Heart of Flame

XV. Thoughts of Future

Hunting with Graaol always brought Sorne back to her center, no matter how she had felt when they departed from Throkk. While making peace with death was easier and easier every day, it still hurt deeply to lose someone she cared about. It had been a month since their battle with the demon and Kalg's death. She'd managed to avoid Rirk for the most part, but the sting of his words remained.

Now, she was deep in the ancient growth forest that climbed the slopes to the north of Throkk, several days from even the remotest sign of civilization. The towering trees were wreathed in lichen, thick dark mountain pines and fir. They'd found a cedar grove, the smell of the red bark and the needles perfuming the air. The ground was soft under her bedroll now that they weren't on hard rock, cushioned by needles, near the shores of a lake so pure that the depths were visible through crystalline water. It was icy cold, no doubt fed by glaciers, but the trout that they caught tasted marvelous when roasted alongside porcini and some potatoes that she'd packed with them. Sorne didn't feel adventurous enough to identify mushrooms, but the shaman knew them by heart. Graaol was also a better cook than she'd expected on their first adventure and he kept the fire small enough that she wasn't afraid to be near it.

The old shaman spent time with her during the lulls in her training, though Sorne was never entirely certain why. She supposed that this was his way of imparting his own wisdom to her, in his gruff and sometimes almost grandfatherly way. For today, it was just the two of them and Nirsal out here. The black dragon was currently chewing on the femur from the deer she'd caught earlier. They'd made camp about a mile from the remnants of the animal in case of bears, but Sorne had grabbed the bone for Nirsal to chew on later. The snapping of bone as the dragon gnawed at it to get to the marrow would have been intimidating to most, but the pair here were used to it.

Evening was setting in, the sun sinking slowly below the horizon. It lit the sky aflame in orange and pink, fading to purple in the east. The clouds looked as if they had been painted onto the sky by some divine brush, delicate and colorful. Soon, the sky would be breathtaking without a single light from civilization to dim the vast constellations and swirling nebulae or the large, opalescent moon.

Silence with the old shaman was always strangely comfortable. Sorne had spent so much of her life in the keep constantly surrounded by noise and bustle, whether harried servants hurrying about their tasks or the gossip of the other girls. It wasn't until she came north that she realized how much she actually enjoyed the quiet that came with being out in the world away from everything. Her friendships with the different members of her tribe were characterised by the lulls in conversation as much as the words spoken. On average, an orc was far more concerned with actions than commentary. So to sit beside the low embers of the fire next to the big shaman and enjoy silence was a pleasure. Occasionally she heard an owl or the howl of wolves calling to each other in the distance, but for the most part there was just the soft crackling of a low fire.

She had spent enough time around a campfire now that the sound didn't immediately send her into a blind panic. It was acclimatization by inches. She still didn't get too close and large fires made her heart pound, but she could appreciate the warmth and the beauty of the color of a small one without her throat closing up.

The shaman shifted his weight slightly, a sign that he was about to speak. "I worry about you, Sorne," Graaol said. His voice was gentle rather than accusing.

"Why?" Sorne asked, frowning slightly.

"Because there is no chant that can harden that heart of yours against the world," Graaol said. His yellow eyes were shaded by the wolf's head that sat atop his own, but she could see them reflecting in the firelight when she turned to face him.

Sorne shook her head a little bit. "Rirk being unkind isn't going to keep me up at night, I promise," she said.

The chuckle she was half-expecting did not arrive. "I was thinking of more than Rirk." Graaol sighed slightly. "Before you can grow angry, I assure you that I do not believe that you are weak. You have proven time and again that you can rise to the challenges we present you with."