Wylde Magic | Book 3

Thirty Nine: Waking

Being warm was such an odd sensation.

Not that I had been cold, or that I couldn't have started a fire when I wanted to. But since leaving the desert and crossing back into the Wyldes, we had only been in the unclaimed lands or in Autumn territory and neither one was as lusciously warm as the Summer lands.

I stretched out, sleeping under the shade of one of Spaulder's wings with only a few spaces to peek out around me in the hawthorn grove. Our people surrounded us. Exhausted Autumn creatures that fled the city with us so many days ago. Mixed among them were Summer court soldiers, Aithne taking charge as some sort of authority in this area.

Puko napped on Spaulder's neck, a place he had taken to perching more often than not. It warmed my hear to see the bird I had known my whole life take a liking to my triquetram. I just wish he wasn't such a pest sometimes. But Puko's newfound affection for the dragon did give me a reprieve from waking up each day with a hungry peck on the nose.

The chance to sleep after such a long stretch of marching, coupled with the warmth of the Summer lands and the comfort of laying by my triquetram made me more comfortable than I had been in a long time.

Which was all the more reason I was so upset to be woken up.

Smack. Something tiny but very solid hit me smack in the forehead. I startled awake, my eyes popping open to the sight of the warm sun shining through the membrane of Spaulder's glorious wing. My hand flew to my forehead where a small spot was still tender, assuring me that I hadn't been dreaming.

I sat up slowly, not hearing sounds of conflict. No shouting, no running. We clearly weren't under attack.

So, what hit me?

'Spaulder,' I reached out with my mind. 'Spaulder, did you throw something at me?'

But Spaulder didn't answer. He just made a series of sleepy grumbles and shifted a bit in his sleep. Schula slept on his other side, and there's no way she could have done anything to me from there.

I looked down at the grass around me. At first, nothing stood out, but when I moved my hand and got poked by an acorn, I realized there shouldn't be any acorns in a grove of hawthorn trees.

I picked it up and crawled out from under Spaulder's wing, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

The grove was quiet. a few patrols of the Summer court idled as they watched over us. Clearly they didn't suspect us of any tricks. Aithne was probably to thank for that, at least her strange code of honor could help us with that.

But with none of the Summer court looking my way, all of our refugees asleep, and my own triquetram asleep, who threw an acorn at me? It was no accident it made its way toward my head, it had to be thrown through a narrow gap under Spaulder's wing.

The Summer lands kept tall grass meadows, and the one outside the hawthorn grove was no exception. Anything could be in there, but you wouldn't suspect it the way the Summer guard handled themselves. 

Very confident within their own borders, considering what could have come in on our heels. I glanced back. Aithne was nowhere in sight. She should be resting like the rest of us, but I guess she could also be patrolling. Or even giving a report to her queen. But then I spotted the two males she kept close by and wrote it off. There's no way either of them would have let her go far on her own.

I began to stand, but then I thought better of it. Whoever got my attention could have done more serious damage if they meant harm. And if they woke me in that manner it was probably because they wanted me and me alone.