A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying by Kelley Armstrong

Author:Kelley Armstrong [Armstrong, Kelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: K.L.A. Fricke Inc
Published: 2019-08-05T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

I spend three days in that meadow, sleeping in a nearby thicket and returning from dawn to dusk. Yet I make absolutely no progress. I give the filly all my apples. I bring her tender young ferns. If I pile my gifts on a rock, she accepts them. But if I try to hand them to her, she doesn’t want them. If I toss them near her, she doesn’t want them. If I speak to her, no matter how soothingly, she flies off, like I’m a boring dinner guest who won’t stop talking. If I approach her, she flashes her hooves in warning. If I linger too long in her meadow, she charges.

I’m tired, and I’m hungry. I ran out of food on the second day. I’ve been eating berries and drinking water whenever the pegasus flies off and I can get near her spring. I’ve caught one grouse and one squirrel, but I gave most of the meat to Jacko. Malric has been off hunting several times, and when he returns, the blood on his muzzle tells me he’s eaten, but he brings nothing for me.

I can’t even win over this warg, and I’ve known him all my life. How will I tame a pegasus in a few days?

On the third night, after finishing the filly’s sketch in my field journal, I drift off to sleep in the thicket. I’m dreaming when Jacko nuzzles my cheek. My eyelids flutter open, but it’s pitch black. I feel that nuzzle again. A velvety nose prods my cheek and then snuffles it. I shift . . . and feel Jacko against my stomach, his body rocking with deep snores. I go still, every muscle tensing.

Warm air blows against my cheek. Then another prod, and I realize it’s not an affectionate nuzzle, but a sniff. Something is sniffing my face. Something is standing right over me.

I slowly swivel my head and find myself looking into two big round eyes. I blink. The eyes blink. Mine adjust to the moonlight, and those eyes become reddish-brown, velvety and soft, with long lashes. The eyes pull back, and the nose comes at me again. A black nose on a long snout covered in white hair.

The pegasus filly is right here. Standing over me. Sniffing me.

I lift a tentative hand and touch her nose. Her nostrils flare, and her front hooves dance in place, but she doesn’t move. I stroke her nose and murmur under my breath. She nudges my hand, encouraging the attention, and my heart soars.

I’ve done it. My patience has paid off. My kindness has paid off.

I don’t see Malric. He must be off hunting. Maybe she was waiting until he left so she could come to me safely. The warg must frighten her. He’s a predator big enough to take down a young pegasus. I’ve been keeping him away from her, but it wasn’t enough. She needed him to be gone completely.

I keep stroking her nose and telling her how beautiful she is, how good I’ll be to her.

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