The School of Dragon Riders [Dragon Riders #1]

Chapter 31 (edited)

Medea's point of view

The first thing I did when we continued our way to the castle was to take in our surroundings.

It was mid-day, and the sun barely got through the growth here. There were some really tall bushes and a lot of bare trees. It was far from pretty, but it was an interesting sight, unlike the nature in Human Kingdom. My boots were full of mud and it annoyed me. I had to slow my pace a few times when I saw that the others were having trouble keeping up. Nobody asked for a break or a change of pace, but I knew that they were tired. I wasn't as tired as they were due to my newfound stamina, but I could feel it creep up on me.

After a few more hours, I stopped.

"Does anyone have food?" I asked. I knew that Tanya always brought some.

"No, sorry. We'll have to find something to eat here," she said. I nodded. I didn't expect her to have any food after all this time. I looked at Jack, now the only person whose company I actually enjoyed.

"Let's go hunting," I told him. He smiled and nodded. "We can set up a camp here. Medea and I will bring food. You guys make a fire," he said. I let him take the lead, since he was better at tracking animals than I was. He loved shape shifting, so after years of doing it, he picked up some tricks.

I remembered him telling me never to turn into an animal that I use for food, because I wouldn't be able to face eating it afterwards. He changed into a turkey, and hadn't been able to eat their meat since.

Jack motioned for me to stop after a while, and I made our footsteps silent. I always did that, and from all the practice, even the loudest footsteps could be silent. I didn't know how it worked, but Darkness seemed to consume sound as well as light.

Suddenly, I saw the reason for Jack's warning. There was a boar sniffing around a tree. Jack came a little closer before drawing his bow. After a second, he released the arrow, hitting the boar's eye. I gave him silent applause, not knowing whether there were more animals to be disturbed nearby.

He smiled. "Let's bring it back to the camp," he said, walking over to it. It was big enough for us not to be hungry anymore. I went to the boar as well, and we picked it up. It wasn't as heavy as I expected, but it wasn't light either.

After bringing it to the camp, we saw that Snow and Tanya already made a fire and were waiting in silence.

"We got a boar," Jack said and Tanya smiled. I felt my stomach rumble. I could eat raw meat, but it wasn't civilized, so I decided to wait for it to cook. I lay down on the grass and looked upwards, searching for Areton. I knew that all the dragons were too far away, but Areton said that he could see me down low. I sensed him wanting to join us, but I told him not to come. He agreed sadly. He was getting along well with other dragons, which I found strange since he wasn't very friendly as a young hatchling, and hanging out with me couldn't help anyone get friendly.

Someone nudging me broke my thoughts. I sat up and saw Jack pointing to the cooked meat. I could feel my stomach wanting it, but I let everyone take a piece first, and then I took a smaller one afterwards.

"Take more, there's enough for everybody!" Jack told me, seeing how little I took. I shook my head.

"No, there won't be if we're going to take some with us. We were lucky to find this boar. There aren't many edible animals, especially now that we're getting close to the haunted castle," I argued. Jack sighed, knowing that he couldn't win the argument.

"I'll carry the rest," Tanya said after we all finished. She took the uncooked meat and left the cooked there. I let her pack it as I walked a little further to see what lay ahead. Suddenly, I felt a presence approaching me quickly. I turned around in time to see a human like creature with an extremely pale face and long nails run towards me hissing. I drew my sword in time to cut it in half before it reached me.