I watched Ushra’s black eyes as he stepped in. They were orbs almost sunken in a face hundreds of gyras old, and there were depths to those eyes. Whatever sense of dragons I might have, I wouldn’t push it trying to read Ushra.
hello, Specter-eti, G?ren-eti. I was looking for you both, in fact.”
he come by to pick them up. Someone else always had.
terrible about showing up to anything on time. But he’d seemed excited about Hinte’s exploits last night. Maybe he’d show up earlier because of that?
Were banned. You know that’s not the case anymore.”
Ceya, I have returned!” said the bird. Wasn’t he checking on some Monsoon or something?
do it, not lie about it.”
Ueh, Toastyfeathers! Wanna bet that’s not the one either? I’ll take yer nut.”
what are you doing in here?” I found myself almost dewing sorry for the little bird.
is this all about?”
unsightly, you know. Hearing an animal talk. Is it a forest-dweller thing, or are Ushra’s magics stranger than I’ve heard?”
alchemist, not a magician.”
adventuring!” His wings hitched up and down in excitement. He vibrated.
did happen out in the lake last night?”
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Hinte told her story, one foot held over the other. Looking down at her feet, she started only at smelling the blood and sweat.
bounced on his mat. The rockwraiths. That was all me, the one point in this story where I might look middling heroic to anyone else.
would not stop chasing me!” Digrif was shifting on his mat again, leaning about as far forward as he could without slipping.
eat?” Staune hopped by Ushra’s side, eating a sliver of chicken meat. I gave her a half-smile before continuing.
It is not defeat until you can no longer play, I heard vaguely echoed.
Adwyn.
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Ushra looked to his neglected meal, and after a prodding by Staune, began to eat at last. I looked back to my food. Watching someone eat was impolite. It’s intimate, something you only do with lovers or close family. But eating with the G?rens didn’t make me feel any closer to them, just gave me a curling queasiness in my stomach.
attacked you on sight?”
trained to fight dragons.” Ushra broke his explanation to take a few more bites of his chicken, yanking one away from Staune. Adwyn let him, his brows furrowed in thought. Ushra finished, and continued, “But why would men trained to fight dragons be out exploring our cliffs, this close to Gwymr/Frina? The town is on no human map. It is as if they were expecting her to appear.”
blindness???—??reasonable men remain unconvinced. But eventually, perhaps, some old warriors with experience fighting dragons hear of it, and come in, hoping for more glory.”
large. I do not think they could track her within it.”
paranoid, Ushra —”
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