3 You can't kill the King

The rain hadn't stopped now in four days. The water kept falling into her eyes and stinging them. She couldn't see more than a few feet in front of her. The Wildlands had become a gray blur all around her. It was almost like standing inside of a fishbowl in a bright room. Alo wiped her eyes with her drenched sleeved arm and hobbled back into the trees and towards her camp. Her bag was overflowing with the long grass from the clearing. She emptied the bag in front of Messi and watched as he grazed contentedly.

I had to get exiled during the rainy season, she thought to herself. Her legs were stiff and cramping from how much riding she had been doing. She didn't feel safe when she wasn't on horseback. It had taken her the entire first day just to find the waterfall because she had gotten turned around when the rain started. Her camp was set up just a few feet into the woods. She stuck to the edge just like her father told her. She only dared to venture in further to get water from the waterfall. Alo always made sure to take Messi with her. She had only been out here about a week and she was dangerously low on food.

Sitting next to her little fire she looked out into the rain soaked plains. She thought about the stories her father's hunting friends used to tell her during feasts. They used to tell her all kinds of legends they had grown up listening to about the dragons, beasts, and impossible storms that dwelled in the Wildlands. Her favorite story was about the Dragon King named Balthasar. He was an ancient dragon who was as large as a castle. The legends say that whenever he landed to rest in the plains, wild and dense forests would grow out of the dips he would leave in the land. His massive wings created tornados, and the heat from his fire melted winter away every year. The stories about Balthasar were always her favorite. "Have you ever seen a dragon father?" She remembered asking him one night after a long winter feast. She had just celebrated her thirteenth birthday.

"No of course not Alo. Brave hunters like me and you hunted them all to near extinction years and years ago. "

"I would never hunt a dragon." She crossed her already long arms. "Why did they kill them all?"

"Well, because we were starving Alo. Dragons are huge animals and they have a lot of good meat that can feed a whole town for months." He was always so honest with her. That's what she had always admired the most about her father. Right from the start, no matter how old she was, he didn't lie.

"But, I thought we were only supposed to hunt boar and stags."

"We're very fortunate that this is a time of peace. We don't have to go out and track down these beasts anymore to survive. We stopped hunting dragons in the hopes that they would one day return to the Wildlands, that's their home. Just like how this castle is our home." Alo remembered how sad her father looked that night. He was cracking the knuckles in his hands over and over again. As if he could remember killing all of the dragons.

"I hope Balthasar got away."

"Her father smiled at her with crinkled eyes. Of course he got away Alo. You can't kill the King."

Alo imagined an old dragon soaring above the wet plains she looked at now. A beast like that could block out the sun. She smiled to herself at the idea of an animal changing the weather. "I wish you were as big as a castle." She told Messi who was still grazing quietly. He snorted into his grass, blowing a few blades towards her. She snatched them and walked over to him, stroking his mane gently. She was going to have to figure out a way to survive out here, not just for her sake but for him. This horse was the only one she could talk to now. There weren't any people that lived in the Wildlands anymore. Those who did live out here a hundred years ago, were nomads, following the dragons. When they were hunted and ran out of the area, the nomads left with them. There weren't many stories about these people like there were about the dragons, but there were a few. Many believed they were just stories, how could humans and dragons live together? It didn't make any sense, but Alo always believed that the nomads were real. Why would there be even one story about them if they never existed?

Lost in her memories, Alo wandered away from camp to look for some firewood. Most of the trees in the woods were wet from all of the rain, but if she could find big enough pieces of birch, she could process it down to the driest parts of the wood. Using her hatchet, she cut up fallen birch trees and began dragging the logs back to her camp. By the time she began hauling the last log, it was almost evening, she needed to hurry back and get to work chipping away the wet bark. She heard a twig snap a few feet behind her. Dropping the log she spun around holding up her hatchet above her head. She strained to see through the thick, moss covered trees. Everything blended together in front of her. Holding her breath, she stepped slowly to the side, inching towards the direction of her camp. She wanted her bow. Whatever was watching her had fallen silent.

She began walking faster but stayed sideways to avoid turning her back on her stalker. It grunted softly and took a few more steps behind the trees. She turned and sprinted towards her bow just as the wild boar burst through the greenery, rushing towards her. She loaded an arrow into the string and pulled back in on fluid motion. Releasing the arrow straight through the air and into the middle of the boars head. His legs crumbled beneath him and he skid across the earth and stopped a few inches in front of her. Alo grinned down at her dinner and looked at Messi. "Did you see that you horse?" She was practically yelling. "We're doing just fine!" Placing her foot on the massive boar's head she yanked the arrow out smoothly and wiped the blood off on her wool hunting leggings and got to work skinning the beast.