Chapter 4: A change in plans

A deep huff sent a mist of cool breath, the beast kept nodding his head up at Ventus. His claws dug deep into the snow, turning up the frozen earth under the icy blanket. The soft purple eyes that looked at Tahliz before was now sharp and threatening at Ventus. He looked ready to tear into Ventus and feast on him the way he did with the other elves. Tahliz could feel every muscle tense as Ventus held onto him, see how his jaw clenched as he gritted his teeth, the sweat beading down his forehead.

Neither wanted to back down, the beast kept pacing but suddenly stopped, snapping his head at the entrance of the cabin. Qahnaar stumbled back and froze as the best narrowed his eyes at her. "He'll kill us" Tahliz thought, gently tugging at Ventus arm to be let go. Ventus nodded and released his arm, allowing Tahliz to approach the beast. The best huffed but didn't growl, "what are you doing!?" Ventus called from behind the apprentice taking a step after him. The dragon snarled and shot a clouded liquid at his waist, Ventus dropped as the liquid swiftly crystallised and froze him to the snow. Tahliz bolted back to his side, "shit! They can do that!?" Tahliz pulled his dagger out and tried to chip away at the ice.

"No Tahliz! Run! Get out of here!" Ventus called out frantically, the beast slowly approaching from behind Tahliz but he also kept his eye on Qahnaar. The dragon growled and sniffed at Qahnaar's direction, the deep purple eyes were locked on Qahnaar's bow, he backed up and his wings tensed at his side, again swishing his tail between him and Qahnaar, the horns at the end of its tail rattled against each other. Tahliz looked back up at the dragon, seeing his tusk like bottom fangs drool that icy liquid, it seemed to freeze then slide off his teeth as he growled. Tahliz frantically searched what he had until he saw some spare cooked meat that he had on him, without a second thought he whistled to gain the beasts attention. "Hey" he whistled again, "here boy" Tahliz lifted the food up, the dragon turned and sniffed it hesitantly.

"Tahliz, what are you doing?" Ventus called from his frozen prison, his voice showed how cold his body was getting.

"Trying to save us- here boy, want it?" Tahliz pushed his arm closer, ignoring his instincts to run and try and survive this thing. The dragon sniffed two or three times before purring deeply and gently nipping the end of it to get it out of Tahliz's hands without having to get too close. The dragon jumped back, scoffing the food down then sniffing at him again. "Hey, hey! Here!" Qahnaar's voice sounded stern but Tahliz knew her long enough to know that she was terrified but was trying to hide it. She too held out some cooked meat, throwing it by the beasts tail. He bend down and seemed far more suspicious of the meat but took a bite and slowly ate it before scoffing it down as well.

The dragon looked at Tahliz then at Qahnaar, he sniffed at them both but his wings looked more relaxed and layed back. Tahliz saw the bests jaw relax before he buried his nose into the ground then burrowed away under the snow. "I have a feeling you knew it could do that" Ventus called from below him, still stuck in the thick ice. "You went looking for disturbed snow, didn't you?" He narrowed his eyes but he looked more amused than his accusing tone.

"I may have ran into that one before, he healed up though" Tahliz put all of his focus into trying to chip away at the ice, his sister joining in. "Yesterday I ran into him, he was a lot more wounded and he let me go once I gave him a couple of the cods" he explained, though his concerns were more on trying to get Ventus free.

"You ran into that thing YESTERDAY! And said nothing!" Qahnaar wacked her brother's shoulder, "you could have died!".

"Can you calm down! He wasn't dangerous, not yesterday at least" Tahliz sighed and Ventus didn't look convinced.

"Not dangerous? He's freezing me!? Ate those thieves and let's not forget had us cornered!" Ventus huffed but his arm was finally set free.

Tahliz worked silently, he knew that the cheif would like to have a word with him the second Ventus reports this back to him. Heavy footsteps rumbled through the forest and soon, Vires and Agiles emerged from the trees, they looked furious before their gazes saw the apprentices trying to brake Ventus out of the ice. "What in the world is happening here?" Agiles narrowed his eyes and looked around, frowning at the half eaten courps that was just meters away.

"Tried to take the apprentices out on your own, ey Ventus?" Vires mused but took his dagger out and helped the twins brake him out. The ice is tough but was slowly being worn down.

"Me and Tahliz noticed the missing weaponry, Ventus joined up to see who took em, a howler dragon got to them first" Qahnaar reported, Agiles teansed and looked around before back at her.

"Where is it?" Agiles asked, unsheiving his sword. He looked alert and was clearly ready to fight the beast to the death.

"We triaded our food for our lives, left us once we gave it our rations" Tahliz answered, Ventus now only having one leg trapped. The ice cracking and shattering with each piece that the twins and Vires were able to brake off.

"I'll search" Agiles announced and began to head out to the forest, only to holt when Ventus called out to him.

"No! It was docile when the apprentices fed it, we don't need to agrivate it, leave it and hopefully it'll move on" Ventus explained, soon getting up and brushing off the last of the ice.

"Alright, so the thieves are dead, we take our weapons back and then report back?" Agiles sheived his sword and looked back into the cabin. "Your father and the Cheif wants to see you though, asked us to tell you if we can find you, you keep running off these days" Agiles informed, raising a more curious eyebrow but then went to the cabin.

"Thanks, also not all of that in there is ours, they didn't just steal from us" Ventus stretch his back.

"Understood" Vires answered then joined Agiles.

"Come on, you two still have a hunting trip to complete" Ventus reminded, Qahnaar nodded and Tahliz looked back into the cabin.

"I just need to grab my bow back" Tahliz spoke then went in with Vires and Agiles. The boxes filled the whole wall to the left of the entrance and the bows were all stored near the front. Tahliz searched through and saw his bow under a bow that was carved with some interesting engravings. The engravings were in a language that Tahliz had never seen before.

"What you find there?" Vires asked, leaning on his shoulder to look at the smaller bow in his arms.

"Know what language this is?" Tahliz passed the bow to him, Vires raised an eyebrow, narrowing his eyes at it.

"Not a clue, I'll be sure to let the cheif know" Vires promised before ruffling Tahliz's hair.

"Hey!" Tahliz complained, trying to fix his hair. Last summer he had the idea to cut his hair into a half cut, having the right side shaved clean but over the winter he grown fond of having it grow out. Now his left side just barly reached his shoulder and his left grew back to their normal length. When disturbed or a tuff was placed to the wrong side it irritated Tahliz and felt off.

With a pout, Tahliz walked out the cabin, his sister waiting patiently. "What you find then?" She asked, that curious glint to her eyes, one that he sees wherever she sees an opportunity or a pretty jem.

"A bow, it's engravings had writing I haven't seen before" Tahliz answered, walking back to the forest, his bow back where it's ment to be.

"Interesting- anyway, I saw an elk heard move up from the south, we're gonna hunt a couple of em" Qahnaar reported, taking the lead and heading further south into the forest. "So we're gonna be set on a lot of hunting missions? Not that it's boring but I was hopping to be on more patrols than this!" Tahliz thought, following Qahnaar quietly. They travled the forest until hitting a stream, melting in the midday sun. "Never hunted a deer before" Qahnaar spoke up, keeping her tone quiet but she was clearly excited.

"I heard they're fast so aim for the head" Tahliz offered, keeping quiet now though since they could both hear soft grunts and light hooves trotting down stream.