The Nazra Chronicles: Book I - Reckoning Prey

Chapter X: Part I - Familiar Foes

Khepri shook her head in disgust as she approached the meeting spot. The location was half a days ride via Keetone from the Underden and taking place near an oasis that's only claim to offering the water that saved lives was a glorified puddle. She felt exposed, venturing so far north into the Scorch and had to keep reminding herself not to fearfully look to the skies as if expecting a Dracgon to swoop down upon her. It was a childish fear, she knew, and the fact that she was traveling with twenty one Wardens along having Ajax by her side almost guaranteed victory over a lone oppressor.

Her people, once the hunters, were now the hunted. The Human Queens had made it a point to obsessively patrol the border between the mainland and the Scorch after the Werewolves' banishment. Any Wolf who was deemed to be 'too close' to the imaginary line was often slaughtered by the Dracgons. The sadistic bastards seemed to enjoy making her species suffer. Rarely did a Dracgon allow a Werewolf to walk away from an encounter with them with their life, and when they did, the Wolf in question was permanently maimed. Khepri's own tutor, an Apkhon named Sibran, had once encountered a Dracgon himself and now needed to use crutches to walk.

Khepri dismounted her Keetone and grinned as it touched its snout to her face in affection before wandering to lie beneath the lone tree of the oasis for a nap. She took in her surroundings with a small sigh, still unsure of the Maharani's end game when it came to inviting the Sands Reaper to be within their midst. All Werewolves knew that he had a distinct hatred for their species and would attack them at even the smallest of provocations. If it was rumored that he was nearby locations in which her people resided, they would lay low for days underground. None of them wished to be as lambs awaiting slaughter.

She was resplendent in her sandsilks for this official welcoming. She wore an ivory colored breastband beneath a transparent, sleeveless tunic of a whimsy fabric that was turquoise. Her calf length leggings were of the same color and made of an opaque material. Her head covering was made of the same material as her tunic, and the fabric that concealed her face from the cheekbones down was the same as her leggings. She had forsook the Sei-Tog that allowed her people to be amongst the Humans unnoticed and instead outlined her pale blue eyes with kal to shield against the sun's rays. The black ring encircling her irises was on proud display this day. Her hair had even been shaped into curls for this, much to her chagrin, and a fringe that was artfully swept to the side laid over her forehead.

Khepri looked down at her turquoise moccasins as she heard those accompanying her dismount as well. Grains of sand fluttered over the rest with every small breeze, often making the flesh above the silver cuffs that protected her ankles from the bites of snakes and the like tingle. She stepped out of her moccasins and placed the soles of her bare feet directly onto the sands, wincing as the heat seared her flesh before growing accustomed.

Placing her palms against each other beneath her breastbone, Khepri took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and went searching within her own mind. Focusing on the silver orb of her telepathic abilities, she sent her consciousness searching for nearby members of her kind.

Disregarding the contingent of Werewolves accompanying her, she broadcast her consciousness further into the Scorch.

It was eerie being able to feel and see, in a sense, all of the life inhabiting the desolate landscape. She was aware of each insect, reptile, and small mammal who scraped an existence from it. She could even feel the life within the sand itself; it was a living, breathing, mindless thing. The magic of it all never failed to conjure awe within her. She kept searching, eventually settling on a small party that was heading in their direction. There were three beings... Only three. There should have been eight Werewolves and one other. Never only one Werewolf and two others.

Khepri was further alarmed when, focusing on the one Werewolf in the party, she could sense the blood, pain, and suffering. She sent herself searching within her messenger, planting her awareness within the mind of her subject and using her eyes to actually see those that were with her. As she gazed to the left, she saw the man that could only be the Sand Reaper. He was injured too, and filthy. Both her subject and her quarry were the worse for wear; a battle had obviously taken place somewhere and neither were unscathed.