The strain of holding the weight of two men in her claws was unbearable. Ell tried to control their fall even as they tumbled through air that whistled past her. She felt a ripping pain burn through her chest. Despite the agony, she opened her wings a little more, the soft skin at the edges flapping wildly. Still they fell, plummeting toward the mountainside.

She clenched harder with her claws just as she felt herself lose hold of one of the men. Glancing down, Ell locked eyes with the larger man as he silently fell away beneath them.  She screeched in frustration at the loss, unable to stop it, and thrust her wings wide, chest and shoulder muscles screaming.

She would not lose Terris.

With the weight lessened, their plunging fall transformed into a steep, downward glide. Air rushed over her wings and back, and pushed at her chest. It dragged at Terris, trying to pull him from her grasp. The effort to hold him, as well as trying to control their descent, was almost too much. Burning stretched across her chest, back and shoulders. It felt like her muscles were shredding apart. She hadn’t a hope of flying with him in the thin, mountain air. All she could do was hold on and pray that she wouldn’t crush him when they crashed into the rocky mountainside.

The ground rushed upward at them, jagged stones looming large, their rough, grey surfaces blanketed in orange and green lichens. She tilted her wings slightly, desperation and instinct combining to allow her to maneuver between the enormous rocks. Then she threw herself to the side so she wouldn’t land on top of Terris.

There was a jarring impact, and they were tumbling in a great mass of arms, legs, wings and tail.

Rolling to a stop, Ell lay, stunned, half-way down the mountainside, wings spread awkwardly. She was aware of the wind, now a gentle breeze flowing softly over her, carrying the blossom scent of white flower from fields in the distance. Then she felt Terris at her feet still wrapped in her talons. He moved. The jangling sensation of muddled, but living energies surrounded him. Blessed One, he is alive. The relief she felt was so great that her head spun with dizziness and she had to lie still to let the sensation pass.

“I’m dead, ain’t I?” said Terris.

Ell, lifted her head, long neck aching with the effort, and looked him in the eyes.

“I ain’t?” Hope lit his face. “Ell, you saved me! Thank the One!” Terris fumbled a bit trying to get up and help Ell up at the same time.

“Could you let go a me a bit?”

Ell tried. She pulled her legs back, dragging Terris, scraping over the pebbled surface of the ground towards her.

“Ooof, hold up there, Ell.”

Her toes ached terribly, strained with muscle cramps. Mortified, she realized that she could not release her talons to let go of Terris.

“Ya cain’t let go a me can ya’? I seen that happen ‘atimes to the hunter fliers. I’ll jess help you a bit.”

Ell sucked in a breath, inadvertently holding it against the pain, as he gently, then more firmly, pried at her toes. She forced herself to breathe deeply while she endured the indignity and discomfort of the process.

Once separated, she and Terris climbed rather shakily to their feet. Ell shook out her legs and talons carefully, relieved to be able to release the cramping. She studied Terris as she did so. He busied himself brushing dirt and twigs out of his hair. He was a bit bloodied with scrapes on his face and hands. Yet remarkably, he was unharmed.

Ell closed her eyes. Thank you One!

Sharp, painful twinges in her chest and shoulders warned her not to attempt using her wings. She eased them into a folded position on her back, then looked about for the other man, the one she had dropped.

She spied him, a sprawling heap on the mountainside below. She could see the path of broken shrubs and disturbed pebbles darkening the ground where he had tumbled down, finally landing up against a striated boulder. He wouldn’t be hunting them again. Ell’s heart clenched at the needless loss of life. Then her keen eyesight focused in on his face. His eyes were open. There was no fear there, no anger. His lips were tipped upward in a boyish, almost innocent smile.

She heard Terris take a shuddering breath and turned her attention back to see him shaking all over. He wrapped his arms about himself as if cold. He was staring at the body of the one who had hunted them. Then his legs gave way beneath him and he was suddenly sitting on the hard, stony ground.

He’ll be alright, Ell thought, warmth filling her heart, for this small, courageous, man. The One had blessed them both with survival. She looked up and took a deep breath of the fresh, mountain air. Lace-like clouds decorated the sky as they drifted overhead. It felt so good to be alive. The aching throughout her shoulders and back, reminded her of just how alive she was, and served to emphasize the depth of her gratitude. She was filled with an expanding sense of joy and took in a great gulp of air. She needed more than anything right now, to bellow out her thanks to the One.

Ell opened her jaws to voice her gratitude, but before she had a chance to make a sound, a deafening roar thundered down at them from above. Rage, not her own, surrounded her; the intensity of the emotion stabbing, red-hot. A shadow moved over her, eclipsing the warmth of the sun. She whirled around and saw a Guardian, huge and black, arrowing down at them in a stooping dive. 

Climbing steadily upward, Terris stopped to catch his breath, scraggly beard and spiky hair outlining his head against the blue sky behind him. The creases around his mouth and across his forehead dug deeper now, his cheek bones standing out clearly. Weeks of travel had left their mark. He stood bent over, hands on his knees, chest heaving and chanced a look over the edge of the trail. His eyes traveled down, down the rock stubbled slope, down through the trees to where they had first started their climb at the base of Guardian Mountain. By his reckoning they were almost half-way up to where he could see the yawning, dark opening in the mountainside, signaling the tunnel entrance to Guardian Cavern. He remembered Lisle telling him in her halting way, how the mountain itself had created that tunnel with its own fire. She said the Guardian had shown it to her. Still, he wondered how much of it was a younger’s fancy. Don’t matter none if it is or 'taint. We’re goin’ there.

They were at the edge of the tree line now and he was glad to note that his legs felt strong, even if his breath puffed a bit. This journeyin’s been the strengthen’ of me. His mind drifted back. I’m some different now than I was, fer sure. Back then I alus hungered for coin. That don’t seem real important now.

Looking up he saw Ell venture out from between the trees in front of him. Her graceful neck turning, golden eyes searching this way and that.  Then she took a running leap into the air, wings outstretched. She soared up, stroking hard to gain altitude. Transparent streaks of clouds filled the sky behind her as she took a swooping pass over the whole side of the mountain.

The air was still, as if holding its breath, waiting.

Lisle was next to leave the cover of the trees, Moss hovering at her shoulder. Terris followed. He was glad to feel Gareth’s solid presence right behind him and thought with pleasure how the big man treated him now. Terris’s chest filled with a sudden intake of breath as he realized, he respects me. He looked ahead at Lisle moving purposely forward. She calls me her friend. His lips curved upward.

Moss suddenly appeared beside him, buzzing to land lightly on his shoulder.

“How’s it lookin’ there Moss?”

She patted his cheek and chittered softly.

“Well and good then,” he said.

Ell back winged in to land hard, a little way up the mountain in front of Lisle. He saw her sides bellowing in and out, reminding him of his blacksmith shop at home, such as it was. He didn’t miss that shop one bit. He watched the Guardian, still breathing hard, as she waited for them.

She’s lookin’ some worn out by all this.

Lisle reached the Guardian and moved up next to her, laying her hand upon the Guardian’s shoulder. Then they turned together to resume the climb, the Guardian staying with the group, shuffling ahead to lead the way, claws scraping on rocky earth.

As he watched, he felt that deep sense of awe that he always felt when he looked at the Guardian. Her scaled and muscled hindquarters moved powerfully up the incline ahead of him. Long, ridged tail lifted in a slight curve, wings tucked neatly to her back, her long claws dug in front and back, pulling her up the slope.

He felt proud, that he, Terris, a not very good black smith from a no-name village, had helped protect and companion this servant of the One, all this way to Guardian Mountain.

He no longer worried about filling his belly. He worried about the safety of these, his first friends. I’m a differnt man, an’ a good thing it is. Terris hoisted his pack higher on his shoulders and bent forward, strong legs pumping up the side of the mountain.

*****

The Hunter arrived at the base of Guardian Mountain, staying well-hidden within the cover of the trees. He felt the strain of the journey as strange thoughts pulled at him, urging him to give up and go home.

Home, he thought with sudden longing, a place he hadn’t seen in a very long time. Stopping, his hand unconsciously felt for the little cloth bag tied on a leather thong about his neck and tucked beneath his wrinkled and greying shirt.  He pulled it out between travel-grimed fingers and felt of its lumpy contents through the rough fabric.  

He knew his fa would have passed by now, his ma gone long ago. The village where he grew up would be different. But his sister might still be there, married to that fellow. What was his name? She might even have young ones, a family. She’d welcome him, he knew. She was just that kind. She’d given him this bag, filled with the tiny treasures of their shared childhood. She didn’t need to know what he’d become - a hunter of men, and worse still, a hunter of sacred creatures of the One. He shook his head as if to shake the thoughts loose, and let go of the bag.

I’m proud of the name I've made. 

The conflicting thoughts raged about in his head with questions that had followed him all the way from where he picked up the companion’s trail back in the forest. He felt unbalanced and angry. 

Seeking escape, he gazed up the side of the mountain, his hunter-trained instincts judging the best path to take through the trees. As he watched, he saw movement on the mountain high above him. He stared intently and made out three, small figures emerging from the edge of the tree line. He figured the Guardian would be in the air somewhere, but didn’t see it. Looking further up the mountainside he noted several places in the rocks where he might take them one at a time as they passed through.

That’s it then, he thought. I am the Hunter or I am no one.

He began to trot upward, tracing a path that would wind up and around, well above where the companions must pass. He had found the perfect place for an ambush.
 

He sat, alone as always, on a flat rock.  The normally placid river before him now raged in its banks that wound about the base of the incline leading to Guardian Mountain. Rock, earth, trees and man were soaking from the torrential rain pouring down. His hat was pulled low, shielding his face from the unremitting downpour. He hunched his shoulders and pulled up the collar of his long coat to keep the rain from dribbling down his back. He was uncomfortable enough without that misery adding in.

The Hunter had left the site where the Guardian made a stand against him, feeling conflicted and angry with it. He needed to sort himself out. This storm had seen him do something unique and unsettling; he had allowed the quarry to escape him.

Now, the Hunter wondered why. How could he do such a thing? He didn’t care for self-questioning. He never allowed himself to indulge in it, at least not until this moment. And he didn’t like where his thoughts were leading him.

He looked up at the water streaming past him. The river was dark with powerful currents moving deep within it. The upended roots of a small tree, torn from the earth by the rising waters, swirled by. Its skeletal branches reached up out of the surface as if in mute cry for rescue.

Oddly discomfited by the sight he looked away. His thoughts pursued him. If I allow the Guardian to live, what does that make of me? I am the Hunter. I am feared and respected. I must be going soft letting the Guardian get away. The idea sent a shiver up his spine. He had hardened himself and made a reputation over the years by never giving up, never allowing his quarry respite or reprieve. Why should I do so now? The Guardian is a beast, like any other.

A quiet voice spoke in his mind. No, it is not.

The Hunter leapt to his feet, snarling, “Enough!”  Mortaring the chinks of his inner walls with anger he abandoned introspection with relief, and grabbed up his long bow, throwing his worn hunting pack on over shoulders dark with rain. Whirling toward the incline, he retraced his own footsteps, now almost washed away in the downpour. He stomped through the mud, back to where his quarry had hastily left the scene of confrontation, and took up the hunt once more.

*****

Accompanied by the unremitting deluge, Lisle hurried along on soggy feet behind Ell, who moved with ungainly speed through the muddied forest. She heard only the interminable sound of rain pouring down around her, muting all else, and the squelching of her own feet in the softened earth. Moss wasted no time snuggling back under the cover of Lisle’s pack as the companions made their way away from the aborted scene of battle. Out of the corner of her eye, Lisle saw Moss’s dripping, green face, with miniature hands holding the top of the pack about her head like a hood. She turned her head constantly, sharp eyes watching in back of them and to the sides. 

Terris trudged behind Lisle. As the rain lightened for just a moment, she could hear the swishing of his arms, rubbing wetly against the sides of his coat as he stayed close. She turned and saw Gareth, at the back of the group,  attempting with some success to cover their muddied tracks. She felt a surge of appreciation for her staunch companions filling her chest with warmth. They didn't have to be here. Even Terris could have left, but she was so glad that he didn't. 

They traveled fast until almost nightfall. Ell took to the sky when the rain permitted. By end day, the exhausted companions stumbled into a tiny clearing beside a fast running stream that would be their camp for the night.

The storm finally passed that night, leaving the air fresh and clean. By morning the forest felt renewed as the damp earth, warmed by the sun, sent up tendrils of early morning mist. 

Ell had been up before the waking of the sun, pacing their campsite and inadvertently waking the three who were not on watch. Lisle, awake for several hours on early morning watch, now gazed tiredly at a large, opalescent blue flutter. It slowly wafted its wings from where it perched on a low, sunlit branch, drying them in the early light.  She dragged herself to her feet and set about packing her things. Clearly, Ell would want them to move on soon.  

Terris now bustled about readying a cold meal. He stopped for a moment to hike up his baggy trousers and tighten the leather belt which rested about his considerably reduced waist. He passed a portion of indeterminate dried meat to Gareth who sat on a damp log at the edge of their camp site, sharpening his knife and scanning the woods about them at regular intervals.

Then he stepped over to Lisle, his hand outstretched holding a piece of jerky and a meal cake. "Best eat this quick 'afore we're movin' agin."

Lisle took the offering with an appreciative smile. "T...Ta," and set to chewing.

She broke off a piece of the meal cake and passed it to Moss as she flitted to land on Lisle's shoulder.  Hair once again a halo of green curls, Moss seemed on edge. Grabbing the bit of meal cake, she fluttered to land on a branch and stared out into the trees as she made rapid work of her rations. Then she buzzed back to Lisle’s shoulder again. Back and forth, she seemed unable to settle.

Her unrest put Lisle on edge too. Lisle was already feeling Ell's agitation, and would be glad to get moving again.

They traveled easily that day. Ell urged speed and after a short rest at midday they moved on. Gareth returned at a trot soon after and said breathlessly, pointing North, “Guardian Mountain is right there. We’re close.”

They made camp that night at the very edge of the forest, as the huge trees suddenly ended in a field of low shrubs and rocky outcroppings.

Lisle stood just in front of one of the perimeter trees beside Ell. They both looked up at Guardian Mountain as it rose majestically above them; its height dwarfing the enormous tree behind them. A cool breeze drifted down the side of the mountain,  brushing through the shrubby evergreens which covered its sides part way up, carrying with it their fresh scent.

The look of the evergreens reminded Lisle of the hair on the sides of her Fa’s balding head. The thought of her Fa, sent a pang of longing through her for their little cottage, the warm evenings by the hearth reading the Book of One, and her sister, Mina's kindness.  Even when I go back, she thought, it will never be the same. She hurriedly wiped  away unexpected and unwelcome tears with the back of her sleeve. Then she reached out to rest her hand on the comforting bulk of Ell's side.

Ell arched her long neck, turning her head to look back at Lisle, golden eyes shining. Lisle stared back into the molten beauty of those eyes and she felt so warm, so loved and cared for. It was enough. 

Then she looked back at the mountain, lifting her eyes higher now, and saw that above the tree line bare rock jutted up into the sky, gray and forbidding. The conical mountain ended in a jagged edged peak that Lisle, awed, recognized from her dream journey with Ell. She knew that deep within lay the massive Cavern of the Guardians. She could see that to get there they would have to climb up the side of Guardian Mountain. The thought sent a shiver of anticipation up her legs. They were almost there.

Tim stood at the entrance to the cave which squatted at the base of Guardian Mountain, one tan and dirt encrusted hand grasping the rough, grey rock at the cave mouth. He leaned his head inward, straining his eyes to peer into the dark depths.

He knew it was here, though he didn't know what 'it' was.  

Tim was tired. It had been three anxious suns of walking due north through the frightening Darkling Forest. Yet anything was better than the torment of living with the scorn of his brothers and father, and his own growing hatred. The nights of his journey had been terrifying,  wakeful, hearing his name called over and over. All of it had brought him unerringly to this place.

While his body might be tired, his heart was thumping hard with excitement. He just knew this was what he was seeking; this was what had been calling him. 

Wind rushed past his back, carrying browned leaves fallen too early for the season, and brushing them on by. He didn’t notice. He was too intent on studying the tiny flashes of light which blinked at him from countless crystal points embedded into the walls and ceiling of the cave.

He heard a loud, snorting breath bellowing forth from some huge beast within and startled backward, his head rearing up. He saw it then, an outline of darkness, shadowing the crystal points of light, moving slowly toward him from the back of the cave. He heard the crunching sound of movement on rock, heavy and slow.

Terror vyed  for control of his body. His mind knew he should run yet his heart kept him rooted to the spot.

A deep green, scaled forearm stepped into the light. His eyes followed it downward as long, ivory talons curved into view, then another forearm moved up beside it, cruel talons clicking on rock. A tingling thrilled through Tim’s arms and legs, his body begging him to flee. Still he did not.

His mouth dropped open unheeded, full lips dry, as Tim’s dark lashed eyes followed the gleaming, scaled forearms back up to powerful shoulders, rippling with muscle. Shoulders which shone in the light as the enormous beast emerged from the dark shadows of the cave. Tim's riveted gaze picked out the sparkling details of each scale, looking as though they were made of purest, dark green emerald. He had never seen anything so beautiful.

His eyes traced further upward to the sinuous neck, reflecting the sunlight in an emerald green so dark as to look almost black, shading back and forth with a startling sapphire blue as the neck wove to and fro in the light. The effect was mesmerizing.

Tilting his head back to look further up, Tim saw powerful jaws and ridged, reptilian head duck under the rock overhang as the beast emerged slowly from the dark of the cave, it’s claws grating and crunching over the rock floor.

Run! Run! Run! Tim’s mind screamed at him even as he ignored the fear that coursed through his body.

A Guardian. It called me here. It wants me! Awe filled his chest on a gasping intake of breath.  He had never been so sure of anything in his life. Here was power, strength, and dominance, everything he wanted and more.

Tim fell to his knees bumping his forehead to the ground, almost touching the great, ivory claws. “I will serve you with my life, Great One, only give me  your power and strength,” his words fell to the earth followed by tears of fear, release and joy.

The huge jaws lowered deliberately to hover in the air just above Tim’s head. The breath blew out through enormous nostrils and Tim felt his hair parted and blown about. He didn’t dare to move. Perhaps the Guardian will take my life. He trembled involuntarily at the thought. It would be my honor to serve so, though he hoped the Guardian would have better use for him than that. He kept his head bowed to the ground, clenching his elbows tight to his sides trying to still the trembling that shook him.

It would seem that it did have a better use for him, because he felt the warm wind of breath quiet and the great head move away.
Tim lifted his own head from the ground and risked a glance upward. Large, round pupiled eyes the color of molten gold stared down at him from the bejeweled head, green ridges, dark as obsidian, standing high.

The Guardian slowly turned, long, graceful neck curving around, claws scratching over stone, and moved back into it’s cave. Tim knelt, watching spellbound.  The beautiful creature turned it’s head back once again to look at Tim, as if in invitation.

Tim, tear streaked face full of boyish wonder and pure delight, scrambled to his feet and followed.    
  

Lisle was distraught. For the first time in over a moon since she first started hunting for the Guardian, no creature offered itself. She had searched for hours and had only one, small tree climber to show for it.

Even that had been a struggle. The tree climber had sighted her first, and sat upon its branch chattering at her, flicking its bushy gray tail back and forth in agitation. When she looked up and moved toward the tree, it raced up the side of the great oak away from her, clearly an unwilling meal for the Guardian. In desperation, Lisle had brought it down with her stoneshot anyway, hoping her prayer of gratitude was enough. Now the creature was a small, dead weight at the bottom of the bag over her shoulder.

To make matters worse she had woken feeling itchy all over and irritable with it. She hardly touched the bread and tea Mina  offered her before she left. She was just too uncomfortable. But that wasn’t important now.  My Guardian must be starving by now, she thought, though strangely she wasn’t feeling the gnawing torment of hunger from the hatchling that she usually felt. Better get this back to her anyway.   

Resigned, irritably trying to scratch a spot on her back she could just barely reach, Lisle turned in the direction of the Guardian’s clearing to present her tiny offering.

As she walked, she tried to cheer herself with thoughts of the amazing changes in her life.

Her mind drifted back over Jessamin’s strange reaction to the Guardian. In the days following, Jessamin had been unusually quiet, softer somehow. Even the times when she unconsciously started in with an imperious demand, she seemed to collect herself and softened it with a quiet, “Please.” She had even stopped picking at Lisle, and instead supported her efforts to care for the Guardian. It was astonishing to Lisle.

Even more astonishing was that every so often, Lisle would see Jessamin enter just at the edge of the Guardian’s clearing. There she would kneel down, staring at the Guardian with a child-like openness on her face. Makes me wonder if I can believe my own eyes, thought Lisle, shaking her head.

She looked around her now as she entered a field not far from the Guardian’s clearing, and took a calming breath of the sweet, spring air. The Mother was putting on quite a display of floral grandeur this year, purple globe flowers played seek and find among the taller, smiling, yellow-faced flowers that spread over the field. Trees standing around the edges of the field competed, clothing themselves in multi-hued shades of brightest green. The sun shone down warmly, and a gentle breeze lifted the edges of her tunic.

As Lisle stepped between the flowers wending her way across the field, she thought of how delighted she was by the Guardian’s rapid growth. The hatchling was filling out, her neck getting longer. Though she did not yet have the grace of a grown Guardian, she was developing more of a sense of where all her various body parts were and how they worked together. She moved with ease about her clearing now and spent more and more time trotting about, flapping wings that increased in size and strength with each passing day. Lisle chuckled as she thought of Moss, always flying beside the hatchling, celebrating each new accomplishment with aerial flips and somersaults.

Lisle knew that Gareth would be at the clearing waiting for her. His strong, undemanding presence was a comfort to her. He would have watched throughout the night, and now would take a few hours to do his own hunting and then return to the clearing and his shelter for rest. Lisle was thrilled that her days were now spent with the Guardian. She only had to go back to the cottage at end-day, do her chores and sleep for the night.

That cursed spot on her back itched ferociously. Irritated, Lisle strained her arm over her shoulder to reach it. The bag with it's small weight didn't help and she shifted it to the other shoulder. The paltry meal for the Guardian once again on her mind, Lisle’s thoughts circled back to hunting and the animals that offered themselves for the Guardian’s sustenance. They had been getting larger and ever more numerous by the day. Except for today. The thought weighed her down and she trudged on, feeling the slight weight of her offering hanging like lead on her shoulder.

Shortly, Lisle entered the Guardian's clearing and to her consternation Moss greeted her in fluttering agitation, pulling at the fabric on her shoulder and flying beside her.

Not seeing the hatchling in her usual place on the sunning rock, Lisle went straight to her cave, where she saw Gareth standing, looking in.

He looked up at her as she came to stand beside him. She looked into the shadows of the cave for the Guardian. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.” His eyebrows knitted in concern. “She doesn’t get up and come out. She won’t look at me. She shivers every time Moss here, tries to land on her.”

Lisle sucked in a sudden breath as she stared at the Guardian. She felt her chest contract painfully and charged into the cave to kneel beside the hatchling.

The Guardian was lying on her side, eyes closed, stretched out upon the cool dirt of the cave floor.

“Wuh…wuh…w…what’s wrong?” Lisle asked softly, all thought of irritation gone. She placed a tentative hand on the hatchling’s shoulder. Her scales had a papery feel to them that was worrisome. The Guardian shuddered as Lisle touched her, but did not open her eyes. Lisle quickly withdrew her hand.

Looking closely at her, in the shadowy light of the cave, Lisle could see a sort of milky gray film covering the whole of the Guardian’s body. She saw pale, translucent strips of skin dangling from her wings. Lisle was horrified. She must be sick, terribly sick. What do I do?

Moss flew into the cave, chittering softly, numbers of other fliers joined her, their multi-colored, translucent wings whirring as they hovered over the Guardian. Then they each grasped at the grayish skin hanging off her wings and began to slowly pull it off. The Guardian shivered as they pulled.

“Wh…what are you doing? Stop that!” Lisle tried to brush them away.

Moss dropped the piece of skin she held and flew up in front of Lisle’s face. She patted Lisle’s cheek with a tiny hand and smiled at her. Then pointed back at the supine Guardian as she brushed her hand down her own tiny arm. Moss then flew back and grasped at another piece of wing skin and pulled, wings beating furiously. The skin came away in a great strip.

Frightened, not understanding, not knowing what to do, Lisle knew only that she trusted Moss. She stood up and moved back away from the Guardian, watching.

The hatchling began to shiver all over, great shudders rolling up and down her body.

The flier folk abandoned the wing they were working on and moved to the Guardian’s head. There they grasped at her muzzle and began to peel the grayish film back off her jaw, pushing it back over the ridges on her head and pulling it down over her neck in one large increasing ring. It looked like a huge, whitish scarf wrapped around the Guardian’s neck. The flier folk kept pulling at it, grasping with many tiny hands, backs arched by furiously beating wings. When they came to the wing and leg joints, they split into small groups each peeling the translucent skin off the various body parts. The Guardian shuddered in waves rolling up and down her body as the flier folk worked.

Lisle was stunned by the transformation occurring before her eyes.

“By the One!” said Gareth.

The Guardian lay upon her belly now, quiet. The flier folk had pulled the last of the translucent skin from her body and it lay in great heaps about her. Sunlight poured in from the triangular opening of the cave where Gareth still stood. It flooded over the head of the Guardian and gleamed off garnet-bright ridges lining both sides of her head which shone with deep, olive-green scales. Gone was any sign of the brown and green mottling of the hatchling Guardian. Garnet red brow ridges hooded each eye, shading to a dark, rusty orange over her muzzle. The head ridges merging and flowing down her neck, back and tail, dazzled in deepest red, set off against the olive-green scales on her flanks and tail. Her wings shone green outlined in carmine.  Where her chest rose up as she rested on gleaming forearms,  rich, yellow belly plates were just visible.

Moss, smiling, gave the Guardian's shoulder a satisfied pat, and then flitted over to hover before Lisle’s eyes. She gestured at the Guardian, then crossed her arms, puffed up her chest and nodded with finality, wings whirring.

“You’d think Moss did it all by herself the way she’s acting,” said Gareth, chuckling and shaking his head. “That Guardian sure is beautiful.”

“Sh…sh…she’s buh…buh…beautiful,” said Lisle, all thought of the tension of the morning gone. She stared at the Guardian whose head slowly drooped to rest upon her chest, breath deepening in sleep.

Then Lisle focused upon Moss still hovering before her, and held out her hand. Moss alighted on the offered palm and looked up at Lisle, still smiling. Lisle smiled back at her and nodded her head. Well done, Moss, she thought, well done.
 
*****
​
A half-day’s travel from Greystone, Wufn stopped to consider the sun’s placement in the sky. He cursed himself as he realized he had spent the last hour meandering off in the wrong direction. He was tired and his joints ached.  It had been a long journey from Guardian Mountain. He wasn't at all sure he wanted to do what his Guardian demanded.  But most of all he wanted to get this over and done.
 

© Holly Hildreth 2019 

Lisle arrived back at the cottage, humming a cheerful tune under her breath. The early spring-green leaves on the trees surrounding the cottage were lit as if from within by the late afternoon sun slanting through them. She looked across the yard and noticed with dismay, that the puller, John, was there within the fence, chewing his way noisily through a pile of hay.

Farn and Jessamin are back. She thought, a sinking feeling in her gut.

She opened the door to the cottage and stepped inside. The familiar, homey scent of wood smoke surrounded her. There was Farn sitting by the hearth, a pipe in his mouth, fragrant smoke encircling his head. Long strands of greying hair were futilely plastered over his bald crown in an unsuccessful bid for youth. He looked over and nodded at Lisle as she came quietly in. “Lisle,” he said. Then looked tiredly back at the fire where he had left his thoughts.

Lisle nodded back, “F…Farn,” she answered, though he was already far away.

Mina stood at the table, hands deep in a mass of brownish dough, her thick hair wrapped in a white head scarf. She signaled to Lisle with her eyes and a flick of her head toward the back of the cottage.

Jessamin tossed back the curtain and entered the room. She looked beautiful in a deep red town dress, with long trailing sleeves and matching necklace at her throat.

Her dark eyes, flashed. “Lisle, where have you been?” She demanded.

“H…Huh…Hunting.”

“And nothing to show for it I see,” said Jessamin. “I suppose you were feeding that Guardian you supposedly found.”

Lisle’s stomach clenched. Her mind wailed. No! She remembered!

“Well, you’d better get to your chores, that shed won’t clean itself you know!”

Then Jessamin turned to Farn and stood looking at him, an annoyed expression on her face. “Jonas! A chair if you will?”

Farn sighed and stood, his wrinkled trousers and baggy jacket falling down over his rangy frame. He took a fortifying puff of his pipe and put it down on the rough wood mantle over the fire.

“I’m waiting Jonas.”

 “Yes, yes.”

Jonas, having repeated this ritual numbers of times, crossed the room, picked up a chair and her sewing basket and placed the chair beside his own at the fire.

Jessamin sat, spreading her skirt about her.

He handed her the sewing basket. She nodded at him, and took up her sewing by the light of the fire.

Lisle looked back at Mina’s sympathetic face and took a deep breath, silently sharing her misery with her sister. Then she rolled her eyes, shrugged her shoulders, and slipped quietly back out the door to do her chores.

After a tense end-day meal all crowded together at the small table, as Jessamin always insisted was proper,  Farn and Jessamin retreated to their bed.

The girls lay on their pallets in the darkened loft, the smell of woodsmoke stronger here than elsewhere in the cottage. Lisle found no solace in it's familiar comfort.

Mina whispered to Lisle. “She’s going to find the Guardian you know. She’s going to use the Guardian to build herself up with those in town. It will come to no good for you or that hatchling. What are we going to do?”

“D….duh….don’t know,” said Lisle miserably, and turned away to face the wall.

Lisle was up early the next morning, hoping to escape before the rest of the family awoke. Slinging hunting pouch over her shoulder, she climbed quietly down from the loft only to discover that Jessamin was already up and for once dressed as befitted a cottage in the woods, rather than an elegant town home. She wore a brown, thickly woven skirt with a knitted shawl covering a lighter-toned over blouse and tucked into a belt wrapped about her waist. Farn was up too, none too happy about it, and looking even more rumpled than usual.

“Day of the One, Lisle,” said Jessamin with a smile. “Hunting this morning?”

Lisle, alarmed by this unaccustomed cheerfulness, nodded cautiously.

“Well, you get along now. Farn and I have things to do.”

Lisle nodded again, ducked her head and rapidly collected leftover bread and cheese from last night’s end-day meal. Tucking it away in her pouch, she quickly left the cottage.

A rain-washed morning greeted her, the air fresh and moist, cool with the new dawn. The grass was wet under her feet, and she thought with gratitude of the dry cave Gareth had found for her Guardian. My Guardian, she thought, unfamiliar pride warming her.

She looked back over her shoulder at the cottage and her stomach clenched. There was Jessamin, face framed in the rough, wood silled window, watching her.

She’s going to follow me, thought Lisle with certainty.

She continued onto the path and as she rounded a corner, out of sight of the cottage, she stepped back behind a large tree and waited.

Shortly she spied Jessamin picking her way along the path with a disgruntled Farn in tow. Lisle was about to step out onto the path behind them when Mina appeared on the path.

“Lisle,” Mina said in a startled whisper. “You scared me!”

Lisle signaled for silence and the two of them followed Jessamin and Farn.

As they got closer to the Guardian’s clearing Lisle gestured to Mina to hurry up. She did not want Jessamin and Farn to reach the Guardian without her, though she had no idea what she was going to do if they did.

Hurrying along, they came around a curve in the path to see Gareth confronting Jessamin and Farn, bow in hand, blocking the trail.

“Turn around and go back where you came from. This place is not for you,” said Gareth.

“How dare you! Do you know who I am?” Asked Jessamin.

Jessamin glanced back at Farn hoping for support. He had his head bent forward and was attempting to smooth the long strands of hair that should have been covering his bald pate, back into place. Farn looked up then and studied the tall, strong young man, in front of him, looked at the bow in his hands, and shrugged his shoulders.

Finding no help there, Jessamin pulled herself up to her full height, almost as tall as Gareth, then brushed Gareth aside with an imperious gesture of her arm, and bulled her way through.

Gareth, a startled look on his face, hurried to catch up with her, Farn following along behind.

Lisle and Mina caught up to them and all five of them burst out of the woods into the Guardian’s clearing.

Lisle ran to the Guardian falling to her knees and putting her arms about the hatchling’s neck, as the Guardian lifted her head to look at who had arrived in her clearing, the ridges on either side of her head lifting, alert.

A tiny, green flier, flew up off the back of the hatchling and hovered in the air just above her, minute arms gesturing, making frantic shooing motions at the intruders. Gareth walked over to the Guardian and took up a wary stance to the side.

“You know these people?” 

Lisle nodded, “M…my f…f…family.”

Gareth looked grim as he stared first at Jessamin, then at Farn, and finally over at Mina.

When his eyes landed on Mina his face changed, softened for a moment. Then as if remembering what he was here for, he looked back at Jessamin and Farn and took a firmer stance, hand now on his knife sheath.

“You don’t belong here,” he stated to Farn.

Farn just looked at him and shrugged his shoulders, rolling red-rimmed eyes over at Jessamin.

Gareth turned, opened his mouth to repeat his statement to Jessamin, and shut it, his eyebrows lifted in surprise.

Jessamin was staring, open-mouthed at the Guardian.

The Guardian was looking directly at Jessamin. Jessamin, her face slack with shock, looked fixedly back for what seemed an interminable length of time to those watching.

Jessamin’s cheeks went pale, her eyes wide. Then slowly, slowly, she crumpled to her knees, a towering tree brought down by the relentless chopping of the axe.  Covering her face with her hands, she took in a deep, ragged breath and huge sobs racked her body.

Standing on either side of her, Farn and Mina watched Jessamin, dumbfounded. No one moved, except for the green flier who settled once again to the hatchling’s back, seemingly content with the proceedings.

The only sound to be heard was that of Jessamin’s keening sobs, as she rocked on her knees, grabbing at her chest like her heart was ripping open.

The Guardian focused on her steadily.

Finally, Jessamin wound down, exhausted. A lone, spring singer could be heard now, chirping in the branches at the side of the clearing. The sun shone down through the cool, morning mist, illuminating where Jessamin sat upon the ground, staring at the damp earth around her, unseeing.

Farn moved closer and touched her shoulder with a tentative hand. She looked up at him, an unaccustomed expression of vulnerability written on her reddened and tear-streaked face. Her lips curved in the suggestion of a smile and she reached her hand upward toward him in mute request for support. Farn took her hand and gently helped her to her feet.

Putting his arm around her and pulling her close to his side, she leaned her head down on his broad, wrinkled shoulder, and they turned and slowly left the clearing, following the path back to the cottage.

Lisle watched Jessamin and Farn leaving, feeling wonderment and a relief she was almost afraid to allow. Then she looked up at Gareth, still standing beside the Guardian. Gareth was gazing at Mina, a soft smile on his lips. Mina, nut brown tendrils escaping her white head scarf, was staring at the Guardian.
 
 © Holly Hildreth 2019

Lisle woke just as the first hints of dawn lightened the eastern sky. She felt a little stiff from her night on the rock beside the Guardian, but deeply contented. She was surprised by how warm the Guardian's bulk felt against her back as she curled a little closer to escape the early morning chill. The Guardian slept peacefully.

Looking up to check on her, Lisle noticed a small bit of bright green on the inside curve of the sleeping hatchling’s forearm. She looked closer and saw translucent wings folded back over a tiny sleeping body, and a fuzz of moss-green hair. Day of the One, small one, thought Lisle. You should have a name. I’ll call you Moss. Day of the One, Moss, Lisle thought to the tiny sleeper. Moss didn’t seem to notice. She slept on, undisturbed.

The Guardian stirred and lifted her head. She looked sleepily at Lisle, eyes half closed.

Ðay of th…the… One,” said Lisle softly. A slow closing and opening of the Guardian’s eyes was the only answer. Lisle felt inside for that wrenching hunger of yesterday. She felt only her own normal, morning hunger. None of that twisting torment. The Guardian must not be hungry yet, she thought. I am though. I forgot to eat mid-day and end-day yesterday. And I’ve got chores to do!
Lisle wanted to communicate what she needed to do today with the hatchling but the length of words and the idea of stumbling through them stopped her. Instead, she knelt before the Guardian and gently touched her forehead to the warm, smooth, scales between the hatchling’s eyes.

I’ve got to go back to the cottage now and let Mina know we are alright. I’ve got a lot of chores to do. I’ll be back to hunt for you soon. Send Moss here if you need anything. She pointed at the sleeping form on the Guardian’s forearm.

She sat up and said more slowly, aloud, “I’ll b…b…be back ll…l…later w…with ff…f…food.”

The Guardian gazed at Lisle then put her head down and closed her eyes. Lisle wasn’t sure if the hatchling had understood her, but she looked content. Lisle turned and headed off.

Arriving back at a cottage shrouded in early morning mist, she quickly fed the clucking, hungry layers, and filled their water trough. She looked up to see if smoke rose from the chimney of the cottage but saw nothing. Mina must still be asleep. Maybe I can get in without waking her.

She opened the door gently and saw Mina, asleep in the rocker beside the hearth, her mouth slightly open and a soft flutter of breath moving the edge of a woven blanket that covered her.

Stepping inside Lisle closed the door softly, and tip-toed around Mina to search for something to eat. Her stomach was complaining in earnest now.

Mina startled up. “Lisle! There you are! I was worried when you didn’t come home. There are night singers out there you know.” She rubbed reddened eyes.

“S…sorry.” Lisle looked at Mina, her hands twisting in her overdress. “N…no nuh..night singers, M…Mina.”

“Well, there could have been. I was scared for you.”

Lisle looked down, scuffing her toe on the floor. “Sss..sorry,” she mumbled, and she was. She didn’t like to worry Mina.

“Well, never mind. Did you feed the Guardian? Is it alright?

“Uh…I hu…hunted. Fuh…fed her.”

“Her is it? And she ate? From your hand? Well, that’s something then. Hungry?"

Lisle nodded.

"I’ll start the porridge. You make up the fire.”

Mina, stood then and gave her a quick, hard hug.

“I’m glad you’re home safe.”

Lisle hugged her back just as hard, feeling such love for her sister well up inside. She was so grateful to have Mina. 

“L…love you, Mina.”

“Well…” said Mina. Swiping at eyes suddenly teary, she turned away to fold the blanket she had been using over the back of the rocker and smoothed her dress. Then she clattered about grabbing a pot and filling it with grain and water, as Lisle built up the fire from the morning’s coals.

Porridge ladled out with spoonful’s of syrup on top, Mina and Lisle sat at the small table to eat. Lisle was hungry and shoveled the warm, sweet cereal into her mouth. Looking up she saw Mina watching her.

“W…what?”

“I looked in Ma-Marn’s Book of One yesterday.” Mina got up to fetch the book from where she’d left it on the lid of their Ma-Marn's chest. Moving her bowl aside she placed it on the table, her hands resting on the cover. “Do you remember the chapter about raising a Guardian?”

“N…n…no,” mumbled Lisle through another mouthful of porridge.

“It says that the Guardian will only eat meat that has been hunted in a special way. Here, I’ll read it to you.”

Lisle stopped eating, her spoon half-way to her mouth, suddenly afraid she’d got it wrong somehow.

“Go ahead and eat. The Guardian ate didn’t she? You must have done it right.”

Mina read.
“A new-hatched Guardian cannot hunt for itself. It relies completely on it’s Contracted to feed it. It will eat from the hand of no other. Even until it’s second skin must the Guardian rely upon it’s Contracted for sustenance. Thus, may the Contracted be recognized.
The Contracted must hunt, for the infant Guardian will only eat meat willingly offered by a creature of the One. It must be hunted in the sacred way, with reverence for the sacrifice. Thus, the Guardian and all, benefit from the loving gift of the One. It is so and has always been so.”   

Mina closed the book. “If she ate what you hunted for her, you have to be her Contracted Lisle, and you must be hunting the right way. How’d you know how to do that?”

Lisle looked at Mina, feeling both gratified and slightly confused.

“Uh…I don’t kn…know?”

“Well, you’d better get back out there and feed her. I’ll take care of your chores today.”

Smiling and nodding, Lisle, hastily spooned the rest of her porridge into her mouth in one huge mouthful, cheeks expanding like a tree climber, and jumped up from the table. Clattering her dishes in the wash pan, she dashed out the door, swallowing hard several times to get it all down.

Remembering herself then, she dashed back through the still closing door, and kissed Mina on the cheek.

“Th…th…thank you!" She breathed, then turned to run back to where her heart lay sleeping in the early morning sun. 

“A Guardian! I found a Guardian!”

Lisle burst through the door, barely remembering to unlatch the hook before she broke through it. Mina stood in the kitchen, elbow deep in suds, doing the washing up.

Long, brown braid flying behind her, Lisle raced up to Mina’s back and grabbed her around her slender waist, pulling her backwards away from the sink.

“A Guardian, Mina a Guardian! C…come and see.”

Mina laughed and choked out, “Loosen up, Lis, at least let me turn around.”

Lisle released her and grabbed a rough cloth from beside the sink. She shoved it at Mina. Mina dried her reddened hands gently and reached for a small dish sitting beside the sink. Digging into the jar with two fingers she wiped the greasy substance over her hands and rubbed it in as she spoke.

“What’s this about a Guardian?”

Heavy footsteps sounded from the back of the cottage. Lisle looked warily over her shoulder at the curtained sleeping area behind her. The curtain flew open and Jessamin stood there one hand holding the curtain back. Lisle felt herself curling up inside, all enthusiasm drained from her as blood from a wound.

Jessamin’s regally tall, heavily dressed figure strode forward into the kitchen. Her dark presence filled the room. It was as if the light that had entered the kitchen when Lisle came in was extinguished.

Jessamin’s deep voice echoed in the small room.

“A Guardian? You found a Guardian? What have you done that a Guardian would come looking for you?”

“I…I…It duh…duh…didn’t. Uh…uh…I fu…fu…fu…found it.”

Jessamin’s beautifully shaped, black eyebrows lowered into a scowl of impatience.

“Stop your babble. A Guardian hasn’t been seen in Greystone since before I was born. What would a Guardian be doing with the likes of you? If you saw a Guardian it’d mean no good for you, that’s for sure. A Guardian indeed!”

Dismissively she turned to Mina.

“Papa and I are going to town, Mina, we’ll be staying at the Inn. It may be several days.”

Then looking back at Lisle, the scowl returned to her face.

 “Lisle, hitch up the cart. Be quick about it, and I’ll have no more foolishness out of you.”

Lisle turned and ran from the house, desperate to make her escape. She trotted into the small barn just beside the cottage pulling the heavy door to a thudding close behind her. In the dim light, she took a deep breath of the hay-sweet air. The puller chewed softly, its bulky form just visible within its stall. Lisle walked up to grab hold of its halter and it companionably lowered its horned head. She rested her forehead against the puller's warmly furred, chewing jaw.

I never should have told them, never.

Lifting her head, she unhooked the rope that kept the puller in its stall and grasped its halter, guiding it out to the door. Turning, she pushed against the door, its wooden planks rough under her palm, hinges squeaking protest. Sweet, moist breath warmed the back of her neck and she remembered to move aside so the puller wouldn’t step with its heavy, cloven feet on the backs of her heels.

What would a Guardian be doing with the likes of me? She couldn't help but wonder.

Pulling hard on its halter she guided the puller across the bare, rooted soil that served as a side yard and over to the cart.

“B…back J…J…Johnny.”

She backed him in between the long, wooden guides and hitched him into the cart, harnessed and ready. Then she stood, holding the puller’s halter, waiting for Jessamin and Papa.

Presently, they came out of the house, Papa, taller than Jessamin by several inches, looked dignified in his black, town coat. He handed Jessamin up onto the seat of the cart and nodded at Lisle, his long white and grey eyebrows wiggling on his brow.  

A bit like crawlies, thought Lisle, wincing slightly.   

Jessamin settled herself, spreading her skirts carefully, chin lifted royally, and stared straight ahead. Lisle nodded to Papa and stepped away.

“Ay-yup there Johnny,” said Papa as he flicked the reins over the puller’s back. Johnny lurched forward between the guides and the cart jerked forward.

Jessamin grabbed onto Papa with both hands as she slid backwards on the seat with a gasping intake of breath. “Jonas!” Jessamin yelped.

Her hat flew from her head to land in the cart behind her as Papa caught her deftly with one, strong arm. Jessamin straightened up on the seat, recovered her hat and her dignity, then smoothed her coat back over her skirt.

“Really Jonas, why ever can’t you make it go without such a lurch?” Jessamin scolded.

Lisle turned her face away and smiled. It happened every time.

Why didn’t the woman just learn to hold on?

Lisle watched as the cart bumped away from the house and onto the road that led to town, Jessamin clutching her hat to her head with one hand, while the other held onto Papa’s arm with a death-like grip.

Lisle breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Free. I can get my chores done and have the day to hunt. I wonder how often Guardians need to eat? Maybe I could feed it again!

Lisle turned back to the puller shed, a smile on her face. She opened the door and propped it with a much-dented bucket to let the light stream in. Walking in her feet crunched on the straw covered floor. She took the pitchfork from its place standing against the wall, feeling the cool smoothness of its worn, wooden handle under her hand and threw it, clattering, into the wheelbarrow. She bent and lifted the barrow handles to push it over to the puller’s stall. Retrieving the pitchfork, she shoved the tines into the soiled straw of the puller’s stall and lifted a moistly fragrant forkful into the barrow.

The familiar work was soothing yet Jessamin’s words returned to fill her mind.

“What would a Guardian be doing with the likes of you?”
“If you saw a Guardian it’d mean no good for you, that’s for sure.”

The smile left Lisle’s face.

What was I thinking? That Guardian will have its Contracted some where’s around here. It won’t need a younger like me to feed it. A Guardian wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me. Even if it did, it would only be because I was in big trouble or something, just like Jessamin said.   

Lisle scowled and stabbed at the dirty straw, heaving another forkful into the wheel barrow.

It sure was beautiful though, she thought with a sigh. Jessamin’s thoughtless abuse eclipsed by the image of the Guardian in her mind.

Standing the pitchfork on its tines, she cupped her hands over the handle, and leaned her chin on the back of her hand.  She closed her eyes and saw the Guardian’s greenish brown scales shining with iridescence like the wings of the flyer folk. She felt her chest expand as she breathed deeply, loving the image in her mind’s eye.

The Guardian’s eyes, they looked just like a person’s eyes, she thought with amazement. Maybe I could just visit it, make sure it’s all right, not cold or anything. Maybe it’s Contracted doesn’t know it’s here? What if it’s lost or something? It’s just a baby.

A  gnawing sensation grabbed at Lisle’s stomach. Standing upright, she rubbed absently at her stomach with one hand.

It would be awful if the Guardian was hungry and it’s Contracted couldn’t find it to feed it. The Guardian could die!

Tears burned in Lisle’s eyes.

No.

She wiped the tears away fiercely.

That Guardian doesn’t need me.

She lifted the pitchfork and jammed it under the straw in the stall.

I’m just a useless younger.

She pulled up a great forkful and dumped it into the wheelbarrow.

Nobody needs me. Jessamin’s right. I’m not worth anything. She’s said it often enough…must be true.

Lisle stabbed at the dirty straw, missing and plunging the tines into the dirt floor of the shed.

“One cuh….curse it.”

She pulled the tines out and attacked the straw again.

The gnawing sensation clawed at Lisle’s stomach. As she worked, images of the Guardian, cold and hungry, filled her mind. She couldn’t bear the thought of it.

I’m not the one that Guardian needs.

Stab.

It needs it’s Contracted.

She threw the dirty straw into the barrow viciously.

I’m not good enough to be some Guardian’s Contracted.

Stab.

Tears flooded her vision till she couldn't see the  floor before her.

Taking a deep breath, she distracted herself from thoughts of the infant Guardian by singing a song she remembered her Ma-Marn singing to her. Her voice quavered at first, but the words came clear and without hesitation.

“Hush you now, your sleep is how, you’ll grow strong.
Hush you now,  your sleep is how, you’ll grow strong."

Lisle struggled to work as she sang the beloved words. Angrily she forked at the stinking stuff on the floor of the stall.

“Deep and long, you'll sing your song.  Dreams are true.
Deep and long, you'll sing your song.  Dreams are true."

She felt herself calming as she scooped and lifted the last forkful of  straw into the wheelbarrow.

“Know that you are always loved.
Always, always, always, loved.”

Lisle knew then what she had to do. She tossed the pitchfork back into the corner of the barn.

I don’t care what Jessamin says. Maybe I’m not good enough to be that Guardian’s Contracted, but I know how to hunt as good as any. I’m not going to leave that Guardian to die!

Lisle grabbed the laden wheel barrow and ran it awkwardly out to the compost heap to dump its contents and return it to the barn. She grabbed her stone-shot out of her belt, careened out the door of the barn, and ran for the pathway that led to where she knew the infant Guardian waited.