"Why hello again ladies, might we be of some assistance to you?" The boy Ames sauntered over to us making the other boys snicker, to be truthful it was an hilarious movement.
"How about taking a chill pill first." Sidra stood up to him making him chill out a little and return to his usual manner.
"Apologies ladies" Rubbing his upper lip with his index finger he started smirking as he gestured to the other two boys. "That blond one is Cash, the Hispanic boy is Estevan. And the blond cow boy is-"
Kira spoke up with a victorious tone to her voice. "Seems like you already lost one of them, some leader you are."
"Hey! Ashton is fine, he's always wondering off somewhere. It's not the first time." Hu, that name sounded familiar. Ashton..Ashton...the young soldier!
"You good Ember? You look as if you've seen a ghost."
"No, I'm okay. I know him, He's that young soldier from the gathering, the captains apprentice." Ames nodded.
"Yeah that boy has wondered off four times before we even set up camp, bro is easily sidetracked." Rolling his eyes he sighed. "His curiosity is going to be the death of me."
"Aren't you going to look for him? Maybe he's hurt." Remembering all of the horrible things out there made me realise how important it was for us to find him ASAP.
"Ember is right. What if a Porkaquill got him? Or maybe a Shade..." The three boys eyed us in confusion.
"Porkaquills? Are you sure that ya'll are okay?" Estevan stood and shielded his eye from the light emitting from their campfire, I noticed that it was getting darker fast. "Maybe you should just get some sleep, we will keep an eye out for anything suspicious."
"That's mighty kind of you Ames" Setting their bags down, Sidra took out their sleeping bags.
"Here, there's four. One for each person in the group." When Kaya took her sleeping bag she almost immediately set it beside the fire.
The boys went back to whatever it was they were doing before the girls got there, as Ames and Cash laughed about something Estevan busied himself with the dinner. Kira decided to help him since everyone else was either attempting to sleep or talking.
"So have you guys even seen other groups?"
"No, so far it's been pretty quiet and you are the only group that we have seen. Why?" So it was probably that they were the only ones in the area. "Did you guys see any other people?"
Should I mention the creature we saw and the book Kaya had? I feel like they had one as well if she did. "Well, we ran into an interesting creature. Big as a bear, but it was bird-like. Like a raven."
"A raven? As big as a bear?" Ames sat next to me as I lay on my side, his curiosity was spiking.
"Did your group get a book called The Guide?" He shrugged and leaned backwards.
"Hey Estevan, did you get a book in your bag?"
"Maybe, let me see." A few moments of digging around in his bag he extracted a black leather book with gold trimming on the spine, elegant golden cursive letters spelled out The Guide. "You mean this book?"
"Up, can I see it?" Nodding Ames stood to retrieve the book from him, walking back over to me Kaya sat up suddenly alert and looking all around the camp.
"Did you guys hear that?" We all looked at her as she became more frightened than the incident with the Ravenger.
"Hear what? Are you okay?" As Ames sat back down I watched as Kaya stood abruptly and started bagging all of our stuff.
"Kaya, what are you doing?"
"We need to move now, something is coming our way!" Everyone was up and panicking. "CLAM DOWN!"
"Kaya, what is it that you saw?" She turned to me as I gently shook my sleeping bag and started rolling it up.
"Not saw, I was told."
"Told?" She nodded.
"Yes, a voice. Did you seriously not hear it?" We all shook our heads no. "Well we should mo-"
A loud murderous human scream erupted in our ears making us immediately cover our ears and scream as well. Looking around frantically I saw the others grab the bags and immediately Sidra led them to trees just as Kaya withdrew her sword and took a defensive stance, looking at the oncoming attack I shuddered as a figure ran too tall to be human. And behind them was a massive black silhouette of a monster. As both ran closer to the fire I recognised the tall one as one of the natives, and casing them was a porkaquill, sharp barb like quills came off its back his scream was horrible.
"WATCH OUT! RUN KAYA!" Kaya remained calm and suddenly her sword was knocked from her hand as she was scooped up by the native, in one leap she was safe in the tree beside me.
"Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?!" She shook her head as the native lead the massive pig out of the camp and into the distance, looking around I saw Estevan and Kira hugging their tree for dear life just as Ames shouted to us.
"Maybe it's safe now..."
"NO! DON'T BE AN IDIOT!" Ames, Kira, Estevan, and Cash didn't move at attempting to get down.
"I don't know how you knew what was going to happen. So tell me, who told you about the Porkaquill?"
"I don't know, a small voice in my head." She smiled sheepishly. "I know what you're thinking, she's crazy. Well before you start thinking that, I really did hear a voice...."
"It's a little far fetched...but I believe you."
We stayed up in the trees all night, the Porkaquill wasn't seen the rest of the night and we didn't see the native that saved Kaya's life. I personally wanted to thank them, but with no luck. "Damn these tracks are massive, wait. Did anyone see a wolf?"
"No? Just the Porkaquill and the native, why?" Pointing at the ground he spoke.
"Wolf tracks...wait, they are too far apart to be a four legged wolf." Kaya held the Guide book in her hands as she flipped through the pages and gasped.
"It wasn't a wolf....it was the native, look." As we gathered around her she pointed to the picture of the natives feet...or rather its paws. It kind of looked like a werwolf.
This native must have been atleast six feet tall, I admit the natives were cute. One of the male natives had black patches of fur on his body with a blanket wrapped around his waist like a skirt, large strong arms. His body was mostly skin like people, a thin long tale could be seen alongside the bull like horns on his head. The females were shorter, wore a tight pice of fabric binding the chest and a skirt with a slit going up the thigh. Some had horns and some didn't apparently according to the book, and apparently each native receives a magical gift from a dragon who it's old enough. Damn these natives are something else....
