The coursing river swelled beside the banks, gradually eroding and widening the ancient channel. The ever-present sloshing sounds created a simple acoustic to which echoed dully in the background. Tempted by the hopes of water, we navigated ourselves eastwards, running parallel to the river until arriving past the area under the control of the Hanging Creepers.
“Are we past them yet?”
Instead of responding to the nagging voice, I proceeded to head towards the river. It was understandable that Shiara would be nagging around now. We had walked for so long that the sun was already beginning to set. I had taken the precautionary measure of going the extra distance in order to hopefully avoid any other avarice carnivore that might be lurking nearby. One of the stories the elders once mentioned illustrated the dangerous wildlife adapting to the harsh environment with passing of time, where there have been less and less prey. A common adaptation was the closer knit hunting system where a lot of weak predators would lurk around a bigger predator and help each other out.
Bzzzzzzzz!
I ducked down while turning around and motioning for them to do the same, however Shiara had already pulled the princess down with her. She gave me a quizzical look, tilting here head to the side to further emphasise her confusion. Meanwhile, Sarratina looked even more distress and I could almost see the panicked words “What’s wrong?” floating above her. The buzzing was gradually becoming louder so I crawled over to the pair. I wet my dry and hoarse throat before whispering “Dragon Flyire…. Nobody move.”
The buzzing noise must have finally reached an audible level, as Shiara and Sarratina finally looked towards the source of noise. A normal looking dragonfly came flying towards us from the North West, buzzing around at about a meter off the ground- normal if you didn’t include its body being a vivid red. It floated above the river, and although it’s eyes made it hard to identify where it was looking at, I knew it was staring at us and I could feel my heart thumping irregularly and rapidly. It floated above the river for what felt like an eternity, but probably only lasted a moment, before heading off back up river. YES! We passed. It must have deemed us not a threat and it probably had more then enough to eat being the ruler of this part of the river.
“ “ “Hahhhhhh…” ” “ Our sighs overlapped as we stared at each other. In that moment, I felt the mutual understanding and comrade. Shiara stifled a quiet giggle and Sarratina was smiling peacefully.
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“Hey, so what was that thing? I felt such a dangerous aura coming off the bug, and from your pale looks I knew it was really bad.”…Was my face pale?
“Yeah Vixen, are you okay?” I slapped myself with both hands. I must have been unconsciously remembering the past. I couldn’t have Shiara or the princess doubting my capabilities now.
“I’m alright, thank you.” I forced a smile to further emphasise this point. “Anyways, that was a Dragon Flyire. A mutant monster version of the common dragonfly-“
“-they’re normally found in or around mana dense rivers. Their ability to use powerful fire magic, as well as their high mobility and evasion make them a dangerous foe, especially for normal knights. Even their…” I see…I was wondering where such an impeccable princess’s faults lay. She was a show off. Not a bad fault for nobility, but something that should be kept at the back of the mind.
“… so although they are carnivores, they tend to eat little, and so rarely hunt. So unless you threaten them in some way, they are often quite pacifistic. Am I right Vixen?” …Uhhh…. I haven’t been listening….
“Yes, what she said. Also, they have excellent tracking capabilities and senses; it has something to do with how they see things. Anyway, let’s continue, we’ve had a long enough break and all this chatting is making me thirsty.” We picked up ourselves, and started approaching the water.
….
We reached the river as the sun began to set. Leaving the jungle overgrowth, the setting sun reflected it’s orange glow against the water. Due to the insecurity of drinking here, I allowed the other two to first drink while I paid attention to our surroundings. Currently, down wind happened to be the opposite bank, so I mainly focused on anything coming from down the river, only sending occasional glances to the opposite bank. A few small critters popped up, but all of them faded away after seeing us on the other side of the river. The river had it’s own dangers.
The two finished their gulp of water with satisfied looks; their entire faces dripping with water. The two had also taken the chance to briefly clean their hair. While Shiara’s dripping hair looked like hanging branches of a willow tree in Autumn, Sarra was in the process of attempting to retie her hair into a ponytail. I approached the water now that it was my turn, but I noticed at the edge of my vision a fluttering on the water’s surface down river. I backed up immediately. 1*
“Shiara, Sarra stand back! Go back by about six meters from the edge of the river, but pay attention to your surroundings as you do.”
I pulled out the bow, stringing it while slowing backing up. Looks like we will be having some Flying Paraná’s for dinner. The fluttering on the surface seemed to be intensifying, so I backed up until I was behind a solid looking tree trunk
“Hey Vixen, what’s wrong?” I didn’t turn around to answer. I retrieved an arrow from the quiver and knocked it onto the bow. I only had one shot at this, so I needed to make this count. If this hunt succeeded, then we wouldn’t need to ration our food and we should be able to not even bother hunting.
“Hey VIXEN!? What’s-“
“Look there!”
…. Focus. I needed to focus to make up my lack of skill here. Lead the targets…lead it… and…SHOOT!!!
THRUMP!!!