While there are many disadvantages to living in one of the major cities, having a standing army is not one of them.
This was the thought that went through Kaia's head the day her life ended, and her prolonged death began.
Kaia had been married as a very young woman to a good man who cared about her. While her parents had wanted her to marry a battlerager, as was her clan's way, she had been more than happy to settle down with her husband, a simple shepherd.
Kaia's life had been short but fulfilling; her parents raised her to be a raider and killer, and then she met her husband and settled down, giving birth to her daughter the year after they were married. She hunted with her bow while her husband tended his flock and watched their daughter.
It was on one of her hunting trips that she met the stranger.
Immediately she sensed that there was something....exotic about him, but she shook it off. It was turning towards the colder parts of the year, when the freezing winds would rip through the lower valley not far from the shore where Kaia's family lived.
As was custom among the so-called barbarians, Kaia offered the stranger hospitality. He followed her back to her home. Along the way, she told her story: how her daughter, Metia, was curious and always wanted to know how and why; her husband's kind smile; even her secret dreams of having a son as well.
All this and more did she share with this stranger, who said very little about himself, except for his name: Kathandrax. She mentioned that it was odd, and he explained it was a Mytrosian name. She shrugged and continued to lead him towards her home.
What happened next would be replayed each night in her dreams.
When she reached the small fence that surrounded their small garden, her daughter came storming out to greet her, a joyous smile upon her face. She did not even have time to scream before the flame turned her to ash. Her husband died in the same blast of heat from the massive beast that rose up from the man's shape as she turned.
It was a dragon.
It's red scaled gleamed like blood in the evening sun, and it unleashed another gout of fire that burned her home. "This is for the treachery of your blood." it said, then it leapt into the sky, powerful wings displacing loose soil and putting out the fires it had started.
Kaia lay there, collapsed on her side, and felt her soul leave her body. As the tears pour from her eyes and the screams ripped from her lips, she wailed to an uncaring cosmos.
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Some time later, the stillness came. Kaia rose, and buried what little remained of her husband and daughter. She begged that they be allowed to know peace, as they had done no wrong.
She then took a sharp piece of wood and carved a name into her arm: Kathandrax.
Kaia was dead, and like the story of the thief who bit the leg of the chieftain who killed him, she would devour the monster who had killed her family.
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The rider approached as she wiped the dirt of her grave from her hands. He asked if she was named Kaia. She agreed that she was. He asked if she could read. She could not. He then produced a scroll and read the two sentences that were writ upon it:
To find he who you seek;
Go to the Sour Vintage near Estoria;
Speak with Kyrah.
Kaia did not hesitate. She instead simply took the messenger's horse, as he had been told that she would.
Kaia rode until the horse collapsed, and then she started walking. She slept only when absolutely necessary, and she allowed nothing to halt her course.
