"Derek," said Glade, to grab the man's attention.
Derek looked away from the ground and turned inside the tent.
"A good haul, I think," said Leon coming in chirpy as always.
"Yes, but they have still a long way to go, until they are battle-ready, especially the younger ones, what do you think about lowering the age limit, Derek?" asked Glade.
"I don't think it matters, we who grew up with good teachers around were better than most at eighteen, the older ones are just better at the same bad inefficient moves, they all will never catch up to someone like us, at best they'll be good city guards," he said.
"Yeah, well I just think it wasn't a waste coming here," said Leon.
"So you will be leaving for North Tower, soon?" asked Glade.
"Yeah, I think I will leave early, it looks like the winds are changing faster," he said.
"You were going to take an apprentice with you, did you find one?" asked Glade.
"Yeah, old man, insisted on it, but I might have found someone," said Derek.
The crowd was thinning now, only the families of people who had participated and wanted to listen to the selections remained. Ash and the others crowded around the chief's podium, to hear the names of the selected people. The chief coughed and started reading the list. Two men had come down from the recruiter's tent to forsee everything. Ash waited patiently and his heart thumping in his chest as the names went by, waiting for his name.
But his name never came, the chief closed the scroll and looked smiling at the people who had moved forward.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and Fiona gave him a comforting look.
"Let's just go," he said depressed and they left.
They were just leaving the grounds when they heard a horse coming up behind them. Ash turned just to see who it was. He was surprised to see it was the man who had been watching him from the tent before. They all stopped because he was heading straight for them. He stopped a few feet away from them and got down from his horse.
"I was looking for you, boy," said the man looking at Ash.
From close up the man was much younger than he had thought, but still, he had too much wear and tear on his face and in his eyes, which was the case for much older men, which resulted in a weird feeling that Ash got from him.
"Why?" he asked.
"I wanted to recruit you," he said.
"What? But his name wasn't called" said his dad.
"Those were the names for apprentices for the battalions, I was looking for an apprentice myself and I would like to recruit your son," Derek said.
"Who are you, if you don't mind me asking?" asked his dad.
"My name is Derek Finhiem, I am a lieutenant of the kingdom," said Derek, showing his shield.
"Where will he be going?" asked his mom.
"I am afraid I can't tell you that, but he can send you letters once we reach our destination, I'll give you time to discuss, I'll be waiting at the edge of the valley," said Derek and left.
Ash turned back towards his family.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"I know there are a lot of smaller battalions under the kingdom who do different things, some are kept in secret, and we saw him with the others yesterday, chief knows someone from the recruiters, they would know him too," said his father.
"But does it have to be like this, he can apply for the normal forces, next year, he is still so young" protested his mother.
"These opportunities don't come every day, Mara, he might never get such an offer again," said his father.
"What do you think?" asked Fiona, taking him aside while their parents quarreled.
"I think I want to go," he said and she nodded.
"Then you must," she said.
"Will you guys be fine?" he asked.
"Definitely, what do you think will happen to us in the valley?" she said.
So, after half an hour of goodbyes and packing his bags, he reached the edge of the valley, in the north, on the other side of the capital, there was a small muddy road going through the forest. He had never seen someone use it. The man was waiting there reading a letter. He closed it and looked up as he approached.
"Do you know how to ride a horse?" he asked.
"I have ridden one a couple of times, we don't have too many horses in the valley," he said.
"It should be fine then, River is a pretty calm horse," he said gesturing towards the black horse tied to a tree across the road. Ash gulped and went to the River. He tied his bags on its back, patted him twice, and jumped in the saddle. He again had the same feeling like the other few times he had ridden a horse. River was much bigger than those horses and he could feel the powerful beast he was sitting on. He clicked his heel and motioned to move forward and River did in a slow trot.
The first part of the journey went by, he was busy making sure he didn't fall behind and kept pace with Derek, while trying to not fall, all of his focus went there so he couldn't do anything else. Then as they reached a deeper part of the forest as they were going around the Fang mountains, the trees grew taller, thicker, and darker. The previous part seemed like a trimmed garden in comparison now, the road was non-existent, and they were weaving in and out of trees, ducking under branches.
After another ten minutes, when they reached a place that had a different smell Ash observed, that Derek slowed down to a trot. He moved and then looked around the trees, searching for something. Then he spotted something and turned right through two trees. Ash followed behind ducking, they came into a small clearing. He stopped in his tracks, it was like he had entered a different dimension. How could he have missed them? Seating around a small burning fire, which wasn't making any noise somehow, were two creatures. They were definitely not humans, they had legs and arms and a head, but they were all weirdly proportioned. They had green grassy fur covering their whole body, they weren't wearing any clothes. What struck him again, was how silent and still they were, even asleep, people make some noise or you can feel their presence, but they were sitting there with their eyes closed like statues.
"Elms, they are a type of forest spirits, very silent, you won't find more weird creatures than them," said Derek. He had this habit of explaining things, he had been doing this all along if they came across a unique tree or flower. He would have noted all of it down, if he wasn't riding, right now he was relying on his memory.
"Sameer, Wani" Derek called out, and two creatures opened their yellow eyes and stood up slowly. Their movements still creep Ash out.
"You are here, finally, and you brought along another," said one of them. His voice was like a door had started talking.
"Yes, I am here clearly, you wanted to talk?" asked Derek, he wanted things to proceed faster.
"Why is the moon so dull these nights, why won't the stars come out," he said.
"I don't know, probably the clouds," said Derek.
"No, it's a sign, of approaching darkness," said one of them.
"What darkness?" he asked.
"We don't know yet," said the other.
"Well then, when you get a sign for that, then we'll do something about it," said Derek