R Michael Card [Card - Shadow Soul

It was a beautiful summers day, and for just a moment, as she walked, Caerwyn closed her eyes and drank in the sensations of the afternoon. She tilted her head back to feel the suns warmth full on her face. A pleasant, cooling breeze ruffled her clothes, tousling the stray hairs that had escaped her ponytail, in a refreshing counterpoint to the heat of the day.

Where shed grown up in the Afgenni lands far to the South the wind wouldnt have been half as pleasant, hot and blasting. There was no respite from the heat of summer, even in shade. It sat on you, a physical thing, oppressive and heavy. In the rainy season, there was shade enough, but the heat was made worse by the moisture in the air, from which there was little relief. In the dry season, the air sucked moisture from a person, desperate and unyielding. It was a harsh life, but shed loved it.

Here in the North, the summers were much milder and more pleasant, it seemed.

Other sensations came to her, clear and crisp, while her eyes were closed. The rough rope in her hand, the clop of hooves from the donkey behind her, the creak of the wheels of the wagon it pulled. Birds sang in the forest to her right which bordered close along the road they traveled. Their calls were light and cheery and made her heart feel lighter as well. Not that her heart was that heavy these days, just uncertain.

Shed been traveling with Jais of Kilians Hollow for nearly a month, moving north and east along various roads like this. They had grown closer in that time, and yet also more distant. They were friends now and firmly so. She trained him in various combat techniques when they stopped at night and before they began in the morning. He was getting good too, improving with every session, drinking it all in, and now bested her roughly one time in six. Yet still, his natural talent carried him more than his skill, but he was getting closer to a tipping point. Caerwyn hoped that soon hed advance from his initiates ways to become a steady warrior, less raw, more refined.

This made him a fine addition to the team, which had been just her and Barami her stalwart companion from the South for so long. As a friend and fighting companion, Jais had knit quite well into their little group. But as anything more

Caerwyn had come north looking for a mate, someone with whom to have a child. She didnt know where her intense desire to bear offspring had come from, but after her exile from her home in the South it had come on strong and never let up. She didnt need or want a husband, no connections of that sort. She needed only the child, one of drahksani blood.

When shed first met Jais, shed thought him an ideal match for her, and so a good potential mate to give her that child. But now she was certain, despite all their camaraderie, that Jais wasnt the man for that. He was young and unable to dissociate the intimate act from their friendship. Hed admitted as much. If he was going to have a child, hed want to be a father and a husband which didnt work for her.

She was better on her own and always would be. Shed had far too many close friends and family ripped away for one reason or another and remained wary of getting too close to anyone. She never wanted to feel that pain again.

Though, she did have Barami as close a friend as any. He hadnt left her.

The big, dark-skinned warrior hadnt changed much this last month. He was still his old self, protecting her and pining for her in equal parts. Hed accepted Jais into their group after a little adjustment, though he still called him Brakka half the time, a reference to a large and stubborn beast of burden in the South. Jais didnt seem to mind the name.

Opening her eyes, she glanced around. Barami and Jais were both ahead of her, talking quietly. She took a moment to size them up, comparing the two, as they were quite opposite in appearance.

Barami was tall, taller than Caerwyn herself by a half a head. His skin was a deep brown, his head bald. He moved with the easy grace and readiness of a tested warrior. Strapped to his back was his shield and his large sword, Oken Adi which meant stalwart friend in the Southern tongue. Pretty much the only attribute he shared with Jais was a well-muscled frame. He was old for a warrior, a few years past forty.

Jais was shorter and broader through the chest and across his shoulders. He was perhaps just a touch under average height for most men, but he made up for it in bulk. He was thick with muscle everywhere and incredibly strong. This was a gift of his drahksani heritage. A heritage she shared with him and which provided her own build and strength. Jais looked younger than he was, perhaps five years less than his twenty-two years of age. His skin was well tanned, his light brown hair long and shaggy awkwardly shorn by knife to keep it out of his eyes since he wore it loose. It blew about his head in the light wind. His gait as he walked was more the rolling stride of a farm boy than a warrior. Thats what hed been a month ago, when shed met him; A hunter and woodsman leading a simple life. That had all changed the day shed arrived, and theyd gone off to hunt krolls massive misshapen beasts who knew only hunger and destruction. He hadnt held a sword before that day, and now two blades sat in scabbards across his broad back.

Hed been so innocent then, thinking he wanted adventure, pining for a good fight. In some ways, he remained innocent, but in others Hed watched his family, and the girl he loved, die. Hed faced horrible creatures and come out of it changed.