Light as a Cloud

Chapter 2

Under the blazing evening sun, Ayra flew away from the crime scene into the world. On the back of her dragon she spread her own wings to make the flight easier. She petted the dragon between its horns gratefully. An eminn on its own wasn't nearly as fast as a dragon, even though most eminns could fly faster than a horse could run.

Ayra hadn't come up with a name for the dragon yet. It hadn't been her intention to keep it in the first place, but the creature itself had other plans. Ayra recalled with a smile how when she released it from the spell, it simply stayed by her side.

"Come on," Ayra had said, repeating the telepathic command to break the spell, "you're free. Go to your cave or wherever you live."

The dragon had hesitated, taken a few steps, but then it had turned back making a sad, begging "graaa" sound.

Ayra had laughed. "Okay then, you can stay."

Now she rode it again, towards the capital of Grisenland: Fennekirch. Fennekirch was basically one enormous castle that had a city built inside. Eminns that lived there had no problem finding their way through the four defensive rings, not only because all gates were usually open, but also because it was easy to fly over the rings. In case of war all the gates were closed and if an enemy could get into the castle when all gates were closed, so said the law, then that enemy rightfully deserved to rule Grisenland. No enemy had ever even managed to get past the second ring, and so Grisenland had never been taken over.

Ayra had always wanted to see Fennekirch. She had heard many stories about this wonderful city, and it seemed much more exiting than the boring swamp she grew up. Ayra was sure this was the best time to get a taste of this place. She travelled way faster than the news of the murder possibly could. As far as Ayra knew, she was the only eminn that ever tamed a dragon. Usually young dragons were too afraid to approach people and mature dragons were too hostile to be tamed. Ayra praised herself for being the only one that thought of it to use her eyes, even though deep inside she knew that she had been very lucky to find a young dragon that didn't hide from her.

Ayra's hand caressed the dragon's head once again. It slid gently over the emerald scales, between the two golden horns. Ayra wondered if this dragon would need a treasure to defend, since it was such a jewel by itself. 

"That's it!" Ayra called out. "How about I call you Jewel?"

"Graaa!" replied Jewel happily.

It then dived down amazingly fast, in the direction of a glittering river below. Ayra remembered hearing in school about the river Teelen, that should be about here, but she didn't know for sure. She had never been this far from home and she'd lost her perspective. 

The ground was nearing at alarming speed now, and Ayra shouted: "What are you doing, Jewel? Not so fast!"

But her voice was lost in the rustling wind, and Jewel set in a horrifying, yet perfectly coordinated landing by the river. It hopped down the slope and started drinking the silvery water.

Ayra sighed and let herself slide off its back. "Of course, you were thirsty..."

Jewel turned its head to Ayra, as if it expected her to kneel down and drink from the river too. 

"Next time, please don't scare me like that," Ayra said, not caring if the animal could understand her.

Jewel bowed its head and let out a soft growl. Maybe not every word, but the message did come across. 

Ayra suddenly realized how much affection she felt for Jewel already. She had only tamed it the day before, but already it felt like a close friendship, despite Jewel's unpredictable behaviour. 

Jewel coughed a few sparks over the water and clumsily hopped backwards up the slope, flapping its wings to not fall over. 

Ayra laughed. "Now if you're thirsty, you may be hungry too," she said. "Shall we go hunt?"

"Graaa," growled Jewel, and it bended its four powerful knees to allow Ayra to climb on its back. 

The two went into the forest. They spent some time chasing some bright blue ice rabbits, getting distracted by the bigger and bigger rabbits the deeper they went into the woods. However, after a few hundred twists and turns in their path, they heard the loud howl of a wolf behind them, and Jewel instantly came to a full stop.

"Yes, yes," Ayra whispered in exitement, patting Jewel on its shoulder. "You can chase that wolf."

Jewel turned around slowly and soundlessly, and started to sneak towards the place they'd heard the howl from. As Ayra watched it placing its clawed feet carefully to avoid the slightest crackling of wood, she suddenly noticed something glittering on the ground.

"Hang on," she whispered, and she reached out for the apparent metal object, but her arm was too short. It threw her off balance and she fell off Jewel's back. 

Jewel turned its head to her and stared at her with its huge, sparkling eyes. 

"You just go and slaughter that wolf," Ayra said. "I'll come after you once I'm done here."

Then Jewel went back to slowly sneaking, and Ayra turned back to search the glittering thing she'd seen before. As she found it and tried to pick it up, she found it was partially covered in dirt. In fact, it was near wholly covered in dirt. Ayra tried to pull it out of the ground, but after a few attempts decided to dig it up. It looked like it was a dagger of some sort. Ayra took a closer look, trying to decrypt the runes on the handle, but she couldn't find out what it said.

When she looked up, she suddenly noticed that this dagger was far from the only one lying around here. A few rows of trees away there were pieces of swords, boar spears and war darts stuck in the trees. Ayra realized that she had arrived at the location of the Battle at the Teelen, which confirmed that this river was indeed the Teelen. 

Then the crackling of wood announced the arrival of an overjoyed Jewel with a roasted wolf in its mouth. It bit off a leg, dropping that at its mistress's feet, and then ate the rest.