A Collection Of Short Stories

Kasida The Staghorn Cub

As I do every Sunday on my day off, I walk to the Oakwald forest carring a bag full of raw meat and a skein of water. It's 4 am and I reach the forest edge. I scan the grass and trees for any sign of movement. Nothing. I glance over my shoulder making sure nobody is looking, and walk into the forest. Nobody likes the forests. Not for 10 years has anyone dared step foot in them. Not since the burnings and killings.

Finding myself at a little pond, i walk over to a fallen tree. I see my reflection in the pond. I'm tall, slightly pale but not disturbingly so, have a long thin nose, full lips, bright golden hair and blue eyes with golden rings around my pupils. I try to hide my eyes from people, especially the King of Ardalan, as my eyes are a giveaway to my heritage. I do not want to end up dead like my family.

I hear a rustling in the long grass to my left and I immediately jump off the log, crouching low to the ground. A large white tiger emerges from the grass and takes a drink from the pond. I slowly get up, trying not to startle the tiger. I step on a twig, making it snap, and the tiger's ears prick up. It slowly lifts up their head and fixes a predatory gaze on me.
"I thought you'd never show up," I say and relax my muscles. I walk towards the tiger and it matches my pace walking towards me. "It's okay, Kasida," I sit back on the log and pat the spot next to me. "It's only me."
Kasida glances warily at the edge of the forest just visible from here, and she jumps on the log, laying down next to me. I open the bag of raw meat, throwing a piece in the air abouve Kasida's head. She tilts her head and lets the meat fall into her mouth. After a few chews, the meat is swallowed with a lick of the lips.
"Want to show me where you've been staying while I was in Rifthold?" I ask Kasida. She gets up and starts walking deeper into the forest, toward the Whitefang Mountains. Kasida pauses, waits for me. I get up and follow her to her hideout.

I run as fast as my little feet will go, mud splashing up everywhere. I have to make it to the footbridge. I will be safe once I cross it. The horse hooves are getting closer and closer by the second. I hear a whine from the sword the evil man has drawn from its scabbard. There. I see the posts of the bridge, just a few more paces. I run and fling myself through the posts and onto the bridge. I fall and fall and fall. He cut the bridge. I fall into the river below and black out.
"Wake up," a man's voice says. I open my eyes. I should have died. I should have drowned. A man with silver eyes and auburn hair is staring down at me. I lift my hand to my throat and reach for the Amulet of Orynth. Only it isn't there. I cry as I remember what has just happened. My mother, my father. Butchered, as if they were just pigs. And Lady Marion, sacrificing herself so I can run. Only for me to see a spray of blood and almost drown.
"Get up," the man says through gritted teeth. He lifts me onto my feet and says, "crying will get you nowhere in life. Bottle all those feelings. Keep them for later." We walk along the edges of the Oakwald forest. Walking from Orynth, Terrasen, to Rifthold in Ardalan will take forever. When this man - Arobynn Hamel he called himself - wasn't looking, I go to a pond not too far from the forest edge. There I find a tigress and three cubs. This is my end for sure. This is how I wills meet my family in the afterlife. I see an arrow jutting out of the tigress' side. She looks desperate. I walk over to her to see if I can save her. There's too much blood. The tigress stops breathing and I cry. Arobynn hears me and finds me.
"What did I say about running off?" He drags me out of the forest and we continue on our journey, the cubs following us fron the Staghorns to the Whitefangs.

I didn't know they had followed us. A hunting party had come back into Rifthild with two tiger pelts and tiger meat. I had hoped the third had gotten away. And she had.
Kasida stops near the mouth of a cave and I walk inside. It is huge, the ceiling of the cave disappears into darkness, and at the back of the cave is a small lake sparkling in the rising sun. There are stalegmites and stalegtites along the edges of the mouth, making it look like it has sharp teeth. Kasida walks over to some stalegmites and lays down and I follow her. The stalegmites form a sort of wall like a bedroom. Across from us was a gap where a fresh rabbit carcus lay - the kitchen then.
"You have this place sorted out, don't you?" I walk over to her 'kitchen' and dump the remaining contents of the bag on top of the rabbit carcus. As I take a drink from the skein, Kasida pushes some meat towards me. "Okay, okay, I will eat some food, but I will have to get some wood for a fire. Would you like some cooked too?" Kasida pushes some more meat into the pile. I'll take that as a yes.