Chronicles of Han Storm - Leilaka #1 (Fantasy, Adventure, Dragon Riders)

Leilaka *** Chapter 3 ***

Han meets Strongclaw as well as himself.

Han Storm:

The Chronicles of Han

Leilaka

*** Three ***

I slept soundly right through the rest of the night and was greatly relieved that I had no further dreams.

Mrs Langly brought more tea and food when she realized I had woken up. She assured me that neither food nor drink was drugged.

She did not ask any further questions. I suspected that Connor had asked her not to talk to me.

Halfway through breakfast a Raven made his appearance on the windowsill.

"Give me some" he ordered me, following the demand with an indignant squawk.

"Excuse me?" I asked the bird.

He hopped onto the bed, cocked his head so he had one beady black eye on me and demanded again "Give me some!"

I gave him a piece of the bread.

He pecked it out of my fingers without harming me, swallowing the piece whole.

"More" he insisted.

I put the plate down in front of him.

He ate every last crumb before hopping onto my lap.

Here he settled, comfortably starting to preen his feathers.

"I'm Han" I introduced myself.

"I'm Strongclaw" he replied.

"How can you understand me?" I wanted to know from the bird.

"How can you understand me?" he wanted to know back.

I had no way of knowing.

Strongclaw hopped back onto the windowsill.

"Thank you" he squawked before flying off.

It was such a weird experience to be able to talk to a bird, when you knew that it was not supposed to be, that I got out of bed and moved to the window in order to follow his flight over the trees of the forest.

I stood at the window until he had disappeared before turning back to the bed.

The room was ordinary, situated in the upper storey of a farmhouse. The farm equipment and haystacks I saw from the window confirmed my opinion regarding Mrs Langly.

A single bed, a cupboard, washstand and sideboard were the only furniture. There was a full length mirror standing against the one wall.

Great, so at last I would be able to meet myself.

With a thumping heart I glanced into the mirror, afraid that it might break if I saw my own reflection.

What I saw really freaked me out.

If you somehow expected to see a grown man, and suddenly the thin body of an adolescent boy was in its place, you would be upset, too.

The boy's body had a lightly tanned skin-tone. It looked ordinary and was starting to become gangly, as boys tend to become when at the age before manhood.

The face fascinated me. The hair was now short-cropped and of a goldish-reddish hue. The right side of the face was bruised and swollen. The nose had been broken and was crooked.