“Drago, slow down a bit!” Axel begged the Rockwolf as he bounded from one patch of grass to the other. “I can’t keep up with you!”

Casting a glance over his shoulder at the Wolf Beastkin that followed after him, Drago studied Axel critically before giving a loud sniff and returning to his inspection of the roadside grass before he chose to lift a leg and relieve himself.

“Well, that’s nice,” Axel muttered to Ember as she nestled contentedly in his hair, eyes closed as she enjoyed the mid-morning sunshine.

Shaking his head at his partner’s antics and obvious excitement, Axel picked up speed and moved more quickly so that Drago didn’t leave him behind as they followed the road toward the Eastern Gray Mountains and the Kobold tribe that had taken residence on the northern side of the range.

“Let’s see what you can do, Ember,” Axel said as he watched the horned rabbit forage at a berry bush.

Drago let out a quiet whine at Axel’s words as Ember ruffled her feathers and prepared herself to attack the rabbit.

“Shh, Drago,” Axel said quietly as he stroked one of his ears. “We’ll let Ember try to take it down herself and then, if she doesn’t manage it or it gets away, you can have a go.”

Appeased, the Rockwolf licked his chops as Ember began to creep through the undergrowth, careful not to make a sound as she approached the rabbit.

“That doesn’t look right,” Axel muttered to himself as he watched his hawk stalk a rabbit the same way that he would have expected Drago or a cat to do so. “What’s going on here?”

Ember

Burning Windy Hawk

Skills:

Flight(Restricted): Flap your wings and leave the ground. (Restricted due to young age and lack of growth.)

Burning Talons: Ignite flame on your talons and inflict burns upon a target.

Burning Coat: Ignite flame on your feathers and protect yourself from physical attacks.

Perks:

Hawk’s Sight: You can focus your vision at great distance. Your eyesight is greatly improved and your peripheral vision is wider and sharper.

Wild Senses: Increased effectiveness of your senses.

Fast Growth(Temporary): You have a bond with another creature, Axel, that grants you a bonus to growth so that you will mature faster than normal. Upon achieving full maturity, this Perk will disappear.

“Her Flight’s restricted?” Axel wondered as he read through Ember’s stat sheet. “How long’s that going to be there?”

No answers forth-coming from the Rockwolf that was still hungrily inspecting the horned rabbit that seemed oblivious to the fluffy bird stalking toward it, Axel turned away from the sheet and studied Ember instead.

Small, fluffy with down, and with maybe one or two reddish feathers beginning to peek through, he realized that unlike Drago, who was already full-grown when Axel tamed him, Ember was exactly what he thought of her as. A new-born bird that was likely supposed to be nesting with her siblings and being cared for by her parents.

“No wonder she can’t fly right now,” Axel muttered aloud as the realization struck him. “I just sent a child to catch a rabbit.”

Before he could step in and stop her from continuing, Ember flared her wings and lunged forward, catching the rabbit with her sharp beak by the back of the neck as she scratched out with her taloned feet that caught fire as soon as she jumped forward.

With a pitiful cry, the horned rabbit kicked out with its back feet and tried to escape the baby-hawk’s grip, failing to get away even as Drago slunk forward and moved to cut the rabbit’s escape path off.

Seeing the large, imposing Rockwolf appear as though from nothing, the rabbit realized its life was over that day and lunged forward, horns extended as it charged the wolf while the hawk continued to savage its back.

While the rabbit tried to desperately attack him, Drago didn’t move from his position as he watched as Ember finally managed to land a more crippling blow on the rabbit and sent the poor creature to the ground, spine severed and easy pickings for her to finish off. Letting out a joyous screech, the baby Burning Windy Hawk happily moved for the kill and tore the rabbit’s throat open as Drago let out a light whine at his lack of participation.

“My bird’s hardcore,” Axel whispered to himself as he watched the action occur and the now gruesome sight of the baby hawk eating as she ripped strips of flesh from the now-dead rabbit’s side.

Stepping out into the small area that the rabbit had been foraging in, Axel watched as Ember continued to happily eat her fill of the rabbit, only stopping when her middle was massively distended and she looked like a ball with wings, leaving the few remains of the rabbit to lie on the ground as she ruffled her feathery down around her and seemed to sit down to take a nap.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I guess we’re still looking for something for you?” Axel asked Drago as he bent down and grabbed Ember, nestling her in his arms as he looked at the Rockwolf that sniffed curiously at the less than 1/8 of a rabbit left. “Unless you’ve lost your appetite like I have?”

With a judging sniff toward Axel, Drago turned away from him and sniffed the air for a minute before setting off in another direction, clearly hunting for his own lunch, now that Ember was sated.

“Of course the glutton’s still hungry after seeing that,” Axel muttered as he watched Drago disappear into the undergrowth with a natural stealth he could never hope to mimic. “Come on, Ember. He’s a big wolf. He’ll find us and catch up when he’s done.”

Setting off in the direction he needed to go, Axel searched for somewhere to make camp for the night as he went, not wanting to get so far that he lost Drago as he hunted.

“You are definitely bigger,” Axel said as he watched Ember tear into a large roast from the deer Axel and Drago had managed to catch the day before. “Three days into this little road trip and you’re already getting big enough that I keep expecting more feathers. Keep that up and I won’t be able to carry you on my head anymore.”

Hearing she would lose her preferred perch, Ember looked up from her food and screeched indignantly at Axel as he voiced the idea. Chuckling at her reaction, Axel turned away from his much larger bird and looked to where Drago lay by the fire, gnawing at a large bone left over from the leg he had eaten by himself.

“Everything alright tonight, buddy?” Axel asked Drago as he moved to sit beside him. “I think tomorrow we’re going to have to start tracking another deer. You two eat like it’s going out of style.”

With a contented groan in answer, Drago largely ignored the Wolf-man and focused on cracking open the bone before him to get at the marrow inside. Tossing another branch on the small fire, Axel looked around the small clearing they had chosen to camp in for the night and sighed happily.

“This is great,” he said, more to himself than to Drago or Ember. “We don’t have stuff like this everywhere the way you guys do. My dad and my uncle took me and the guys camping for a week once or twice. I always loved it. The smell of the fire, the sounds of the bugs and the birds chirping away, the way Pear’s face always turned green when we had to hook bait for fishing. I miss that.”

With no one listening to him, Axel leaned into Drago and settled himself down for a quiet night under the stars as Ember ambled her way toward him tiredly from where she’d been sitting.

“Come on, you,” Axel encouraged her as she made her way around the fire. “There’s plenty of space for a ball of fluff like you over here.”

Offering his own woof of agreement, Drago shifted slightly so that there was a bit of space between him and Axel as Ember pushed her way between them and began preening her still mostly fluffy down and feathers.

“Quiet,” Axel urged Drago as they observed the scaly humanoid that held a spear loosely as it made its way over the rocky ground and approached their boulder. “Easy, let him come to us and then pounce. Remember, we want to scare him back to his friends, not kill him.”

With a quiet, low growl of understanding, Drago settled himself lower to the ground and prepared to jump out and attack the Kobold that they’d been tracking for the last two days since they’d entered the mountains.

As the Kobold came closer, Axel confirmed that the tribal paint that marked the creature was the same as what they’d been on the lookout for, breathing a quiet sigh of relief as he noticed that it was the same.

Once the Kobold was nearly on top of them, Drago lunged out, snarling and snapping his jaws as he terrorized the Kobold that fell back fearfully, stabbing out with its spear and crying in a hissing language as it back-pedaled from the frightening Rockwolf.

Setting its feet, the Kobold began to stand its ground and jab at Drago with its spear, driving him back slightly as Ember swooped down from her spot circling high in the sky. As the Burning Windy Hawk dove, screeching, for the Kobold’s face, the Kobold let out a fearful scream and threw itself to the side, just managing to avoid Drago’s jump that would have knocked him to the ground and left him at the wolf’s mercy.

Jumping up, the Kobold took off at a sprint, leaving its spear behind as Drago took off after him, growling and snapping in a theatrical performance that left the Kobold thinking that he’d over-take it at any moment before Drago began to slow, acting as though the Kobold was too fast for him to catch now that it was running away.

“Good job, guys,” Axel said as Ember settled herself into place on his shoulder and Drago came back to him. “Let’s get after him and follow him back to his tribe’s camp. Drago, do you want to lead?”

With a short woof, Drago answered in the affirmative and began to track the Kobold that had bolted, hopefully straight to its tribe’s camp. Screeching happily, Ember took flight and wheeled through the air as she followed above the Rockwolf.

Axel set off after his two Tamed Creatures, studying the changes that had come over Ember as she’d grown several sizes larger over the week-long trip they’d taken to get to the correct part of the mountains. Now standing a proud two-and-a-half feet, Ember was a winged terror for any creature smaller than her and for several that were the same size as her if not bigger, such as Gnomes and Gremlins. Her soft, gray, downy feathers had since been replaced, mostly, with red and orange feathers that came together and gave her the appearance of a fire given form. Her taloned feet, once small and stick-like, now boasted sharp, black claws that promised pain to any they sank into, just as her beak now hooked itself sharply and allowed her to tear through flesh as easily as paper.

“At least she can fly now,” Axel muttered as he watched her wheel through the air with gleeful abandon while he massaged his shoulder where she’d been resting. “I need something to let her dig her claws into when she’s on my shoulders cause this is getting painful.”

As he wondered what sort of change he would need to make to his wardrobe to accommodate his bird, Axel watched as she dove toward the ground before rising into the air again, a small creature struggling fearfully in her claws as she turned and set off to land back on his shoulder.

“Whatcha got there?” Axel asked as she offered the small mouse to him while managing to balance on one leg.

Seeker Mouse: A mouse prized for its ability to seek out treasures, traps, and herbs. Much smarter than the average mouse, a Seeker Mouse is capable of finding its way through labyrinthian mazes while avoiding traps, poisons, and seeking out natural treasures.

“Don’t eat that please,” Axel said as he read through the description that Examine gave him. “I want it as a part of the Menagerie.”

Fixing him with a quizzical expression, Ember studied Axel for a moment before extending her leg with the still struggling mouse held in it. Taking the understandably frightened creature from her, Axel cradled his new prize carefully as he dug in his Bag of Holding for a bit of hardtack to offer the Seeker Mouse.

“It’s okay, buddy,” he assured the tiny creature. “I’ve got big plans for you. How do you feel about Stuart as a name?”