Free Omensent: Wrath of a Dragon God by Barry Gibbons Page B

keep an eye on Faldor's plantation, and continued south towards the expansive pastures that the nomadic Deola called home. It took them two days of hard riding, but they soon emerged from the foothills into the rolling grasslands, which stretched on for hundreds of leagues to the south.
They pulled off of the main road that evening and set up camp, building up a large bonfire to alert any of the local tribesmen in the area of their presence.
"See anything interesting?" Damion silently asked Snowfeather as the huge owl glided in from the darkness.
" There are a number of horsemen heading this way." The huge owl hooted, landing on one of their packs of supplies. "They should be here in a few minutes. I thought you may want to know."
"Some tribesmen are on the ir way here." Damion told his dark haired young wife. "They're rather fierce looking, but they are a fair and honorable people. These lands here belong to the Avonte tribe. The clan chief is Bativa, an old friend of mine. I figure he'll want to do something about Faldor."
"I remember Bativa." Raven smiled. "I met him at our joining ceremony ."
They patiently waited for the tribesmen to make their way through the ocean of grass to the ir campsite.
"Greeting s, warriors of the Deola." He greeted the tribesmen as they appeared from the darkness, their horses moving silently through the tall grass. "We have been expecting you."
The leader of the group, a lean man that was heavily tattooed with the traditional Deolan markings, reined his horse in surprise. "Lord Omensent?" He broke into a grin. "It's a pleasure to see you, milord. Bativa will be overjoyed by your visit!" He turned to Raven. "Greetings, mate of the Dragon Lord. Your presence honors us."
" Mate of the Dragon Lord?"
Damion groaned . "Her name is Raven." He told the warrior quickly, who chuckled and nodded in understanding.
Raven's eyes narrowed as she glared at Damion, but she remained silent.
"We were hoping to have a word with your clan chief." He continued, trying to ignore her stare. "Does the clan happen to be settled nearby?"
The warrior smiled broadly. "We are settled less than a mile from here. Our herds have multiplied, and this is pristine feeding grounds for the cattle to graze."
Damion and Raven rose to their feet. " Let's go pay Bativa a visit. I have some information that he is going to be very interested in hearing."
They quickly broke camp, then set off towards the west, following the fearsome warriors' swift moving stallions through the endless pastures until they reached a fair sized settlement of odd looking domed structures with large wheels jutting out from the sides, making them mobile.
Cattle , the lifeblood of the Deola people, roamed the area around the camp in huge numbers, tended by a number of tribesmen on horseback, and packs of large, vicious looking dogs, used to protect the cattle from wolves, roamed through the camp at will.
A large area next to the temporary settlement had been fenced off with heavy wooden planks, and contained hundreds of finely bred warhorses, for which the tribesmen were renowned. A single Deolan warhorse had been known to go for enormous sums of gold, though the tribesmen guarded them jealously, almost never allowing one to be sold to an outsider. Storm was one of these very warhorses, and had been a gift from Bativa for the young warrior having saved the clan chief's life.
The Deolan warriors led them through the odd settlement to the largest of the domed structures, then one of the men quickly dismounted and entered, only to emerge a moment later with an enormous tattooed man who was smiling ear to ear.
"Damion!" The man roared, laughing in genuine delight. "Why didn't you send word that you were coming?"
"We discovered a bit of troubling information that needed to be investigated." Damion told the clan chief as he dismounted. "The investigation led us to Crete. That's where we came across a plot that involved your people. Since we were so close, we decided