Chapter Six; Leanunya

Leanunya ran to the shack swiftly and drew a knife in the process. She covered the hundred yards in a matter of seconds and reached the shack. She could see a pack of zarowls outside the shack. They were giant wolf-like creatures who's fangs and claws were stronger than steel. Leanunya hissed at them, gaining their attention. A few attacked her and she dodged before stabbing one through the base of its jaw and through its throat killing it. She then swiftly attacked the other that attacked her stabbing it through its eye and into its brain killing it.

She hissed once again her ears flattened to her head, her wings spreading wide and her tail fluffed up lashing side to side. She then darted forward attacking another zarowl killing it just as swiftly as the other two with a dagger to the throat. She needed to get inside the shack and to Nagos. She had to protect him. She hissed angrily and the zarowls growled at her, most of them now focusing on her instead of the shack. She had become a threat to them that they needed to handle first.

She had killed many zarowls in the past and had eventually gotten them to run just at the sight of her. But now, she had been gone too long and they didn't run but attacked instead. She killed the zarowls as they attacked her. There were only a few but they were fast and deady. Leanunya flapped her wings as she jumped up to avoid a snapping zarowl. One bite from them and she could easily lose a limb.

She had nearly lost a hand once from pup. If not for it being a pup she certainly would have lost her hand instead of it being scarred. Leanunya focused back on the fight and flapped her wings to speed her descent onto the back on a zarowl to break its back. Zarowls only had three weak points to attack; their eyes, neck and back.

Leanunya slashed the zarowls neck who's back she broke and leap back to avoid being clawed by another zarowl. While leaping back she saw a zarowl break into the shack. She hissed and flapped her wings diving to the shack.

She was soon at the entrance of the shack and hissed at the zarowl that stood over the trembling Nagos in the corner. The zarowl looked at her snarling. Leanunya hissed, brandishing her dagger that was now covered in blood. The zarowl leapt at her fangs bared. She dodged to the side and it flew past her out of the shack.

Leanunya spun and faced the zarowls outside, putting her back to the shack and Nagos. She hissed at the zarowls lashing her tail. She could hear Nagos crying behind her but paid no mind focusing on the threat. She was just about to attack again when an ear splitting howl could be heard from the distance. The zarowls around the shack growled at her before they turned and ran off into the darkness. Leanunya let out a sigh of relief and turned, going to Nagos.

She looked at him and saw his arm was bleeding, having been clawed slightly. She crouched down next to him. She ordered, "Let me see your arm. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

She relaxed some when he shook his head giving her his arm. She looked at it before grabbing her bag and pulled a rag from it. Leanunya then gently cleaned the injury, Nagos whimpering in pain from this. She finished cleaning it and grabbed a bandage from her bag. She always had many bandages for emergencies just like this in her bag.

She gently wrapped his arm and finished speaking, "there you go, you'll heal up in a few weeks. But you don't have time to lay around resting. You'll be training starting tomorrow morning."

Nagos sniffled and nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes and held his hurt arm close to him. He asked, "how can I train while hurt?" Leanunya sighed, "you'll be running. You'll be doing strength training that won't require the use of your arm. Now, get some rest while you can."

She fixed the things in the shack and set the old grass weaved bed up. She put the blankets on it and Nagos nodded softly laying on the bed. She covered him up and went out of the shack getting the firewood she dropped.

She grabbed the firewood and returned. She built the fire up before going to deal with the bodies of the zarowls. She could skin them and use their fur to make a few blankets for Nagos. She could also use the claws and fangs to make weapons. Not only this, the meat of the zarowls was very tasty when cooked properly. She got to work and strung up the zarowls by their hind feet in the nearby trees before starting to gut and skin them. She worked skillfully and swiftly.

Leanunya soon finished and hung the skins up to dry for the night next to the zarowl carcasses while the meat cooled. She then went back into the shack and looked at the already sleeping Nagos. She knew he had been scared and hurt tonight but he seemed to have handled it well. Thinking of this Nagos had handled everything very well despite being a young child. It made her think of herself when she was younger. She had always been able to handle bad situations well.

Though for Leanunya it was due to her being on her own since a young age and getting little attention from her parents. With Nagos she assumed it was because of his father and all he'd been through. She could see many similarities between herself and Nagos. It wasn't often she met someone so much like herself. It made her want to truly train him as a master would an apprentice. She thought about truly training him but was reluctant to do so just yet. She would wait and see first. She might truly train him later.

She would only do this if he showed enough potential though. If he didn't she would continue with her first plan to just teach him to survive. If he showed potential she would truly train him. She liked his personality. It was much like her own when younger. Though she had been more serious, even then, Nagos was fairly serious himself. She was going to start training him tomorrow just starting with the basics. Leanunya sat down and kept watch thinking of her past.

Leanunya had just entered the forbidden forest and had already been attacked. A skiniuna had attacked her. A giant snake she had first thought it to be but, it was far more dangerous. It had actually felt like boiling water when she first cut it, getting sprayed by its blood. She had then chosen to run from it, barely managing to get away from it. She sighed sitting in a tree, a hand over her injury. She believed it had been the smell of her blood that attracted the predator to her.

She needed to get stronger so she could protect herself from such creatures. She was so cold, already from the cold air coming from the forest. She had only thought the forest to be forbidden because of the dangers but now she also thought it was due to the cold. It felt like she had jumped into a frozen river and climbed out into a snowstorm. She wasn't sure she could survive without a fire but she was scared to attract predators.

She had already faced one and had to run. She did not want to face many of them. Leanunya also wondered if all the predators had such boiling blood as that skiniuna. If they did she would really have a hard time. She may have dragon scales under her fur but it still hurt, especially when cold to begin with. Normally fire or heat wouldn't be a problem but she was cold. When cold it was dangerous for a cattagon. They already had low temperatures and often were cold-blooded people.

Leanunya was slightly warmer-blooded but the cold was still extremely dangerous for her. She could handle the cold better than others of her people but if her core temperature got colder than thirty degrees fahrenheit she would most certainly die. She couldn't let herself die here, not after all she had been through. She had to survive until she was healthy again, so she could go back and kill the king.

Leanunya sighed, she first had to survive this first night before thinking of the future. She knew she would have a hard time but had to do it. She didn't want to die, not yet anyway. She wanted to live and kill the king. She wanted to see the world and travel. She also wanted to become famous. She didn't know she already had, because of what she had done. She was still only just a child yet. She was only ten. She still had childish dreams. Those dreams would eventually die as she grew up and to be replaced with different dreams.

Those dreams now were still to destroy the king. However, she also wanted to settle down and have a family. She wanted a simple life now. She didn't want trouble, she just wanted to be left alone. She no longer had dreams of traveling or being famous; she had done that already. She just wanted a place to call home. A place where she didn't have to struggle to catch food or have to make her own clothing. She didn't want to live in isolation.

She wanted to be accepted and live freely as she pleased. But reality is cruel and Leanunya knew this. Although she wanted peace she knew she could never have it. She either had to become the ruler of the world without any equal or die and reincarnate. Though the likelihood of her reincarnating were little to none and becoming ruler of the world was too far away. She needed to vanish from everyone's view and become an enigma.

Leanunya sighed softly thinking of this. It was depressing knowing the truth even when you hoped for the best. Despite this she always tried to look at the bright side of things. She liked the thought of killing the king. That was one bright side of things she knew she would one day kill the king. One day, she knew it would probably be years before then. When she had last looked in at the castle there were many guards about. It had been when she had first left the forest. It had been two years since then.

She knew to get in she would need the skills to sneak in and out without notice. She hadn't gained that skill in the forest so she needed to learn it. She had them started to take on assassination jobs to gain this skill. Doing this had gotten the attention of Wolferan and had since been forced to run from him. Although she had become well known for silent assassinations she still was lacking in the skill. She needed to be better to get into the castle to kill the king.