The sun was hot on their necks. The wind blew hollowing and dry.
"Ever been out the walls before?" A feminine voice asked from Hadrian's right. His eyes rolled to the woman. She looked to be in her late twenties; a square jaw and thin lips.
Adult Hadrian shook his head.
The woman's thin lips stretched to a smile, "ever swung a sword before?"
Hadrian looked forward, "I'll be alright." she shook her head but Hadrian didn't see.
"That's a strange hawk." Someone else said, a short man with brown hair tied in a bun.
Hadrian followed his gaze to a large hawk that flew nearly a hundred metres from them.
"Maybe it knows we'll die." The thin lipped woman said.
"They eat vermin. Not humans."
"Or children in the southern district." she argued back.
"If anything's strange…. " The bearded man cut in, "It's just like our friend's dogs." he looked at Hadrian over his right shoulder, "they are a rather silent and…. trained bunch."
Hadrian bit his lip. "Dogs are like that." He said.
"Not like yours. No." .
Hadrian looked at his three dog vessels. All his vessels had gotten hungry and tired after flying and walking this far. Of course, he just fed them his rat vessels through substitution.
Skreeer!
The other's gazes went up apart from Hadrians'. They watched as the strange hawk battled another.
After about thirty seconds they watched the new attacker go down. Hadrian could not help himself to turn it into his vessel, but with all eyes on him, he put on the act.
"Go grab it." The bearded man said and Hadrian's lips twitched.
"free food." The bearded man smirked.
Hadrian cursed. He could not make his vessel go any further than a hundred metres, and they'd just seen it go down.
When the man with short brown hair came back with the hawk in hand, his brows were pinched.
"Look." He said as he held up the hawk's neck. "No beak."
Someone gasped.
"And not just that…. " the man held up the hawk's legs, "No talons either."
The cohort mumbled as they passed the hawk around. When it got to Hadrian, he studied it with fake interest.
He'd already substituted and distributed the talons and beaks to reinforce his other claws.
"The meat's still there." The broad forehead woman said with a click of the tongue.
"We are being left behind." The bearded man pulled his horse's reins interrupting someone who'd started arguing against eating the cursed bird's meat.
Hadrian looked back to the now distant city wall. That indescribably large city to him now looked so small and he could press down on it with a finger.
Adult Hadrian's hair strands danced to the wind as he turned to look to the east of the wide Baron's road they travelled on where vast wheat and other crop fields stretched. Benefits of the highlands. Spires towered here and there seemingly random.
The short brown haired man's brow furrowed as he saw the strange man's horse move without any signal or the reins being pulled.
Two hours later they made it to the towering outer city walls.
Hadrians necks stretched backwards as his eyes widened trying to see the top of the walls.
"Impressive, isn't it?" The thin lipped woman asked next to him. "I suppose anything involving mages is."
"Stay close," she said, "once we leave, the procession will break."
She wasn't lying. As the sun set, they were beyond the wall and the other Cohorts had separated.
A fire was set up and food was being warmed.
"Have you hunted before?" Hadrian approached the woman who had been making conversation with them, him, all day.
He used teenage boy Hadrian and acted his age.
"Are you afraid?" She asked with that smile of hers.
"Not really."
"Not right now." She corrected him.
"Depends on what we run into." She said after studying Hadrian's face for a moment, "there are normal creatures, wildlings and kritas."
She fixed her position crossing her arms, "wildings and kritas do possess abilities like mages…. "
"And that's what we are here to hunt? Aren't you afraid?" Hadrian cut in, "you are just regular humans."
Her head tilted and she licked her lips. "Abilities aren't what makes mages scary, it's their minds."
"I'm not saying the wildings and kritas aren't dangerous. We simply have an advantage to use."
"We are lucky too." The short brown haired man joined, blowing dust up as he fell to his butt to sit.
"This far up north, it's mostly beasts or rare fiends
I've only ever heard of." He ate a scoop of the rice and beans they had warmed.
In the end, they'd decided to leave the hawk.
"Further south…. " He spoke as he chewed, "is where the real horrors are at."
He toned his voice for a comical dramatic effect but Hadrian didn't seem impressed and the man's shoulders fell.
"Fiend? Beasts? What's the difference?" Hadrian asked.
The woman's eyes constricted, "your father dragged you out here not knowing anything."
"He's not my father." Hadrian said succinctly.
The short brown haired man turned to adult Hadrian who was by their horse.
"Of course not. Unless you got all your looks from your mother."
Hadrian did not respond.
"You know how mages have ranks?" The woman asked and Hadrian gave a nod someone could have missed.
She nodded back, "well, wildlings and kritas have those too."
"Wildlings aren't necessarily aggressive, they can be, but that trait is more of a Krita thing." She sighed, "when you run into a wilding you can ignore it and for the most part it would ignore you too."
"A Krita doesn't, I suppose?" Hadrian asked.
"No." The woman said, "When you see a Krita, you either fight or try running." She got up with a grunt.
"Where are you headed?"
"Attached already?" She laughed, "I'm afraid I'm too old for you." Her gaze went forward and Hadrian followed it to the cohort's leader.
"I have to go see him about something." she said as she dusted her black pants and walked off.
Sigh, what did I expect flashing my wealth?
Hadrian thought.
With dog Hadrian's close to the fire, he augmented their hearing and heard what the bearded man and woman spoke about.