Wings of Dawn

Chapter 3

"Ori, no!" I yelled as the griffin pecked at the loaf of bread I had on the table.

Oriana was now the size of a horse. She had been growing rapidly and now she was truly a menace. She was eyeing the bread loaf I had setting on the small wooden table outside. I ran out the door of the cottage to admonish her.

"No! You have your own food, you beast." I nodded to the grain that was in a large wooden bowl next to the table.

Dagen was too busy sitting at the table with a map of the continent to notice Oriana trying to take the bread I had baked for our meal. As Dagen studied the map to find the best route to Iteia, I had busied myself with making us a stew and bread. It was later in the evening, but the summer sun was still shining with fervor.

It had been over a month since I had found Oriana and learned about the prophecy. Dagen and I had decided it best that we wait until Oriana was a bit bigger before traveling to Iteia. I wanted her to be able to defend herself were we to get into trouble. Dagen agreed and figured it would also give him enough time to ready our route and supplies. He had made lots of extra tonics to bring along, no doubt.

"If we take the pass through the Iron Peaks we can get to Iteia faster than trying to go around the mountains," Dagen said without looking up from his map.

It was a treacherous route, the Iron Pass. It was littered with ruffians who delighted in holding up the people traveling through it. Most thought that the pass was an easier route than traveling the mountains, and the ruffians knew it. They would kill and steal anything that they could. They held no mercy. I don't know if it was more dangerous to travel the pass and run into the brutes or brave the peaks themselves and run into an Ogre or two.

"Do you think that's safe?" I eyed him cautiously.

"I think we can handle it," Dagen said, finally looking up at me.

I started slicing the bread after I set down our bowls of stew. The evening was warm, but not uncomfortably so. Oriana was laying beside the table now, a dog waiting for table scraps. I shook my head and smiled at her. She was a mischievous little thing, but we had become close in the last month.

Taking a piece of bread, Dagen tore off a small piece and tossed it in the air above Oriana. She caught the piece gracefully and Dagen reached over to ruffle the feathers on her head and give her a big grin.

"Tell that louse to spoil you sometimes," Dagen urged to Oriana.

I shook my head. "She's already spoiled."

It was true, she wiggled her way into my heart and next my berry bushes. Ori was a glutton for fruit. I had to shoo her away from my blackberry bushes at least twice a day. I constantly found her nipping at the apple trees scattered in the forest as well. Sometimes I turned a blind eye. Sometimes.

"Have you tried riding her yet?"

Dagen had been trying to coax me into trying to ride her and seeing what her temperament was for having a rider. Now that she was the size of a horse I could probably try. I was scared, though. I had told Dagen of my fears of potentially hurting her since I didn't know how to properly ride something with wings. Or what if she got scared of something and takes off into the sky with me? I wasn't too keen on heights.

"Not yet, but I will try before we leave," I said it quietly as I was still unsure about the whole thing.

"Perhaps the elves will have the knowledge to make her a proper saddle." He remembered me saying I would feel safer with a saddle and reins.

I nodded in agreement and we ate our stew in silence. We were both nervous for this trip. Neither of us had ever strayed from Valoria. To visit Iteia on our first venture out of our village was certainly a dangerous foray into the world.