Teryte Chronicles // Ada (Patreon)

Hey guys!

Today I return finally! Slowly rising from the ashes... My yes are still a bit blurry, but I want to move on with work, casue I just can't accept how many days I wasted while being sick.
Here's an artwork finished before our fiasco <3 As usual, the thane! But who is his tiny companion....!

Look at me, pretending I can draw ferals ;D

Artwork as usual accompanied by a story by the talented Aksan :) I really enjoy our monthly collaborations!

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Ada

“. . . it’ll take a few more weeks, and a few hundred more gold coins, but . . .” Stephanie drew her horse to a halt with her words. “I was going to say you don’t care about the cost, but I feel like you don’t care about any of this.”

“I’m sorry, I think I recognized that cat,” The Thane said, examining one of the nearby firs.

“My lord, is a stray cat really more important to you than the fortifications?” she sighed.

“Firstly, she’s not a simple stray cat,” the dragon explained as he slowly paced towards the tree, “And second, isn’t this all settled?”

“Well . . .”

“I know you don’t believe it yet, but I do actually stand by my intentions, not to mention royal directives,” The Thane continued, pausing this time and turning his head to question the ranger’s silence.

“That’s a lynx.”

“Mmhmm.”

“That’s a damned Caerulean lynx,” Stephanie said with a forced calm, leaning forward to settle Cassandra with a gentle scrub of the horse’s neck.

“I said she wasn’t a simple stray,” The Thane voiced with a chuckle bubbling below the surface, “They used to cover the range, I don’t get to see them too often compared to . . .”

“Centuries ago?”

“Centuries ago,” he agreed, turning back to the tree, “They’ve retreated since the range has been settled more, but this one seems friendly, I told you she wasn’t a simple stray.”

“My lord, you know wild animals aren’t strays, don’t you?”

“I do, and you really shouldn’t only address me formally when you’re being snarky,” the Old Blood muttered as his glowing eyes searched the tree. “She first found me in the High Basin, followed me most of the way up the passes. Females of the species don’t tend to range this far, so she's a stray. Wherever it is she got to.”

“You.”

“Hmm?” The Thane turned to Stephanie with a raised brow, “Oh.” Slowly, the dragon twisted his neck to find the small weight upon his back. “Hello, mischief.”

“My lord . . .” Stephanie began, pausing under the heavy gaze, “Is there anything else you need from me or shall I leave you to commune with your subject?” With a heavy sigh she watched the dragon raise his hand to toy with the wild cat. “Okay, in all seriousness, Cassandra is doing very well but she’s not really okay with it.”

“Her,” he corrected, watching as the cat clambered onto his outstretched arm, “Sensible. Let the castle know I’ll be back soon after you.”

“Of course, my lord,” the ranger shook her head as she released her horse from the calm and let her guide them home.

Standing together in the clearing near the road, the dragon’s patience for the young feline seemed endless. To her mind, the warm tree was an endlessly explorable new world, its branches shifting and swinging around to always present new paths. Soft rumbles came from the huge scaled form as she nuzzled her way around, marking this new territory even as it began to move again. New tones, like it had used with the rider, but calmer, gentler.

“I think it might be best if I take you back through the tunnel with me,” he said, as much for his own benefit as hers, knowing the tone mattered most. “If I carry you back up to the passes, maybe you can find your way back home. Or are you just going to keep following me, little one?”

As if sensing her turn, the lynx mewed loudly, examining his face and forcing The Thane to retreat to keep her head out of his mouth.

“I guess it hardly counts as following if I’m carrying you,” he said when he was next allowed, “Now, are you going to make it into Hightown this time, or run off again I wonder? Maybe that’s a good test. If you run off we’ll let you be, and just accept that you’re going to be weird. If you come in then we’ll keep you. And name you, obviously. Should probably name you anyway if you’re going to be following me.”

‘We’ve got to keep her,’ The Shadow’s voice drifted into his mind.

“If she wants to be kept we will keep her,” he replied aloud, causing the lynx to swat around his head with her huge paws.

‘It’s obvious she does, and she’ll go hungry else.’

Guiding the forepaws onto one hand and leaving the hind on the other he stretched the cat out to her confusion, looking at her weight. “Have you been hunting me instead of food, you silly little thing?”

Jumping to collect herself on one arm, the feline yowled in protest.

‘Come now, my brother, it’s only fair to feed the women who seek you out beyond all reason.’

“She’s not seeking me like that,” he said with a harsh tone and frown, getting a glare back from the lynx, “At least I hope not,” he picked up in softer tones, placating as they entered the tunnel and left the Dawn Fields behind. “I was pretty sure you had just fallen for the idea of a warm tree that would play with you.”

‘Can your ego cope with that?’ Incredulity was clear even in the worldless form.

“Of course it can, it gets enough stroking.”

‘I’m not sure I’ve ever heard you complain about more stroking.’

‘Behave,’ he pushed back, the stern word not spoken, but even the expression was enough to give the cat pause.

‘Oh! Maybe she likes being stroked too.’

“I was about to ask if we’d ever got you a pet before but–”

‘No.’

“No. Is that why you want this one?”

‘Not exactly. I used to hang out with Mercy and her pigeons enough that . . . Well, I get it. I just prefer cuddling someone I can talk to, and usually that I can . . .’ Her line of thought paused as it felt resistance. ‘Be more intimate with, happy with that phrasing?’

Taking the opportunity as the Old Blood hung his head, the cat bounded up his snout to settle amongst the crown of horns.

‘Okay, I am going to formally petition to keep her if she’s going to be this cute.’

“Oh, I need a cute little feline hat now do I?”

‘You need a mischief in your life.’

“Missing Mercy and her pigeons now are we?”

‘She did have a wonderful way of stopping you getting too much for yourself.’

For a long while The Thane smiled to himself, and his other half, letting the cat move around a little, and even finding out that she did like stroking as she made her way out to his hand once more. As they approached the town gates she seemed undeterred, even if she found a firmer place upon his shoulder. “We’ll keep her then if you want.”

‘We both do, and you know it.’

The smile on the dragon’s face shifted to one side a little as he accepted the subtle callout.

‘One condition.’

Quiet as he passed the guard’s he knew his raised brow would be enough.

‘I won’t let her suffer the dreadful fate of your daughters.’

“What dreadful fate?” he asked aloud, startling a few townsfolk and the cat, luckily only sending her claws a little deeper into his scales. ‘What fate?’

‘To be named by you.’

‘The Blackspire girls weren’t named by me,’ he protested.

‘No . . . They have had their own burdens to bear.’

‘This was your fate too,’ he pondered, offering a hand to the lynx, and finding it grasped in the huge splayed paws. ‘Though I guess you’re a daughter in a way.’

‘And . . . That was not you alone to name me.’

‘It rarely was for the other’s, you are all but unique in springing forth without a mother, my dear.’

In the back of his mind, harmonised with the relaxed purring of a cat once more beyond the town walls, came the delicate tune that he knew as his other half’s giggle. ‘I simply want to spare her being called Bombalurina or Munkustrap or something else ridiculous.’

“Then what would you like her to be called?” he said, once more reassuring his passenger as he began up Pilgrim’s mount.

‘Short and sweet. Tell you what, she reminds me of that spellcraft researcher. ‘Ada’’

“Alright then, Ada it is. Finally got a name for you, little one. And, if you’ll accept it, a home.”

‘Just got to feed her back up now.’

As if in agreement, Ada yowled at her new keeper. With snow beginning to whip around them, they continued their climb towards their castle home.