16

Lucas

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* * Back at the village: the morning after the spring festival.

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I woke up feeling more energized than I had the other day. Last night I had finally gotten Megan out of my mind. I wasn't sad when I thought about her and I had found a bunch of new women from other tribes that I had gone off with and made out with. I slept with a few of them from one of the dragon hunting tribes. I had always been loyal to Megan and I stopped hanging out with all the women my age so that way I could show her my intentions would always be to be by her side and she would always have my loyalty, but that wasn't enough for her. I wasn't enough for her, but the 3 girls I slept with last night. I was enough for all of them. To here them say my name seemed to cover all of what I was feeling up.

I had woken up and my sister was ready to go wake Megan and bring her food for the normal breakfast routine. We walked over to the hut, I knew I needed to to talk to her about what I had said the other day because it wasn't fair, that she was honest and I reacted poorly.

When we got there Megan wasn't there. I figure she was probably with the other women she left with still last night. Emily looked worried though.

"What's wrong?"

"She isn't here. Everything is the same way she left it yesterday."

"She's probably just with the other girl from yesterday."

"No, she didn't bring a change of clothes with her when she left with them yesterday and the leaders isn't say anything about her staying there. They would of said something about it. I also saw that girl and her brother leave last night and Megan wasn't with them. Then I never saw either of the two of them come back and none of the horses were there before I left either and I would of seen them leave Megan was in light colors and on a horse like that she would of been easy to spot." I could hear the worry in her voice and see it on her face.

"You think something happened to Megan then."

"Lucas, I don't think. I feel it in my bones that something happened to her."

My heart dropped hearing my sister day this, as much as I had thought I was over her when I woke up today at this moment I realized I wasn't. She held my heart and was more important to me than anyone would ever be able to be.

"Then we need to find the leaders now."

We quickly ran out of the hut and I could see the rain clouds in the sky and I could feel the cold winds blowing. All the leaders were meeting at a near by tribe, so I jumped on my horse and road as fast as it could go.

I reached the leaders meeting place and ran inside. I didn't care about getting in trouble from the leaders when I ran in unannounced and without permission. I saw al of there eyes glare onto me.

I heard myself blurt out.

"Megan's missing."

The leaders of my tribe stood and spoke with there voice more shaky then I ever heard it.

"What do you mean my daughter is missing."

"I mean she's not at the hut sir, me and my sister asked around. Nobody ever saw her come back last night and a few people said they saw the women she was with and a men leaving the celebration but that they didn't see Megan with them. Nothing in the room had changed from how it was before she left and she didn't bring anything with her as if to single she wouldn't be back last night either. I came here as quickly as my horse could carry me when I learned this information."

"We must find our daughter." The head lady yelled. That's when another leader grabbed her arm.

"I'm sorry cousin, but nobody can go right now. It's about to start raining and the only thing that will come from having people out in this weather will be sickness and death. You must wait until this is over because none of you will be of any help to your child if your people are sick or dead." She spoke

The other leader all nodded in agreement with her.

"I pledge my men of my tribe to help you search for her when the rain has stopped." One of the tribe leaders said.

"As do I." Called out others, every tribe leader in the room made this pledge to give there men to search for her after the rain was over. I was great full for that as I'm sure the leaders were, but I didn't want to wait I wanted to find her now because the logger she was gone the more that could happen. I couldn't help but imagine her alone wondering through the woods jumping at every sound that was made in the night wondering trying to find her way back. I could see her shivering from the cold and wind and the rain starting as she was trying hide under a tree for shelter. All I could think was her being scared and alone and cold and her dying this way because we had left her alone with no guards because I wasn't there who knows what happened to her or if she's hurt and in pain.

I impatiently waiting for the rain to stop to be able to leave and start searching for Megan.

It rained for 4 days straight before it finally stopped. Everything was muddy and areas were flooded making it hard to walk let alone ride across some of the areas. There were hooves prints almost everywhere because of the herd. We were out searching for any lead the entire day and night for two days and still found no trace of her, any sign or way to track Megan had washed away by the rain. The dogs from other tribes weren't even able to get a scent, it could been because of the rain or because of how many people had been through the area before the rain because of the celebration or maybe even because of the herd, but it was becoming very clear to everyone that we had an impossible task at hand. While searching we also started to see more dragons lower to the ground than normal. We all realized if they attacked our villages the people there would be underfunded since we were all out searching and if they attacked us with how tired we all were and with how much we were sinking into the ground we wouldn't stand much of a chance either. The mud cause our movement to be slowed down when it come to doing things like walking and running and the horses were getting stuck as were we in certain areas. As much as nobody wanted to admit it we all know the search was pointless. She would have been gone for 5 days before the rain even stopped which meant she would of needed to be able to know how to survive and find food and water, along with need to be able to find a place that would provide shelter and that she would be able to have a fire in, let alone the fact that she probably didn't know how to start one herself.

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A week had pasted after the rains had stopped, she had been gone for about 22 days now. The leaders were along with all the men were starting to realize we most likely weren't looking for a living person anymore, now we were more than likely going to find a body if we found anything at all.

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Megan has been gone for almost 2 months now. We decided that today was going to be the last day that we all went to go out and search for her, since the herds will start moving again soon. Everyone had realized that we weren't going to find her and that she wouldn't be alive anymore with the knowledge and experiences that she had being the leaders daughter. We all knew with that she wouldn't know how to make a shelter or start a fire although she would of been able to find water and berries for food, that would be it. She wouldn't of been able to defend herself from predators that she would encounter in the wild. She also wasn't desssed warm enough to be able to not of gotten sick during the rain even if she had found shelter it most likely wouldn't of been enough or it would of been to late. Everyone had to except that she was gone. During the search party we did find 5 dead men, but they had already started to decompose.

I had heard gossip from my parents that they believed the tribe the other girl was from was behind this, because they were angry that Max was marrying a girl from a dragon hunting tribe and that it was a girl that the leader wanted one of his sons to marry. They were saying that they thought he might of did this to try and make it so the wedding wouldn't happen showing that our tribe wasn't even able to protect its leaders daughter, so how would they be able to protect even just a high up lady who married in from another tribe. If that was the case it was working because the wedding has been postponed due to everything that happened and now with us needing to leave soon there was a lot of talk of Max and her no longer getting married, because the other tribe doesn't think she would be safe. Which means she will either need to marry someone in the tribe or wait another 4 years for all of us to meet again so she can marry my brother.

Gossip is only theory's it doesn't have any evidence or anything to prove it to be correct. Just things that people say to try and make sense of something like this, something that would have a reason behind it instead of just leaving it as unknown or an accident because there was so much that could of happened there were a lot of theories other than that one.

People said that the dragons who killed her tribe when she was little had finally found her and finished the job. Others said that the 5 dead men we found might of had something to do with her disappearance and maybe had been trying to kidnap her when something went wrong and an animal attacked and she got away but she was running away from danger and got lost. It was also said she might have died with the 5 men but the water washed her away since her body was lighter. It was also said that the other tribe might still have her hidden within their village since nobody had ever went in nobody knew almost anything about them, they said there is a chance she could still be alive and being held as a prisoner or that they killed her and have her body hidden somewhere that nobody will ever find it.

I don't know what one I believe, but I'd like to think she is still alive and is safe and is looking for her way back home. I don't think anyone of us in my tribe will know the truth, but I have a feeling it wasn't an accident and that other people were involved and those people and Megan will be the only ones who will ever know the truth about what happened to her and where she is.

I wish I had an answer so that way we could continue our lives and make peace with it, but none of us can and I know the next time I am back here will be in four years. If she is alive I don't think she will make it four years and she will likely of found another tribe and join them. I'll probably be married when I come back next and Megan would be married if she was us the next time she was here. She would also probably already be a mother by then and would be close to taking over as the leader of the tribe.

We made a small little monument for her before we followed the herd and left the breeding grounds.

I know if she was killed here her soul won't be able to find peace and will wonder the area until someone finds and buries her remains, so maybe I will see her again one day when we return. Then she may be able to lead us to her remains so we can bury her allowing her to Rest In Peace and move on to the afterlife and allow all of us to move on to the next chapter in our lives that she won't be in with knowing she is at peace.