But Kenneth barreled through the brush, roaring, his shield lifted in front of him like a battering ram. He slammed into the valgret, breaking the arrows off in its chest and driving the arrowheads deeper. He churned his legs forward and slammed the creature’s back into a tree along the shoreline. Pine needles and loose branches fell around them. The valgret screamed again as the sword in its back was driven through, only to stop against the shield at its chest. It clawed furiously at Kenneth’s armored arms and shoulders, unable to find purchase on the leather plates. Kenneth raised his other arm, the one holding his heavy and wide broadsword, to level the tip at the valgret’s mouth before driving it through and into the tree behind it.
The valgret thrashed wildly before its arms fell at its sides. It was finally still. Kenneth backed away with his shield still raised. He let the valgret hang from the tree by the thick blade for a moment to ensure it would remain still. Mila ran to Claudia while Kenneth removed his sword and allowed the valgret to slump to the ground. He flipped the creature over and bent down to withdraw Claudia’s sword as well, then walked to the river and began washing the dark blood from the blades.
Claudia, after catching her breath, turned to the brothers: “Are you two all right?”
Speechless, they each simply nodded.
Claudia smiled and sighed as she rested her head against the tree. “Now I remember why I like being a scholar so much,” she said. “Books don’t try to kill you.”
Kenneth laughed deeply and nudged Daniel with his elbow before handing Claudia her sword. “That was quite the show, wasn’t it?” he said.
“We should go,” Mila said. She helped Claudia to her feet and kept a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
“What about the rest of the pack?” Kenneth asked with a frown.
Mila shook her head. “No sign of them,” she said. “This one must have gotten separated between here and the spring. Even if we double back and try to find where they split, we’d never catch them again.”
Claudia seemed disappointed but nodded. “Hall won’t be happy, but all right. Let’s head for town.”
The sun was setting as they made their way up the dirt path back into Sapella’s Crossing. Kenneth had led the way, with Claudia and Mila at the back and Daniel and Jeremy walking between them, until they were on the cobblestone streets. Mila had said the pack was gone but Kenneth hadn’t wanted to take any chances, so they had moved slowly, their weapons drawn and ready.
“Lovely little town,” Kenneth said as he took in his surroundings, a light smile on his face.
All the shops were closed and locked. The homes were likewise silent, with only a few windows lit by candlelight. Along the streets, light posts gave everything a comforting and warm glow.
Mila turned down an alley without a word, stopping only when Kenneth called out to her: “Mila! Where are you going?”
She half turned but started walking away again as she spoke: “To see an old friend.”
“She’s always so cheerful,” Kenneth said with a sigh. He turned to the brothers. “I assume you can make it home safely from here?”
“Yeah,” Daniel said, “we’ll be fine. It’s not far.”
“Which way is the nearest inn?” Kenneth asked.
Daniel pointed the opposite way Mila had gone. “Two streets down and farther into town.”
“Splendid,” Kenneth said. “We’ll speak again in the morning, I’m sure. Come along, Claudia, a nice warm meal would suit us both.”
She waved him off. “Actually, I think I’ll go for a quick walk. Take in a little night air.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Suit yourself. A hot meal is calling my name.”
After he rounded the corner, Claudia gently pushed Daniel and Jeremy down the street. They started for their home with the Dragon Guard scholar in tow. No one spoke. Jeremy was dreary eyed and yawning, while Claudia seemed cheerful. But Daniel was in a daze about the whole situation. He still couldn’t believe what had happened to them. A valgret attack followed by a trip down the rapids and a night in the forest, then meeting three Dragon Guards who were, from what he gathered, doing exactly what he had read about them doing hundreds of years ago: hunting monsters and saving others in the process. His mind raced as they reached their home’s front door and stepped quietly inside. In the front room, his mother had fallen asleep in front of the fireplace, an open book in her lap. All that remained in the hearth were a few glowing embers and ash.
Daniel walked over, placed a hand on her shoulder, and gently shook her awake. “Mom, we’re back,” he said. “We’re okay.”
She opened her eyes slowly. When she saw Daniel and Jeremy in front of her, she started shaking. She pulled them both in and squeezed them tight. Tears ran freely down her face.
She leaned back to look at their faces and gripped their shoulders. “Oh, my boys, I was so worried! If I’d lost you two I don’t know what I would have done.” She pulled them in again, tighter this time.
Once she let go again, Daniel backed away and motioned behind him. “Mom,” he said, “this is Claudia. She helped us get back.”
His mother stood, looked Claudia up and down for a brief moment, then pulled her into an embrace. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much for saving my boys.”
Claudia seemed surprised and a little uncomfortable at the physical contact. “Oh, uh, you’re welcome,” she said. “Really, it was nothing.” She awkwardly patted their mother on the back and seemed grateful when the hug ended.
Daniel’s mother picked up the book that had been in her lap. “I started reading this last night,” she said, “when I heard what happened.” She smiled and handed it to Daniel. It was the book from his nightstand. “Why don’t you two head to bed, you look exhausted. We can talk in the morning and tell everyone you made it back. I’m sure Constance is still worried sick about you.”
Daniel stared at the book for a moment, then nodded. He gave his mother another hug before heading for their room, Jeremy right behind him.
Chapter Three
6th of Horace, 26th year of the Fourth Age.
Several hours passed with Daniel lying in bed, unable to sleep. Jeremy, meanwhile, snored from the other side of the room. Daniel wished he could sleep like that now. He felt exhausted. But he couldn’t sleep when his mind raced like this. Claudia had said he could leave with them, but if he couldn’t convince his mother to let him go, it wouldn’t matter. He rolled over, opened the nightstand, and pulled out the necklace he’d gotten for Connie. He looked at the silver flower for a while, then threw off his blanket. He was careful not to wake his brother as he dressed and slipped on his boots.
Daniel opened the window to the alley and carefully climbed out. He picked up a small, loose stone from the house foundation and placed it next to the hinge of the window so it couldn’t be closed completely while he was gone. Once he was sure it was stuck in place, he turned toward the main road and made his way to the outskirts of town. The moonlight was bright and lit the way as he walked down the wide dirt road that went out of town to the farms.
Sapella was located in the middle of a forest on the northern edge of Edaren. It wasn’t an ideal location for growing fields of crops or even raising livestock, but the people here managed well enough. He passed a couple of smaller homes before making his way to a two-story house with a large field stretching out behind it and an impressively sized stable located on the fence line near the road.
Daniel quietly made his way around the back and over the fence into the yard. He dug in the dirt to pick up a couple of small pebbles and looked up to the window of the house he thought was Connie’s, counting the ones adjacent to it to ensure it was the correct one. Then he lightly tossed the stones against the glass until the window opened and Connie peaked out. He waved to her and smiled timidly. Seeing him, she put her hands to her mouth and went back inside. She was gone f
or only a few moments before she came out the backdoor.
Connie ran to him and threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” she whispered.
He laughed softly. “I am too.”
She let go of him and backed up. “What about Jeremy, is he all right?”
“Yeah, he’s fine. He fell asleep as soon as he was in bed.”
She grabbed his wrist and led him to the far side of the yard, away from the house. She spoke a little louder now: “So how did you make it back?”
“The Dragon Guards found us as we were making our way upriver. They said you told them what happened.”
“Alphonse and I did. Just after you and Jeremy disappeared downriver, they came out of the woods. The big guy asked who we were looking for. After we explained what happened, he offered to look for you. We wanted to stay and help but they made us go home.” She sighed before continuing. “What about the valgret? Did they find it? They said they were hunting it or something.”
“It was incredible, Connie. The valgret from the waterfall showed up again. It came after us and Mila, the one with the hood. She said it wanted me for some reason. They protected us from it. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” He thought back to the encounter. “The way they fought was amazing. Claudia moved so fast I could barely keep up. Mila had a bow and shot arrows so close I could hear them go by my head, then Kenneth showed up and pinned it against a tree.”
“They killed it?” Connie sounded just as amazed as he still was.
“Yeah, they did. Said it was part of a pack but that it had gotten split from them at some point.” He sat on the ground and leaned against a fencepost.
“Well, I’m glad to have that thing out of the area. What was it even doing here? I thought they lived in the mountains?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think to ask. I just hope I never see another one again.”
Connie sat next to him and laid her head on his shoulder. “You know,” she said, “when it had you and Jeremy cornered at the waterfall, I swear I could hear it laughing. It was terrifying. I thought I was going to lose you.”
His heart began beating louder at hearing her words. She heard it too. He thought as his heart continued to pick up its pace, it was so loud that he had no doubt she must have heard it too.
He decided to change the subject. “They said when they leave for Vigil that I can go with them.”
She shot up and beamed at him. “Daniel, that’s great!” Her smile slowly faded. “What about your mom?”
He shook his head. “I’ll have to talk to her tomorrow. I’m not going to let her walk away again. She has to talk to me this time. She has to understand. This is the best chance I’m going to get and I won’t waste it.”
They sat in the night air, simply enjoying each other’s company as they watched the stars and listened to sounds of the nearby forest and the horses in the stables.
After a few minutes, Daniel reached into his pocket. He hesitated. Even before he spoke, he felt his cheeks start to burn. Before he could talk himself out of it, he pulled the necklace out. “I almost forgot. I got you this.” He held it out to her by the chain.
Her mouth agape, Connie gently reached out and took it. “It’s beautiful!” she said. She held it in her palm and ran her fingers over the pendant.
“Ms. Nilia made it.”
“A mayflower . . . it’s perfect. Thank you so much, Daniel.” She slipped the chain over her head before leaning toward him and kissing him on the cheek before she rose and started walking toward the house. “Goodnight, Daniel,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She kept walking until she disappeared inside and closed the door behind her. He breathed a sigh of relief and leaned his head against the fencepost.
A soft voice spoke from behind him.
“She’s a pretty girl.”
He stood, turned, and scanned the trees, but saw no one.
A light laugh echoed from above. “If you’re going to be a Dragon Guard, you’ll need to learn to look up more often.”
He lifted his eyes. Sitting halfway up a pine tree was a woman with long blonde hair tied back in a tail. He knew it was Mila by the loose black clothing and the scarf around her neck. She jumped out of the tree and walked over rather unsteadily to lean on the fence next to Daniel.
“Mila,” he said, “What are you doing?”
She lifted a large bottle to her lips and took a long draw. When she was done, she nodded toward the house. “Pretty girl with a pretty necklace.”
“How long were you up there?”
She smiled. “Long enough.” She laughed softly and took another drink.
She smelled terrible. Daniel took a step back and lifted a hand to his nose. “You’re drunk.”
“Only a little bit.” She laughed before taking another drink.
He shook his head. “What are you even doing out here?”
She hopped over the fence and leaned against a post. “I saw you,” she said, pointing at him dramatically, “walking down the street and out of town. Wasn’t going to let all my hard work go to waste if another valgret wanted a meal.”
“I thought you said they were all gone.”
“I did. But you can never be too careful!” She again lifted the bottle to her lips, then looked at him and shrugged before whispering, “You’re rather interesting as well. Remind me of someone.”
Confused, Daniel laughed to himself. She seemed so distant and reserved before. He wasn’t sure if he preferred sober Mila or not. “Well,” he said, “we should go. If her parents wake up and find me outside their house in the middle of the night, then I’ll end up buried out here.”
Mila mumbled something incoherent as she followed him past the house. She continued to mumble to herself for a few steps, then went silent. He turned to see what she was doing, only to find she had vanished. He looked around frantically for several moments before deciding it would be better he didn’t know. Daniel walked back home in silence and climbed through his window into bed.
In spite of his intentions, Daniel hadn’t slept at all. He had laid in bed and watched the night give way to day. After a while he’d heard neighbors opening their doors and starting their days. When he heard his mother’s door open, he sat up in bed and readied himself to confront her. Hopefully this would be a very different conversation. He dressed, grabbed his book from the nightstand, and walked to the door, placing a hand on the handle. He took a deep breath and pulled it open. When he walked down the hall, he saw that the house front door was open. His mother sat outside on the steps. Daniel sat next to her, placing the book between them.
His mom was the first to break the silence. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“You don’t have to be.”
She sighed. There was a noticeable tremor to her voice. “No, I do,” she said. “You tried so many times to talk to me, and I always just brushed you off. I ignored you. I refused to listen because . . . ” She wiped at her eyes. “Because I was scared that I would never see you again if I let you go.”
“I’m not abandoning you,” Daniel said softly. “I would never do that to you and Jeremy.”
“I know. I always knew that. But I just kept thinking about your father. How he told me he would never leave us. How he loved me. How he loved us. Then how he left . . . it was all I could think about.”
“What about now?” Daniel asked.
His mother thought for a moment before speaking. “I think about how, last night, I thought I had lost you and your brother. I thought that the last words we would have ever said to each other were an argument where I once again shut you out. But now I think about what Claudia told me last night, how you acted to protect Jeremy when you didn’t know who these Dragon Guards were. About what Constance told me, how you stood between him and that monster instantly. I think about how many times you
’ve tried to ask me and how determined you always were. How you’ve never shown anger toward me, no matter how many times I turned my back and walked away to end any discussion of you leaving.” She paused, then reached out and gripped his hands. “Is this really what you want to do?”
He nodded. “You know it is.”
She sighed, then smiled. “Can I ask why? I know at this point it’s something I should know, but . . . ” She laughed softly. “This is the first time we’ve ever actually . . . talked about it.”
He held up his book and opened it to the first story. “You said you read this while we were missing?” he asked. She nodded. “In this first story,” Daniel continued, “the Dragon Guard was the daughter of a miner.” He flipped to the next story, and then the next. “The second story is about the son of a king, the third about an orphan. Do you know what they all have in common?”
She thought for a moment before shrugging. “What?”
“It didn’t matter who they were or who they used to be. They all wanted to do something worthwhile . . . and they did. They did incredible things by saving lives and even entire cities. They were heroes to so many people.”
She took the book from him. “Daniel,” she said, “life isn’t like that. Not everyone can be a hero just because they want to be. Look at us. We barely make enough marks to get by. Life doesn’t just let these kinds of things happen. It resists and tries to beat you down. You won’t get the treatment the people in your book got. Very few people respect the Dragon Guard and fewer think they’re even needed anymore. I won’t lie that until last night, I didn’t think they were worth anything either.”
“It doesn’t matter what other people think,” he said. “I won’t let it get in my way because I know the truth. They’re still out there doing good, and I want to be a part of that.”
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