“Did you lose the warden?” Fialla asked Sheilah curiously.
“I did. He was much too noisy.” Sheilah replied. “Have you found us something to hunt?”
Fialla nodded, and pointed out some boar tracks. “A little old, but assuming the warden doesn’t come blundering along while we trail it, I think we should be fine.” She fetched a sigh. “I thought he was kind of handsome, you know.”
Sheilah’s eyebrows shot up at this. “Oh?” She remarked, shocked.
Fialla then let out a snort. “Just a little.”
Sheilah blinked a few times in silent thought. “Huh. I didn’t even think. I was completely one track: gotta hunt, gotta hunt, hurry up and get hunting.”
“Revered Ancestors, please guide my sister towards finding a suitable husband quickly, lest she remain unmarried and alone.” Fialla mourned softly, and then pointed at the tracks.
Sheilah threw a punch towards Fialla, who artfully dodged. They carefully and quietly moved through the underbrush, eyes probing for tracks, ears tuned to the slightest noise, noses testing the wind for scents.
After about an hour of hunting without a word being passed between them, Fialla’s head came up alertly. She nudged Sheilah and pointed ahead, and then rolled her eyes and pointed behind her and marched the first two fingers along her forearm- the forest warden was coming along behind them.
Sheilah pointed at Fialla and pointed ahead, then pointed at herself and then at Fialla- Fialla should take the lead, and Sheilah would follow her. Fialla nodded and eased forward, still crouched, while Sheilah followed afterwards.
They moved ahead slowly, carefully avoiding anything that would make noise, occasionally testing the wind to make sure that it wouldn’t bring their scent to the boar before they were ready. Suddenly Fialla stopped, so Sheilah stopped as well.
Fialla carefully eased her bow off her shoulder, and then whispered back towards Sheilah,
“I see a sow with a whole litter of delicious-looking piglets.”
Sheilah closed her eyes and tried to think over a good strategy. Sows were somewhat easy to hunt, male boars were dangerous unless taken by surprise with a certain-kill shot- and even then it was risky, as they were sometimes too stubborn to admit that they were dead- but piglets were quick to scatter and were impossible to catch when they bolted, as Sheilah had learned every time the Dragon Clan had needed to move the boar pens.
She eased her quiver off, and set her bow to the side. She then carefully wormed her way up to Fialla.
“Show me.” Sheilah whispered, and Fialla gestured.
“Just a little bit ahead, there’s a short cliff. Maybe six or seven feet. At the bottom is the sow and her piglets.”
“Piglets smaller than a hatchling?” Sheilah asked.
“Li’l bigger.” Fialla replied back. Sheilah wormed her way close enough to peek down.
True enough, there was a fat sow and a squirming mass of piglets that scuttled here and there.
“A piglet each?” Sheilah whispered.
Fialla chuckled soundless, predatory laughter. “Sure.”
Sheilah belatedly remembered her bow and quiver, but dismissed them. For something this simple, she didn’t need them.
Her eyes narrowed as she began focusing her mind. Once again, it was strangely easy to divide her attentions while simultaneously concentrating on each of them.
“I’ll get the two.” She found herself whispering. “Use your Supremacy to scatter them.”
“Sheilah...” Fialla complained, and then trembled.
Sheilah was aware of Fialla trembling even as she focused all of her Supremacy on the two piglets she’d chosen. They obligingly fell over, their tiny hearts burst in their chests from the overwhelming, murderous menace that boiled out for just a heartbeat’s length of time, just at them.
“Scare ‘em away, Fialla.” Sheilah murmured, and closed her eyes, trying to calm her racing heart down.
“Sheilah, this wasn’t fun at all.” Fialla pouted, standing up and releasing her Supremacy.
A whirlwind of bleating squeals rose up as they scattered in every direction.
“I hate you, Sheilah. This was supposed to be fun. You remember fun, don’t you?” Fialla demanded.
Sheilah nodded and rose to her feet.
“We have dinner, at least.” She offered.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“You think that I care?” Fialla complained, rising to hers. “I wanted to hunt. Hunt with you.” She blew some hair away from her forehead. “That wasn’t hunting. At all. That was boring.”
“Okay, find us something dangerous to hunt then, sister.” Sheilah snapped back.
“No! You’re the one that spoiled it, you go find something and drive it towards me. If it’s good enough, then maybe I’ll return the favor.” she snapped.
Sheilah glared at Fialla, who glared back defiantly.
Sheilah dropped her gaze. “Fair. The piglets need to be bled first, however.”
Fialla nodded, and the two of them dropped down the cliff and picked up the piglet corpses.
They unwrapped leather cords from their waists- when didn’t you need a leather cord for something?- strung up the piglets upside down, then cut off their heads so the blood would drain.
Sheilah scooped up her bow and quiver and headed into the forest even as the warden appeared suddenly.
“Oh, uh, hi! Thought I lost you there for a minute.” He offered by way of greeting. Fialla let out a sigh. He wasn’t cute at all.
Sheilah headed into the forest, subconsciously avoiding stepping on things that would crack and break, avoided rustling branches or trampling through shrubbery, unaware she was relying on a sense that was granted to her by the Dragon that gave her an innate ability to be aware of everything going on around her.
Fialla was right; she shouldn’t have trivialized the hunt. The point of it wasn’t to fetch food, the point was the hunt itself, to face down a foe and defeat it.
“It’s just...” She muttered to herself, unaware that she’d spoken aloud, “nothing challenges like a fight with a dragon.”
This was true in a way. If the dragon was at the apex of everything as the clans believed, then nothing else would ever measure up.
Sheilah let the various parts of her mind wander as she marveled at the unfamiliar trees- even the lands of the Mountain Cat didn’t have trees like these.
Part of her wondered about the rich soil, the humid air, the rich tapestry of scents in the air, all the massive differences between this forest and the Dragon Terrace.
Part of her mind noted the cultivated nature of the forest in comparison to the wild and untamed Thorheim forest.
Part of her wondered and worried about Magdalene’s seeming need to make Sheilah and Fialla abandon the Dragon.
That, at least, was impossible. She was the Dragon. It was in her blood, in her heart, in her soul. Simply stripping the dragonhide armor from her wasn’t enough to deny the dragon’s existence. It was the same for Fialla. They couldn’t stop being dragons.
Part of her wondered what sorts of dresses she’d need to wear. Children in the Redstone wore clothes made from goat wool and very light leathers, as they grew older they tailored their own clothes to suit their needs- would Sheilah need to do the same? She wasn’t very good at sewing.
It hadn’t even been very long since she’d left the Redstone and she already missed it.
“I want to go home.” She complained to herself, even as some part of her surged up, hot and fierce and aggressive in her breast.
Something was nearby. Something that made the Dragon furious. Sheilah pushed herself to her feet and immediately put an arrow to her bow.
She absently wished that Fialla was with her- she couldn’t tell what it was that roused the dragon in her heart, but she could feel its hot, fiery outrage. She lunged forward into a trotting run, not bothering with stealth. Whatever it was, whatever it pretended to be, it was an affront to the Dragon, and so she would face it head on, claws and teeth bared, fires searing in her jaws.
She kicked off of a fallen log, splashed across a small creek, kicked apart the underbrush that threatened to get in the way.
A snake lunged at her passing ankle, but her dragonhide boots stopped the lethal bite even as Sheilah ignored it, dragging the snake behind her even as her mind was directed forward, hungry and hot and savage, heart pounding in her chest.
The ground in front of her suddenly dropped away in a sudden short embankment and she tripped and fell, reflexes struggling to turn her fall into a roll, body struggling to move out of its own way.
She hit the ground hard and bounced as she rolled to a stop, a small chunk of rock pressing up into her back painfully.
“Ugh.” Sheilah muttered, wiping her cheek and feeling unsurprised at the smear of blood that came away on her fingers.
She put the hand down while she quickly checked to see if anything was broken- and jerked with a hiss when something latched on to her hand with a hot and deadly bite. She pulled the hand back towards her and spotted the snake; she simply grabbed it with her other hand and pulled it off, absently cramming the head of the snake into her mouth as she examined the wound, which was already swelling and painful.
She frowned as she chewed, and tried to remember what was necessary to counteract poisons. For some reason it was difficult to think.
The Dragon.
She could feel the hot swell of the dragon’s power in her breast, could feel the lines of pain fade even as she swallowed the last bit of the snake.
“Stupid thing.” She muttered to herself. She looked herself over; the fall hadn’t been a great one, but she was bumped and bruised and a little sore, though the pain was fading thanks to her own youthful resilience and the subtle powers of the dragon that were at work within her. She was, however, liberally daubed and streaked with mud.
Her senses suddenly screamed danger at her and she launched herself forward even as the explosive, shattering roar of a thunderclap ripped through her ears.
Her whole body thrummed and tingled, nerves jittering, sizzling as she tumbled over and over again.
Where was her bow? Gone. Her quiver? Lost somewhere. Her knife? She reached for it and found that it too was gone.
She flicked her muddy hair up and over her head even as she looked around for the threat.
Heavy wingbeats like the rumbling of thunder that presaged a storm from above.
She looked up into the steel-eyed gaze of a Thunderbird. It was smaller than the ones she’d occasionally seen in the Redstone; only as large as she was.
Dragon. It seemed to sneer at her.
Sheilah grinned as the Dragon filled her again, and she bared her fangs in a challenging grin, flames licking from her mouth with each panting exhalation.
She narrowed her eyes at it.
Prey.