Rise of Fire: Dragons Reborn [COMPLETED]

Chapter 2 (E)

Edits: 1

Jax plodded along, his eyelids drooping every so often as he would sigh deeply. She couldn't say how many miles they had gone thus far, only that he was tired and so was she. Her partner was faring no better, every so often she could hear the distant meager crowing of a bird, though its weariness was palpable. No danger had set upon them yet, though they were still a long way from home.

The night was fading into day as the rays of the sun peered over the mountains. Talia shaded her eyes as the overly bright light began to leech into the forest through the branches of the pines. She wasn't a fan of morning, though she didn't hate it. The warmth of the sun was pleasant, and the scent of the forest in daylight was blissful. The effect overall was calming, though she was too tired to truly enjoy the feeling of it.

The dingy road she had found was an ancient one, likely used when trade was much more prevalent in the area. The only tracks that marked it were Jax's and they lead up and now back down to the distant town of Kvark. That place had once been a hub for trade, serving as the center of the large mining operations taking place in the gentle mountains. There were no dwarves, she had heard that the humans were the ones that had pulled a large sum of silver and gold from the creeks and hollows.

After dawn had set in she rode for several more hours following the myriad of old roads that cut across the mountainsides and valleys. She wound her way up and down each road slowly until she dropped into the main valley where Kvark lay. There a main road connected and lead down, only a few more miles until she would reach her destination. Above she heard the sharp crow of her partner, looking up she spotted the obsidian wings and small lithe body. He was watching carefully, crowing at her every so often whenever he'd find something worth talking about.

Now that she was in the bottom of the main valley the trees had fallen away leaving mostly open terrain. She could hear the sounds of bumbling carts, human voices, and even axes striking distant trees. The change in energy was unmistakable, everyone was waking up and starting their days with the vim and vigor she had come to associate with humans. She frowned as she came upon her first passerby, a bent over man riding a sorry-looking nag of a horse. He said nothing, only wheezed as he passed. He was the first and he would not be the last.

She pulled Jax to a stop, jumping off to grab out her travelers clothes. Her shirt was a grayish-white button down that was a bit too big for her, it made her seem smaller than she really was and a bit less intimidating to anyone who happened to notice her. Her pants were a typical brown leather tailored to her and perfectly suited to long rides and hikes. Her black leather boots worked just fine for every-day travel, no one would associate it with her true job or identity. She also stowed away the mask in a saddle bag, it would certainly bring about panic if she wore it openly.

Once changed she mounted Jax once more to continue into the town. The bird above crowed twice before circling higher and leaving her to go to his hide out. She didn't mind it much, it was an assurance that he saw nothing of worry. Although he tended to dismiss the locals when all she could see in them was their potential threat, humans didn't generally take kindly to her. Nico looked human when he wasn't a bird and she didn't. She pulled her crimson hair forward to cover her knife-like ears. Most people compared her ears to that of an elf, and they wouldn't be far off. As a half-elf and a half-giant she could blame her ears on her elvish heritage.

Talia was what most people would refer to as a monster, and not because of her affiliation with the goddess Hephatus. Humans didn't like it when peoples such as giants and elves mated sinfully. Of course they weren't just off-put by giants and elves, every other non-human people were on the list of 'sinful' when it came to cross-mating. She didn't understand how such a thing had occurred, or how often, only that she was the result of it.