Tales of the Lost and the Wilds [on hold]

High Strung

Lysira pouted, giving me her best doe-eyed look as we walked through the orchard together. "Come on, let me talk to the human too! It's not fair that you're keeping him all to yourself."

Normally, Lysira's pleading look would be much harder for me to resist. But not when it came to the human. It wasn't a matter of not wanting to share (I'd gladly offload him on someone else if I could), but a matter of the human being far too dangerous. And my sister being far too curious.

I narrowed my eyes at my sister. "No."

Before she could ask again, I turned and walked away with the basket I was supposed to fill with berries. I crouched beside a berry bush and started plucking the sweet-scented ripe fruit.

The orchard was beautiful in spring; the trees and bushes were thick with green leaves, sunlight shimmering through them. Sweet scents of various fresh fruits drifted in the breeze, almost making my mouth water. As a small child, even before I wanted to be a hunter, I'd hoped I had the green fingers of a druid. Coaxing buds into blooming and healing trees with rot in their bark with a single touch had sounded like the most beautiful gift one could have. When that wasn't meant to be, I'd turned my aspirations into wanting to protect this grove instead.

Leaves rustled. Then Lysira's head poked out of the berry bush I was tending to. Startled, I cursed as I nearly fell backward on my ass.

"I just don't see the harm in me going with you tonight," Lysira argued. "You already know more people in the village will want to go see him once the news there's a human in the old cow barn spreads."

I sighed. "That is exactly why he's not near our town, Lysira. So the news won't spread. You get that you need to keep quiet about this, don't you?"

"Oh, I won't be the one talking." Lysira raised her hands. "But you really think people don't know Rhadoron has left again for the human lands? Even the hunters are more loose-lipped than you are, so everyone already knows something funny is going on. It doesn't take a genius to deduce it's related to the human invaders."

"But they don't exactly know what is going on. We'll keep it that way," I replied in a hushed one, carefully watching as Thay, one of the druids, passed by. "Do you want people to panic? They will if they know humans have already made it to our grove."

"No," Lysira reluctantly admitted. "But is not telling anyone there are humans in the grove really better? They will definitely notice if there's suddenly an army on our doorstep. Best we all be prepared for it."

I scoffed. "That won't happen. Rhadoron will reach the city and deliver the message to the king. Once he finally makes those pigheaded humans listen to us, we'll explain we are not the cultists. They will leave our grove, or we will make them. And I will help drive them off as a new hunter."

"Oh, is that what they promised you?" Lysira asked, her eyebrows raising. "Do you really believe they will make you a hunter?"

I glared at my sister. "Of course they will! I was promised if I kept the prisoner alive and captive in the barn, they would allow me to train with them."

"Sure, they promised training with them," Lysira emphasised. "But that's not a promise of making you a hunter though, is it? Training means they can still reject you. And you'd have to be a good fighter already to keep up with them, anyway."

"What exactly are you implying?"

Lysira crawled out of the berry bush and brushed off her pants. "You don't need me to spell it out for you, do you? Rhadoron is messing with you, and you let him because you have some weird obsession with him."