The Twilight Dragon

Donya seemed to move excruciatingly slowly as we headed into the village to buy supplies. We had no cart or horse so all of our belongings had to be as light as possible. Under my careful instruction, she purchased dried meats, some tools, a bed roll, a map of the region, and a small knife for herself. I had all the tools I needed, since I had learned to live off the land for many years already.

I didn't tell Donya this, but I was certain that she would head home after a day of walking in the harsh sun. A woman like her had likely never even gone a day without bathing, or having nice clothes to wear. With the thought that I would be rid of her soon, we chatted as we walked back to my tree house, where I packed my bag.

"The wheel tracks head into the next village, if we follow this route it'll take us there." I pointed to the well-worn path that led through the wiry forest.

Donya nodded, shifting the weight of her new leather backpack on her shoulders.

"Are you sure the brothel is ok with you leaving for an uncertain amount of time?" I found it hard to believe that they would let her do that.

Donya chuckled. "I bring them business, no one would purchase their watered-down ale or cheaply made cigars if not for the fact that they wanted to partake of the finer experiences upstairs."

"Ah good point, the ale is quite awful there." I agreed, which made Donya laugh harder. "The village doesn't offer very good liquor."

We talked about work for a while, just casually making conversation, until eventually the heat of the noon sun beat down on us so hard that both of us were driven to silence. The thin trees offered minimal shade, and I wiped the sweat from my nose furiously every time it dripped down, eventually using a strip of cloth to make a headband. I looked over at Donya after a while to see that she had done the same. It would be a few hours until we could reach the next village, and we walked a long time without any conversation.

"Time for a break." I said after about two hours. Part of me was amazed that Donya had not given up already, but the day was still young. We sat under a large tree to drink from our jugs. My throat was parched from the hot air, and I drank thirstily. I munched on a small bit of rabbit jerky to pause my hunger and then got to my feet. Donya and I had decided early on that we would only travel by daylight, as night time would be too slow and we would also be at risk for bandits.

****

As much as I wanted to keep going, after a few more hours in the heat we were both exhausted.

"Let's stop for today, we can get up early and walk when it's cooler." I panted, and Donya quickly agreed. I started setting up camp for the night, gathering sticks to make a crude shelter.

"What can I do, Lianne?" Donya asked. Lost in my own mind, I was briefly startled by her speaking. I was not used to being around others like this.

"Gather long sticks with leaves like these." I told her, and she nodded and headed into the forest. "Don't go too far." I warned, I didn't want her to get lost.

"Don't worry, Lianne." She said. I watched her retreating form for a moment before I turned my attention back to the task at hand. I gathered large rocks for a fire pit, and then a small pile of kindling to the start the fire as well as increasingly larger sticks to add to the fire later. I returned back to the resting spot.

"Whoa."

Donya had gathered a massive amount of sticks with leaves.

"Is this enough?" Donya asked as she dusted off her hands.

"More than enough. " I said with a laugh. I showed her how to braid the sticks to make a crude shelter. It would protect us from the morning dew and any light rain at night, though I wasn't expecting any considering the heat of the afternoon. Donya got to work and I started on the shelter. With two people the work went a lot quicker and soon we were settling down and making ourselves comfortable by spreading out mats to sit on. We ate some more of the rabbit jerky and drank some water.

"We should sleep in shifts for safety and keep the fire going through the night, why don't you take the first sleep?" I suggested, rather generously I thought. Donya agreed tiredly and pulled her mat to my side, and spread out her bed roll. "Good night." She said before shutting her eyes. I was surprised that she decided to sleep so close to me, though I figured it was probably because this way my body could shield her from the heat of the fire without her being too far away.

Unfortunately, there was nothing more to do before we got to the next village, so I decided to carve some symbols into the walking sticks to kill time. Donya breathed heavily as she slept and so I decided to give her a longer amount of time to rest. With Duke on my mind, I carved a dragon head onto the handle of the walking stick and long, twisted serpents onto the length of the stick. I was just chiseling the final details on the stick when Donya sat up, rubbing her eyes.

" Sleep well?" I asked sweetly.

"Not too badly." She said with a yawn. "I'll take that watch now."

"Alright." I rolled out my bed roll and lay on top of it. I couldn't be certain that I would fall asleep, I was still worrying about Duke and if they had hurt him. The culmination of being exhausted and worrying got to me, and I felt tears running down my cheek. I brushed them away impatiently, knowing they accomplished nothing, but still they came, fat droplets that fell messily and into my hair. I tried breathing normally to conceal my tears but my nose was clogged and I let out a sniff.

I felt Donya's hand on my head, stroking my hair gently. "Don't you worry, we'll find him tomorrow, rest now, he'll need you at your full strength." It felt strange to have someone touching me, but after a few minutes I became used to it and fell into a dreamless sleep.

..................

The sun was already starting to rise when Donya woke me. I was impressed that the fire was still going, it meant that I could trust Donya to tend to the fire when I was not awake. However the day was already starting to become warm so I threw dirt on it to extinguish it. We shared some bread and one of Donya's apples for a tasty breakfast.

"It's not long until we reach the village, we can fill our canteens there." I told Donya. "Save about a quarter just in case."

Donya was writing in a leather book as I spoke. "What are you writing?" I asked curiously.

"I'm documenting our travels." Donya said, finish her writing with a flourish of her pen. She tied up the leather with the string and put the journal into her bag.

"I see..." We hadn't done much to write about, but who was I to get in the way of Donya's documenting dreams?

******

We hurried down the trail in hope of avoiding the worst of the day's heat, two hours later we were already sweating heavily when we reached the village. At that point we were shocked to see that the village appeared to be in the shape as our own. The acrid stench of burning wood was everywhere, and everyone had the same frightened, alert look I had seen before. Unfortunately, there was no sight of the cultists or of Duke. Donya went to the local bar to try and get some information, while I went to fill our canteens at the local well. Donya came out after a short while and joined me.

"They went North, to Scarsdale a few hours ago." She said. "No one expressed any interest towards aiding us in our journey except for the bounty hunters, but we cannot afford them."

A shame, we could have used more practiced hands to help us. We sipped our water thoughtfully by the well while a goat bleated at us until it was shooed away by its owner.

"Let's consult the map." Donya took it out and we spread it out on a table nearby.

"Thankfully there is only one small village that they will go to rest for the night." She said as she pointed to a spot on the map.

"It looks like it would be..." she used her finger to compare against the measurement scale of the map. "A three hour walk away?"

I shrugged. I did not look at maps normally. "Your guess is as good as mine, but we're heading north." She looked at the map for a moment longer and nodded.

Something troubled me thought as we stared at the map, trying to get a sense of the distance.

"Were the cultists on horseback?" I asked her.

"Yes, they were on horses and Duke was on a large cart behind."

A few hours ago...that meant that they had not traveled through the night, otherwise they would have passed this town much sooner. But also, if they were on horseback that meant that no matter how heavy Duke was, that they would always be several hours ahead of us.

I studied the road, how it followed the path of the winding river up to the north. By staying on the opposite side of the river, we could cut a straight path to the next village. It would be tough since there would be no road, but it would decrease our travel time immensely.

****

The day was still hot as we walked, off the road and into the grass, hours and hours, but I knew that once we reached the mountain and its large trees that we would be a lot better off.

"Keep on the alert for anything that might be out of place." I warned Donya as we walked. She nodded silently.

The walk grew steeper and steeper, but I could still see the road ahead of me, and thus we continued walking. I kept my eye on the river, making sure it never left my sight. Although the walking sticks provided some help, I soon began to tire, and I distracted myself with thoughts of Duke, how we used to stay up late at night star gazing and talking, or playing in the lake during the summer time. Donya broke me from my daydream with a jab to my shoulder, and I turned around to tell her off when I saw the expression on her face. That's when I realized I could hear voices. They were coming from behind us.

" That's barely enough coin 'ter split amongst us!" One gruff male voice exclaimed. Donya and I crouched down instinctively and turned around. Thankfully, we couldn't see the owners of the voices, and I doubted they could see us, since we had just walked down a steep hill.

"Them filthy farmers never carry much coin, I told yeh."

A higher toned male voice complained."We gotta stick to the better roads, then we can stop some merchants or somethin'."

Donya and I exchanged glances. The voices sounded closer and I doubt the people were friendly judging from their conversation. With the steepness of the hill there was no way of escaping the bandit's path...unless....I did not have much time to think, but instead I grabbed Donya's hand and pulled her towards a split path that led into the valley into the mountain. The valley in the mountain was rocky and narrow but two people, single file, would go through just fine.

***

It was quiet in the shady valley, and I tried to stay very quiet as we quickly made distance between the bandits and us. Although I was spurred on by my desire avoid the bandits, I knew in the back of my mind that I should not have brought us here. The jagged rocks could conceal any number of threats, and with the narrow passageway, there was only one entrance...and one exit. If we were lucky. With no better option, we forged onward.