"Nice job!"I said meaning every bit of it.
I saw a tremulous smile emerge on the boy's face. Without this kid watching my back I would most likely have had a moor wolves' teeth wrapped around the back of my neck or calf muscle.
I heard the rustling in the brush as the last wolf escaped the scene, as fast as it could go. The boy trying to act calm and collected after his first test of emerging maturity wiped the blood off the short sword with a rag and made as if to hand it back to me, but I declined it.
Holding up my hands in refusal I said, "No, keep it! You've earned it. It's yours now."
I saw a look of heartfelt gratitude flood into the boy's eyes as if I'd just given him the moon. It was a nice feeling to give. I wanted to do more of it, because I liked feeling as I did right now.
I asked, "What's your name boy? I can't keep calling you boy."
"Call me Larc." The boy said.
"Larc, it is then. Let's get out of here and bed down somewhere else for the night."
After several days of walking and living off the land we saw the end of the moors come into view. The Litian River lay beyond the moors, as it snaked through the plains at the base of the majestic mountains that rose up in the distance. I had never been this close to the Vallian Mountains before.
I wanted to see what lay up among those lofty peaks and the green valley's it was said that existed on the other side of the mountains.
The land of my father's was so close! An intense desire to discover my ancestral homeland overwhelmed me and I found myself walking faster, but I pulled myself back to a sane pace for the boy's sake.
It took awhile to get to the edge of the moors, but when we did I saw something that disturbed me. A mounted warrior was stationed just on our side of the turbulent river. He was alone, but even more curious than that was that the warrior had three saddled horses with him. He was waiting for someone. Was the warrior waiting for us? It was unlikely, but what other explanation could there be for his presence here with extra saddled horses. Why three horses? They must have known about the boy, but hadn't sought fit to inform me about the additional passenger. That annoyed me.
Larc whispered, "Roric is he a Valley Lander?"
"Yes, I think so." I whispered back.