The next day I was woken up early by Thorgrim, we had spent almost the whole day making rings for the chainmail. Tova had come by and when I told her about my deal with father, she had gotten jealous and told him she also wanted a horse. He had laughed and told her that if she could get permission from her mother to help make another chainmail he would get her a horse. I don't think he believed they would agree, for I could see he was surprised when Ingrid came over to confirm that Tova was not telling her lies about the deal. After he had confirmed it was true. They agreed that Tova would get two good horses instead, since she had no need of a warhorse. She was to come over and work everyday until the armor was done. After I had eaten breakfast, my father called me over and handed over a letter.

"Eric, here is the letter I told you about, you are to give it to the Master paladin of the order. You have met her before when she came by to have her armor repaired. You are to address her as Dame Erika, she is after all a proper knight of the realm."

"I will be careful and make sure to address her correctly."

I answered while grabbing my bag that I had stuffed some food into, the letter I placed in one of the two small compartments on the sides of the bag. Before I grabbed my bow and the small quiver of arrows, my dagger already hung sheathed on my belt.

" Well see you later father."

I said as I gave a short wave and left the house. Outside already excitedly waiting for me was my scaly companion. We took off by following the road that led north towards the big forest and the garrison. The monastery was located before the forest beside the road. Belinda was running around scanning both sides of the road looking for some easy prey, and would sometimes dash off the road only to return a minute or two later.

The weather was great and the sun was already starting to drive away the cold of the night. When we had walked for around an hour the landscape around us started to change from plains to small hills. Suddenly I could feel a mental prob, and knew that Belinda wanted to tell me something.

"What is it? You found something?"

I asked as I stopped and looked around me. She sent a picture of the small hill to the left of the road. With the feeling of hunger and excitement.

She must have smelled something, and wanted us to check that hill. Well we had made good time and were already halfway to our destination. So a little side track should not be a problem. I strung my bow and indicated with my hand for her to take the lead.

"Lead the way Belinda."

I followed behind her through the high grass that almost went up to my hips. We soon came to the hill and started to move towards the top. The incline was not too bad, but with the pace my scaly friend was setting I was fast becoming short-winded.

"Slow down, I can't keep up."

I told her as I lowered my speed, and was now moving slowly. Belinda slowed down as well, still we soon made it to the top. I crouched down and kept moving forward, my pulse was racing not only from the exertion but also from excitement. I wondered what she had caught wind of. Looking down on the other side of the hill I saw what we were stalking. Four deers were standing there in the tall grass eating. Two does, one fawn, and the problem, the stag. It was a six point and not the biggest stag I had ever seen but then I had been with the rangers hunting deep in the forest. It still gave me pause.

" I'm not sure this is a good idea Belinda."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

I whispered as I looked towards the dragon, but she had already started to move down the hill towards the small herd. She was almost halfway down, and I dared not shout to her. The stag's of a herd could be really aggressive. I swallowed hard as I grabbed my bow and started to slowly follow after her. My bow was stronger then the one I had used before, but I still had my doubts about killing deer with it. It was just over 25 pounds so I should have no problem wounding it at least. And a good shoot at 15 meters should do it.

As I descended down the hill, I could make out where Belinda was by watching where the high grass was being forced apart. She had gotten a lot closer than me, and was heading towards the fawn. This was both good and bad, good part being that it would be a lot easier to take down the fawn and could make the rest run away. The bad part was that if the stag did not run off we would have to kill it too, since there was no safe place around here.

I was now about 25 meters away from the stag, but I could see that I would not get into range before Belinda was in striking range. It all happened very fast, the dragon jumped the fawn and got a good grip on the throat. Down it went and it started thrashing on the ground but it was useless, those jaws were locked. The does bolted and the stag turned and lowered it's head ready to charge the dragon. I rose up and ran forward, I was still too far out. The stag started to run towards Belinda, I lifted my bow and took aim. A few meters before it impaled the dragon with it's horns I released.

The arrow hit and I could see how the front leg gave out and the stag went down, but the speed carried it forward in a tumble. It rolled over Belinda and I could hear her cry out. I dropped the bow and pulled my dagger, in my haste I forgot about wounded animals being the most dangerous. So when I came close to the stag it kicked out and hit me on my left leg. I could hear bone cracking and pain flared up as I fell over the panicking animal. I slammed my dagger down with no idea where I was aiming but I must have hit something vital, because it's movements started to slow. Then Belinda was there, ending the stag with a bite to it's throat. As I lay there beside the deer who had it's back towards me I could feel its death throes.

Now that the fighting was over, I could see that the arrow had hit the stag's right front leg. The dagger I had at least been able to hit the vitals with, and had probably pierced a lung. I tried to stand up but the pain was too much. Luckily I had my ring so I should be fine in a couple of hours. My dragon friend came over to me and I could see the blood of her victims around her mouth. She seemed to be doing fine, and I could not see any wounds on her. A mental prodding before I could feel her concern for me.

"I think my leg is broken, and will need help."

I told her, as I took my bag off my back. Everything started to sway in front of my eyes and I had trouble focusing as the pain in my leg screamed at me. Getting the water skin out of the bag took me some time since I moved carefully, I motioned for her to come closer so I could clean her.

"Can you return home and get Thorgrim?"

She tilted her head in question, she didn't understand. I thought for a moment then I grabbed the bag and emptied it. I winced in pain and then gave it to her. Next time I would make sure I had some paper and coal with me so I could write.

"Give Torgrim."

She sent me an image of the dwarf and I nodded. Carefully she picked up the bag with her mouth and ran off. Now that I was alone I slowly dragged myself over to where I had dropped my bow. It took me almost 10 minutes and I almost fainted. I panted hard but hopefully I could defend myself with it while I waited for help if needed.

As I lay there waiting for help I went over our hunting step by step. Both Thorgrim and the rangers had told me it was important to analyze what went wrong in combat and try to work on it. And soon I realized that we would need to work on our planning and communication. If we were going to hunt anything dangerous in the future we needed to plan and not just rush into attack. Belinda could have waited for me to get in position and maybe we both should have attacked the stag.

Just under an hour later I could see Helga and Thorgrim running over the top of the hill. Father had his battle axe and was dressed in chainmail, while Helga had a monster of a crossbow in her hands. On her side hung the satchel with herbs and potions. I waved to them with my bow to show them where I was. As they got closer I could see the worry in their eyes.

"Boy, what happened? Are you okay?"

Thorgrim asked as he scanned the surroundings.

Helga more or less dived towards me and started to check for injuries. She didn't say anything, because she was focused on my leg trying to see how bad it was.

" I only hurt my right leg, I got careless when the animal was wounded."

I answered, then I began to describe what had happened. Thorgrim went over and checked the two animals we had taken down.

"Well I'm glad it's not worse, but what were the two of you thinking? You don't even have the tools to take care of the game you hunted. How were you two going to get the meat home?"

Thorgrim looked at the dragon.

"This is something that concerns you too Belinda. It is okay to hunt for food or to make coin, but killing animals just because you can is not!"

I could see how she lowered her head in shame, I wondered how much she had understood. Thorgrim took care of the field dressing, while Helga kept me and Belinda company when she was done checking my wounds. She told me my leg should be good around evening thanks to my ring. And I could probably stand on it in an hour or so but it would hurt.

Only after father was done with the animals and Belinda had eaten from the fawn, did we start to make our way towards the road. When we got there Helga told us they were going back home and that me and Belinda should keep going. When I asked why, they told me that I would probably get healed at the monastery and that some pain would help me reflect on what we had done wrong.