Affinity

Nadia

Karina stood on the balcony of her room, savoring the warmth of her coffee as she watched the thunderstorm brewing in the north. The dark red clouds contrasted sharply against the towering trees with each bolt of lightning, and she felt familiar electricity to the one outside course through her veins, a result of the bond she shared with the storm dragon housed below the outpost. She watched the last line of patrol squads land and head to the bay below.

Nadia, wrapped in a cozy blanket, interrupted her thoughts. "You'd love to be out there right now, wouldn't you?"

The statement elicited a chuckle from her friend.

"It would certainly make for a more eventful night. We've been watching this desolate landscape for weeks. If there were any Rebels hiding in those woods, the blood storm would have driven them out by now. The wild dragons would have hunted them one by one either way."

Nadia frowned disapprovingly. "We can't take that chance."

"I've been watching the northern border since I was eight," Karina said. "The last place you want to hide on this god-forsaken island is the Stormwood."

"We'll do it for as long as it takes," Nadia replied. "If they are dead, we'll need proof of that."

"There's a big storm coming," Karina pointed out.

Nadia cast a blank look toward the unrest building in the sky beyond the forest. "There's been a storm every day since we got here. Why does this one worry you?"

Nadia could see the concern etched on her friend's face as Karina's brow creased momentarily. Storm riders, owing to their bond with storm dragons, recognized and relished the proximity of such tumultuous weather. But there was something more to this, nervousness that bordered on fear.

Nadia had never seen Karina scared of the weather in the time they had spent together as cadets. Even the first time she had arrived in Tarzar and got to witness her first blood storm, Karina had brushed it off as nothing but a mere wind and rain. There had been one every night for the past two weeks of their stay at the northern border military outpost, and Nadia no longer shivered at the sight of crimson clouds gathering in the distance.

Until tonight. Something was different tonight. For over ten days they had been ranging further northwest along the border, tracking down a particularly ruthless band of Rebels that had since disappeared within the Stormwood. Venturing into the dreaded forest proved to be a big risk for most of the troops, with them being constantly attacked by wild dragons or ambushed by Rebels. Nadia had only gone on two of these excursions so far, and each time it felt like she was being watched from the shadowy canopy, by something that would prefer her heart silent and her body cold. There were nights when she wanted nothing but to get onto her dragon and fly back east to Myrria, but those were thoughts she could not share with her friend.

Karina was the third daughter of an ancient house that controlled many of the cities in the northern territories, Tarzar included. At just twenty-three, she possessed the windswept good looks of one born beneath the warmer northern skies, with auburn hair that often escaped its braid to flare copper tinted around her face, complementing vivid green eyes that glimmered with spirits of forest and field. She was dressed in the standard fatigues of a junior dragon rider - sturdy boots, tactical pants, and a uniform t-shirt bearing her house insignia - a radiant crimson lightning bolt backlit by a rising moon, as befitting one of her status.

"Our orders were to track them down," Karina said. "They are either dead or will be very soon. Getting caught in the middle of a blood storm is something else compared to watching it from afar. We need to have left this place two days ago."

"If I need orders, I won't be getting them from you, little niece."

"Lord Zelenkov." Nadia bowed her head slightly at the newcomer.