Chapter 11
Upon Waking
Annora’s mind was muddled as she woke. The smell of meat cooking was strange because the ground under her was clearly not that of a tavern. And her body ached in ways she had never experienced before.
Then the most recent events flooded into her consciousness.
She sat bolt upright, her eyes wide and wild. There was a fire and she could see the meat cooking, but Elian was nowhere to be found.
Quickly she stood and threw her clothes on, unable to look back at where she had slept out of shame. The dragon hunter reached the mouth of the cave when something to the right caught her eye. Turning, she saw a large black dragon flying toward the cave. Instinctively, she moved back into the cave. It was all she could do to fight the instinct to draw her weapons. The dragon was soaring toward the mouth of the cave, and just before its front claws touched, the image in front of her blurred, and then Elian strolled into the cave.
Annora’s hand covered her heart as she watched him enter. It took only a few seconds for his vision to acclimate to the cave, and then he turned to where she had been sleeping. When he saw that she wasn’t there, his head turned toward the food. She stood close by it, looking at him with what appeared to be fear.
Holding up his hands, Elian stepped toward her. “I’m not going to hurt you. Look, breakfast.” His hands were up in a nonthreatening stance and he gestured toward the food.
The dragon hunter’s eyes looked down and then back at him, her heart still racing, her eyes still wild. She said nothing.
Keeping his distance, Elian moved to the fire and removed the meat. “Sorry for being gone when you woke. I returned Lilou to the clan and told them I still had some unfinished business. I tried to make it sound official, but I think Leonides is onto me.” He felt the food, the put his fingers in his mouth. “It’s done. Would you like some?”
Annora swallowed and her eyes darted toward the mouth of the cave. All she wanted to do was get out of the cave and away from the shame and disgust she felt toward herself.
Elian put the food down and stood up. “Are you alright? Here, let me fix your-”
She wanted to run, to get away, but she found it impossible to disobey him as he sat her down near the medicine and he adjusted some of her bandages. It was then that she realized he had already treated the ones she had neglected after the fight.
Looking at the top of his head while he checked her ankle, she asked, “Why?”
He had been chatting, about what, she was not sure. His eyes looked up at her, and her heart sped up. “I don’t understand the question.”
The pain on his face was there, although he was trying to hide it. Annora tried to choose her words carefully, but she always found it difficult to express emotions. Primarily she was both scared and confused.
“Why are you still helping me?”
His hand reached up and felt her forehead. “Are you fevered?” A frown crossed his face. Apparently Elian was not satisfied with the results, so he moved up and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. Both of his hands held her face as he pulled back. “You don’t feel like you are fevered.” He wanted to say something else, but only his eyes hinted at what it was.
Annora looked at him. “Why are you still here?”
The question clearly pained him. Standing up, he looked down at her. “Do you want me to leave?”
Shaking her head, the dragon hunter tried to figure out what she was trying to say. Bree was the one who had experience with this, an area of life that Annora had been desperate to avoid for over a decade. “I just thought… Don’t men usually leave afterward?”
Elian blinked at her a couple of times, then laughed. Annora’s face flushed as she looked up at him, her eyes threatening. He lowered himself and took her hands in his own. “Good. I thought we came to something of an understanding earlier.”
Annora’s face radiated confusion.
Searching her eyes, the shifter continued, “I thought you were willing to… give up hunting.”
Annora’s eyebrows drew together. “So you stayed to keep me from killing more of your kind? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just kill me?” Her voice had a chill to it.
The pained expression immediately made her feel guilty.
Shaking her head, Annora tried to fix what she had said. “Wasn’t what happened just a way for you to get leverage? I thought that this sort of thing…” She lost her voice as the young woman had not the ability to bring up what had happened. Her face was bright red as her voice trailed off.
Elian stared at her for a few moments before saying, “I don’t know if you are really that innocent or that repulsed.”
Annora pulled her hands out of his and ran them through her hair. “This is Bree’s area, not mine. I’ve always believed this kind of thing was just an exchange. A way of negotiating. Why else would people do it?”
Elian’s expression was priceless as he looked at her. For her part, Annora could not look at him directly any more. His voice was low and warm as he asked, “And what were you trying to negotiate this morning?”
“I don’t know!” Her breath started to quicken and she felt like her head was going to explode. “I thought you were going to die. Once it was obvious that you weren’t, I was so….” Her voice faltered. Turning her eyes toward Elian, they were pleading with him.
He reached a hand out and touched her face. “You were so pleased that you didn’t care what happened?”
She nodded, her mind distracted by the fact that Elian was being so kind. The feel of his hand against her skin made her heart race, and Annora tried to fight down the excitement it inspired.
Elian moved towards her, and the dragon hunter did not pull away as he gently kissed her. She did not resist as his hand rubbed her neck and down her back. Placing his forehead against hers, the shifter closed his eyes. “This is not a negotiation. More like a confession.”
Annora put a hand on the large hand cradling her face. His fingers wrapped around hers and she squeezed back. She murmured, “What kind of confession? That even I can act like a stupid woman?”
His head gently bumped against hers as he laughed. With a single motion he stood and pulled her up. Without a word, he carried her over to the fire. “You need to eat or you will never properly heal.”
“I’m glad to see you are so amused,” she mumbled, trying to cover her own disappointment as Elian moved away from her. They ate in silence, the dragon hunter keeping her attention trained on the food and cave entrance, the dragon shifter’s attention on her.
As soon as the food was gone, Elian quickly put out the fire and removed the remains that could not be eaten. Annora had not moved from her spot as she tried to sort out her feelings. It had always been so easy because she preferred to avoid emotions. They tended to make her careless.
Elian sat down beside her, his hands in front of him as he talked. “You seem to be having a really hard time with this. If you are not comfortable, you are free to go. I will report back that the problem has been resolved as they had expected without talking about The Fiend.” He paused. “If that is what you want.”
Annora looked at her own hands. Her head shook back and forth. “I don’t know what I want anymore.”
With a deep sigh, she talked about the memories she had spent most of her life avoiding. “Both of my parents were killed in dragon attacks. Not at the same time. First my father, then my mother a few years later. I was an orphan by the time I was 12 years old, and had lost three homes, so I had always thought that my fate was obvious.” She felt Elian’s tension as she proceeded to relay the worst of her memories. “Someday I would be killed by a dragon. It just seemed like the only possible outcome. Dragon attacks are pretty rare, and yet, I had been in the wrong place at the wrong time on three different occasions, and it had cost me everything. Not long after that, I met Bree. She thought I was a boy for nearly three years. I kept my hair short, wore boy’s clothes, and always carried weapons. I suppose it was the daily training that really made her feel safe around me despite the fact that I wasn’t that much older than her.
“It was only when we encountered Naya and Nyle that she learned I was always a girl. I never cared about my gender, so when it came time to wash, I went with Nyle. He was quite shy, so despite being older than Naya, he usually let her do all of the talking. I was trying to get him to talk to me as we got ready to clean up. We stripped down, I got into the little pond, and started splashing around. When I turned to talk to him, Nyle was just standing there, half-dressed, staring at me like I was crazy. ‘You’re a girl!’ were the first words he ever said to me.” She laughed. “I think he was about 13 years old at the time. Maybe older. I’m not good with that sort of thing.” Her hands were in front of her, and she was peeling at the piece of wood that had held her meat.
“It was the first time it ever occurred to me that it could be an issue, but I didn’t want to show how embarrassed I felt because of it. ‘So is Naya. Now get in here and clean up or I will tell her that you are neglecting yourself.’ Well, it was obvious that he was torn. The poor boy didn’t want to be naked in front of a girl, but he also didn’t want to get in trouble with his sister. She could be so fierce when it came to properly taking care of themselves. Finally, he removed everything except his inner pants, and that boy ran like he was on fire into the water. When I tried to approach him to wash up, Nyle quickly swam away, saying he could take care of himself just fine. He also asked me to leave. ‘But you have no undergarments now because you wore them into the water. What is wrong with you?’ He glared at me like I was making fun of him. ‘You’re a girl. You shouldn’t be here.’ At no point did he blame me for his actions; Nyle was never one to accuse others for the decisions he made. I got out and found him a new pair of inner pants. Since he clearly didn’t want me in the area while he washed, I ran into the clearing, threw them down, and ran back out.
“I was chatting with Bree and Naya when he finally emerged, his eyes looking from me to them. Naya saw his expression. ‘What is wrong with you, Nyle? Are you hungry?’ He shook his head. She pestered him for a bit, but he didn’t say anything. Nyle’s eyes kept shifting to me as if asking why.
“When it was bed time, Naya put her arm through Bree’s and said the girls were going to head off to bed in a little space I had secured just inside the wall of one of the towns. Can’t remember where now. Nyle looked at me, then at them, then without warning, he shoved me toward them. Immediately his sister started to tell him he shouldn’t be so rough, that she and Bree would be fine, and on and on. When she finally stopped talking, his gentle voice spoke up, ‘You said the girls will go to bed. Are you really going to leave her behind?’ The look on their faces was priceless. Bree burst out laughing as Naya began to lay into him about how rude he was being. As she menaced in front of him, I put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Why are you so offended? He’s right.’ I think that Bree nearly died of a heart attack at that moment, because she had been under the wrong impression for so long. Naya’s face turned to look at her. ‘But you said…’ I walked off, hoping they would follow. ‘I don’t see what the big deal is. I would rather be mistaken for a boy than be treated like a girl. Come on. We will all sleep in the same place.’ And that took care of it. Saskia joined us later that year, and she was quite the handful. So full of questions about why a girl would dress as a boy. I suppose by then my figure made it easier to tell that I wasn’t a boy because the first thing she ever said to me was, ‘Why do you dress like a boy? You would be so pretty in a dress like mine!’
“It wasn’t long after that when I learned about Nyle’s prophetic dreams. It happened several times a year, and they were always terrifying. Saskia still had her father, so she stayed with him most of the time. Naya and Bree always slept through his panic because he was quiet, but I was a light sleeper. Whenever he would wake up shaking, I knew why and I would immediately hold him until he stopped.
“He got better at hiding it as he got older, and Nyle stopped telling me about what happened because one time I nearly got killed trying to keep one of them from happening. I was successful, but I was on death’s door for several days. He was already making a life for himself as a merchant, but he put all of that on hold to take care of me. At that time, I had already killed two dragons, and he wanted me to quit. Nyle proposed to me, saying that he would rather keep me safe than see me get killed in such a dangerous profession. I thought his proposal was out of pity, so as soon as I could walk, I left the town. It took more than a year for them to track me down. The three of them were living comfortably in a place above his shop. Bree was already working in her current profession by then, and Naya was helping her brother. Saskia was Saskia, doing whatever ideas came to her mind, unable to do anything for too long. It was Naya who finally tracked me down. The only way to get her to leave me alone was to go back with her to see everyone again. That’s when Nyle said he was going to become a dragon hunter, too. He was terrible at it; his weapon skills were pretty bad.” She smiled faintly at the memory.
“It was only the following year that I learned why he had suddenly made that decision. He had never asked Naya to bring me back, and been willing to leave me to my travels, but as soon as he saw me, Nyle didn’t hesitate. Naya was furious and said that she would shut down the business if he did that to her. Of course she didn’t do it, and by then she and Saskia had plans for expansion (Saskia’s idea, but Naya saw that it was a market that would attract a lot of attention and potential buyers). I tried to refuse Nyle at first, but when it became obvious that he was doing it with or without my help, I started to train him. While he was never great, I found him to be very skilled at learning. His executions were always a little… forced, but his ability to remember a lot was pretty staggering.
“We were in a small village when the dragon attacked. He died saving me. Nyle knew it was coming and that was why he changed his profession. I could have saved him several times. He loved me, but I turned him down because I didn’t realize…” Her voice faltered.
Suddenly an arm went around her shoulders. She lay her head on Elian’s shoulder and cried. He stroked her hair saying nothing as she tried to pull herself together.
Annora wiped the tears from her face as she sat up. “I’m so sorry. This has nothing to do with anything.”
Elian’s hand gently turned her to face him. “No, it explains a lot. Don’t apologize.” He ran his hand along her face. “I’m sorry for everything you have been through.”
He sighed and looked away. “Most shifters prefer to just stay in the mountains because life is so much simpler, easier. But there are always those who want to destroy and prove that we are better than humans. Others go insane. It’s pretty common for shifters. We try to monitor for the cruel and the insane, but we can’t always catch them before they do something destructive.”
Annora looked up at him. “Are all dragons shifters?”
Elian shook his head. “No. Most dragons are just dragons. They keep to themselves and humans will almost never see a pure-blooded dragon. It’s always a shifter who attacks, though. As the head of my clan, I am responsible for keeping everyone in line. Lilou was the first to attack from our clan since I took over.”
Annora patted his hand, not sure what to say.
“Humans don’t usually bother us, but when they do, they really make a mess of things. Our young are more likely to become violent and vicious towards them. I am one of the few who spends more time in human form because I spend much of my time monitoring people who are likely to cause us problems. Leonides spends nearly as much time as a human because he refuses to leave the full burden up to me. He’s a good man. I think he was originally afraid that I was going to lose it after Lilou disappeared and Phelan was exiled. I wasn’t the leader back them. Leonides has kept an eye on me ever since. It’s funny since I am considerably older than him, but it does help me stay grounded.”
Annora looked up at him. With so many questions going through her head, she wasn’t sure what she could ask.
Elian looked down at her. A hand went to her face and he caressed her cheek with his thumb. “I suppose he was trying to keep me away from you as well. Leonides has me figured out so well, he knows what I am feeling before I realize it. Well, he was right, and now I’m not quite sure what to do.”
Annora looked away. “You have responsibilities. You have to take care of them first.”
The man laughed. “Yes, that is a nearly perfect imitation of something he would say.”
“He’s not wrong.” She looked up at him.
“No, that certainly isn’t wrong, but my responsibility goes well beyond just my clan now. He knew by the way I treated you that I had made my choice, and he will also tell you that can’t be ignored either.”
Annora frowned. “I don’t know what you mean. Responsibility is always first.”
“Yes, and I took responsibility for you that night. Nothing you say or do now is going to change that. It will just change how I act to fulfill that responsibility.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that.”
Elian leaned in, his mouth close to her ear. “Say that you will allow me to fulfill the responsibility by your side. It will make things so much easier.”
Annora pushed him away. “Easier for who? Certainly not easier for me. I do not want to be locked up and guarded for the rest of my life.”
“Nor do I want to lock you up. Often,” he grinned down at her. “If The Fiend were to join my clan, do you have any idea just what that will do?”
“Make a lot of your people hate you?”
He laughed, “No. You have a reputation as being ruthless, but never without cause. Your name is invoked to keep our young in line.”
“So I’m a boogey man to your people?” Annora wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or insulted with this revelation.
He smiled at her. “Not to me.” His hand stroked the back of her head. “If you were to join me, we would rest better knowing that we had our own protector.”
“That makes no sense,” she tried to find his lie in his eyes, but they were sincere.
“No one was even sure if you were human, they certainly have no idea that you are a female human. Your species does not have a great… track record for the way women are treated. A sword-wielding woman is pretty much unheard of, which kind of baffles shifters. Most of our best warriors are women, especially the mothers. I feel humans are really missing something to sideline women.” His hand gestured toward Annora. “Case in point right here.”
Annora ran a hand through her hair at the compliment. “I never saw what gender had to do with anything. I wanted revenge. I wanted to never lose anyone I loved ever again. There was only one choice for me to make.”
“Yes. And now you can change the course of your life.”
She looked up at him, her mind trying to take in what he was saying. “But I don’t even know how that would work.”
“Simple. You stay with me, help me deal with humans, and when something happens to one of our own, you help me hunt to bring them back. It’s really not that much different than what you do now. Except you will always have a guaranteed home, no need to find someone willing to pay you.”
Annora’s eyebrows went up. That would make her life considerably easier. It was so difficult to get people to take her seriously, which meant getting hired was particularly annoying. She looked into his reddish eyes and a smile spread across her face. “Of course, I will still have a high price for clothing. Modified clothing is not cheap.”
Elian laughed and ran a hand down her arm. “It is very well done. Where did you get it so quickly?”
“I can introduce you to him later. I should probably thank you for choosing Kildeer; it would have been impossible to find something better than those hideous clothes anywhere else.”
He flinched. “Hideous? I thought they looked charming on you.”
“It is impossible to fight with that much fabric flying everywhere. The only benefit was the fact that men are so easily distracted that mobility is only a minor problem.”
Elian laughed again. “Well, I can’t say that I blame them. You are a very beautiful woman, despite how you try to hide it.”
Annora tilted her head to the side. “Hide it? I simply don’t care.”
Elian pulled her toward him, his hand smoothing down her hair as he looked at her face. “I wish I could say I don’t care either, but right now that would be a lie.”
Slowly he leaned down toward her. Annora closed her eyes as his eyes asked. She sighed as his lips pressed against hers. His hands were skillfully working her shirt off as hers clumsily slipped under his shirt and began pulling up.
He began to push against her, lowering her to the ground. Annora placed her hands on his chest and pushed him away. Elian’s face was shocked as he looked at her. Annora swung her leg over his. Placing both of her hands on his shoulders, she roughly pushed him to the ground. He laughed before grabbing her hips and rolling over on top of her. Before she could protest, his mouth covered hers while his hands unfastened her belt.
As the sun rose the next morning, Elian and Annora pulled closer together.
“Too bright,” she muttered as the light shone on their faces.
He pulled her head into his chest. “I’ll protect you.”
She gave him a gentle push. “I don’t need protection, I just want more sleep.”
“But you seem so awake.” He looked down at her tired face. “I can help with that.”
Her laugh was stifled as his mouth began kissing her neck and his hand explored her body.
Once they were finished, the pair dressed and looked around the empty cavern. Hand in hand, they stepped out into the late morning light.
The End
Ailey’s Dragon
By: Lisa Daniels
Chapter 1
A Strange Series of Introductions
As she stepped out of the inn, Ailey placed a hand over her eyes. The sun was bright, causing her a moment of discomfort after a restless night in the tiny inn. The couple who ran it were very friendly, even making fun of the state of their offering, and this endeared them to the rare traveler who stopped for the night. Ailey’s difficulty in sleeping was more a result of her inability to stop thinking than it was about the accommodations. The inn was at a small cross-roads about halfway between Yuezhi’s capital, Antakya, and the prosperous but deeply troubled city of Melzi. Melzi was the largest city in the neighboring country of Bagrada. Until two years ago, Melzi was one of the most populous cities on the continent. Then it was struck by a plague for which no cure had been found. Over one third of the population of the city had already died, and it as said nearly another third had contracted the illness, not that Ailey believed much of the gossip. They also said that the disease would kill anyone who contracted it within a day. If that were the case, the entire city would have already been wiped out. Regardless of how much exaggeration had come out of the city, one thing was certain – the illness was claiming more lives than any other plague had in over a millennium. And it was certainly true that no cure had been found. The number of people who had contacted her over the last two years was ample indication that healers were completely baffled by the ailment. Their frustration was usually punctuated by silence as the illness eventually claimed them. New medics would make their way to the city, but the results had been the same. Not everyone had died; there were still a few healers and medics in the city, one of whom had been there since the early days, but over three-quarters of those who had gone to help had died of the ailment. Over the last few months, the Medics Association had found it harder to send people to the city because so many of their people’s lives had already been claimed. They could not send everyone to one city, not when there was an entire continent that had other medical troubles, including war, a bizarre illness in another major city that only affected children, and increasing monster attacks. They could not afford to continue to send so many medics into the city with such high risks.
It was strange, but the illness did not appear to occur anywhere else. Those who had fled the city with the disease had died, but no one they encountered had contracted the ailment. Of course, they had tried to keep people from leaving, but it was difficult as the governmental infrastructure had faltered under so much uncertainty. It had given them a strange data point that no one knew how to interpret. Apart from living in the city, there was no commonality among those who had contracted the plague. Just as many nobles and wealthy inhabitants had died as people in the slums who had succumbed to the illness. Three of the queen’s eight children had died, and one had recently started to show symptoms.
At 33 years old, Ailey was old enough to have a wealth of knowledge, but still young enough to have the energy to make long treks without any assistance. Medics worked alone for as long as they could because the more ground they covered, the more assistance they could provide. Once their energy levels, or personal circumstances, required the use of a helper or companion, medics tended to settle into a region that they loved, offering their expertise to the lucky people who lived around them. There were some older medics who still chose to travel, like Ailey’s mentor, and there were young medics who settled down as soon as they had earned their medical clearance. It wasn’t exactly a safe profession, of which Ailey was well aware. Of the 25 people who had graduated at the same time as her, only 11 of them were still alive, nine of whom had settled down before they turned 30. Medics tended to be women, but that did not mean they were spared. Those who joined the profession usually did so knowing that there was a very good chance that they would not make it to 30. Medics were well-respected nearly everywhere they went because everyone knew what the Medic patch meant about a person. However, ailments and circumstance did not care, and it was the fact that medics actively went into dangerous places that meant they were less likely to reach middle age.
Those who did reach middle age were among the hardiest and knowledgeable humanoids in the world. They were also incredibly cynical and could identify a lie almost before it was out of the speaker’s mouth. Any medic over 30 years old who was still on the road was not someone a creature of intelligence would bother.
The vast majority of medics were humans, but it was not compulsory. Other species occasionally joined, though their motives were usually less noble. Some humanoids sent their young into the profession to learn more about humans, which was allowed as long as the humanoid worked as a medic for at least 20 years (most non-humans were at much lower risk because of their innate abilities, usually tending toward magic). Some humanoids joined out of curiosity, and they were required to make the same 20-year commitment. Occasionally, humanoids joined because they sought death, and they usually went into the most dangerous situations never to return.
Ailey was a full-blooded human, so it was only through her skill and intelligence that she was still alive. Her long, dark brown hair was in the usual style, braided and coiled around her head. This was often hidden by the hat she wore to keep her eyes shielded on her travels – she understood what caused cataracts and had no desire to undergo any of the remedies, not when it was so much easier to simply prevent them. Her clear, rich brown eyes took in the scene around her, considering how far she was likely to make it before she wanted to stop for the night.
It was 9:30, which was much later in the day than she would have liked to be making her departure. Skilled as she was with medicines and healing, the experienced medic had no ability to rewind time. Still, if she pushed herself a little harder, it was possible to make it as far as Derbe, a small town just two days away from Melzi. Twisting her mouth and pulling her bag up on her shoulders, the woman set off on the road without giving much thought to the usual problems travelers encountered.
Medics did tend to die young, but it was rarely as a result of interactions with other humanoids. Bandits, marauders, even dictators left them to their jobs because the last thing anyone wanted was to be blacklisted by the Medics Association. The Association had an impossibly long memory, and while they were kind-hearted and helpful, they were not forgiving of those who intentionally harmed one of their own. Being blacklisted by this particular group was a universal death sentence regardless of where a person was in the world. It never paid to upset those whose sole purpose was to help others – especially when they were as well organized and communicative as the Medics Association.
So Ailey began her day wary of the numerous dangerous wildlife she could encounter as she headed toward the small town. The sun made its steady passage across the sky as the medic considered all of the possible issues that could have caused the plague. She had been contacted by over a dozen other medics and healers in the city over the last two years, so Ailey was aware what had already been tried and what suspected problems had already been ruled out. The problem was that she had been on the other side of the continent when the plague had broken out. In the beginning, everyone had expected the cause to be easily found and resolved. It was only after a full year had passed that the Medics Association had begun to get seriously concerned, and sent some of their more experienced professionals, including Ailey’s mentor, Ester. Ester had tried to keep Ailey apprised of what was going on, but communication had suddenly stopped about a month and a half ago. Ailey had written one of the other medics asking what had happened. If Ester had contracted the ailment, she would have said as much in her final farewell. Instead there had been a letter about what she wanted to try next, then nothing. None of the medics that Ailey contacted could tell her what had happened. Ester had simply vanished. She had been full of her usual criticisms and instructing one day, then the next she hadn’t shown up. Ester never showed any signs of having the ailment, so someone had been sent to her home to see if she had been attacked. It wasn’t entirely uncommon for desperate family members to end up getting violent when a medic refused to give up supplies. The only sign that she had been there that morning had been a half-eaten breakfast still at the table. The woman’s cloak and hiking shoes were gone, so that meant she likely left willingly. The guards in Melzi were too busy to look for a medic who appeared to have left of her own volition, and of course the medics could not afford to go out looking.
Ester had been in the city for nine months, and in that time, she had found some strange similarities between the plague and other fatal illnesses in the distant past. All of her findings were well documented in the notes Ailey now carried.
Of course, Ailey’s primary purpose was to find the cure, or better yet, the cause. But she clearly had a personal reason for going beyond offering her assistance and knowledge. It was the reason why she had chosen to go to Melzi instead of Antakya. Usually, she would put the wellbeing of children first, and the ailment in Antakya only affected children. Her instincts had told her to head there first, but as soon as Ester went missing, Ailey changed her plans. Unfortunately, she had been a long way from either destination. Fortunately, they were in the same direction from her location. It meant she would be able to keep going on her current path, helping those who had requested assistance along the way. The battles raging on the borders of several of the countries in-between her location and destination had slowed her down considerably. They may not have requested aid from the Medics Association, but Ailey could not just ignore the wounded. Now that she was only a few days away from Melzi, the medic was determined to reach the city as soon as possible. If that meant missing out on sleep, so be it. Her nights were spent considering the notes her mentor had sent and trying to devise solutions that built on the knowledge and findings provided to her.
As she walked, Ailey’s mind was going over everything she knew and determining the best actions to take once she reached the city, starting with examinations of both patients and other medics.
The medic was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she did not notice the shadow that moved along the tree lines. It appeared shortly after Ailey finished eating her lunch, and together they progressed toward Derbe. So lost in her own thoughts, Ailey didn’t even hear the rustling in the brambles near the forest’s edge, followed by a flow of whispered cursing. The only time the medic looked up was when the gurgling roar of a chupacabra deep in the forest jolted her from her reverie. Gauging the distance based on the echo from the roar, Ailey moved a little faster. They weren’t known for attacking humans, but she knew from her own experiences that a starved chupacabra would attack anything that it thought too weak to fight back. With the closest town several miles away, it was best to be careful. The next time she heard the sound, it was much fainter. Comfortable that there was little in the way of danger nearby, Ailey returned her thoughts to the problems she would face.
The light was fading fast by the time she neared the little town. Ailey stopped to retrieve a well-worn message from her bag, a note that mentioned a couple who had been seeking assistance with fertility. The couple lived just outside of the town. It would be best to get that resolved before she ate and tried to sleep. Once morning came, Ailey wanted to be on the road around sunup.
As she opened the letter, the medic felt someone bump into her. Her eyes moved up and looked into the face of a beautiful young woman who looked like she had been attacked. There were tear stains down her lightly dirt-covered face. The young woman’s light brown hair had been styled simply to keep it from her face, but some of the hair had been pulled out of the hair style and was now sticking out at odd angles. Judging by the amount of bramble in it, the young woman had been in the woods. Her faded skirts were torn and a bit of blood had dried on her calf.
The young woman opened her mouth to talk, then her eyes caught sight of the medic’s patch on Ailey’s arm. Immediately the pleading look in her eyes disappeared, and the young woman’s greenish-hazel eyes looked into Ailey’s. “Shit. You're a medic. Should have known.” She began to turn back the way Ailey had just come and away from the town, when the medic stretched out her arm.
“Then you know to give me the coin purse back.”
The young woman let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I know.” Her empty hand suddenly held Ailey’s hefty coin purse, offering it to the medic. The young woman looked up at her target. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were a medic. You really need to wear patches on both arms, you know. I couldn’t see it from over here, and it would be unfair to be judged because it was hidden.”
Ailey made a sound of disapproval and shook her head. “Well, ignorance is no excuse for doing something illegal.”
“Hey,” the young woman said, giving Ailey her full attention, “I think we are just both lucky that I’m not a bandit. Think about that the next time you go wandering along a dangerous road, your mind completely somewhere else. If you advertised better, people would be less likely to kill you and regret it later.”
Ailey looked down at the girl and gave a nod. It was a fair point, although it still seemed wrong. People should refrain from killing anyone, not just medics. But medics already had it rough without additional risks.
“Good luck to you, Ms. Medic.” The young woman turned to leave.
Ailey was a medic, not a guard or law enforcement. And she certainly wasn’t the kind to try to persuade others into a better way of living, not unless they asked for her professional opinion. Still, there was a part of her that felt bad for the young women she encountered in places like Yuezhi and Bagrada. Ailey was well aware that her home country, Ancusa, was one of the few were genders were treated as equals. They had the same expectations of everyone, regardless of gender. They were impossibly high expectations, but that was what made the country so envied. Located far away from the other landmasses, Ancusa was a smallish country located on a very large island. It was incredibly rare that the people who lived there would leave, but there was very little that was normal about Ailey. It had been more than two decades since she had left, and she had no plans on returning. Still, she knew that she had been incredibly fortunate to have been born there. Ailey had grown accustomed to the strange, constrictive clothing worn in other countries, even if she would have liked to have walked around topless as all people did in Ancusa. She could not get accustomed to the disparate way women were treated elsewhere though.
“You don’t have to leave, you know.” The young woman turned around and the medic stuck out her hand. “Ailey.”
The woman looked down at the hand, then looked up, her eyes narrowed. “You’re a medic. Not a lawdog.”
“Yes. And I am introducing myself, not trying to trick you into giving yourself up.” She moved her hands out as if to indicate their surroundings. “We are too far from anywhere for you to think of me as a threat.”
“The town is just right there.” The young woman pointed toward a hill.
“That can’t be right. I should have another mile…” the medic pulled out a piece of paper.
“Come on.” The young woman grabbed Ailey’s forearm and pulled her to the top of the hill. “There. The illustrious anthill of Derbe.”
Ailey looked over at the young woman. “Are you from there?”
“What?” She looked upset for a second. “Gods no. Never from that little piss place. Not as an origin or an adoptive home. I’ll never live there.” She offered up no other information.
Ailey looked at the defiant face staring down at the town. “Well, it was nice meeting you, young lady. Now if you’ll-”
“What? That’s it?”
Ailey looked at the girl. “Were you expecting more? Maybe that I would call the guards on the thief lurking outside the walls?”
“No.” She wrinkled her cute little nose. “I mean, like a thank you for showing you the town. I accept gold.”
For the first time in over a month Ailey let out a loud laugh. “You walked me up a hill that I would have already crested if you hadn’t tried to rob me.”
“I did apologize. I didn’t realize you were a medic. It would have saved me several hours if I had noticed that a lot earlier.”
The medic frowned, “You mean you aren’t staying in Derbe?”
“Did you not listen to me? I avoid little places like that. They are little death traps for someone like me.”
Ailey watched the young woman, then turned her eyes toward the town. She reached out a hand and wrapped it around the young woman’s upper arm. “Come on.”
Immediately the thief began to wiggle out of the grip. “I’m not going to let you turn me in!”
Ailey moved behind the girl and began pushing her forward. “I’m trying to pay you back. Hot meal. Fix your wounded leg. It’s not quite what you want, but-”
“It’s a trick! A trap! You-” The young woman was flailing her arms and trying to get away from the medic.
“Excuse me. Can I be of some assistance?”
Both women turned to look at a man who was standing off to the side of the road. A map was in his long, thin hands. His hair caught the light in a way that made it look like it was a dark green color, and it was cut short. The man’s face was elegant, with eyes that were clearly not human – they were a strange combination of purple and green. Both women stared at him as the man stepped forward. His figure was chiseled and sturdy, but his movements were fluid and hypnotic.
Ailey was the first to respond as he neared. “My apologies for such a display, but it’s quite alright. My younger sister just seems to think that I plan to go through with the marriage contract our parents drew up before they died. All I want to do is prevent it. To make sure it is properly ended, we have to talk to the other family. She seems to think that she can just run away to resolve the problem.” The medic looked down at the young woman. The young woman blinked at her, then turned to look at the young man, unsure of what to say. Ailey spoke again, “I thank you for being willing to help, but I think we will be alright once she understands that I am not lying to her.”
“Well, why don’t I accompany you? That way if the older sister makes any attempt to follow through on the contract, I can whisk the younger sister away?” His smile was beautiful and completely disarming.
The young woman immediately responded, “That sounds fair to me.”
Ailey gripped her arm. “I’ll tell you what, if you can watch her while I go meet with the family, I will buy you both dinner once it is settled. I don’t need her making things more difficult with her constant interruptions, so that would be incredibly helpful.”
The man held out a hand to Ailey. “Lynx.”
A smile pulled at the corner of Ailey’s mouth, “Come, come, if you want to join my sister and me, I’m afraid I need your real name.”
“Medic! I mean, Ailey!” The young woman beside her sounded shocked. “How can you be so rude when he is trying to help?”
The man’s smile widened. “She’s quite right. My apologies, I had not realized.” He gave a short nod at her arm.
Ailey looked down at the patch and back up at the man. “Yes, that seems to be quite common in this area. Someone has even said that I should place one on the other arm. I think that people just need to be more observant.” The young woman glared up at her, but the man laughed.
He held out his hand again. “It is nice to meet you, Ailey. I am Ash.”
Ailey raised an eyebrow but shook his hand without any further reprimands.
The young woman spoke up, “You mean like the tree? Or, like, what’s left after a fire?”
“Like the tree,” he responded.
“I can see why you would use Lynx instead. It’s much manlier.”
Ash blinked at her.
Realizing that what she had said could be relatively offensive, the young woman immediately began to backtrack. “I mean, I like it, I think Ash is a nice name. But why not something like Oak? You look much more like an oak.”
“Dear sister,” Ailey squeezed the young woman’s arm, “you are babbling. Why don’t you introduce yourself properly?”
The thief glared up at Ailey, then turned with a smile on her face to look at Ash. “Hello, Ash. I’m Ivy.”
Ash’s smile spread wider. “Ah, like the parasitic, invasive vine.”
The smile faded from the young woman’s face. Jerking her arm out of Ailey’s hand, she folded her arms across her chest. “You don’t have to be mean about it.”
The man shook his head, “No, it is a perfectly lovely name and plant. You just have to be careful and cultivate it right. When it goes unchecked, ivy is absolutely destructive.” He gave the young woman a knowing look and smiled wider.
Unsure of how to take his words, Ivy fell silent.
Ash turned his attention to Ailey. “I guess she wasn’t lying about her name either.”
Ailey shrugged, “No, it looks like she wasn’t. Maybe she is looking for common ground that would help her get closer to you.” The three turned to head towards the town as Ailey continued. “Since you are being so kind, I feel obligated to warn you about watching your pockets while she’s around.”
“Oh, I know. And a word of advice, you guys need to work on your cover a bit more. Right now it is perfectly obvious to anyone who pays attention that you are not sisters.” He paused and looked at the sky as the women stopped and looked at him, uncertain whether they should continue with the stranger. “I suppose that means you will be alright. Humans aren’t known for being particularly adept at noticing anything.”
“Hey!” Ivy shouted at him. “Wait. You aren’t human?” He turned a little and gave her a perfectly noncommittal smile before sliding his hands into his pockets and continuing toward the town.
Ailey dropped Ivy’s arm. “Of course he isn’t. Have you ever seen a human with purple eyes?” The medic began to follow Ash.
Ivy looked between the two people walking in front of her and the road behind her. Ash continued to walk, but Ailey stopped and looked back at the young woman. Finally making up her mind, Ivy trotted forward and began walking next to the medic, keeping Ailey between her and Ash.