Blood and Gold

The Hawk and the Mercenary

"Are you sure you're ready?" Dorian asked, hiding behind the boulder next to the bushes I was already in.

"I know it's him. I can feel it, like whenever I look at him my chest squeezes."

"I know that you're excited for your first mission, and you can't leave camp without your guide, but you must be a hundred percent sure before you bond with an animal." He muttered.

"Sable's walked up to her, Talis' saved him from a bear, Rook's was the bear that attacked Talis." I recapped. "It's my turn, it has to be."

"I get it, I was the last to find my guide, but you cannot rush it. If you make your bond with the wrong animal it will cost you. You must be completely in tune with them."

"His name is Soros." I said instinctively. 

"And how would you know that?" Dorian grunted.

"He told me." I furrowed my eyebrows. "He told me."

"Fuck." Dorian rested his head back against the boulder. "Go talk to him."

I approached the bird that'd been circling around me for the past week and a half. It was a cooper's hawk. He had a small smudge on his head, and his eyes were orange. I reached a shaky hand out to him, which he regarded cautiously before jumping onto my forearm.

"Well I'll be damned." Dorian said from behind the rock. "He made the bond for you."

"What?" I looked at the hawk perched on my right hand. "I guess so." I stared at the crescent shaped mark on his head. 

"The elder shouldn't be too mad." He grabbed some of the mud from the ground after splashing water onto the dirt from the creek. "The bond is always messy." He drew a similar shape on my forehead before reciting a chant in a different language. "From now on, he is and will always be, a piece of you. Anything he feels, you feel. Anything you feel, he feels."

I nodded to Dorian in silent gratitude, and after a second, the buzzing in my head that I'd had the past few days silenced. Through the silence burst a voice, similar to the voice that was in my head whenever I thought. "It's been a week, Theron. There's no reason to make me wait this long to leave."

I searched around frantically, before slowly turning my gaze to Dorian. "That must've been Soros."

"We talk... to animals?"

Dorian smiled, "no, just our guides."

I nodded, my mouth slightly open. "uh-huh."

"It'll take a second to get used to, but you can communicate from whatever distance."

"Did you learn nothing? Weren't you in that camp for like seven years?"

"How the hell do you know that?" 

"Dude, I've been watching you." He shook his head, ruffling his neck feathers. "It's my job."

"That's... actually kind of creepy." I pressed my lips together. "But I get to go now, right?" I turned back to Dorian. 

"Yeah, and in such a rush to leave me." He smiled. "Go pack your things, I'd say take as little as possible, you'll buy weapons and clothes on your journey. We'll have dinner tonight, and I'll send you out tomorrow morning on your first mission."

I smiled, it would be the first time I was allowed left since arriving here, and it's not like I was able to leave home in Talliari. "I won't let you down. I promise."

"We'll see." He had doubt in his voice, he doubts me? He trained me. He knows I'm capable of whatever he throws at me.

"The world is big Theron. There's things out there you can't possibly begin to imagine."