The Poisoned Forest

To the rakshasa who enslaved my sister: you just made the worst mistake you’ll ever make in your life.
Yes, I’m a hedge dragon. An abomination, or so they call my kind. I’m a loner, but I’m also loyal to my sister. Turns out, the rest of the family couldn’t care less. I’m the only one willing to go after her when she vanishes.
She’s being held in Owlanvine, a city in the desert. To reach her, I must travel through the Poisoned Forest, one of the darkest, deadliest places in Wildemoone. But the Lord of the Hunt and his Lady take pity on me and offer me help.
Now, together with a small band of allies who I swear are more trouble than they’re worth, I’m out to save my sister before she’s lost forever, and before the forest does all of us in.
This is a spinoff of the Wild Hunt Series. You do not need to read the Wild Hunt Series to read the Hedge Dragon Series.
"I CROUCHED BEHIND A THICKET OF BRAMBLES, WATCHING AND WAITING. The deer on the ground beside me was beginning to attract flies. They swarmed around the carcass, but I kept silent, not bothering to shoo them away. There would be time enough for that when I made it home and gave the meat to my mother. I’d have to start out again early next morning, but it was my job to put food on the table for my mother and my sisters, and it was better than sitting around the cave, listening to the arguments. My brothers could fend for themselves. I’d been on the road for three days. This time of year, the deer and elk ranged lower in the mountains, staying by the treeline. They knew that the dragons were more active in the lower reaches of the kingdom during winter, searching for food away from the high reaches. In a way, that made it easier for me during summer, since my kind stayed in the foothills, far away from the higher mountains where the Truebloods made their homes. But come winter, I ran a much greater risk of being caught."