Hunting Lesson

A Chapter by Kelly

Lya and Gyle receive a rude greeting in the village and have to flee.

It was becoming late, so when we came into the village, there weren't many people traveling about. I had been excited when we were coming towards the village but now I was nervous, looking at the people timidly. They truly were like me. There flesh was soft and we had similar forms. They covered their bodies just as I had done to go through the forest but their clothes looked tougher and were mostly brown in color.

In essence of form, we seemed the same but they felt different, I didn't feel the same sort of magic I had in them. I don't now why but their lack of magic made me feel anxious and I put a hand on one of Gyle's legs. There were no creatures like Gyle here either, I had been hoping we might find one but these creatures lack of magic might mean that there was nothing like Gyle here.

Many of the creatures outside gave me strange looks when I passed them, and they all appeared taller and aged compared to me. My excitement was washed with intimidation from these creatures. Why did I feel a general distrust from these people? Gyle gently scratched the side of my face with his foot and said, "Lya, I think we should go." I began to agree with him when I saw a small child run into the street, playing with other children. I immediately ran to them, grabbing one of them by the shoulder and saying, 'Hello, I'm Lya." The child still had a smile on their face when I turned them to me but upon looking at me the child screamed and ran screaming, "It's a Golden Eye! A Golden Eye!"

The child's screaming surprised me and I jumped as the children all ran away. The people who had been watching had stopped what they were doing to grab things. Long wooden poles with metal objects on the end. "Lya," Gyle said, holding on tight to my shoulder and hunching close to my neck. The people with their poles came running closer. Their faces twisted with vicious expressions and a dark tinge to their eyes.

"Lya," Gyle said again, his voice shaking as I was turning, looking at all of the people running towards me. I felt a need to cower, to raise my hands above my head for protection. Why did I need to protect myself? Why would creatures similar to me want to hurt me? The first man to reach me first raised his weapon high above his head, his dark eyes still focused on me so that his eyes looked almost pure white. "LYA RUN!"

The man's pole came crashing down and I jumped out of the way, stumbling to catch up with my feet before I began to run. I started to run back the way I had come through the village but the people were waiting for me there. I turned to try to go another way but the people had surrounded me and were inching in closer.

My heart was pounding in my chest, my body sending shock waves down my legs as if it was willing something to move. But there was no where to go. To the left, to the right, forward and behind; every way I turned was blocked by a darkness that seeped out of these people. I was trapped.

I felt Gyle moving around on my shoulders and then his claws latch onto my shoulders. "Gyle?" I asked, the pain making my voice sound high and sharp. "Try not to wiggle Lya, we're going up," he said and I felt him take a tight hold on our magic bond. Gyle started to become heavier on my shoulder and I did not know why until I could see Gyle's wings growing into my line of sight.

Gyle's change scared the people but they quickly pounced back toward us when Gyle pulled us into the air with a powerful thrust from his wings. He lifted us just above the houses and then started flying back towards the forest. I watched the people beneath, many of them yelling as the men ran beneath us, trying to keep up. I a whoosh behind us and looked behind to see a long, thin rod with an arrowhead racing towards us.

I tried to warn Gyle about these when I felt a sharp pain on my shoulder blade. I screamed, one of my hands reaching back to my shoulder and Gyle dropped us a few feet as he tried to understand what had happened. "Lya? LYA? What's wrong?"

"My back... they hit it with their flying weapons."

He turned his head, trying to see where i had been hit but his wings were in the way as he continued to fly. The flapping of his wings, and claws in my shoulder felt like it was tearing apart my back at where it had been hit and I pleaded with him to land. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he sobbed, "We have to get a little bit farther, hang on just a little longer."

With one hand I held onto his claw digging into my shoulder and the other arm i could no longer bare to move so it hung dead from my body, becoming twisted in the wind. It was probably only a few moments more that we were in the sky, but the pain drew out time so that every labored breath lasted hours at a time. When Gyle finally began his descent, I was weak from the shear pain. Gyle tried to land me gently but my strength at left my legs and I fell with a gasp of pain when Gyle's claws pulled out from my shoulder. His once large wings once again became small and he quickly went to my back, looking at the arrow whose feathers proudly stood from my back.

"I... I think I have to pull it out," Gyle said, one of his feet pressing gently on my back. "No! No! Don't pull it out," I exclaimed moving to sit up but the pain pulled me down once again. "It shouldn't be there, I think something bad could happen if I don't," Gyle explained as I whimpered against he forest floor. "Do you have to?"

"Yes, I think so."

Then without warning I felt a great tug on the arrow and I screamed. The head of the arrow ripped through my flesh as Gyle pulled it out and my body shook in shock after the arrow was gone. Gyle quickly went to licking the wound, his saliva giving my some relief from the pain.

"The bleeding is slowing but I can't close the wound, it's too deep. Try not to move for now," Gyle said and then moved on to my shoulders where his claws had dug in to carry me. As he was still working, I found myself beginning to cry and the sobs shook my body. "Shh, sister.... It's alright, we're safe now."

"But why Gyle," I asked wiping my face with my good arm, "Why did they attack us? I don't understand? What have we done that is wrong?"

"I don't know, Lya."

"I just don't understand!"

"They became very afraid when the child called you, Golden Eye.... Maybe there are others like us that have done horrible things."

I sat up, wrapping my good arm around my bad one to hold it close to my body. "But we didn't do anything!" Gyle shook his head and replied, "It won't matter to them, they only remember the fear.... They are very far off, get some rest and then we'll move on." I couldn't lay on the ground so I leaned my good shoulder on a tree, hoping I would not turn in my sleep.

My heart was still pounding when I closed my eyes but I found comfort in the heartbeats of Gyle and the tree I slept on. Gyle had curled up on my lap, his cool scales a comfort after the mad dash from the village. What was wrong with golden eyes? I thought, drifting to sleep. I think Golden Eyes are beautiful.

I woke up shivering, sweat beading on my face and Gyle quietly but insistently calling my name. "-a, Lya, Lya, LYA!" I felt horrible and I rubbed my face with my good hand, my own skin feeling hot sweaty. "What is is Gyle?" Gyle had climbed the tree I was resting on and he jumped down to the lowest branch, his eyes very bright in the dark. What time was it? It was still so dark and I still felt so tired.

"The people from the village are still following us and they are getting closer with loud beasts." I listened for them and heard a great tumult of barking, had these beast led the people to us? I got up feeling weak and my legs shook causign me to slip back down against the tree.

"I can't Gyle," I said, "I can't move, I'm too weak."

Gyle jumped down next to me and said, "We must Lya, you saw them they were trying to hurt you, they may even kill you." I shook my head, the motion making me feel sick. "I can't, I can't," Voices came nearby and Gyle hunched his shoulders, looking around through the trees. "We can't stay here Lya!"

A beast on four legs bounded into our midst. It sort of reminded my of Gyle but it was larger and covered in fur. When it's eyes caught sight of us, it sent up a great howl causing a commotion in the other creatures and the people. The beast bore its teeth at us, growling and Gyle mimicked him his eyes dashing back and forth as more beasts and then people came near us.

I looked at the people and the beasts, such evil surrounded them. And when they saw my wound, I could see the pleasure it brought in their eyes. My heart felt like it had stopped in my chest, beating every once in a while as if it could understand it may soon not be beating at all.

"Gyle, go," I commanded him, as the dogs edged nearer and the people were weighing what to do in their minds. Gyle's growl only became louder and I said again, "Go!" He shook his head and I yelled for him to go. "No! I won't leave you!" I then felt a surge in our magical bond and the surge was so great that it made my chest hurt. Gyle pulled together a lot of magic in our bond and then grabbed it, wrapping the strands around and around is body.

His physical form suddenly grew, his wings did not grow much but his body multiplied in size until he was two times the size of the dogs. The men flinched back and let loose their beasts with a command. The beasts leaped upon Gyle and he fought them viciously. Gyle was much stronger than the beasts and he threw them with his mouth and batted them with his claws but there were more of the beasts and he quickly became overrun by them.

I roared as a beast bit on his neck and I screamed for them to stop. But they refused to stop and they continued biting and trying to tear at Gyle's flesh. When one beast was able to penetrate Gyle's scales, blood leaked from Gyle and I became infuriated with the sight of that blood.

I felt something deep inside me, a deep magic hidden from me and Gyle rise up and I stood, my fury masking my pain. My body felt hot, hotter than it had before and even my breath felt hot as it passed through my mouth. There was something burning in my hand and I wished to set it upon them, upon all of creatures that were trying to hurt my brother.

So I raised my hand and shouted, "I SAID ENOUGH!" There was a great flash of bright yellow light and a great wind came crashing through the woods. That wind carrying the screams far across the land. And when the screams were gone, so were the beasts and the people that had hunted us.

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