Page 7 of Monsters of Air

Traveling wasn’t something people from our village did, and maps were hard to come by. I had tried to piece one together once from the storytellers that passed through, but even that could never prepare me for this.

“Welcome to Xrotte,” Da said in a low voice. “We will stay just long enough to rest and change out our mounts. We can’t stay long, not this close to Reityne.”

Reityne. The land of the Fae.

He pointed at the mountain range, the darker one that was lined with trees taller than Xrotte. The one that had sent ice over my spine like it was a living thing.

“The Fae,” I whispered, my spine straightening in fear and determination. Soon I wouldn’t be scared of them. Soon I will be fighting them.

“This is our last stop before we head to Fyre, which is just through that range there.” He pointed to the snowier mountains to the west of the village.

Any determination dripped away like buttermilk from the curd.

“We have to go through that?” My mouth got dry the longer I stared.

So much for being a rider. What kind of madman decided that this was how I needed to get to Fyre? By the goddess I would either emerge from this a powerful mountain warrior. Or dead.

Probably dead seeing as I was suddenly acutely aware that I was in fact a farm girl. Baling hay had not prepared me for this.

“Xrotte has a dragon here protecting it since it’s a major town,” I perked up, turning from him to the town, half of me expecting to see the magnificent beasts darting through the sky, swooping and fighting and breathing fire. The sun had set enough now that I couldn’t even make out a shadow.

That didn’t change the fact that they were there.

“Dragons and riders come through here if they need to get to Fyre from this direction. The Fae know that, and attacks are common here. The quicker we are, the safer you’ll be. The Fae can’t navigate those mountains, the sooner we get into them, the better. Keep your head down, your hair covered, and don’t draw attention to yourself. We don’t want to alert anyone to our presence.”

“But I thought riders were treasured…”

“By some. We are too close to Reityne. I’m not taking any chances.” Da dug through a bag and tossed me a cloak. “Keep the hood up, tuck your hair back.”

Something was off. Every traveler had talked about the riders as though they were gifts from the Goddess. If we were going into a town with dragon guards surely they could keep me safe.

I fumbled with the rough fabric, recognizing it as Da’s from the days he had to leave the village to get supplies. The cloak smelled just like him, the morning smell of earth and pine with just a hint of musty barn stank.

It wasn’t just him. It was home.

I wasn't prepared for the sharp pain to cut across my chest..

“Let’s get into an inn for the night.” Dad nudged his horse forward, leaving me to follow.

I swallowed, fighting against too many different emotions, unsure of how to pick them all apart. The pain, however, was overshadowed by one large fact. There were dragons here.

It was that that was pushing me forward.

Chapter Four

Walking into Xrotte was like walking into a new world. My village didn’t come close to this. My village was a single dirt road lined with a few buildings and shops in buildings so run down you could smell the rot in the wood. Xrotte was filled with stone houses before wood plank pathways, wide stone streets, and more people than I had ever seen in one place. The sun was down now, and the streets lined with flickering fire-lit lanterns that Da assured me were safe.

Back at home, when the sun went down, our day was over. Here, people were still going strong, they darted over the streets and in and out of shops, laughing and excited. People darted between buildings, selling the last of their day's wares, or even themselves.

Back home in Lixny any newcomer would generate a turned head from every direction. Here, no one noticed us as we coaxed our exhausted mounts over the cobbles.

“I’ve never seen… I never knew…” I mumbled, trying to figure out where to look. There were just too many things to see here.

“It everything you thought?” Da asked with a chuckle, pulling his horse close to mine as a buggy that might as well have been lined with gold zoomed by.

“More,” I whispered, my eyes following the carriage as my imagination went into overdrive with the possibility of who was inside.

“Wait until you see the capital.” My head darted back to him so fast I felt something in my neck snap.

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