“I’m surprised all the ale she drinks hasn’t done that for her,” Cal rides up next to us.
I roll my eyes at both of them with a smile.
“I actually came to ask a favor.”
Holis meets my gaze with a nod, urging me forward.
“Stormfall will need meat, real meat. Not the small mice and lizards and snakes he can grab now. Can we resume the bow? And tracking? I’d like to be able provide for him.”
Holis’ smile goes wide and approving, “of course, Alexis.”
“Why use the bow when you could just pierce a stag dead middle in the eyes?” Cal chuckles next to us.
Keane’s head makes another sharp turn against his shoulder from up front, his leaf-shaped ear facing us.
“That seems improper,” I reply quietly.
“Whatever gets the job done,” my big friend shrugs, “dead is dead.”
“I’d be happy to assist, Alexis,” Holis affirms again.
“Join our dawn,” Cal offers to the Discerni twin.
Holis nods just as Stormfall bounds through a set of trees, his black wings moving strong through the branches like he wasn’t born just days ago.
“You’ve decided to name him,” Mana’s quiet voice joins us as well, riding up next to his brother.
“Stormfall seemed fitting,” I grin.
While everyone will assume his name comes from the grey storm and the falling of ash in the sky, I secretly named him as an amused ode to my clumsiness.Yes, Stormfall was born of storm and falling ash, but he was also born of storm and falling knees.
“The Ancient would approve,” Mana replies quietly as he watches Storm move through the woods. I frown at his response, curious as to why him and his brother seem to know a lot about the Ancient Hirovale and his beast.
“Are there any other powers I should know about him?” I ask the two.
Mana nods, “yes, but he’ll make them known to you.”
“He’s fairly immortal,” Holis adds in thought, “and while he’s still a babe now and susceptible to harm, when he grows into himself he will be near impossible to kill. He’s only been missing from the Old World because he chose to go to sleep with the Ancients. If he hadn’t, he’d still be flying the skies today. I suspect whatever you found in the library was his resting place.”
My brows furrow at the information.
Is that what happened on that height? Did I wake Stormfall unintentionally?
Or did Stormfall wake for me?
“How big will he get?” I watch his black wings dip between a large set of trees.
“Big,” Holis affirms with a grin, “about half the size of a horse with his wings extended.”
“There’s no way,” I reply in awe.
“But light,” Mana adds, “light and agile. He’s known to move quickly, even quicker through the shadows of the night.”
“Quick, immortal, and the ash taker of souls,” I shake my head at the brothers, “how do you two know so much?”
Mana gives a small shrug as Holis replies, “his Ancient is revered.”
He speaks of Hirovale with the same awe Morose did.
