Dustin

Progress through the mountains was slow. At night, they sometimes heard the scream of an animal in the lowlands, high and unnatural, a thing in panic. The tszieni wasn’t able to cross the rocky areas with them, but then, it could circle them in the valleys every night, making sure they didn’t sleep.

Almost a week later, Dustin and the Auldhund were weaving with hunger and exhaustion. Dustin was just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, cursing Seph and his damn refusal to hunt anything larger than ground-squirrels in his suspicion that Dustin would take the opportunity to run away, when the Auldhund stopped suddenly on the trail in front of him.

When Dustin ran into him, it was like hitting a wall of mortar. Dustin grunted, then collapsed onto his rear in the path, looking up at the Auldhund, dazed.

“What...?” Dustin mumbled.

“Gods, I think the mountains just threw us a bone.” The Auldhund’s nose twitched as he sniffed the mountain breeze.

Dustin peered at the rocky goat trail that had been plaguing him for the last two weeks. “How do you figure?” he muttered.

“The path ahead,” Seph said.

Dustin peered around Seph’s huge form, to the trail.

A mountain sheep lay motionless on the ground in front of them. Seph frowned at it, then glanced up at the jagged cliffs above, from whence the thing had likely fallen.

“Stay here, drake,” Seph said, dropping the chains for the first time in days. “Looks like you might get your wish.”

Dustin sniffed the air and his nose wrinkled. There was a tint of something to the wind he didn’t like. A...waiting. Warily, he said, “I don’t eat meat I didn’t kill.”

Seph snorted. “You do all the time. At those dicing halls you love so much.”

Dustin glanced up at the cliffs again, something about them clawing at him the wrong way. “We should leave it.”

“And put up with more of your whining? I don’t think so.” Seph lowered his hulking form over the sheep and poked at it.

When it didn’t explode or jump up to bite him, Dustin let out a slow breath of relief. Obviously satisfied, Seph grabbed the thing by the front leg and lifted it from the ground. The head rolled awkwardly, obviously broken.

It’s fresh, Dustin thought, unease washing through him. Despite his hunger, he didn’t feel like eating. He glanced again at the cliffs.

“Looks like somebody up there likes us,” Seph laughed, jiggling the carcass with one gigantic arm. “Broken neck. Looks like it fell.”

“I’m not hungry,” Dustin said.

Seph shot him an angry look over the sheep. “You hound me every day for real meat, drake. Well, here it is.” He shoved the sheep between them. “Dinner is served.”

Dustin swallowed hard, the proximity of the thing raising every hair on his body. “I’ll pass.”

Seph made a disgusted snort. “Yeah, well. I won’t. Let’s find a place to camp.”

Dustin glanced at the sky. “We still have a couple hours to go. We should keep moving.” There was something about those cliffs that was bothering him.

“Damn it, drake,” Seph snarled. “For days, you complain that we’re walking too long, that you’re not getting enough to eat, that your chains chafe. Now I find us a feast and grant us an early rest and you complain about that!” He stooped, snatching up Dustin’s chain. “Let’s go.”

Dustin could only stumble along behind the Auldhund as the creature stomped further up the trail.

“There!” Seph said as they approached a craggy outcropping of slate-gray rock.

Dustin looked. The campsite the Auld had found nestled amidst the jagged rock was smaller than he would have liked, with cracks running the length of it. “Don’t you think we should keep looking?” he said.

“No,” Seph said, flinging the sheep to the ground. “Cook it for us.”

“What do you want me to do?” Dustin demanded. “Sit on it?”

“Do whatever it is you do with the squirrels,” Seph said. Then he trudged out of sight. Dustin heard the spatters of urination.

Grimacing, Dustin lightly set his hand on the sheep’s side. After several moments of contact, the coarse white fur caught fire and he wrinkled his nose at the smell of charred hair.

“I want it cooked, drake,” the youngster said, returning.

“Then find some wood and cook it your own damn self,” Dustin snapped, retracting his hand. “I’d have to lay on it to cook it properly.”

The Auldhund narrowed his eyes. “Then lay on it.”

Dustin snorted. “No.”

The Auldhund wrenched the heat-warped dagger from his belt and, glaring at him, went to cut a haunch of meat off the sheep’s hindquarters. “Here,” he said, shoving the grisly piece of hide and muscle at him. “Cook it.”

Dustin opened his mouth to tell the Auldhund to eat it raw. The warning look Seph gave him, however, stifled his words. He’s afraid, Dustin realized. The poor boy was out of his league, and he was desperately trying to maintain control of the situation by bullying him.

Wrinkling his nose in distaste, Dustin put the sheep’s leg against his belly and brought his knees up to enfold it in his naked body. Within minutes, the smell of braised flesh was covering the mountainside, making Dustin’s mouth water. He even considered eating some of it, until the Auldhund snatched it from him and devoured the entire haunch, by himself.

“You’re welcome,” Dustin muttered.

Chewing, the Auldhund tossed the knife Dustin’s way.

Sighing, listening to the smacking sounds and watching the juices drip from the Auldhund’s boarish face, Dustin finally decided he could stomach sheep, after all. He reached for the knife.

Amidst the snorting, tearing, and gulping of his food, suddenly Seph began to choke.

Dustin grabbed the knife and started sawing at the other leg. “Don’t eat so fast, boy. People will think you were raised in a barn.” Then he chuckled to himself, his mind settling on the Auldhund’s piggish visage. “Hell, they’ll probably think that anyway.”

Seph’s entire body began to spasm, his hooves kicking at the ground.

Dustin’s fingers hesitated over the hunk of meat he had cut from the corpse and he looked at the Auldhund, frowning. “You all right there, lad?”

Seph had dropped the charred leg to the ground, his blue eyes wide. He was breathing, Dustin noted, but holding his stomach.

“Seph?” Dustin asked again, worried, now. “You gonna live?”

Seph grunted and fell to his hands and knees. Straining, he gasped, “...like...I swallowed...a dagger.”

Dustin glanced down at the warped metal, glinting in the dying sun. “Well, unless you were carrying two, I don’t think you did, boy.” He held it up. “Chew your food. It’s what most people do.”

Seph’s blue eyes went dark with rage and he grabbed Dustin by the throat and slammed him into the jagged rock behind them. “You did this.”

“Boy,” Dustin managed, “You’d better let go before you burn yourself again.”

Seph continued to hold him in a stranglehold, rage and madness lighting up his eyes. “You poisoned me, drake.”

“Lad,” Dustin laughed, “I’m naked. How could I be carrying something that would—” He froze, remembering the high cliffs. He realized now what had bothered him about them. At their top, he had seen greenery. Trees. Dirt.

Eyes wide, he whispered, “It was the tszieni.”

Seph snarled and slammed him against the wall again. From an adult Auldhund, it felt like he had been hit by an angry rock. “It was you.”

“Listen, boy, you need to get yourself some help. If you can reach the Ganlins—”

Seph’s tusks gleamed ivory only inches from where they were poised to tear Dustin’s face apart. “You would like that, wouldn’t you, drake?” Dustin smelled burning flesh.

“You need help,” Dustin whispered. “It’s turning you into one of them.”

The Auldhund’s eyes narrowed. He released Dustin and yanked hard on the chain, pulling him roughly to his feet. “I’ve had enough of your lies. Get up there.” He pushed Dustin bodily into a crack in the stone of their tiny sanctuary.

“Listen to me,” Dustin said, “You don’t have time—”

“Shut up.”

To Dustin’s horror, the Auldhund tore a boulder from the mountainside and propped it into the crack with him, pinning the chain beneath it. “What are you doing?” Dustin demanded.

“Making sure I get a good night’s sleep, for once,” Seph snapped. “I’m tired of laying awake, worrying about your tricks.” He found another large rock, carried it back, and wedged it into the crack, right on top of the other. It left Dustin in an awkward, half-standing, half sitting position, with his back hunched over by the chain that tugged on his hands.

“You’re gonna leave me here like this?” Dustin snapped, tugging ineffectually on the chain. “Boy, you don’t need rest...you need an Auld!”

When the Auldhund looked at him over the top of the boulders, his blue eyes were like the coldest depths of an arctic ocean. “If you say one more word,” Seph said softly, “I’m going to leave you there.”

Dustin believed him.

The Auldhund moved out of sight and Dustin heard an aggravated yell as something heavy was thrown down the mountainside. Following that, he heard scratching as Seph settled down on the rocks outside.

“It’s gonna be cold out there without me,” Dustin chanced.

“Shut up, drake.” Even without Dustin to keep him warm, the Auldhund began to snore within minutes.

Miserable, cramped, Dustin settled down to wait out the night.

At dawn, Seph woke him by tearing the boulders out of the crack. Dustin straightened with a sigh. “Thank y—” He gasped when he saw Seph’s face.

The Auldhund’s lips were crusted with dried foam, the whites of his eyes streaked with blood.

“Come on, then,” Seph said, grumpily. “Time to get moving, drake.” He stepped away, allowing Dustin access to the mountainside. He wouldn’t meet Dustin’s eyes, and almost acted like he felt guilty about leaving Dustin to sit out the night.

Dustin stepped out of the crack, still staring at the Auldhund’s foamy snout. Tentatively, he said, “Are you feeling all right, Seph?”

Seph’s gaze darkened and he immediately reached down to snatch up Dustin’s chain. “No games today. Let’s go.” He jerked him forward, hard, his compassion gone.

Dustin licked his lips as he trudged behind the Auldhund. “I didn’t hear the tszieni last night. Did you?”

Seph jerked hard on the chain, but said nothing. Dustin trudged on in silence, a chill working its way up his vertebrae. Not for the first time, he thought that the boy was leading them into a death-trap. Surely the tszieni knew their destination by now. Looking down at his wrists, Dustin fisted his hands in frustration. If only he could fly.

Damn the Ganlins and their spells! If he had the opportunity, he’d give every one of them a taste of the fire they deserved.

“How far until we reach the Ganlins?” Seph asked finally, breaking the silence.

Dustin glanced at the surrounding mountains. It was hard to judge, seeing the ridges from the ground and not the air. If he was in his natural form, he could make the journey in a day. “Ganlin Hall is another week away, at least,” he said, finally.

“Am I gonna make it that long?” Seph whispered, so lightly it sounded like the wind.

Coldness wrapped Dustin’s soul. “No.”

The Auldhund tightened his massive shoulders and kept walking.

His hooves, Dustin noticed, were avoiding the stones.