The Traitor's Heir

Chapter Nineteen

"How old is," Quara began to ask the question, but a look from Ausfela stopped her short.

"Sometimes it's best not to know everything about the things that one must eat, especially when the meal is necessary to muster the strength to continue onward." Ausfela did not pause in her long sweeping glances at the sky as she spoke.

"Do you need anything Aus?" Lina had retrieved the meat and both of the girl's water skins as she spoke.

"I won't eat until later when we've stopped for the night. I can last for longer stretches and right now, in the light of day, the most important thing is keeping watch. We can't afford the delay that a hunt would bring, or the attention that might be pointed in our direction if I took to the sky to search for my prey." Nodding, both girls put their backs against the dragon's large side and managed to chew and swallow the tough meat while clinging to the dragon's words that they would need their strength to continue. The water helped.

When Ausfela uttered the words "we need to keep moving" Quara didn't manage to suppress the groan that welled up at the idea of rising up on her tired feet and continuing the journey north. Still, she focused on the images of her mother and father and brothers that she called forth in her mind, and she forced her feet to shuffle forward, left, right, left, right, until the stiffness that had begun to settle in while they'd eaten lunch disappeared altogether as they headed down the other side of the ridge.

They had made it over two more ridges before evening arrived and the sun sank down behind the horizon, dying the sky a radiant coral that bled into a glowing amber, before fading away into a pale grey. Directly overhead the grey gave way to an ever darkening shade of plum. For a moment both girls nearly forgot their troubles as they stared at their first sunset, glancing back at the view again and again as they made their way down the last mountain of the day in the fading light.

"Quara look!" Lina clutched her sister's arm. Staring in the other direction Quara realized that while they had been focused on the sunset, the moons had risen, side by side, one appearing nearly as large as the palm of her hand, and the other about half the size of the first. The larger of the two moons, Zimral, was a pearly white, while the smaller moon, Zolin, was a pale red.

"Zimral and Zolin, ever racing each other through our skies," Ausfela paused for a moment and cast her eyes towards the ever darkening sky. "It's easy to forget, in the rush to get to Za'Reek, that there are so many things that you girls have never seen. I have spent many years underground, with only brief moments of reprieve, but it is difficult for me to imagine what it must be like to have spent your entire life in the Caverns, having never once seen the light of day. How bright and strange everything must seem." The dragon fell silent after casting a glance over her shoulder at Lina, who had been walking for a while with her hand resting on the dragon's side. "There's a stream at the base of this hill. It's small, but it'll have fresh water and the game in the area should be abundant. It's far enough from the Caverns that the wild life will be less wary of humans."

The space between the mountain that they had just slipped and slid their way down and the next mountain that Ausfela was going to force them to climb the next morning was rather wide. The stream that ran through the little valley had not always been so small, although that day when Quara and Lina laid eyes on it for the first time, years of drought had shrunk it considerably. Ausfela could remember years when it had flooded, filling the entirety of the valley with its angry boiling waters, but as Quara pulled off her boots and plunged her feet into the water, she could hardly feel a current running through the shallow pool that she had stepped into.

The water was a welcome relief after a day spent walking. Lina plunged into the shallow waters, still wearing her clothing. Dipping her head under the icy water was invigorating, although she was breathless for a moment after being immersed in the glacier fed stream. Droplets of water streamed down her face as her sister stared at her.