Chapter One


When Karrie got home, she put her stuff down, to wash them later; it was still that same morning.  She changed into her work clothes (a pair of overalls and a clean t-shirt) and went to help with the chores for the day milking the cows and hunting dinner, with her father.  She then helped her mother fix dinner for her family.  She then went to the edge of the forest to help the local healer with his herbs (not a real interest just a job she used to share with Peter).  Here, in her abode, she waited for his return.  She went about her usual undertakings, for several months, waiting expectantly for his return.

Finally she realized that he wouldn’t be coming back to her, anytime soon.  “He’s not coming.”  Karrie stated in frustration, while at the window longing in the direction he had gone, “he’s just not coming,” she sighed, turning away from the window facing the road.

Her parents had seen her everyday at the window, looking to the road.  They worried that she was going to waste away waiting, when they knew Peter had his own future to see to, and that didn’t necessarily mean it included their daughter.

After six months of watching for him, and after she came back from her trip to see him off, they noticed she wasn’t watching for him anymore.  She went out into town and started coming home with herbs and trapped hares again, which she had trapped in the forest; she also gutted and cleaned them herself.  All this just like she used to, before Peter left.  To start with, her parents were worried about it; however, it didn’t take long to settle back into the old routine.  For the next six months, she was rarely home; she could be found either at the herbalist’s or in the shallow part of the woods.  One day she came home, it was late, as usual; she sat down to dinner and promptly told her parents that she was leaving the next morning.

“Honey,” her mom started, “where are you going to go, and when will you be home?”

Karrie shook her head, “Mom, I’m not coming back; I’m going to look for Peter.” She looked at them both, “ I can’t wait for him to take the hint and come get me, at least not anymore.”

The following morning, she took an oiled leather bag and filled it with dried and fresh herbs, poultices, and healing balms.  She tool her bedroll and her pak, which was already filled with dry tack, a coin purse, her unstrung bow, with her quiver of arrows and her staff, that also doubled as a walking stick.  She was gone long before the sun had reached across the world to spill it’s radiant light across the endless plains and forest.  Her parents still slept.

As Karrie started walking, she started thinking about the entire question that had been floating in her head for the last year, why didn’t he come home for me?  Should I have followed him?  Did that night mean anything to him?  Does he really love me? Where is he? What if he couldn’t come home for me?  What if he’s hurt and needs me?  She then noticed she had stopped walking and was now shaking nearly uncontrollably.  “Stop it,” she sternly told herself.

She thought to herself, “If I question myself now and him, how can I hold myself to finding him.  I have to trust that he is someplace waiting for me.”

As she continued walking, she started to notice that people were moving around, taking their wares to market, she assumed.  She was still far from a town.  Around midday she sat on a rock off the road, ate lunch and was moving again 20 minutes later, if a little slower because of her stomach.

Toward the end of the day she reached a small village, which really couldn’t be called a village, more like a speck on the horizon.  This is where she found out that it would cost more than she thought it would to search for her love.  The price for a private room was 5 silver and dinner was 5 copper, she didn’t have that much.  She decided to ask after employment as a tracker.  The problem was that most of the male merchants said no, mostly because they didn’t believe that a woman could fight against a man let alone a bandit or thief, then they would have to admit that a little slip of a woman could best the men with them or at least come even.  That doesn’t sound appealing to most, if not all, men.

Yet one of the few woman traders, Lesanne, looked at Karrie and thought she had spunk for at least asking.  She thought she could use a female to off set her fighter Andrew; she was also in need of a bona fide tracker.  She decided to test the young woman; she might have a way to balance the masculine entity that had weaseled his way into the job that he now held.  That and she wouldn’t make leering comments to her as Andrew did and he seemed to thrive on that.

So test her they did and Andrew, who didn’t think they needed any help, had a good reason for wanting this youthful female to go away, made the test of tracking so difficult in fact that he tied himself in knots and almost couldn’t figure it out himself, but he did.

Yet she figured it out like child’s play, course it didn’t help him that she was built for stealth and he wasn’t.

She got the job, the pay wasn’t great, but she didn’t have to shell out for her meals or for her room and board, when they were in town.  She was paid 3 silvers a week, to be paid when the lady trader sold her wares in the next town.  She was leaving with them.  

He wasn’t slow about trying to lure Karrie into his bed.  He tried just about everything, form subtle persuasion to blatantly kissing her, which earned him a pair of bruised shins and had him singing soprano for about a week before his voice and everything else went back to normal.  He finally realized that she wasn’t going to fall at his feet, begging for him to take her.  

During dinner that night she learned some of Andrew’s story.  He then started to explain where he learned to track and where he learned to fight, hoping that she’d be awed by his expertise.  It didn’t work, so instead he told her of his family, especially his Da.

“Me mum died when I was two or three,” he shrugged, “I don’t remember much about her.”  He looked at Karrie, “Me Da says I get my eyes from her,” she looked at his eyes that trader just looked, before he put his head back down and shrugged again, “ I don’t know about that I just know that I didn’t get them from him.  Me da taught me about tracking, from the ground up.”

He started staring across the table, it looked like he was staring at nothing, and Karrie just listened, as he spoke, “I remember what would happen when we went camping.”  He chuckled, “especially the first time, it was the early hours of the morning, pre-dawn, and he, me da, left me to find my own way home.”  At this point he glanced at Karrie, who was gazing off in the distance as if in rapped attention, and the trader just rolled her eyes, then he continued, “I got really lost,” he shook his head and looked once again at Karrie, “then I remembered what he told me about knowing my surroundings.  Point in fact, we hadn’t been that far from the house, we were also at the edge of the woods, once I figured that out, it was easy to find home and my father.”

“As a kid, I loved to go exploring and knowing where I was going and coming from, when I don’t it’s a tad freighting,” he leaned close to Karrie who was still actively listening and whispered load enough for Lesanne to hear, “don’t tell anybody I told you that, or I might have to kill you.”

Karrie giggled.

“Here we go,” Lesanne sighed.

Andrew went on, “I learned rather quickly how not to get lost and to follow somebody that doesn’t want to be followed,” he then patted the sword at his side, “he also taught me to fight with this, really well.”  As this point he put an arm around Karrie’s shoulder, she looked at his hand and raised a brow and slowly, as to not interrupt his well-practiced speech, pushed it off her shoulder, “You see when we weren’t in the forest, my father taught me everything about the long sword.”  Andrew then raised his arms as if to stretch and once again settled one on Karrie’s shoulder.

“When I reached 20 years of age, my da gave me this sword,” he patted the sword at his waist, using the hand that wasn’t on Karrie, “You see it has been passed down from my father’s father, then to my father, and now to me, to carry on the family legacy.” He finished with flare, grinning like a fool.

He still had his arm draped possessively across Karrie’s shoulders.  Then Karrie leaned forward and pulled out two rings that were on a leather cord on her neck, one that looked to be her size and another that looked to be a man’s ring.  Andrew and Lesanne noticed; Karrie just looked at the larger of the two rings.

“Whose is that?”  Lesanne asked, pointing at the large ring. Andrew just looked intrigued, when Karrie glanced up to look at the both of them.

“This,” she started, holding up the rings in question, she pointed first at the small one, “this one was given to me by my friend Peter, on my 18th birthday, last year, he made it for me.”  She said joyfully.  Andrew at this point removed his arm from her, he now knew he had no hope of drawing her attention his way.  Karrie spoke again, “and this one,” she held up the larger more male looking ring, “is for peter. I made it myself, it took me most of the year.”  She smiled wistfully off into the distance.

“Anyway,” she came back to herself, “he’s why I left home.”  She continued on to explain who Peter was, why she was looking for him, and all that he had come to mean to her.

“Sorry, Andrew,” she started turning in her seat to him,
“Don’t take offense, but my heart in engaged and I’m a moral upstanding woman,” she touched his face then, “You are cute, just not for me.”

Lesanne burst out laughing because the look on Andrew’s face, that went from ‘sore loser’ to ‘haughty distain’ to ‘utter shock’ at being refused so blatantly.  “I believe you’ve met your match, my friend.  In more ways than one.”

“Well I can see ya are a devoted one, he be very lucky.”  Andrew said in concession to Karrie.

After Lesanne quieted down she then turned to Karrie, “I hope you find your young man, well and untouched.”  At this point they started to get down to the business of what Karrie’s job was to be.  First it was to protect Lesanne, second to protect her back and Andrew’s, third was to protect the goods, but if all else failed, if they got out of the mess alive, they were better off.

The next town they came to was bursting with people desiring to buy, ‘Lesanne, Paints and Dyes’ to freshen up old dresses or to change colors of used ones, it was used in quantity by dress shops all over the place.  Lesanne means quality.

Karrie is present to keep everyone aware that when there is trouble, she will handle it.  She always did a good job.  Andrew was never paying enough attention to do anything in a timely manner; he was busy charming the girls and leaving his post.  Karrie saw and just rolled her eyes.

Numerous months later she was given her final wages as Lesanne retired for the coming months because there wasn’t much business for it at the moment.  Karrie continued on, by herself and Andrew stayed with Lesanne.  Whilst traveling she was set upon by thieves.  She was near a town, it was close to evening and the sun was starting to set.

There were four of them surrounding her and it didn’t take long for her to realize that they weren’t after just her money, but maybe her virtue as well.
As they encircled her, she brought out what they thought was her walking stick, nevertheless was actually a staff.  She twirled it to the ready and started moving her feet to position, ready for anything.  She also looking around, placing everyone that was in her path.

They, after realizing that she wasn’t some helpless female, became very cautious.  For several minutes no one spoke or moved, she realized that the one in front of her that was openly leering and appeared to be the oldest was the leader of them. He made a motion and the one on her left came forward and attacked with his mace swinging.  Before he reached her she reacted, her staff smacked his right wrist, the one that was holding his weapon, it stopped the momentum of the mace.  It didn’t hit her, but just missed her chest.

The leader noticed this and sent the one on her right, with his rapier slashing, to intervene, expecting that she would not be able to defend again.  He was proven wrong, as she had already swung around to defend his attack.  When he was close enough, she brought the staff to the front, you could hear the crunch, as the sturdy wood met bone through skin and knocked the air out of her second assailant’s chest.  He fell clutching his chest, the assailant behind her ran full speed to try and catch her from behind, with his knife.

She heard the crunch of boots seconds before he reached her, but she was given enough time to step forward turn and twirl her staff in front of her, blocking his attack.  She now had her back to the leader, who now rushed her and put his staff to her throat, seconds before it would have locked under her jaw, she ducked, saw a flash of steel, heard the slide against a leather scabbard, and new she had more company, (she didn’t know if it was good or bad.)  Karrie spun her staff as her assailant’s legs making his knees buckle; he hit the ground with a thud.

Her first attacker was on his feet rushing at her, when a young woman, with purple hair and a great coat came and stood in front of Karrie, as her long sword went through the man’s gut and his mace fell out of his hand, this gave Karrie time to act as her second attacker materialized at her side, ready to plunge his rapier into her, she jumped, sending her staff cracking on top of the mans head and he crumpled, with his face forward on the ground, unconscious.  The man with the knife, looked at the sword in the new comers hand and the staff in Karrie’s, then at his knife, he decided that it would be prudent to leave and fight another day, so he dropped his weapon and ran.

The leader was now back to his feet, saw his retreating friend and the newcomer had just pointed her weapon at him, he gulped and ran or rather limped, after his friend.

Karrie and the woman with the sword faced each other.  Karrie had her staff at the ready, and the woman had her sword still drawn with blood on it.  Neither spoke as they lowered their weapons.  They both knew what would happen if they fought and with no need or desire to prove what had already been tested by the men who had limped off.  Let alone to test her blade against Karrie’s sturdy, well-made staff.

“Well fought,” Karrie started, bringing her staff back to her side non-defensively, “I appreciated the help.”

“I couldn’t allow those four to try and hurt you, when I could help,” the woman smiled warily, “though I doubt you really needed it.”  She cleaned and sheathed her sword and stepped forward toward Karrie.  Karolline Luunarria is my name, I live in this small town.”  She glanced toward the town she had been on her way from.

“Karrie Shimandian is mine,” Karrie shook the proffered hand,

“Where did you learn to wield the long sword.  I don’t know anyone, woman-wise, who had the strength, let alone the ability, desire, or stamina to do so, until now.”  She grinned in approval.

“I know,” she stated, sighing, “ let’s just say I started rather young.  Enough about me,” and started walking toward the town while Karrie fell into step beside her.  “What about you and that stick of yours, its no small weapon, let alone easy to wield.”  She watched it wearily, now that it looked once more, unthreatening.  “The way you moved it was like it was an extension of you, where did you learn that?”

“As you say, I started young.”  Karrie didn’t smile or look toward her, she just looked ahead and they walked on.  Karolline’s mouth twitched.

As they reached town, Karrie started to ask where the best inn was that she could stay at, so as not to impose on her new friend.  Karolline realizing that Karrie was not going to ask to stay with her, stated, “You can stay with me and maybe show me either that bow or teach me a little about that clunky weapon at your side,” she nodded at the staff.

“Well, I’m not going to turn you away from that sword of yours and as I haven’t needed the use of my bow in a while, I can string it and show you some, however, with the obvious training you’ve had with that weapon at your side.  I’m afraid there is not much I can show you, except as a defense against this,” she thumps her staff on the ground.

They continue walking; when they reach the center of town, turned right on to another street and head toward Karolline’s home at the end of the road, at the edge of town.  It looked like a small cottage at the edge of town; it even had a few herbs growing on the outside.  When they opened the door the first thing Karrie noticed was that the earthen floor was made of clay, then she saw the fireplace, which was built into the floor, about six inches below it and had a set of stones in a circle separating the fire from the floor.

A rotund older woman greeted Karolline as they were talking through the kitchen.  “You’re back,” she cried happily, “Did you take care of those nasty men that were after the young women of the town?”
Karolline glanced at Karrie and back at the woman, “After I saw them leave, I followed and my new friend, Karrie,” she pulled her forward, “was in the midst of dispatching them when I came on the scene.  I stepped in front of one and gave her room to lay another out, the other two ran off like the cowards they are.”

She the older woman grinned, “Well that’s that then,” she then turned to look at Karrie, “ and who is your young friend.”  She asked taking in the staff in Karrie’s hand and the unstrung bow across her back.

Karolline steps up and introduces Karrie and asked if she can stay for a day or two.
“I’m not the one to ask, you know that,” she stated, “you need to ask him,’ she points out back.

Karrie’s eyes followed her hand to look out the open back door and saw a different world.  She turned and walked to the back and out, into the fading light.  She saw several pavilions of firelight around the yard.  They were being lit one by one with a torch.

She saw Karolline out of the corner of her eye as she came and stood next to Karrie.  She asked, “Who is that?”

“He is the retired arms commander whose home you are now in, he trained me to use this weapon,” she patted her side where her sword rested.  “He did it not because he had to or because he was paid, he did it for the challenge of teaching a woman at a bright young age.”

“Why is he retired?”

“Because the King and Queen decided that he is too old to teach the younger ones at the training yard how to swing a sword and lead others into battle.”

Karrie nodded in understanding, “I’ve never met them, and however I have heard rumors about their daughter Princess Lornia.”

“Yeah, me too.”  They continued watching as he finished lighting the yard and as the last of the light of day faded into darkness, so that the only thing lighting the yard was firelight.

He walked toward them now, as he was done, “Are you ready Karolline?” he asked gravely.

“You practice like this?” Karrie asked surprised, “But it’s dark.”

Karolline shrugged, used to this form of training, “You can’t always choose your conditions so you need to know how to fight in all of them.”
She walked out to the field with him, Karrie just stared.  Then she shrugged in acknowledgment and joined them on the field.

Karolline knowing that she should seriously injure Karrie decided to use a practice sword instead of her real blade though she did leave it on her waist, and her great coat stayed on.  Karrie took off most of the bulk of her pack and bedroll so that she could move more freely; Karrie then took note of where everything was, so as not to run into anything while they sparred.

Now both Karrie and Karolline were raised within the same country and so they both knew the rules of sparring.  First you faced each other, bowed without losing eye contact. Second you always have a referee that can tell you when to start and if you are unable to continue, before the referee calls out end, and then you call the word ‘treat’.  Also the referee awards points and the first one to reach 10 or knock the other out is the winner.

Karrie took her stance across from Karolline, with her staff in both hands, chest length apart; feet evenly spaced.  She then watched Karolline put her hands to the practice long sword, and the power stance, feet separated taking the weight of the body away from the upper portions to make pivoting easier and to maintaining perfect balance.

With both of them at the ready, they started moving in circling each other the moment the commander said to start.  They sized each other’s strength and weaknesses.

Karolline was the one who suggested they spar so it was appropriate that she start first.  She parried to Karrie’s left and struck wood on wood as Karrie defended and brought up the other side of her weapon to round the defense into an attack.  As Karolline turned and released her weapon from Karrie’s staff she blocked the other side.  Karrie then crouched at Karolline’s feet and brought the staff swinging under Karolline’s legs, meaning to knock her to the ground.  Karolline jumped up and avoided this move.  Karrie stood as Karolline brought up her wooden sword and nicked Karrie on the shoulder.  Karrie didn’t flinch as she brought up her staff and caught Karolline’s wrist at the same time, making it difficult for Karolline to hold her sword.  Karolline then sprung away from Karrie taking back her defensive stance.

Karrie took up her stance once more and let Karolline attack at will, only defending for the most part.  She didn’t let down her guard, now they parried, parried, thrusted and parried, parried, thrusted, and turned, parried, parried, thrusted, and swung over head, ducked turning, jumped, and slashed.
Karolline and Karrie were both smiling and breathing hard as the evening wore on.  When their ref called a halt, they stopped, dropped their weapons and fell to the ground in complete exhaustion. Afterwards they limped off toward Karolline’s room where she selected a jar of cream and started smearing it on her bruises. After she had enough on her body, she handed the jar to Karrie, “Here this will help with the pain in your arms and legs and in your rib cage.”

Karrie sniffed it, it smelled of herbs, “what is it?” she asked.

“It is a mixture of herbs, hedgeroot, firoot, chiekin, and birroot.”
Aren’t birroot and chiekin explosive?”

“Yes, but the hedgeroot over powers the combustive nature in chiekin and the firoot juices that are there when it is fresh, counteract the birroot.  Making it a nice pain reliever if used just after battle or in this case sparring.”
Karrie decided it was safe to use and started to smear it on her, “Where did you get this?”

“The commander gave me my first jar when I got here, after he beat me up, because the only weapon I could hold was a little itty bitty sword, that was more a glorified letter opener than even a dagger.  After that he taught me to make my own, this is one I made.  I don’t use it much anymore.”  She shrugged, continuing rubbing it into the wrist that Karrie had caught.

Karrie started to rub it on and was amazed at the speed that it worked. It was an instant balm to the pain she had been feeling, especially after dispatching those bandits or whatever they were.

Once Karolline was done she lied down and then asked, “So what brings you to this part of the country?”
“Well,” Karrie started, “I’m here because several years ago, my best friend left to go into the military, and I didn’t think he’d be gone this long…” She went on to explain about Peter and that she was looking for him.  “Have you seen him?”

“I’m sorry, I haven’t,” Karolline stated, “I will keep my eyes peeled for him.”

“Thanks.”  Karrie stated, then they settled down to sleep. Karrie wished Karolline a good night and vice versa.

The next morning they were up and ready before the crack of dawn. Actually running around town.  Karrie had decided to join Karolline in her daily routine.  This included running around town until just before breakfast doing odd jobs for her mentor.

When they got back to the cottage they ate with the commander and his wife; then to build up strength they both dug and filled in holes until lunch.  After lunch Karrie decided to pull out her bow, string it and was then shown the targets at 600ft (which was considered almost impossible, even for the long bow).  Karrie knocked, drew, took aim and shot true to the center of the target.

Karolline gasped in awe, “How did you learn to shoot like that?”
Karrie shrugged, “Peter had a tendency toward pissing me off, so I just imagined him as the target. Until I learned to focus better on the target itself, of course.”

“That’s amazing, let me try,” Karrie handed her the bow.

“You do know the basics, right?” She asked skeptically.
Karolline looked at Karrie with a face that stated, I-can’t-believe-you-asked-me-that.

“Just checking,” Karrie stood to the side and watched Karolline’s form, as she nocked, drew and shot, her arrow went wide of the mark.

“What happened?” Karolline asked.

“You went too fast,” Karrie sighed, “this isn’t the same as leaping into battle weapon slashing, this is patience with a weapon in order to hit a target. You have to wait long enough to feel the wind and then to aim accordingly,” at the blank look on Karolline’s face, she said, “ Ok, lets go to a shorter distance, so they went to the 150ft target (considered an easy target for practiced bowmen.)

Karrie then took her bow back and explained as she took the proper stance, “Now what you do is,” she knocked the arrow and drew full length back to her ear, “feel the wind across your face and around the bow, because even with a powerful bow, if the wind is to much you’ll go wide and either hit nothing or not what you want.” Karrie then released the arrow after aiming a little to the left, as the wind current was pushing to her right, and hit true.

“But isn’t the idea to get it knocked and shot in time to help someone.”

“Yes,” she signed in exasperation,” but the time taken to figure out variables becomes less and less the more you practice,” Karrie handed her bow back to Karolline to try again. This time she took her time and managed to hit the target in the inner circle.

They spent some months at this and in the evening they lay down and talked for a bit about things. One evening in particular Karrie asked, so how does a girl like you get into something like swords?

Karolline laughed, “You really want to know?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, as a child, a friend of mine and I were outside play-fighting and he told me I could keep the practice sword, because he was being sent to the military.  I wanted to go, but even he said I couldn’t cause girls were stupid.”

Karrie laughed, “What did you do?”

“I kicked his butt all the way to his house,” Karolline looked over and said, “What would you have done?” she turned onto her back, stared at the ceiling and continued her story. “Anyway, I got home later that day still waving around the sword and broke my mom’s favorite vase. I did explain to her where I got the weapon, I believe then she despaired of me ever becoming a fine respectable young lady.  I was only seven at the time.
My mom is a great woman she taught me the basics of cooking.  I also learned how to care for burns and cuts due to helping my mom cook dinner in the fireplace.  I would take the dinner knife with me,” she laughed, “and practice fighting with it and it was a little sharp. At the age of 8, my parents were so fed up with me that they sent me here and I had to see this Commander Knapps, and I’ve lived here ever since.”

“Wow, I didn’t know my, goodness, no wonder you’re so good at this you’ve been doing it how long now?” Karrie asked.

“About 10 years now. Oh and one more thing, my Dad told me this and I agree, even if I didn’t look back then.”

“What’s that?” “He told me, ‘Soldiers don’t cry, they don’t whine, never complain, and they do what needs doing.’”

Karrie smiled and said, “Yup, the first day of pain you want to…”
Together they said, “Cry, complain, whine, and never move again.” They burst out laughing at this then settled down to sleep.

Over the next few weeks Karolline told her that when she first got here she could only handle a long throwing knife, “It took me five years to get to be able to handle a long sword, with ease.”

As time wore on Karrie decided that it was time to move on, she’d overstayed her welcome in her opinion, so she packed up and after a cheerful goodbye left.

Karrie was walking along the road thinking about Karolline, her new friend and when or where she might find Peter, she wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on around her.  That’s how these dirty men in dark clothes surrounded her. From the look on their faces she knew that they were after something and it wasn’t necessarily valuable in currency, just her person and it couldn’t be good.

She looked around, she saw five men, in pentacle formation, two flanking her from behind and three in a semicircle before her. The one on her left had a long sword that he held in one hand with a knife in the other, on her right was a man with blond hair and an angular jaw with a mace that looked like it had been used for more than practice, the one directly in front of her had a broadsword held in front, all three were ready to attack. She wasn’t able to look far enough behind her to see the weapons or the faces of the two flanking her from behind.
She calmly stood there holding her staff, not moving, watching and listening for movement from any of the five. The one to the left advanced slowly and she without taking her eyes off of the others moved her staff into a position to defend, when the man realized that she wasn’t helpless, he rushed her hoping she wasn’t completely prepared. He was wrong.

As the man came forward he lashed out slashing toward her, she ducked and her staff hit him on the side of his head. He came up dazed, she was already on her feet again; she then brought the end of her staff down on his crotch sending him to his knees. She then proceeded to smash his wrists making him drop his weapons then a final thwack to the back of his head that sent him into unconsciousness.

After glimpsing a movement in the shadows she became aware of the other four, she knew that instead of calmly fighting her one at a time they would fight her all at once; as they rushed her she collapsed her body and forced her mind to shut down, making her faint at their feet. They, at this point were directly in front of her they watched and then kind of kicked a little when they realized she wasn’t faking it. They had two of them pick her up; her staff was still clutched in her hand. They carried her to their waiting horses and picked up their fallen comrade on the way. They also grabbed all her bags to go through later.

As these men pick up this fallen woman and the man she had knocked unconscious, they didn’t see into the shadows of the wood where a man was watching. They left.

The man stepped out of the wood, “I wonder…” he follows them knowing that the men were not taking her far.  He figured they had a higher motive in capturing her.  They were on horses; he had to run to catch up.
It wasn’t difficult to do so, he was used to walking, as horses always made him nervous. He knew what she had done and that she would also need help when she woke.

The men that had captured her, also carried her, slung like a sack of potatoes over the pummel of the horse’s saddle, she was bound by several straps of leather, just in case she woke up and decided to cause trouble.

Karrie slowly became aware of her surroundings, she seemed to be leaning against the tree, first she felt a slight pain in her middle like she had been smacked with the blunt end of her staff, and it was uncomfortable but bearable.  Next she had the sensation of blindness, as if something was covering her eyes. Her eyes needed to adjust to the light of the night; once her eyes had adjusted she could make out shapes around her. She tried to stand and found that her legs were bound fast.  Karrie abandoned the thought of moving and looked around; she noticed an unfamiliar short and stocky figure slinking in the shadows.

Karrie glanced away and pushed herself against the tree that she had been leaning against.  Looking around she noticed her bow, but no sign of her staff or other belongings.  It looked as if the man she had knock unconscious earlier was on watch. He then walked over to her to see if she was awake, she proceeded to close her eyes as if asleep.  

“So sweet…” he said, “ You pack a wallop, for such a small thing. I wonder if you are an animal in the sack.”

To late she realized that his face was inches from hers.  When her eyes flew open and met his dark ones, “Well, well, well, she has awakened and I’d bet that you have been awake for some time.” She looked at him without answering him.

He slapped her across the face, “You are mine now, and especially after the pain you caused me.” He glared at her with his cold eyes.  His eyes gleamed with anticipation as he started to let his breeches fall. The man then fell on to her, as he was knocked unconscious, revealing the short and stocky man from earlier with a club still raised.  He said not one word, he then produced a boot knife to cut her makeshift ropes, offering to help her stand she accepted.
As they silently walked through camp, she noticed her staff leaning against a tree near the leader along with her pack beside him.  She then motioned the man helping her to see if he could get her things from that area while she retrieved her weapons.  She knew he didn’t like the idea but he didn’t know why she would need them so he quickly retrieved it, then lead her from the camp. No one woke up until after they were long gone.

As they left the camp she glanced at him and he motioned for her to follow him to his camp. She followed and when they got there it was as if a tension left him. He started to settle down and invited her to camp.

She looked around and surveyed her surroundings. There was a fire already burning in the clearing they were in.  She saw several logs around the fire as if it had been used for this purpose before, she then noticed that his pack was off to the side. Then she sat down and looked at him as she went through her pack looking for her rations.

“Did you see what happened?” she asked.

“Well I saw most of it, especially where you collapse, by the way where’d you learn that?”

Well, a friend of mine taught me the ability, he even showed me what would happen, but I had never used it until today.”

“Actually it was yesterday that you used it.”

“Why didn’t you save me yesterday then?” she asked curiously.

“Well I had to wait for you to wake up or  you would most likely have faught me.”

Karrie shrugged, “You are probably right.  What’s your name?”

“I’m Mendell and I was scouting when I saw what happened.”

“You’re part of the military?” she stopped looking through her things and looked up at him.

“Yes…” he said cautiously, “why do you ask?”

“Well do you know a Peter Diagon.”

“Yes he’s my Captain. What did you say your name was?”

“Karrie Shimandian why do you ask?

“Well because Captain Peter was the one who showed me that trick.  I figured that you would know him, at least. what I didn’t count on was that you would be the one he has been talking about these past two years.”

“You mean he’s been talking about me!?” she blushed at her outburst.

Mendell was silent, allowing her to recover. He looked across the clearing and just listened around him.

“what did you do before you went into the military?”

“well I was a blacksmith, and I was good too, I can still smith with the best of them, in fact I could mend or make anything that is metal, and I did so with several different types of weapons.”

“How did you go into the military, and choose a weapon?

“Well as a blacksmith I learned several things, one is that in order to mend correctly you need to have a working knowledge of the weapons you create or how will you know if they are actually good or not so I became trained in the use of all weapons to be a better blacksmith.” He said all this in a boasting tone.

“It sounds like you loved the career you were in?

He grunted non-committing.

“How does a man like you become a military man?”

“Well I chose to enlist and I joined the front lines, willingly. So really all I do is take orders, fight and do all the various jobs I’m assigned.” He stated simply, shrugging then he lapsed into silence.

A few moments later a simple “why?” broke the silence and Mendell seemed lightly taken aback. “I mean,” she started, clarifying, “ you were  in a career you loved and then all of a sudden you wanted to fight?  It doesn’t make since.” She shrugged as if to say there should be more to the story.

“well…”

“Do you have a family?”

He looked uncomfortable, “I had a family…”

“where are they now? She asked unfazed.

“They’re dead.” He stated quietly looking at the fire.

“Oh,” she said bowing her head, then gently asked, “how did they die?”

He was silent for a long time, so she decided to drop it after all it probably still hurt to talk about it, no matter how long ago it was.

She jumped to a different topic, “ do you know where I can find Peter?”

“I don’t rightly know, but I can take you to my superior officer, they would know better that I would.”

“Oh”

“I will tell you this much, he never could keep you out of his thoughts or off his lips.”

“You mean he talked about me?” she asked excitedly.

“Well yes, he told me about how every birthday, you would disappear for about a week. Just after your birthday party and know one knew where to find you.” He stated, “ and none of the guys were game to try and find you or where you went.”

“It’s starting to get light, we should get moving,” they left Karrie following Mendell to his superiors.  Karrie prayed that his superiors weren’t going to tell her the Peter was dead.  Her questions regarding the man with her were temporally forgotten.

They broke camp dispersing the remains of the camp and scattered the foliage around them to give the appearance of no recent human presence.  They also used a branch that fallen from a nearby tree to hide their footprints.

They walked in silence for the rest of the journey to the camp of Kingadorm.  Karrie first saw the pennants flapping in the wind some way off.  Mendell pulled out a leather strap at his neck and out of his greased chain mail came a cloth pendent with the emblem of Kingadorm emblazed upon it. A few moments later she noticed shadows moving amongst the trees.  She looked at him and noticed that he was ignoring the moving shadows and so she dismissed the shadows gliding around them as unimportant, as they fully came into the light of the encampment.

The clearing was about the size of a small village. The tents are arranged strategically placed with the larger of them in the middle.  Mendell went straight into the largest of the tents.  This tent has two guards on either side and two young men one holding a flag of Kingadorm the other rushed toward them to learn there names so that they could be announced. The youngman looked curiously at Karrie.

As Karrie became more aware of her surroundings, she noticed two soldiers passing by behind her. She decided to listen in on their conversation.

“What happened to Captain Diagon, do you know?” asked the first soldier to the second. As they moved away from her, she followed slowly so as not to alert them.

“Well from what I heard he was sent to Niche-Mu to take command of the forces there,” said the second soldier.

“I was hoping that he could spar with me and maybe show that trick of collapsing with apparent ease.” Karrie closed her mouth on a gasp realizing that they were talking about her Peter.

“I know what you mean,” the second soldier affirmed, “I don’t think that will be possible, given that he’s not due to return until we can come up with a treaty they will accept, to stop the fighting.” He shrugged, noncommittally.

“My guess is he will leave as soon as the treaty is signed, to either go home and see the one woman to ever capture his heart or he will be sent somewhere regarding the treaty.” Karrie at this point decided to leave and quickly so that she wouldn’t be summoned back to the main tent.

“Wait, someone has captured his heart?” the second soldier exclaimed.

“Yeah, some girl he’s knows back home.” They continue walking in silence hoping that their Captain did make it home and that the girl was still waiting.

Karrie now knew that she couldn’t go after him while he was in so she decided to head east toward the castle to see if she might be of use for the treaty to be signed.