Chapter 1 Forest Realizations
A man rode threw the woods with a golden eagle perched upon his shoulder. He was tall, about 6'5", with black hair and brown eyes, and appeared to be no older than 40. He was dressed in a blue tunic and breeches with his hair back in a horse tail.
A lady no taller then his chest rode beside him. She had red hair and violet eyes, and was dressed in a black tunic with a cream under shirt and breeches. "Numair, it's getting dark," the woman said, "we need to set up camp."
The man called Numair sighed. He wanted to get to Corus as soon as possible. "Yes, yes you are right Alanna." he said. They stopped in the cover of a massive chestnut tree and set up camp.
When they finished, Numair set up rocks around the camp and mumbled something not understandable as he walked the camp in a circle. Black fire with white specks glowed from the rocks. They began to hum and rumble as he walked his circles. On the final lap, a dome of the black fire shot over their heads and when they touched, disapeared.
"There, now nobody will be able to see or hear us." Numair mumbled to himself. Alanna rolled her eyes. He had done the same spell every night for the last two weeks. He must be worrying still, Alanna thought to herself as she set up a perch for the eagle, he always worries about Daine. The eagle called Daine was now on Numair's arm preening him gently.
"I promise I will get you back to normal," he whispered lovingly to Daine the eagle, "you won't be an eagle forever." Alanna sat next to him and clapped him on the back. "We will get her to Jon and Onua," Alanna told him, "they will know what to do." Daine grabbed the claw that hung around her neck and shoved it into Numair's face. He fingered it and gasped.
"You are right Daine!" he exclaimed, " Why didn't I think of that!" Numair turned to Alanna and showed her the claw. "The Badger!" he told her. She jumped up, and ran to Daine. "How can we contact him?" she asked.
The bird screeched. She had to be human again to ask him for help, Daine thought. The Badger God had looked after Daine since her family was killed by bandits in Snowsdale. Her mom after death had become a goddess when her husband and Daine's dad ,Weiryn a hunting god, asked for her from the Black God. Daine's parents had sent the Badger God to help and guide her through her demi-god related problems. He seemed to just show up, and his mood was quite unpredictable at that.
Numair talked to Daine wishing she could reply. "I wish Tkaa were here," Numair told Alanna, "He could tell us what Daine is saying." "Well, he is not, so we will deal with this ourselves." retorted Alanna. Numair sighed. She is right, he thought, why is she always right? "Let's get some sleep." he said to Alanna. He crawled into his bedroll as Daine flew to her perch.