A Female Dragon is Here?

Chapter Seven

Starting

BETTY POV before Enzo woke up.

The moment the first bird started to sing in the morning, I was up. I took off to the trees and hunted some birds to cook for breakfast. Luckily, there was a creek close by and waterfowl were swimming about. It was not long and I had twenty ducks caught, plucked, and gutted. I went back to the camp, built the fire back up, and hunted down the area where the cook had set up a kitchen the night before. He had a small section set up, with pots and pans, water, flour, and spices. I sniffed each pot of spice to see if I could find what he had. I cut up the birds and rolled them in batter and then some crumbs, and put them on a pan on the edge of the fire. To start cooking. We had a lot of men to cook for and I was concerned I had not caught enough birds. Gus was not the only cook, but he was the one I liked and so I gave him the birds and food. There were plenty of birds swimming around, so it would not take long to cook more if need be, I had just put that on to cook when my brothers came and nagged me to cook pancakes. I sent them to a bush I had seen with berries ripening. While I prepared some pancakes. While I had the pancakes cooking, the boys arrived excited with a lot of berries. I washed and squashed the berries and added some honey and prepared a syrup to go with them. The boys took the first load of pancakes and covered them with the syrup and went to sit by the fire. I had others showing up asking for the pancakes, so I made more until I had a pile sitting by the fire staying warm.

The cook arrived and smiled, he took some pancakes and coffee stopped took some crumbed bird, and sat by the fire. I joined him and ate my fill. The cook introduced himself as Gus and he was a funny man, telling stories about some of their previous trips and that is when I learned the leader was called Enzo. Gus loved my cooking and I blushed when he said this, a compliment from a real cook, made my day, and he had me laughing at some of his stories. His apprentice Bret arrived shortly after one of Gus’s funny stories and joined us in laughing at some of the things that the flight got up to.

Gloria was beaming inside, talking about her mate, which made Gloria want to shift and make him challenge her in the sky. She was ready to settle down and have babies. I am not ready for that, so we are having our little argument about the not-so-distant future and our mate and what she would like him to do in the sky. I am a little confused by this, but that is not hard. Gloria had lots of information she is slowly divulging over time, she does not want to overwhelm me with too much, but I think she just likes to be the one with all the knowledge and guide me in the direction she wants to go, and not always the best choice.

The stories changed once Enzo joined us. We still had a little laugh, but no longer the silly stories, and soon Enzo was telling us it was time to start packing up the kitchen equipment as it was time to get on our horses and head off. I was annoyed with Gloria, wanting to spend more time with him. I liked Bret, he was a kind, light-hearted fellow and I intended to spend more time with him than the grumpy Enzo. Despite Gloria’s wishes, I told her that though she said Enzo was our mate, I didn’t have to accept him. I can choose who I want, and she had better behave herself or I will block you out completely when Enzo is near us. So, after that talk with Gloria, she is in the back of my mind, and it appears she is sulking.

I helped Gus and Bret pack away the kitchen gear into one of the wagons. Gus had the wagon set out well, each box or package stored for minimal movement and easy access to the next stop. I watched my brothers climb up on board and sit with Bret on the wooden seat, Gus took the reins of the other wagon and they were ready to leave.

I whistled, and my horse came out of the woods and stood beside me ready to be saddled up, placing the saddle on her first, and then I rolled up my bedding and tied it to the saddle, I put on the long coat against the morning coolness and was ready to mount. It was not more than a few minutes and I was up on Nelly’s back and headed to the wagon that held my brothers and Bret. They got on well, and I loved that my brothers were so eager to start learning to be good warriors. I could hear the three boys laughing and talking about different adventures.

The flight started again, the sun just starting to peak over the horizon, the next town we would not stop at, and depending on how quickly we traveled, might go around the following one too. Enzo wanted to set a quick pace, seemingly eager to get home. According to Bret, I did not mind. The sooner we got to the palace, the sooner I could get rid of Enzo. Or so I hoped. I doubted my so-called training would include him.

The countryside had fewer and fewer trees, and the heat from the summer skies started to take a toll on the horses, and Enzo had to slow the pace down. I could smell water ahead and thought we would stop to give them a much-needed drink. When we started to go past the water source, I broke away from the group and headed to the water source. Nelly reached the small flowing creek lowered her head and drank greedily.

Shouts from behind me to stop and turn around were not heeded, Gloria said the water was fine so I was going to let my Nelly get a drink. I even jumped off of her and lowered my head to drink too. Once I had my fill, I removed my thick coat rolled it up, and tied it onto the saddle.

The sound of pounding hooves could be heard and the vibration on the ground, as they neared me. Enzo called out to his mom to come and let the horses drink. He was not happy. I broke away and I would most likely get a scolding later, but I did not care, my Nelly needed a drink and she came first. Some of the men seemed surprised to see the creek and I heard them commenting that the creek was usually dry now and looked at me speculatively. I could tell they wondered how I knew about this water. When I had not come this way before, I had never even left my village. But none voiced their questions to me, only talking amongst themselves.

‘Mount up.’ Enzo called out to the flight. My brothers were filling up their water canteen and softly spoke to me, thanking me for finding the water. They knew it was me and my abilities that found it, they heard the men talking about the creek, that it should not be flowing, and I gave them a knowing nod at their unvoiced questions. I had already filled my canteen with water and was ready to go.

We traveled through a small village, children running alongside the flight as we trotted through, happy voices of greeting and cheers as we moved along. We did not stop, and the innkeeper looked a little forlorn that a chance for some income had just come and rode by. The flight continued to the other side and the running children soon disappeared into the background, some of the men had thrown sweets out at them and they were scrounging around on the ground for a treat.

After the village was long gone, and the day seemed to be dragging on, my brothers started to sing, and I joined along with them. We had a few happy travel songs. We used to sing when out hunting for meat, and soon even Bret joined in, and I thought I heard some of the other men join in. Time flew by as we sang and tried to make the time we traveled more fun.

The area became almost treeless and dry, this part of the kingdom was a harsh area, and no towns would be found for most of the day. The singing had stopped a little while ago, too hot to be singing, no towns would be seen now until maybe, sunset, or even a little later than that. I don’t think we were moving at the speed Enzo wanted. He kept looking back at me, and I wondered if we were going slower because he was concerned about how well I could travel. I don’t hold that against him. I don't know how many women can do what I do. They would move under an umbrella and complain about how hot it is, but that is not me, and he will soon come to see I am made of tougher stuff.