"Are you hurt?" I ask Emerald.

"I'm alright, Child." Her deep, yet sweet tone, echoes in my mind.

"I'm glad. We'll have to move soon, so rest up as much as you can. It'll be a while till the next town."

"As you wish."

I sigh. "You could just answer with a simple OK, you know?" I turn towards her.

She raises her head, smiles with those warm eyes of hers that have been keeping me alive for all these years, and says nothing. Right. I fill up the water bags and check our supplies one last time. Not much. On second thought, we are by a lake.

"Change of plan." Emerald looks at me. “We're staying here till morning. Maybe we'll get lucky and I'll even catch us some dinner and breakfast." I smile at her. She closes her eyes.

"You're right, better not push our luck." She doesn’t respond. I strip down my light gear and shift.

"Is that how you plan on catching our food?" Emerald's voice asks me.

"Well, I might not be the best fisherman, but I'll give it my best shot." I grin at her, well, try to anyway, and slide deeper into the water. It’s cold. If my scales were fur, it'd be standing on its’ ends. I sigh. Even if I’m cold-blooded now, I’m freezing still... Oh the things you do for love. Love. I freeze for a mere second as my memories try to surface. I crush them before they get the chance and stick my nose under water. Here fishy fishy fishy. Nothing. Guess I'll have to go deeper. I dive in. Moments later I have a huge Whitetail in my mouth. I stick my neck out of the water and toss the fish to the side.

"Don't hog it all to yourself, alright!?" I give a quick shout to Emerald through the stone and dive back in. Some time passes before I decide it will be enough food to last us the next couple of days. I shift back and lay on the ground naked, looking up at the sky. I miss it so much.

"You'll catch a cold like this, Child." My robe lands on my face.

"Gee, thanks, mom." I get dressed.

"You know why." She lays next to me and puts her head in my lap. I stroke her shinning fur.

"I never forgot." I whisper. We sit like that for a while. "Time to get cooking, what do you say?" My enthusiasm for gutting the fish is obviously too much.

"Sounds good." She answers. I smile and get up to start the fire. Once the flames get burning, I wash the fishes, clean the scales off and get the insides out.

"Damn."

"What is it?" Emerald asks me.

"We don't have much spices left, I'm afraid the fish might go bad sooner than I intended…" I rustle through our belongings. If only... Yes!

"Hey, if we fill this urn up with the cold water from the lake and wrap it round in some fur maybe I can save some of the fish by keeping it nice and chilled. What do you think?" I ask Emerald waving my genius plan in front of her.

"If you say so, my Child." She answers casually while scratching her ear.

"I'm sorry, would you prefer to dine on some leaves, tree bark and branches, your highness?" I bow and make a grand gesture towards the forest. All I see is her fangs.

"That's what I thought." I walk over to the lake and fill the urn with water. Place some of the catch of the day inside, seal it and dig it into the wet sand near the shore to keep it cool till morning. I fry the rest over the fire and share it with Emerald.

"Are you not hungry, Child?" I will never get tired of listening to her deep tone...

"Not as much as I though, here." I give her my share. "You can have it, you need it more than I do anyway." I look at her and give her my best sad smile. I feel she wants to say no and cut her off.

"I'll be fine." She hesitates but gives in. "Good girl." I scratch her ear. Eventually daylight turns into darkness. I gaze upon the starry sky. Emerald is long asleep and I lay there holding one of the two things that were evidence of my father's existence years ago. The one in my hand is the bracelet with the giant deep blue stone on it. Mother. Hope you are well. One good thing about the Lector stones - you need to be willing to except the other's thoughts to communicate. But I chose to shut it all down. Forgive me. I place the bracelet back into the sack. The other one is Emerald. I touch her and my hand sinks into her fur. I close my eyes. I feel her heart beat. I listen. I hear her breath. I hear a lot more than that. I hear the forest. The creatures living there. A squirrel climbing up a tree. A mouse being carried away by an owl. The wind gently rustling through the leaves. Even the fish popping in and out from the water in the lake. I hear a rabbit hiding in the bushes. And how a fox is getting ready to pounce the poor thing. I hear it all. The nature was my home now. I felt safe. I look up at the stars for the last time tonight, take a deep breath and fall asleep.

The next morning, we move as soon as the sun shows first signs of a new day breaking. I urge Emerald to rush as fast as she can, spending the night by that lake costs us a lot of time and now we had to make up for it. So now I'm flying through the forest, while Emerald takes care of all the hard work. For some reason I think back to the day I first came to know about Emerald.

It happened on my fifth birthday, when my Mother gave me the necklace my Father wore around his neck. The necklace had a gem on it, a Lector stone, the same stone that people use to communicate with each other telepathically over short and long distances. My Father used that same principle to communicate with Emerald, his saber mount. She was the last of her kind and my Father did everything to protect her. He wished that one day he will be able to give Emerald away to me, so I could ride into battle with her to protect our land. He wished that once that day comes, he will be able to retire and live out the rest of his days with my Mother in peace. And for that to happen he needed to give me the necklace with the stone, so that I would be Emerald’s master. But with my Father gone, my Mother didn’t think that it was worth waiting so long, so she left Emerald in my care when I was five. Once I put the necklace on a voiced echoed in my head.

“Hello, Child, it’s nice to finally meet you” – a soft low growl. I remember asking my Mother can anyone else hear her, she said no. Lector stones come in different shapes, sizes and color, you have to have the exact same one as your partner to communicate with them. My Father had two: a deep blue round one the size of a thumbnail, my Mother had the same one around her neck, and now I had it around my wrist, and the second one was deep green, the shape of a cat’s eye pierced at the corner, where the string was. That one he used to talk to Emerald. Now I had it. After my Mother left, I went to see Emerald. That was the first time I saw her: big, dark, with white streaks across both her sides like a tail of a falling star and deep green eyes. Emerald. She looked at me with those heart stopping eyes and I froze.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here to protect you.” She spoke in my mind.

“I thought I was supposed to protect you.” I told her, my voice trembling. Emerald smiled.

“And you will, later, now – it’s my job. I was told to protect you and so I shall.”

“Told? By whom?”

“Your Father, Child.”

I must have been completely lost in thought since I didn’t see an arrow come right at me and hit me in the side, the force of the impact knocked me off my saber’s back.

“Child!” Emerald turns round and runs over to me.

“I’m fine.” I pull the arrow out of my side and try to close up the wound with some Vines. The wound isn’t closing. Poison. I have to treat that before I can to anything else. Another arrow sinks into the ground right next to Emerald.

“Get out of here! Now!” I tell her while struggling to get up. I need time to get the poison out. Only problem is – whoever is targeting me doesn't seem like the generous type to give me the luxury of treating my wounds. “I said GO!” I push Emerald away from me.

“Not a chance!” She refuses. Damn it.

“Is one arrow all that it takes to take down the legendary Chieftain Deathbreeze Skyrider? Or should I say Gazarria Stardust?” A voice comes from the trees. They know who I am. That has to be a bad sign.

“Well that’s not fair. You obviously know who I am but I can’t even see where you’re hiding. How about you show yourself and we’ll get to know each other better?” I shift my ears and my eyes to try and track the bastard while at the same time struggling to close up the wound. No luck. They are exceptionally good at concealing themselves. Perfect.

“You honestly think it will be that easy?” The voice answers. Eh, was worth a shot.

“Don’t be shy.” The wound keeps bleeding. Screw it. I don’t have time for this. I leave my bleeding side as it is and get my staff out from the saddle. “Or are you just going to taunt me till I bleed to death?”

“Where are they, Emerald?”

“I can’t tell.” Shit.

“I’m right here.” A dark figure was approaching us from the forest. A Cornutese hunter. That explains the strong poison on the arrow.

“Well then, pretty boy, what do you want with me?” I feel the poison slowly getting to me. We’ll be in trouble if we don’t get out of here soon.

“Isn’t it obvious?” The hunter moves forward and behind him a chimera shows its heads. Great. Just what I need – a Tracker.

“Not yet.” I try to sense if there are any more of them.

“Don’t bother. It’s just me.” So, the hunter can read minds now? I have to stall for time somehow. There isn’t enough space for me to fight. And he would shoot me down before I could shift.

“Why whatever do you mean?” Let’s see if playing stupid works on him.

“You’re trying to figure out if there are more of us. But as I said – it’s just me.” Why is he just standing there? Stalling for time to make sure the poison does its job? Clever boy.

“So why now?” I feel weak. “What changed in the past half a century? Why come after me now?”

“If you want to find that out, I’m afraid you will have to come with me.”

“And what if I don’t?” I ask.

“My instructions were clear. I was ordered to bring you back alive.” That means the poison is just to knock me out, not to kill. “Don’t get too excited. The poison will kill you without my antidote.” Bastard! I’m running out of options…

“Ordered by whom?” No harm in knowing.

“By the King of the Concord.” What the Hell? Why now? He could have sent assassins after me long ago… I have to admit - whatever was going on, it caught my interest.

“Emerald. Whatever happens next – just go with it.” I reach for her as I feel my strength abandoning me slowly.

“So how does this work?” My voice almost a whisper now. “I surrender to you, you give me the antidote and we sail off into the sunset?” I ask the hunter.

“You wish.” The tracker grins. “The poison will take a total of three days to kill you. You’ll only receive the antidote once we are in place.”

“And where that might be?”

“Araneum.” The hunter moves toward me. I crash to my knees. The Royal City? How in to Hell is he going to get me there in three days? Oh no… I’m losing consciousness… Not yet…