Beautiful, Unsettling

“Today’s the last test,” Rastaban said.

“I know.” Andrev studied the horizon. Perhaps Rastaban thought Andrev was lost, roaming the plains in so many different forms, wheeling across the sky or scurrying through the grass, but Andrev was a hunter, and these were his hunting grounds.

“Are you ready for this?”

“Are you?” Andrev shot back.

Rastaban’s grin was beautiful, unsettling. “I wasn’t always a Wanderer, you know. I know more tricks than juggling and making scarves disappear.”

“You’ve taught me some of them, perhaps without realizing,” Andrev said. “Even I saw that no mere Wanderer knows so much warfare.”