Chapter 1-6

When they returned to the inn, the innkeeper poked his head out of the kitchen door. “Ah, good, you're back! Supper's just about ready to serve,” he called to them.

The pair went up to their room, deposited their purchases, then came back down to the common room just in time to see the innkeeper and his wife bringing some food out to one of the tables. It was fairly simple fare, but to Almonihah, used to living only off of what his family could hunt or grow itself, it was a feast.

Their conversation over supper meandered about, though it mostly focused on the goings on of the town and its surroundings. It seemed to Almonihah that his mentor must know everyone in the community, from the way he knew what to ask about them and the way he laughed at all the innkeeper's jokes about them. Their joking and laughter lasted longer than the food did.

Eventually, Zrathanzon noticed that his little charge was rather fidgety, and said that he was feeling like it was time to go to bed. The innkeeper agreed, and the little group parted. When the two half-dragons reached their room, Almonihah threw himself onto his bed, not quite as exhausted as last night, but still very tired.

Zrathanzon cleared his throat. “Aren't you forgetting something?”

Almonihah looked up at the ranger quizzically. Said ranger gently asked, “Where's Zithrandrak?”

“I put it in the chest when we got here,” Almonihah said, a little confused about why his mentor was asking him.

“And is it still there?”

Almonihah frowned. “Why wouldn't it be?”

Zrathanzon sighed. “You always check on your equipment. If you don't take good care of it, it might not take care of you when you need it to. Besides, that's a valuable sword. The kind that some brave or desperate soul might try to relieve a young warrior of for some quick coin.”

“Oh,” Almonihah responded, beginning to comprehend. He opened the chest at the foot of Zrathanzon's bed, and was relieved to see it was still there. Then he closed the chest and got back in bed.

“Hmm...” Zrathanzon seemed like he was going to say something more, but decided against it and went to bed himself.

As Almonihah lay in bed, waiting for sleep to come, his mental image of a blue dragon came back to mind unbidden. It seemed to be watching him, mocking him. He felt anger welling up within him, mixed in with and intensified by the confusion, the fear, and the pain that had so recently filled his mind whenever he let it drift. Silently, he vowed to hunt it down, to hunt all of its kind down. As he drifted off to sleep, the image and the thoughts became confused with his dreams, until he remembered no more.


Almonihah woke with a start in the morning from some dark, disturbing dream. He remembered blue wings... and his father... and somehow it was him...

“Hungry, Almonihah?” Zrathanzon, who seemed to always be awake before Almonihah, asked as he noticed his little student's eyes open.

Almonihah thought for a bit, then nodded. “Well, I imagine it won't take the innkeeper much longer to get breakfast ready. I'll go ahead down, and you can try on your new stuff and come down when you're ready,” Zrathanzon said cheerfully.

Almonihah nodded again, and the golden-scaled ranger left the room. Almonihah changed into his new leather gear. It seemed a bit big on him, but he remembered Zrathanzon saying something about leaving him some room to grow into. Then he made his way downstairs.

Zrathanzon and the innkeeper were talking just like they had been last night when Almonihah got to the common room, with breakfast already set out on the table. Just as the night before, he sat silently and listened to the two of them talk as all of them ate. He did notice as he listened that he was now dressed very similarly to his mentor. He wondered if there was any significance to that fact.

After breakfast, Zrathanzon said his goodbyes to the innkeeper and the pair made their way back out. They made a few other purchases while they were there—some arrows, a small dagger (“It's more your size right now,” was Zrathanzon's explanation), and various other little pieces of equipment needed for living in the wilds. That afternoon, they left the town and headed back into the North Forest.

After a while, Almonihah realized that they were headed northwest, away from the campsite he was familiar with. Growing a bit concerned, he asked, “Where are we going?”

“A campsite a bit further west,” was Zrathanzon's terse reply.

“But... what if my father's still looking for me? Shouldn't we stay close so he can find me?”

Zrathanzon stopped with a sigh, then turned to address Almonihah. “If your father was looking for you, he would have found us that first day. Which means that he's not. Which probably means that whatever attacked him... is still hunting you.”

Almonihah was stunned by these words. Nothing could have... killed... his father... right? But then, wasn't that what Zrathanzon was saying? What other possible reason could his father have for not looking for him? Again the image of blue wings from his dream fluttered at the edge of his consciousness, but he quickly brushed it away.

Zrathanzon had continued while Almonihah had been lost in thought. “So we're going farther away. Further west, and a bit deeper into the forest.” He paused, then looked Almonihah in the eye. “We're going far enough in that things might get dangerous. You have to watch and listen carefully to what I do. Are you ready?”

The ranger's serious tone had brought Almonihah back out of his reverie. He nodded solemnly, though his mind was still grappling with the idea of the kind of dangers he must be referring to.

The pair made good time that day, but it still took them almost another day after the first to reach the campsite Zrathanzon was referring to. It wasn't much of a campsite at first—just a small clear spot in the trees with a fire ring. In fact, Almonihah realized that it looked an awful lot like what the campsite they'd left had looked after they had packed everything up.

Zrathanzon quickly set to work setting up camp, every now and then directing Almonihah to help in some way. Almonihah was not surprised to see how similar it was to their first campsite by the time they finished.

Zrathanzon looked about the camp when they were done, and nodded in satisfaction. “Should be a good base camp to start your training from,” he said when he was finished inspecting everything.

“Training?” Almonihah repeated, not following Zrathanzon's train of thought.

“You're probably going to be stuck with me for a while—which means I need to teach you to survive in the wilds. Sound like a plan?”

Almonihah was thoughtful for a moment, then nodded his head. “Yes,” he said, determination in his young face and voice.

“Good. We'll start in the morning then.”


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This is the end of Chapter 1. I've debated back and forth a bit over whether or not this really should have been two chapters, but I think it'll stay just one.

I'm going to post my edits to the previous sections right now. I've fixed that awful paragraphing with some of the dialogue, for the most part. I'm not sure there's anything so major you'd want to re-read the old sections, though.