Harpies aren’t complicated creatures, they just want your food. They were born with an eternal hunger and are almost always in a crazed state because of it. The only thing that snaps them out of it is pain. So I shoot for non-vital spots on harpies like their wings or legs. If I were to kill one, then we’d never see the end of it.

I managed to nail a Harpy in the talon as it swooped and try to grab at Claire. That harpy landed on the ground and plucked the arrow off. I nocked another arrow and aimed for another harpy. Thu’ane was using his wings to fly and disrupt the swarm of harpies.” Edward speed up!” I yell to him. He whips the reins and the horses go from a fast walk to running.

“Kyle, try and get their attention. I’m going to cast a blinding spell.” Thu’ane yells from above.

“How am I supposed to do that?” I ask. I remember my dried meat in my bag. I pull it out of my pocket and yell,” Hey! Come get some!” They all look at me and I feel my stomach drop. Forty harpies start to dive for the meat and my horse gets spooked. It starts running off the road and I try to settle it. Before long I’m bucked off the horse right after it runs too close to a tree and stops.

“Luce!” I hear from nearby and i start to get up. I see the harpies grabbing at their eyes and the giant white wingspan of Thu’ane in front of me.” That was hilarious, Kyle. You went flying after that horse threw you off!” He says turning around while offering me a hand.

I his hand and say,” My head hurts.” I obviously stood up too fast since my vision started to darken and I felt light headed.” Get me to the carriage.” I then fall into his arms.

I wake up much later to the dead of night. I feel a bandage on my head and I feel the pain rush back to me. I grab my head with my hands and close my eyes.” Kyle? Kyle? Are you alright?” Every word feels like a knife being stabbed into my head.

“Calm down Claire, he’s got a concussion probably. Sounds probably hurt.” A soothing, calm voice says.

“I’m doing my best to heal him, but he’s built up some resistance to healing potions. I need to make them more potent.” Ryan’s voice says.

“Can you guys quiet down?” I ask and then I open my eyes. They weren’t right next to me, they were actually almost twenty feet away huddled around a fire.” Oh right, my eye.” I switch it and all the background noise fades.

I hear footsteps and look to Ryan.” Here, this is much more potent and should help with your head.” He says.

“Yeah, I probably should have told you about my potion tolerance. It’s pretty high since I get hurt a lot.” I say and then drink it. It taste like grape cough syrup with the same consistency. I sit there in a daze for a bit then I feel hands wrap around me.

“Lay back, I’ve got you.” Claire’s voice whispers in my ear. I do as she says and fall asleep again. I dream of flying and end up over the Winston House. I see old memories in a bird’s eye view, Things like chasing Claire in tag or climbing trees with her. I wake up still in her arms, but she’s currently sleeping. I move her arms and make sure not to wake her up when I get up.

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“So. How do you feel?” Thu’ane asks. He was sitting on top of the carriage and drops down.” We’re lucky Ryan and Beth are here. They are really good at healing. Even better than Jessica I’d say.”

“Yeah, usually I’d be out for days, but I doubt it was that long.” I say.

Thu’ane nods his head,” It’s been maybe twelve hours and you seem to have no signs of a concussion anymore.”

“Kyle? Why’d you leave?” Claire says. I turn expecting her to be awake, but she’s still asleep. I didn’t know she talked in her sleep. I turn to Thu’ane and he signals me with his hand to go to her.

“I’m right here.” I say to her and sit next to her. Her hand grabs on to my shirt and I swear she started to smile. I watch her sleep for a bit then resume my conversation with Thu’ane.” Have we lost that much time do you think?”

“Maybe only four hours of sunlight, so not too much.” He says.” I was just going to wake Edward up. He offered to take both the last watch.”

“Yeah, I can take over for him. Now you should get some sleep.” I say.

He nods and lays back on the carriage. I hear his heartbeat and breath start to calm down and I know he fell asleep. I know he was worried about me, I doubt he fell asleep since I passed out. I know we usually split the watches into three parts, so he must have been up this entire time.

I hear someone’s breathing rate start to change and look over at Mariana. She was stirring in her sleep and I hear her whisper a name, “Able.” Her tone was worried and I assume that it was a past lover or someone close to her. Her breathing rate steadies and she falls back to sleep. The rest of the night passed by really slowly and nothing stirred until dawn.

“Wake up Claire.” I say and shake her shoulder. She starts to get up and tries to speak but then interrupts herself with a yawn. I get up from her side and wake the others. All the others got up and Thu’ane started a fire to get breakfast ready.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” Edward asks him and Thu’ane just shrugs. Edward looked hurt for some reason so I decided to pull him to the side.

“I told him not to. I wanted you guys to sleep. You also are very new to this kind of thing. I’ll teach you how we do our watch on the road so you can help tonight, okay?” I tell him.

“Okay, I just didn’t want you or him to push yourselves too much. You two are pretty much carrying us through this journey and I feel like you’ll wear yourselves out.” He says.

“Don’t worry about us, this used to be our lives.” I say. We go back and eat the food Thu’ane cooked up for us. We eat in silence and then I get asked about how I feel.” I feel like nothing happened. I’ll be ready to travel as soon as you guys are.”

Beth grabs my arm,” Don’t push yourself!” This was a tone I’ve never heard from her, it wasn’t her calm voice. It was like a stern mother scolding her son.

“Don’t worry, I’m serious. That potion that Ryan gave me really did fix my head.” I say.

Ryan sets his plate down and says,” It negates the side effects and pain, but if you push yourself it will come back in full force.” He says.” I didn’t have the supplies necessary to make a potion for a concussion.”

I slouch and sit back.” So what you’re saying is that I have to ride in the carriage until the next town?”  Everybody nods and I feel defeated.” Fine, Edward you’ll be riding my horse.”

“We already decided that.” Edward says.

“I already gave him the rundown of what his job is.” Thu’ane says.” By the end of this journey he’ll be able to keep up with us, Kyle.”

“I agree.” I say.” When this job is over, Thu’ane and I are going to rebuild the King’s Shadow. Would you want to join?.”

He straightens up and says,” So you would teach me?”

I nod and say,” I’ll teach you as much as I can. That goes for all of you too. We kind of need a lot of people.”