Chapter Two, New Work
"Kooraw!" "Do you remember where I put the fang dagger I found in the attic?" I asked my sole companion, searching through the small house to no avail.
"In the kitchen, boy, why it's there, only you know." Kooraw replied. "Such a loud one, too, you are. It's a wonder to me how your name came to be Umbra, man-child. You do know the meaning of the word, do you not?." Kooraw continued in his usually ruffled-feather-grumpy sort of griping.
"I think the cold has started to play on your nerves, because you whine a lot for a bird." I said to him with a doting smile as I found the dagger lying atop the table where I had left it. "Koo-raw!" was all he had to saw to that, which meant he was indeed going to sulk for at least another half hour by my best estimation based on previous encounters with his winter-born sulking. "If only there were some fresh berries.." I heard him mutter to himself while he preened his feathers for the fourth time that day.
"The winter is long, indeed, but it is almost over, and we shall go out and have some fun soon!" I declared, and this seemed to brighten him a bit. "And besides, I can be quiet when I want to." I stated, matter-of-fact.
"We shall see, we shall see, I bet you can't hide from me…" was all Kooraw had to say to this. "Oh ho! A challenge, aye? Well, we'll just have to see what the Shadows have to say." I stated, matching his rhyme without missing a beat, rather cryptically.
"Bah! You're eleven-winters too soon! Too soon! The Shades don't talk much less walk until you've paid their due." Kooraw said, catching me in my bluff.
"Well, according to Grandfather's books, I should get the opportunity to do that easily enough come spring." I said with a grin.
"Indeed, indeed, the Shadow's seed, coming out to play! But will he pay? Will he pay?" Kooraw said questioningly.
"Indeed, indeed, my eye in the sky, I shall pay my way, you rhyming scrye." I said with a chuckle and a small jab at Kooraw's use of the common tongue.
"Though we shall have to find the ones who look for our kind of work, and I don't believe it will be around here…" I continued, knowing full well even at only eleven winters old that the work of an inexperienced, mostly untrained, assassin might be hard to find the first time out.
I also knew that my kind of new-found work would only be welcome in the larger cities, west of where I lived in almost complete isolation in the Ironwood forests now. Possibly Drakeleaf, the capital of Wyrmnom, or IronWood, it's sister-city on the coast, would welcome me. We would see, indeed…
