Sorry about being late in updating. I got caught up with life and all. When I did finally log in to this blog, my format had been changed. I couldn't understand the new format at all so I had to take a lot of time to figure out how to switch back to the old format. Apparantly the old format will be deleted in a few months so then I would have to stick to the new format when this one is deleted. I'll try to enjoy this old format as much as I can by posting often. Anyway, quote and story bit.
I woke up to feeling Destiny rubbing her rough snout onto my arm. I must have fallen asleep on my rock. We got to get going, Sarah.
Just let me eat some breakfast and wake up. I grumbled.
Alright. But I warn you Derek is pushy this morning. Destiny said.
Okay. I thought and got up off the sandy shore.
My back felt sore and stiff so I pressed my hands on my back and cracked it. I twisted my torso a bit and bent to stretch myself. When I felt stretched enough I walked over to the campfire where Derek was cooking some rabbit over the fire. His lips were pressed tight and he seemed agitated. I started to make a salad to eat but Derek grunted. I rolled my eyes and continued gathering edible leaves. Then I split the salad between Derek and me. Then I placed a leg of the rabbit on both of our plates. I ate the green salad diligently and consumed the rabbit leg like a drumstick.
It was good with a little salt on it that we had found alongside the lake. The salad wasn’t too great but I ate it for the health. I felt strong after finishing. When Derek finished eating as well, I washed our plates in the lake water and then placed them in one of the bags. I made sure Red fury had a good breakfast and a fair amount of water before I placed the bags onto his back. Then I found the leather saddle among some brush and strapped it onto Destiny’s back. I stepped up onto Destiny’s bent leg and hoisted myself onto the saddle. Derek climbed up after me quickly and eagerly. He seemed impatient to get going. I guessed that showing him the image of his future dragon had made him desperate to arrive at the Shadow’s castle. I smiled and shook my head. He was being so ridiculous right now.
“Alright, let’s take off.” I said to Destiny.
She nodded and stretched out her wings getting ready to take off. She turned around facing the lake and took off running and then leaped into the air flapping her wings. She faltered for a second because of the lack of wind, but I willed a warm draft to come up underneath her and carry her up until we were higher than the tree line where all the wind was. There I released the warm draft spell slowly so as to make sure Destiny had time to shape the wind underneath her wings and fly us naturally. The wind was powerful today, blowing my hair in all directions. I placed a spell around my head as well as Derek’s so we could both see around us in case someone or something attacked us by surprise. But it wasn’t worth it because I couldn’t see even without my hair in my face because the sky was so cloudy. I didn’t have enough magic to clear the whole sky of clouds so I just called upon an eagle. He shrieked when he saw Destiny but flew alongside of her waiting for instruction. I entered the eagle’s small but fierce mind. Please scout ahead of us and watch for danger. Let us know if anyone or anything is coming at us. The eagle seemed reluctant to do what I asked. I tried to think of a way to win it over. I suddenly felt a pang of hunger come from deep inside the eagle’s mind and I got an idea.
I’ll feed you a rabbit head if you want. The eagle’s mind lit up like a star with happiness and within a couple minutes the eagle had eaten a rabbit head and had started scouting ahead of us.
The eagle who I named Trish was doing well so far but was super alert, warning us every time a bird came by. I appreciated her trying to be a good watch-bird but it got to be a little annoying after a while. Finally after Trish alerted us about a sparrow I told her that it didn’t matter if a common bird was coming by but only if something suspicious appeared. Trish no longer alerted us to anything and remained as quiet as a mouse. I came to realize that eagles made good companions and were very smart. The clouds in the sky seemed to brush by my face like a soft thin white blanket of water. My hair started to cling to my neck damp from the wet air around us.
We had flown a league when the sky began to clear itself of clouds. I was grateful it did because I felt like I was taking a weird shower. Derek was fidgeting in his seat behind me with nothing to do, so I handed him a piece of wood and a knife.
Carve what’s on your mind. I thought to him. He silently began carving. As Destiny flew I could hear the scrape of metal against wood.
That day we managed to camp only a league away from the edge of the Lasina Sea. I was happy with our progress we had made today. Derek hadn’t shown me his carving yet but I could already guess what he had carved, his dragon. Destiny and I made a bet on what it would be. Destiny bet her first catch that she would catch when she went hunting tonight that it wouldn’t be a carving of his dragon and I bet all the meat I would eat tonight that it would be a carving of his dragon. When Destiny landed in a clearing in the middle of an ironwood forest I jumped off and called Red fury into the clearing. I tied Red fury’s reins to a branch and undid the knots of rope holding the cargo bags to the horse’s saddle and then I hid the bags underneath some long grasses and some twigs. Destiny shook herself a bit like a dog and the crude but comfortable saddle fell off of her. I hid the saddle as well with the bags. Then I set up a bunch of protective spells around the clearing preventing anybody from seeing us by twisting and shaping the air right and also I made an air shield. I had been fed energy by a few generous ironwood trees. Ironwood trees were the second greatest energy bearing tree in that we know of. The willow is the greatest energy bearing
tree known by human-kind. I never could figure out why some trees could hold more energy than others. When I asked Derek what he wanted to eat for dinner that night, he was half asleep on the ground but he mumbled the word jellyfish. I didn’t think we could get jellyfish when we were not near the ocean. But I knew a couple fish that had the same tangy sweet taste of jellyfish meat. I knew that there were Terid fish in ponds in this forest.
