Immortals: Silver Lining Pt 4

     The gate finally slammed shut, both riders safely inside, and with them was the dead werewolf, an arrow protruding from its skull and its angry jaws parted in a final snarl.
     Sonja turned her horse around and immediately forgot the strange rider when  she saw her secret Lycan lover, Lucian, approach the dead body of the werewolf. She hid her love for him under a cold exterior in public, and it was a hard tone she used when she spoke to him and removed her helmet.
     "Have you nothing better to do, blacksmith," she asked, "than to play with weapons of war?"
     She knew he was the one who had fired the arrows that had taken down her pursuers. She tossed her bloodied sword toward him. "At least make yourself useful." He caught it effortlessly.
     "A little gratitude, Sonja, to the one who saved your life." That was the voice of Sonja's father, Viktor, and he walked around the corner of a wooden structure to stand beside Lucian.
     Sonja shifted in her saddle, feeling a genuine rush of annoyance. "I need no saving."
     Viktor ignored her that time. "Tell me, Lucian," he said, turning to the blacksmith. "Does it burden your heart to kill your own kind?"
     "Not at all," Lucian answered boldly. "They are mindless beasts, my lord. No brethren of mine."
     "Really?" Viktor questioned.
     "Father," Sonja said, and both men turned to her. She glanced at the black stallion and his rider. "What about our guest?" The rider had been so quiet that it was hard to believe she was there at all.
     Viktor spun around on his heel to face the still rider and stallion. "Yes," he said, anger and annoyance in his voice. "Our guest." He approached the rider until he stood a foot away form her. "And what would the nature of your visit be?"
     For a long moment the rider didn't move. Then she reached up and removed the black cover on her head. She shook her head and stared down at Viktor from her black mount. "Name's Dragon," she said. She patted the stallion. "And this is my buddy Tyrone."