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My lips tilted into a full smile with the sight, and I glanced at the others as we all landed smoothly, close to the herds. A few of the animals strutted away, startled, while the others simply continued eating, used to the Dragons’ presence.
“Come on,” Asher stood, running along Athina’s body, and then jumped twice on her wing like he was part bird, somehow landing on the ground without breaking his neck.
WTF did these people have for breakfast? I wanted to jump like that.
Standing, I began to walk along the body, considering sliding off the wing like I did with Vyper. Athina’s head turned towards me, and I swore she smiled. Reaching for me, she lifted me off her back, depositing me on the ground again.
“Thank you, beautiful,” I offered her, stroking the side of her jaw when she lowered her head, then saw her walk along the clearing, stretching her legs a bit.
Wide eyes and confused faces surrounded me when I turned to the others.
“I have no idea why,” I defended with a shrug before anyone asked, and the warriors exchanged weird looks.
“How was the flight?” Evie’s voice called my attention away from them, and I whirled around to see her standing on the talon of Luna’s wing, while she slowly lowered her to the ground like a queen. She jumped off the last few feet, landing as softly as a tiger.
My gut did a strange thing. Damn, she was hot doing… well, everything.
“It was impressive,” I answered honestly. My smile widened, and I was probably even drooling, as the princess warrior made her way towards me, closing the gap between us. That was, until a bronzed-skin giant appeared before me instead, blocking my delectable view. If I were on a tv show, that would be the part where theoh yeahmusic was cut off by a screeching record.
“How did you do that?” he growled, nodding towards Athina.
“I—”
“Do not start, Kingston,” Evie chided, grabbing my arm and pulling me away. The others chuckled, walking towards the cows. “Come with me,” Evie urged, and I nodded, leaving the scowling giant behind us.
My gut tightened looking at the poor animals who would soon become our prey. Sure, I ate meat but that didn’t mean I wanted to go kill it myself. At least, I knew they would use the cows to feed their people, and to have viable milk, so I couldn’t really say it was cruelty. It was the circle of life and all that, right? Still, this was going to be uncomfortable for me to watch.
When we reached the warriors, confusion gripped me. The men and women caressed the cows, inspecting them, and then gently guided some of them away while they talked soothingly. I kind of expect them to stab them with the spears or something gruesome like that, which would have traumatized me for the rest of my life. You know, the human way.
“What are they doing?” I asked, watching Evie inspect one of the cows.
“They are selecting the best kinds for feeding, and the best ones for milking.”
“How do they know?”
“Well, we first check if the cow is expecting or has recently given birth—those we leave alone, of course. Then we check for those who have stopped producing milk to use for feeding, and from the ones left, we select those who will provide milk to our people.”
“Are there visual signs for all of that?” I asked, surprised. I didn’t know the first thing about farming or being a rancher.
“Of course.” She chuckled as though my question was silly, and began to caress the chest of the one beside us. “You are such a beautiful girl, aren’t you?”
“What purpose will she serve?”
“She will do us the honor of feeding our people.”
I understood the concept, that was how humans ate every day, but I was still troubled that I’d have to see the killing. They didn’t have guns here for what we called “humane killing”, where the animal was rendered “insensible to pain” before their life ended, so there was only one other swift death I could imagine. “Do the warriors cut their heads off?”
No. I definitely did NOT want to see that.
