Storms wuthering
Over onyx laver packed with
Skeletal souls screaming
In soundless
Perpetuity
THREE NIGHTS, THREE NIGHTMARES. No, not one of them was called Sabline.
Most people were not their best on a severe lack of sleep, Yaarah informed her that following day as they paused for their fifth stop in this new region of the canyonlands.
Allory snarled, “Gnarrr! I eat cheeky Felidragons for breakfast!”
Sabline’s whiskers twitched as if she could not wait to observe this rather unlikely event.
He said, “I’d show you on the map. You’re making excellent progress in tracking the phenomenon. I believe that the data shows it is moving through the Axis of Seven Kingdoms in the direction of the Gates of Saradoom – if it’s that close, I should add. Slightly farther afield and it could be located in the Suylas Deepwoods, heading toward Ahm-Shira, yrrr-hrrrm.”
“I don’t like that scenario,” the Princess announced.
“No-one does. Who’s hunting today?” Sabline interrupted crustily. “We should rest here. It’s just about time for one of those Giant hunts to kick off again.”
Gee, the local earthquakes will begin around noon. Can’t wait.
Wow, grumpy much?
Trying to think through the painful mush that filled her head these days in place of actual brains, Allory said, “Did I hear you saying that the Giants were behaving oddly?”
Ashueli nodded, unsheathing a couple of her weapons and stretching her back as she glanced about the small sandy clearing. In a moment, she nodded again. “Aye. This place looks secure.” It was another of the mid-column nooks, bounded on all sides by rocky walls bar two deep cracks, one of which they had used to enter. Even though this location stood a good five hundred feet above ground level, Allory heard the gentle tinkling of a waterfall nearby.
“Explain, nrrr-hssst?” Yaarah purred.
The Princess said, “They don’t usually chase argumasaurs around for fun. Usually there’s some purpose, hunting for food or as a rite of passage event for younger Giants. They don’t just hound them willy-nilly in circles until the beasts fall over from exhaustion –”
“As do the Giants,” the scholar added.
“Indeed. It’s the oddest thing I’ve ever seen. Almost as if they’ve gone barmy.”
“The barmy Giant army, murrr-hurrr-hurrr!”
Something stirred in the back of Allory’s mental soup, but to her frustration, the inkling vanished before she could put her little blue fingertip on anything important.
Typical.
Sabline snorted, “Give me a break, Yaarah.”
“Arm or leg?” Ashueli offered with the kind of grin that probably sent her suitors diving beneath any nearby cover in a mewling panic. She swayed beneath the strike of a paw that might have removed her head from her shoulders had she not been so quick. “Very hungry?”
“Very witty, nrrr-frrrt,” the Dragoness grumbled. “You’re right. Let’s go hunting, Elf. You and I can train together. Yaarah?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I’ll stay here.”
That tilt of his chin … “Protecting me?” Allory piped in annoyance.
Yaarah smirked, “Yrrr-frrrt, you’re a far tastier snack than our Sabline will ever – mrrwll!”
The warrior purred, “Headlock.”
“Lovely … muscles,” he rasped, eyes beginning to bulge and glaze under the pressure. “To what do I owe the – urk?”
“How do we escape this one, Yaarah?”
He writhed this way and that in growing desperation. “Beat you over the head … with a scroll?” he offered at last. “Embrace my awful fate with a sonnet of fate-laden poesy? Whimper and mewl, mrrr-trrrt, in the vain hope you’ll discover mercy in the depths of your fiery warrior heart?”
“What did I teach you? Brrr-frrt!” she blasted him, right in his face. “Doth the mighty scholar forget?”
“Mrrwll, sorry …”
“Start with the left shoulder, dip inward and twist.” Ashueli took pity on him.
Four seconds, seven swear words and a grunt of surprise later, Yaarah found himself free. He shook his muzzle slowly, evidently trying to figure out what he had just achieved. “It worked?”
The Sabrefang clacked her fangs against his shoulder. “Exactly as I taught you!”
Ouch.
He bowed elegantly. “No disrespect meant. The pupil should honour the teacher in far less inadequate service to her excellent instruction, nrrr-drrrt. That is all.” Sabline champed her jaw, fulminating so furiously that fire leaked from her mouth, but could find no suitable response. He added, “Mighty huntress, a small portion of meat will suffice for this scholar. Good hunting. Anon.”
Flaming eyes tracked the scholar’s progress as he started a slow circuit of the nook, scouting for any unwanted nasties. He wriggled away through another the crack they had not used. Shortly, a snap and a snarl echoed from within, and his voice called, “Nice spot here. Clean water. Summarily cleared by the staggering magnitude of my ineptitude.”
Ash cleared her throat awkwardly.
The Sable Dragoness shook her muzzle as if deeply perplexed by this interaction, before she stalked off with the Elf to do whatever warriors did when they were having fun. Beating things over the head. Slaying innocent animals. Sharpening their fangs and blades on each other’s knuckles. Allory glanced about the clearing and decided the spot over in the corner where a sunbeam broke through to irradiate a couple of square feet of sand was just the spot from which to contemplate the mysteries of life.
Time to apply her most advanced healing techniques.
Like, sleep!
* * * *
The Scintillant stirred in the sultry mid-afternoon, realising that the flooding could not have hit this area. Strange. However, she felt far better for having rested despite dreaming about war. Ooh, here was the Elven Princess, sharpening the edge of one of her blades with that mildly disturbing attention to detail she loved to bring to tasks of a martial nature. And that fresh cut on her forehead?
Allory popped over to work on her healing techniques for real.
“Yaarah?” she inquired.
“Took you until now to realise?” the Elf returned, in a low voice. She raised her dark eyebrows.
“Umm … eh?”
The brows lifted farther. Allory gave the annoying Elf a pointed glare.
She whispered, “Look up, silly.”
The girlfae glanced up. Oh … oh! Ooh, how romantic. About fifty feet overhead, a golden tail and a sable one hung over the edge of a wide branch. As she watched, the golden eased toward the black, clearly wary but also yearning for that touch, judging by its curvature. Stifled chuckle. The tale of the tails, part two. Fzzz! A spark leaped across the gap. A low yelp floated down. She imagined the two Felidragons lying beside one another, each gazing deeply into the fires of the other’s eyes.
Aww. So sweet. I burn for you, my love.
The sleek black tail formed into a question mark. The fluffier golden one appeared to twitch in trepidation, before swinging across the gap to rest tenderly upon her upturned tail-tip. The black fur rippled, sparking visibly before Sabline’s tail coiled possessively about his, and their linked tails began to swing back and forth lightly in concert, like two Faerie playing on a branch swing.
‘How cute is that?’ she mouthed to Ashueli, pointing upward.
The Princess gave a wicked snort. ‘Smitten.’
Allory also realised that she must have sweated out a fever. She waved her hands eloquently and pointed. ‘Stinky plus. I’m going to go bathe.’
‘Sure.’
Her bronzed face set in concentration, the Elf worked stolidly on the blade. One had to wonder if she might be thinking about her father, about her bride price and a future as a pretty pet, fluffing her feathers upon command. Suggids! Gilded cages indeed.
Chary of disturbing those personal reflections, Allory flew up through the narrow crack to find the next column crevice just beyond, very much smaller at a mere ten feet across or so. On the sun-spinward side was a small waterfall that poured from a mossy cleft above. All around it, mauve blossoms brightened a tall, lush natural garden full of blossoms and delicious pollen scents – citrus and honey and a tang of jasmine? Huge, pure white amaryllis blooms? Yum! All that unrelenting rock and dry vegetation without, but here and there in these canyonlands, she was starting to learn, one could discover pockets of beauty.
Another place we Faerie would have loved. Must have loved, right?
Suddenly, Allory became aware of a mountainous weight depending from her neck. Her hand flew up to the soul locket but passed through … because she fell into a void beyond.
Into another time.