"So we're just going to act like this is normal?" I ask, following behind the others, who follow the massive boar.
"How else do you expect us to react?" Goldenclaw laughs. "I'd only ever heard about king boars until now, so I'm still processing everything myself."
"What kind of ranger are you?" Liaz gives Goldenclaw a side eye.
"It doesn't matter." Renald looks back at us from the front of the group. "Ironvine seems to understand it. Let's hurry and do what it wants so we can get out of here."
"Aww man." I let my head drop and feet drag.
I'll never find Glam at this rate.
"Everybody stop!" Ironvine calls out. "We're here."
We're in the middle of a wide open plane, nothing but golden grass as far as the eye can see. A short way ahead, a large herd of wild boar grazes. A few surround a singular one, which is lying down. What looks to be arrow wounds cover its side. None were intended to kill.
"So, that's what we're here for?" Renald shoots Ironvine a stern look. "We're still being tracked. Remember?"
"I promised I would help if it stopped those goblins," Ironvine explains. "I promise this will be quick."
"It better be." Renald lies down in a patch of grass.
I follow suit, deciding to catch up on some of my sleep.
"Uh, guys? You might want to see this." I haven't even closed my eyes for a minute before Whisperclaw calls for us.
I sit up and see her pointing into the distance. Walking across the field is a solitary figure. They wear a black, wide-brimmed hat that curves upwards on the sides with a tall, creased crown, adorned with a gold band across the base. The figure also wears an all black trench coat with a strap full of blue crystals across his chest. The figure's skin is covered in yellow scales, and a lizard-like tail swishes behind it. Even at this distance, I recognize them. He's Vanhiel, the draken bounty hunter and a good friend of my father. I don't know much about him, but I've seen him collect a bounty from my father when I was younger. I remember something my father said about him. He always collects.
"I think we should run." I grab Renald, who is squinting to get a good look at Vanhiel's slowly approaching form. "Like, now!"
"It's just one person." Renald nonchalantly brushes my hand away. "You know something we don't?"
"That's not just one person!" I feel my legs tugging, itching to run. "That's Vanhiel! Vanhiel, the bounty hunter!"
He's closer now, about sixty feet away at this point.
"If he's a bounty hunter, there's probably no reasoning with him." Renald looks at Liaz. "Can you hold him off for a little while?"
"Sure." Liaz slips his rifle off his shoulder and aims at Vanhiel, now forty feet away.
"I can try to make him stand still for you." Goldenclaw sticks his palm, which begins to glow golden, towards Vanhiel.
Everything around us vibrates. Vanhiel takes a heavy step, his whole body looking like it weighs a ton. Still, unfettered, he continues forward. The end of Liaz's arcane rifle lights up for a split second. There's a loud crack like the sound of lightning striking. At the same time, a chunk of the field next to Vanhiel explodes. Dirt gets flung into the air, creating a dust cloud around him.
"That was a warning shot!" Liaz calls. "Take another step and I won't miss!"
I feel a blade touch my throat.
"Aye, man, that wasn't cool at all," Vanhiel says behind me. "If anybody else tries anything funny, I'll kill Glimmer, which I don't want to do because he's an old friend of mine."
Everybody freezes.
"Tsk, nice friend you got there, Glimmer." Renald mumbles.
"Now, now. Play nice, Mr. White Knight." Renald's face goes stone cold at Vanhiel's words. "Come now, you didn't think I hadn't done my research."
"What do you want?" Whisperclaw is clenching her fist, hard.
"I want the money for the bounty on you, isn't it obvious?" Vanhiel laughs. "But my buddy Hawk is paying me even more to bring his son back home."
Everybody stares at me. All I can do is look away.
"Glimmer you.."
"Not another step or he gets it, I swear." Vanhiel cuts Goldenclaw off and presses the blade further into my throat. I feel my skin tear a little against its sharp edge.
"I'm monologuing here." I suddenly see Vanhiel's shadow begin to move as he talks. "Anyway, like I was saying. I'll be taking the kid back to Denzen with me. We've got a family reunion to attend."
His shadow leaps up from the ground and wraps around him and me. Everything goes dark. I feel the ground quickly disappear, then reappear beneath me. The darkness disperses. I stumble forward, onto a bed full of beautiful senat women dressed in revealing silk underwear. Veils of different colors mask their faces.
"Don't move. I'll be right back." I vaguely hear Vanhiel's command, but I'm already getting tackled by the multitude of women.
A few hours later, it's just me and one other senat left in the bed. She has all red skin with white patches, 2 small horns growing out of her extremely curly black hair, which drops down just above her shoulders. She has eyes which are darker than black, a trait that most senats share. Her leathery wings are folded down against her back, but her tail is flicking around wildly, stroking my chin and rubbing all around. The woman has a familiar tattoo on her throat: three lines stacked on top of each other with curved ends. The symbol of my father's private inner circle, the House of Wind.
"What's your name?" I ask the woman curled up next to me.
"Does it matter now that we've already done it?" She smirks, revealing a set of sharp canine teeth. "I know who you are, though. We all knew by your tattoo, the same as mine."
I instinctively reach for the Wind tattoo on the back of my shoulder, which I had purposely kept covered until now.
"Tell old Hawky that Eudora says hi for me." Then the woman gets up from the bed, drapes a robe over herself, and exits the room.
"It's about damn time she left." I look over towards the sound of the voice and see Hawk Wind, my father, leaning against the far left wall.
"Father? H-how long have you been standing there?"