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Henna
stepped cautiously into the field of grass. She could see an Ibex out
among the meadow of wild rye but she couldn’t be certain that it
was an animal. The spirit of rye often manifested itself to look like
an animal and the last thing she needed was to offend one of the
spirits of this land. The long horned ibex bent down to eat the grass.
Henna smiled spirits did not eat their own bodies, so it was most
likely an animal. She lowered her body as she made her way stealthily
within throwing range.
A lindworm crawled up a small stream that ran through the rye field its
tounge flickering as it tasted the the scent of the girl ahead of him.
Kivi scowled when he saw the cruel dragon making its way towards the
girl rage overwhelming him. His fury took hold of his mind the dragon
wasn’t interested in eating, not really. The greedy creature was
hunting to gain another body to bury in his hoard of food that he would
never eat, never use, the greedy creature just wanted more.
Kivi’s rage caused him to morph forms and grow in size as he
rushed towards the lindworm. The dragon barely had time to turn its
head before Kivi slammed into his throat with his razor sharp teeth.
The dragon roared in rage and struck with his poisoned fangs but Kivi
leapt away
narrowly avoiding the
dragons deadly bite. The dragon struck again
forcing Kivi back another step, than another. He could see the girl
moving in closer to them out of the corner of his eye, the long stick
raised up level with her head when the Pine fairy struck the dragon
with a wave of wind and sharp pine needles forcing it to shut his eyes.
The girl threw her spear just as the creature roared in rage sending it
plunging up through the roof of the dragons mouth. The dragon roared
again as it spun towards the source of the pain giving Kivi the chance
he needed to grab it at the base of its head with his teeth so that the
dragon wouldn’t be able to bite him.
The Pine Fairy sent another wave of energy at the dragon tearing into
its open nostrils. The dragon shook in rage beating Kivi against the
ground as it thrashed wildly eventually shacking him off. It lunged for
the pine fairy who transformed into a bird and flew away.
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Kivi backed away from the furious dragon as well, he could see the girl
fleeing into the trees out of the corner of his eye and so he turned
and followed the pine fairy into the forest where he was greeted by a
large cluster of tree fairies.
The dragon roared with rage as it saw the army of fairies arrayed out
before it, for even as angry as he was he dared not enter a forest
filled with so many enemies.
“I don’t think this is as fun as I thought it would
be,” the pine fairy told Kivi as she glanced nervously towards
the field. “The girl seems to attract a lot of attention.”
“Animals tend to, “Kivi agreed, “I wonder how any of
them manage to survive. We need to relocate that ibex so that she can
go back to her family.”
“Did you see where it went? “the Pine Tree asked a young
willow.
“No” the Willow told her than he asked an aspen tree who in
turn asked a blackberry bush.
“There’s a ibex eating at my leaves and berries now,”
the blackberry bush told them, just over the ridge.
“Take me there,” Kivi asked the blackberry bush as he stood
up with a groan.
Henna owed the stone spirit a lot more than a flower necklace, but she
didn’t have very much, not even her spear anymore as she was
reduced to using her throwing stick. She stepped cautiously over
another stream of water and tossed a small figuring into the pool below
hoping that if another Lindworm was nearby the water fairy would keep
in from smelling her. She thought for a moment about going back and
picking the wild rye but she wouldn’t be able to carry enough to
provide her family the calories they needed to survive. Only meat was
calorie rich enough to do that.
“Travel east,” she heard a tiny voice inside her head
whisper.
“East?” Henna asked.
“East,” the voice repeated as the tree above her head
swayed causing her to glance up. She didn’t see the fairy but she
knew he was there. It appears that I have a guardian she thought as she
turned quickly to the east. Perhaps this would be the best place to
settle. It was high enough in the mountains that the invadors chariots
would have difficulty reaching it and other wise dangerous enough that
the people who had invaded would likely leave it alone for some time.
And it appeared that at least some of the fairies were friendly enough.
Kivi watched as the girl crept up on the ibex which was munching
happily on a the dried spring blackberries which had somehow manged to
make it uneaten through the winter to spring. Don’t begrudge me
he whispered to the the animal, though he was only mildly concerned
he’d helped wolves and fox find food before. The girl raised
another stick carefully over her head then before either the goat or
Kivi knew what had happened the throwing club cracked against the
animals head causing it to bray with pain for a moment before all that
was left in control of his body was his nerves which caused his body to
twitch.
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