The Girl of Dragon's Blood (DoD #1)

Chapter One: The Run-away

The girl was getting tired of running. She was out of range of being found, especially with fresh snow starting to cover tracks, but it didn't stop her from checking over her shoulder, paranoid, and ducking behind the trees if she heard anything. So far, it had only been animals, snapped twigs where they walked, or the sound of fur catching against foliage, but she felt like it was only a matter of time until something or someone appeared that she truly needed to hide from. Her mouse-brown hair was clumped with dirt and snow, and it kept blowing in her face from the gale, to the point her eyelashes were now frosted in white.

The longer she continued, the worse the wind and snow got. She was freezing. She had been cold before, back at the fort, but at least there was protection from the elements. Out here, she was so cold, her bones felt like they were locking up and she hadn't got clothes suitable for such aggressive weather. Only the ripped shirt on her back and her breeches, that were falling apart at the seams, to protect her. She started slowing down, her bare feet dragging against the frosty earth. The urge to keep running was outweighed by the overwhelming exhaustion nagging in the back of her mind. She was never taught how to build a fire and she was too weak to attempt creating one with her magick so she looked to find cover.

It took a little while, but she found a tree larger than the others, thick, gnarled roots that provided more coverage and branches low enough that she might not be seen by anyone who passed by. She ducked under it, snow crunching beneath her feet, until a few paces away from the path, she slumped down, collapsing into the snow. She curled her legs up to her chest, teeth chattering and her gold-flecked eyes gently started dropping closed.

—

A Hunter rode through one of the Northern forests on his ink-black mare; her large hooves making a thumping beat as she marched them onwards, flicking snow and dirt into a dusty cloud behind them. He had heard rumour of a beast in the forest disturbing the local town and decided to have a look in case it could make him some extra coin to tide him through the colder months. His mare started to prick her ears and flick her head warningly at one of the many trees in the distance, so he rested his hand on his sword's hilt, just in case. As they got closer, she calmed minutely, but still listened towards the trees, so her rider dismounted, unlatching his sword from her saddle and attaching it to his belt. He loosely tied up his steed to the nearest branch, patted her cold, pink nose and stalked away to investigate what was troubling her so much. He hoped it was the beast. He only had enough coin for a few more days in the town's inn as well as stabling, but beyond that he needed more money for food to last them the ride down South to kinder weather.

As he approached the tree, he heard shallow, wheezing breaths. As he snuck closer, he spotted a girl, asleep underneath the canopy of branches, if you could call it sleeping. She looked like she'd been in a serious fight and her breathing was so shallow, it sounded less like sleep and more like a slow death. He leaned over her to double check she was unconscious; highwaymen occasionally set traps like this, although he had his doubts that anyone with any sense would risk staying out in the snow for too long, with how fast it was piling up. The man reached to touch her but as his fingers brushed her shoulder, she groaned and slipped onto her side into the powdery snow. The man rushed to grab her, and dusted the fresh snow off her shirt and arms and checked her pulse. He didn't know much about medicine, but he knew if the pulse was too slow, that the person was in serious need of a healer. She opened her eyes, sage-green with a bright golden ring around the iris, and blinked at him slowly, but her eyes glazed over and quickly dropped closed again.

He couldn't just leave her to die, and he'd had no luck finding the so-called beast even after hours of freezing himself half to death in the process, so he heaved her up onto his shoulders and carried her to his horse.