Page 15 of Heart of the Hunted
CHAPTER FIVE
Taredd
"Is it just me, or does this pass get longer each time we come through here," Dain asked.
"It's just you," Arun told him.
"It probably feels longer because you have usually given up walking with us by now. Generally, you shift into a bird or something, and have abandoned us by this point," Taredd said.
"I don't do that, do I?" Dain asked, looking at Arun.
"Yep, Taredd's right," Arun agreed. "Normally you meet us on the other side."
"Yeah, I suppose that does sound like something I’d do," Dain said, smirking.
Taredd had to admit, he was surprised Dain was still with them. Normally he’d long since left them by the time they reached this point, preferring to take to the sky and meet them on the other side.
Taredd hoped this wasn't the start of Dain's complaining though, because they still had a couple of days travel. That was if they didn’t stop at night. The last thing Taredd wanted was to spend the whole time listening to Dain complain about it every step of the way.
"We've still got quite a way to go yet, so why don't you just fly on ahead and meet us there like normal?" Taredd asked him.
"What? And miss all this fun? I don't think so," Dain said, smiling.
"You call this fun?" Arun asked. "If I had your abilities, I would have done that at the start of day one. I've had enough of wearing wet clothes already."
"And you thought I was going to be the one moaning, didn't you?" Dain asked Taredd.
"You've got magic,” Taredd said. “Use it to dry your clothes."
"What do you think I have been doing?" Arun snapped. "It doesn't matter how many times I dry my clothing, within minutes it's soaked through again."
"I seriously wonder why I stick around with you two," Taredd said, shaking his head at them. "One, if not both, of you are always fucking moaning about something. In fact, I don't think we've gone a single day without one of you finding something to bitch about."
"That's not true," Arun said.
"Yeah," Dain agreed. "There was one day the other week were neither of us bitched about anything. I remember it well because it was such a boring day."
"It was, wasn't it." Arun laughed.
"Where the hell was I then, because I don't remember any day in the last century where you two haven’t bitched," Taredd told them.
"Yeah... I don't think you were with us that day," Dain said.
"Hadn't he gone ahead of us to scout the area where the last group of Humans we were hunting had been spotted?" Arun asked.
"I think he might have done," Dain said.
"So, the one day I could have had peace and quiet around you, I was off scouting ahead?" Taredd asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure that was the same day," Dain said.
Sounds about right.Taredd thought before he said: "To be honest, that doesn't surprise me. I bet you’re the same every time I scout ahead, aren't you?"
"I don't know about every time," Arun said.
"But most times," Dain admitted, grinning from ear to ear.
"You're a dick," Taredd told him.
