When I first got a grasp of Eishe's language, the first thing I wanted to say to her was to greet her as my lover. I was beyond disappointed when I never found a term for that in the dictionary. Not for 'lover', nor 'mate', not even for 'partner'. Only later have I learned that in Draconic, their word for that was 'Equal'.
As I taught her about the world beyond the sea, Eishe explained to me the intricacies of dragon culture. You could scarcely call it a society, for dragons rarely met up, preferring to keep to themselves or the company of their mates. When encounters
did
happen and decisions needed to be made, one dragon always deferred to another. In whatever interaction they were in, there was always a hierarchy, with every dragon being a Better or a Lesser to someone, according to a preconceived set of rules. When a dragon refused to submit, there was a fight, ending with one surrendering to the other's authority.
The only one a dragon accepted as an equal was their mate. In their eyes, deeming someone their Equal was the purest expression of trust and adoration possible. There was a kind of strange beauty to it.
The rest of our day was pretty uneventful. I sat by the entrance listening to the rain, while Eishe prepared what food she found. We ate, we talked, she bathed, I watched. Sorting through the stuff I had appropriated from her hoard, I packed what I needed for the upcoming trip. When it came time for sleep, it found us effortlessly. We had a long few days ahead of us.
***
"[What do you see]" I asked as I reached the rocky hilltop.
I laid my bag on the side and sprawled across the stone besides Eishe, looking out over the grassy fields and the horizon full of trees. My breath was heavy and my legs ached. Living in a safe and cozy cave atop a mountain where the view was unmatched and where no dangers could reach us had its downsides. Namely, everything was far away.
The highlands had too much edible vegetation for a single human to complain and Eishe could fetch most the of the rarer stuff herself, so on most days I left the exploration to her. There were times however, when a more thorough foraging needed to be made and a human's walking speed left much to be desired.
I did come forward with the idea of Eishe carrying me once but she quickly dismissed it. It wasn't a matter of pride or anything vain, but rather of safety. As much as I liked to fantasize of racing across the skies on her back, such an attempt would have proven extremely deadly as she was quick to point out. Dragon flight wasn't exactly a smooth sailing. It was a chilling feat of acrobatics, full of rolls and dives and sharp turns as Eishe constantly battled the gale winds at breakneck speeds. There's simply no way I wouldn't fall to my doom. I had no means of properly securing myself.
Even that one time she had to carry the unconscious me to her cave, she'd been awash with fear that she would drop me. When Eishe carried her prey, she used her claws to get a good grip. Trying to maintain a hold on my sweating form without hurting me proved to be a challenge, one that she would rather not repeat. Thus, whenever we wanted to get places, it took days.
It was the dawn of day three when Eishe signaled that she had sighted orcs. Her amazing predator eyesight allowed her to spot the band of shifting green bodies among green trees from high in the skies. This however, also made her plainly visible to anyone who looked up above their head. She made a misdirecting maneuver and vanished behind a group of hills off to the north before reappearing to my right, running up to a vantage point. It took a minute or two for me to catch up.
"[Greenskin,]" she snarled as I crawled to peer over the edge. "[North west. Near stream, bellow lake.]"
I opened the bag of curios from Eishe's collection and dug up one of my personal favorites: a monocular. It was amazing, the things you could find in a dragon's hoard. I followed her gaze as she crouched behind the hilltop like a cat and searched around until I found the aforementioned stream. There, perhaps two hundred meters away, was a band of orcs. Tribal warriors wielding spears and clubs, adorned with red and white warpaints of ash and blood.
I knew the sight well. They had caused us no end of troubles on my initial journey through the Southern Reaches. Luckily, our encounters with them since had been few and brief as we mostly managed to evade the prowling warbands. But the orcs never stopped thirsting for revenge.
At the moment, they appeared to be refreshing themselves, gulping down palmfuls of water or refilling their improvised containers. It was a big group. I didn't get an exact count as I couldn't fit them all into the lens's field of view, but it reached double digits. These guys were ready for war.
There was a figure that stood out. Even among the hulking orcs, it towered over the others. In contrast with the warriors--who were clad in simple loincloths or straw skirts--this one was completely shrouded in a tangle of skins and furs held together with numerous strings adorned with feathers and bones. The only skin he was showing were his bare hands and feet. On his head, he wore a carved wooden mask affixed with antlers and painted with white ornaments. Besides that, it remained completely featureless, with only two round holes where the eyes would be.
"[Who is that? The covered one?]"
"[A greenskin,]" Eishe answered curtly.
I rolled my eyes and refocused them on the figure. What I at first mistook for a spear turned out to be a staff of sorts, its branching tip decorated with carved beads and bird skulls. He was leaning on it, patiently watching the other orcs while they recuperated. Perhaps a war priest of sorts? Or a chieftain?
Whatever the case, the others clearly deferred to him, for after a while, the masked one gestured towards the mountains and the group promptly got up and marched away north. They took the bait. Which of course meant that they were indeed after us.
"[They head wrong. We go on feet,]" Eishe announced. No difference to me. At least we could walk side by side together. In my eyes that was well worth the tradeoff for aerial scouting.
Descending into the verdant grasslands, we continued our journey hidden by the tall canopy of the neighboring forest. The valley was much warmer than the mountaintops I had gotten used to. It was a nice change of air. And of scenery! Flowers bloomed, birds chirped from every branch, insects buzzed in the spring breeze. I loosened the furs draped over my shoulders and exposed my chest to the temperate climate. Overall, the place was rather stunning like this.
It didn't take long for Eishe to perk up, nostrils flaring at the scent of potential food. Even though dragons hunted from the sky, not unlike birds of prey, her sense of smell still humiliated a human's. Downwind, she might even sneak up on prey before it smelled her.
Disappearing into the tall, yellow grass way more smoothly than a being of her size should, Eishe quietly slipped out of sight. I left her to do her thing and proceeded with my foraging. I had already gathered a non-negligible amount of greens on the way down to the valley, but my diet was desperately lacking in flavor. I aimed to gather as much fruit and spices as possible on this trip, preferably something that could be dried to make it last.
Coming across a bush of berries, I set down my spear and started filling my pack. It was a properly made spear this time, with a head of chiseled stone on a length of a sturdy carved wood. I had yet to use it though, which I considered a good thing.
Something rustled in the shrubbery. I quieted down and peered over the berry bush for the source of the noise. A pair of antlers jutted out of the undergrowth, moving slowly and almost without sound like a fish swimming through a sea of leaves. Without looking, I retrieved my spear and circled around the bush. Perhaps this time
I
could bring home some game.
Advancing slowly, I gripped my spear backwards, readied for a throw. I meant to approach the animal from the side, but as I walked around, the antlers always turned to face me. It must have scented me. Nevermind then. So long as it didn't perceive me as a threat it should work just fine.
I pictured the cervine body to accompany the antlers and calculated the ideal position to strike. I was no hunter, but I gathered that somewhere a foot below the head was a good spot. When I glanced down at my imaginary target though, my hand froze mid throw. From between the shrubbery, two round, yellow irises stared at me, huge and far further apart than I expected for a deer. They were tracking me with the unmistakable forward-facing gaze of a predator.
Sweat broke out on my forehead. I didn't move. Didn't breathe. I swallowed dryly as the abyss gazed back at me from the bushes and thought up a quick prayer about careless wishes, for it was evident the creature before me did
not
perceive me as a threat.
