“They?” I shouldn’t engage, but if this was a moment of clarity, I wanted answers.
“The creatures that came for us.”
Maybe not. “They’re not coming for you now.”
“You don’t know that. You can’t. You aren’t paying attention to what I’m telling you.”
I sighed. “I’m paying attention. How much further do you intend to take this?”
“I intend to take this until I see the dragon. I used to see them all the time,” he said, sadness in his tone.
He continued on, heading toward the forest.
I followed him, letting him have a bit more space that began to stretch between us. I had never seen my father quite like this before. He had wandered off, and he had acted more like a child than like an adult at times, but he had never spoken of dragons in this way. What had triggered this?
I couldn’t help but feel as if it had stemmed from my conversation with him the other night about the Djarn. Could he have decided that he had to go find them, to see the Djarn himself? I hadn’t said anything about dragons, but stories of the Djarn and dragons were often intertwined.
As we approached the edge of the forest, he began to slow. I caught up to him, and he looked over to me, blinking slowly. “Ashan?” he asked, frowning as he did.
“I’m here,” I told him.
“Why did you bring me out here?”
“Why did I what?”
“Out to the forest?”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, steadying my breathing. “You wanted to come out this way, Dad.”
“I did?” He shook his head, looking along the road in either direction before turning his attention to the forest. “What did I need to come out here for?”
I didn’t know if reminding him of the reason that he had decided to come in this direction would be a problem or not. It might only agitate him even more.
“You thought you saw something,” I told him.
“What did I see?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I was working on the fence.”
“You’re doing a great job with that, by the way. It’s nice to see the yard expanding. You know I always intended to do that.”
I grunted. “I know.”
There were many things like that, tasks that he had always told me that we needed to get done, and tasks that had fallen on me when I had taken over working the farm. “It should only be another day or so.”
“That’s nice. Has Joran been helping you with it?”
“Not recently,” I told him.
“He should. You know that—”
A burst of thunder rumbled. I frowned, looking up at the sky, but there were no clouds there. There was no sign of a storm. Still, I couldn’t shake the rumbling that I had heard and felt.
“Sounds like a storm is moving in,” my father said.
“So it does,” I told him. “We should head back.” I offered him my hand, and he took it. When I guided him over to Adela, I had to fit his foot into the stirrup and shove on his backside to lift him into the saddle as he climbed atop her. At least he wasn’t fighting anymore.
Father leaned forward, patting Adela on the side. “Easy there, girl. You don’t need to go so fast.”
Adela jerked on the reins for a moment, almost as if trying to look over at me and tell me how ridiculous that comment was.
I guided him back to the farm. He nearly tumbled out of the saddle, frowning at Adela before limping back inside. I heard my mother’s surprised cry, and stood staring at the door for a long moment, trying to gather myself. If he kept wandering off, I didn’t know whether or not I would be able to tolerate it for too much longer.
As I stabled Adela again, she pulled on the reins, turning toward me as if to try to tell me something else. The knot in the pit of my stomach lingered as I returned to work. This was a job I was going to finish before I went back into the house. It was long overdue.
4
For the fourth time in less than a week, I found myself near the edge of the forest, this time holding on to my longbow. I’d promised Alison that we’d go to the city, but this had to come first, especially since I’d caught sight of a wolf prowling near our pens. It wasn’t as large as the pawprint I’d seen before , but large enough. If I let it get too close, it’d slaughter the animals.
Alison would have to understand. The livestock we kept wasn’t just for our family, but we also sold the meat for other farm necessities. Having a wolf come so close was a good reason for me to abandon my chores. Hunting it wasn’t something I enjoyed. It wasn’t something I was particularly skilled at, either. I could follow the tracks out here in the open. I thought I would have an easy enough time trying to find it, but it had managed to get close to the edge of the forest before I had a chance.
I was on foot. That meant that I was going to have a long walk back home when all of this was over, but until then, I could spend as much time as I needed to find this creature.
North of the King’s Road the forest here was denser than it was in other sections, making it difficult for me to see more than a few steps into the trees. Easing back on the bow, I let out a frustrated groan.
These days, everything frustrated me. It was challenging. Hunting the wolf was something I didn’t have time for. I had livestock to care for, and the fence to finish. I still hadn’t managed to complete that task.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and I
