[Flashback] First Blood

[Navisya Curare]

Summer 41st, 504 "Father, it's nearly dawn. Can't we go home now?" The young Symenestra descended down a steep, rocky embankment, her wiry limbs lending her more than enough agility to make quick work of the vertical incline. She paused to perch on a jutting boulder, conscious of every sound her movements made. In the silence of the night, a light shower of gravel hissed from under her leather sandal. The tall, dark figure of a much older Symenestra stalked the edge of a cliff just beneath her. His footfalls were silent as death; not even the sand crunched beneath his feet. Kneeling on the sharp lip of a stone shelf, his dark, gold-rimmed pupils stretched to inhale the landscape before him. After a long, silent moment, he reached over with one clawed hand to dust away the gravel Navisya had accidentally kicked onto him. She winced. "Common, Navisya," Tevander whispered softly. His grasp of the human tongue was flawless and silken. He spoke it like it was a piece of his identity. "You'll never learn if you don't try. And keep your voice down." Navisya sighed, as quietly as she could while remaining audible. Common was such a coarse and inelegant language, and she was still having problems with its backwards syntax. The girl lowered herself from her perch, long limbs unfurling and lengthening as she groped for her next purchase. Another rock or two became dislodged from the rockface, tumbling down around her as she descended as carefully as possible. "Use stealth, Navisya." "I'm trying!" she hissed. Her thin frame came skulking up next to his, then knelt in his shadow. White light poured from Leth's font with a blinding radiance, bathing the earth below in a pale, white glow. Although the sky above them was black, it was still much brighter on the surface even at night, than it was down in the depths of Kalinor. It was difficult to believe that the animals could scarcely see in this. "I'm tired," Navisya whispered to her father. "And sore." Tevander glanced at her sideways, and then returned to his survey of the Unforgiven. One hand reached down to his belt. "You're fine. Take a drink." The hunter offered her his waterskin. Navisya uncapped its spout and took a long drink—longer than her father intended, because he swiped it away before she was done. She made a pouting noise but didn't otherwise protest. The girl tried to mimic her father then, kneeling silently on the cliff's edge and staring out into the mountains. Whatever he was seeing, she couldn't find it. "Are not we killing anything? We're so far from Kalinor." "Only hares and birds live near Kalinor. Larger game have learned to keep their distance. We've been eating them for centuries." Although Tevander's words came as no consolation, there was a promise hidden in them that made the young girl brighten. Contrary to her expectations, Navisya's first hunt was for big game! Excitement welled in her little chest, and poured into all her limbs. A look of wonder manifested in her features, and her aurulent eyes began to search more eagerly. Tevander took note of this, and cracked a small smile.