Light as a Cloud

Chapter 13

Ayra flew above the forest. Her face was calm, but inside she was still furious. To her, the Elvenking had shown her no shred of respect. In her thoughts, she cursed him with every curse she knew.

When Ayra looked down, she saw she was approaching a city in the middle of the forest, next to a lake. There was a thin, curved road leading to it.

"What city is that," she mumbled, "Gendil?"

Gendil was the only place she knew of that was close to a lake, but she knew it couldn't be right; Gendil was one of the many villages in the Green Horizon Fields, east of the Dragon Forest, and obviously she was still above the Dragon Forest. The city, that had a thick wall of wood around it, also didn't look all that much like a little village where farmers come together to trade vegetables for other vegetables.

The thinking about vegetables reminded Ayra that she was hungry, and thirsty too. She sent Jewel down to the square in the centre of the city, where she saw a fountain, from which three pitch black unicorns with silvery horns were drinking. Jewel landed next to it. The unicorns neighed anxiously and tried to run away, but their reins, that were tied to the edge of the fountain, prevented this.

Jewel started to drink from the fountain, and so did Ayra. She ached for her drink too much to care about the people in the street, that stood still and stared at this strange picture: an eminn in torn clothes and a young dragon drinking from a fountain, and a few unicorns struggling to get as far from them as possible. Though all passers-by eventually shrugged and moved on. It wasn't causing harm to anyone, after all.

"Flaming frogs!" a male voice suddenly shouted. "Get away from our unicorns!"

Ayra turned and saw three huge, hulking orcs approaching them. They were dressed in leather, with spikes grouping together on seemingly random places. They certainly seemed like the type of people riding black unicorns.

"I said, get away," barked the one in the front, who had his lower canines sticking over his upper lip. "Before they strangle themselves in the reins."

"Jewel, move back," Ayra ordered.

Jewel immediately hopped away from the unicorns. It didn't have much effect. The tallest unicorn pranced, and the other two neighed loudly, trying to avoid its kicking hooves.

"I am sorry," Ayra said, "but now that my dragon moved away, you can calm them, right?"

"Oh, you mudbrain," another orc growled. He walked forward and pushed Ayra out of his way. "Do you think a unicorn is going to be calm if she can still see a bloody dragon? You know dragons eat unicorns, right?"

"Mine doesn't," Ayra replied.

"Mudbrains!" the orc called out loudly, causing some passers-by to turn their heads again. "All these people in Kleech are mudbrains!"

Arya tried to suppress her laughter. "I'm not from Kleech. I'm from the swamp in the north."

"Your brain is a swamp," the third orc mumbled. They climbed into the saddles on their still panicking unicorns, who carried them into the streets at lightning speed.

Ayra watched them thoughtfully. She didn't even know there were orcs living in Grisenland. A moment she spent staring in the direction they had disappeared in, but then she shrugged and turned around. Jewel had returned to the fountain and was drinking from it again.

"Alright, that's water," Ayra said, "but where do we get food?"

Jewel lifted up its head and gestured with it to the forest, that seemed to be calling them from beyond the city walls.

"Sure," Ayra replied, "but I can't live of meat and fish alone... I mean, there has to be a reason I always had to eat vegetables. My mom wouldn't do stuff for me that wasn't absolutely necessary to keep me in one piece..."

Jewel kept its eyes fixed on the horizon. It knew fruit that wasn't toxic and it grew in the forest. Life in the forest was normal to it, and it knew how to make it. Also, only in the forest was there a possibility to find the city back.

"Alright then," Ayra said. "Let's go hunt."