We can be the kings and queens of anything, if we believe.
She was a shadow in the night. The memory of a ghost seen in the corner of an eye. She was stealth personified, and leaped on silent feet from rooftop to fence to shady alleyway. Supple as a cat, she made a game of going from the skyport in one end of the town to the edge of the other without setting foot on the main roads. Without being seen, and - just to make it more difficult - without using her gifts.
In all honesty, Seren was only half as good at sneaking as she liked to think. While her movements were indeed silent and her reflexes good, she simply did not have the physical strength required to make her climbing and leaping truly graceful. She was perfectly capable of leaping up high enough to grab hold of the roof to a merchant's shed. But then a lot of clumsy scrabbling of bare feet followed as she struggled to haul herself up onto it, and further to an apartment building beyond. It was grueling, and by the time she could heave herself over the edge onto shingles still warm after a day of baking in the sun, she was out of breath.
"Don't give me that look," she hissed to her young dragon when he winged by. "Go keep watch instead. Or find me a target to follow." A far more subtle shadow following in her wake, Umbra had watched her efforts with unveiled criticism. Her admonishment only added to the amusement streaming through their joined minds, until Seren had to struggle to keep from laughing herself. But though the whelp failed to see the point in this exercise he stoically obliged her, and glided off into the balmy night.
The sound of drunken revelry from the streets droned in the background. For a moment, as she crouched there waiting, Seren wondered if she was strange to prefer the solitude of dark rooftops over bonfires and booze.
In all honesty, Seren was only half as good at sneaking as she liked to think. While her movements were indeed silent and her reflexes good, she simply did not have the physical strength required to make her climbing and leaping truly graceful. She was perfectly capable of leaping up high enough to grab hold of the roof to a merchant's shed. But then a lot of clumsy scrabbling of bare feet followed as she struggled to haul herself up onto it, and further to an apartment building beyond. It was grueling, and by the time she could heave herself over the edge onto shingles still warm after a day of baking in the sun, she was out of breath.
"Don't give me that look," she hissed to her young dragon when he winged by. "Go keep watch instead. Or find me a target to follow." A far more subtle shadow following in her wake, Umbra had watched her efforts with unveiled criticism. Her admonishment only added to the amusement streaming through their joined minds, until Seren had to struggle to keep from laughing herself. But though the whelp failed to see the point in this exercise he stoically obliged her, and glided off into the balmy night.
The sound of drunken revelry from the streets droned in the background. For a moment, as she crouched there waiting, Seren wondered if she was strange to prefer the solitude of dark rooftops over bonfires and booze.
Seren
