Inside the carriage by myself was very lonely. I could hear my mother and Valk whisper to each other and we bumped along the dirt road. I pushed my ear to the wall of the carriage to see if I could hear what they were discussing.

"We can't afford another attack like that," my mother said.

"The boy must have been cursed some time ago," said Valk. "There was probably a magical trigger that would activate if he and the your daughter were left alone."

"Jall must have been planning his revenge for sometime. I should have put him down then and there when we discovered what he had been doing to the villagers."

"I still wonder about his escape. There had to have been someone on the inside that helped him. There was no way he could have gotten his hands on emberstone locked in the dungeon as he was."

"It's too late to think it about now."

"Will the nearby kingdoms stand for it? Will they just let a mad wizard take and corrupt the land?"

"As long as he doesn't move on them, they will probably won't do anything for now."

"Surely they will feel threatened by his power?"

"Which is what will keep them docile. No doubt word will spread quickly on how fast we were overthrown. No one wants willingly face an army of demons."

A moment of silence.

"What about this green robed person that my daughter saw?"

"No doubt an agent. For that matter, we haven't seen anyone one the roads since we started traveling."

"We're not on the main roads are we? We haven't even passed a village since leaving the castle."

"No, but we should have least have run into somebody. The wizard's corruption already must run deep."

The two fell into silence and I sat back down on the bench. Jall - there was that name again. When I had asked my mother about him earlier, all she told me was that he was a very bad person who had done some very bad things.

After some time, I began to hear scraping on the side of the carriage. Looking out one of the windows, all I could see was green. Trees leaned inward, their branches brushing along the outside of the cart.

"Blasted!" I heard Valk exclaim. "I just got wacked in the side of the face by a branch."

We journeyed onward, the scraping continued and occasionally I would hear a "TWACK" sound followed by another cuss from Valk. The light from the sky started to fade as evening drew in. Valk and my mother began to speak again, this time at a normal volume.

"Milady," Valk said. "It's been a long day. Why don't you go back with your daughter and get some rest?"

"You're still injured," my mother chastised Valk. "If anything you should get some rest."

"As much as I hate to admit it milady, we should all stop and rest. Including the horses"

"Do you think we're safe? After what happened at the bridge..."

"I can't guarantee anything. However, if the wizard was intent on following us, he would have sent along riders after securing the castle."

"What about the person my daughter spotted?"

"We've seen no sign of them either."

"We will have to do watches." my mother insisted.

"I'll start looking for a suitable spot to pull off."

We continued to roll along. I did my best to keep myself amused by pretending there was a little man running along side the window, jumping over any obstacles he encountered.

"Smoke - In the distance." My mother said.

The carriage rolled to a stop.

"I'll go ahead and see what it is," said Valk. The carriage shook as he got down from the front seat.

"Are you OK to do that?"

"It's just a minor wound, I'll live."

"If I'm not back within a half-hour, get off the road and hide."

His footsteps then, walking away doing the road.

I felt the carriage shake again as my mother got down. I heard her approach the door.

"Samantha honey. We're stopping for a bit. Did you want to stretch your legs?"

I opened the door and got out.

My mother looked very, very tired. Dark lines were under her eyes. Her normally tidy hair had several strands sticking out in several directions. Leaves stuck to parts of her travelling outfit. I had never seen her like this, normally she was best kept person that I knew.

The sun was very close to the horizon it would be dark soon.

My stomach grumbled.

"Did you want something to eat?" My mother asked.

"Yes please." I said.

She walked to the back of the carriage and fumbled about inside the luggage box. She pulled out two apples, brought them over, and handed me one. She took a bite out of the one she held and scanned around in both directions. I sat down on the carriage step below the door and bit into the juicy fruit.

She quickly finished her apple and paced around, continuously scanning the horizon. She pulled out some carrots for the horses and fed them. Afterwards, she began pacing again. Even to my four-year-old self, I could tell she was on edge.

Minutes passed. I finished my apple and watched the sun descend behind a far off hilltop.

"Come on.... Come on," I could hear my mother muttering to herself as she continued to look up the road in the direction that Valk had traveled in.

"Thank the ancients!" she exclaimed. I followed her gaze and saw Valk waving at us to move forward.

"Let's go honey," my mother said. She lifted me up to the front bench of the carriage and got behind the reins. We rolled forward, eventually reaching the Valk who stood waiting for us.

"It's a merchant caravan," Valk said once we go into earshot. "They're just skimming the border, making their way to the northlands. Said we could follow them if we wish."

I saw the nervous edge and tension melt away from my mother.

"Finally some good news."

****

My body felt heavier and heavier with every mile that we crossed.

It had been a over week since my mother and I left Elkshire under the cover of night. The only rest that I had since that time had be short, dreamless naps as we continued to push forward.

As Eplash had said, we began to take cover at night. One would sleep for a short while the other kept watch for our pursuers. Occasionally we would hear the dragon circling the area, on those nights, its nightmarish screeches keeping us both awake and alert.

We spent little time on the roads, rather Eplash would guide me through the forest primeval.

When time allowed, she would point out how to spot game trails, what plants could be used medicinally. How to construct lean-tos and smokeless fires were also included in the instruction.

After a particularly arduous day of travelling, we stopped to rest in a small glen. I sat down heavily on a fallen log. My head was pounding and my feet were aching. I was near my limit.

"We will go to a town tomorrow." Eplash said as she started to build a fire. "I believe we have lost our pursuers for now."

"What makes you say that?" I said.

"We haven't heard the dragon for two nights now."

"Are we even near a town?"

"I recognize this area. I cross through it every year when I come from the Giantkin lands.

There will be an inn there that you can stay at for a night. Get some sleep and recuperate."

"Me? What about you?"

"All the furniture there is.... human sized."

I tried to picture the giant woman attempting to sleep in a normal sized bed, legs sticking out several feet from the end. I giggled at the mental image.

"Ahh, I see."

"Besides, I live outside for most of the year. I will camp nearby. I'm used to it."

I couldn't help but feel that the Giantkin was somehow disappointed in my lack of endurance. Since we became traveling companions, she had told me several more stories about the adventures that she and my mother went on during their younger days. I had memories of my mother being a tough woman, but the way Eplash told it, both of them were superhuman. There had to be embellishment. Right?

"I'm sorry I'm not stronger," I said. "Like my mother was."

Eplash stood, towering over me and pointing at my head with a stick.

"You are strong here." She lightly tapped my temple. She then move the stick to my chest and gave it a light tap as well. "And here."

She then pointed the stick to my legs, "These can be trained. Those other two cannot."

As much as my body ached and cried for rest, I wearily helped Eplash set up the camp for the night. We constructed two lean-tos, a large one for her, and of course a much smaller one for myself. Eplash then said she was going hunting and disappeared into the forest for about an hour. She returned with about a half-dozen pheasants which she had strung from a stick... or in her case a small log.

Cleaning the birds and plucking their feathers took up more time, but it was a nice mindless distraction from the day's travel.

Eplash began to cook the birds and I stared into the fire. I began to look forward to tomorrow when I would get to sit down at the inn and be brought a nice hot meal that I would have no hand in butchering, defeathering, or deboning. Then, I would slip in to nice clean sheets and my body would get the rest it so desperately wanted. Perhaps I would even take a bath.

Save for the nighttime sounds of the forest, we ate in silence. We were beginning to settle in for the night when something occurred to me.

"You mentioned something about Beam and explosions?" I asked.

"What?"

"When we first met, I asked you about how we would find the other companions. You mentioned something about following the explosions to find Beam."

"Ahh.... yes we haven't talked much about the other two so far. I guess I should prepare you before we meet them."

Prepare me? What would I need to prepare for? Exactly what were my mother and father up to before I was born. It seems that they kept a lot from me.

"Beam is an.... engineer of sorts. He's one of the top dwarven explosive experts. Last I heard he was helping with a major emberstone mining operation. That was many years ago though, so he may have moved on by then."

"So we're going to be looking for somewhere where an explosives expert would be necessary?"

"Yes."

"OK, makes sense so far. And Vendrix is some sort of elven exile now? That means he was active royalty when you knew him."

"Yes."

Ahh Eplash, ever the conversationalist.

"Anything else I should know?"

"He and your mother were to be married."

"WHAT!?"

Eplash might as well told me that water ran uphill and goats were actually bloodsucking animals that flew. Whenever my mother had talked about my father, it was with great affection. I couldn't fathom her being with... no being ENGAGED to anyone else.

"It is a very long story and I do not tell it very well." Eplash said. "Vendrix was the one to call it off, much to the delight of your father."

I made a mental note to ask Vendrix more about this when we finally met him. I wondered what other earthshattering revelations the Giantkin was keeping from me.

"Well, I'm glad we got THAT piece of dragon's fire out of the way now rather than later."

"Yes, good talk." Eplash looked like the world had lifted off of her shoulders. "Now sleep."

"Wake me when it's my turn for watch."

"Yes."

I curled up and drifted off to dreams of warm meals and warm beds.

When I opened my eyes it was daylight. The Giantkin was nowhere to be found.