Small creatures know that circling eagles are bad omens. They run and hide, kicking away dust and dirt behind them. They scream and pant, and don't dare to ever come back. They're wise to do so.
No sane big creature would run at the sight of an eagle. No bird would dream of bringing down a deer, so the docile creatures just stare at the eagle's shining form before turning their attention back to the forest floor.
No sane big creature would expect that accompanying this eagle was a swift arrow.
And so they crumple before me, for they were not as wise as the little ones.
I'm Quinn, and that's Valor. We are travellers and need to hunt to stay alive. Valor is my eyes, and I am his shadow, striking wherever he sees best.
We ventured far from the small village we come from. After the death of my brother, I never really wanted to see our childhood home again. It pained me too much to see his face in our old toys - wooden swords and dainty bows - and to have to face memories of him. Instead, I have no home, and wander the wilderness. I am afraid to become familiar with an area, for I know that I will then miss it when I venture on.
I haven't trusted anyone other than Valor since Caleb's passing. It seems to me that it's too painful to love someone just so that you may watch them vanish someday. Valor is all I have, and I plan on keeping it that way.
After a whole day of wandering the forest, I realized that we may have headed too far north. The air was cooling and the winds seemed stronger. What's more, Valor said he could see pine trees further on ahead, and a vague outline of mountains.
"We've headed a bit too far." I say to him, aware that although we were resilient we may not do well in icier lands. "We should plan another route."
He lets out a cry of protest. "I want to see the mountains." He says.
"Well admire them from a distance. We can't go that way."
"But we've never been there."
"There's a reason for that. While you may be able to fly over cliffs and gorges, I have to climb them." I reply, chuckling at the look of disgust that he gives me.
He settles on the ground and combs the feather on his wings with his beak. He looks tired, and I know that we need to set up a camp soon.
"Come on." I say, and head towards a good spot for our makeshift tent which I had been carrying on my back.
It wasn't much - just a bunch of skins sewed together and held up by sticks to provide shelter. I had a sleeping bag made of various furs of whatever we hunted at the time of making and let Valor snuggle in with me. My crossbow and arrows always lay at my side, in case we needed to make a speedy getaway, as well as my leather chest plate and arm guards, which I would just slide over my clothing.
"When are we gonna find something exciting?" He asks, despite knowing that I didn't have an answer.
What I was actually planning to do with my life had never crossed my mind. When Caleb was alive, we used to want to become knights of Demacia, to lead charges into battle, to fight not for glory but for justice. Now, however, all of that is gone, not just because Caleb is, but simply because my childhood dreams have matured enough. I don't want to fight for the sake of politics, to spill the blood of men that had never started the feud they fight for. I'm not a pacifist for sure, but I find that the life of a knight is not for me. I think that as he grew older, Caleb realized that too, though he never got the chance to voice it like I am.
"You're upset again. Sorry." he says, and immediately I realize that my eyes were filling up with tears.
"No, it's not your fault." I say, wiping them away. "We'll find something exciting soon enough. I guess survival is not enough for us anymore, eh?"
I don't know whether birds can smile or not, but I swear that I sometimes see Valor do so.
The morning came too quickly and the dawn seemed blinding. Valor had already gotten up and had probably started looking for something to eat. That bird could eat five times his own weight, and yet never gain a single gram.
I slowly got up and put our little camp site back into the rucksack that I carried on my back. I grabbed my things - most importantly my crossbow - and headed out to find him.
There was a slight mist in the air, and I could feel the cold moisture making me shiver. I decided that we needed to head back south as soon as possible, so I shouted for Valor so that we could be off.
But there was no answer.
"Valor!" I yelled again, hearing a few crows rustle through branches, but no Valor.
This was odd. He often wandered, but he would always be within shouting distance. I kicked at the ground for a few moments, realizing that I wasn't sure what to do. Suddenly, I felt lost amongst the trees.
I started walking further north, thinking that maybe he let curiosity get the best of him and that he headed into the mountains as he said he wanted to. I dreaded having to come face to face with the cold winds and steeper paths, but there was no way I was leaving without Valor.
I kept calling out for him, but he wasn't answering. After a while, I started to panic.
I called out for him but he didn't respond. I thought he was hiding from me, playing a prank the way he'd always do. He laughed at the way I would panic and start crying in the middle of the clearing, saying that I was lost when really I was only a few paces from our home.
I kept on walking. It had occurred to me that the ground beneath my feet was getting more and more rocky and the grass seemed to dissipated along pebbles that increased in size as I progressed.
"Valor!" I called out, but there was nothing amongst the silence.
But this time I was truly lost. I didn't find myself in the same clearing like I always did. I was lost amongst trees and wild creatures. I didn't know my way home and I was too young to know how to find a path back into civilisation. I was left alone, crying for his help.
I had lost notion of the time and was driven forward only by the need to find Valor. I listened out for the familiar cry of his, looked up for his shining silhouette, but never caught a glimpse of it. As I walked further and further, the winds grew harsher and the air bit my skin harder. I was surrounded mainly by pines, their smell dominating the air.
Dusk had yet to come, but my world seemed to darken.
I cried and I cried. I yelled his name in vain. I wandered the forest - a lost child amidst an unknown world of violence. I recalled seeing a wolf. It looked me dead in the eyes but walked on. There was something about me that pained him to look at.
At some point, I must have stopped and sat down, leaning my back against the trunk of a tree. The spiky leaves of the pine seemed to tell me that I was not welcome, but I took no notice. I tilted my head back and yelled out one last time.
I had never seen blood before at that age, so when I came across it I flinched and stood frozen in panic. Before me, I saw my older brother looking up at me. I told him to cut it out, I told him it wasn't funny, I told him to stand up.
Then I realized that his eyes could not see me.
And throughout all this, I wondered if I ever even remembered my way home.
After this, I didn't even think about going home anymore.