Dragon's Fire

Talon opened the door and walked out, leaving the cleric behind. She walked out the front door of the inn, waving a cheerful good-bye to the innkeeper, and waited for the cleric. He soon came out the door, and she asked, "What now?"

"Well, first, we get our horses from the stable. Then, we head east, toward my home kingdom. We'll figure the rest out as we go along."

"Okay, but I don't have a horse in the stable," Talon replied.

"Then how do you travel?"

"Oh, I imagine something will come along," she grinned at him. "Let's go get your mount."

"Um... okay." He led the way to the stable, and introduced Talon to his horse, Draco. He put the saddle and bridle on his horse, and led him out to the street. When he got there, he hesitated a moment, until Talon looked at him.

"Well, are you going to mount up or not?"

"I'm not gonna let you walk. Let's go get you a horse."

"I told you, something will come along. Now, are we going or not?" With that, Talon walked down the street toward the city gates, leaving the cleric behind to hurriedly mount his horse.

"Do you want to ride with me until your 'something' comes along?" he asked, offering her his hand.

"No, thanks. I'll walk, if it's all the same to you."

"Fine." The cleric seemed to give up on the possibility of being nice, and rode in silence through the city gates. They continued down the road for several minutes, until they were thoroughly into the woods. Then, Talon whistled, a long, low sound. Shadow looked at her questioningly, until he heard something moving through the bushes beside the road. He quickly pulled his sickle out, readying for battle, and waited for whatever it was to come out into the open, hoping Talon wasn't going to turn on him. Talon whistled again, the same low sound, and the movements became slightly faster. What Shadow wasn't expecting, however, was that the creature that came out of the woods was a horse, already saddled and ready to ride. It went straight to Talon and rubbed it's head against her shoulder. Talon grinned at the cleric over her shoulder as he put away his weapon.

"See, I told you something would come along. Shadow, this is Blaze, the smartest horse you'll ever meet." Talon swung into the saddle and turned Blaze toward the direction they were traveling. She rode away, leaving Shadow to stare after her in disbelief, then push his horse into a trot to catch up.

Before he began to move, Talon heard him mutter behind her, "Something."