Wildheart - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - An Unpleasant Surprise

Rays of sunlight hit Adri's face. She smiled, and slowly opened her eyes. Suddenly, she leapt out of bed. She rushed over to the window, and threw back the curtains. The bright sunlight stunned her for a moment, but she peered through the slightly warped glass to gauge where the sun was. Her eyes widened.

"Tony!" she hissed.

She stripped off her white nightgown and grabbed some black leggings, and a comfy tan blouse. She quickly ran a brittle wood comb through her hair. Her bare feet rushed out of the room, running through the many passages, until she arrived at the kitchen. She snatched an apple.

"You gonna eat that?" Grizelda called, busing mixing some porridge.

Adri frowned. "Of course not." She dashed away, out of the kitchen.

Grizelda chuckled. "S'pose it's for Tony then."

As she arrived at the main doors, Adri only spared a moment to take her cloak off the rack before throwing open the doors. She glanced up. The sun had almost cleared the horizon. She ran ever faster, to a big barn made out of wood. She rushed in.

"Tony?" a snort came from one of the stalls.

Adri cautiously walked over to the stall. "Tony? You want an apple?"

A hairy head rose above the door, and huffed. 

"Aw, I'm sorry I was late. But I got you an apple!" Adri brandished the shiny red fruit.

He snorted, and grabbed the apple, chewing it slowly. Adri smiled. The old pony would forgive her for almost anything for an apple. He could be grumpy sometimes, but he had always loved the juicy fruit. 

Tony was a Shetland pony, short and stout. His fur was brown, apart from his white socks, and the shaggy mane covering his eyes was a mix of brown and tan. He was old, but he still had plenty of fight in him yet. He was tough, and had never been out of Wildwood Estate. Of course, neither had Adri, apart from a few trips to the local town to trade at the marketplace. He usually wandered around the orchards at this time, but he had been waiting for Adri.

"I know you're a bit angry, but you want to still?" Adri asked hopefully. Tony huffed, but begrudgingly let her lead him out of his stall and mount him. "C'mon, it'll be fine."

"Hiyah!" Adri cried.

Tony walked out of the stable. Adri sighed. She had never convinced him once to gallop, but every day, they got closer and closer. She rushed him along, turning the walk into a fast trot. They jumped over the fence, and wove through the trees of the orchards. They were soon nearing the fence. Tony was about to turn back, but Adri spurred him on. They leaped over the fence, landing in a soft meadow. They wandered about in the forest for quite a while, Adri marveling at all the beauty encased in the woods. Suddenly, she heard a thunk. Turning around, she saw an arrow buried in a tree trunk.

"Gallop, Tony!" she shouted. Tony started trotting. "No, GALLOP, Tony!" He snorted. An arrow whizzed past, barely missing Tony. That got him galloping. Adri was too terrified to enjoy the moment.

Adri could hear quick footsteps following them. Realizing they couldn't outrun the hunters with an old pony that hardly remembered how to gallop, she turned Tony around, and hid in a thick copse of trees. She forced Tony to lie down, and then flattened out herself, her eyesight limited to patches of the ground. She thanked her lucky stars for her choice of clothes that morning.

"Oi! I think I found one!" A rough voice called.

"It better be a real one this time, not some silly li'l lizard, Bernard, or the master'll skin your 'ide." Adri watched thick black boots walk in, with a cage on wheels. She could barely make out a tiny figure thrashing in it.

"I swear this time!" Bernard insisted. "I saw a right big one, that looked like a girl, 'cept for these weird little yellow eyes. She was on a little pony. I betcha it was one of them shapeshifters in disguise."

"Oh, come off it. Them shapeshifters aren't real, dumbo." the other one said.

"How d'you explain it, then, Karl, huh? What was it then? Huh, Karl? What was it? Huh?" Bernard growled. "I'ma get that little prize, and I'll get rich off the profits."

Karl snorted. "What profits? I reckon you're jus' making it up."

"Fine. Let's just go with your explanation, then." Brown boots kicked the cage. The door clattered open, and a silvery green lizard shot through the undergrowth, right toward Adri. The men cursed, but plants seemed to be growing rapidly, changing the small clearing into a dense patch of plants.

"I never liked this place anyway." Karl sniffed. "Let's get outta these accursed woods."

The two left, and Adri swung up onto Tony's back, not noticing the extra passenger hanging on to her cloak.

***

Adri kicked open the doors to the kitchen. Silence reigned. She marched over to her mother sitting at the table, reading a letter, frowning.

"Mother!" Adri snapped. "Two men in the woods were trying to KILL me. And Tony. On our morning ride. Why did they do that and why aren't we stopping them?"

"Oh they must've mistaken you for game. It makes sense, considering your clothing." Courtney glanced up at her for a moment, then continued reading the letter.

"For the last time -"

"Now is not the time to talk." Courtney sipped some tea. "You would be interrupting me." Adri groaned. "Now, I advise you stay out of the woods until they have gone. It's much too dangerous, even without the hunters, anyway."

"Well, what should I do all day long? Sit and sew?" Adri crossed her arms. "And why are they here?"

"I wanted to talk to you about that." her mother said gently. "Sit down." Adri did, reluctantly. "We're having a bit of a... financial problem, and so we've had to make some tough decisions. First, we have given hunters permission to hunt Wild Woods' dragons."

"Okay." Adri frowned. "But, you can't sell off the dragons. They're just innocent creatures. And they're hunted enough already. Besides, we've mostly got wyverns. There was this one, that they had captured, they didn't even care about it, they just wanted bigger prey." Adri gulped, remembering her close shave. 

"We're still working out negotiations, and don't worry, it won't affect the population at all." Courtney assured her.

"About the castle. I can handle anything they throw at me. I was, after all, raised in the Wild Woods." she grinned weakly.

Courtney smiled, but there was no happiness in her features. "That's what I was afraid of." Before Adri could puzzle out what she meant, Courtney said "Go pack your things. You leave as soon as possible."

Adri groaned, but obliged. As she trudged up the stairs, she noticed a pair of reddish black eyes staring up at her. In her room, she put the silvery green lizard on her bed.

"At least you're one dragon they won't catch. Stay in the castle for now. It's not safe in the woods."

It stared up at her for a moment, then jumped under the bed. She sighed, and started gathering her things.