arin's beginning

Chapter 16 Chocolates

"Arin! Roll over! Now-" Tag calls out before the space between us is split by thunder and a flash of light. I feel a dozen pinprick of pain as I roll over. My head is pounding and the ringing in my ears is all-encompassing. The world is spinning.

Arin! What's happened? Brann's voice is clear and sharp. The ringing stops and I push myself up. The bodies are everywhere and I push the revolt in my stomach back.

I don't know. Leandros had some kind of device. Tag knew something- Taggart! He had thrown himself on top of the ball before it went off. I clamber over the fallen wildmen, slipping on slick flesh. Tag is lying face down, unmoving.

"Tag!" I cry. I stagger to my feet and rush to his side. Immediately my fingers reach for his neck intuitively finding the spot just below the jaw where the pulse would be strongest. For several hollow moments, the fight dwindles around me and I feel nothing.

I grab his shoulder and roll him over, tears hot on my cheeks. His tunic is charred and blackened in the center. I fall back on my heels. This is my fault. The world goes quiet. The only sounds I recognize are the sounds of crackling fire and dying men. I look up slowly and see Agwar fleeing across the field.

Tag lying here may be my fault, but Agwar did this. He took away the man that mattered. The man who showed me who I can be. I wipe the tears from my cheek and jump to my feet. I hear someone call my name but I don't stop. I slam my sword back into its scabbard and sprint after Agwar. I yank a spear from a dead wildman without stopping. As I run I shift the spear, pulling my arm back and sending it flying. My stride doesn't break as I watch the missile soar forward.

At the last second Agwar looks back and throws himself aside, and the spear misses its mark sinking into a tree. Agwar disappears amongst the trees, and then suddenly I'm in the air. Brann's talons are wrapped around my arms, and she carries me over the trees, but to the south.

"You're going the wrong way! He went west!" I yell at her.

We have to warn Stormos. If they attacked Ridershaven, it's a matter of days before they can reach Stormos. She replies.

But we don't know anything! If we catch the chief, we can get information for Stormos. Congress won't believe a word I say unless I have proof.

We will convince them. We have to. Otherwise, Stormos will fall and countless innocent lives will be lost. We will convince them because Tag can't have died in vain. She lets go of one of my arms and I swing over grabbing her other leg. I hoist myself up and climb into the saddle. Brann keeps her wings steady while I do so she doesn't knock me off. I buckle my legs into the straps on the saddle, and a memory springs up.

Tag, Emric, Malakai, Daris, and I are sitting around the great firepit in the courtyard. Daris and Malaki are passing a wineskin between them, Emric reaches for it every time Malakai gets it, but Malakai tosses it away to Tag. He sets it down next to him and says "Emric, you do not need to develop this habit like those two drunkards do." Malakai laughs, the sound booming around us, and Daris frowns, but there is humor in his eyes.

"You want to talk about habits, Tag?" Daris says reaching out. Tag tosses him the wineskin smiling. "Let's talk about you and your chocolate, Taggart."

"I don't know what you are talking about." Tag replies smoothly.

"OH yes, you do! You forget I'm the one that deals with the merchants for restocking the pantry!" Malakai says waving his hand around. He turns to me, "Your mentor here buys chocolates in orders of dozens of kilograms! Monthly!" Emric's eyebrows shoot up.

"I knew you liked chocolate, but that is excessive! Where do you hide all that?" Emric says astonishedly. "You'd think that you be as fat and round as Malakai with all that chocolate!" Malakai turns and swings at Emric who leans away causing Malakai to miss and fall over. Everyone howls with laughter.

"It is no business of yours where I hide my chocolate, Emric. And the reason I'm not a rolling ball like Malakai over there," Malakai grumbles something into the dirt, "Is because I actually do my training, unlike some of us here." A smile tugs at the corners of his lips.

The crackling of the fire is the only sound after the laughter dies down again. "Tag, tells us a story. Your stories are always the best." Daris says.

"Oh yes! I want to hear the stick story again!' Emric says laying back.

"Which one? The draconid or the assassin?" Malakai thumps Emric on the back.

"I don't care! They're both unbelievable anyways." Emric laughs. I look at Tag and find him watching me. "Which one would you like to hear Arin?" He says.

"The draconid one sounds interesting." I offer.

Tag clears his throat and then says, looking at Emric directly, "I want no interruptions. From any of you." Emric opens his mouth but closes it at the look in Tag's eyes.

"A long time ago, so long ago in fact I'm sure Daris still had color in his hair, I was a young man. Not much older than you actually, Arin. I was walking in the Spinevarn, like any young man I was looking for draconid eggshells. I had been looking for some time and was lost in my thoughts. I lost track of where I was, and there were no notable landmarks that I recognized." He pauses for a breath.

"Why were you looking for eggshells?" I say. All eyes turned to me.

Emric is the first to speak, "You've never gone shell hunting in the Spinevarn?" I shake my head. Emrics mouth falls open.

"What did I say about interruptions?" Tag says sternly. "Anyways, Arin, it's a common tradition among the boys and the young men of Stormos to go into the Spinevarn and bring back a piece of draconid eggshell for the girls they are in love with. And that is what I was doing. I had wandered for many hours and the sun had already sunk below the peaks of the Spinevarn. I had already resigned myself to camping out for the night when a young male Drake leaped down from a tree in front of me. I had nothing but a walking stick I'd fashioned from a felled tree. No shield nor sword nor bow. I froze as it prowled in front of me, I knew there would be no one if I called for help." The group was hooked on his every word, Emric was leaning forward even. "The drake charged me, but I held my ground. I stared down the creature, and in just a few moments it had slid to a stop in front of me. Then with a quick flick of my wrist, I brought the stave down on his snout. You should have seen the way he jumped back! He yowled like a newborn kitten and took off running."

"You beat off a draconid with a stick?" I say incredulously. The soldiers I tended in Master Randericks surgery had talked of the viciousness of the Drakes.

"Keep in mind Arin, no one else was around for this, so it's just Tag's word that he beat a drake off with a single rap from a branch," Daris says taking another sip from the wineskin.

"No one else was there to say it didn't happen that way." Tag raises his cup and takes a sip.

The memory fades away with the fading light from the sun. Has it really only been less than a day since we returned to Ridershaven? That means that the Wildmen already knew where it was and that there would be fewer Riders than normal. Something is going on and it isn't good.

Let's get to Stormos. Show me your speed, Brann.

With pleasure. She replies. I can feel the smile in her words, then with a powerful flap she takes off and I am nearly thrown from my seat.