The Dragon's Spirit

Chapter Seven

    Raven and Ezra were not quite so stupid as to give up their names, and thankfully Azra and Trixx took it in good humor. As they led them through the woods they didn't try to weedle or trick them out of the cousins. For the first time in her memory, Raven and Ezra's no was just simply accepted.

    Ezra helped Raven hobble her way after the couple as they went farther and farther into the woods.

    "You okay back there?" Trixx asked, hacking through a bush to clear a path.

    "Yes," Raven grunted.

     In reality she was still in extreme pain, but she didn't want to appear weak before the people whose power she was now in. Every tendon in her leg was on fire and a numbness was slowly creeping up from the wound on her ankle.

     "Embers, you're tough," Ezra whispered to her, his voice awed. "If my ankle was shredded like that I'd be crying on the floor!"

    "We're here," Azra announced, pulling aside some branches.

    Trixx led Raven and Ezra into a large clearing set up as what they could only assume was a campsite since they'd never seen one before. Trees overshadowed several large tents made of white canvas tied down with ropes and simple wooden pegs. A makeshift fire pit had been dug as a sort of common area in the middle of the camp and was ringed with misshapen stones. A huge iron pot hung above the smoldering coals that glowed in the ashes, and whatever was cooking in it excreted a rich, savory smell. Piles of wood or laundry lines draped with damp skins hung between the tents. A wagon with an empty bed and a four seater bench was parked halfway in the forest and an old gray horse tethered to a pole was munching absently on the leaves of a tree.

     "Welcome to camp," Trixx said gruffly. "Home sweet home. Hayes! Annette! Where are you two?"

     Ezra and Raven looked around them with curious eyes. Raven marveled at how...what was the word...different it was from literally everything else she'd ever seen. The rugged simplicity was fascinating/ This was the first human settlement she'd seen since she'd left the palace. The lack of frills, maids, gold, and marble was absolutely captivating!

     A small, squat little man wearing a brown tunic and sporting a scruffy brown beard popped up from behind a clothes line and hurried forward with a large grin on his face. His expression grew puzzled when he caught sight of Raven and Ezra, but his brown eyes still twinkled in a freindly way.

     "Welcome back," he said to Azra and Trixx. "Who's this?"

     "People," Trixx said dryly. "Where's Annette?"

     "I'm here!" a musical voice called and a young woman in a long blue dress bustled out of a tent with an armload of vegetables.

     She was very tall and lean and moved with the sort of easy, effortless grace Raven had always coveted. Her silvery blonde hair was a flawless sheet that fell to her waist and framed a face with delicate features and blue eyes rimmed with long lashes that seemed to curl when she blinked. Her mouth formed an oval of surprise when she saw Raven and Ezra, but then reconfigured into a friendly smile of greeting.

     "We found these kids in the forest," Azra said gruffly, as if Raven and Ezra weren't right behind him. "The girl's ankle is in bad shape. Can you fix her up?"

     "Of course," Annette said warmly. "Come sit over here honey."

     She dumped her vegetables into the simmering substance in the pot and sat Raven down on a fallen log by the fire. She swept off into a tent and returned a moment later with a length of white material and some small medicine pots. Annette knelt down and pushed up Raven's dress. She tisked quietly when she saw the bloody mess of torn flesh, and bile rose in Raven's throat. She hadn't got a good look at the wound until now and it made her squeamish.