An Extraordinary Bond by Lorian Lilsiel (hardest books to read TXT) 📕

“No worries Erwin, I was only lucky to get the one that could ride. It’s not like it’s a common skill around here.” As the man passed he and Trevin clasped hands. 

“Heh, easy for you to say, you always ‘get lucky’.” The man named Erwin grinned and moved his attention to Kara. “Hello miss, my name’s Erwin Cathey. I’m from the Rising Dragons as well.” He held out his hand.

“Pleasure sir, my name is Kara Woodensly.” She shook his hand. 

“Strong grip miss, you’ll make a fine dragon rider!” He turned to the boy, who was staying back and looking nervous. “Come on then, they won’t bite.” Erwin pulled the rope attached to the white horse’s bridle and pulled it forward. 

The boy looked at his horse’s neck and muttered, “M-my name’s Brenden. Brenden Kinder. Pleased to meet you miss.” He stuck out his hand and turned bright red. 

Kara felt bad for him, he obviously didn’t feel comfortable around people. She shook his hand. “Pleased to meet you too. Looks like we’re dragonriders now.” She gave a smile that she hoped was welcoming. 

It seemed to be, and he became a little less red. “Right. Dragonriders.”

Trevin moved up and Kara moved to the side. “My name is Trevin Akers, I’m with the Rising Dragons as well. Pleasure to meet you master Kinder.” This seemed to have the opposite effect, and Brenden grew red again. Trevin didn’t seem to notice and continued, “Now that we’ve all been acquainted, we should head out. We want to get there before nightfall, if at all possible. Keep your eyes sharp, this forest if full of sprites, boggarts, and twauges.” He then set his horse into a trot, and without another word, road out through the gate and into the forest. 

Kara took his advice and kept a lookout. It was true, nasty things lurked in the woods during the day. Sprites were small elementals that manifested as glowing lights of various colors. In the forest they were mostly earth sprites, so they would be brown or green with an occasional blue water sprite. Boggarts were small goblin things, with pig-like noses and ears, and sharp teeth. Twauges were the least problematic on their own, but a group could pose trouble. They would be best described as carnivorous squirrels. 

They rode in silence for almost an hour before Kara felt awkward enough to break the silence. “So Brenden, what’s this little one’s name?” She gestured to the dragon sitting on the boy’s shoulder. 

“Oh, this is Barge. He’s a little shy, but he seems to like animals. Isn’t that right?” He reached up a hand and scratched under Barge’s chin with his index finger. Barge gave a quiet purr in response. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, where’s your dragon?”

“Oh, um, she went off hunting before we left. She should be meeting up with us soon though.” Kara hadn’t decided the best way to introduce Opal to people. She probably should have thought about it before she asked Brenden about his dragon. As Kara turned back to the road, she saw a flash out of the corner of her eye. “Wait.”

Brenden stopped his horse so fast he almost flew out of the saddle. Trevin ignored her, Erwin slowed gradually and stopped. “What’s wrong miss?”

“I saw something jump across the trees. Over there.” She pointed to where she had seen the flash disappear. “I can feel… eyes.”

At this, Trevin finally slowed and stopped, turning his horse and looking around as he spoke. “Probably twauges. They don’t pose too much of a threat, especially since it sounds like you only saw the one. Keep moving. We’ll outpace them regardless.” He started his horse up again and the rest followed, but Kara continued to feel the eyes on the back of her neck and knew that they hadn’t outrun the twauges yet. 

~~~

“Alright everyone, time for lunch.” Trevin brought his horse into a clearing at the side of the road. Kara figured it must have been frequented by travelers. There was a small stone firepit and log benches, as well as a few posts to tie up horses. Trevin pulled a silver watch emblazoned with the lilly crest of the Rising Dragons out of his pocket and checked the time. “We’ve made good progress. At this rate we should make it to Colinwood long before nightfall. Take a rest and eat something. There’s food in the packs.” He grabbed a canteen and went to take a drink. No water came out. His face looked like he was about to swear, but he regained his composure quickly. “Looks like we forgot to fill up on water while we were in town. Brenden, Kara, take the canteens and see if you can find water nearby.” 

Brenden and Kara each grabbed four canteens at set off into the woods to try and find a source of water. They walked in awkward silence for a few minutes before Brenden heard something. “I think I can hear running water up ahead. Maybe there’s a stream?” He pointed off to their left. 

Kara didn’t hear anything, but they didn’t have anything else to go off of. “Sure, let’s try. They usually set up rest stops within walking distance of water, so if there’s a stream it should be close.” 

They walked in the direction that Brenden had pointed in for another three minutes before Kara heard the sound of running water, followed by the sight of a small stream. “There.” Brenden walked over and knelt down by the water. “It looks clean. I think this will be our best bet.” He set down three of his canteens and began filling the fourth. Kara sat down next to him and did the same. 

Barge jumped off Brenden’s shoulder and into the water, splashing Kara and Brenden. He swam around some and dove under water before flying out in a shower of water drops, and landing on the bank to shake dry. 

Kara gave a small laugh. “Looks like he likes to swim. And people always say reds are afraid of water.” She gave Barge a rub under the chin and he purred. 

Brenden murmured under his breath, “I like her too Barge.”

“What did you say?”

“What? I-I didn’t say anything!” Brenden’s face turned bright red and he became increasingly flustered. 

“You can hear him, can’t you?”

“How di- No I can’t!” Barge jumped onto Brenden’s leg and stared up at him, giving a small chirping sound, almost like a fox. Before Kara could say something, both Barge and Brenden sat up straight and tilted their heads slightly, Brenden put a finger to his lips to request silence.

From the trees there came a low chittering noise that Kara heard as it gradually grew louder. She began to see eyes and noses poking out of every shadowed clump of leaves and sticks. Twauges. Lots of them. Kara dropped the canteen she was filling and slowly moved to pick up a stick from the stream bank. 

Almost as if they knew they had been discovered, the twauges started their attack. One jumped at Kara, and she swung and hit it with the stick. Barge did his best to defend Brenden, blowing small jets of red flame in their faces, lighting several of the sharp toothed squirrels on fire. Brenden himself picked up pebbles from the stream and threw them at the twauges, hitting one in the head and causing it to fall to the ground. 

“Put your back to mine like they do in books!” Brenden turned his back to her and began throwing more pebbles. Kara didn’t know if it was smart to trust what characters did in books, but it wasn’t like she had a plan. She put her back to Brenden’s and continued hitting twauges with her stick. 

They managed to hold their own for a short time, but because they didn’t do much damage many of the twauges they hit got back up and attacked them again. The two were covered in scratches from where twauges had made it through, and they were starting to get tired. 

Unfortunately for them, the twauges brought reinforcements. A fresh batch came from the trees and swarmed over the three. Brenden was the first one to trip, and because they were standing back to back Kara was caught off balance just enough to fall over. She covered her face and clenched her jaw as they scratched and bit at her arms and legs. She thought she could faintly hear Brenden start to cry. 

All of a sudden there was a crashing noise, followed by a loud roar and a wave of heat. The twauges on top of them scattered and Kara managed to push herself up, wincing as her now bloodied arms moved. Opal was standing only five feet away, her entire body putting off steam. About twenty twauges lay on the ground, half burned, half bashed with either a rock or a stick. The remaining twauges had disappeared, and Kara turned to see if Brenden was okay. He was breathing heavily, and was in fact crying a little. His clothes were longer sleeved, so his arms weren’t scratched up quite as badly as Kara’s, but his face was bloody. He hadn’t covered it with his arms like Kara had. Instead, he had curled them around Barge to protect him. 

Before Kara could check if he was alright, Opal had come to her side and was inspecting all of her for major damage. Satisfied that Kara was alright, she buried her head in Kara’s chest. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s alright. You couldn’t have known.”

“It’s my job to protect you. I didn’t get here fast enough.”

“Is Brenden okay?”

“Barge says that he should be.”

“Wait, Barge says? You can talk to Barge?”

“How do you think a species survives if it cannot communicate?”

“Fair point. We still need to check on Trevin and Erwin though.”

“Can you stand?” 

Kara tried pushing herself up, hissing as it disturbed drying blood. “I think so.” She looked over at Brenden, who was staring intently into Barge’s eyes and nodding slightly. “Can you stand?”

Brenden blinked, as if snapped out of a trance. “What? Oh, um, I think so…” He tried pushing himself up, wincing as Kara did but managing. “Okay, then- WHAT THE HECK?” Upon seeing Opal, he backed up, and would have fallen over again if Kara hadn’t caught his arm. 

“Brenden, this is my dragon. Meet Opal.” Kara felt incredibly awkward, but there wasn’t much she could do. Barge gave what looked like a bow, and Brenden tried his best to do the same. Kara felt a little embarrassed, but Opal didn’t seem to mind. 

Brenden stopped bowing when Barge did. He started to say something, and then stopped to rethink. “So… Um… How..?”

“Trust me, if I knew how, I’d tell you.”

“Right. Then… Um…” Brenden fidgeted nervously. “Maybe we should check on Erwin and Trevin… In case… Um…”
“Right, right.” Kara grabbed her canteens - only two of which were full, and set off with Brenden back the way they came. 

“Ah, good to see you’re okay.” Erwin gave a smile. “Seems we ran into a quarrel of twauges. We were just about to go looking for you, weren’t we Trevin?”

“What? Oh, yes, you had been gone awhile.” Trevin was adjusting straps on the horses’ saddles, and spoke without looking up. When he did he almost swore. “You two sit down, and give me that water. I think we have salve in the bags, we need to clean you up before those cuts become infected.” 

Kara and Brenden handed over the water canteens, only five of which had any water in them. They then sat down at the log benches at the rest stop. Trevin dug through the bags in search of salve. After a minute of rummaging he pulled out a small jar filled with a pale blue cream. 

“Give me your arm.” Kara held out her cut covered arms and Trevin spread some of the salve on them. “Twauges are notorious for the sickness they transfer with their bites. If you leave them for too long, you can get very ill very