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skins. Nestled in the middle of the pile was an infant softly cooing and waving its hands in the air. Encer was overcoming his astonishment when a woman pushed past him.
    Mytera was a widow having just lost her husband in infant child to accident and illness. “You fool! What if there was still a dragon up here?”
    “They left the child here. I won’t pretend to know why but it needs cared for.” Mytera ignored Encer’s cautions and picked up the child. He stopped when he saw the look in her eyes that dared him to try and take this infant from her after everything she had lost.
    “ If the dragons brought the child here then we should care for it.” Encer didn’t understand the circumstances but he was sure that the dragons had brought the child then departed themselves.
    “ If the dragons brought the child here then our lives would be forfeit if we didn’t care for her.” Mytera’s softly spoken words shook Encer to his core. His mind already swirled with questions and fears. Who this child was. Where did the child come from? Why did the dragons have the child? Why hadn’t the dragons killed the child already? What ifs and whys enough to drive a man insane whirled in his head as he completed a circuit of the village. At last content that there were no dragons lurking in the shadows he announced the all clear.
    *****
    Iradaemi circled overhead for hours after she apprehensively left the child in Mytera’s care. Hidden in the clouds she watched and worried. The runes had spoken of a Dragon Lord’s return. If this girl was a Dragon lord then it meant that the man spoken of had to be appearing soon. After pondering the things that the child might portend Iradaemi veered off and began patrolling the new border.
    Her first stop was the trail that led into the valley. She had blackened every inch of the path and torn up sections of it before she was done. It looked like a couple dragons had held an epic battle on the ground. Iradaemi hoped that it would deter any humans that tempted to travel the path. The plan called for the village being completely isolated from the Braebach Empire. No word of the human child that dragons protected must reach outside the village.
    Night fell before the patrol was done. Iradaemi met up with Setur, one of the dragons that had flown to the village with the child. While Mytera fed the child and Encer worried, Iradaemi and Setur discussed plans for the village.
    *****
    “Mytera, what are you going to name the child?” Encer stopped in at Mytera’s cottage on the outskirts of the village.
    “ Inadar. In the old language it means dragon gift.”
    “ Technically it means gift dragon but I think it is appropriate.” Encer pulled back one of the skins that covered the baby. She was sound asleep. Fingering the skin he examined it closer. It was well cured and soft. The fur looked like some sort of mountain sheep but it wasn’t course like the live animal. It was soft and pure white. There were specimens of hides representing almost every species of animal that inhabited the mountains. There were rich white mountain goat or sheep skins. Dark deer and elk hides. Soft gray rabbit fur. Despite the skill shown by the curing Encer wondered. It was clear that these skins had never met a knife. The edges were torn into shape and in spots could be seen evenly spaced puncture marks or slashes that might have been the original wearer’s mortal blow.
    It wasn’t uncommon for a hunter to find a slain animal in the woods. After chasing away the predators the hunter would count himself fortunate and collect the bounty. Thus it was on occasion that one would see a fine deer skin with a series of cougar claw marks or a torn edge from a wolf kill. Encer thrust a couple fingers through two of the holes on this skin. They were well a hand span and a half apart. Larger than any wolf bite he had ever dreamed of. The only reasonable explanation that he was able to come up with was that all these skins were