Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had been a few days since Akara had discovered her bow and imprinted with it. Father had been beyond happy to find out that she had chose the bow as her weapon. Though she had tried to tell him that it had been less her choice and more her bow’s. It had spoke to her. She knew she’d heard it — inside her head. It had been quiet in the past days, though, and she was beginning to doubt it all. Maybe it had just been her imagination. Though Ataya had talked, before, about his staff talking to him in a way. She had pushed the thought away, for the time being, and had focused on her chores and archery practice.

Mid Afternoon found Kara finished with her morning chores and a want to practice shooting more. Alone and without Father or Ataya around. She enjoyed practicing with them both, at times, but sometimes Father was too hard and stiff and Ataya just didn’t care most times. Alone, she could work on what she wanted to and without Father breathing down her back. So, with the limit of a one mile radius on her mind, she set off up the mountain to explore a bit and look for some smaller creatures to practice on. It had been a while since she’d tried to shoot a moving target and it was something she’d been wanting to practice for a while but was unable to.

As she made her way through the brush and over rocks, something caught her attention off in the distance. Just the small rustle of a bush but movement, none the less. She crouched, bringing her bow to the ready and nocking an arrow and waited. It seemed as if she waited hours before finally a small, yellow poof ball appeared out in the open. “An uruu…” Kara murmured as she debated, chewing her lip. She took a step forward and crunched a twig. The sound echoed just enough for the uruu to notice and it took off running. Kara swore and let her arrow fly, missing the target by a long shot.

“Stupid,” she muttered as she retrieved the arrow, making sure it had not been damaged in her missed shot. Strapping her bow back onto her back she moved farther into the mountains, now heedless of how far she actually traveled from the house in her efforts to hit a moving target. By the time she finally managed to snag something, a small uruu, she’d traveled much farther than she had meant to.

Frowning, she glanced around at the unfamiliar surroundings. She knew which way was home. Father had taught her to track already and she was decent enough at it that she’d not get lost on their mountain, even traveling this far away. However, the newness of her surroundings did nothing but make her want to explore more and so she did. As she pushed through some rather thick brush, Kara froze in place as a clearing came into view. In an instant she could see that most of the open space had not been natural. Trees had been snapped in two and some were even burned to the ground. The smell of burnt wood was so faint, though, that whatever had happened, had happened days ago. She moved, keeping as close to the bushes as possible.

As her gaze flit around, searching for whatever had burnt the trees, she saw traces of blood splattered all over and soon the faint smell of burnt flesh reached her nostrils. Her eyes widened as she heard and saw the ysali dragons. She wrinkled her nose as one of them poked around at what looked to be a very crispy carcass. Not small enough to be one of their own, nor was it large enough to be a firani (what she was sure caused all the fire damage around her). From what was left of it, it didn’t even look like a dragon. A khehora, maybe? She frowned as her eyes narrowed in on one of the ysalis as it sniffed around and moved away from the fallen khehora and towards the bushes opposite of her. Kara wondered what the dragon was doing at the same time as she weighed her options. Part of her said to run, while the dragons were distracted, but another part of her wanted to stay and fight them off.

Kara watched as the one who’d gone off bite into vines, pulling and tugging them away from something. A rock, maybe? Her brows pinched together as she brought her bow back around, grip tight as she nocked an arrow. Now was her chance — she could take one of them down now, upping her chances of also taking out the second ysali. She let her arrow fly and for a second, she thought it would miss but it hit true, the arrow burying deep into the back of the ysali’s head. It gave a high pitched, dying screech just before disappearing into dust. The second dragon quickly lost interest in the old carcass and turned towards Kara, growling as it lowered its head close to the ground.

Kara felt the ground shift beneath her moments before various vines shot up in front of her, their attention seemingly locked onto her, as if they were snakes waiting to strike. She stumbled backwards, freezing in place when she felt something slither up her feet and wrap around her ankles. As the vines locked her in place, more came at her, whipping at her every which way. She yelped as one caught her on the cheek, slicing her open. Her gripped tightened on the bow as she brought it up, only then remembering the blades on each end of her weapon. She swung, slicing at the vines each time one came close to her. In no time they were gone and only the ysali stood in front of her.

Kara grit her teeth, ankles still bound by the vines below, and quickly nocked another arrow. She shot, aim true but at the last moment the dragon moved, causing the arrow to slice through one of its wings. It roared, falling onto it’s side in its surprise and by the time it righted itself and turned its attention back to Kara, she had another arrow nocked and ready to fire. This time the dragon didn’t have time to react before the arrow was buried into its chest, piercing the dragon’s heart and killing it instantly. The moment the dragon turned to dust the vines holding her in place went limp and released her.

She sighed in relief, stepping over the fallen vines and snatching up the nearby ysali orb. Kara didn’t put her bow up, though, in fear that more ysalis might be lingering around, holding back while their two friends investigated. No, better safe than sorry. Or at least her dad had taught her so. She moved quickly but carefully over to where the other dragon fell and scooped the orb up. At least the trip into the mountains wouldn’t be for nothing. She had bagged a couple of dragon orbs in the process. Kara tilted her head as she approached the bushes and something moved. Just a small twitch, barely noticeable, and missable had she not already been focusing on the vegetation. She reached out, grabbing hold of the vines and using a small dagger, that her father made her carry, to cut the remaining vines away.

Her eyes widened at what sat before her. What she once had figured was a rock, was no clearly an egg. Her gaze flit back to the dead khehora in the clearing, brows pinching together. A khehora egg? She reached out with her spare hand, fingers brushing over the surface just as it gave another small twitch. She jerked her hand back, smile curling up the corners of her lips. It was alive. She reached back out, hesitating as she remembered Fathers words and speeches about the bond that khehora went through and how it wasn’t right to enslave the creatures as such. Despite that, though, Kara was still interested. Knew that it gave the magescian an extra boost of power.

Kara chewed on her lip as she debated and didn’t notice she had more company until a shadow loomed over her. Her gaze jerked to the sky and she cursed as three ayrala dragons circled around the clearing. The dying ysali must have alerted them to her close proximity. She didn’t take time to think and instead, strapped her bow to her back and snatched the egg up, clinging to it as best she could as she took off running. She forced her way through the bushes, taking the path she’d beat down on her way up, hoping to lose the ayrala before coming out of the treeline on the other side.

Her plan didn’t work, however, and when she broke free of her cover, one of the ayrala was already waiting for her. She barely had time to backtrack as it swooped down, teeth chomping down on where she had been just moments before. She quickly unstoppered her bottles and, unable to make use of her bow with the egg in one arm, she pulled the water out, flinging a whip like stream of water at the ayrala’s face. Momentarily stunned, the dragon reeled back, allowing Kara to slip past it and continue running. The dragon shook its head, roaring as it spun around and swiped its tail towards her. It connected with the back of Kara’s legs, tripping her up and sending her rolling and losing her grip on the egg. It came to a stop, just inches from a rock. Kara let out a breath, scrambling towards the egg and wincing at the pain in her legs.

The dragons had other plans as one stepped between her and the egg, blocking her path. Kara grit her teeth, forcing herself to stand and unstoppered another one of her bottles. She pulled the water from it out, along with the first bottle and created two whips. As the dragon lunged, she flicked her wrist, sending one of the whips out to distract the dragon. As it snapped down on the whip, it roared in frustration as the water broke apart and the dragon came up with nothing. Kara used its distraction to wrap the other water whip around the dragon’s throat and clenched her fingers into a fist, quickly tightening the hold on the dragon and crushing it’s windpipe. It clawed at the ground and soon turned to dust, leaving nothing behind but an orb.

With the dragon out of her way, she scrambled over to the egg, swiveling just in time to bring her bow around and slice at the first ayrala that had attacked her. The blade on her bow tore a gash into the beast’s neck, slowing it down but not stopping it. It roared and snapped at her as she hurriedly plucked an arrow out of its quiver and nocked it. She waited, taking her time to aim and letting the arrow loose when the dragon opened its maw to snap again. Being so close to the dragon, there was little chance to miss, so Kara wasn’t surprised when the arrow shot into the beast’s mouth and buried itself on target.

Her breathing was labored and her body ached. She leaned back against a nearby rock, fingers against the egg and gaze flitting around. Kara knew she’d seen a third dragon flying around but was not sure where it had ended up. When she couldn’t find it, she relaxed, tension slowly easing out of her as she let her grip on her bow loosen. Her gaze flicked to the egg, brows pinching together. Why had she grabbed it? She knew what the bond meant, knew that Father would be furious if he found out and would likely make her give it up. She ran her fingertips over the surface, admiring the colors. They were the exact same as the plants and vines that had hid it so well in the bushes. Had it not been for the ysali, she’d likely have never even known it was there.

Kara’s attention jerked around as she heard a low growl and she threw her arm up just as the dragon’s claws raked down through the air. She hissed, falling back, as the claws snagged onto her arm. Blood began to seep from the wounds and she worked her magic through her own body, doing the best she could to stop the bleeding and pain, temporarily, while she aimed her bow again. The arrow she shot missed its target, her arm weak from the wound. Kara grit her teeth as she forced herself onto her feet, to face the dragon. When it lunged, she side stepped, swinging the blade of her bow down and ripping through the membrane of the dragon’s wing, pinning it to the ground. It roared and flopped, struggling to free itself but, thankfully, the bow held. She knew her luck wouldn’t hold out, so she moved quickly, pulling at her magic and forcing her water down the dragon’s open mouth. It fought and gurgled, finally ripping it’s wing free and swinging around, knocking Kara to the ground in the process. She pushed harder, forcing the water deeper into the dragon’s throat until it was invading its lungs.

With one last pulse of magic, the dragon collapsed, taking its last breath and shuddering before disappearing into dust. Kara fell to her knees, trying to calm her racing heart and catch her breath. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to slow her breathing until she was gathering air into her lungs in long, sweeping breaths. She fell back onto her butt and stared at the egg. She’d gone through so much trouble protecting it, there was no way she’d just leave it here, out in the open for more dragons to come after it. She winced as she pushed herself up, body aching in places she hadn’t even realized she’d been hurt.

When she tried to use her magic, it made her head spin and she had to brace herself on a rock, lest she collapses and do more harm to herself. It seemed as if she’d depleted her magic and to use any would cause more harm that it would good. She sighed, moving over to the egg and scooping it up. All she could do at that point was head down the mountain and hope that, by the time she made it down, she’d have enough energy to heal herself properly.