No Peace

The night sky looked beautiful. The stars shone brightly and there was a full moon tonight. The grass felt cool on my back and there was a night-time breeze. Eira perched on my knee, head under her wing as she enjoyed the feeling of sleep, something that has evaded me the past few nights.

These were my favourite moments. At night, listening to the music of the night and with nothing but the wind chasing me. For just a few moments, I felt as though I was home again. But I knew this could not last and it was just a false sense of security. I couldn’t shake off the feeling of being hunted and not wanting to sleep in case we were ambushed at night. The note flashed into my mind again, a blood red feather attached to it with the words: The Hunter Approaches.

I shivered, causing Eira to wake up. She looked at me and decided a tree would be a better place to roost. I rolled over to my side and stared at the mountains we came from. Suddenly, I saw a bright light moving towards us in the sky. Panic gripped me, within seconds, our belongings were packed and Eira was awake. I slung my bag over my shoulders and took flight, hoping the runes I cast over us would hide us from the moving figure.

We flew throughout the night, fear spurring me on, giving me extra energy. When Eira grew tired, I carried her in my arms. By dawn, we were above the Northern Mountains, home to many animal tribes. I found an uninhabited cave and placed our things down. I made sure the cave had an escape route in the roof before settling down. I started to cast runes around the cave entrance, runes to alert me if there are intruders, runes to disguise the cave entrance and runes to trap intruders.

I silently thanked my teacher back at the tribe for drilling us with the teachings of runes until we were able to draw them in our sleep. Raven Tribe was considered one of the best rune casters among the animal tribes. When I was done, I took out some food supplies I brought along. There were some dried venison, fish and a couple of roots and berries I picked on the way. I was careful to ration what I had though, should we get trapped in the cave, I did not want to be without food or water. The cave had a pool of water at the back. The water was clean and refreshing; it was big enough for me to swim around.

For the first time in two weeks, I had a chance to wash off all the accumulated dirt and grime. Just as I was about to bathe, I heard a cry from outside. “Looks like we have company,” I murmured to Eira as I strode out to meet our visitors.

“Hawk Chief. It’s been a long while.” I greeted the person outside the cave. He was taller than me by about a head and had eyes of a raptor. He was muscular but could run fast for someone his size. He smelt like the mountain forest.

“Oh yes. Although you look the same…even your height hasn’t changed,” he teased.

I scowled, “My height has saved me many times in the arena.” Annoyance obvious in my tone.

“Lighten up a bit. I’ve come to offer protection on behalf of my tribe anyway.”

“Since when did I need protection?”

“Well, you obviously didn’t visit these mountains for a social call.” He smirked. He was right, I rarely came back to these mountains, and when I did, it was usually either because my tribe had sent for me – in which case I would have gone directly to them – or I needed a favour. Talon knew me well. He should, after all, we’ve known each other since young. Our tribes visited each other frequently.

“Fine, I accept but I want to stay in these caves. Your homes are too open to attacks.” I stated and mentally started making plans to create a forge or expand the caves. He sighed and agreed, no doubt starting to wonder whether he made the right decision to shelter me.

“What kind of trouble did you get into this time?” He queried.

“I received a blood feather.” I said with a shrug, not showing how fear grabbed my heart when I thought about the simple note.

“You sure know how to attract trouble.” Talon said with a grimace, knowing as well as I the meaning of a blood feather.

3rd chapter of the story. Amazing, this story might just survive after all. - Wolf

and the stars flew past...
those beautiful stars...