Page 14 of The Lion’s Bunny

Once we were on the ground, I took off, the scent getting stronger and stronger. There was the urgency of getting to it before the other students found whatever it was I’d scented. I stopped in front of a tree and smelled the air. It was higher up, so I climbed the tree, making it shake under my weight. It wasn’t a thick tree, which meant it had the potential to snap soon. Once I’d reached halfway, I paused to sniff the air, looking at the leafy branches and finding a small cloth pouch hanging lazily right next to my head. I snatched it, making it disappear.

My paws landed firmly on the ground after I’d jumped down and I proudly announced that we now had two items found.

“Three,” Damon said smugly. “There was one buried right over by the three huge stones over there.” He nodded to my left and I saw a huge hole right next to the stones.

“Did your lion scent it?” I asked eagerly. We had three treasures!

He nodded. He’d been in his dragon form when I jumped down, perhaps because he didn’t want to be lured by other scents when he knew I was counting on him staying near me.

Before I could jump back into his arms, the bell rang, sounding much louder than normal. “We better hurry to lunch,” I muttered, shifting into my dragon form.

Chapter 10

We met up with my family for lunch, all of us ravenous from the hunt, except Myve who was suspiciously absent. Nazuss had mentioned the other students might’ve eaten before us or would after, as they weren’t a part of the hunt. There were around half of the students inside the dining hall now, so he was likely right about that. Maybe Myve would go on her hunt tomorrow? I hoped she would do it soon, especially if it meant some alone time between her and Hans.

Nym was the last to sit down, having filled his plate to the brim. I smirked at him, getting ready to boast about how well Damon and I were doing, but one word from him had me zipping my lips shut.

“Six,” Nym said, not even bothering with eye contact as he broke my good mood.

“Six?!” Jamie exclaimed, his eyes wide.

Nym smirked as he glanced around our table lazily. “What?” he asked innocently. “Don’t tell me you haven’t found anything?”

I crossed my arms and glared at my cousin. “Three things,” I said, still proud over what we’d achieved in so little time.

“That’s cute,” Nym grinned, making Harpy giggle next to him.

“Damn,” Jamie muttered. “We only got one thing.”

That made us ease down on the teasing. For now.

“There’s still plenty of time to find more,” Nazuss assured them calmly, making all of us look at him funny. “What?” he asked, looking genuinely confused.

“You found more than one thing?” I asked. “But you’re doing it alone?”

Nazuss just rolled his eyes at me. “My bear is sniffing out treasure faster than you can track yours down, yet I’m not sitting here acting all tough for finding eleven treasures already.”

“Eleven?!” we all exclaimed in unison.

Nazuss just nodded while he ate, acting like it was no big deal.

“Fuck,” I muttered. “Your mate will be pleased by all the prizes you’re getting.”

Nazuss smiled at that. “I hope so. It would suck if the prizes need to be used immediately, though.”

“You still have no idea who your mate is?” Casey asked in a kind tone.

Nazuss shook his head. “I was told to be patient, so that’s what I’ll continue to do.”

“But can you really trust Ulysis?” Jamie questioned. “I mean, yeah, he’s old and wise looking, but does he know your mate well enough to give out advice just from you looking at a rainbow goldfish?”

I snorted a laugh. I hadn’t been blessed with a meeting with Ulysis yet, but I knew it was coming. He’d told Jamie that every student would see him while here regardless of whether they had found their mate or not.

Damon leaned closer to me whispering so low I almost didn’t hear him. “We should shift as soon as possible and make a plan of action.”

I loved that he was into the competition as well. I didn’t care if Nazuss won. I just wanted to beat Nym and Harpy now. I couldn’t even say it was a dragon thing, considering I’d always been competitive in nature. That was one of the biggest reasons why Nym and I often butted heads growing up. It was a good thing our fathers taught us how to have fun with it, though.

Once we’d finished eating and were allowed to continue the hunt, Damon and I sped through the air, going for the end of the island. It was the farthest away from the academy as we could go. It was a risky move, but we felt confident that we could find things there the others hadn’t grabbed. Nazuss had found a lot of treasures in the forest, and he couldn't move as fast as we could, meaning many of the treasures close by had likely already been found. We didn’t want to waste time in those areas, which was why we were now landing on our mountain, both shifting to our lion forms as soon as we hit solid ground.