These Souls Entwined (Book 1)

Chapter 4

It has been 3 years since the incident. I still remember all the bodies sprawled across the stables.

I remember running to the house, only to find my mother dead on the kitchen floor. Evidence of horrible things having been done to her still remained, and I had torn off my own jacket to cover her hacked body.

I remember the stench of death.

---

After the incident, I had packed what little I needed, and fled with Strife and my new dragon hatchling, Tephra.

We had flown out of the mountains and far off as far as we could go, passing through the Cold Wall, until we found a secret cave in Fire Territory. I knew that the royal guard would never find me here. That is, if they even knew I was alive.

Fire Territory is the land of wild, untamed dragons, drakes, and wyverns. They rampaged freely here, causing mayhem wherever they strayed. However, a magical wall kept them out of the King's lands.

It is called the Cold Wall, and it burns those who are born in Fire territory if they try to pass it. Going into that territory was not for the weak. I learned that within the first week when I was viciously attacked by a hungry wyvern. It had seen little Tephra as easy prey, and it almost got him. Luckily Strife came back from hunting at the right moment and saved us.

My back will forever be scarred in jagged rips from my right shoulder to the left. It took me weeks of feverish dreams and painful washing to heal them. However, when I could move around again without the wound bleeding, I went out and skinned the wyvern's corpse. The armor of a wyvern certainly isn't as strong as the back armor of a dragon, but it was pretty close.

To keep myself from boredom, I decided to turn it into some helpful back and neck armor for myself. Then I felt like I needed shin guards, and on and on it went until I had even made a sort of cap to hide my dark hair from prying eyes. The outcome of wearing all that armor was that I blended well into the sand that surrounded me, because the armor glimmered a kind of duller bronze color. It hugged my body perfectly, but I still sewed a leather body suit to wear underneath with the skins of previous, non-reptilian kills.

When I had first arrived, I had been age 14, and my body had been soft and small. Now that I had grown up into a woman, I was three inches taller, and my baby fat was gone. The land I was living in had shaped me into a living weapon, ready to defend and attack on the fly. My once pretty dark hair was now dirty and long. I had it in a high ponytail, poked through a hole in my cap and caked with mud, but it still reached below my waist.

Tephra had grown into his body as well. What once was a cute blue hatchling with soft trusting eyes became a large overprotective beast with aqua blue scales and silver, hard, wary eyes. His shoulders were about 12 feet in the air, and supported a wingspan total of 34 feet.

He had grown so fast that I hardly got to enjoy his childhood with him, but then again I'm glad to have another dragon protecting my back. The Fire territory is a tough place to grow up.

I swear I've had to slay far more beasts than I can count to stay alive. It's been so long since I've had actual human contact... I don't know if I would be able to talk to them properly.

Alas, here I am, cleaning myself as best as possible and preparing to cross the territory for the first time since we first got here.

Strife had grown sick. He had not been himself since Gabe died, but even then he was never sick. Not like this.

He is unable to hold down food and he can't get up from his bed without pain. His wings have chapped up, which makes them chafe and burn constantly. Worst of all, this morning his scales started shedding off.

I knew what it was. I had seen wyverns and dragons that were sick with it before. It only affected those that ate the infected, so Strife must've eaten some bad meat.

I also knew that there was a herb that some dragons eat to heal themselves from the disease.

However it was very rare in fire territory because almost nothing green grew for long without being burned up by dragon fire.

Therefore I planned to cross the Magic wall and find some for him. The only problem was that once I got to the wall, I'd have to leave Tephra, because he no longer had the spell that gave him access across the border. He didn't like the idea, and neither did I, but this was how it had to go if I was to get the herb in time to save Strife's life.

----

Tephra landed with a graceful thud, and screeched in that loud tome that warned other dragons and predators to stay away. He had recently defeated the strongest dragon in the area, so now he was the big boy in charge.

I leaped off, and landed in a crouch. My bronze, worn in wyvern-scale armor followed my movements perfectly. As I grabbed my makeshift leather bag, Tephra head butted me lightly. I laughed and hugged his huge spiked head.

"Don't worry so much! I'll be fine." I assured him.

He huffed. "I don't believe it for a second. Humans are such devious creatures. In some ways they are worse than a rogue dragon!" he said.

"But these aren't the barbarians from the north, Tephra. They're more educated and peaceful than that." then I frowned. "Well they're supposed to be." I definitely wouldn't believe that the people who massacred my family were anything but barbarians.

Tephra read my mind and nuzzled me affectionately. He hadn't been aware of what was going on during the time until his mental connection with his mother had shattered. He knew what the death of your family felt like.

"Can I at least come along, just in case?" he pleaded.

I sighed. " If you came with me, people would panic, seeing a dragon as huge as you. None of my father's dragons except his own soul steed had been as tall and strong as you." his eyes grew big and sad. "Don't make those eyes at me. I'll be back soon enough, and then we can do whatever you want to do."

Finally he relented and sat down to watch me leave.

" Anyways, I need you to take good care of Strife while I'm gone." I said as I kissed his nose.

He nodded sadly.

I pushed back from him, and walked to the border. The other side showed a dirt path winding over grassy hills and into the distance. Plants of all sorts sprung from the ground in random clumps.

I took a deep breath and passed through the chilliness of the wall. Shivers wracked my body as I stepped out, and I double checked myself to make sure I wasn't injured. I looked back and shot a thumbs up at Tephra, who simply watched with puppy eyes.

Then I turned and followed the long path over the hills. It was my hope that I could stop and ask for help at the first village I found.