Chapter 11 - Progress

The house was bustling with activity by the time he got himself down to the kitchen. No one said anything about him being the last one down. He wondered if there was some set amount of time before someone was late. Instead he was greeted with a cheerful round of goodmornings. He returned every one, feeling optimistic.

Breakfast was an oat porridge with little sausages and bacon. There were cups of milk for everyone. There was no coffee. By the time he was done with breakfast he felt more awake and rested than he had in...he was not sure. He mentioned wanting to take a little time later--after the chores, he added--to clean up his armor.

He reminded Ella that he expected Dir Ketten to catch up to them that day. He said nothing yet about him being a nomad from afar. In his mind he envisioned the round of questions the children would have for him. He was curious whether the nomad would answer or not. He did take a moment to quietly whisper to Ella that Dir Ketten "doesn't really speak."

"Oh, okay," was all she replied with a shrug.

"Ever slaughter a cow, Matner?" Karl asked. There was a mixture of mischief and challenge in his voice. "Ever kill a river monster, Karl?" Matner asked, trying his best to mimic Karl's tone. He threw in a joking smile. "Come on," he added, "the sooner we get started the sooner we get finished."

He followed Karl out to the barn, where Karl instructed Matner on how to set up rope so they could hoist the cow up to cut off the meat. They spread out a bale of hay to soak up the blood that the cow would leak when they killed it, and Karl fetched a large knife and a few saws of different sizes. There were also boxes that had to be brought out of the cellar, that were empty except for some large pieces of oiled cloth in each one. Then Karl took some more rope and they went out into the yard to fetch Bailey. She wasn't the largest cow in the yard, by far, but Matner suddenly found himself intimidated by her size as they approached the beast.

"She won't kick us will she?" he asked, trying not to sound as nervous as he suddenly felt. "Like she does the fence?"

"Naw," Karl shook his head, walking right up to her and patting her on the side of the nose. "She's always been docile enough 'round people. But then she don't know what we've come ta do. I s'pect she'd kick us right across the yard iffen she knew what we was up to."

Matner watched as Karl fed the cow some grasses he'd brought in his pocket and stroked the fur along face. He murmered calmly to Bailey, saying soft, gentle words to her as he slipped the loop of the rope around her neck. Then Matner followed as he led the cow back to the barn and their preparations.

He tied the rope off on a sturdy beam in the barn before Matner helped him secure the cow's legs with more rope and get her down onto her side. Karl did some more murmuring to her, to calm her again, before Matner realized he was casually cutting the beasts throat as if it was something he did on a regular basis.

I suppose he done this before, Matner thought to himself, thinking of the other cows in the yard. Then he was distracted, surprised by just how much blood was leaking out of the dying cow.

"Ye'll want ta step back a bit. They tend ta kick as they're dyin'," Karl told him, taking a few steps back.

Matner took his example and found himself somewhat uneasy as he watched the cow kick and buck, getting weaker and weaker as more blood leaked out. It seemed to take forever before the cow was still and the blood stopped flowing.

Next they skinned the beast, something else Matner had never done before. It occurred to him that he'd killed men, but never skinned an animal until that day. He found himself glad that Karl wasn't making much conversation, save to give him instruction on how to do things. While Matner found himself fascinated by the process of skinning and butchering the animal, he also found himself a bit queasy while actually doing it.

They pulled together to hoist Bailey's carcass into the air before beginning to cut off the meat. Karl instructed him on how to make sure that the organs were removed without being punctured, and some of them were carefully placed into the oiled cloths while others were run into the house by some of the smaller children who'd come to help. The meat itself was packed in cloth and moved to the cellar. Karl told him that the cooking, jarring, and preserving of different portions of it would be done over the course of a few weeks.

The whole process took most of the morning. There was a saw they used at the joints, and it seemed like they just kept dismembering, and the hung corpse got smaller and smaller. As they carved pieces off they were able to hoist it higher, making the work easier. It was a lot of work, but Karl did it casually. Matner pitched in without complaint as well.

They stopped for lunch after they were finished, although they had to do a considerable amount of washing. They were both slick with blood to their elbows.

"Doesn'even look like you splattered any on ya," Karl said. "I use'ta do that with an apron on. Ya shoulda seen me the first time. I was a right mess. I think the townsfolk heard Ella yellin' me out fer it."

Lunch was a bacon and been stew. There was a hint of a molasses taste to it. Karl told Ella that Matner had done a good job helping, and Ella agreed that it had gone faster with help. Matner wondered how Karl tried to hoist a cow off the ground by himself, but he did not ask. Others reported some on their chores, similarly to dinner.

Lunch was quick, and then it was back to work. There were a number of rotted and cracked and just old fence rails. They worked together with an iron wedge and a heavy hammer to split a log into four replacement rails. They used those to replace the four worst rails on the fence. They worked with hatchets to carve down the ends to fit into notches in the fence posts.

They did not talk much as they worked, other than to explain or ask questions about what needed to be done next. It seemed like not a long time at all before Karl declared the fence good enough for a while. It would get another inspection and repair before winter, but should suffice until then.

"Now we check the fields," Karl said as they put the tools away in the barn.

"Check them for what?" Matner asked.

"You must've grown up in a city," Karl said, with a chuckle.

"Yes," Matner admitted, feeling like he'd asked a stupid question.

"Heh," Karl said. "Most times city folk pretty much assume we country farmers don't know much about nothin'."

"I never said that," Matner protested, worried he'd said something during the day that had offended the young man.

"Naw, you're alright," Karl said with a nod that suggested Matner may have passed some sort of test in Karl's eyes. He all but sighed in relief.

"It goes both ways I reckon. See we country folk tend ta think you city folk don't know much about farmin'. At least you seem smart enough ta be askin' questions. Most don't. When city folk done come out here in the past, they just start wonderin' where the market is. Don't seem to occur to them that the food's gotta be grown first."

He laughed and Matner chuckled along with him. Matner thought briefly of his father, expecting that the same attitude might apply there. He realized that a lot of the people he'd known back in the city would just snap their fingers and expect food to be there, never giving thought to where it had come from first.

"Some people tend ta think that life on a farm's easy," Karl said as they walked towards the nearest field. "But ye can't just plant crops an' then take a vacation 'til their grown. Ye gotta watch over 'em like children. These plants are all we got. We lose a crop o' somethin' an' we might have a hard winter ahead o' us. Not only will we not have any of the yield of that crop to eat with, but what we sell of it buys us what other supplies we need. So if there's a problem with disease or bugs or we have a over-dry summer, we need ta do somethin' about it. The sooner we find the problem, the sooner we can remedy it."

"Makes sense," Matner nodded, looking across the fields that stretched out before them. Suddenly they felt a whole lot bigger to him than they had before.

"So it's my job every day ta pick a field an' walk it. I know these fields like ma knows her children. Pa taught me how to keep my eyes open for something what's changed, so I can see if there's anythin' wrong. Heck, that's how I saw you all yesterday. I was walkin' that field. Now we're going to walk this one today. I'll show ya what I watch for. And maybe we'll convince that friend o' yers that he can come out now. He's been lurkin' in the edge o' this field for most of the day. Shy, that one. Dressed like a farmer, but he sure don't act like one!"

Matner looked at the field in surprise, but didn't see any sign of Dir Ketten in the plants. He had had the nagging feeling he was being watched for some time, but hadn't thought to look in the fields for Dir Ketten. For some reason he'd just convinced himself that the nomad would see them working and come directly there. Then he remembered the farmhouse when Sharnellynn and Ahriender had been captured, and suddenly worried that Dir Ketten might think they needed rescuing.

"He's not a farmer," Matner admitted. "He's from over the mountains. His people are nomadic warriors. We've had problems before. He's being cautious. He's always like that. And he doesn't really talk." Matner looked off at the edges of the field expecting, maybe just wanting, to see eyes peering out from somewhere, like animals at night at the edge of camp. But he saw nothing.

They kept walking. This field was not one of the biggest ones. It was corn, still only about waist high. Ears were starting to form, one to a stalk. There were apparently a few diseases and blights that could befall corn, although there were no symptoms found to point out. There were some stalks that had failed to produce any actual corn. Sometimes that happened, Karl explained. It was only cause for concern if it was too common.

"Where is he now?" Matner asked after a while, wondering how far Dir Ketten could move staying low in the corn.

"I'm not sure 'xactly," Karl said. "Crafty one, that. But 'e's out there somewhere. Hard to get to the house unseen. Come on, we're almost done here."

Matner followed him as they finished the walk. They ended up with no problems in it to report, which seemed to pleas Karl.

"Come on, Dir Ketten," Matner finally called out. "It's safe!"

The nomad stepped into view off to the side as if he had stepped out from around a corner. He came towards them through the field. Even from here Matner could see him staying between the rows, pushing stalks aside delicately and respectfully when he needed to cut through rows.

"Where's your horse?" he asked when Dir Ketten was close enough for Matner to talk to him. He noticed the nomad had neither horse nor the bags he'd expect from someone who'd been to buy supplies. In response, Dir Ketten just pointed off in one direction. Matner suspected he'd left the horse in the cluster of trees back beyond the fields he'd pointed over.

"Well let's go fetch it first. If it's anything like the others, the poor beast prob'ly needs a bit o' feedin' an' a decent brushdown," Karl said. "You kin go on up to the house if ya like though," he told Dir Ketten. "Ma'll wanna finally meet ya. We've been expectin' you ya know."

Dir Ketten raised an eyebrow silently, giving Karl a slight look of suspicion.

"It's alright, this is Karl," Matner told him quickly. "Ahriender..." he sighed, not sure how to explain. "Ahriender ran off and we followed him to here. These people have been kind enough to take us in for a bit. We could rest here for a few days or so, so long as we pitch in and do our part with the chores and such."

Dir Ketten turned his raised eyebrow on Matner next, although it looked more like a look of surprise. Matner wondered whether the man was surprised that anyone would take them in or that Ahriender had run off. Or maybe it was something else, but Ketten didn't say anything. Again, the man gestured off towards where his horse was and began walking in that direction. Matner found himself falling in behind the man, with Karl next to him.

"Guess he doesn't want to go to the house yet," Karl shrugged.

"I guess so," Matner agreed.

They were silent after that, paying more attention to crossing through the plants without damaging them as they made their way across to the trees. Once there, it wasn't very long before they found Dir Ketten's horse. The horse wasn't tethered, but had obviously known to stay where Dir Ketten had left him. It looked up and trotted over to him when they arrived. Dir Ketten then moved to a cluster of bushes and pulled branches aside, lugging some large bags out from where he'd had them hidden. It looked to Matner as if the nomad had been fairly successful in getting supplies in the city. He wondered briefly if they had any money left anymore, but then pushed the thought away, knowing it wasn't his money to worry about anyway. He wondered, instead, if the supplies would be enough to get them to Eerwayh.

Dir Ketten silently loaded a couple of the bags onto the horse and then handed one each to Matner and Karl to carry before beginning to lead his horse out of the trees. They followed, this time taking the path at the edge of the field instead of crossing through it. While it was a longer distance back to the house, it was easier walking along the path instead of weaving through the plants. It seemed to take longer, however, between the silence and the heavy bag. Matner wondered what all was inside it, and the others, as he hefted it's weight on his shoulder. He also found himself worrying, as he couldn't judge Dir Ketten's reaction to the current situation. He hoped that Ketten wasn't angry at him.

He also hoped the supplies were things that would keep. This detour had already cost them time, and he could admit--to himself at least--that he would not mind staying on another couple of days. It was refreshing to live comfortably for a while, with rest in a proper bed and with food cooked in a kitchen. He would feel bad if some of the newly purchased supplies went bad because of the delay.

It felt to Matner like he was becoming friends with Karl. The boy was easy to get along with. The whole strange family seemed friendly and welcoming, and he could certainly understand why Ahriender might want to stay. He asked himself why they could not stay. Again he told himself that people back behind them might come looking for the escaped slaves. He wondered if any really would, and how far they would acutally go in their hunt.

Part of the worry, he thought to himself as they neared the house, was that if Ahriender believed he could safely settle here, then any hardships pushing forward would only be harder. And he doubted that Sharnellynn could be happy here for long. She wanted to be with her own people, and that seemed more than reasonable. While Ahriender had not had as negative an experience with humans, she was certainly more biased in her opinions, and would be much less likely to be comfortable living on a human farm for long.

"There're empty stalls in the barn," Karl said as they reached the house and barn. "We can stack these bags there." The empty stall was at the end, swept clean of straw and hay, and they set the bags in a neat stack in the center. Matner had started in the corner, but Karl stopped him.

"Cats take care of mice, but only if the cats can get 'em. Stack things in the corner an' y'all'll leave a spot fer the mice an' rats ta hide. Not that I'd say 'nothin' about rats 'round that Sharnellynn. She seems like she might be a bit squeamish. More city like than country folk."

Then Karl took the reins from Dir Ketten and gestured towards the house.

"I can brush her down for ya, though she don't look so bad off as the other's were. You and Matner can go on in an' he kin introduce ya to Ella. Iffen that's alright with you, then?"

Dir Ketten nodded silently, and slung the one, smaller bag of the clothes and such he'd had with him over his shoulder. He didn't wait for Matner, but began walking out of the barn and towards the house. Matner rushed to catch up, wanting to talk to the man before they got to the house.

"Did it go alright in town?" he asked first. Dir Ketten stopped an looked at him with the briefest of nods.

"Look, I'm sorry about Ahriender. I had to follow him. I couldn't just wait for you to get back. You've always been so good at tracking I hoped you wouldn't have any trouble finding us. I didn't hide our tracks at all. But it just didn't seem right to wait for you instead of going after him..." he trailed off, realizing his words were coming out in a worried rush.

"It's fine," Dir Ketten said quietly.

Then he turned and began heading towards the house again. With a sigh, Matner followed, wondering how he was going to introduce the man to Ella.

He needn't have worried, considering Ella noticed them right away when they walked into the kitchen. She stood as she had the day before, rolling dough on the counter again. The twins were next to her again, covered in flour and giggling.

"You must be Dir Ketten," Ella said promptly when they came through the door. "Well, come inside then. I've been told you don't talk much, so I won't expect much fer conversation out o' ya. But ye probably didn't have much fer lunch, so ye might as well sit down at the table and we'll get you some food."

"This is Ella," he told Dir Ketten, finding even short silences awkward as Ella served up a bigger bowl of the stew than anyone else had gotten for lunch. "Ella runs a bit of an orphanage and farm here. She's told us we can stay until we're ready to move on again, as long as we help out while we're here."

Dir Ketten nodded, a simply acknowledgement that he had heard. Matner supposed Dir Ketten was more than used to traveling, and hoped the nomad would not think less of them for wanting a short break from travel and worry.

"So are ya gonna stand around here until dinner? I'm sure there's more chores ta do," Ella said to Matner

"Actually, we finished the field he needed to check," he explained. "Everything looked good."

"So, what, you're gonna just let Karl tend to the horse and finish up the rest of his chores by himself?"

"No, ma'am," Matner said, feeling a little scolded. He rushed without running out of the kitchen. He found Karl still in the barn, nearly done brushing down the horse. He related what had happened in the kitchen to Karl, since her tone had seemed more stern than he had expected.

"Nah, she probably just wanted you out here so she could talk to the man by herself. She prob'ly figures he's the grownup of the group, and therefore in charge. Maybe she wants to yell at him fer lettin' the rest o ya run off by yerselves. She don't mean no harm by any of it, though."

"There's really not much ta do after this though," Karl admitted. "Mostly go 'round and make sure that some o' the other kids have done their chores. Some I don't have ta check on, but Little Rick an' Peter tend ta try an' skip out half way through. Ma's got 'em doin' chores close to the house in the mornings these days so's she can keep an eye on 'em. But then they each have chores in the afternoon with the animals. Little Rick's supposed to clean out the barn and Peter's supposed ta fill the feed and water troughs for the larger animals. The smaller children tend to look after the chickens and help out around the house and with Timothy. Timothy can help, but he's not all there. Ma says he's dreamin' on his feet. People in town didn't know what to do with him once his ma died. They just said he was too stupid to be of any use. Ma took him in, just the same. She's like that."

"Jenniper doesn't do her chores too well either," he continued, as the two of them finished brushing down Dir Ketten's horse. "She's been more of a problem than Ma expected, really. Her parents were... different. She doesn't like bein' here, but there really wasn't much else for her. She'll do her chores, usually, but oftentimes she only does 'em halfway. Half the time she's tryin' ta do 'em with a book in one hand. The other half, she's just rushin' through to get back to her readin'. She's already plannin' ta leave here just as soon as she's old enough. I figure she'll probably run off sooner. Ma found out last week she's been stealin' books when we go to town, so now she's not allowed ta go with when we go next. And Ma's taken all the books she stole so they can be returned too. Jenniper's been worse about her chores lately, but it's not my job ta check on her at least. Hazel has to check on her. Most days Jenniper has been gettin' stuck with the wash. But with the extra people in the house, she's got Lisa to help her."

"The rest are pretty good though," Karl admitted. "Ned's family was farmers too, an' he's got it in his blood. Oftentimes he helps me with the bigger jobs, like the cow today. Nicca's little, but she's been here since she was a baby. The chickens love her. The twins haven't been here long, but they've finally adjusted. They spent months just cryin' for their mama afore they started ta realize we was all they've got. Lisa's great too. She's too young fer me, but she's gonna make some farmer a good wife one day if she keeps goin' on the way she is."

They talked more about the family as they finished up and then went around checking on the chores. Matner found out that most of the parents of the children Ella adopted had died from one illness or other. Jenniper's parents had died in a fire at their house, and Nicca's mother had died in childbirth. Nicca's father hadn't been able to handle the grief and drank himself to death shortly afterwards. In each case, there had been no one else to take in the children so they had been brought out to Ella.

Matner could see how the locals might see this farm as providing a valuable service in its own right. The locals did have a reason to leave these people alone and let them do what they wanted, and to support them a little with the occasional supplies. Back home, too many orphans ended up on the streets as thieves. This was probably the better option for everyone.

They had some time before the dinner bell. Karl pointed out that they did not have enough time to get up on any of the roofs. They were going to need inspecting and probably some little repairs one of these days. But there was enough time to go through the barn looking for any loose nails. Sometimes the weather wriggled some of them loose.

They each took a hammer, and Karl gave Matner a handful of nails out of a bucket in an empty stall. There were other boxes and things piled in the stall. They each went and inspected as much as they could. Matner pulled on support studs, making sure nothing wobbled. Most of it was pretty sturdy. He did find a couple of nails that were popping out, and he pounded them back into place. There was one board that was coming out, and after he pounded the nail back in it seemed like the board just popped back out. He used three nails getting two of them in before he deemed it secure.

They did a little bit of tidying, and Matner apologized for the nail he bent. "Not the first time," Karl said, tossing the nail back into the bucket. "It'll either get straightened or we'll bring it next time we run ta town an' let the smith make something else outa it.

The dinner bell rang. They stopped to wash their hand out behind the kitchen before going in. They were neither the first nor the last at the table.

Dir Ketten seemed no worse for the wear, and it seemed that he and Ella must have come to some understanding as she announced to the curious children that he didn't talk so they shouldn't pester him with questions. Conversation cut quickly to the day's chores instead and Matner found himself included in the report Karl did. Sharnellynn had been helping Hazel all day and they mostly had done some housework and mending in the morning, followed by reorganizing the cellar with all the new meat in the afternoon. Ahriender had been working with Ned all day, repairing some furniture and building a new set of shelves to replace one that had gotten old and broken in the cellar. There had also been a lot of cooking done - some of the meat and organs from the cow had been cooked already, and jarred up.

He found himself enjoying dinner that night. The meal itself passed practically unnoticed, but the company was something he found himself absorbed by. People talked and passed plates. Rumors were shared, lives were discussed, and everyone seemed happy. He realized he wished his own family had felt like this one did when they dined together back home. But the stoic meals of Matner's own childhood didn't compare to what the Kevendish family seemed to have.

After dinner, He, Dir Ketten, Sharnellynn, and Ahriender found themselves sent outside together again by Ella. Like the previous night, there was an awkward silence before anyone spoke. Surprisingly, it was Dir Ketten, leaned back against a stack of hay bales, that broke the silence.

"So are we trying to make it safely to Eerwayh or not?" the nomad asked sternly, looking more at the two elves but not discounting Matner. "Because Running off like this and backtracking is only making it harder."

Matner held his tongue, afraid both of getting in the way and of getting himself in trouble. He still could not tell if Dir Ketten had disapproved of his actions, or was just upset that he had let Ahriender away. Or worse, did he think Matner had driven Ahriender off?

"Maybe it was foolish," Ahriender said, "but at the time I wanted to go home to Ben, where I had been hiding originally. Since we left Tikor, Mother and I have only caused trouble and gotten people hurt. It just seems like other people are safer if we're by ourselves."

"But you're not," Dir Ketten said, sounding very much the upset father.

"I know, Matner explained," Ahriender replied. Dir Ketten turned to Matner. He thought the nomad looked like he was just wanting to know what was said, not some accusation demanding explanation.

"I explained that we had--well, I did, anyway--promised to keep them safe. That we wanted to keep them safe, and that we intended to see that through. We're all in this together until we find a place for them to live." Dir Ketten nodded. If it was not approval, it at least looked agreeing.

"The supplies I bought will not carry us to Eerwayh. I have a couple of weeks worth, which would have been about half the distance we still needed to go. Now it'll be less."

"Still so far?" Ahriender asked, exasperated. "Where is this Eerwayh?"

"It is one of the two Easternmost cities of what used to be the Elven nation," Sharnellynn explained. "The next city we will pass by should be Garzer Keep, and then Eerwayh will be the next along that road. Garzer Keep was originally built along the Elven and Human border, so that the Humans could make sure that the Elves didn't build armies there. Eerwayh was built as a place to allow Humans to come to for trade. We didn't have as many cities as the Humans tend to build. We like smaller communities, where we all know one another. Even so, the Elven cities were amazing to behold..." she trailed off, a wistful look on her face, as she obviously was caught up in memory.

"Assuming we don't run into more problems, and we skirt around Garzer Keep, as we did Miln, taking a couple of days while I buy more supplies, we should arrive in Eerwayh in about five weeks," Dir Ketten said, sounding stern. "The sooner we are back on the road, the sooner we will get there. I have news from a message runner that Old Fredrickson did survive the attack, although he could not tell me for sure who else was with him. Once we reach Eerwayh, we will pretend again that the two of you are still slaves so that we can stay in the city and wait for the Dwarf."

He made it all sound so simple when he said it, and Matner wished that he could look at the situation with such an easy viewpoint. In his head, he was already thinking about food supplies and other logistics involved with the travel there. But Dir Ketten's words seemed to placate Ahriender, at the very least. While the boy still looked frustrated at the time it was going to take to get there, he at least seemed to be accepting the fact of it. Sharnellynn nodded, still looking a little sad and lost in her memories.

"Can we afford another day here?" Matner asked. "It might seem rude for us to just take off as soon as you arrive. The horses seem to be benefitting from the rest, too."

"We have been pushing the horses," Dir Ketten agreed, "although I have been making sure that we have not been pushing them too far."

"This is the only place we've been able to stop and rest since we left," Matner pointed out. "A lot has happened since then, and there's no telling when we'll get another chance like this."

"One more day will not be a problem," Dir Ketten eventually said.

After that Ahriender all but ran and skipped to the house. "I hope we can find friends for him where we're going as easily as he has found them here," Sharnellynn said.

"If nothing else, Matner suggested, "if we have some problems you can use this as proof that we can find good places, even if we have to keep looking."

"That's true. Thank you, Matner," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder briefly before following her son to the house.

"You are growing," Dir Ketten said.

"What do you mean?" Matner asked.

"In the past you usually defered to my suggestions. This time you stated an opinion that differed. It was something more for them than for you, I think, and you defended it."

"I...um... thank you," was all Matner said in response. He wasn't sure what else to say. While several things ran through his head at once, he felt that putting voice to them might just put a damper on what Dir Ketten had said.

The nomad did not say more, but merely turned and headed into the house. Matner followed him, wondering what all the man might have been thinking just then.

There was one cot left and it was moved into the room that Sam and Timothy shared so that Dir Ketten could sleep there. It didn't take long before everyone had gone to bed. Matner found himself lying in the cot, thinking about what Dir Ketten had said. He, too, wanted the extra day of rest, but he had really asked for Ahriender's sake. He also knew that Sharnellynn needed the reminder that they could be accepted somewhere, even if this wasn't the place she longed for. He also found himself wondering more and more what the Elven lands looked like, remembering her expression whenever she talked about her homeland.

Of course, they aren't the Elven lands anymore, are they? he reminded himself. The Humans own them now. It felt odd, as he realized that he had just seperated himself from his own race in his thoughts. He also thought of Dir Ketten again, and that the nomad was "Human" too. The Elven lands didn't belong to all Humans, just the nation of New Callest. Matner found himself wondering about other Humans in the world other than his own nation. He'd heard of pirates on the seas who didn't hold allegiance to anyone, and there was mention in some of his classes of other Human nations across the waters. New Callest itself had been three nations once, but the other two had been conquered by one of the earlier Kings.

He had never really paid as much attention to wars and politics beyond the soldiering end of things. But now, he found himself thinking of the other nations, wondering if maybe some of them might be more accepting of Sharnellynn and Ahriender. He had no way of knowing. As he drifted off to sleep, however, he reminded himself to pose that question to Sharnellynn and Dir Ketten the next chance he had. He thought it might be a good idea to think of other options in case the contact Old Fredrickson had couldn't help them.

The next day was a day of hard work. Ella took advantage of having both Dir Ketten and Matner around and send them out with Karl to remove two old stumps that prevented efficient use of one of the fields. If they could be removed, then winter wheat could be planted there in the fall for early spring.

With axes and shovels they went out to the field and Karl pointed out the offending stumps. They were the corpses of old oak trees. Matner wondered how much of the farm had been built of those two trees. The trunks were easily a yard across.

There was a little bit of rot evident, but not enough that the trunk could be just battered into pieces and removed like a rotten tooth. Matner wondered what the plan was.

Dir Ketten led them, directing with axe and shovel and showing by example. They fell into a rythm wordlessly. Digging, chopping, cutting. They dug a ring around the trunk, excavating down to the major roots. They they took turns hacking with axes. One axe moved out of the way as the next one came down. The three-beat rythm turned into a sort of music to Matner, and he realized later that they had cut through the biggest roots and he could not even remember having a conscious thought.

They were all wet with sweat, but Matner at least did not feel tired at all. He felt an unexpected energy, and wanted to continue. They drank water and went back to work, all without a word. Dig-dig-dig and chop-chop-chop went the rythms. The next thing he knew they were looping rope around it and helping the horses--all teamed together as if pulling one of Old Fredrickson's wagons--haul the stump out of the ground. Matner looked at the big cavity left in the field. He could just about put a tarp over it and call it shelter.

Karl held a hand up, gestering to wait, and ran inside. He came back with bowls of potato and more water. They ate lunch in silence alongside the big chunk of gnarled tree corpse set out of the way alongside the barn. It was heavy enough to tether animals to, Matner thought.

The second stump was a little smaller, with roots a little thinner. They made a little bit quicker work of it, again without a word and with the same three beat rythm. After that, Karl mentioned that he needed to inspect a field. It felt odd to hear him speak, and it looked as though Karl had not wanted to but had no choice.

Dir Ketten and Matner took the two stumps and chopped them down into smaller, more manageable chunks with the time left before dinner. Dir Ketten would indicate a line with his hand and they would chop along it. This time it was a two-beat chopping that sounded like a hearbeat to Matner. Chop-chop, chop-chop, chop-chop; the activity itself became like some living thing of which they were just important parts.

Before Matner had even really realized it, they were done and Karl had returned with a barrow to haul the pieces away with. Once they'd loaded the last of the stump into the barrow, Matner looked back at the two gaping holes in the field. He wondered where the dirt would come from the fill them and level out the field. He supposed Karl had a plan and it would be filled and the field tilled and planted. A part of him was sad that he would not be around to see it happen. He'd never grown or built anything, he realized. No, I was trained to destroy. At least he'd been able to put those skills to good use today.

They trekked back to the house, with Karl pushing the barrow, and unloaded it in a stack by some stacks of firewood. Then the three of them were instructed to bathe before coming to the dinner table. They took turns in the tub, washing quickly, and were only barely finished before Ella was ringing the dinner bell.

Matner's muscles ached as he sat down to dinner, but the meal itself felt like one of the best he'd ever tasted. There were small steaks, from the cow he'd helped slaughter the day before, along with some buttered carrots, bread, and some buttery mashed potatoes. Ella also served up some appe pie she'd made during the day. Technically, none of it was exotic or unusual in any way, but the taste of the food itself seemed both vivid and comforting to him.

He enjoyed watching the commotion after dinner. The kids played and read with each other. He offered to help with the dishes, and Ella thanked him. Sharnellynn joined in as well, and they got the kitchen cleaned up fairly quickly.

"What do you normally do to relax?" Sharnellynn asked Ella.

Ella at first just smiled, looking over at Ahriender sitting in a circle reading with some of the others. "I watch them grow," she answered after a little while. Matner thought about Karl knowing the crops as they grew, and saw her in that same kind of light watching the children grow. Yes, this is good, he thought.

He looked over at Dir Ketten, unable to read what the nomad might be thinking while he watched the youths. The man sat stoicly as he often did. Matner noticed he did not have his little book out to do his scribbling and writing in.

"We should probably get going in the morning," Matner said to Ella. "I wanted to thank you for your hospitality. You have been great to us."

"Ya'll have been great helpers," she replied, "and the kids'd never seen elves a'fore, so I think it was good fer them, too. There's forever a place here for ya'll, if'n ya ever need it. Your clothes've been mended as best we could. Keep the stuff ya've been wearing. It's all extras anyways, and ya'll could use 'em."

"Thank you," Matner said. "That's very kind of you. You don't have to give us things, though. What you have is limited, so it's all of value."

"Heh, what's value?" she asked. "If it's extra an' we don't need it, then it's got more value for ya'll. Kindness and generosity have value, too, so we're just giving back in exchange. Call it an even trade, if ya like."

"Well, thank you again," he said again, hoping he was expressing the gratitude he felt. She just smiled and said nothing in responsee, still watching the children reading.

That night he slept the best he had in a long time, and not just because of how tired his body was from working on the stumps. In the morning, his muscles still ached some, but he felt rested and ready to travel again. His armor had been cleaned surprisingly well, and his clothes had been mended. He noticed that the most recent of the shirts that Sharnellynn had borrowed had been returned to his belongings as well, and he tucked it away with a brief smile. He wondered if she'd need to borrow it again or if they'd manage to keep their clothes intact this time.

They ate breakfast with everyone, and there were a barrage of questions about where they were going. He mentioned heading towards Eerwayh, but explained that it was not their final destination. It helped, in a way, that he didn't know where they'd eventually end up, since he didn't want to lie to them or mislead them but was still worried about people following Sharnellynn and Ahriender. Then he found himself busy answering questions about his sword and armor instead, mostly from the boys, and enjoyed answering their questions. Breakfast seemed to go by too quickly and he almost regretted when they headed out to the barn, followed by a stream of children who grabbed up their bags to help bring them out. The horses were saddled and loaded in short order and seemed eager to be back on the road again. Then everyone said their goodbyes and they were off again, on the path back towards the main road and the river.

There was a silence for miles before anyone spoke, a sharp contrast to the babble of excited children that they had left behind at the farm. Matner knew he wasn't the only one thinking about them and what possible life they could have led if they had stayed. He reminded himself again that Ahriender and Sharnellynn would not have remained safe there forever. The sooner they found the place where they would be, the better.

Ahriender seemed the most saddened to go, which really did not surprise Matner. The boy rode in melancholy silence, looking mostly around at the fields and trees, but often looking behind them. It was not the furtive glance of someone wary of pursuit.

Sharnellynn rode taller in the saddle, looking as though the baths she had soaked in had sloughed away more than just dirt and sweat, but also some of the worry. She looked hopeful. She did occasionally look back behind them, but mostly she was looking foward--looking at where they were headed.

Dir Ketten was not much more readable than normal, and certainly no more talkative. He looked relieved to be moving again. Matner wondered if the nomad actually grew more and more restless with every day spent not moving. He again wondered what kind of life the nomad had left behind him.

Matner listened to the occasional hawk calling out its shrill warning to the world. He watched tree branches sway in a gentle breeze that carried a hint of something musky and perhaps herbal. Mostly it smelled like outside, although it frustrated him that he was not good at being able to identify and name things.

Clouds built gradually during the day, but they provided some shade from an otherwise bright and glaring sun. Even by the time they stopped for dinner the clouds had only managed to cover half the sky or so, and they were still light and fluffy. They were not dark and menacing, and did not look like they threatened rain just yet. They looked to be fast-moving, and he supposed they might go away before dropping any rain.

That night it almost seemed strange to set up camp, and he was surprised at how accustomed to a bed he'd already grown in just a couple of nights. Dir Ketten showed them the supplies he had picked up, which included two used bedrolls he'd bought off a merchant at the marketplace. They were a little worn around the edges, but still had plenty of life left in them and Sharnellynn and Ahriender both seemed very grateful for them.

He had also added a pot and some other necessities to the bags, along with the bags of food, mostly preserved or died items. Their dinner seemed small in comparison to the meals they'd been eating at the Kevendish farm, but Dir Ketten carefully portioned them out to try and make them stretch until they reached Garzer Keep.

"We can make the food stretch if we do some hunting and foraging along the way," Dir Ketten informed them. "Perhaps some fish from the river as well."

He showed them a small net he had purchased and told them he would use it to fish on the nights they spent closer to the river. Then, once they had been through the supplies, everything was carefully packed up again and they went to sleep, arranging three watches, including Sharnellynn. She had the first watch, followed by Matner and then Dir Ketten decided to take the morning one. It took Matner some time to fall asleep. He lay on his back, looking at the clouds and the stars when the clouds broke a little. They had camped at the far edge of a field, next to a cluster of trees, and treetops waved back and forth on one side of his view. Eventually, it seemed as if the trees were what lulled him to sleep.

Naturally, it seemed no time at all before Sharnellynn woke him by calling him quietly. It was not a concerned sounding voice, so he did not wake up abruptly.

"It's been quiet," she said. She was squatting next to him, balanced on the balls of her feet as if it would be perfectly natural to squat like that for hours on end, as if that was how she always sat.

"No sign of anything to be concerned about," she continued. "Not even a single howling wolf." The clouds had grown a little heavier. The night borrowed the colors away from her, leaving her face looking softer for being too pale. It was a very pretty face. He looked down while sitting himself up. He stretched some stiffness out of his shoulders. He already missed having a bed.

"I watched you sleep, for a while," she said.

"Oh?" he said, not quite sure how else to respond. He felt a little awkward, feeling as though she was specifically watching every little move he made.

"All of you," she went on. "Dir Ketten falls asleep very easily. It's like he feels at home everywhere. Ahriender sleeps like all children do--quickly and deeply once they settle down enough. You, though. You had trouble falling asleep. I didn't think you had too much trouble with it before the farm. Did something change, or was it just a couple of nights in a bed?"

Matner laughed. "Well, I do miss a bed, but I don't have a problem sleeping on the ground. I think you'll end up appreciating that bedroll Dir Ketten got you. You might as well get some sleep," he suggested, already expecting Dir Ketten to wake them bright and early.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for sleep," she said. "That's another thing I've been able to think about while you were asleep. A lot of things have changed in the last few weeks. My whole life, actually. But I don't have anyone I can talk to about it. I don't even have a friend to talk to. I..." she stammered a little. "Is there any chance we can be friends, or have I been too...mean...to you?"

"I thought we'd already agreed to be friends?" he said, thinking back to their conversation at the barn.

"I know, but I wasn't sure if... how far that extended..."

"I don't put limits on my friendships," Matner told her with a smile. "What is it you want to talk about?"

She was silent for a minute and he tried to break the tension by pulling on his boots and standing up, stretching a little more in the process.

"How about we sit by the fire?" he suggested, gesturing over at the center of their little camp. "It could probably use a little stirring anyway."

She nodded, and they went over and took spots on the ground by the fire. Matner grabbed up one of the longer, thick sticks that were sitting in a pile nearby and poked at the logs in the flames, pushing them around and causing a flurry of small sparks to rise, swirling into the air. He tossed another log in on top of them once he had them settled better. Then he set the stick aside and looked over at Sharnellynn, who was watching the flames as if she saw something in them other than the fire.

"So what's troubling you?" he asked.

"I'm just so...alone right now. Ahriender and I aren't quite the same. And sometimes I feel...guilty. I took him from a place he was happy. He couldn't have stayed there forever, I know. But he was happy there, and then he's found nothing but trouble once we left. Then we end up at that farm, with people that welcomed him in right away. And we took him away from that, too. I don't want him to feel like every time he finds a place he likes that I'll take him away from it." She stopped abruptly and slouched down, as if saying it had taken something out of her.

"But even though they took him in," Matner countered, "even though they accepted him, the neighboring townsfolk wouldn't have. We're still in lands that view elves as slaves because that's what they've been told and they don't know any better."

"It was farmlands like this that a lot of soldiers came from for the Flesh War. How many of those farm men and boys never came home? To a lot of these people, it probably seemed like it wasn't their war they were losing fathers and husbands and sons for. But as we get farther on we'll get to lands that better understand what was going on. And we'll get to places where the number of elves is higher. Then you'll both be able to blend in better. That'll make things both easier and safer. You are doing the right thing for him, and he'll understand that eventually."

"I'm worried," she said. "I'm worried that my own people will reject him because of the human blood in him. Some of them might even reject me, and try to blame me from him. I want to protect him from all that, and I don't know how. I don't know what I'll do if my own people send us away. Then I'll really be alone."

"I was thinking about that myself," Matner told her. "There are other Human nations out there that I've heard of. Like Dir Ketten's lands. Perhaps, if we need to, we can try other lands. There has to be a place for you out there. I just know it."

"But how far do we have to travel to find it?" she asked, looking frustrated. "Already, Ahriender seems unhappy with the constant traveling. How long can I keep asking him to travel for? A boy his age needs friends his own age. And schooling. Ben taught him many things already, and I've been trying to also teach him the ways and language of my people before we get there, but when I was his age I was receiving formal schooling for such things. I feel so inadequate to provide the things he should be having. Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off staying put. He liked where he was with Ben. And how many lives is it going to cost to get him to freedom and safety, Matner? How many lives has it cost already? I was taught that all life is precious, and I have to wonder, is all of this worth it? What if all the problems we've had along the way are just signs that I should have stayed in Tikor." She said the name of the city itself with obvious distaste and shuddered at the mention of it.

"And if he'd been discovered there?" Matner asked. "They probably would have killed both Ahriender and Ben. And probably you too."

"And then Raleth would still be alive. And Linden. And we don't know yet how many of Old Fredrickson's people survived. All because of me. You've been wounded for me as well..."

She trailed off, looking at his hand. There was still a light bandage on it, but it had healed considerably in the time spent at the farm. Whatever had been in the salve Ella had put on the bite marks had been both soothing and hastened the healing. He'd hardly noticed it since.

"Wounded, yes. But I'm not dead," he replied, flexing the hand as if to prove it to her. "And Raleth and Linden, and all the others too, agreed that they wanted to help you, Sharnellynn. They made the choice. Any time you take up a weapon as a career, you go knowing you will be put in situations that could get you killed. I'd rather think that it should make you all the more determined to finish this journey, knowing that they willingly gave their lives so that you could."

"It's just not our way...not really the elven way," she tried to explain. "We don't put ourselves ahead of others. So many people should not have to suffer for two people."

"But it is the human way," he countered. "We do what it takes to do things we consider right. That's partly why we fought in the Flesh Wars. Maybe we would have had to eventually anyway. But we did not wait until the last minute, watching your people die off completely. When it became clear that you were going to need our help, we took up arms and marched off to help."

"Admittedly, the King did negotiate a price for that, but that meant nothing to the men who marched off and never came home, and it meant nothing for their families. But still they went."

"A price," she said with what might have been a little resentment. "That seems to be the human way, too. What price will you expect from me?"

He held his tongue, not letting himself react in anger. "Hey," he said, gently, "come on now, that's not how friends talk. A while back I promised to help you both find a home and keep you safe. Did I say anything at the time about, 'but only if...'?"

"No," she conceded. "I'm sorry. Life has made me a little bitter, I think."

"Your life is changing, Sharnellynn," he said, putting a hand on her knee. It was warm, and he liked touching it. That brought thoughts probably inappropriate to his mind. He pushed them aside, leaving the hand where it was and not reacting physically. She seemed not to mind. He did not want to think he was avoiding her. After a moment he did remove his hand, but at a moment that felt natural to do so.

"Ahriender can be raised in a larger world than just the one house he had with Blue Ben. Yes, sometimes it'll be hard and scary. But I think those are the things that make life worthwhile. I myself would rather life a life of danger than live in a cage. Maybe you understand that viewpoint..."

To his surprise, she burst into tears, which he hadn't expected at all. He immediately regretted making the comparison and reached out a hand to comfort her, this time touching her arm gently and avoiding her knee entirely.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you..." he wasn't sure what to say at first, unsure of whether she even wanted to talk about it.

"It's not you," she said unhappily. "It's just... I don't... why, Matner? Why did it have to be like that? I know Elves are considered to be proud and arrogant, and maybe we are a bit, but we would never have treated Humans like that if the roles had been reversed..."

He knew she wasn't talking about Ahriender anymore, but her own experience, leaving him to wonder just what had happened to her over the years she had been enslaved. He'd never seen his father's slaves treated much differently than those his father hired, but he'd heard stories of other slave owners who weren't as kind. He wasn't sure there was anything he could do to change what had happened.

"Maybe if you talked about it?" he tried. "It might feel better if you let it out?"

"I don't know..." she replied, shaking her head. "I don't know that I'm ready to talk about it yet. It's just too much."

She put her head in her hands, crying some more, and he slid himself over and put an arm tenatively around her shoulders. He wasn't sure if he should, but she leaned into him, putting her head on his shoulder. Her hair smelled faintly of something he couldn't place.

"It's alright," he told her. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. But if you decide you do, I'll be here."

"Thank you," she said, "for understanding." He was not entirely sure he did, but he knew better than to say so. For the moment he just held her against him, hugging her. She seemed to feel comforted by it.

Eventually she admitted that she should get some sleep. He took his arm from around her and she straightened up. She went and slid into her bedroll. He watched the fire for a while.

He listened to the sounds of the night. They were, for the most part, the same as every night had been. But because his spirits were higher, the sounds of the night seemed comforting and welcoming, instead of creepy and ominous. He was not straining to hear distant wolves. Instead he heard the night birds calling here and there. It seemed peaceful.

The clouds had not gotten any thinner, so it was a dark night. The fire lit what it could, but could only reach so far. The darkness made the sounds even nicer to hear. They made the night not so empty, bringing life into a void beyond the reach of the little fire. Even still, the dark made it harder to stay awake through the watch. The fire and the sounds helped enough.

Maybe it would be easy from here out, he dared to suggest to himself. Maybe they were far enough away from Tikor that any pursuit had either turned back or lost the trail. Maybe as long as they kept from really being noticed they could avoid trouble the rest of the way. He supposed that at this point every day they traveled brought them further from danger and made them a little bit safer.

Those were the thoughts he had when he woke up Dir Ketten. All he said to the nomad was that it had been a quiet, uneventful, pretty night. He slept easily and quickly. When he awoke Dir Ketten had breakfast nearly ready. The clouds to the east were picking up that glow of a sunrise waiting to peek through on the land below. Matner yawned and stretched, ready for more days of putting danger farther behind them.

Over the course of the next week of travel, it seemed that he was right. They stayed closer to the river than the road, although sometimes they veered back to the road when the trees at the river's edge became too dense or in some areas where the ground itself was soft and marshy. When they did travel the road, they occasionally saw other travelers. They kept their distance, however, and Matner would just smile and nod as they passed them by, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary.

In the evenings, Dir Ketten resumed teaching Ahriender how to use his staff, while he also continued to show Matner more about his style of swordsmanship, as well as showing both of them some hand-to-hand maneuvers he knew. Sharnellynn would make them all dinner while quietly shaking her head over the whole thing.

After that first night, he and Sharnellynn would talk a little bit when she woke him for his watch shift each night. While he learned a little more about the Elven culture, she didn't seem ready to talk more about herself, generally. She did ask him a lot of questions about himself, and he found himself talking about his experiences at the academy and with his father. The more they talked, the less resentful he began feeling about his father's attempts to push Matner into a career in Calster. He supposed that his father had really been attempting to protect him and make sure he stayed safe. A part of him began feeling a little guilty for going off without saying goodbye, and he found himself writing a letter to both of his parents and tucking it away to send off by pigeon once they reached a city they could safely enter. Just having the letter written helped him feel better about it all.

During the next week they settled into a bit of a routine. Dir Ketten was having increased success fishing in the morning during his watch. Nights were passing uneventfully, and working a net in the water for a short while seemed an acceptable risk. They all agreed it was unlikely they were being chased still. All they had to do now was not attract undue attention.

Evening training was progressing well, and Ahriender was beginning to look fairly competent with the staff. Again Matner and Sharnellynn had the chance to be amazed at how quickly the boy learned. More than once Matner described it as seeming more like the boy was remembering something he had already learned.

During some of the night shifts Sharnellynn took her bath in the cool river in the warm summer night air. Matner would sit and stand at the bank looking in other directions, and both grew comfortable enough with the arrangement. No river monsters attacked her, although he remained nearby and ready just in case. They talked while he tried not to think about the water running over her body. Often it was distracting, but she was slowly becoming more able to talk to him, so he said nothing that might change that.

She eventually started describing the estate she had lived on. It was a large house, although smaller than most of the man's peers. She never mentioned him by name. He would throw lavish parties, attempting to appear more wealthy than he seemed. Showing her off in skimpy clothing seemed to be one of the man's prideful joys. According to her, the man had attrocious taste and had no idea how a woman should be attired. She left out, but alluded to, other ways in which he attempted to show her off. Not all the time, apparently, but now and then, which was still far too often. Once was too often, Matner agreed.

In exchange, Matner talked rather frankly about how all the staff at home--human and elven alike--were treated. Sharnellynn apologized one night, saying she had assumed that all slave owners treated their slaves the same. Neither of them could provide much evidence for which was the rule and which the exception.

They grew closer as friends through the week, often also talking during the day. Ahriender would ride off to the side a little, distracted by the things he saw with open fascination that still did not fade. Dir Ketten, of course, stayed out of conversations. But their day conversations were much less intimate and personal than their night ones. In the day they talked culture and history. In the night they talked about themselves. Some nights Matner wondered if they were becoming more than just friends. But he told himself that could not happen. He would find a place for her and Ahriender to live safely, and he would move on.

They saw more and more travelers, the closer they came to Garzer Keep. When the Keep itself came into view, Matner couldn't help but be stunned at the size of it. The walls seemed impossibly tall, and six large towers stood at corners, seeming ominous as the day grew darker. In the center of it, one larger building stood, taller than the towers and easily three times taller than the outer wall itself. All along the tops of the wall, the towers and the inner keep itself, the tops of the walls were notched so that archers could fire between them. Catapults stood, waiting, at the top of each of the towers as well.

The Keep stood at the top of a large hill, and all around it's walls outside were buildings, mostly clustered near the main gate into the keep. Around those buildings, a smaller wall had been built, although it did not appear to be of the same quality of construction as the keep walls, and was only about half as high. It appeared to be more of a deterrant than much else.

Like they did with Miln, they skirted around the city until they found a dense enough cluster of trees to make a hidden camp in while Dir Ketten changed into his farmer's garb and headed off into the city. While he said nothing, Matner found himself a little jealous, wishing that he could have the chance to see the city too. Somehow, he hadn't expected it to be so large, and he commented as much to Sharnellynn, that night as they cleaned up the dishes from the evening meal.

"This nation has always had a great suspicion of the Elves," she told him. "They never trusted that we would keep to our borders. While they said that the keeps were built to be cities of trade with us, it was clear that they were built to be military fortifications. I suspect that it was also that reason that our King felt he could come to them for help. The display of military force would lead one to believe that you were capable of fighting a war from these keeps."

"There are others like it?" he found himself asking, somewhat surprised.

"Randolph Keep, to the north, is just as large, or so I have heard. There are also two, smaller keeps between them, along where the border was. I heard rumors that there was also a smaller one to the north of Randolph Keep and another to the south of this one. I have only ever seen this one before, however."

Most of the land this close to the city was claimed by farmers. But some of it, like the patch of wood they concealed themselves in, was left alone as both forage land and left for wild pigs. Matner at one point even saw one briefly. It looked at him with a tusked snout and turned and scampered away. He did not bother chasing or following it.

They decided watches were still in order, just to be safe. This time it would be Ahriender first, then Matner, and then Sharnellynn. She joked to Matner that she just could not trust him with making breakfast. He went along with it, joking about how it would be a shame to have come this far for him to accidentally poison everyone.

He did find himself wishing they were in the city at an inn as they sat around their small fire and relaxed. They did no training that night. He felt they could all use to just relax. They sat around talking about what life might be like when they found a home.

Ahriender, for his part, was determined to find other boys his age to play with. They would, of course, prepare for exciting adventures traveling the world. The others would naturally be jealous of his having already traveled, but he said he would take it all politely in stride.

Matner found himself thinking of the little pirate brother he had left behind. 'Arrr, Matner,' he could remember with a smile. He suggested he thought maybe he would meet up with Old Fredrickson again and travel with him some more. Maybe see if they could help some other elves find new homes.

Sharnellynn admitted she was not sure what she would do once they found a home. She would be a real mother to Ahriender, of course, but she was not sure yet how she would support them.

When Matner woke her up for her watch, she admitted to being bothered by not knowing. She admitted that her skills were mostly limited to household chores. She did not know what she could do that others of her people would pay for. He reassured her with a hand to her shoulder that she was more resourceful than she gave herself credit for, and that she would find a way to contribute. She put a hand on top of his, and for a moment it seemed like she wanted something more--what he did not know--but it passed quickly.

He did stay up with her into her watch for a short while. They agreed that it was her nature to worry about those things. They also agreed that it was not anything that had to be resolved right away. They were still a couple of weeks away. She said goodnight to Matner with a warmer smile that he liked seeing.

While he felt relaxed and comfortable when he crawled into his bedroll, his dreams were odd and troubling. While he couldn't remember them when he tried to later on, the general impression was of a battle being fought. He could remember the sky being red, as if on fire, and wind swirling around him, pushing him every which way. He couldn't remember who he'd been fighting, or why, but he knew it was important that he win. But he didn't feel as if he'd been winning in the dream. When he woke, it was in a cold sweat and he blinked his eyes to clear them as he sat upright.

Then he saw the man creeping up behind Sharnellynn, as she squatted next to the fire, stirring something that crackled and cooked in the pan. She smiled, and looked over at him, clearly unaware of the danger.

"NO!" He yelled, yanking the sword out of it's scabbard lying next to him. He launched himself up, out of the bedroll as the man swung what looked like a wooden club across against the side of Sharnellynn's head. Then the man stood and faced Matner as two more came out of the bushes behind him. Out of the corner of one eye, Matner saw Ahriender waking in his bedroll, blinking and sitting up to see what was going on. Then Matner was distracted by the blinding pain in his abdomen. He looked down to see an arrow sticking out of his pants. He left it there, continuing his approach, seeing the man with the club grinning as if he'd already won. Most of the man's teeth were missing, and those that weren't looked crooked and rotting.

Sharnellynn hadn't been knocked unconscious, and he watched her try to crawl away, clutching her head with one hand. One of the two men in the back turned and grabbed her arm, and she struggled to get away from him, crying out as she did. Matner swung at the man with the club, and was surprised when the man parried him, knocking the blade harmlessly away. Matner changed to a stance Dir Ketten had taught him, and went for another swing. This time he got in under the man's defense and sliced across at the ribcage. The man's thick leather vest slowed the blade, however, and he hardly drew blood. Matner pulled back, parrying a swing from the club and dodging as the man tried to punch him at the same time. Then he brought his own blade around and under, this time stabbing into the man's abdomen and upwards, underneath the vest. The man's expression changed to one of surprise, followed by pain as Matner pulled it back out and the man fell to the ground. Matner ignored him, turning towards the next.

Ahriender had grabbed up his staff and was fighting the next one already, however Matner could see that the boy was struggling. He stepped forward to assist, when another arrow hit him in the shoulder. He turned his attention, looking in the direction it had come from, to try and find the archer.

It did not take Matner long to find him. He was standing just inside the treeline, at best a dozen yards away. Matner glared and charged. Fortunately, the arrow was in his left shoulder. Even still, it hurt when he ran. The one in his waist did not hurt him, which would have worried him if he had the time to, but it was awkward.

The archer clearly had not been expecting to be attacked. He fumbled nervously for the arrow, and his shot went wide. He was slow and inexperienced, but he had another arrow in place by the time Matner got there.

The archer was about Matner's age, and was dressed in lighter leather than the other attackers. He raised his bow, drawing the arrow back to fire at point-blank range.

Matner slashed through the bow and it exploded into multiple pieces. The arrow careened off to the side, partly propelled and lagely just dropped. The sword continued into the man's arm. Matner drew it back and around for another slash. This one hit the man on the side of a face frozen in an expression of fear. The expression was lost when the sword crunched into the skull and turned the man's head away. The archer landed in a sprawl face down.

Matner turned to see that Ahriender was still holding his attacker at bay, mostly by virtue of the longer reach his staff offered. Sharnellynn held a pan no longer filled with breakfast and dripping. The second attacker was screaming, holding his face. Matner ran back to help.

Sharnellynn swung at her apparently blinded attacker. He tried to back away from her, but she swung and swung in rage. Eventually the man tripped, and she followed him down, continuing to batter him with the hot pan. He stopped moving three or four hits before Matner got there.

Ahriender was having trouble. The last attacker had a knife in one hand and a club in the other. He had not gotten close enough for the knife, but had connected with the club a few times at least. Ahriender's movements were getting clumsy with pain.

Matner stepped to join in and found himself on his knees. His head swam, and he tried to steady himself with his free hand. That made his shoulder explode in pain, and for a moment he lost track of what was going on. The last attacker noticed this and turned enough to swing at Matner.

He brought his sword up, barely managing to deflect the blow, but falling to his side in the process. Fortunately, he saw Ahriender take advantage of the opponent's distraction, and bring his staff around in a low swing, coming up against the back of the man's knees and sweeping out from under him. Matner had a moment of recollection of when Dir Ketten had taught the boy that the right angle or point of attack could give them power over a stronger man, and thought the Nomad would be pleased to see Ahriender using the lesson so effectively as the man went sprawling. Ahriender brought the end of the staff down repeatedly, putting the weight of his body into the endpoint of it. Matner heard at least one bone snap before the man stopped screaming.

Matner took a moment, craning his neck around to be sure there were no more opponents, before looking at the wound in his abdomen. It was high, just below the belt, and he couldn't feel it. He realized that it was probably hurting him more, putting pressure on something, so he dropped his sword to grab hold of the end of the arrow. He grit his teeth against the pain he knew would come, and then pulled with all his might. He heard himself scream as the broad tip of the arrow tore its way back out of his flesh. Then he couldn't seem to hold himself up anymore, and slumped to the ground. Somewhere, in the distance, he could hear Sharnellynn calling his name, but the air around him grew thick with mist so he couldn't see her. Then the mist turned black as he slipped into unconsciousness.