Savage by K. J. Colt

Author:K. J. Colt [Colt, K. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2016-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

ALL DAY I THOUGHT OF Margan. His touch, his reassuring words, his warmth. He’d been there for me during the hardest time of my life, standing up to Skelkra when he’d insulted me, offering to be a father to my child. Without his connections to the Wings, I’d have been Skelkra’s prisoner by now, or still in that heinous torture pit.

When we’d sailed south with Spurt, that time suspended between Fin Town and Pirate’s Landing, our spirits had grown close. We’d spent hours together talking and laughing. He’d captured my interest in the way he spoke to animals and shared their secrets. Then, at night, when the temperatures plummeted, he’d wrapped me up in his arms, and furs, and given me timeless kisses.

In Raindrop Valley, a sanctuary of peace, he was more restless than ever. He wandered the jungle alone, shutting me out, closing his heart to everything we’d built to cling to the injustice of his sister’s death.

Jeykal hadn’t come to find me; instead, he’d gone hunting with the group of Groggles. In the past, he’d relished any opportunity to point out my errors and give me advice. Even when his advice was misplaced, I liked knowing he cared about me, though I’d never tell him that.

At half afternoon, a storm gathered amongst the swirling cloudy soup of sky, where flashes were faint, but growing in severity. The Groggles took shelter as the first lightning strikes hit the ground, followed by loud claps of thunder. The rain revived the jungle, the rich and aromatic earth a spicy feast for my senses. Even in the storm, the peacefulness of the Groggles reached me, so I went to Loxy’s pantry and took the ingredients to make a leather scrub. The storm worsened with twilight, and kept inside by the lashing winds and downpour, I took to cleaning my armour by the flickering candlelight.

The village pathways turned to mud. The stream underneath the house swelled to submerge several steps. When a few splashes of warm rain hit my face, I took off my boots, stripped down to my undergarments, and went for a stroll in the storm.

A Groggle woman pulled me into her hut, water sliding off her skin. The grey sections of her hair and patchy, wrinkled skin told me of her age. She sat me down in a chair, then went into a back room before bringing me a pair of tiny, furry boots for my child.

‘Thank you,’ I said.

She glanced to the right, and I followed her back into the rain where three drenched Vuglugs barely half my size grabbed at the woman making adorable squeaking noises. She produced morsels of meat from her coat and distributed them between the three. She grabbed one of the Vuglugs’ fur, then pointed at the little boots in my hand.

‘You made these out of Vuglug fur?’

The Groggle clicked her tongue, wrapped the boots up in a protective pouch, then handed it to me. I left her to the rowdy Vuglug youngsters so I could splash about in puddles and catch raindrops on my tongue.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.