Everything I couldn't tell you

Chapter 4

The forest dragon slithers between the trunks, a green blur in the gloom of the forest. The national park stretches out around them, barren threes weaving their branches into a roof high above. Ksenija grips the reins, feels the muscles buckle underneath her, digs her heels in. They fly over the bumpy terrain, weaving among trunks and ducking under lowhaning branches. The creature Rod captured for her training session waivers, but runs on sheer desperation.

Adrenaline slams through her veins and Ksenija leans forward. The world narrows into a single needle point. So close. She's gonna catch it, has to catch it. It thinks it can escape with its little legs and sleek body, but Ksenija is a magician and they always win. She'll win.

She stands in the stirrups and fires, pure power that sparks through the air and sings the ground. Again and again and again, the horse pulls and she grips the rein with the left hand, lifts the other and -

The horse stumbles and she falls, the ground slamming the breath out of her, but Ksenija crawls onto her feet and fires and fires while she runs.

The dragon collapses and Ksenija throws herself on her knees next to it. It's bigger up close, about the length of her legs. The scales gleam the same green as the bushes surrounding her. It looks like most overgrown lizardards. A black hole is singed right into its spiky skull.

"Good," comes Rod's voice from somewhere above her. "Now slice it up."

She digs for the knife in her pocket, cold against her palm. Her hands shake while Ksenija cuts into the body, but it's not as bad this time, the sense of victory filling her up. She did it. She won.

She killed something that was living and breathing just seconds ago, killed it because Rod caught it and turned the last minute of its life into a nightmare. The dragon has to die because Ksenija needs to learn how to kill.

Her hands still shake while the blood gushes and she carves out the heart. Bile burns in the back of the throat, but it doesn't change how she felt during the chase. Possesed. As if she turned into another creature, something that was completely her and yet not entirely.

For the first time she came alive and it was addicting, the adrenaline, the surge of power, the feeling of the horse underneath her and the power surging through her veins.

The dragon heart is covered in slime. It's small against her palm.

"The quality is shit," Rod says, frowning as he peeks at it. "That's what you get from old stock." He takes it from her, turns it over and chucks it into the woods. "It'll make a decent snack for someone out there. Come on, I'm starving."

Ksenija looks back at the dragon, at the open stomach, the organs strewn around it, the stench of death heavy in the air. She won't be eating for a long time.

---

"Where do you want to go, love?" Her mum pets her hair, while they survey the brochures over the kitchen table.

Her dad sits on the other side, while Rod stalks behind him, chewing tobacco. He's wearing the stupid uniform and it looks so out of place, where he stands in their yellow kitchen next to the cupboard filled with cookbooks and chipped china.

"Is this really necessary?" he says. "I never went to high school."

Her mum frowns. She's wearing her dad's old t-shirt and sweats, but when she glares at Rod there is no mistaking who's in charge around here, uniform or no uniform.

"Education is important. She has to graduate."

He rolls his eyes.

"Don't need a degree to hunt."