Rising of a Mage Read Online Free Page B

would find everything else in the woods or she would not eat. She stacked branches against a tree and covered it with pine bows for a shelter. With her shelter complete, she began her hunt. The sun was low in the sky when she saw her meal; a rabbit nearly fifty paces from her paused and looked around. Arrow already nocked, she drew the string to her cheek. The rabbit took its first bounce; she led an equal distance ahead of it and released. As the rabbit landed on its second bounce, the arrow took it and pinned it to the ground. She inspected her catch. The rabbit was still convulsing, which pulled at her heart. She took her sword out and ran it along the animal’s throat, ending its pain, and allowed the blood to drain. She inspected the arrow, which was undamaged; she pulled it out, wiped the arrow and her sword in the grass, dug a hole and buried the bloodied dirt. No need to attract any unfriendly predator. On her way back, she noticed some small wild onions. She picked a few and took them back to her camp. She started a small fire with her flint and then skinned the rabbit and placed it on a spit, burying the onions in a slit in its flesh. She filled her cup with some water from the stream then dropped a handful of pine needles in it and set it at the edge of the coals to boil. Pine needle tea is not the most tasty tea, but it adds some flavor and a small amount of nutrients. She had no seasonings, as she wanted this to be as much like a long journey meal as she could create. The onions added a little kick to the meat and, all in all, it wasn’t a bad meal. She rinsed her cup in the creek and burned what was left of the rabbit in the fire. The fur she kept; she couldn’t do much with the hide, but with a couple of them she could make warm clothing or a blanket, so she began to rub the fat and veins off the hide until it was cleaned, and then set it near the fire so the smoke would kill any bacteria and preserve it. When she looked up, her heart jumped nearly out of her chest as she locked eyes with a large wolf. She could not look away to locate her bow; she knew it was near her shelter and the wolf would close the distance faster then she could get to it. The wolf was standing not more than twenty paces from her. At her first movement to her sword, the beast was moving. Sword in hand, she oriented it toward the animal and, as it leaped for her throat, she lunged forward and went down on one knee. Her blade sank deep into the beast’s soft underbelly and the momentum of the animal pulled her back to the ground. As they went to the ground together, the wolf kicked its back legs, tearing a gash in her left arm. She was on her feet in an instant and drove her blade into the animal’s eye. It kicked a few more times, its body still fighting, not yet knowing it was dead. As she stood staring down at the wolf she had killed, she heard a low guttural growl and instantly it came to mind that wolves never travelled alone. She turned but too late, and she felt the weight of the beast as it hit her in the back. They went to the ground together but, as she rolled and try to get her weapon between them, she realized the beast was no longer moving and she stood, seeing that it lay on the ground dead. She turned and looked and there he was—the boy from the market.
    “Anwar? . . . you—you saved me, thank you.”
    “SHIT!” he said.
    I shouldn’t have said his name, she thought, but maybe he didn’t notice. He looks very intense right now. What is he looking at?
    “There’s another one,” he said.
    She ran for her bow. As she nocked an arrow, she saw the wolf closing the distance with Anwar; he just stood there. He doesn’t look scared at all, she thought. She aimed but the angle was all wrong she could have just as easily hit him. Then a green light shot from his staff and took the wolf in the face. It dropped to the ground—dead. She looked from the animal to the man who had just saved her life. Their eyes met.