Tara Meadowguard's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Tara Meadowguard had until dark to find a place she could sleep without dying. The sheep dog fur along her arms stood up an hour before the raiders reached the west pasture, the way it always did. Her half-elf ears caught nothing yet, but her magic never lied. She could feel danger a mile off, an hour ahead. It was a fine gift for a guardian. It was a cruel one for a girl with no walls around her. She wanted one thing above all. Somewhere under Hoarplain slept an old guardian spirit. If she woke it, it would watch this land beside her, and she could finally close her eyes at night. But waking it meant study, and study meant a roof, a fire, and hours of quiet she had never once had. The old lore lived in a heavy book she carried in her pack. Its pages named a shelter: a cave stuffed with a troll's stolen wealth, empty now for years. Tara ran for it as the light went orange. She found the cave mouth ringed with grey stone. Gold spilled from its throat in a bright river. Coins, crowns, and gems glinted deep in the dark. It was dry. It was hidden. It could be hers. A voice stopped her at the entrance. "One does not simply stroll into a gentleman's hoard." On a ledge above the gold sat a tuxedo cat. A black mustache curled under his nose. He wore a crisp black jacket and a red bow tie, and he licked one white paw as if she were beneath his notice. "This is a troll cave," Tara said. "Not yours." "The troll is gone. I remained." The cat rose and stretched. "I permit no squatters. Especially wet dogs." Tara had no time to argue. Her fur was already prickling again. The raiders had turned. They were coming this way, and the cave was the only cover for a mile. "I can sense them," she said. "Men with torches. They'll find this gold within the hour and gut the place. You can hiss at me, or you can let me in and we both live." The cat's tail went still. For the first time his green eyes truly looked at her. Then a shape dropped from the dark ceiling. A dragonfly the size of a hawk, its wings shining like broken glass. It landed on the gold and breathed a thin line of fire that lit the whole chamber. "My companion dislikes torches near his home," the cat said. "As do I." He gave a small bow. "You may enter. You will earn your keep." Tara stepped inside. The stone closed the wind out behind her. She dropped her pack, opened the heavy book by dragonfly-light, and found the page about the sleeping spirit. She had a roof at last. She also had two strange landlords, a hoard raiders wanted, and a debt she did not yet know the price of.