Bliath: Shattered (16 page)

“I hate to wake him, he has to be exhausted, he didn’t sleep much since I came into the picture.  How about I stay awake and stay guard and if anything changes other than this dissipating, we wake him and go?”
Fera was learning she didn’t need to put so much force in her mind to understand Oren, and her head was not pounding, there was a dull ache but that wasn’t a big deal.

Oren was learning too, he did not need to overly project his thoughts, he just had to take down most of the mental barriers, and almost whisper, she was so in tune to him, and he relished that. 
“I will stay awake with you, two sets of eyes are better than one”
He saw her nod, not that she could stop him, short of knocking him out, and he knew she would not do that
. “Fera, I don’t really want to go to the Northern Elves.”

“What?  I thought you would want to go home, I mean you couldn’t have really wanted to leave your home, and you probably have a family there. Did you agree to be my present, or how did that happen? 
She was almost wishing she would not have asked that question, her heart ran wild waiting for his answer.

“I do have a family there, a mother and a sister, but I will see them soon enough, after all time is different there. Fera, how I came to you, does it really matter? Isn’t it enough that I was there, as I am here now, I wish to never part from you, and that is my fear if we go there
.
Amin mela lle” 
Oren’s tone was ragged and torn, it was true, and that dread kept creeping into him, things would change so much, she might hate him then, and he knew that was a death sentence for him, or worse, death would be preferable to her hating him or losing her.

“Oren, Oren, no, I would never let anyone do that, you are mine, as I am yours, I will always fight for you, as I know you would and will do for me.  You know how much of a brat I can be when I don’t get me way, those pretentious elves won’t even know what hit them if they try anything to split us up.” 
Fera could hear his laughter in her head, she loved how he sounded, it was enthralling to her, he sounded deep.  She thought his voice is the type of one that could warm you on a cold day, you could find comfort in, but then again she knew she was being silly, because she once again had to tell herself, he is a horse.

A shrill scream tore her out of Oren’s mind, they both shot up, as did Vance, the misty fog was still there, heaver if possible, clinging to them, it felt like a cold sweat. Vance held up his hand to signal for them to not talk.  Fera found herself holding her breath.

“Slowly tack Oren, we need to go, the energy of the forest is trying to tell us something is not right, can you feel it, it is panicked.”  Though when Vance said it, it came out calm, almost soft, but his eyes spoke volumes. 

Fera, gently as she could reached out sensing the air, her eyes widened, “There is something out there, isn’t there?”

Vance nodded at her, but did not explain, he just finished readying Aloine and hoisted himself in the saddle, Fera followed suit.

At first they just walked away from camp, like it is what they intended to do, keeping a steady speed. The fog started to clear, and after another few minutes of riding, they broke through it.

“Ok, time to run for a little bit, you up for it?” Vance looked pensive, and Fera was having trouble reading him.

He didn’t even give her a chance to answer, he took off and Oren followed in uniform without Fera even asking him.  In that moment she knew both Oren and Vance knew what was out there, she knew Oren was her best chance to for information.

“Oren, what was out there?”

He tried to tease her, “
What no sweet talking, no please?  Maybe you are more a high royal than I thought.”

“Please. I think you know?”
She changed into a more sweet tone.

“
This is going to be a longer journey if you wish to truly know what this world holds.” 
He sounded more like Markus in the statement than Fera thought possible.

“
Is that you telling me no?  You know I am a big girl, I am, OH tomorrow I will be 18!”

“I am pretty sure I am not even allowed to tell you no, even if I could, you need to tell Vance tomorrow is your birthday, and we will need to find shelter, before the 23
rd
hour which marks your birth.” 
Oren knew tomorrow was going to be interesting.

“Ok, but first you tell me what was just out there then….please?”

“A water dragon.”
His tone was so nonchalant that Fera took a minute to process

“A water Dragon!!” She said it louder then she meant to.

Vance looked back at her, “Tell your mule to keep his thoughts to himself, scaring you is not going to help. If that dragon wanted us to be a snack, it would already be too late, I am thinking it was warning us, but to what I am not sure.”

“You did not just call Oren a mule, and for the record, I have kind of lead a sheltered life, I was mainly taught about the three main races, and then the possibilities of Elementals, and you blew the possibilities out of the water, so I am guessing the speculation of the other cognitive species is true as well?”  Fera was clearly annoyed.

Vance let his guard drop a little and an ornery twinkle graces his features, “Awe Princess did anyone tell you how adorably regal you get when you’re mad?” He looked at her, and she was clearly unamused, so he went on, “Ok so as far as I know there are:  Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Elementals, but there are rules applied to them sustaining a form. Dragons, Fairies, but there are few left and there cognitive awareness is debatable, and lastly a high class of intellectual animals, such as Oren here, werecats, were-anything for that matter…..so does that help?”

Fera took a deep breath, “Speaking of Oren, he says to tell you my birthday is tomorrow on the 23
rd
hour.”

Vance came to an abrupt halt, he lurched forward in the saddle.  Fera, and Oren came to a more graceful stop, and just watched him.

Vance’s hand came up to his face, his eyes were closed and he was pinching the bridge of his nose, as if his head had just begun to pound, “Fera, your timing sucks, not that you could have helped it I am sure.” His memory skipped back to his little form curled up against Riel, while Fera was in her stomach. 

“Umm, I am sorry.” Fera wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for.

Vance cleared his head, it was so easy for him to forget she knew so little about this world, about her, from what he could gather, her father had hoped she would still be in Thoren right now, safe and happy and Markus would help her with her Ascension. How to explain this to her was his main concern, if only Desree was here. “Ok when you turn 18, your magic if you have any, and clearly you have a little something there, will come into its adult power, it means with her mix of blood you will slow to a crawl when it comes to aging, it also means you are of age, to marry, you are an adult, I mean I am sure you get it, if you were back home, they probably would be announcing your betrothal to whomever, and a big party right?”  The last few lines came out bitter.

Fera laughed, “I am pretty sure from the recent turn of events, that they would just feel luck for me to make it to 18, I knew about the aging thing, I never have been betrothed to my knowledge, besides if there was a party, I'm sure I would not have fun - crowds kinda freak me out.  So what is the difference between adult magic and well, what I have now?”  In her head she was kind of worried about more magic, she thought she had more than enough, and after the barn incident maybe too much.

“Fera it is not a bad thing, it might even help you, it gives you more control in some ways and makes it so no one can bind your magic in you.  It is like it fully becomes yours.”  Vance was hoping where ever they got to, be it Dwarves or Elves, they have a patient teacher because this is stuff he was taught early on.

“Ok, that is all well, but why would we need to find shelter?”  Fera was trying not to be frustrated, but she felt a lot like a child, it seemed like she just kept knew things flung at her like she should know them.  She felt even more like Markus and her father were keeping things from her.

Oren broke into her mind,
“You have to stop, this doubt, you are you, and you are amazing in every way, a lesser person would run away, you are facing what you need to be facing, and that is people who have answers to questions that will cause pain, but need to be answered.  As for you birthday, when the 23
rd
hour hits, since that is the hour you were born on, you since have Elven blood in you, will glow for about an hour, and anyone or thing nearby with magic in them will feel the pulse you give off, and it might give you away.”

“
Great so if I wasn’t enough of a freak before, let’s add glowing to the list.”  She was more than ready to be done with all of it.

Vance stopped, as did Fera and Oren, he was looking at her, “So the ass told you, well one less question for me to explain.”

“Enough, ok you need to be nice, if you can’t fake it, he is in no way shape or form doing anything to you, and he is even snarky when it comes to you, you both are acting like children, geesh!  I think we need to stop and eat, because I am going to write that donkey jab as you turning into a grumpy princess when you’re hungry Vance!”  Fera’s eyes narrowed on Vance, and then shot the same glare at Oren, it was clear she was mad, but even she didn’t know which way to send the anger to. 

Fera and Vance settled down, with more bread and cheese, and like before Fera shared her food with Oren.  They had traveled far, and it was warm enough out that they all had a good sweat, Fera lifted her braid, her hair was sticking out everywhere, she felt just plain grimy.  In the silence of their snacking they could hear a stream close by.  Fera, sucking up her annoyance at Vance, she explained she thought they all should go wash up, and water the horses. 

Chapter 24

Vance noted when they got to the water that it was more like a running brook than a stream. 

Not that Fera knew the difference, but she felt the urge to argue that it was a stream, she hoped that the cool water had the effect of easing her bad mood, and everyone else’s too.  Kneeling at the edge she plunged her cupped hands in and splashed her face, if she had not known true magic she would have sworn the effects of the water were just that. 

“You know from this point on it is going to get colder, and if and when we hit the Mount Glangak, your grandfather’s mountain range, it will be winter,”  Vance’s attempt to make nice again.

“Oh wow, I have never seen snow!  What about the Elven homelands?”  Fera got the sparkle of excitement in her eyes.

“You might want to ask, no one has been in there for a long time, I have never been past the border,” Vance gestured to Oren.

Fera shot Vance a quick look, and the second she got away from Oren, she was going to ask Vance what crawled up his butt when it came to Oren, she turned back to Oren waiting to hear.

“Fera, really name calling is not sticks and stone, he is just mad that I have got to spend years with you.”
  Oren’s thoughts came across walking the line between confident and cocky, “
Now as far as weather, it's charmed, the whole region, where the farming happens it stays sunny and warm but not too hot and rains three times a week.  The other areas weather depends on what is going on, but mostly it is nice.  Elves love nature, it is ingrained in us.”

“They both would be nice I suppose.”  Fera really didn’t know what to expect, her best and worst possible outcomes were both probable.

A large shadow loomed over head, and in a split second Fera was face to face with a dragon, she froze, Oren and Vance were on the other side of the massive beast and Vance grabbed Oren’s reins and was having trouble holding him back. 

The Dragon’s voice echoed in Fera’s head, it took everything Fera had to stay on her feet, it reverberated down her spine,
“Small one, you should not be out here alone.”

Fera, drawing up as much courage as her mind allowed, thought what would Markus do at that moment, and addressed it aloud,  “Could you be more specific, I mean not to offend oh bright scales, but to you we are all small.”

A laugh or at least what Fera thought was a laugh, it sound like a deep shaking growl,

“You, daughter of Riel, Daughter of Goodale, Princess of all, you are greatly sought. You have a muchness for such smallness, they did not see that.  You do not fear me, Fera?”

Choosing her words very carefully and thinking back to what Vance told her, “Fear is relative, I shall fear you when you give me cause to, for if you wanted a snack I wouldn’t be here talking to you.  Plus now if you eat me, it will be rude to play with your food. May I have the pleasure of your name, since you seem so familiar with mine?”

The rolling rumble laugh came out again,
“I go by many things, but you may call me Nuna, I do not intend to eat you or your guide, I am the one who helped you but not so long ago.  I shall not keep you, but they are all hunting you, each wanting something different, what is the lesser of all evils for you?  Much to think about small one.  If you need shelter tomorrow go more North, you will find an abandoned Elven post in a tall tree, follow the Giant under the rock by the night sky to find it.  Much luck to you oh so ill-fated one.”