18.

As Summer answered the newly arrived nymph, Ostel took the moment to disengage and went to where Snow was laying laid down.

The Sage of Light took to watching the new arrivals with as a distant observer. While he understood Summer and the Jade Fist, the Sages of Fire and Water he knew very little about. Thus he kept his distance and merely stayed close to Snow, casually petting his white fur and feeding him a bit of dried meat from his travel sack.

Ostel had never seen a nymph before, let alone a lycan. From a distant they seemed fairly friendly and to the untrained eye, even human. Though he was a bit more open to the other races, throughout his life the bastard had maintained a healthy dose of wariness concerning matters he knew little about.

Summer seemed to be making friends rather fast though, and he was glad that she was able to be herself in this environment. Were it not for the pair of them being Sages, the human would have likely given her to one of a number of elven renegades still running around in one of Lucerna's northern forests. And now ...

[i] I guess the world loves making fools of us all I suppose.[/i]

By all accounts, Ostel knew he should mingle among the other Sages and get to know them. But whether it was his wariness or something else, he kept his distance and just stayed with Snow, his ever faithful hunting companion.