

She said and smiled at him happily, sitting by the fire now to warm up some and keep her mind off the darkness around.

Lance smiled as Shiro began to cook, keeping his eyes and ears open for any odd sounds as the food cooked. Once it was finished he ate his share and gave a great yawn before picking up Raiken off of the ground and waking him up.

"Keep watch over us while I sleep Raiken alright?"

He asked the dragon spirit, the spirit nodding before going to sit next to Shiro and help her out. With another yawn, Lance slowly laid back against a small grassy hill at the base of a tree and stared back up at the stars. Soon he started to reach for them, the claw of Raiken prominently displaying itself for all to see as he grabbed onto air once again. Such a thing was his nightly ritual however odd it was to watch, and it only meant that he was completely peaceful.

Shiro smiled as she ate with him and looked around some, mostly watching the trees since they tended to move the most. After that as he went to go to sleep she watched him quietly, her head tilting to the side as she watched what he did right before sleeping. She found that a bit odd, and wondered what it was he was doing. Though she didn't ask, since he needed the rest and it was her job to stay up for now.

"Good night, Lance."

She said before he went to sleep. It was just a bit after that she leaned back onto her arms as she sat and went ahead to let her spirit form show. The tattoo over her eye appeared over her other eye and turned both her eyes blue as well as wolf ears and tail showing up in blue flames before she settled down to listen with the better sight and hearing.

Raiken looked on in shock as he saw Shiro suddenly transform into some kind of wolf spirit in front of his eyes. While he knew that she couldn't see or hear him, he knew who could. For the time being though, he continued to keep watch as he was told to, listening for any hostile spirits that might come out to ruin their night.