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The day after Kadryn had broken her wings in her first confrontation with a Gaili dragon, she woke up with a huge headache. Apparently that tea is like alcohol in more ways than one! She thought with a groan, as she massaged her temples. Kirosh appeared before her and offered her a cup of cocao coffee, her favorite type.
“Sorry about that, I didn’t know that the Lirten would affect you so fast or so hard. Normally all it does is dull pain, but sometimes it gets people drunk.” He smiled as he ran his hand through her ruffled hair. Kadryn had to stop herself from leaning into the caress, though she couldn’t suppress the small shiver of warmth that ran through her.
“I don’t think I’ll be drinking anymore of that, the headache isn’t worth it!” She said, “Though it did get rid of the pain last night.” Kirosh went back to the fire place where he was making porridge.
“Good, that’s what it was meant to do. Kadryn, I think I need to teach you how to fight in a group. “ Kirosh looked at her with a serious expression tinged with amusement. “You like to charge in to battle too much, and I can certainly work around that. But with your wings broken, you’ll be at a disadvantage because you won’t have one of your main weapons. That and my Hastars don’t know how to fight alongside you, they don’t want to get too close since your mace could hurt them.” Kadryn thought for a bit, it was true. And Kirosh had been able to be back up for her in the past weeks, and the Hastars had never helped in any of the battles. Last night had opened her eyes a bit, she hadn’t known they could fight.
“Um, guess you’re right. It’s just what I’ve always done, so I’ve never really thought of different ways to fight. What would you suggest we do?” She was curious to see what Kirosh came up with. He came from a different environment and training than her, so it was guaranteed to be different no matter what!

Kiorsh smiled in relief, at least she didn’t mind his words! He’d met some barbarians who hated to have their fighting style critiqued. “Well, for one thing, your swings are much too wide and random. The random is good, the wide is not. I also use whistles to signal my Hastars where I am attacking so I’ll have to teach you what those are so you can let them know where you’ll be attacking. Once they get hear those whistles, they’ll know where to attack so as not to be in your way.”
“Really? That’s rather smart! I never knew they could learn things like that...” Kadryn looked at the Hastars with interest. Perhaps they had more uses than riding beasts and food after all!
Kirosh chuckled as he dished out the porridge, “They are cute intelligent in a limited way. You just have to train them from when their small. These two were a gift from my father when I left society to live out in the wild. He trains them for a living and was one of the few people in my home town I actually liked.” Kadryn smiled back at Kirosh, interested. He’d never talked about his background before. But, to her dismay that was all he offered. The rest of the meal he talked about some tactics they could use. Later in the day they packed up and moved to a different camp away from the battle of last night.
On their way to finding a new campsite, the Hastars suddenly started to prance nervously, their ears back and lips pulled up to reveal their fangs. After dismounting, Kadryn hefted her mace while Kirosh readied his bow; the Hastars often sensed danger before they did. Kadryn’s shoulders ached, the wings were safely hidden in her back, but the pain of their breaking till hit her every time she moved her shoulders. This was not going to be a fun battle at all! She thought to herself with a pout. Kirosh gave a sharp whistle, one which would signal the Hastars to attack first. Which they did, gleefully charging with shrill screams into the rocky ravine to their right. Kirosh quickly notched an arrow and left fly the instant he spotted the Giali Dragon’s head rearing up. Kadryn, not wanting to aggravate her shoulders too much stayed back, knowing that Kirosh and his Hastars could take on the two Gaili’s that were in the ravine. It was a good thing she did too, she heard the sound of shifting rocks behind her and spun about. Her body reacted on instinct, quickly summoning up her magic within herself to cover her body in a pale blue aura. Her mace spun out and smashed into the boulder being thrown at Kirosh, shattering it and redirecting it away from him. She then charged, her shoulders screaming in pain and her muscles aching from the beating of the day before. But she didn’t let that stop her; in fact, she turned the pain into a weapon, letting all her anger at being sat on by one of these beasts fuel her muscles as she smashed her spiked mace up into its head. Blood splattered everywhere as she ripped it out of the dying dragon’s head and swung her mace it once more, destroying its skull and killing it.

She turned around just in time to see Kirosh and his hastars kill the other two dragons. The pain came back and her wings came out unbidden. Man did they hurt!
“Okay, note to self. Don’t fight with broken wings… too painful!” Kadryn gasped out as she sat down. “Why do they have to be connected to my shoulders?”
Kirsosh rushed over when she’d sat down, a worried expression on his face. But his quickly laughed at her words, the worry vanishing.
“Silly person! You knew your wings were connected to your shoulder blades, so of course if you move your arms around too violently they’re gonna hurt! Until your bones mend, let me do the fighting, okay?” He wrapped one arm above her shoulders and pulled her in for a quick hug. Kadryn, even though she was in pain, still felt her heart skip a beat at his nearness.
“Okay,” she muttered into his shoulder, enjoying his touch and knowing that this pain was not something she wanted to go through again. I’m never going to let a dragon sit on me again!