The days of peasant kids were all sorts of mundane. Of course, as they grew up, they would become worse and worse, but that's a secret no one wants to tell them. This particular day, however, stood out for the Fernsworth youth - and particularily, the Groston family's siblings - as a time to be remembered.

Tobias and Garreth were both out in the field, ploughing the ground. The scorching sun, which would be welcome at any other, lazier day, was just unwanted and making their already hard job even more unbearable. The pair of brothers did not fear sunburn - it was guaranteed anyway, so why waste headspace on worrying about things they couldn't change?

After about two hours of hard work, a figure approached them, coming from the direction of the village. As it neared, they could make out it's build, height and finally facial details. From that, they recognised the nearing person as Diana, their sister. She treaded carefully, not to damage her already not-so-great-looking dress, not to slip on the uneven terrain, not to bruise her skin with sharp bushes.

"Oi, you two!"

"Aye?" Tobias replied absentmindedly.

"Dinner's in an hour!"

"Good! Anything else you want to badger us about?"

"Now that you ask, I could probably stay here and laugh at you for having to work the plough, but that would just be mean."

"No, please stay," said Garreth, his face drenched in sweat. "It's really boring out there, we could use someone to talk to. What have you been up to today?"

"Not much, honestly. Mother's trying to teach me how to sew again, but luckily she had to go cooking, so she gave me a break."

"You really hate it, don't you?" said Tobias.

Diana let out a huge sigh.

"Well, if it makes you happier, we hate this too," stated Garreth. "Funny how that works, no one gets what they want."

The trio was blessed with a gust of wind.

"Oh, that's good. Whoever did that, please continue!" pleaded Garreth. Suddenly, a sound of a heavy object hitting the ground pierced through the immediate vicinity.

"Sorry, I'm not exactly in the condition to fly much. I would love to help though!"

Siblings now stood slackjawed, staring at the giant blue bloody dragon that landed on the field just behind them, ruining the ploughed ground as she touched down.

"Hey, you down 'ere!" shouted a person who was apparently sitting on the dragon's back. "Do y'all have any barn big enough for her to rest?"

"H-her?" asked Tobias, both his voice and his body trembling in fear.

"Yes, me."

"You're not gonna e-eat us?" asked Diana from behind Garreth.

"Why the damn would I eat a human?"

"Look, kids. I knew her for twenty years, that's probably more than you're alive. During this time, I never even came close to being eaten by any sort of a dragon, lizard, bird or any o-"

"Bird?" asked Garreth. The siblings still were terrified, but the somewhat unbelieveable claim that a bird tried to eat a human poked the young farmer's curiosity just enough to make him speak out.

"Well, a few tried. They were... quite a bit bigger than what you usually see."

"They were also quite tasty," Nisseos finished off.

"Not helping."

"Right, sorry. The point being, we need a place I can fit in to recover a bit. Can you help us with that?"

---

"Are you really sure you want this? It might be dangerous for you!

"Why? Are you going to eat us? A few minutes ago you did your best to convince us that you won't. Should we be afraid?" asked Diana.

"There might be some... over-eager knights after us."

"Just might!" added Travis, looking at his companion with a big 'they didn't need to know that' stare. "We're not sure yet. We're hoping not, but there's a possibility."

"But you can deal with knights, can't you? You're a dragon," Garreth stated, pointing at Nisseos, before moving his finger towards Travis. "And you have a crossbow!"

"Normally, we can easily deal with two knights. Three at most, if they're really stupid. But we're tired, hungry, Nisseos is wounded and we got beaten up by a way bigger group," said the hunter. "That's why we need to hide and rest for a few days."

Silence fell upon the group, as Tobias stepped forward, his facial expression somewhat stern. Only somewhat, since as a reckless teenager he wanted to help the two strangers regardless of the danger. If one took a look into his thoughts at the time, they'd be filled with something to the effect of 'Oh my god, it's a dragon and she doesn't want to eat me, this is so cool!'.

"I need you to tell us how much we'd be risking by taking you in," he said. "If something goes wrong, we might all get killed. We don't want that."

"We don't even know if they're following us," said Travis, calmly.

"If they are, they're about three or four days away," added Nisseos.

"How do you know that?" Garreth inquired.

"Because it takes a horseback rider more or less four days to cover the distance I fly in a day."

The Groston siblings looked at each other.

"In the time we stay here, we can help around the farm. I'm pretty sure I messed up your ploughed ground at landing..." said Nisseos, with a subtle note of guilt in her voice. "Sorry about that, by the way. I'll fix that once I move a bit."

"Right. If we're to stay anywhere it's only fair if we contribute. Does any of you three know hunting?"

"Is that your craft?" Garreth inquired.

"Yes, and since this thing," Travis said, pointing towards Nisseos, "needs to eat meat, we have to do it anyway. Might as well show one of you the ropes."

"One?"

"More would scare all the animals away. If there are any, that is."

Yet again, the siblings shared a moment of silence, in which they glanced at one another.

---

The wind hissed through the forest. Trees swayed to the side as it blew past with way more speed than usually.

No one heard the footsteps. No one heard the arrow.

Everyone heard the deer yelp in pain as it's skin got pierced, as it tried to run, as it fell to the ground.

"Good job!" stated Travis, and they all heard it. Well, the deer didn't, as it was already quite dead. "You're a quick learner! That was really impressive for your first catch."

"Don't yell so loud, the hunt isn't over, right?" the girl replied.

Travis was quite surprised when he found out that it was Diana who had been the most eager out of the siblings to try hunting. But after just a day of explanation and training, she was ready to join the pair of travellers on the hunt, armed with a bow Travis brought as backup.

"Well, we can continue. Let's catch something smaller this time, though. I don't want any meat to go to waste."

“Oh, trust me, it won’t,” Nisseos interrupted. “I can catch my own food, but if there’s anything left over, I’ll gladly take care of it.”

The dragoness was some 300 metres away, navigating through the forest and hoping not to demolish all the trees in her path thank you very much goddamnit. It had been difficult, but somehow she managed it.

“Alright, but we have to bring it all back, you know?”

“I… didn’t consider that,” said Diana.

Silence fell on the group for a good ten minutes.

“I can’t believe my dad was on board with the whole hunting idea!” Diana said in with a half-hushed voice.

“I was more surprised that he let us stay. But the way your mother was shooting daggers at me with her eyes...” Travis said. “She’d be quite a good hunter if they were actual daggers!”

Diana chuckled at that remark. “Hunting? She would use it for cutting up the meat after we bring it to her!”

Travis hushed Diana.

They stopped.

Another arrow cut through space.

Before them, lied a dead rabbit, and Travis was the one who killed it.

“Well, this is more than enough, I’d say. We still have to get the deer,” said Travis. “You’ll be fine on your own, Nisseos?”

“Yeah, I’ll manage. If I catch something quickly, I might catch up to you before you reach the village.”

And so they split.