The Dragon Storm by Sarah Dalton

Author:Sarah Dalton [Dalton, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2017-05-24T00:00:00+00:00

KARINE

Lottie’s small body contorted and kicked in her sleep, preventing Karine from sleeping. It was a cold night in the woods, even though they had kept the fire burning and huddled together for warmth. She shivered in her thin dress, and pulled the threadbare blanket tighter. She had thought that the farther south they travelled the warmer it would be, but in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods, and with a wind coming down from the north, the chill crept into her bones.

The sun seemed to rise moments after Karine’s eyes finally closed. She woke from her slumber with a knot in her stomach and aches in all of her limbs. She did not feel rested at all, and Reva was still missing. She had been gone all night.

“I’m so hungry,” Lottie said. “Have we got any of the meat from the last village left?”

Karine shook her head. “We ate the last of it last night.”

“Berries?” Lottie asked.

“We will have to scavenge some more,” Karine answered. She felt hollow inside. She watched as Rohesa winced when she woke, carrying an injury from their fight with the thieves. “Is it bad, Rohesa?”

The large woman shook her head, but Karine did not like the way her features were set. She was in pain.

Once Emilia was awake, Rohesa changed into a panther and attempted to track Reva. The rest of them followed closely, hauling their packs and staggering through the twisted branches of the woods. Karine had still not warmed from the cold night. Her dress was damp with dew and there was a fresh hole in her boots, chilling her toes.

Deeper into the woods they went, bending back thin branches and the thorny fingers of bushes, following the soft pads of the panther as Rohesa moved swiftly through the trees. As Karine’s blood slowly warmed, she began to gain hope that they could find Reva. Rohesa was certainly following a trail. Whoever Reva was with would surely have stopped during the night, no one could see in the pitch black of the woods at night. They could not be so far ahead. Karine found an energy she did not know she had, almost skipping over the exposed roots of trees.

But then, as they came to a clearing, the rain began to fall. It started as a mild shower, progressed into a heavy downpour, and within minutes it was torrential. Rohesa changed back into a human and dressed in her breeches and jerkin.

“The scent is gone,” she said. “I cannot catch it with the rain coming down. There are no more tracks. Look. They stop here. It is almost as if they vanished into thin air. I cannot understand it.”

Karine examined the trail quickly before it was all washed away by the rain.

“Perhaps we missed the rest of their tracks because of the rain,” Emilia said. “They must have continued on north. Are we still heading north?” Her head whipped forwards and back with a frown.

“It is hard to say in these woods,” Karine said loudly.

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