Sientas redone
The wind flowed through the grass, making the blades speak to each other in whispered voices. There was a hush about the land. The sun was at its peak and bore down upon the land. It had not rained for a while and the ground was hardened and cracked. Even the grass and shrub had turned into a bright golden color. Whenever the wind picked up it carried the smell of the land with it as well as the heat. Clouds of small grass seeds were taken and spread, come the rains again they would begin to grow. A doe looked up from her grazing, chewing slowly; her eyes scanned the surrounding area before she bent back down to take another mouthful of grass. Her nostrils flared as she caught an unfamiliar scent. Her head darted around her, her muscles could be seen rippling as she readied herself but nothing came, the scent came and went, slowly relaxing she gave the land a last sweeping gaze, looking down she remembered what she was doing. She took another bite of grass, and everything went black.
Kena looked up from her kill, the thrill and speed was exciting and all, but she needed a better killing technique. She looked down again at her paw which was resting on the crushed neck of the dear she was hunting. She thinking of the bones crunching beneath her paw made her shudder. She removed her paw and looks over her kill, this would last her long enough to reach home, she decided. She began eating quickly, tearing the meat off the bone. Keeping a paw on her kill she ripped at the leg, fur was not an issue for her as she ate hungrily, she ate all she could off the legs and a bit of the back and neck. The meat was hard to chew but juicy and warm with blood. She swallowed the meat nearly whole only chewing once or twice. She quickly took off again, if she had more time she would have disposed of the body in a better way. But nature would take its course on its own time. She walked quickly before taking a run at a cliff. Jumping off Kena spread her wings; she could feel the air fill her wings almost immediately. The leather bag on her side hit against her with every stroke of her wings. In it was what she needed to get. She would have passed the test. It had taken her 4 weeks to get the damned thing; a small ruby like jewel. It was passed back and forth, her own clan and the Valdir clan, every year a scout was sent to the other clan to retrieve the jewel, it takes 3 weeks of flying there and 3 back, and the scout fetching the stone may have no help or assistance of the trip there or back. This was a rite of passage among the dragons. As a scout she was expected to go much longer without help of any kind. Though they were natural hunters, living in a clan has made excistance easy.
The elders made sure that the young ones proved themselves as the hunters they were. The elders also went on frequent trips alone to hone their own skills. But more than survival the clan wanted speed from a scout far more than anything else. Having done a little studying before she left by now she knew she was 2 weeks early. This often was the case and no great achievement, but it meant she would be a likely candidate for the position of lead scout. Only a handful of dragons were this fast. Fewer than that never made it back. Though they were not dead from starvation, but were attacked and killed. Kena knew a few dragons that bore scars for the fights won on these specific trips. She could get a good distance today if she pushed herself, the barrens which were devoid of life and water would be a problem and if she flew a little into the night she might be able to reach across them. She would need to feed and drink again before she rested for the night to make good speed again the next day. It was not long from her kill when Kena flew over the beginning of the barrens. This dessert spread between Sientas and the Valdir clan lands, there was one clan, the Tieka, that lived in the barrens itself, great fighters and hard to the core. They often wanted nothing to do with the other clans and held to themselves. Though a few travel to learn, Kena had seen a family from the Tieka clan the year before.
She let her mind go blank for the flight, and focused instead on the coming night. The light of the sun fading to a golden gleam as it sand below the horizon behind her, she tried to imagine looking at herself coming. She sun bright behind her as she was blurred by the light. Her dark green scales, seeming black to an onlooker, she giggled. Now was not the time to be imaginative. The moon rose ahead of her. Kena judged that it would me two or three days till full moon.
She saw the first few trees go past under her. Pushing herself a little farther till she was sure she was past. She landed quickly her wing muscles were aching and her paws seemed eager to have the ground under them. Kena noticed that her breath came hard and fast he was glad it was night as the cold air cooled her lungs, hunting would not happen tonight she would try in the morning. As she closed her eyes she heard a rustle behind her. Her head snapped up as she tried to find, where the noise had come from. In the moonlight she saw movement behind the trees, she did not know what it was, but she knew it was big. Getting up slowly she walked towards the tree line; she had landed next to a small forest. There was no further movement in the trees, and Kena stared at it. She could either move on or go in and take a look. Curiosity won and she approached the forest. The night sounds was drowned out by the trees, and she walked slowly. She took slow deep steps, careful of branches she may step on. Her muscles were tense and ready to jump away at anytime.
She stopped suddenly and her head snapped to the left at a sound she had heard. Her tail went stiff as she stared at the spot that the sound came from. She saw something move in the shadows and repositioned her paws slowly. Moving her left front paw closer to her and waited. Nothing moved and to Kena the world seemed to hold her breath, once she realized this she sighed out and relaxed. She had not been attacked, so there was obviously not much to worry about. She began to turn around when she stopped again her ear-fins tilting back, something had spoken...
It came again, "Umm... excuse me?" she whirled around, and came face to face with a hugs grey dragon. She had seen bigger but he was bigger than her and she had to tilt her head to see his face.
"Y-yes?" she said weakly, the sudden appearance of a large strong male in the Tieka clan lands was rather disturbing.
To her surprise he looked down and almost ashamed, "I... I haven't eaten in a while now... do you umm think you could." He paused as though he was thoroughly embarrassed to say it. "Hunt for me..." He said finally in a rather soft whisper.
She was thunder struck the forest seemed to tighten around her as she stared at the male in disbelief, "But surely you can hunt...?" she asked the words slipping out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
He flinched and shook his head turning to his right side she saw deep claw marks, his legs was broken and healed wrong in a few places as well, and his left wing was badly torn. He remained silent as she looked over him, her eyes coming to his tail she saw a large tail blade, protruding from it. She backed up quickly and whispered, "Tieka".
At the mention of the war like clan he sighed and began limping off in silence. The tail was the only thing in reach and she put a paw on it. "Don't go... ill hunt for you, will you stay in here?" she asked looking into his bright orange eyes as he turned to look at her. He nodded and gave a soft smile. "Thank you."
She nodded in return and left, "A dragon that begs for food can only be an outcast; and those scars... Will he tell me about them?" She spread her wings as she got to the edge of the forest and took off. Well trained eyes swept the ground as she saw a herd of buck; she could kill three and carry them back without a problem. She chose to use her magic, though not liked by the elders she did not have the time to waist hunting them at full. She closed her eyes and felt the earth far below her. there was a sudden shift and a short cry of pain as three spikes shot from the ground and pierced their targets, three big males. She landed and picked one up putting it on her back she gouged it on one of her back spines keeping it in place taking the other two in her paws as she lets the spires sink back into the ground, and took off. The flight back was tiring but as she thought she made it fine enough.
Kena landed at the edge of the forest she looked into it. "I'm back." She called softly for it was night and she did not want to disturb any other creatures nearby. There was no movement for a minute before the male lumbered out. She stepped back and smiled. "Go on, feed."
He nodded and lay down on his side, beginning to eat the bucks. Slowly at first, before hunger over took him. He had eaten one buck leaving its carcass and intestines to the side as he bits off a leg of the other. Biting and crunching through bone as he did the first. Kena gazed at the first, all the legs ad been eaten, there were ribs missing and only the spine and head were intact. Halfway through he stopped and took a deep breath, looking at her he bowed his head. "Thank you, Ma'am." He said quietly.
She shook her head. "Glad to help," she looked at the scars on his left side, "may I ask what happened?" She asked softly.
He looked away, "it's a long story, but let's just say I am no longer part of a clan."
She nodded and got up walking towards him, he watched her closely as she came around and looked at his wounds. He had managed to stop the bleeding, for the most part, but they looked infected and badly so. "We need to get these clean..." she murmured, remembering a river not far from here as she looked him over. "Come on I need to get you healed."
He shook his head, "No no, you have done so much for me already I cannot ask for more." He said quickly staggering to his feet, his back leg kept up from bad healing.
She took a stronger voice looking him straight in the eyes. "And If I leave you like this and you need to hunt again? You may find a way but I will feel a lot better if I leave you in a state to hunt properly. Now come on." She turned around at her final word and after a few moments heard that he was following her." They came to the water's edge within minutes and Kena stopped at the bank, "Get in and ill clean your wounds, it's going to be painful so don't freak out on me ok? He nodded and got into the river closing his eyes and Kena had to smile.
She got in next to him and raised a paw placing it on his side, he shivered at her touch. There were three deep wounds on his side, claw marks which she could easily and intended to replicate. She dug her claws in suddenly and ripped the wounds open. His whole body tensed and he let out a feral growl of pain, but made no other noise, as she wounds began bleeding she placed her tail over the topmost wound a good 4 feet long and rains her tail through it against the slant of her scales. Effectively brushing all the outer infection off, he hissed loudly each time she did that and she repeated the process three times for each one. She looked at him carefully and pressed her nose against his neck.
"There we go, now I need to wash them ok?" She took a paw and splashed water on the wounds rubbing softly, she smelled the wound and could smell no trace of the infection but his blood as it oozed forth. Now she had to seal them. Closing her eyes she imagined the wounds in front of her, feeling her power pour into them as she pulls the wounds back together. Sealing them off from the outside, she opened her eyes and was greeted with three lighter lines on his side, and a shivering hard breathing dragon.
"Your wing please." She glanced at the leg, she would have to take him by surprise when she took care of that. Reluctantly he stretched is torn wing to her, the membrane, when broken, was very sensitive, healing that was easy and left a very faint outline of the wounds. He moved away she stopped him, gathering all her strength she held the broken leg in place and very firmly with a cast of earth. His eyes pleaded her not to, but she went on. "on three.... One, two..." she tensed willing the cast she made to break the bones where they had begun healing wrong and force the whole legs back into the proper position. Through her cast she could feel the bones had broken through his hide. Making little vines sprout from the cast she quickly set off to pull those out sliding into the wound to properly realign the bones and remove any splinters she came upon. It was through her magic that she could see every detail on the break and his leg.
Her power began to drain on her now. With a last bit of effort she forced the bones to seal all the crack, and formed new bone structures to replace the splinters she had removed. Holding out her paw the splinters were delivered to her palm, the cast shed away into the water as she healed the little holes again and smiled at him.
With a glare he looked at her. "Three..." he had remained silent during the whole procedure. He sighed and looked away. Stretching himself out slowly. "Thank you Ma'am, you are a much kinder healer than what I am used to."
"You are welcome, I have seen worse crybabies back home, and you by all means should have been begging." She said with a grin, he grinned back slowly and looked around.
"I guess... this is goodbye then?" he looked into her eyes as if seeing her for the first time. "I'm Fang by the way."
"Kena, and if you would I could use the company tonight, healing you took a bit of my strength would you stay with me for the night?" she asked turning back around and walking to the spot she had chose earlier, not far from the kills she made earlier, and sure enough he followed her.
"It would be an honor Ma'am, maybe I could see you home? Just to make sure you are safe?" she turned and looked at him. "That would be nice, Fang, thank you." Exhaustion hit her then and she plopped to the ground the last thing she was aware of was Fang putting a wing around her and wrapping his body around hers.
She woke in the pre dawn, she was startled at first to find fang still wrapped tightly around her their tails had somehow intertwined during the night. She found it rather hard to move as fangs wing was relaxed on her and every time she moved her tail his tightened a bit.
She decided to stop trying and wake him up. "Fang...?" she said softly not wanting to scare him. "Fang wake up." He groaned and opened his eyes.
"Morning..." he turned his head away and yawned widely, his tail sliding off of hers. "Sleep well?" He asked looking at her again.
"Haven't slept that well in a while, Fang, thank you, I'm hungry." She said suddenly and looked at the buck and a half left.
"Please go ahead, I'm full." He nudged her with his muzzle. She nodded and bents down on her forepaws and started eating, the meat was still soft and succulent though it had lost the warmth of a fresh kill, she kept eating, meat was meat, and she needed the energy. She ate a whole leg before she decided that she would soon tire herself out from the extra weight. She stretched and saw Fang staring at her, hesitantly she nodded to him. "Shall we go?" he nodded and they took off. The Barrens stretched out around them as they left the lush forest behind them. Kena felt heat course through her body and she shivered at the extra energy the heat gave her.
She saw a shimmer off in the distance, she was not thirsty but she thought it best to have a drink of water just in case. Motioning to Fang, he nodded and they both turned themselves to the oasis. As it got closer Kena noticed that the foliage around the oasis became clearer and more visible and defined. She landed in the sun warmed sand, bending over she began drinking; she looked up and saw that Fang had not drunk any of the water.
Weariness swept over her suddenly and Kena felt herself slip into unconsciousness. She woke slowly to darkness. She realized she was on her back when the ground seemed far away and was not coming closer. The room spun slightly tilting this way in her vision then tilted the other way. She groaned loudly and tried to get up. As soon as she moved she open her maw and tilted to the side, as warm slimy and acidic predigested food came flowing out. Her stomach lurched as she hacked out the last of her previous meal.
With a shudder she pushed herself up and away from the mess. Her paw immediately went to her side, the pouch holding the stone was missing. She looked around quickly and was rewarded with another wave of queasiness. She fought to keep her stomach under control and won. Taking a slower look around the cave she saw the pouch, still connected to its sling and the unmistakable mound that was the stone in it.
"How are you feeling?" Fang's voice behind her gave her a start. She had to take another moment to get her stomach under control. She felt a paw rest on her shoulder keeping her still. "Easy there Kena, I think the water was off..." his voice trailed off as she shivered under his paw. "I think you will be hungry later, I'll be outside if you need me." The pressure of his paw left her shoulder and she heard him turn to leave. She flicked her tail and felt it touch his. He stopped.
"S-stay... please." She was surprised at how weak her voice sounded. He moved around her so that he was looking at her, the pool of sick laying behind her and starting to smell. He leans down and licked her nose gently.
"Just give me a minute to clean that up and ill stay with you ok?" he left as she nodded in response. She felt a tingling run over her as she heard his claws on the rock of the cave floor. What felt like warm water to her ran over a section of her back and the smell of the sick lessened. She gave a sigh of relief as the warmth made her feel a little better he left again taking the tingling feeling with him, when he came back she felt a warmth spread from her back over her body. Looking down she saw water crawling over her scales. So he was a water user. "Is that better?" his tone held a worried tinge and she smiled.
"Thank you Fang." He had gotten just the right temperature and she almost rumbled happily. He let the water flow away and settle in a natural dent, she saw the water begin to steam and felt his wing wrap around her body. She pulled her own wings close to her and leaned against Fang who had settled dwon behind her. she felt he had been sunning, his scales her very warm. Placing his neck on the back of hers he whispered, "Now rest." She nodded thankfully and rested her head on his paws. He began to lick the back of her neck. This relaxed her quickly and she fell back into slumber.
At first Kena thought that she had not opened her eyes, logic caught up to her as she noticed it was night. She was weary as she tried to get up. The moment she began moving Fang's wing held her down.
"Take it slow, looks around first see if your still nauseous." He said softly she nodded and looked around, the world had ceased its spinning and she looked at him as her eyes adjusted to the low light of the waning moon.
"I think I'm ok now, let try to stand?" He nodded and removed his wing standing up obviously ready to help if she should need it. He legs were weak as she stood up but she felt that she was able to keep herself up. She used her paw to steady herself on Fang then started to walk around the cave twice. The going was slow and Kena felt her legs nearly give in twice.
"How are you feeling?" Fang asked as she made her second lap, she stopped and stretched out.
"I feel a lot better, thanks to you no doubt, I'll be able to leave by morning. She smiled as she folded her wings back against her sides.
"I'll be the judge of that, for now you rest I'm guessing you are hungry?" taken aback by his sudden decisiveness she nodded.
"Aye, I'm feeling a bit peckish."
She sat down as he left staring after him, she felt fine, though the sudden illness threw her off balance, she thought maybe it was the fact that she had over extended herself the night before. Being too eager the next day after that must have push her body over its limit. She nodded, surely this was the case. Looking around the cave she decided she wanted to test her recovery. She opened her maw a bit and blew out a few times, wanting to direct her breath once she was satisfied she got what she wanted she blew out again. Contracting the muscles in her neck she let out a spray if mist into her maw which was then carried out quickly by her breath. Igniting once the mist touched the air Kena was able to let out a jet of flame.
The cave was thrown into sharp relief with the sudden light. She had forgotten to close her eyes and was now properly blinded by the sudden light. She blinked rapidly and flinched away from the light. She was pleased to find that she was not as weak as she felt. Turning back to the cave mouth Kena stared out of it for a while. Fang had left her alone while he went hunting. He had sped up her recovery and she was only a day behind her personal schedule.
A strange feeling crept over her as she stared into the night. Her thoughts began focusing on Fang. Where had he gone to? Was he alright? Would he be back soon? She sighed as she realized that she could answer none of these questions and looked away from the cave mouth. Her eyes came to rest on the pouch, getting up she walked over to it her weariness was ebbing away as she forced her-self to walk properly. Pulling the pouch towards her she flicked it open, a deep emerald color stone was revealed. Even in the dark it glowed faintly. It was the symbol of peace between the two clans; Sientas and Valdir. Reaching out with her paw she touched the stone, nothing happened; she smiled to herself and took her paw off of the stone. There was nothing to do but wait for Fang to return. Laying herself down at the cave mouth Kena waited; then blinked to the sun in her eyes.
"Oh my head..." Was her first words as she woke up. She raised her paws over her head and placed the over her eyes. "Fang, wake up... what happened..." her sides were aching severely and she quickly destroyed any plans of movement for the next three days.
She heard a groan from deeper in their cave; Fang was not a morning dragon. "Training is what happened, he won't let us have any peace will he? Drill four, drill six, do drill one, three, and five in rapid succession. Now run the length of the forest. I mean good gods its scout training..." she ignored him there and looked out of the cave mouth the sun was in her eyes and she hissed at it. Getting up she swore and flinched all the way to Fang before she plopped down at his side.
"I dreamt last night." She said finally when fang had settled down and covered her in his wing. "About the day we first met, I never asked but, what happened at the oasis?" She turned her head to look at him as she asked this.
"Oh nothing much, just if I did not move you, you would have become a toy for the roaming dragons there. A few of the Tieka clan females fell for that trap." His eyes went sad, Kena knew that by toy he meant that they were raped till they died of thirst or starvation. Then his eyes got curious. "But they always came back... a few scratches, and a really big grin on their faces."
"You think they wiped their memories?" Though Kena was scared of the idea, she found hope that at least they would not remember it.
"We thought so, till one of the females taken came home dragging a roamer on her tail blade, said something about a souvenir." He shook his head and smiled.
She stared at him and smiled back, "That must be fairly interesting to watch." She said after a while, and he nodded. Then getting up she groaned and tugged him with her tail. "Up you get, it is time to clean up, and we have a long day ahead of us."
He refused to budge and instead wrapped his wings around himself. "There is no way in the three clans that I am moving from this spot." He said, his voice indignant.
"Is that so?" the Voice of Master Gi'vorn drifted into the cave from behind Kena. Fang wasted no time in getting up and out of the cave. Kena laughed as she saw him nearly fly past Gi'vorn and head towards the lake. She looked at her training master and smiled, he smiled back. Together they made their way to join Fang.
Kena moved out into the morning sun, she kept her eyes closed, light had always hurt them, but the warmth was something she enjoyed greatly. She stopped and looked behind her. Gi'vorn had stopped moving and was staring ahead of himself. She followed his gaze and smirked to what he was looking at. Her mother Treka was standing in the morning warmth settling herself down to bask where everyone could see her lest they needed help.