text: *Life will come to Spring;* *To the fiery god of Summer,* *Water brings his Fall.* *Daughters of the Snow,* *Bring glory to us all.* The boar was released into the clearing, and the people roared and cheered. It began to dash into the forest, with an instinctive knowledge that to run was to live. It smelled of hay and sweat, bringing the Dragoneers to life, as their reptilian thirst for warm blood awakened, and cunning forgotten came to the forefront. The first to run after the boar was Lily, and her face was a sight to see, for calm had morphed into an intense excitement, and she was grinning as she ran, her teeth white and sharp, her body lithe and sleek, what dark scales she had on her back and arms glittering in the dappled moonlight. She had foregone clothing except for a loose loincloth around her hips, and her breasts had almost completely merged into her body, so that they were not in the way. Just one step behind and on the right of the beast her long scaled legs bounded, unhindered by the cold snow and rough thorns. The beast, being blocked from the right which led into a darkly thicketed, safe ravine, ran in mad dashes ahead, sometimes veering in roundabouts around treacherous unseen quicksands and swamps that usurped several Dragoneers, who cried as they fell to the traps of the night, their wounded screams piercing the landscape and sending chills up Tam’s spine. They would never move on. But the bulk of Dragoneers, with heightened vision and taste of the air, could feel the same dangers as the boar did, and veered around the uncertain grounds to continue driving the boar ahead. Tam timidly followed them, fear of the darkness pounding in her head. Ada and Eva were at the head of the drivers who prevented the boar from ever escaping backwards, and they loped patiently at a constant pace, neither slowing nor racing ahead. Tam trotted with them, unsure of what to do, until Jai yelled, “Run!” At his call, a strange voice awakened within Tam. *Run*, it murmured. *See*, it beckoned. *Feel*. She suddenly felt that the boar was banking towards the left, where the bush was thicker, and there the prey would be lost soon enough. She had to take a chance. She broke away from the path of the mass of Dragoneers who were performing the role of drivers, and went on her own towards what she predicted would be the boar’s path. She was still uncertain, but she felt something that drove her to make this risk in a lifetime of monotony. No longer would she follow behind. *Awaken*, the voice within her commanded. She could smell. See. Feel the boar’s fear, its mind wildly calculating its last escape. The moon, high in the sky; the trees, awash in its light. The good night air, cold and fresh in her lungs. On the ground lumps of snow sparkled where the light was able to pierce the bare arms of the branches. And blood. She smelled it now, copper and rusty, and it would be good to taste. Life was good, life was precious, and it was worth fighting for. Tonight, the boar’s life would give her life. The boar was running fast, but Tam was running faster, a giddiness filling her mind and soul, and she felt keen hunger. She forgot who or where she was. At the last, Tam looked into the boar’s eyes, maddened with fear and rage as its tusks reared up in the air, and it was when she heard its scream that she realized that she was screaming herself, a spear of ice piercing into the boar’s neck, cold smoke evaporating from her nostrils and open mouth. She’d done it. She was a true Dragoneer. The boar had slashed her across the thigh. As the bloodlust faded away, she dropped to her knees, panting, the dying boar’s throat gushing blood upon her, and she saw Lily behind the boar, with a duplicate ice-spear that drove into its neck from the other side. They feasted on the blood, and the blood was good.