Destiny of the Dragonborn

Nightstorm

3 years later...

Cheryl had just finished gathering up some sticks and logs for firewood, lugging them to her self-built home that she had suspended in a tree. She stood at the front before she jumped up, grabbing the rope ladder, making it unwound itself and fall, hanging loosely above the ground from the tree.

She set the wood and logs down before jumping up again, grabbing a piece of wood tied and connected to a pulley system and yanked it down, rolling the log and wood on top of it before she climbed up the rope ladder swiftly, having down this so many times so that it became second nature. She then grabbed the rope and pulled till the wood came up to her height.

She tied it to a branch before getting her supplies off the board and placed them inside her little storage area she had built out before she jumped out of the treehouse and landed on the ground lightly. These past 3 years living like she did in the forest gave her some advantages. For example, sometimes she had to chase game across long distances to tire it out before making the kill, so it gave her speed and endurance. She had to chop down trees and lug the wood all the way back to the house, which gave her better strength, also many a times she had to dodge attacks from wild animals so she gained some flexibility.

And, she had gotten better with her bow and arrows so much she was considered expert by her other fellow archers in the nearby town she frequented to get supplies at the Traders, mostly winning competitions and getting money prizes to support herself. As a bonus, she was taught how to fight by the best fighter in town who was nicknamed 'Diego.'

Diego took her under his wing after seeing her standing up to a bear one time and trained her for an itense year. Now, she could fight as well as him.

She grabbed her bow and arrows, both from a competition she won and slung them over her shoulder. Her attire had changed, she wasn't clad in the tattered patient's dress she had when she first ran away but wore a dark blue hunteress' shirt with a black hunter's vest over it that had a hood to conceal her face, long black pants and knee-high hunting boots with fingerless gloves slightly tight on her hands and a belt with a couple of sheathes that had her daggers in.

Around her neck rested her butterfly necklace which didn't show any signs of rust and the sapphires on them still gleamed as beautiful as ever, but she hid that behind her shirt. She adjusted her quiver full of arrows and set off, trekking off to one of the game spots she frequented. She climbed up a tree and silently fitted an arrow into her bow and crouched low, watching the deer in their herds. She had her eyes set one of the big bucks that frolicked the herd, he wasn't the head buck, she could tell. His antlers weren't as big and he didn't look as strong as the lead male, but nevertheless, he was good game.

She estimated that he was about a few hundred yards away from her current position, her senses being enhanced due to her lifestyle, and she watched like a hawk the buck's every movement. She whistled lowly, fine tuning the frequency and pitch of it to entice the buck to come investigate. She sucked in a breath silently as she drew the bow back, nocking it near her eye. She was about to let go when a bush under her rustled violently, spooking the buck into running back to the herd, which made the herd run away as well.

She huffed, potential game ran away. She glared down at the bush as she hopped off the branch, still having her bow drawn just in case. Then to her surprise, she heard a very tiny cry of a baby animal. She dropped her bow and arrow and pushed aside the leaves to see a baby wolf, a few weeks old, crying and whining softly, looking up at her with baby blue eyes.

Her heart melted as her dark brown eyes softened as she gently picked the pup up which cocked its adorable head at her and yapped, licking her nose, causing her to let out a giggle.

"Aww...aren't you the cutest little thing!" she cooed, ticking its belly, making it whine and wag its furry little tail happily.

She smiled and nuzzled it gently.

"Hmm...I'll keep you! We need to give you a name though..." she mused.

"Fluffy?"she asked, the wolf pup made a face and shook his head.

"Storm?"

The puppy looked at her and made an expression that said 'Add something before that.'

"Firestorm?"

No.

"Darkstorm?"

No.

"Nightstorm...?"

The puppy yipped excitedly and nodded like crazy.

"Haha ok! Nightstorm it is then!" Cheryl laughed. Then his cute little belly grumbled, the wolf pup whining at her as if to say 'I'm hungry...' She giggled again.

"Ok, let's get you something to eat!"she said cheerfully, picking Nightstorm up and placed him in her satchel, leaving some space so that he could pop his head out to breathe, which was adorable. She went to the lake where the biggest fish swam and checked to see if anyone was around before dragging a raft with an oar and a spear out from a bunch of bushes.

She pushed it over to the water and stepped on, using her oar to steer to a flat rock in the center. She got off and tied the raft to a nail that she had hammered on a while ago to make sure it didn't drift away. She placed her weapons and the satchel down, Nightstorm popping out his head curiously as he watched Cheryl pick up the spear and stand at the edge of the rock, waiting.

Then she suddenly stabbed the spear into the water, causing a loud splash and some of the spray hit him, making him shake off the water and licked it off from his muzzle. He observed quietly as she brought up the spear with a struggling fish at it's end. He sniffed and his stomach grumbled. It was food.

He jumped up and started whining at her, giving the puppy eyes, wanting to eat so horribly but she chuckled and shook her head. She held the struggling fish down as she slipped a dagger out of a sheathe and with an arch, hacked the fish's head clean off before she tossed it to Nightstorm, who gave an overjoyed yap and sank his teeth into the flesh, shaking it back and forth, tearing flesh apart as he chowed down on his meal, stomach grumbling in approval.

He licked the bones clean before smacking his muzzle, running over to the brunette and jumped into her arms, nuzzling her affectionately.

"Thanks so much for the meal!!!" Nightshade barked happily, nearly making the huntress fall over in astonishment.

"Did...did you just talk...?" she questioned, flabbergasted.

"Huh? What do you m-?! Oh wow! I can talk!" Nightstorm exclaimed, looking at himself, bewildered.

"How the hell did that happen?"

"I have no idea Cheryl..."

"Wait....how do you know my name?" she inquired, dark brown eyes widening slightly.

"Hmm? Oh! I can tell! Animal's have this special sense that can tell us what's that person's name and how'll they treat animals like us! You kill only because you have to survive and you don't touch pregnant or baby animals. You just take the sick ones or the ones you need to kill! So you like us animals and hate killing us!" the black wolf exclaimed, wagging his tail.

"Huh...I see...oh well, how'd you get where I found you Night?"

"My mother abandoned me...she didn't even say why!" Nightstorm whined sadly.

Cheryl felt a pang of sadness as she looked down at him, patting his head. She knew how he felt. She was an orphan her whole life, never knowing who her parent's were, or why they would leave her. Always that annoying question in her head. Why? She sighed softly.

"I know how you feel Night...I was an orphan since birth..." she murmured, Nightstorm looking up at her with his baby blue eyes before nuzzling her cheek.

"You've got me Cheryl! I'll never leave you! Plus, you saved me and gave me a name! And you became my friend! So I won't leave!" he yipped firmly. She smiled.

"Alright Nightstorm, now come on, let's go home."

"OK!"

Then the huntress and the wolf got on the raft and went back to the land, heading straight home with light spirits and happy hearts.

And their adventures would continue, in many mysterious ways...