[TLD] Chapter 9 - Ambush

Chapter 9

Ambush

Azratheon cracked open an eye.

She sat a few paces away in the grass, watching him. Her hands were folded in her lap. The last light of sunset caught on her white fur.

“You’re here,” he said.

“You were snoring,” she said tentatively.

“Dragons do not snore,” he replied with dignity.

She gave him a small but genuine smile.

He pushed himself upright and shook, scales rattling softly. Stretched his wings carefully. They still hurt, but less than before. They were healing, if slowly.

She watched the movement, then looked away quickly when he noticed.

“How was your day?” he asked.

The question seemed to surprise her. Her ears perked up slightly.

“It was... good.” She hesitated, then the words came faster. “The innkeeper’s wife was kind. She told me about the bakery. I went there this morning and got bread. Three kinds. One had honey on it.”

Azratheon waited. She clearly wanted to say more.

“And I spent the day with the manuals. From the rings.” Her voice picked up energy. “There were so many. I sorted them into piles. Combat techniques in one. Cultivation methods in the other. There are four cultivation manuals.”

“Four,” he repeated.

“Yes. Not every hunter carried one, I think.” She pulled her knees up slightly, hands gesturing as she spoke. “I read through all of them. Compared them. They’re all different. Different elements. Different ideas. Some focus more on meridians. Others on breathing. One talks about visualization.”

He tilted his head slightly. This clearly mattered to her, even if he didn’t fully understand why. The manuals were resources. Useful. But her excitement went beyond that.

“I still don’t know which one to pick,” she said quietly. The energy dimmed. “I’ve never chosen anything like this before. What if I pick the wrong one for me?”

“Can you not change later?”

“I... don’t know. Maybe? One manual said that switching cultivation methods is dangerous.”

Azratheon thought about that. “Does your System show affinities?”

She blinked. “My System?”

“The information. In your mind.”

“Oh.” She was quiet for a moment, then her face fell. “No. It only shows things like that when you use them I think. Or maybe when you get tested. Then it records it.”

He could hear the disappointment in her voice.

“What are the four methods?” he asked patiently.

She straightened slightly. “One is fire-aspected. It talked about aggressive advancement with fast breakthroughs, and granting explosive power. Two were earth. Both focused on reinforcing the body. And one is water.”

“Tell me about the water one,” he said when she didn’t continue.

“It’s...” She hesitated. “It’s the one that belonged to my previous master. The beginning is about learning to absorb the Qi around you, then how to convert it into water-aspected Qi inside your body. Then once you can do that, you can use it with some of the basic techniques it has. The text talks about being like a river...”

She organized her thoughts. “They all start the same way, really. Absorbing pure Qi from the world, then the method teaches you how to convert it. Turn it into fire or earth or water for techniques. But one mentioned that some places have Qi that’s already aspected, like near volcanoes or rivers. You can absorb that directly.” She hesitated. “And another said you can convert Qi into other aspects too, not just what your method teaches. But it’s much harder.”

Azratheon studied her. His memories told him that bears with white fur were rare compared to black and brown.

“Your bloodline. Arctic or blizzard bear. You likely have water or ice affinity.”

Her eyes widened. “I... I didn’t think of that.” She stared at him for a long moment. Then something shifted in her expression. Hope, bright and sudden.

“I like water anyway,” she said quietly.

“Then choose that one.”

“Just like that?”

“Why not?”

She laughed. Small and surprised. “You still make it sound so simple.”

“It is simple. You like water. You’re probably good at water. Try water. If it doesn’t work, try something else.”

“Try something else,” she repeated, like testing the words. Then she smiled. “Okay. I’ll start with water.”

The decision seemed to settle something in her. She sat up straighter.

“What about your day?” she asked.

Azratheon stretched again, working stiffness from his shoulders. “I practiced the technique. The Quick Step.”

“Did it work?”

“No. I crashed through trees. Twice.”

She made a sound that might have been a suppressed laugh. “Are you hurt?”

“No. Dragons are difficult to hurt.”

“But you’re still going to learn it?”

“The principle is sound. I just need to control the amount of Qi better.”

“You’ll figure it out,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

“Eventually.” He settled back down. “I also hunted. A boar. Ate it. Then I returned here and napped.”

“Oh! I ate some last night. The innkeeper said it’s a local food.” She watched him for a moment. “And then you slept all day?”

“Yes.”

“Just... slept?”

“Yes.”

“All day?”

“Yes.”

Another one of those small almost-laughs. “That seems nice.”

“It was adequate.”

They sat in comfortable quiet for a moment. The forest sounds filled the space. Birds settling for night. Wind through leaves.

She shifted finally, glancing toward the darkening sky. “I should go back.”

“Yes.”

But she didn’t stand immediately. Her hands twisted slightly in her lap.

“You’ll be here tomorrow?” Her voice was careful. “At sunset?”

“Yes.”

“Promise?”

He looked at her. At the way she held herself. Still uncertain. Afraid of losing what she had found.

“I’ll be here,” he said.

She smiled. Small but real. “Okay.”

She stood and brushed grass from her clothes. Took a few steps toward the village, then looked back.

“Thank you. For the advice about my bloodline and cultivating.”

“You would have chosen it anyway.”

“Maybe. But it helped. Having someone to talk to about it.”

She turned and left. He watched her go, tracking her movement until the trees swallowed her path back toward the village.

Then he settled back down.

Soon he would hunt again. For now, he would sleep until the moon had truly started its climb.

The forest darkened around him as he closed his eyes.

Hours later, Azratheon woke and hunted through the night, finding and consuming a pair of boar along the same stream. Success with Quick Step still eluded him, but each attempt improved over the last.

As with the first night, he returned and slept before dawn, and awakened at sunset to find her waiting.

“I started with the water cultivation.” Her voice carried excitement despite the late hour. “The manual says to begin by sensing ambient Qi. Feeling it in the air, in the ground. Everywhere has at least a little.”

Azratheon listened.

“So I tried. Sat on the bed like the drawings showed. Focused on my breathing. The manual was very specific about the pattern.” She demonstrated with her hands, tracing circles. “Breathe in for four counts, hold for two, breathe out for six. Over and over.”

“Did it work?”

Her hands dropped. “No. I couldn’t sense anything. Just... normal air. Normal breathing.”

“How long did you try?”

“Hours. From morning until the light started changing. I stopped to eat bread but then went back to it.” She looked down at her hands. “Nothing happened. I didn’t feel anything.”

The excitement had drained from her voice completely.

“Maybe I don’t have any affinity after all,” she said quietly. “Maybe I’m just... not meant to cultivate.”

Azratheon considered her. “You tried for one day.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve crashed through trees trying to use Quick Step. Multiple times. Still can’t control it properly.” He shifted his weight. “I know little about cultivation, but my memories show it takes time. Being slow doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means you’re still learning.”

She was quiet for a moment. Then her shoulders straightened slightly.

“You’re right.” The defeat faded from her voice. “One day isn’t enough to know anything.”

“Keep trying.”

“I will.” She stood and brushed grass from her clothes. The determination had returned to her posture. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For listening. And for...” She gestured vaguely. “For being patient.”

He didn’t respond to that. Just watched as she turned toward the village.

“Goodnight,” she said.

Then she walked away without asking if he’d be there tomorrow.

Azratheon noticed the change. The lack of question. The absence of doubt.

Trust, maybe. Or simply acceptance of the routine they’d established.

Either way, she disappeared into the trees without looking back.

He stood and stretched. The hunger was still there. Not the sharp need from his first days, but a persistent emptiness that wouldn’t quite fade. His body still needed more. Still recovering from whatever had gone wrong in the egg.

The forest called to him.

He moved into the night, leaving the meeting spot behind. It was time to hunt.

The moon had climbed higher by the time he caught the scent. Deer. Fresh and close.

Azratheon moved toward it, hunger sharpening his focus. The darkness of the forest did not hinder his sight. His steps made almost no sound as he tracked the scent through undergrowth and between trees.

He thought about Quick Step. He’d failed with it repeatedly, though the principle remained sound. The problem was forcing it to work the way humans used it. They had the advantage of controlled channels and pathways to shift their Qi, supported by breathing patterns and other strange mechanisms.

Then he considered what she had explained earlier. If his understanding was correct, then Quick Step was a technique that didn’t use elemental Qi. It was a basic technique, relying on pure Qi, while he was full of fire and earth from the volcano.

He slowed his approach. Ahead, through a gap in the trees, he could see movement. The deer, grazing in a clearing.

Worth trying again.

Azratheon gathered Qi in his hind legs, but this time he didn’t fight what came naturally. Didn’t try to smooth the flow or regulate it the way the technique described. He just let the fire Qi that filled his body pool where he directed it.

Then released it.

The explosion of force launched him forward in a burst of speed that covered the distance in an instant. The deer’s head snapped up as he burst into the clearing, but he was already there.

It worked. Different from what the technique intended, more violent and fire-aspected than the smooth movement that was intended. But it worked.

The deer bolted into the trees. 

Azratheon started after it.

A low growl rumbled from his left.

Azratheon turned his head and saw the wolf at the clearing’s edge. It stood watching him with eyes that reflected the starlight.

Another growl answered from his right. He looked and found the second wolf partially concealed in brush and shadow. The camouflage wasn’t perfect, just good enough that he’d missed it in his focus on the deer.

A third growl came from behind him.

He spun and spotted the last wolf as it stepped forward from the darker forest. The concealment that had hidden it in the undergrowth rippled and faded as it moved into clearer view.

Three of them. They’d been positioned around the clearing, hunting for the deer. He’d disrupted their hunt by crashing into the middle of it.

Now all three sets of eyes were fixed on him instead of their prey.

They didn’t flee despite sensing his strength. Pack hunters assessing new opportunity. A dragon was a better meal than a deer.

Azratheon had stumbled into the middle of their hunt and made himself the target.