Just Another Day

Over the next few weeks as they searched for the cave, Shanku told him everything she knew of minocentaurs. He in turn taught her how to fight with her dagger. At times he would find two long sticks and teach her a little sword play. Together they even came up with a few ways for her to use the dagger in flight.

"I'm not fully satisfied, but that should do," The man said one day after practice. His student wasn't very bad, but he did not intend for her to think in the slightest she could hold her own against him. She had grown on him but he was not yet ready to accept her as an ally.

"'That should do'? I've worked my tail off!" Shanku huffed. She had done her best into charming him to be her friend, but the gruff man had yet to show signs of it working.

"There is the cave," he pointed ahead. Among some pines and boulders was a worn path leading into a large hole. Old bones littered the ground.

"It smells bad," Shanku wrinkled her nose. Old and new death were both in the air.

"Be on guard, little one. We camp tonight. It's not wise to rush these creatures," Rhett warned and began to recede into the trees. Shanku looked at him curiously and soon followed.

In a small clearing with some sparse grass they chose their camp. The man divided some smoked meat from a few rabbits that Shanku had caught for them the other day. As the sun sank below the canopy and the early dusk only found among so many trees began to settle, the frogs and insects of the Nyre began their nightly chorus. The man curled up under his cloak and fell asleep. Shanku watched him sleep. Something about him reminded her of Anoki. Perhaps it was his long hair? Or the strange forlornness lurking behind every expression? In time she also dozed off, lost in her own thoughts.

The frogs and insects became eerily quiet. An unnatural predator walked among them. Two feet fell noiselessly on the ground with two toes turned forward and two turned backward on each foot, all adorned with long, black talons. The dark, bipedal reptile gave a low hiss and raised a dorsal fin along the back of its neck, the long tail lashing dangerously behind. Long leather wings were drawn close to its body along with the "tail feathers" made of a thin membrane strung between two long spines. Four spines on a plate atop its back, two horns protruding from its cheeks, two horns from his brow, a mouth full of needle-like teeth, and glowing green eyes. This was the infamous spiny Port's Plague.

Shanku blinked sleepily and looked around. She could have sworn there was a snake hissing nearby. She came fully to her senses with a fright as she saw the predator hovering above the man with its jaws open.

"Wake up!" She yelped and jumped to her feet.