Day Three
"Where are we going?" Hex asked.
The Guardian and her reluctant Tundra charge were currently making their way through a particularly dense part of the Shrieking Wilds. They were cloaked in darkness, and Calrayn was sure it was only her keen sense of smell that had saved them from being attacked by now. There were faint patches of light glimmering high above, telling her that it was indeed day, but the thick tangle of the trees and vines would surely confuse any dragon that did not belong to Nature.
"We're going to the Gladeveins," Calrayn said, her voice barely above a whisper. She knew what lurked in these trees, even if Hex was a little oblivious to the dangers. With every day that passed, Calrayn was more and more relieved that she hadn't abandoned the Guardian. It was clear she wouldn't have survived very long.
"Why?" Hex hummed, her voice wisely dropping to match Calrayn's own. The Tundra tried not to huff in annoyance. She wondered if all Guardians were this dense, or if it was just Light dragons in general.
"The Shrieking Wilds are dangerous," Calrayn said, pausing to sniff the air between two thick sets of trees before deciding it would be safer to travel the bend on the left. She couldn't smell anything dangerous nearby, but that didn't really mean anything. Nature was a dangerous place, even without the lurking Beast Clans. "I want to retire in a nice place where I don't have to worry about Beasts attacking every day."
Surprisingly, Hex nodded wisely.
"You are right. Shadows hide enemies well." Hex said, her bright yellow eyes suddenly studying the shadows around them closely.
Finally.
Calrayn relaxed slightly. She was relieved that Hex seemed to finally be picking up on the looming danger around them, although she was sure the Guardian didn't know that half of it.
"Stop!" Calrayn hissed. Hex froze beside her, her fins fanning wide in alarm, her eyes darting back and forth for danger.
"Don't take another step forward," Calrayn said carefully. Quick sand was not common in most of Nature, but in the Shrieking Wilds, anything was possible. The sand had a subtle scent, had Calrayn not been so keen on locating danger, Hex would have been swallowed before either of them could have blinked.
"Come towards my voice," Calrayn murmured, hopefully not scaring the larger dragon into doing something rash. She heard, more than saw, Hex take a few cautious steps in her direction. Calrayn hummed in encouragement, whispering just loud enough to bring Hex closer to her. When she felt the slick scales of Hex's flank against her fur, she sighed with relief.
Calrayn took a handful of slow, deep breaths. The sand pit was bigger than she initially though, although moving around it wouldn't push them too far off course. She muttered to Hex to follow her. Hex, surprisingly, obeyed. They reached the edge of the pit in no time, which relieved Calrayn. Her journey would have been so much easier if she didn't have an overgrown hatchling to watch over.
Just as they began to skirt the edge of the pit, dipping in between trees, Hex hissed, her fins flaring. Calrayn stopped abruptly. Not that she truly trusted Hex's sense of danger, but it was certainly always best to be cautious.
"What is that?" Hex hissed, her eyes narrowing towards the bank of the pit. Calrayn squinted herself. It was hard to make out in the darkness, but it looked to be...a satchel? Calrayn inched herself forward, ingnoring Hex's quiet protests, until she saw the bag clearly.
It was indeed a satchel. Calrayn picked it up carefully. There was only a book inside, with strange markings on the cover. She turned the book over carefully in her claws, but in the darkness, she couldn't make out what it said. She showed the book to Hex, who had eyes that glowed with faint light (which Calrayn assumed was because she was a Light dragon) and was able to see the book more clearly.
"It is a book," Hex said in a perplexed tone. Calrayn sniffed the book and the satchel, and at the grass around them.
"If I had to guess," she said with another deep breath around the edge of the pit. "I would say whoever owned this satchel was not fortunate enough to avoid the pit."
Hex said nothing, but Calrayn could hear her swallow tightly. Calrayn nodded to herself. It seemed Hex was finally beginning to understand.
"You could have fell in," Hex said. Calrayn stared at the Light dragon's profile, or what she could make out in the darkness. Calrayn began to protest that, no, Calrayn would
not have fallen in, not with her sense of smell, but Hex interrupted her with a deep, unsettling sigh.
"I am a bad Guardian," Hex whispered. The Guardian turned her large head to bump against Calrayn's shoulder. "I am sorry I failed you. I will do better to watch for danger. I will do better to protect you."
Calrayn huffed. Guardians were so
very annoying. Of course, Hex's absurd dedication to her was very strange, especially once one takes into account the whole Charge business, but Calrayn couldn't help but to feel a bit warm under her fur.
That was dangerous all on it's own. Calrayn had sworn she would not suffer loss again, not like she did with the loss of her clan. If she allowed Hex to continue on like this, Calrayn would possibly start to see her as more than a traveling companion, and that would not do.
"I wouldn't have fallen in," the Tundra huffed, throwing the satchel over her shoulder. "I would have known to avoid it immediately because
you would have fallen in."
They walked along in silence for a few long moments.
"So," Hex began slowly. "You would not have been harmed, because I would have fallen in first?"
"Yes," Calrayn replied. "I'm glad to see that you have been paying attention."
Another long pause.
"So that means I protected you?" Hex asked with a tinge of hopefulness.
Calrayn was grateful that the darkness hid how she rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth, ready to tell Hex that, no that was not the point she was getting at, however the Guardian looked so hopeful, so...
content that Calrayn couldn't quite bring herself to do it.
She sighed in defeat.
"Yes, Hex, you protected me," Calrayn sighed again, resigning herself to her fate. She could practically feel the Guardian behind her beaming fin to fin.
"That means I am a
good Guardian!"
Calrayn adds a Battle Stone to her inventory
