Shon and Tarun located a nearby town on their map called Brookdale, and they wasted no time in starting off. Though he was glad the dragon hunters were finally gone, Shon became aware soon after their departure that if Smitt and the woodcutters came back, there would be no one else around to help them. As they hiked quickly along the trail to Brookdale, Shon couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that someone was following them, but they saw no sign of Smitt or the woodcutters.

The path to Brookdale required branching off of the path that would eventually pass close to the valley where they were headed. Even though this meant a detour that would mean nearly an entire extra day of walking, Shon was glad to be headed for the town. The map seemed to indicate that the town was located near some kind of river or creek, and Shon had always been fascinated with the idea of continuously flowing water. Grodin had explained to Shon before about mountain runoffs and tiny creeks joining together to create larger streams and rivers, but Shon had still always had a hard time believing that water could just flow uninterrupted without ever running out.

Shon was also excited at the prospect of spending some of their newly earned money. He and Grodin had never been poor, but Shon himself had never possessed more than three or four pieces of silver at one time. He knew that he needed to make their money last, but he was still looking forward to spending at least a little bit of it.

It was late afternoon when Shon and Tarun arrived at Brookdale. The first building they saw was a watermill, turning a series of small wooden wheels in the nearby brook. Shon wanted to get a closer look at the water, but the banks of the stream were steep and slippery, and after nearly falling in once Shon returned to the path. Rather than having a large wooden wall like the fort-town of Duskwood, Brookdale was open and its homes and buildings were spread out. Tarun and Shon had to wander around for quite a while before they even found someone to ask directions from.

A young woman walking through town with her children was able to direct Shon and Tarun to a two-story building in the middle of town that acted as both an inn for travelers and a general marketplace for both travelers and residents. Shon also asked the woman if there was anyplace where they could get a good look at the nearby brook without the banks being so steep and treacherous. She told them of a place just outside of the town where the residents would go to fetch water, watch their clothes, and occasionally fish. They thanked her and made their way to the inn.

The inn was small and musty, but cozy. Apparently the town didn’t get visitors very frequently since it was quite out of the way from the main road in the area, and it was owned and operated by a gray-haired couple that offered Shon and Tarun a room and meals for the evening at a reasonable rate.

The market that the woman had described turned out to be a gathering of several carts and tents of local farmers and merchants who gathered regularly to sell their goods. After buying a few supplies and storing them in their room, Shon urged Tarun to come with him to the spot where they could see the brook that the town was named for.

Despite Tarun’s long strides, he found that for once he was the one who had to hurry to keep up with Shon as they made their way through the town and a small grove of trees to get to the fishing spot the young mother had told them about. Tarun hadn’t seen his friend look so happy and excited since they left the desert. Tarun had never realized that Shon had such a love for water.

When they came through the last of the trees to see the banks of the creek slope gradually down to the water, Shon climbed down and stood right next to the edge of the water with his eyes closed. After a moment, the look of excitement and eagerness on Shon’s face turned to confusion, and then disappointment.

“What’s wrong?” Tarun asked.

“The running water doesn’t sound right,” Shon said quietly. “Or at least, it doesn’t sound the way I expected it to.”

Tarun closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the water gently flow past them along the streambed. “What do you mean?” asked Tarun, opening his eyes. “What did you expect it to sound like?”

“Never mind,” said Shon, turning his back on the brook and walking back towards the town. “Let’s just get back to the inn. My feet are killing me and I’d like to get some rest.”

***

Shon and Tarun both enjoyed their hot meal and comfortable beds at the inn that night. They both enjoyed a much-needed night of deep, dreamless sleep, and both awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to continue their journey towards the beautiful green valley.

As they walked along the path back to the main road, Tarun noticed that Shon was quieter than usual. His friend’s mood was not sour like it had been when they were around the dragon hunters, but it was obvious that his mind was deep in thought about something.

“Shon,” Tarun finally said, “may I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” Shon said. “What’s on your mind?”

“Actually,” replied Tarun, “I want to know what’s on your mind. The other day you said the brook didn’t sound right, and it seemed to bother you a great deal. Have you heard other brooks before? Was something wrong with that one?”

“I heard the sound of running water nearly every day for several years of my childhood,” Shon said with a sigh. “I just never heard it with my own ears.”

Tarun’s expression turned to confusion, but he said nothing. Eventually, Shon continued. “When I was young, I had this teacher in Life’s Edge who meant a lot to me. I mean, she taught all of the kids in Life’s Edge, but she was especially important to me. She taught me just about everything I know. She was even the one who first discovered my magic abilities.”

“Tell me about her,” Tarun said, walking closer next to Shon.

“Her name was Empress,” Shon said. He then quickly added, “Well, actually her real name was Mprësues, but none of us called her that. See, she came from far south where they don’t speak Common very much, and she spoke with an accent that some of the kids thought was funny, but I always liked. She knew her real name was hard for us to say, so she told us we could call her ‘Empress’ instead, since it sounded similar and it became like a joke she shared with her students.”

“Since Life’s Edge has such a reputation for its glasswork, the adults in the town were able to pool their resources to pay for a trained full-time teacher, rather than enlist periodic volunteers. I first started attending Empress’ classes when I was about seven years old. The first couple of years were pretty hard for both of us.”

“Why was that?” asked Tarun.

“Well apparently I wasn’t the easiest student to work with at first,” said Shon. “I don’t really remember much of the details since I was still so young, but my parents had left me with Uncle Grodin just about a year earlier, so I got angry a lot. I was also… well… easily distracted back then. And Empress did not like distractions in her class.”

“But there was one thing I always loved about Empress, even during those first years, and that was story time. Empress would tell all kinds of stories to the class. Sometimes she would read them from books, and sometimes they were oral stories she would just tell from memory. I would always sit in the front of the class during story time. When I closed my eyes, I could actually see in her mind the stories as she told them. It was amazing to experience the stories she told in that way. Unfortunately, other than story time, I was a terror for her.”

“What changed?” Tarun asked.

“Empress learned about my magic,” Shon said. “Before me or even Grodin knew what was going on with me, she was able to figure it out.”

“How?” asked Tarun.

“Mostly through little things at first,” Shon said. “Empress was an incredibly perceptive woman, especially when it came to her students. She noticed that the more people who were around, the more distracted I would be, even if nobody was talking. She noticed that on tests I would often give the answers that the majority of the students in the class gave. A couple of times I would even write someone else’s name down at the top of the test. When I was eight she figured out that I couldn’t really read, if there wasn’t anybody else looking at the words at the same time as me.”

“She would keep me after class and ask how the day went for me, and then she would listen with so much attention, that it nearly gave me a headache to talk and listen to her thoughts at the same time.”

“She sounds like a wonderful person,” Tarun said with a smile, “but what does any of this have to do with the sound of the brook?”

“Oh right,” said Shon, shaking his head. “I was just getting to that. You see, once Empress figured out what was going on with my mind, she started working with me to get it under control, both in and out of her class.”

“So she was a magic user too?” asked Tarun.

“No, not at all,” Shon said. “She didn’t have any magical skills whatsoever. But she did know a lot about the mind, especially when it came to kids’ minds. She and I would meet together after school to figure out tricks and strategies to focus my power. The water trick was one that we used the most.”

“The water trick worked like this. Let’s say that the whole class had to take a test. To help me focus on my own test, and not the thoughts of all the other kids taking theirs, Empress would sit in her large story time chair at the front of the class, and just think about the sound of water running down a stream. My job was to listen for the water with my mind, so I could focus on that instead on the thoughts of all the other kids.”

“That was one of the best tricks she ever came up with for me, but there were several others that she came up with that I still use sometimes to focus and calm down. Of course, not all of her ideas were amazing. She had some pretty strange ones too.”

“What kind of strange ideas?” Tarun asked.

“Well for one thing, I remember she had this chart that she would pull out sometimes. It had a picture of a person on it, but it was divided into sections and each section was color coded. She thought that a person’s thoughts would come from different parts of the body, depending on how they were feeling. Like when you’re hungry she said your thoughts were coming from your stomach, or when you were embarrassed she said your thoughts were coming from your cheeks and ears, or when you were scared your thoughts were coming from your lungs.”

“Speaking of feeling hungry,” Tarun said, “how far do you want to walk today before we stop for lunch?”

“Oh I still feel pretty full right now,” said Shon. “The breakfast we had at the inn was pretty big, so I think I can keep going until after noon before I’ll need lunch. Would you like to eat sooner than that?”

“No, that sounds fine,” Tarun said. The truth was, Tarun wasn’t quite as full as Shon. The meals they were served at the inn were the same size, but Tarun had observed that he could generally eat quite a bit more than Shon before he was satisfied. Still, he wanted to hear more about Shon’s teacher, so he kept the thoughts coming from his stomach to himself.

“What were some of the other feelings associated with body parts on her chart?” Tarun asked.

“Just about all of them you could think of,” Shon said with a chuckle. “Let’s see… Love came from the nose and lips, anxiety came from the teeth, excitement came from the fingertips, guilt came from the liver. She even said that boredom came from the toes. That was just a few of them.”

“What about anger?” Tarun asked. “Where did Empress say angry thoughts come from?”

“You know, I asked her that once too,” said Shon. “She said that angry thoughts could come from any part of the body, because they always started out as something else. So if someone was angry, those thoughts probably started out as fear or embarrassment or sadness or hunger, and then turned into anger, even if the person didn’t realize it. She said that knowing that helped her stay calm when other people were mad, because she just had to figure out what their anger started out as.”

“So all of our thoughts come from different parts of our bodies?” clarified Tarun. “Interesting idea.”

“Well, not exactly all of them,” said Shon. “Empress believed that dreams and other special kinds of thoughts came from what she called the Ether. She represented the Ether on her chart as a gray mist surrounding the picture of the person. She believed that the Ether connected the thoughts of every living thing in the world, and said that thoughts from the Ether were a gift and should be treasured.”

“Empress once told me that she thought my magic came from the Ether,” Shon continued. “She said that was a really special thing, because the world already has enough wizards who can cast spells or curses that blow stuff up, but the world can always use more gifts from the Ether. It was after she told me that idea that I started calling myself an ethereal wizard.”

Tarun thought about the idea of some thoughts coming from the Ether and wondered if it had anything to do with those thoughts that made him feel strong and optimistic, or if it was what Krall meant about following his instincts. “It sounds like she taught you a lot,” Tarun said.

Shon nodded solemnly. “She taught me just about everything I know,” he said. “And it wasn’t just in class. She would often come over to my home and have meals with Uncle Grodin and me. She would stay over for hours, and sometimes she would even still be there talking with Uncle Grodin after I went to bed. I always suspected they were secretly sweethearts, even though she was a few years older than him. In hindsight, I’ll bet he told Empress his secret about being a druid and he told her about stuff I needed to learn that his promise to my parents wouldn’t allow him to.”

“In fact, whenever I would ask her about my uncle so I could read her thoughts about him, she would just say a little rhyme until I stopped asking her:”

“Thoughts may wander

Thoughts may roam

Some thoughts take paths

Far from their home

But keep in mind

Some paths hold dread

Some thoughts are best

Kept in your head.”

“That’s really clever,” said Tarun. “Did she make that up herself?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she made it up just for me,” Shon said with a catch in his throat. “She did a lot of little things like that for me.”

“What happened to her?” Tarun asked quietly.

Shon and Tarun walked along in silence, with Tarun’s question hanging between them. After a while, Shon said, “Three years ago she got a letter from her sister. It said that their mother was sick and asking for her. It was the middle of winter at the time, and while that didn’t mean much in Life’s Edge, Empress knew that she’d have to travel with a caravan to get all the way south to her home town. She didn’t have the money to pay for the trip, so Uncle Grodin gave her the money she needed so she wouldn’t have to wait until spring.”

“I know he did it to be kind, but…” Shon’s voice trailed off and he looked down at his feet for several steps. “When the caravan was just a few miles from her village, they were caught in an avalanche. A few people survived, but they never found Empress.”

“I’m sorry,” said Tarun, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “That must have been very hard on you.”

“It was,” Shon said, wiping his nose on a sleeve. “It was hard on a lot of us. Me and my uncle. The whole town, really. There were a lot of people there that Empress had taught and lives she had touched. Life’s Edge had lost its teacher, I had lost my best friend… and Uncle Grodin had probably lost the only person in the town who he had shared his secret with.”

“After that, things became really difficult between Uncle Grodin and me. We had never been able to talk very easily, probably because he always had to worry about keeping that stupid promise to my parents, but after Empress died we hardly talked at all. The town had offered to let me replace Empress as the teacher in Life’s Edge since I had stayed in her classes almost twice as long as most of her students, but I turned them down. I told them I didn’t think I could live up to Empress’ example, but the truth is I just wanted to get as far away from that town as possible.”

“Of course any time I tried to talk to my uncle about leaving, he would just tell me that if I did I wouldn’t be able to come back to live with him. I finally understand why now, but at the time I thought he was just being harsh. I knew I didn’t have any way to make a real living in the world, so I spent the next couple years trying to figure out what I could do to get by on my own, but nothing really seemed to work out despite all my ‘gifts’ from the Ether.”

“Eventually I thought I could learn to make some money by using my magic to win at gambling, but as you know, that didn’t work out so well. I won the games just fine and the gamblers never figured out exactly how I was cheating, but they didn’t really care how I did it anyway. That was when you arrived in Life’s Edge and saved my life.”

“Now that you’ve had a chance to leave Life’s Edge,” said Tarun, “do you think you’ll ever go back and accept their offer to become a teacher?”

“I don’t know,” Shon said. “It certainly seems better than the life of a dragon hunter,” he added with half a smile and a chuckle. When he finished his last sentence he thought of the voice in his dream two nights before that had told him to go back home where it was safe. The memory sent a chill up Shon’s spine.

Tarun saw the darkened expression on Shon’s face and asked, “You really miss her don’t you?”

“Every day,” Shon replied. “That’s why I was so excited to hear the sound of that brook. After three years, I thought I would finally get to hear the same calming sound that I had heard so many times in Empress’ mind. But it wasn’t the same at all.”

Tarun patted Shon on the shoulder and gave him an encouraging smile. “I’m sure there will be many more brooks and streams between here and the green valley,” Tarun said. “Who knows what sights and sounds we’ve yet to experience?”

At that, Shon smiled, and the two continued along their path.

“You want Tarun to do what?!” shouted Shon with a mouth full of half-chewed sausages.

“Exactly what I said,” replied Krall. “I want to train him to be a dragon hunter. I’m offering to let him come with us, learn everything I have to teach him, and then help me hunt and kill dragons.”

Shon swallowed hard to clear his mouth of the sausages. “We’re a team,” Shon said with an angry tone rising in his voice. “Why would Tarun leave his best friend to go running off with a bunch of strangers?”

“Alright then,” Krall said, “if you two are a package, then why don’t you come along too? You could learn a lot that might keep you alive, as long as you keep your head down when things get dangerous. Who knows? Your magic may even come in handy sometime.”

“Gee, thanks,” Shon said sarcastically as he crossed his arms. “But has it occurred to you that we have business of our own to take care of?”

“What business is that?” Krall asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Our business,” replied Shon, getting angrier. “You probably wouldn’t be interested in it since it doesn’t involve killing or getting killed by something.”

Krall sighed and turned back to Tarun. “And what do you think of all of this, Tarun?” Krall asked. “I know you don’t remember anything before meeting your friend here, but I trust your mind is still your own.”

Tarun saw that everyone had turned to look at him, and he didn’t know how to respond. When he thought about going with Krall and learning to be a dragon hunter, he felt the same optimistic strength he had felt earlier that morning. But when he thought about leaving Shon, he felt a great weight in his stomach, as if the sausages he had eaten were made of stone. “I… I don’t know,” he finally said.

Solimar looked back and forth at Tarun and Shon with a disapproving expression and turned to Krall. “Are you sure about this?” the elf asked.

“As sure as I was when I asked Piggy to join us,” Krall said to Solimar. “Or as sure as I was when I suggested you and I work together instead of kill each other, for that matter. This feels right to me, and I’ve learned to follow my instincts.”

Krall turned back to Tarun and asked, “Do you understand what that means, Tarun? To follow your instincts?”

“I’m not sure,” Tarun replied. “Your offer seems good, and I appreciate it.” Tarun paused and he saw a worried look on Shon’s face. “But leaving Shon right now would feel wrong, and I won’t do it,” he said, and saw relief wash over Shon’s face. “And as Shon said, we have business to take care of before starting any other ventures.”

Krall looked at Tarun and took a deep breath through his nose. After a moment he nodded and said, “Alright, I can respect that. You two seem determined to complete whatever errand you’re on, and I won’t get in your way.”

“Now,” said Krall as he stood up and wiped his hands on his pants, “if everyone is done with their breakfast, what do you say we get down to the business that brought us all here in the first place? I believe you’ve got a package for us, and we should get it from you and be on our way before that idiot from last night manages to sober up enough to actually get a posse together.”

“Oh, sure,” Shon said, surprised that Krall was willing to take Tarun’s decision without further argument. “Uh, it’s in your pack, Tarun. Mind getting it out?”

Tarun opened his pack and rummaged through its contents to find the package of Dragon’s Bane hidden safely in the bottom. As he started to pull it out, Krall asked, “Have you got a map in there?”

“Yes,” Tarun said.

“You’d better hand me that too,” Krall replied.

Before Shon could object, Tarun had handed the package of Dragon’s Bane and their map to Krall. Krall carefully opened a small corner of the wrapping around the Dragon’s Bane and inhaled a long sniff of the contents inside. “Yes, that all seems to be in order,” Krall said as he quickly closed up the corner of the package.

“You’re not even going to look at it?” Shon asked.

“Why should I?” Krall asked. “You’re not trying to cheat me, are you?”

“No, of course not!” Tarun said. He felt sick at the thought that Krall might suspect them of dishonesty.

Krall chuckled. “No, I didn’t think so,” he said. “Dragon’s Bane is a dangerous plant to have spread around, so I don’t intend to open this package until I’m ready to use it. Besides, I trust my nose more than my eyes anyway.”

“Now your uncle and I agreed on thirty pieces of silver,” Krall said. “Does that sound right to you, Shon?”

When Shon nodded, Krall reached into a pouch on his belt and produced a handful of coins, which he began to quietly count in some orcish language. After a moment he handed the coins to Shon and said, “Alright, here’s the thirty pieces you were promised, plus another five more for you to hear what I have to say next.”

Krall opened up Shon and Tarun’s map and begin to study it. “Hey!” Shon shouted. “Give that back!”

“Like I said,” Krall replied, “I just want you to hear what I have to say.” He produced a small piece of charcoal from a different pouch on his belt and made a mark on the map, much to Shon’s displeasure. He then handed the map back to Tarun and Shon and pointed at the black mark.

“Do whatever business you need to do,” Krall said, “but consider my offer still open until the end of the month. If you finish whatever errand you’re on, or if you change your minds, go to the town at this mark. It’s a small town, so don’t worry about finding us, we’ll spot you when you arrive as long as you get there before the month ends.”

“What’s at that town?” Tarun asked.

“One of our next clients,” Krall said. “There are three towns in that area that are all being periodically attacked by a particularly nasty dragon. From the descriptions we’ve heard, it sounds like she may be brooding. The three towns have pooled their resources to offer a reward to any dragon hunters who can get rid of her, and that town is where we’ll go to discuss our terms.”

“And what if they didn’t have enough money to pay you?” Shon asked, snatching the map out of Krall’s hand. “Would you just let the dragon continue to kill the people in those towns?”

“First of all, the dragon hasn’t killed anyone yet,” said Krall. “It’s mostly just been killing livestock and terrorizing the residents. Second of all, as you’ve already pointed out a few times, dragon hunting is an extremely dangerous endeavor. We don’t do it unless we think it will be worthwhile. So if you boys do join us, that’s the first dragon you’ll be helping us hunt.”

“Anything else you wanted us to hear before we’re done?” Shon asked.

“Just one last thing,” Krall said. “You boys be careful out there. Really. I don’t think either of you realizes yet what a cruel and dangerous place this world can be. It’s obvious you’ve both been sheltered so far, but even if you hadn’t, I’ve seen men more hardened than yourselves taken unawares.”

“Be smart, stick together, and use your instincts. You especially Tarun, because I can tell you’ve got ‘em. If something doesn’t smell right, it probably isn’t, so get yourselves out. I realize an orc face may not be very pretty for you to look at, Shon, but prettier faces than mine could do a lot worse to you than I could. Be careful. Be safe. I hope I’ll see you again before too long.”

“Thank you, Krall,” said Tarun. “Thank you for everything. I hope we’ll see each other again too.”

After that, Krall picked up the package of Dragon’s Bane and the dragon hunters packed up their wagon, while Tarun and Shon kicked dirt onto the fire to put it out. The green wagon pulled away, and by the time Tarun and Shon had finished rolling their sleeping bags and securing them to their packs, the wagon was already out of sight.

“Well,” said Shon, trying to rub Krall’s black mark off of his map, “now that we’ve finished that whole unpleasant encounter, what do you say we find another town where we can get some more supplies and get back to finding my parents?”

Tarun woke up the next morning soon after sunrise. Though he was warm and dry inside the sleeping bag Grodin had given him, Tarun noticed that the ground around him was damp to the touch. Had it rained in the night while he was sleeping? Tarun had heard about rain, but since he could not remember anything before his time with Shon in the desert, he did not know if he had ever actually seen rain before, and the thought excited him.

Tarun climbed out of his sleeping bag and put on his boots. As he stood up and stretched in the cool morning air, he inhaled deeply. The light, earthy smells of the slightly wet leaves, grass, and trees filled his lungs with the essence of the forest.

The feeling was completely alien to Tarun. Not a single corner of his mind caught any hint of familiarity from his surroundings, and yet somehow it all felt… right. As he took another deep breath he felt even more sure that he was in the right place, at least for the moment, and that surety left him feeling elated and strong.

Tarun looked down at where Shon was still sound asleep on the ground. Tarun was not surprised by this. He nearly always woke up before Shon did, though he often didn’t tell his friend how much earlier he arose. Tarun figured that with a head so much heavier with memories and magic, Shon needed the extra rest.

When Tarun saw how tightly Shon’s hood was wrapped around his head, he wondered if it had been a colder night than he had realized.

Not wanting to wake Shon, Tarun walked around the rest of the clearing to familiarize himself with his surroundings. The clearing looked much different in the daytime than it had the night before. The sunlight filtered through the branches of the trees, creating streaks of light against the dust and pollen in the air.

Tarun saw the stump on the ground where he had agreed to a rematch with Smitt, and saw drops of brown-red where his own blood had dripped down after his arm was cut by Smitt’s knife. Tarun put a hand on the bandage that Solimar had put on his arm before he went to sleep. He decided the elf must be quite skilled, because the cut on his arm did not hurt as much as he had expected.

Looking around, Tarun did not see Solimar anywhere, and wondered where the elf might be. He did not have to look far for the dwarf that Krall had called Piggy though. He was still asleep next to his large boar. He was amazed that the dwarf could look so comfortable snuggled up to an animal with hair so bristly.

As he continued to walk around the clearing, Tarun found an axe that one of the woodcutters had dropped during the fight the night before, and he picked it up. Gripping the handle with two hands, Tarun swung the axe around, imagining how he might fight off the woodcutters if they came back for another fight. At one point he swung wildly to his left and lost his grip on the axe. The axe head narrowly missed his foot, but left a noticeable gash across his left boot. Tarun held the axe behind his back and looked around to see if anyone had noticed his mistake.

Tarun walked over to the green wagon on the other side of the clearing to get a better look at it. He was amazed at the way that the dappled mix of greens and browns could cause the wagon to blend in so well with the vegetation behind it. As he got close, he saw a shape painted with another mixture of green and brown, as Krall emerged from the inside of the wagon wearing his traveling cloak.

As Krall finished stepping down from the wagon, the orc stretched his arms wide, inhaled deeply through his nose, and let out an invigorated howl. “EEYOWOWOWOH!” he sang to the morning air.

Tarun smiled to see the orc greet the new day with such enthusiasm and passion. Tarun began to respond with an excited “HRAAAAGH!” of his own, but stopped when he looked over and saw that Shon had awoken with a look of panic on his face. Tarun suddenly remembered that he was still holding the axe in his hands, and realized that his friend may have thought that Tarun and Krall were howling at each other, rather than the morning itself.

Tarun put down the axe and tried to think of the right words to explain the situation, but before he could, his mind was flooded with confusing images of trees and arrows and pig-beasts and savage orcs. Tarun looked over at Krall and saw him stumbling and clutching his head, but he couldn’t tell if what he saw was real or part of the confusing images around him. He heard snarls and snores and growls and squeals of pain. The world began to swim around his head.

Then just as quickly as it had begun, the sounds and images faded, and Tarun turned to see Solimar standing behind Shon, holding the Shon’s hood tightly over his whole head and gripping his throat with a choking hand. Tarun picked up the axe he had dropped a moment before. “Let him go!” Tarun shouted. “You’re hurting him!”

“Not until he calms down,” the elf coolly replied, holding firmly the struggling wizard.

Tarun began to advance and grip the axe in both hands, but he stopped and turned around when he heard Krall’s voice from behind call out, “Enough Solimar! Let him go! You’re hurting the boy, and you’re only going to make this worse.”

Solimar sneered at Krall, but a moment later the elf dropped Shon to the ground, leaving him coughing and gasping for air. Tarun immediately dropped the axe and ran to his friend’s side.

“Tell him to keep his grubby mind in his own thick head,” Solimar said, walking over to Krall. Tarun could not hear Solimar and Krall’s brief whispered conversation, but it was obviously heated. When it was over, Solimar shot another glare at Tarun and Shon, and then stalked off behind the wagon.

“I’m sorry about that Shon,” Tarun said as he patted his friend’s back and tried to help him regain his breath. “What was that? I’ve never seen you do anything like that before!”

“Forget about it,” Shon said between coughs in a much angrier tone than usual. “I just woke up from a terrible night’s sleep to find you and an orc roaring at one another.”

“No, it’s not like that,” Tarun said. “Krall and I were just… howling at the morning. We weren’t in any danger. But how did you use your magic like that, anyway?”

“I said forget about it!” Shon snapped. After a moment, Shon exhaled a long breath and began rubbing the sides of his head. “I’m sorry Tarun. I just had a terrible dream and I feel like I threw it up all over everybody.”

“Well I don’t think any real harm was done,” Tarun said in a reassuring tone. “Solimar looks angry, but that’s nothing new. Piggy looks like he got the worst of it. I think he was still asleep when it hit. It looks like Krall is trying to calm him down now.”

Shon continued to look down at the ground with his hood pulled over his head, not wanting to look at the others. “I think it’s time we sell the Dragon’s Bane and collect our payment. I’d like to be done with dragon hunters for a long time.”

“Are you going to be alright?” Tarun asked.

“I guess so,” Shon replied with a cough. “It’s just unsettling to be choked by such smooth hands.”

***

Things began to quickly calm down after the initial commotion settled, and the rest of the morning was considerably less eventful. Tarun even began to regain some of the excitement and optimism he had felt earlier that morning, especially when Krall began teaching Tarun various skills.

Krall had tried to smooth things over with everyone by revealing a box containing venison sausages they could share for breakfast once they got a fire going. With this in mind, he instructed Tarun and Shon to help him gather wood for the fire. When Tarun collected several pieces of wood that were too large for building a fire, Krall taught him how to use the axe properly to chop the wood without chopping off his own foot.

After gathering the wood, and chopping it into appropriate sizes, Krall taught Tarun how to stack the pieces of wood in a tower by alternating pairs of parallel sticks back and forth across each other. “It’s like building a pyramid out of a log cabin,” Krall had said. Tarun didn’t understand the reference, but he was impressed all the same.

After building the log cabin pyramid, Krall found some dry pine needles and leaves to put inside the small wooden structure. He instructed Tarun not to stuff it too full, or it would be too hard for air to get in and get the fire going.

Krall then produced a couple of small pieces of metal from a pouch on his belt, and struck them together to make sparks that began to make the dry needles and leaves smoke and crackle. Krall began to blow into the small fire, which produced more smoke. Tarun tried to help by blowing hard into the leaves, but Krall had to stop him before he put the small flames completely out. Krall softly blew again, and the fire began to pick up again.

“Stronger isn’t always better,” Krall told Tarun. “When the fire is still this small, a little gentleness goes a long way. There will be time for bellows and big logs later.”

Their efforts soon paid off, and before long there was a strong healthy fire in front of them. Krall retrieved a black iron skillet from the wagon, and the smells and sounds of sizzling sausages filled the morning air.

As the group ate their breakfast, Tarun tossed a branch onto the fire and watched the branches curl and crackle. “I’m surprised the wood was so dry,” Tarun said, “especially after it rained last night.”

Krall stopped eating his sausage mid-bite and stared at Tarun. “What are you talking about?” Krall asked. “It hasn’t rained in these woods for weeks.”

“But the ground and grass were wet when I woke up,” Tarun said.

“You mean the dew on the ground?” Krall asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What’s dew?” Tarun began to ask, but his voice was quickly interrupted by Shon cutting in loudly.

“Oh dew! Of course!” Shon said loudly. “We’re not used to seeing so much of it since we’re coming from the desert. Well that makes sense now!”

Krall stared at Tarun for a moment. “Do you really not know what dew is?” he asked.

Tarun looked back and forth between Krall’s and Shon’s faces. Shon’s expression seemed to indicate that something was wrong and that Tarun should lie, but Tarun could think of anything to say. Finally Tarun asked, “Is that bad? I didn’t mean to offend you, Krall.”

“Offend me?” Krall said sitting back on his log. “Who are you, boy? You’re obviously not stupid, so why do you know so little? It’s obvious your friend here doesn’t get around much, but at least he knows the basics. What’s your story?”

As Tarun prepared to speak, he heard Shon’s voice in his mind. Be careful, he said. I still don’t think we can trust these dragon hunters. We shouldn’t tell them too much.

When Tarun responded, he spoke out loud to both Shon and Krall. “There’s not that much to tell,” he said, “but I’ll tell you what I know.”

Tarun then proceeded to tell the dragon hunters about his experiences in Life’s Edge, and his lack of memory before that. He told them about his journey into the desert with Shon and Grodin, and their dangerous encounter with the mirages. Tarun explained his desire to leave Life’s Edge, and how Shon had agreed to accompany him. Because of some mental pleading from Shon, Tarun left out any mention of Shon’s parents or the Soul Trees in the valley that they were headed to.

When Tarun finished telling his story, Krall stared intensely at him for a long time, unconsciously chewing on the knuckles of his fingerless gloves while he thought. “Well,” he finally said, “you seem bright and you’re obviously strong. I think you’ve got a lot of potential, but no idea what to do with it. You two look out for one another, but this world is a lot bigger than that desert, and there’s plenty of dangers hidden at every turn. You boys seem pretty ill-equipped to face them alone.”

Krall’s serious expression brightened a bit and a smirk came to his lips. “So why not head for the danger head-on and learn how to be ready for it?” Krall asked. “How’d you like to be a dragon hunter?”

Shon sat on the log in front of the smoldering campfire next to Tarun as his arm was bandaged by the elf who had shot the arrow into Smitt’s sleeve less than an hour earlier. He couldn’t stop himself from constantly looking back and forth between the elf, the dwarf, and the orc, and wondering to himself how his plans for their journey could have gone awry so quickly.

Admittedly it had never been a very detailed plan. Find their buyer and deliver the Dragon’s Bane to collect payment. Then travel to the valley with his parents’ Soul Trees. And then… something else? OK, Shon admitted to himself, so it was an incredibly simplistic plan. But wasn’t that all the more reason it should have been easy to stick to it?

Instead, he found himself in the middle of a dark forest in the middle of the night, in the company of three dangerous-looking dragon hunters who weren’t even members of his own race. One of them was even an orc! Shon considered Tarun brave, but he reasoned this was one instance where he just didn’t know enough to be as frightened as he should have been.

“Thank you for stopping Smitt,” Tarun said to the elf, breaking the long silence. “If you hadn’t he probably would have killed me.”

A piece of thick cloth covered the elf’s right eye, secured by a leather headband, and the elf gave Tarun a stern gaze with the other eye. After a long pause, the elf finished binding Tarun’s wound, stood up, and said, “You owe me an arrowhead.”

Despite the cold and angry tone, Shon was surprised how regal and even the elf’s voice was. As Shon inspected the elf’s long blonde hair, slender build, and graceful movements, it suddenly occurred to Shon that he could not tell for sure if the elf was male or female. The realization instantly made him very uncomfortable.

Shon had a hard time imagining any woman choosing the life of a dragon hunter. But he also had a hard time believing that a male, especially a rough and dangerous dragon hunter, could move and speak like the person in front of him.

The elf suddenly spun around and glared at Shon. “What are you staring at?” the elf asked.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Shon stammered, “I’ve never met an elf before. What’s your name?”

The elf gave Shon a disgusted sneer and walked away into the dark woods.

The orc came and sat down by Tarun and Shon in front of the smoldering campfire. Shon made a conscious effort to not scoot away when he did. “The elf’s name is Solimar,” the orc said. “Solimar Silverbow. And before you get all worked up about it, you should know that Solimar doesn’t like anybody, not even me and Piggy.”

Shon turned his face to the orc with such surprise that he nearly forgot about the recent unpleasantness with Solimar. “Piggy?” he asked.

“That’s the dwarf,” said the orc. “At least, that’s what we call him, and he seems to answer to it just fine. Don’t know if he’s got a real name, but that one seemed to fit since he’s so attached to that boar of his.”

Shon looked over at the hairy, wild-looking dwarf, already asleep and curled up next to the large boar he used to crash into the woodcutters less than an hour earlier. “Why doesn’t he just tell you his name, if you don’t know it?” asked Shon.

“That’s kind of a long story,” replied the orc, “but the short answer is that Piggy doesn’t talk. Oh, and speaking of names, mine is Krall in case you didn’t catch it earlier.”

“Oh, right,” Shon said nervously as he looked away from Krall’s green face, “thanks for the reminder.”

Krall stood up and brushed the loose dirt from the back of his pants. “Well, you boys look tired, not to mention pretty shaken up,” Krall said. “It doesn’t sound like the inn at Duskwood is going to be an option tonight, so why don’t you just stay in our camp site for the night? We can sort out all of the details with your delivery in the morning when we’ve all got fresh brains.”

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Shon asked.

“Well, Solimar is a pretty light sleeper like most elves,” Krall said. “And my nose is almost as keen as Piggy’s boar’s is. I don’t think there’s much chance of anybody sneaking up on us. Besides, I really doubt those woodcutters will be dumb enough to come back here tonight.”

Shon didn’t have the nerve to admit that what he meant was, he wasn’t sure if Krall, Piggy, and Solimar were safe.

Tarun put his hand on Shon’s back and spoke up. “I think we can trust him,” Tarun said. “If they wanted to kill us, they could have easily done that already.”

Krall let out another deep, throaty laugh. “You don’t talk much, boy,” Krall said, “but I think I like you a little bit more every time you do.”

***

Sleep did not come easily to Shon that night. He lay next to the dying embers of the campfire in his sleeping roll with one eye open. Tarun was nearby on the other side of the fire pit, already fast asleep. Several times Shon would take the hood of his cloak off his head in fear, listening for any thoughts of anger or intent to do harm. Then his head would get cold and he would remember he couldn’t clearly understand the thoughts of the three dragon hunters anyway, so he would put the hood back over his head.

By far the easiest of the dragon hunters to keep tabs on was Piggy. The dwarf was curled up in plain sight next to his large boar. Shon couldn’t tell if the loud snorting snores were coming from the dwarf, his pet, or both. He couldn’t be sure, but at times it seemed that the snores were almost harmonizing in a grotesque kind of way.

Shon was fairly certain that Krall was asleep in the large green wagon. He had seen the orc climb into the wagon shortly after he finished talking to Shon and Tarun, and he had not seen Krall climb back out. However, he did not trust Krall, so Shon continued to assume that the orc could be anywhere. For all Shon knew, the wagon could have a secret trap door that could allow the orc to sneak out of the wagon and take his victims by surprise.

Most unsettling to Shon was the realization that he didn’t know where Solimar was at all. The elf had stalked off into the woods, and not returned. Shon had assumed that Solimar would come back to go to sleep when the others did, but the elf had not returned. Was Solimar asleep in the trees? Or watching from the shadows?

Between the loud snores coming from Piggy and his boar, Shon heard the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees around him, and the insects and other creatures active in the dark. Shon realized that the sounds he found so captivating earlier in the evening were now unnerving and sharp in his ears.

As the last of the heat and glow left the coals in front of him, Shon finally lost the will to stay awake, and his eyes reluctantly closed. And as the last of the smoke curled out of the charred and blackened wood towards the sky, Shon’s mind wandered into strange and winding dreams under his hood.

Shon’s dream began in a large and beautiful valley. In the distance he saw three tall trees covered in blossoms with two people standing underneath them. Shon could tell immediately that they were his parents. He called out to them, but they didn’t come, so Shon began to run towards them. As he came nearer he could see his mother’s lovely and graceful smile, and his father’s stern but determined gaze.

When Shon had nearly reached them he stumbled and lost sight of them for a moment. When he looked back he realized that they were not really two people, but one. Fluctuating between gracefulness and severity, Shon saw that it was not his parents at all, but Solimar. The elf notched in arrow and pointed it at Shon, and he began to run away.

Arrows rained down around Shon from every side, as he tried to run toward the shelter of the trees, now so distant from him. Too late he saw that the arrows had been corralling him into an ambush by Piggy and his boar, which had fused into one huge, hairy, snarling, creature. Like some kind of abominable centaur, the Piggy beast charged at Shon with four legs, two arms, and a war cry that sounded like harmonious snores.

Shon was pulled out of the way of the beast’s charge at the last second by a pair of strong arms. He turned and saw his friend Tarun next to him, and then in an instant Tarun had transformed into an orc with frothing mouth and sharpened fangs. The orc spoke to Shon through a mouth drool and slime. “Krall is coming to eat your dreams,” the orc said. “I’m coming to eat your nightmares.”

Suddenly, Shon heard a laugh so clear and sharp, that he realized how fuzzy and unfocused the rest of the dream world around him was. The laugh was lower and louder than Krall’s guttural laugh, but it also seemed strangely far away. The sound made his heart and stomach vibrate and drop.

The sequence of events in the dream continued on around Shon, but now that he saw how blurry and sporadic everything was, he could watch events as an observer. He still saw the dragon hunters attacking him, but he was no longer affected by it. On the other hand, he realized that his fear of the dragon hunters in his dream had been nothing compared to the fear that the foreign laughing had caused him.

As the dream continued, Shon heard the laugh again and it sent a shiver up his spine. It was not a laugh of mirth or amusement, but of mockery and contempt. He dared not move or breathe as he felt his every action was being watched and judged.

The laugh then turned into a cruel, distant voice. “Why have you stopped running, little larva?” the voice said. “This dream is not nearly as much fun when you just stay still like that. Could it be that you stopped running because you’ve grown a spine?”

At the last comment, Shon heard the dark laugh again, more bitter and terrible than before. “No,” said the voice, “larvae don’t have spines. Perhaps you have stopped running because you are now just paralyzed with fear.” Shon continued to hold his breath and his tongue, trying to figure out what was going on in this dream that was unlike any he’d had before.

“Bah!” said the voice, an angry tone mingling with its malice, “You cannot be one of them. Your companion perhaps, but never you. My enemies must be capable of greatness, and you are no more than a frightened bug, too young and weak to even know when to scurry away.”

The dream ended and all faded to black, but the voice continued in the utter darkness surrounding Shon. “The Obsidian Eye has been wrong before, and it must be again. That is why I never hatch only one egg at a time. I will focus my attentions on one of the others. Scurry home where you’ll be safe, little larva, and pray you never receive my notice again. If you do, you may never wake up.”

The voice rumbled an ancient and powerful growl as it slowly faded away. After a time, Shon became aware of the sounds of the night bugs and Piggy’s snores, and he realized that his eyes were open. Shon felt a chill on his head and found that his hood had slipped off in his sleep. Shon pulled the hood tightly over his head and tried to warm himself up, but he couldn’t tell if the chill he felt was from the cold night air, or the last lingering memories of the voice in his dream.