Katja came closer to me as I pulled out leather and a bone needle. I showed her how to thread sinew to it and how to sow the leather together without tearing it. I offered her the scrap piece and she tried tearing it on the first try.

She eyed me worried at the mistake. "No like this." I said, moving behind her, gently taking her hands in mine.  Her scent filled my nose, and I smiled despite myself. I gently moved her hands in the right way with the right amount of tension. The stitch worked perfectly. Katja looked amazed at it. "Now try again on your own." She did another stitch and it sat perfectly. "There you are. Now continue that all away around this edge leaving an opening at the top."

She smiled at me and it warmed my heart. I watched her sowing for a few moments before going to my cooker to start making an evening meal. "Duha... why are you letting me stay?" I looked over at Katja.

She was small and very thin like she had spent many nights with an empty belly. She was as pale as the moon and flinched every time I moved too quickly. Her black hair was lifeless and dull. Everything about her screamed neglect. "You are choosing to stay Pup. I will teach you to live independently and you will never need to rely on others again."

She put her sowing in her lap and looked around at me. "What if I want to stay with you?"

I smiled. "You can stay with me as long as you like Pup."

"Why are you calling me that?" She asked giving me a gimmus.

That is the nature I saw in her in the tavern. She has a strength in her. A thing that has been trampled but still lives under her fear. "Until a pup can hunt and clothe themselves they are a pup."

She sighed. "Does that mean you see me as a child?"

"In body and mind, Pup."

I pulled my favourite pot out and set it on the stove. "I'm not a child." She said in a petulant tone.

Setting the fire in the cooker I chuckled. "You have a lot to learn if you believe that." I looked back over at her and she had gone back to sowing.

She flinched every time she stabbed a finger with the needle. "What am I making Duha?"

I smiled into the water in the pot. "You will know when you are done. It is something everyone needs."

I cooked while she sowed. Eventually, she shouted excitedly. "I'm done." I looked around at the scrap she had sown. Moving back to her I brought out a leather cord.

"Now I will show you how to finish it." I used a larger needle to thread the cord through the open top of the thing she had made and I tied the cord at the end.

"It's a coin pouch!"

I patted her gently on the head. "And you made it. You see you won't fail if you are given time. Now I'll show you how to cut the leather to make the shape. You can keep that one." I pulled out some leather and laid it on the floor. "Here is the template...." I placed it on the leather and talked through marking and cutting the shape out. She followed my directions and cut out a shape that was nearly identical to the template. "You're good at this Pup."

"Why show me how to make pouches?"

I smiled. "This is a skill. When you can make these quickly I will move you on to clothing, then furs. Now, if you make these while we are on the move, you will need to cut out the shapes when we have stopped and sow while we move." She nodded already cutting another shape out. "This way we can sell them at villages and towns to buy what we can't hunt for."

"Will you teach me to hunt too?"

I smiled. "Oh Pup, of course I will. You can't be independent if you must buy leather and fur. I will show you how to hunt and take everything from the kill you can. You mustn't waste the animal. They would not thank you for it."

I went back to my cooker and sat there stirring the pot. She is a fast learner and more skilled than she knows. She picks things up fast when you only give her small encouragement. She will grow quickly. I smiled to myself as I grabbed a bowl from a nearby alcove. Why am doing this for her? Is it because I lost my sister? Maybe I've just been lonely. I looked over at her as she laid the template out. She looks a lot like my sister. I have been lonely but... I know it's none of that.

I served dinner and sat a bowl next to Katja. "I wonder what this Dragon wants." Katja said picking up her bowl.

"I don't know Dragon. What I know about Dragons is what my mother told me."

"What's that?" She asked looking up from her food.

I smiled. "They are good fighters. If you find yourself in trouble, find a Dragon to stand with you, and you will be safe."

She frowned into her stew. "Then why would you consider not going?"

"Beasts tend to go down one of two paths. We are either alone or in groups. I have always been alone."

She nodded looking at the pile of leather shapes she had cut. "How much do these sell for?"

"Three coppers."

She sighed and looked into the stew. "This stew would need 50 pouches to make." I nearly choked on my food. She worked that out in her head! So fast too! "Are you alright Duha?"

"You just surprised me. You worked that out so quickly."

She frowned. "It's easy."

"No to everyone. You have another talent. Anyway this meal was almost free. I found most of the ingredients in the wild. I will show you how to find them."

She smiled at me. "So what do you spend your money on?"

"Grain for flour and sometimes some vegetables, clothing that kind of thing."

She nodded looking interested at this. "What will we do tomorrow?"

"You will stay here and make more of these. I will get some supplies then we will plan how and when to go."

She drank the last of the broth and put her bowl down. "What do we need to plan?"

"The route we will take, how we will travel, that kind of thing. If we travel light, we will need money to stop at places along the way; if we take everything we need, we will need a horse and cart."

She nodded and yawned. "Maybe we just watch the road for others."

"Maybe we do that. Moving in a group is easier than moving alone. The problem is how to ask if people are beasts."

Katja moved to the furs and laid down. "Can you get a message to Dragon?"

I shook my head as I gathered the bowls. "No, I would..." I started to say something, but when I turned back to her, she was asleep.

She is so weak we really will need to wait until she can stay awake for the whole day. Maybe she is right about watching the road. The problem is bandits. If they find us, I will have to protect us both, and if there are enough of them, I will not be able to do that. Maybe I will watch her village, which is the main road from the mountains to the third kingdom. I will go and look at it tomorrow to see what it is like.

I laid down next to Katja and looked at her face. She does look like my sister. Stroking her hair out of her face made me smile. I pulled her into my arms and she opened her eyes. She saw what I was doing and promptly went back to sleep.

Waking up in the den was a little disorientating. I looked around myself and found that Duha was gone and she had put away everything I had been working on.

I sat up seeing the plate of food by the bed and a note. I picked it up and scanned it. So Duha is going to my village to see what happened to it. She thinks the beasts will go through that place to get to the north-pass cave. I put the note aside and picked up the plate. She is probably right.

I ate every scrap and left the den cautiously.

When I couldn't hear or see anything that looked or sounded like a spider I went to the lake to wash up.

After that, I fetched the leatherworking tools and came back outside to work with them. I cut out half a dozen more pieces and then stitched a few together. When I heard a noise, I looked up, holding the knife I used to cut the leather with one shaking hand.

"If it wasn't for your hand shaking I would think twice about coming closer." Duha's gruff voice came from the bushes followed by Duha.

I sighed dropping the knife. "You scared me."

Duha wagged and came closer sitting down. "You are getting good at that." She said moving one of the pouches with her paw.

"Thanks... what is the village like?"

Duha sighed. "It's a burnt-out shell. A caravan came through and put the fires out but left in a hurry after that. I tracked them to a small village west of yours and listened to some of the rumours. They say bandits that attacked your village have moved off to the north into the third kingdom. The people that put out the fires were trying to get a group to bury the people from your village."

I sighed. "The army is pulling in every able-bodied person, so they need who they have to work on the farms."

Duha nodded. She pulled at a leather strap around her body and her bag slipped to the floor. "I got something for you." She pulled out a white dress in her teeth and laid it in my hands. "Something to wear when we go into a village or town."

Before I could answer her she picked up the bag and slipped into the den. I looked down at the dress in my hands. It was white with fine embroidery on it. I folded it carefully into the leather so it wouldn't get dirty and followed Duha into the den. "Thank you for the dress." I said as soon as I got in there.

Duha was in human form again sitting on the floor with two large bags. "I'm glad you like it. How many purses have you made?"

"Six... are you going somewhere?"

She nodded not looking up from her packing. "I will be going to a large village. I will see what I can get but I may have to go further."

I sat down looking at two bags. "Are you going alone?"

Duha froze finally looking up from the bags. "I must. I will only be gone a day or two. When I come back, I will have news, and you will have got your strength up." I nodded feeling disappointed. "Don't look like that Pup. We are moving on. You need to be stronger as we will be on our feet. I will get what we need and you will make the things to trade for food."

"We are walking?" She nodded.

"I can't get us a horse. They are very expensive, and we would either need two or one and a cart. It would take months for us to gather the coin for that, plus we can't be seen with you riding on my back. So we walk by day and I run by night."

"That makes sense. What do I do while you're away?"

She smiled at me. "You rest. There is plenty of food here you can eat and plenty of leather for you to make into pouches. When I come back you should be ready to move on to clothing. That will bring us more coin."

I nodded. She went back to packing her bags. She collected the pouches from me and packed them too. She pushed the bags out of the den and changed into a wolf. Her clothes fell off as she left the den. I followed her out. When I got out there she was slipping herself into the straps for the bags. "Do you need help?" Just as I asked, she stood, and the bags were attached.

"No thank you." She turned and came towards me. "Stay safe pup. Don't stray far from the den." She licked my hand and looped off in the direction of the mountains.

I watched her go then went back into the den. Not knowing what else to do I tidied Duha's clothes away and went back to making the coin pouches. I've never felt this alone. I thought as I looked around the empty den. I will try and make myself stronger by eating soon. I will make a few more pouches and then eat. Then I will get back to it!

I was at the village nearest the burnt-out one by noon. Stowing one of my bags in a hollow of a tree I dressed in the clothing I brought with me and wandered towards the cluster of houses. I watched the village that seemed to be more active than normal with a waggon in the marketplace which hadn't happened for a long time.

I walked into the village the same as I always did. "Duha!" Someone called.

I turned to one of the ladies that lived here. "Hello," I said smiling.

"We have traders did you see?" I nodded walking towards her.

"What are they selling?" I asked her as she fell in beside me.

"Bowls and other bits and bobs. Ahh, if you are quick, you might catch the smith they brought with them. He's in the smithy."

"Thanks, I will run then."

I did just that with her waving me off. I stopped outside the smithy and joined a small group of people. "It's alright I can fix that up easily. Come back in an hour." A deep male voice came from the open frontage of the smith.

The lady at the front walked off to the waggon. That seemed to be the order of the day. Leave your things with the smith and go to the waggon to see what they are selling.

I watched the waggon while waiting my turn. A small lady was standing to one side calling prices, a tall man next to her handing out goods, then there was this smith. He was a massive, bulky man with arms like tree trunks and a smell of the forest about him. Just then movement at the front of the waggon caught my eye. A tall man climbed out of it holding something that glittered.

He had amber eyes and seemed absorbed by the shining objects in his hands. His scent came to me in the wind. He smells like fire... could he be a Dragon?