Tales of Vyscher Book 2

Chapter 32

Fehrys sat with his eyes closed, his back against a thick and tall maple tree. He let his senses flow outward, feeling for the life forces of the animals around the area. It might be cheating to hunt this way, but they needed food, and a lot of it before they continued. Kyrian needed much more with her growth rate.

He passed squirrels and rabbits, birds and snakes. They were all too small for a hungry dragon. He needed a deer, or preferably two, for both of them to have plenty of energy. He tried not to look too nervous in front of Kyrian, but in fact he was as scared as the first time he ever went to meet a dragon. Not for himself, he knew he could face Grollzan if he had to after what had happened to Kraulth, but for Kyrian. He didn't know how she would react to a hostile dragon, or how it would react to her. The last thing he needed was a fight to start because of flaring emotions.

He paused. His senses had found something perfect. Not a deer, but a large bear hunting as well. He tugged on its mind a bit and pulled it towards him.

"Kyrian, are you ready?" he whispered.

"Yes!" she said excitedly from behind the tree.

"Shhhh! We don't want him to hear us. I'm just making him think there is a juicy deer here. He will be enraged when he finds out there isn't."

"Oops, sorry!" she whispered this time.

The bear moved towards them, though stealthily. Fehrys kept track of it with his senses, but he wanted to let Kyrian get the kill. He would be ready with a spell just in case of emergency. There! He could sense it on the other side of the stream, sniffing the air. Luckily it was upwind of them, or it probably would have been running from the dragon scent. It hesitated though, for just a minute. But when the beast saw him alone against the tree it started wading through the water for what it hoped would be an easy meal.

Until a large dragon head snaked from behind the tree and hit the bear's head right off.

"Well done!" Fehrys had to say, that was a quick and clean kill.

"Thanks! Can I eat him??

"Not all of him. Let me clean him and cook some, and you can decide if you want him cooked or raw."

"Mmmm, raw! Hurry up!"

Fehrys quickly went to do the butchering, and in a few minutes, he had a piece of the bear haunch cooking over a fire, while Kyrian gobbled the rest of the bear off behind the tree again. He didn't need that visual as an appetizer.

When the food was finally finished and the fire was out, it was nearly mid-morning, and they were ready to go. Fehrys cast the spell to extend his wings again, and they were off, spiraling upwards over the stream until they were clear of the trees, and then heading west once more. Hopefully they would find the volcano before they got too tired again.

In that, they were lucky. Kyrian hadn't even asked for a snack when she called out. "Fehrys, I think I see it! Straight ahead!"

Sure enough, she was right. A low volcano indeed, barely two hundred feet over the trees, but with a wide base and a gaping maw of an opening at the top. Fehrys slowed, making sure they stayed below the top, and started to circle around to the right, signaling Kyrian to follow him. As they got to the other side, they could see ten large piles of rocks, standing near cleared trees as if they were anticipating being used for a construction process of some sort. The rocks were crudely cut into rectangles, as though made by unskilled laborers.

A small path led from an opening in the side of the volcano to the clearing, and then continued off to the west into the forest. While the pathway from the volcano to the trees was well worn, the one into the trees to the west was overgrown with weeds that looked as if they would trip up an unwary traveler. Obviously, they hadn't used that nearly as much.