Chapter 1 - Tamrii the Dreamer

Meet the heroine of the story, her family, and her home.

The wind was rushing past, ruffling her fur and buffeting her face. The young psikani raised her arms high and whooped in joy as the shining violet dragon beneath her folded it's wings and plummeted toward the ground. It roared wildly and let loose a jet of silver flames. Just as it appeared that they would crash into the ground to their deaths, the dragon flared out its translucent wings and glided safely three metres above the earth, before shooting back up into the sky.
"Again!" exclaimed the white psikani on the purple dragon's back, her face split in a delighted grin and her long silver hair flicking with the wind that coursed through it.
"Tamrii," replied the dragon.
"What?" asked the psikani.
"Tamrii!" said the dragon again, in a louder voice, sounding irritated.
"Huh?"

The white psikani raised her head and found her mother standing beside her. Her mother was quite short, with midnight blue fur and sharp amber eyes. Today she wore an aqua frock laced in white ribbon.
"Tamrii when will you learn to wake up on time?" said her mother Ramisha in exasperation.
"Sorry," mumbled Tamrii, sitting up in her bed. She looked around her sunlit room and saw that her sister, Anikka, had already awoken and left the room.
"Where's Ani?" she asked her mother as she swung her legs over the side of her bed and pulled a leafy green shirt over her head.
"She's having breakfast," replied Ramisha. "Hurry up and get dressed, and wear proper girl's clothing for once! I'm sick of seeing you in that tunic. As if we didn't stand out enough..," she added as she walked out of the room.
Tamrii just rolled her eyes and yawned, pulling on a pair of leggings, then hurried out of her bedroom and straight to the kitchen. As her mother had said, Ani was already there and so was Tamrii's older brother, Ryle.
Ryle had dark brown fur and gleaming yellow eyes. His medium-length hair was of a darker brown and streaked with black. He wore dark pants with a black cloak draped over his shoulders and a red cloth tied around his neck. A pair of twisted horns poked through his hair.
Anikka was dark furred like her brother with shadowy tresses surrounding her face. She also had two small twisted horns growing between her ears. She was older than Tamrii, who hadn't grown her horns yet. Two honey gold eyes blinked from between her black fringe. She was wearing a purple blouse with a long three-layered skirt of yellow, violet and orange around her waist.
Ani looked up from her breakfast of bread, an apple and a piece of pork.
"Dreaming again Tamrii?" she teased and pushed the plate of breads, meat and fruit toward her. Tamrii just poked her tongue out at her sister and took a seat opposite her. She placed a slice of bread onto her plate and began to chew on it hungrily while she listened in to her mother and brother's conversation.
"He has been gone for years Mother, I must go discover what happened to him," Ryle was saying.
"Exactly Ryle; I need you here now more than ever with your father gone," argued Ramisha. She clearly didn't want her son to leave.
"Tam and Ani can handle work on the farm; I don't do so much work anyway," reasoned Ryle. "And I've already made arrangements to travel there with Baldric, so I'm going even if you lock me in a cupboard and throw away the key," he added. Baldric was one of Tamrii's father's old human friends, and one of the few humans who knew about psikanis.
"I'm not going to be able to convince you to stay am I?" sighed Ramisha. Ryle grinned cheekily.
"No; in this, I am decided," he said with finality and then left the room, presumably to pack some things. Tamrii and Ramisha's eyes met.
"I suppose you were listening?" she asked. Tamrii nodded.
"You'll have to hunt for us from now on, then," she said. "And Ani, you will help me grow the crops on the land," she added to her other daughter.
Ani jumped to her feet in outrage.
"What!? Why do I get stuck with the boring job? Why does Tamrii get to hunt and I don't?" she protested.
"Because Tamrii has been hunting with Ryle more times than you have," answered her mother firmly. Ani just growled and left the room, taking the rest of her breakfast with her.
"I don't mind letting Ani go instead of me Mother," said Tamrii.
"No, no. You are more experienced than her Tamrii, and more patient," Ramisha replied, then followed Ani. Tamrii shrugged and wolfed down the rest of her food.
I'd better go out now then she thought, grabbing her wooden bow and her swan-feathered arrows, and her old, reliable dagger for good measure.

The crisp autumn air hit Tamrii's face as she stepped outside her door. She smiled with satisfaction and glanced around for any humans. There were none in sight; the humans in the village further uphill rarely ventured near their little farm. No need for her cloak then. She slung a quiver of arrows across her shoulder, checked that her dagger was still secured to her belt, and then set off down the hill toward the forest where she and Ryle usually hunted.
"Tamrii! Wait!"
Tamrii paused and turned. Her brother was running toward her, a small wrapped package in his hand. She waited for him to catch up.
"What is it?" she asked curiously. He seemed to be deciding something because he didn't answer right away.
"I need you to look after this," he said finally, pressing the small parcel into her hands. She took it and looked at it. It was wrapped in grey wolf skin and tied with a thin leather cord.
"What is it?" she asked, staring at it.
"I don't know," confessed Ryle. She looked up at him.
"Then why are you giving me something if you have no idea what it is?" she asked, bemused.
"Well, father gave it to me to look after before he left but I've never opened it-" began Ryle but Tamrii interrupted.
"Then we'll open it now and see what's inside," she said, beginning to unwrap it.
"Not here!" hissed Ryle, covering it up again. "When father gave it to me, he told me never to show it to anyone or even speak of it to anyone, so you musn't either," he finished. Tamrii nodded slowly.
"Okay, but why are you giving it to me then?"
"Because, I can't keep it safe if I'm traveling," he answered. "So hide it somewhere safe. And be careful with it; he said it’s very fragile."

Tamrii placed it in a pouch that was tied to her belt. Ryle narrowed his eyes.
"I said somewhere safe."
"The safest place for it is with me, not sitting around in my room somewhere," she said firmly. Ryle sighed.
"Alright I have to go meet Baldric now so, farewell," he said. Tamrii hugged her brother.
"Stay safe," she said, "and come back to us soon." He nodded, then headed off up the hill, while Tamrii turned and went in the opposite direction. She reached the shadowy forest soon enough, but because she had overslept that morning, the sun was already halfway through the sky.
I'd better get a move on if I want to catch anything for dinner tonight she thought and strode into the dark expanse of trees without a backward glance.
The gloomy forest might scare the humans, with their stories of ghosts and monsters lurking within the trees, but Tamrii was right at home. The lack of light was perfect for her, as her eyes were much stronger than a human's, and it was easier to hide from her prey if they could barely see themselves. Her soft mesh boots made barely any noise on the leaf-strewn ground as she walked between the trunks of the ancient trees.
After a few minutes of walking, she paused and listened to her surroundings. A bird called to it's family from above in the treetops and a few mice were digging around the roots of the trees for seeds. She looked down at the earth and brushed away a few leaves; beneath was a trail of fresh hoofprints that belonged to a deer or elk. She searched around for the tracks of the rest of its herd but found none.
"That's odd...they usually travel in groups," she murmured to herself. She followed the tracks, curious to see why an elk or deer would travel on its own.
A loud SNAP broke the silence. Tamrii pricked her ears. She looked down, but there were no broken twigs or branches beneath her feet. She vaulted into the nearest tree not a second too soon. A human with hair so matted and dirty that it could have been any colour emerged from the trees.
What's a human doing here? she wondered, confused.
"Show yourself," the human said with a rough but young voice.
Tamrii held her breath and climbed silently higher into the tree; had they seen her?
"I know you're here, I heard you," continued the human, stepping into a patch of light that had managed to squeeze through the forest's thick branches.
The human was a young boy, probably about the same age as Tamrii, and he had pale skin, tattered clothes and ragged, shoulder-length hair. Tamrii decided to speak, as it seemed this human would not leave until he had found her.
"Greetings er..fellow human," she said, trying not to sound nervous. She had never spoken to a human before, having never gone to the village. The boy stopped and stared in the direction of her voice, though clearly and thankfully he couldn't see her.
"Where are you? Climb out of that tree," he ordered.
"No thanks, I like it up here just fine," replied Tamrii. Who was he to order her around? Besides, it was essential that he didn't see her, humans didn't know psikani existed and it was better to keep it that way.
"What are you doing in the forest, don't you know it's haunted?" he said, his eyebrows slanted in a frown.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"My reasons are none of your business."
"Then my reasons are none of your business either," finished Tamrii. The boy appeared to have no retort.
"Climb out of the tree," he said again.
"I told you, I like it here in this tree," said Tamrii stubbornly.
She seemed to have infuriated the human.
"Fine, stay there and be eaten by wolves," he said, and strode away.

Tamrii didn't leave the tree for another hour, and by the time she finally climbed down, the sun had begun to set.
I should have worn my cloak she thought.
She located the tracks she had been following and continued to follow the trail, but now she jogged and only stopped to check the trail every once in a while to make sure she was still heading the right way. The tracks led her deep into the forest until she reached a huge, shimmering lake with a small island at the center. A red elk with magnificent antlers stood on the island, grazing on the luscious grass there. The water all around it looked incredibly deep. She wondered how it got there. She shrugged and strung her bow.
It must have swam there she thought, and nocked an arrow. She aimed at the elk; it remained oblivious to her presence there.
Just as she was about to let the arrow fly loose, a voice spoke.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."