It was almost two more weeks before the next Hunt, though they didn't pass with quite the misery of the past several-- just a little more anxiety. Ranshee thought she saw that looming, hooded figure in every shadow for several days, and jumped at the slightest movement. Even when she started to be convinced that the hooded person and her metallic fox-people would leave her alone, she still was half-certain that, at the very least, they knew exactly what she wanted to do and would do their best to keep her from doing it, if not cripple or kill her in the process. She just didn't know how or when, so she was still jumpy.

At least she wasn't starving anymore. Nocol made sure she was kept fed, though she was heartily starting to wish that he would stop giving her so many food-gifts. It was embarrassing to have someone else hunt for her, someone who had no pack-allegiance to explain the action, no less; it felt like charity, like he didn't think she could take care of herself, and it made her want to bite something. Taking a good chunk out of Nocol's tail would have been satisfying.

But at the same time, she needed to eat, and for all her searching, Ranshee couldn't find where Nocol was coming up with his miniature feasts every few days. So, for now, she accepted the offerings, though she did so with ill grace and much snarling. The dragon didn't seem to mind, and was always gone by the time she finished and set about grooming herself afterwards before settling down for a good gnaw on the remaining bones. At least he didn't stick around and stare at her.

Ranshee found out about the day for the next Hunt-- Vandila'an, it was called-- quite by accident. A large group of dragons and people had gathered in the courtyard, much the way they had when she had first arrived, and probably much the way they had for the previous Hunt, though she hadn't seen that one depart. Ranshee crept out to watch the busy-ness, crouching in the shadows while large carry-things were attached to the dragons clustered there in the courtyard. She couldn't make out what was being said, or what exactly was going on, but it certainly looked big. The thought that it was a Hunt-- a Hunt that she was supposed to be participating in-- didn't even cross her mind. Not at first. It took until the preparations were almost complete for that particular connection to be made.

Furious that she hadn't been told, Ranshee very nearly strode out into the open to demand that she be taken along, but a glint of gold distracted her and made her pause. The golden fox-shifter made her brisk way out into the frigid courtyard, straight towards the knot of unhappy-looking animal-people and their dragons with the air of one about to issue commands. Ranshee had not seen the fox Kin since that same fox had tricked her and ambushed her, and she was not interested in a second encounter, so she shrank back into her shadows, pulling up a very weak chameleon spell that only partly hid her, and even then would only hold if she held still. Fear won out over hatred and kept her frozen while the fox spoke with the others, watching with hidden, malicious eyes while she imagined what it would be like to do like she wished she could but never would do, and leap out, onto the fox-shifter's back, to snap her neck with her teeth.

Even that daydream shattered at the one thing she hated more than Kin the fox-shifter, the sound of the Aerd-Lady's mind-voice. Heralded by a corporate bellow from the throats of the bulk of the gathered dragons, Ranshee quailed inside at the all-color and no-color, pristinely crisp and clear, prismatic words: ::You all know the rules. Now. GO!::

Riders scrambled to the dragons, and dragons lifted off as soon as they were aboard, disappearing into somewhere else. In the confusion, the gold fox-shifter vanished and the presence of Drakiera had dissipated, and once the Hunt had departed, the courtyard was utterly empty of anything but lazily falling snow. Ranshee crept out of the shadows, her spell dispersed and eyes narrowed, to watch the last dragon disappear in a burst of unseen magic. She spat the foulest curse she could remember from her own tongue and folded her arms across her chest, glaring at the now-empty sky.

Someone really did know what her intentions were. There was no explaining being left behind twice, other than conscious effort, not after Nocol's promise that she would not be "forgotten" again. Perhaps all of this, her great plan to liberate these Wyld dragons provided they join her own pack, her only hope for living at all free and content on this new world, was just foolish and impossible. Working against someone like that Aerd-Lady seemed very foolish, indeed, but Ranshee was not good at giving up. Even when she was outnumbered by wulves, surrounded by a rival pack of feral chyriths, she still stood and fought-- and even if it was hopeless now, she would go down fighting. She turned to stalk back to the warrens of the Aerd to pace and think-- and stopped.

"Need a lift?" Noiku's gravelly voice drawled. The black-furred fox stood in the main doorway of the Aerd, one trembling hand-paw held up to stop her, still wearing his useless bandage.

::He forgot,:: came Nocol's mind-voice, full of annoyance and reproach for Noiku, and apology for Ranshee. ::I told him and told him. But he still forgot. So we will go. We will take you.::

That brief contact told her that Noiku was willing to make it up to her-- largely to make his dragon happy, or at least civil-- by taking her to the Hunting site, himself. Unfortunately, despite his righteous wrath at his bond for forgetting to sign Ranshee up yet again, Nocol also made it wordlessly clear that he would not be disappearing, like the others. Noiku might have been in disfavor, but Nocol would not hurt him by traveling in that manner-- something which Ranshee understood, once the dragon thought it at her. That disappearance took dragons through someplace natural to them, but unnatural for others, and it would harm the mind-hurt Noiku too badly to risk, despite how much he had recovered even since Ranshee had met him. Going without Noiku was, of course, out of the question. Too bad.

So, Ranshee learned in those brief words, the "lift" meant that though she would reach the Hunting site, it would take long. The whole day, perhaps, a little less if they caught a fair wind. But at least she would be there. The Hunt couldn't be over in one day, after all, could it? Nocol seemed to believe that this Hunt, in particular, was destined to be a long one, several days long, given the territory and supposed reclusiveness of the Wylds within it. Surely she wouldn't miss anything important, just the Hunters settling in with their guards, maybe a couple meals.

What else could she say?

"Yes."

"Let's go," Noiku answered, and led the way to his dragon.

Nocol was hiding in the snow, the falling flakes hiding his black shape from view until they were nearly on top of it and the great dragon's head swung down in front of them, eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. ::Climb on,:: he said, crouching on the ground, displaying the straps rigged on his forelegs and shoulders for just that purpose.

For a moment, Ranshee hesitated while Noiku scrambled aboard. She stared hard at Nocol, whose eyes hadn't left her face. His expression was impossible to read-- largely because Ranshee wasn't very good at reading dragon expressions, if they had expressions to read. However, he opened his mind to her readily enough, so she seized on it, like she had when he first had to prove that he had brought her a feast in good faith, and read what intentions he had there. Yes, he knew what she intended; no, he didn't care; yes, she would be safe with him; no, he would never let her fall.

::Good.::

And with that, she climbed aboard, strapped herself in at Noiku's short directions, and wasn't even afraid when they lunged into the air. If Nocol said she was safe, then she believed him. She just hoped he was fast. She had dragons to rescue, and a pack to form.

The Vandila'an Hunt

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