Read The Awakening for Free Online Page B

need for their close companionship during their flight from Oescienne that caused this familiarity; their lives depended on anticipating what the other thought. She dropped the trinket back inside her shirt and allowed herself a small grin. It was too soon for true laughter, but she was amused by the idea of how well she was now getting along with her new guardian. If Gieaun and Scede could see them now. Jahrra shook her head. Her two best friends would never believe it and it pained her to think of what she had left behind.
    Several minutes later Jaax finally stopped walking. Ahead was a clearing nestled amidst a ring of large boulders and tall pines. A narrow creek wound and trickled down the slope on one side, gleaming over polished stones as it crept towards the lakeshore. Jahrra sighed as she slid from Phrym, her sore legs and backside protesting as she stood leaning against his flanks.
    A gentle tug at her hair brought her back from the weariness that threatened to take over.
    “I know, Phrym, I know.”
    Reluctantly, Jahrra began removing his saddle and tack, taking out a curry brush to attend to him before finding a place to tie him for the night. Once her semequin was cared for and happily munching on sweet grass, Jahrra moved over to the center of the clearing where Jaax had gathered several logs and started a fire. He sat facing the lake, acting as a living gate to the opening in the stone ring that led back out onto the path they had been following.
    Jahrra plopped down upon a blanket and for a moment almost let her mind sink back to the dark thoughts she’d been chasing away for the past month. If she wasn’t careful the memories of Hroombra’s death forced their way through the barriers she had built only to strangle the breath from her. No, she wouldn’t let them out of that place she kept them, locked away in her mind, at least not while it was still daylight. She was now far away from that tragic place and she wasn’t going to let it haunt her forever. It was bad enough they invaded her sleep, a place where she had no defenses.
    She grimaced as that thought hung heavy in the air. Once upon a time she did have a way to fight off the bad dreams but he hadn’t shown himself since Hroombra’s death. No, the hooded figure who often gave her comfort in the world of her subconscious had been strangely absent these past several weeks. She briefly recalled the strange dreams she’d had just after her old guardian’s death, the dreams concerning the fall of the Tanaan humans, dreams that belonged to another.
    Could the invasive memories of the stranger be a reason for this? Had someone infiltrated her mind, feeding her horrible recollections that had somehow managed to chase away her green clad savior? Jahrra shivered, hoping it wasn’t true. She had feared the recurrent figure when she was a child but as she grew older and faced sorrows she couldn’t deal with in the waking world, he had given her comfort, helping her through the worst of it. She hoped dearly that he wasn’t gone for good, just absent for the time being.
    Sighing, she stood up and walked the dozen steps or so to her guardian. “Should I try to find something to eat?”
    Jaax shook his head, his eyes still trained on the endless stretch of water that began several yards ahead of them. The sun was setting and its bright rays had turned the dark water to gold.
    “No. I’ll hunt in just a while. It’s been a week since I last ate so I’ll catch something big and you can have part of it.”
    He turned and glanced at her, his mouth quirking in a small smile. Jahrra frowned. He looked weary, as if their struggle through the mountains of the Raenyan had taxed him more than he was willing to admit. It had been harrowing, she had to admit, but it had been two weeks since they emerged at the base of the eastern Elornn Range to find the ocean of a lake spreading out before them. But maybe it took a dragon longer to recover when they over-exerted