Lumina

17 ~ Worth

Lona

 Scores of lavender and rosemary painted the plains and rolling hills just beyond the Barapont mountains. Even in the heat of summer the plants flowered in great numbers, their delicate scents-

Elizabeth jumped in her saddle, nearly falling over. One more sniff and she sneezed again, jerking the reins and causing her horse to stumble. The dapple-gray filly snorted and nipped at the reins before continuing onward, the press of leather held tightly in her mouth. Elizabeth's rider privileges had been revoked.

Trying not to laugh too loudly, Lona gazed along the skyline and pulled her own horse off the path, stopping the black gelding where the short grass plain met an edgeline of trees and unkempt shrubbery leading into the woods. Pale blue and endless shades of bright pinks to dark reds were scattered throughout the floor bed just before it- the sure cause for Elizabeth's sneezing. Just past a quarter of a mile inward, the trees thickened and the floor turned to pine needles with light shrubs poking through.

"Let's make camp for the evening," the spymaster suggested to her pupil, whose horse obliged by quietly falling in step.

Far enough in that wanderers wouldn't come across them easily but not so much that they ran the risk of running into kaco-arachnids, the two women dismounted in silence. As they set up their spaces for the evening, Lona paid careful attention to each pattern of noise surrounding the area. Even without bandits and kacos, mountain lions would still be an inconvenience should one decide to grace the girls with its presence.

Oh, how she wished Michelin would have been available to rift them. But she was meeting with Terralum's horrid ruler, and would regroup with Lona and Elizabeth the next day. It was less of a distance for the noblewoman to rift, at least. Lona may not have magic like some of the humans were born with, but she saw the toll it took on her friend to use such advanced techniques.

They had made quick work for their first day, only needing to stop a few short times; once to eat and a couple others to relieve themselves. So, upon seeing Elizabeth slouching in her seat and sneezing almost non-stop, Lona had no qualms against stopping a couple hours early. Especially with how sore her thighs were. These horses were convenient for the humans, but Yarans didn't need mounts when they could just fly everywhere. Lona's body was not used to sitting on a moving creature like this all day.

Having traveled with Elizabeth's older brother so many times, it was a surprise to the spymaster at how complete opposites the two siblings were. Where James was hot-headed and never seemed to run out of conversation, Lona was sure she hadn't heard more than four words come out of Elizabeth. The girl often put on a quiet demeanor away from her brother, but today the silence felt heavier.

She wouldn't ask- it wasn't Lona's business. Besides, Elizabeth was putting in her share of work without issue.

Even if she had kept downcast eyes and a sump throughout most of the day.

Lona cleared her throat, "Want to get a fire going while I go find something to cook over it?"

Elizabeth nodded with another sniff, her eyes briefly meeting Lona's, and she was suddenly reminded in the innocence of those green eyes that Elizabeth was still only barely fifteen, still in her adolescence.

"Sit for a minute first," She suggested and began moving stones into an outline for a fire before slipping into the thick of the woods. Alone Lona let the human facade fall away, relief spreading over her muscles as her true face was freed. Canines sharp and elongated, ears pointed and listening for any movement scuttling through leaves, and a really good sense of smell helped her to find an abundance of game within close proximity.

The moose Lona let be, both for the fact that it was way more food than the two would need and that the animal would be more of a fight than the yaran felt like putting effort into. Instead, she followed a lead to a smaller creature. One, she decided, that would be the perfect size and energy required.

Fifteen minutes later, the spymaster stormed back to their make-shift camp, her face and arms a criss-cross of blood-dried scratches. "Shiko'ue pitchou kiton," she muttered and thrust her prize forward for all of one to see, "Got the boti."

She would skin it, Lona decided, and wear the fur for all other racoons to see that messing with the best spymaster in Terralum would get the violent bastards nothing but a trip to the fire. Yes, she nodded to herself, a nice gray and black shoulder-lining to a new cloak she would fashion for this next winter.

"What?" She demanded at Elizabeth's quiet stare.

Braiding her hair, now dripping from a water source Lona even had yet to locate, Elizabeth pulled at one ear and Lona startled, realizing she had not changed her face back. On second thought, she waved the girl's worry away and crouched over her prize to begin skinning it. "Anyone who finds themselves this far off road isn't looking to make friends anyway, I assure you." The unspoken part of that sentence was obvious to the both of them. They certainly wouldn't make it back alive.

A sneeze and silent nod was Elizabeth's response. The two continued on without conversation and once again Lona was left in wonderment about the complete opposites of temperament the siblings had. One never shut up, the other rarely ever spoke. Alexis was always ready to join a fight, Lona had never seen Elizabeth battle but once, weeks ago. Even then the girl had been concussed and hadn't held a weapon longer than a few seconds.

Oh, Lona had seen Elizabeth fight in training. The past year she and Blaze had bounced the young apprentice back and forth between each other, teaching Elizabeth the finer skills of swordsmanship and stealth. But a real battle was no match to training. James had adamantly refused his sister's initiation into the Ignis Dragons at first. Brotherly instincts, he had called it, claiming she would only get herself killed.

She would die without proper training anyway, Blaze had argued back, much to the dissent of James.

Two weeks later Elizabeth showed up bright-eyed and ready to learn in Blaze's shop basement in Bullgaurd. Alexis had done a fine job teaching her the basics of fighting over the years, but Lona had decades of experience to offer. Her young apprentice had come far in only that short amount of time.

Lona certainly wouldn't call the Leiston region her home, but the Ignis Dragon headquarters were stationed there (if one could call the hidden room in the basement that) so she spent a lot of time in Bullguard while she worked with the humans.

She was pulled back to the present when Elizabeth's voice came strained, a near whisper even to Lona's yaran hearing, "I can never do right by him."

The comment caught her off guard. They had cooked and eaten their food without one word of conversation that Lona came to expect it would remain so throughout the night. "Even James can't do right by his own standards," she snorted. "You don't need to justify yourself to him."

"He's my brother. What I do matters to him and what he does matters to me."

"That connection is important, but. . ." At this the spymaster turned to the girl, "you are the one living your life- not him. He can tell you his opinions but that's as far as it goes. You made this choice for yourself. Stick by it."

But Elizabeth only looked down, "What if he's right, though, and I fail? How do I know this is best?"

"You don't," Lona answered. She waited to continue until Elizabeth lifted those deep green eyes to her- an exact replica to her brother's. "But you never forget why you made those decisions. They are what will guide you through the worst of times. . . the hardest choices." She sighed, the decisions of her own past coming to the front of her mind, "Only then can you decide if the effort was worth the outcome."

"Was yours?"

Lona paused, taken back by the simple words. She bit her lip, rolling over so Elizabeth wouldn't see her expression at the seemingly innocent question.

"I hope so." 

*~*~*

A lot is beginning to happen in the Terralum realm! And we're not even half way through book one.

Thank you all again and I'll see you next week ~

<3