by Viola Grace
He backed away, laughing lightly. “Some animals, that isn’t too bad.”
“Not just animals. I am guessing that they started with animals, but the miners are missing. The camps are empty. The outer villager cabins have been torn apart, and blood smears are all that is left of the inhabitants. People that we went to school with, that we played with. Your creatures have destroyed them.”
He shook his head. “That isn’t possible.”
She shrugged and turned, pulling her shirt up. “These marks were made less than a week ago. Something nearly carved me in half, and if it hadn’t spurred on a crisis, I wouldn’t be here now. My dad was carved up like a Christmas ham. He’s still in hospital.” She faced him again.
Dennis was looking pale, and she could see his mind scrambling around to find a way to not make it his fault. She had to break the lock he had in his head.
“They were having an evening of tea and conversation, and your mining creature punched through the wall of their home like it wasn’t there and consumed them. What happened then? Did you feel better? Grow more powerful?”
His eyes widened, and he bent over, dry heaving. “Oh god, oh god.”
She nodded and looked to Trin. “Are you good to take over?”
“I am. There are two left?”
“Apparently.” She looked at Dennis. “Hey, which direction did the last two go?”
He blinked. “The Harlan vein. I sent them this evening, and they were producing fine an hour ago.”
“What happened then?”
“I started feeling strong about ten minutes ago. Just a little bit, nothing major.”
Kabyl left him trying to explain that he didn’t know. Brommin and Trin were reading him his rights, and Brommin was cuffing his hands behind his back. She knew that vein very well. It ran right through town and under her home, where her dogs were chained up in the back yard.
She transformed outside the entrance to the mine cavern and headed for home. She really wished that she could see the beasts with the heat vision, but they weren’t alive, didn’t breathe, and even their screams were the screech of stone on stone.
She looked ahead of her, locking on the small flickers of heat in the distance. She got more altitude and kept her gaze sharp as she circled when she arrived at the town. Her worry got the better of her, and she dropped near her home, shifting to run to her dogs and put them in the house.
“They will just come through the walls if they are after the animals,” Elioth spoke from the shadows.
She paused and looked at him for a moment. “I know, but these animals are my friends. They are under my care, and the beasts seem to go for animals first because they are easier to find. I am making the dogs difficult to find, so hopefully, that will be enough.”
“They always attack on the surface?”
“Yes. Every dwelling I have seen that has been attacked has had the roof ripped open.”
He nodded, and she noted that he had his bow out. “Do you use that?”
He chuckled. “I do. It is a good long-range weapon if you have the right load in the head.”
She had no idea what that was about, but when the ground shivered underneath her, she realized that she had made herself the perfect target, closest living thing to the mine.
She tried to shift, but her body was exhausted. “Shit.”
She focused on flying and leaped. Sailing up and out of the grasp of the beast an inch away from the claws wasn’t her first instinct, but it was the best one for the moment.
She screamed at the first beast and hit it with the freezing attack. Elioth fired his bow, and the beast exploded. She was on the lookout for the next beast, and it appeared a moment later, next to the shed. Trees bent, and it looked at her like she was the best butterfly in the whole world. She fired, Elioth fired, and when the creature shattered, she dropped as well.
She was kneeling in her back yard and breathing hard. He walked up to her and knelt next to her. “What needs to be done?”
“They have charms in their necklines somewhere. Chunks of gold. Pull them out. I am going to crawl to the house and let the dogs out.” She chuckled.
“If you wait a moment, I can help you.”
“Thank you. That would be nice.” She sat in the snow, not feeling it at all now. Her imperviousness to cold had taken hold.
Elioth came back and held out his hand. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet. Her head spun, but she shook it off and staggered toward her home. The dogs ran out as they hated being warm. They had more cold tolerance than she did.
She left them loose, just in case. They would stay around home. It was almost time for their morning feeding.
Her tutor came in and looked around.
“Make yourself at home. I am going to have a bit of a nap. My first week of transformation has been a little too eventful.” She staggered to one side, and he frowned and reached to her.
She gave him a bleary look. “Are my wings gone?”
“Yes.”
“Thank goodness. I wouldn’t want to crush them.” She collapsed in his arms. This was getting embarrassing.
Chapter Eleven
Waking up in her own bed was a nice change. Smelling breakfast cooking was amazing.
She was wearing a nightshirt, and her clothes were cleaned and hanging over a chair. She tiptoed out, and Elioth was sitting at her dining room table with food covered, and he had a stack of books at his elbow, his focus deeply in the one he was reading. A treatise on the history of the continent.
“Hello. Did you change my clothing?”
He didn’t look up, his dark hair slid over his shoulders. “I did. You had been in them for too long. They might shift with you, but they don’t wash themselves.”
She blushed. “Is that food for me?”
“Yes. I have already eaten... twice.”
Kabyl felt like she was being chided, and she didn’t know why.
She shrugged and sat at the table, looking at the mound of eggs and bacon, and knowing that she was going to eat it all.
“Lady Trin warned me of your appetite.”
“Funny, she didn’t mention yours at all.” She pulled the platter to her and picked up the first egg with two fingers, dropping the whole thing into her mouth, tucking it in neatly. Her body was still dissolving her food the moment it hit her stomach, so she quickly made her way through the dozen eggs and the pound of fried bacon.
Elioth had lowered his book. “How the hell did you eat all that?”
She shrugged. “Apparently, my body and my dragon are still learning how to share resources. I burn too many calories. Then, I pass out.”
His brows rose. “Ah. That explains it. So, you might benefit from not engaging in a full shift.”
She quirked her lips. “Probably. I don’t know how it would work.”
“Did you see the arrows I used?”
She closed her eyes to remember. She had already been nearly out at that point. “Yes. You had explosive heads on them.”
He held up his hand, and a small ball of green flame burned against his skin. “Yes and no. I locked some energy to the tip of the arrow and expanded it on contact.”
“Oh. That explains it.” She got up and went to the cabinet, looking for cookies. She found the container and worked on them until the jar was empty.
She was putting the jar back on the counter when she looked over at Elioth. “Did Trin and Brommin come here?”
“No. They called me, though. The perpetrator is on the way to the capitol, with all of his notes and documents. Lady Trin mentioned that she would be in contact with you as you would need to be a witness at the trial.”
She nodded. “Right. Of course. Well, for now, I am going to bathe, get dressed and go looking for solid numbers of the dead. I have to find every cabin, tent, and homestead that the creatures destroyed.”
He raised his brows. “Would you like company?”
She shrugged. “You can give me the theory of what you w
ant to teach, and I can tell you what you are trying to learn about the local woods.”
He smiled. “You know about the local woods?”
“Of course. Like all other children in the area, I have been taught about the medicinal properties of the leaves and trees. We depend on them.”
Elioth looked grudgingly impressed. “Do you mind if I test you?”
She shrugged. “Feel free. I will be back in a few minutes.”
Kabyl took a shower and got dressed in her shifter clothing but with standard underwear under it. Now that the emergency was over, the supportive undershirt was going back on. Her breasts were much happier to be under control.
The shirt was clean, but she had really been rough with it. The trousers were pretty rough as well. She got dressed, put on socks, and counted on not shifting today.
The charms were still clicking in her pockets as she stared in the mirror and braided her hair.
It felt more and more like her old self as she stared at her weirdly blue eyes in the mirror. It was always odd to look herself in the eye. She felt like there was something else behind her gaze and know she knew there was.
Her dragon chuckled in the back of her mind.
She sighed and walked out to see Elioth. She stared, and she started to chuckle. They looked like siblings. His hair had been braided while she was in her bedroom, and he was standing, holding one of the books.
She smiled. “If you are ready, we can get going.” She grabbed a notebook and pencils. If it was cold, pens wouldn’t write.
Her boots were comfortable, and the fur-lined jacket made her feel toasty the moment it was in place. Her father had hunted the pelts for her, and her mother had used her sewing skills to put it together. Her mom couldn’t cook, but she could take a needle to a moose hide and come out with a three-piece suit.
Elioth put on his cloak, and he quirked his brow. “I imagine that we are not flying?”
“No. We need to do a standard spiral sweep. I will identify the closest of those who were killed by the creatures, and from there, we will continue. It might take a few days.”
He frowned. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because my father is the local peacekeeper, my mother is with him, and at a conservative guess, over twenty people are dead.”
He paused. “How are we travelling?”
She walked past the workshop and went to the storage area.
She opened the large door and reached inside, pulling on the sled that her father used to take his family on trips.
Elioth frowned. “Why didn’t you ask for help?”
“Because although it is heavy, it is more awkward.” Once it got on the snow, it was easy for her to move around.
It was heavy if she lifted it but light for a sled of its size. The dogs would be able to handle it easily. She got it into a good position, checked to make sure that there weren’t any insects or inhabitants, and then went to get the dogs.
She smiled when the dogs were in position, quivering with the urge to move. She grabbed some extra haunches of meat and strapped them to the sled. She looked at Elioth. “Hop in.”
He frowned. “Where?”
She patted the slope of the seat. “Here. You get to ride while I steer.”
“That doesn’t seem appropriate.”
“That’s fine. Do you know how to run a dogsled?”
He blinked and then slowly shook his head. “It is a skill I would not mind acquiring.”
“First, you learn to ride, then you learn to run the team.”
He climbed in, and she showed him how to tuck his cloak around him for warmth. “I am going to put some light straps on you, it is just for the turns.”
She briefed him on acting like a sack of potatoes, and then, she got up behind him and whistled. The dogs stopped fidgeting.
She pulled her fluffy mittens on, checked to make sure that Elioth had the notepad and pencil, and then, she yelled, “Marche!”
The dogs strained, pulling at the harnesses, and then, the sled started to move. She kicked off several times to build speed, and then, the dogs were off.
She hung on, and they moved through the woods with surprising dexterity. The cabins were known to her, and she drove past all of them, pausing when she saw the wreckage of the first cabin, telling Elioth what to write down. “Zagree Nerwell. Age fifty-six. Female. Lived alone.” Kabyl dragged in a deep breath. “She died during the third day of attacks.”
“How do you know?”
“She is on Beliado vein of minerals. They were the second to the last ones that we destroyed. The creatures followed the mineral deposits.”
He made the notes and tucked everything back in when he was ready to continue.
She pulled her hood up and pushed off again, her dogs taking them the ten minutes to the next shattered cabin.
He didn’t say anything, he just wrote down the names of the three kids that had lived there with their father. She wiped at her eyes, and then, they continued on. They used every moment of daylight in their search, and the death toll was over forty when she finished at the camps.
Elioth was sober as Kabyl drove them back to her home. He was looking like he had just come to a decision.
She fed the dogs again. They had done a lot of good work today, and they were fed accordingly. Their half-hour break for food and rest while they were away had been welcome. She had gone behind a tree and cried. Now, they were in for the rest of the night.
Kabyl walked inside and tried to shake the hollow feeling.
“You don’t know if they are all dead. There were a few cabins that were empty and didn’t have blood in them.” Elioth was stoking the fire, and the kettle was already in place.
“Unless the fire was on, there wouldn’t be any reason for the creatures to rip the house open, and few folk here waste firewood.”
She looked at the list and then pushed it aside. “Shit.”
He looked at her and nodded. “I am going to be staying here.”
Kabyl looked at him in surprise. “What? Why? That is a weird non-sequitur.”
Elioth smiled slightly. “You need someone to help. This community doesn’t know yet how bad the issues were. They are going to need help. I can be helpful.”
She looked at him with what she was sure was a confused expression. “Why?”
“I have the gift of empathy with higher beings. I can feel the waves of pain in the forest and parts of your town. They know about your father’s injuries?”
She nodded. “My mom told them that she had to close the general store, and then, she told them why. Oh, and then, she flew away on a dragon, and aside from Doc Weathering, there aren’t dragons here.”
“Doc Weathering and you.”
“Oh. Right. Yeah.” She flexed her hands and then rubbed them on her thighs. “I just wish I could do something else.”
“Get up and come with me.”
She scowled. “We haven’t even had tea.”
“This will only take a moment, and it will definitely be a distraction.”
Kabyl got to her feet. “Fine.”
He grinned. It was a surprising expression.
They walked outside, and she only put her boots on. She was getting better at ignoring the cold but hated wet socks.
“This is the reason that my cousin and then Lady Trin thought I would be a good tutor.” He took the clasp from his belt, and with a slight twitch of his arm, it unfolded into a strung bow.
He pulled his arm back, and an arrow appeared with a dark head. He released it, and it whirled along until it struck a pile of snow and the shadow spread before fading away.
“You try it. It generates its own arrows. You just need to focus.”
He handed it to her and corrected her grip slightly. “You have used a bow before.”
“We sometimes need to kill something quietly. It does the job.”
He nodded. “Of course. Now, think about your breath attack, focus on how you feel when you fire it. Aim it
at something you don’t mind destroying, and let the arrow fly. The bow will contain the power until it strikes something.”
She followed his directions and aimed into the space between the trees, she checked to make sure there were no heat signatures, and then, she focused on the rush of rage that she felt when she used her attack.
An arrow appeared, and the power kept flowing into it.
Elioth shouted, “Let it go!”
She fired it, and it soared out, growing larger as it flew until it wedged between two trees before it exploded.
Elioth grabbed her and pulled her down as the shattered trees sent shards spinning in an upward pattern.
She smelled summer when he pressed against her, and as the last crackling bit of wood dropped, she pushed back against him. “You okay?”
He nodded and shook his cloak so that the pieces of shattered tree fell away. “Well. It seems we have a little work to do.”
She looked around at the small fragments of wood that had stuck into everything from chest height and up. The dogs were fine, back to sleeping in little fluff balls, their tails covering their muzzles. The trees that she had tried to shoot through were gone.
Elioth smiled, and the kettle inside began to whistle. “Well, there is some work to do, but are you distracted?”
She looked at the back of the house, decorated like it had pissed off a porcupine. “I am definitely distracted. Thanks.”
They went inside, and a plan of study was discussed, and the notebook on the table was not. It could wait until the next sunrise.
Chapter Twelve
Peacekeeper Dexter came to the store that night, and she gave him a copy of the list. He was going to confirm it before he announced anything to the town.
Kabyl nodded. “Good. There might be one or two who were in town and now have no proper home to return to.”
“I will take care of it. Kabyl, does your dad now about... him?” Dexter jerked his head toward Elioth, who was kneading dough for a loaf of bread.