Fan Fiction ❯ Lord of the Wild ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Kini found the next couple days to be some of the most stressful he could remember in his short life. The only bright spots he could find amidst his worries, were the conversations he shared with Willow and the feel of Kweli in his arms. Both grew to mean the world to him as the small group traveled along the road beside the Elven Forest. Kweli was his light, the young dragon wasn't actually able to do much of anything, but just spent his time sleeping on Kini's lap in the saddle in front of him with the young boys arm's around the soft body for protection. Sometimes when Kini was getting upset, Kweli would open his eyes and stretch his neck out and coo, an action that never failed to bring a smile to Kini's lips.

Willow was his sanity. The brown-haired elf rode and ate with Kini, and even took to laying his bedroll apart from the others to keep the other youth company even though it met being far away from the fire's warmth.

Kini didn't notice the terrain as they moved past unless Willow was there to point something out; he was too caught up in his worry over the voices. Any time he got near any of his companions, with the exception of Willow, the voices swelled past the subconscious level they always seemed to be at, into a low angry murmur. The more time Kini spent with the others, the louder the voices got, until Kini would excuse himself and move away from the group to fight off tears until the voices calmed again.

He tried to get past them though. The afternoon and evening of that second day of travelling in which he had ran into the forest, Kini had opened tentative conversations with both Questirna and Gale, but the tense answers he had gotten back, and the subsequent surge of voices, had sent him retreating quickly. After spending a restless night holding onto Kweli and trying not to just get up, hop on Marmalade, and run back home, Kini had decided that if the thing that set the voices off was his companions, he would just avoid them.

And so his avoidance dance had started. He rode back behind the group, just close enough that he could keep them in sight. During the breaks he would sit at the farthest edge of whatever clearing they would happen to be in, not looking up to answer at the few times anyone came over to ask him something. Willow would always come over as soon as the meal was handed out, and give Kini his share. Kini always felt slightly guilty that Willow was leaving his previous friends for him, but the elf always shrugged off any misgivings the youth voiced.

Kini spent the whole of the third day perfecting the ability to avoid the others, and by the fourth day felt like he had it down pretty well.

It was almost sundown on that fourth day, when Willow dropped back from a conversation with Gale.

"Hey, we are going to be coming up on Riverview soon." He said without preamble, naming the town closest along the north road. "I guessed you probably don't want any of them coming to spell you and Kweli, so I was thinking maybe you could wrap a blanket around the two of you and we can pretend it is a slightly less rare pet?"

Kini frowned, thinking that over. It was true that if he went into the town with Kweli out in the open, it would be harder to travel from people wanting to see the rare dragon. And it could even put Kweli in danger if anyone saw him and wanted him, or pieces of him. It was also equally true that Kini didn't trust any of the magic users to get close enough to him to spell him with something.

"I think a blanket is the best idea." He said slowly. "Anyone with magic would see through an illusion anyway, and no one without strong magic could hold Kweli."

Willow's expressive face donned an incredulous air. "I know he is a dragon and all, but he's so young." He protested.

Kinirchar blinked. "I know. I just know that Kweli is going to come back to me unless a powerful spell holds him away."

Willow's expression clouded for a moment, and he looked like he would say something before shrugging and throwing the mood off. "Good enough."

Kini wrapped a blanket firmly around himself and the still dozing Kweli, carefully hiding all trace of scale, as Willow rode back up to join Gale, Questirna and DarkMist in quiet conversation.

The young stableboy forgot his annoyance at his friend for telling all his words to the others, a fact that he had accepted but still annoyed him every time he saw it, as they crested a hill overlooking Riverview. Riverview was definitely a town, not the large village Foresthave was.

The town itself spread out hugely in Kini's opinion, covering at least double the land that Foresthave did. That wasn't the only thing that made it look big though, the buildings were all organized in rows and blocks, and they were all tall, at least 2 stories high each. The roads also seemed to be made of some kind of stone, where Kini was used to the mix of packed dirt and straw. Where Kini was used to seeing farms stretching out on the side of the road farthest from the forest, there fields of what looked to be trees, all planted in neat little rows and in various stages of growth in each field. The only thing that looked vaguely familiar to what Kini had grown up with, was the main highway cutting through the middle, and the large market area that bordered each side of the blank area.

Kini was forced to draw in closer as the group descended to the town, and was then forced to concentrate, his brow wrinkling in pain as he tried not to listen to the voices that were pressing in on him. He didn't even register the concerned glance Willow threw his way, which seemed to be echoed by the horses.

They were settled into the inn Gale chose without any trouble, and Kini watched uncomfortably as someone else led the horses away. He hadn't been aloud to take care of them for a couple days now, but he still felt like it was his job, and it was just weird watching someone else do it.

Kini begged off eating supper, saying he wasn't feeling very well. It was true, his head was pounding with the effort of not screaming as his voices jabbered angrily back and forth in his head.

Sometime during the night, he decided that it just wasn't the same as sleeping outdoors or in the small loft room he had back home, and slipped outside with a curiously cooing Kweli wrapped in the blanket and held against his chest. As soon as he entered the stable, the voices quieted down, and he slipped into the stall with Marmalade and curled up in the straw with her and Kweli with a tired yawn.

He was almost asleep, when he heard the door open again, and voices as some others entered the stables. He started wide-awake as he recognized the voices, carefully shushing Kweli's startled half squawk. It was his travelling companions. And they seemed to be talking about him.