The Jracon's Burden by Tom Simmons

Author:Tom Simmons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, epic fantasy, young adult fantasy, swords and sorcery, action, adventure, dragonfly, might and magic, coming of age
Publisher: Tom Simmons
Published: 2018-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

As the day wore on, the air cooled and soft white clouds gathered overhead, turning thicker and darker by the hour.

Yslana and Dax flew on over wide swathes of grassland divided by overgrown hedgerows, through dense woodland of mixed deciduous and conifer trees, charting their course on the map Dax kept in the pack that he had finally managed to secure tightly to his carapace.

Apart from a few expeditions he and his buddy Sylk had gone on over the seasons, Dax had rarely left the safety of the home stream, or even gone beyond the reach of the Salix's shadow, so to be nearly a day's travel from home, and just a day after the fateful Ranger patrol he and Sylk had followed, was both exciting and terrifying. Through the day Dax frequently experienced heart-pumping bursts of stress hormones coursing through his body, exhilarating and draining him in equal amounts.

And always he struggled to keep the Emerald Ranger in sight. He was convinced she would put on bursts of speed just to test him and prove his inferiority, and he often found himself flying alone for periods of time, his blood racing, wings blurring to reach the summit of the hill Yslana had disappeared over, or the copse she had darted out of sight beyond.

But always she would be ahead of him somewhere, sometimes ignoring him, other times waiting for him with disdain streaked across her carapace, and he would flap up, muscles straining, wheezing as silently as he could, only to be met with a blur of her sculpted, many-medalled wings as she surged away, leaving him to scrabble along behind her once more.

On one occasion, Yslana had gone from sight yet again, this time beyond an outcropping of wind-weathered rock which stood incongruously in open pastureland. Dax struggled to the top of the boulder, gasping for air. Alighting on the rock to catch his breath and find his companion he initially began to panic when he saw nothing but undulating fields ahead of him, and no sign of the Ranger.

Then a hiss from below drew his eyes downwards to where Yslana was crouched at the base of the rock, gesturing curtly for him to join her. Dax flew down, landing heavily by her side. His ungainly flight elicited nothing more than a sideways glance from the Emerald Ranger. Pointing a toned forelimb into the sky above them, Yslana whispered, "Don't...Move...Falcao..."

Instinctively Dax peered upwards, at first spotting nothing but gentle clouds scudding across a blue sky. Then movement to his left drew his attention and he could see an unmistakable silhouette; sharp wings, narrow body, fan-shaped tail, a falcao. These birds had eyesight nearly as sharp as the Jraconi and were known to follow hedgerow and tree line hunting for rodents and flying insects which they could snatch from the sky with their deadly talons.

An old mating pair of falcaos claimed the pastureland around the Salix as their hunting grounds but they were no longer able to outpace

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