Karana

I sighed, defeated.

"I don't know," I admitted. I hated to break the truth to him like this, but there was no other option. "I only know so much about dragons. In order to slay this thing, we'll have to train constantly, pushing ourselves to the limit, doing more than we're used to."

I looked at him. "You more than me, certainly. I at least know magic."

[Hilo]

Pah.

"I have spent the first seventeen years of my life wasting away, doing nothing with my life, never once utalizing my skills or tallents or anything. I don't care what I have to do to see this thing through. If I have to learn magic, I'll do it. If I have to memorize every known spell on the planet, I'll do it. If I have to train with my knives so intensely that I can slice off the wings of a fly from twenty paces, I'll do it. I'm tired of rotting my life away.

"Tell me, then, that we can win. That we will win.

"Can you?"

If anyone can bring my character in, it would be appreciated. I dont know where i can jump in at the moment...

Just jump in with me. I won't mind!

**********

Karana

I stared at him, awestricken. Was he really saying this, or was he just trying to console me? No, I finally concluded, reading his eyes since his mind was still too fuzzy to understand. He means it. He's certain.

I smiled, finally.

"With that kind of attitude - determined, enthusiastic, optimistic - then, yes, we will win!"

I knew then that I could be friends with this young man.

Good. Excellent. Wonderful.

Now we were on the same page.

The pains in my head seemed only pleasant buzz now, and I beamed right along with her.

"Now that we have a solid grip on our confidence, what now do you propose we do? Have you in mind any specific training or preperation we – or, more likely, I – should accomplish before we tackle this beast? Because I have no idea. You're the bearer of expirience in this group, so I'm open to any suggestions you may have. Fire away."

Karana

I chuckled. He was certainly interesting.

"Let's get some miles behind us, first. We can talk as we move."

I led the way once again, deeper into the heart of the territory between the Corone and Heldon.

Skar laughed as the animals fled from his presence. They scattered like rats, crawling into their feeble dwellings. Humans were despicalble creatures, who only deserved to serve him. He noticed a small child trapped under a piece of rubble. The mother ran to her son, but stopped when she saw Skar.

"Please! Kill me instead! Don't kill him!"

"No. I think I will." Skar heaved his mighty battle ax. The boy ruptured, spewing blood everywhere.

"NO!" The mother began to weep. "Kill me...I have nothing else to live for..."

"That would be too merciful."

Ember struggled saddling her horse, Wildfire. He always got impatient with her feeling around, trying to get it on right. Once she was on him, though, it was a simple matter to guide him. He was an animal, not a machine; he could tell when they were off the road or about to run into something. And she knew each road, so it didn't matter when they came to a fork. This way went to this town, that way to there...it was easy.

Wildfire snorted again and siddled, skewing her patiently gathered calculations of where his shoulders and back were.

"That only slowed things down," she murmered soothingly in his ear. If she talked too fast or too roughly, he would just give up and walk back to his stall.

When Wildfire was finally ready, she mounted him and trotted down the foothill, trying to keep count of their steps with her brain bouncing around her head. Finally she managed to calm him down, and she had to dismount to find out where she was.

she walked down the road, her fingers trailing at the cliff wall, looking for the niche she had put previously with a friend.

"Here we are," she said to herself, running her fingers on the niche. above it was a set of engraved numbers of the amount of walking steps it would take Wildfire to get there.

She remounted and continued, this time keeping count faithfully.

Monitor awoke under a log. He had fallen asleep there after staying awake stalking a deer. He had been asleep for a few days. He sat under the log with a tired looking face. His black fur ruffled and his white clothes stained from the loamy soil. His stomach made a rude noise and then he decided to hunt or get something to eat at his estate. He yawned then stood. His pricked up.
"What are those sounds?" He thought he heard a woman scream. He walked towards the source of the noise and came across a dead boy and a mother weeping.

Made sense. We could do both things at once. Save some time.

Not that saving time seemed like a particularly good thing with a dragon lurking at the end of your journey. Especially an enigmatic dragon who is more than likely cruel and powerful and all of those other nasty things.

Yet I wasn't scared. I wasn't feigning my confidence. This creature would fall.

I followed, stepping into stride next to her.

"So we're walking. Same question: You have anything planned?"

Karana

"Yes, actually, I do have plans, but they may change as we continue and train."

He looked at me, and I exhaled.

"Okay, so far, I intend on ambushing the creature in his den, taking him by surprise. Past encounters have given him the idea that I will seek to fight him in the open, which will give him the upper hand.

"No. I'll catch him when he least expects me."

I laughed.

"It's good to see that you're so prepared once we finally get to fighting the dragon, but I meant more as in … what plans of preperation do you have? Mostly the training. Back when I was trying to motivate you, I was speaking in hypotheticals. Will you teach me magic? Can you? Is it even possible for some knife-throwing drunkard like me to learn it? And if not magic, then what?"

I was talking too much. I'd already gone through more words than I normally use for two weeks. Purpose did weird things to you.

Name: Caley

Sex: F

Age: 16

Clan: Corone

Bond Status: Unbonded.

Appearance: Wears black tanks and shorts, has short brown hair and hazel eyes. Tries to be invisable. She's 5'4".

Background: she doesn't share it...unless they are really close. But her emotions can cause a lot of trouble.

Type: Is a female wizard.

Karana

I pursed my lip, thinking.

"You have a point."

I hadn't considered that yet.

"I suppose we should make camp around lunch, and then spar. Just to see what we're each capable of. I doubt it would be hard to teach you magic, but it will take a while. At least a week, at most a month."

That sounded right. Simple spells didn't take so long to master, and once he had those, it would be up to him to learn the rest.

"That is, if you even possess magic."

Ah, yes. Here were the first two steps in our mission to take on the dragon: Whether any actual magic ran through my veins … and lunch.

I had forgotten about lunch. Unusual for me to even wake up before lunch. Shading my eyes, I favored the sun a brief glance. It was nearly midday, maybe a half hour shy. Lunch would be soon upon us, then. As for content, don't know what she had in mind. I could hunt, though, if it came to that.

"All right. What's the easiest way to tell whether I'm magical or not?"