There's an old saying, you are your own worst
enemy. This can be especially true when it comes to children, especially those
with far too much curiosity for thier own good. One such little boy was known
as Rynn Drochar, a bright, but mischievious 11 year old, with dark brown hair
and an innocent smile. His best friend was also a bright, mischievious 11 year
old, Stam Goodwyn. Always together, they
had ran and roamed and played together for as long as they had been alive.
Today, they were far outside their sleepy little village, practicing their
swordfighting, as they called it. It was more like playing at practicing their
swordfighting since at their age they had not yet received any formal training
in the art of swordfighting.
It
was a bright day, a hot one in the middle of summer, but neither of them seemed
to mind or take notice. They were happily engaged in their swordplay, Rynn with
his wooden one handed sword, and Stam with his heavy two-handed weapon, their
weapons of choice. This was a game they had played many times before and both
of them were equally good. But they still got their fair share of bruises from
each other, and no doubt if their swords were real steel they would both have
been gravely wounded by now. If one were observing these two rascals, and he
had too choose who was better, it would probably have been Rynn. He was
slightly faster, slightly more observant of his oppponent and his suuroundings,
and slightly stronger. Stams favorite weapon, the heavy two-hander, was really
too big for him and it slowed him down, but he refused to relinquish it for a
faster weapon. So it was that at the end of most of their "battles",
it was Rynn who came out on top, by virtue of having the fewest cuts and
scratches. And today was no expection, and at the end of their game, they
counted their new bruises to see who won, and as usual, Stam had one more than
Rynn.
"Rats",
Stam uttered," You always win."
"Well
you can't keep up with me because you won't give up that clumsy tree trunk
your're using for a sword.". Rynn smiled as he answered him they'd had
this conversation a million times it seemed.
"I
can use whatever I want," Stam started, then Rynn quickly interuppted him,
"And
so I can beat you whenever I want. Those big swords are for big men, and
neither of us are big, at least not yet."
"I'm
bigger than you," Stam replied. And it was true, Stam was at least an inch
taller than Rynn, maybe two. "I should have a bigger sword."
"But
a bigger sword doesn't do you any good if you can't beat me with it."Rynn
smiled again.
"O
I will, and someday soon you'll see. Tomorrow you're going to have twice as
many bruises as me." Stam said, with all confidence that he could do just that.
Both
of them smiled and breathed deeply, tired and worn out from their day of
"practice" as they called it. Almost at the same time, they collapsed
where they stood, falling into the tall grass of the field where they had been
"practicing". For a long moment they lay in silence, catching their
breath and looking up at the clouds. Here was another game they often played,
picking out which cloud looked the most like a dragon. At length, Stam pointed
up and spoke first.
"That
one there, almost right above us. It looks almost exacltly like the painting on
the sheriff's wall."
"It
doesn't look anything like a dragon Stam, much less like the one on the stupid
sheriff's wall." Rynn didn't like the sheriff much, and there was good
reason.
"Does
so, there's it's body, and the wings are out, and the mouth is wide open like
it's breathing fire. It looks just like the sheriff's painting."
"Does
not," Rynn replied, "I don't see any wings or..."
Rynn
suddenly quieted down, thinking he heard something.
"Or
what," Stam began, but Rynn quickly cut him off.
"Wait,
I hear something, be quiet a second." For
a moment, Stam couldn't hear anything. Suddenly, he heard it too, and regular
thud, most likely hoofbeats. Both boys quieted down, and lay perfectly still,
the last thing they wanted was to get caught in this field, for many reasons.
First of all it belonged to a farmer who was known for flogging little kids that he caught in
his field, and for that reason both their parents had banned them coming out
here. They had also been told not do any more swordplay, as their mothers had
gotten tired of tending to new scrapes and bruises every day. So they had
become quiet adept at making up new excuses for why they continued to get new
scraped and bruises, but if they were caught in this field all those stories
would come crashing down on their heads,
quite literally. So they lay perfectly still, trying to will themselves into
the ground itself, as if that would help them remain unseen. The hoof beats got
louder and louder, telling them whoever it was was approaching them. Both of
them thought it was was their own fathers, who had probably seen them out here
and had come to get them. Soon the sounds were right on top of them, and
suddenly a horse galloped at full speed in between them. The horse did not
stop. As they continued to lay perfectly still, they heard the horse get
further and further away.
As
the sound faded, both of them wanted to get up, but neither of them did. Finally Rynn's curiosity got the better of
him, and he slowly rose, looking at first in the direction the horse had gone,
and then quickly all around him. Stam spoke up in an urgent but quieted voice,
"Get
back down stupid, you're gonna get us both caught!"
Rynn
didn't reply, he kept still and looked in the direction the rider had gone.
After a few seconds, he looked down at Stam, right in the eyes, and motioned
with his head in the direction he had been looking. Rynn's gaze returned. Stam
didn't want to move at first, but his own curiosity forced him up, slowly, and
with their heads heads the same height as the tall grass they were in, they
looked down the field where the rider had gone. They saw him, maybe a hundred
yards away, the horse standing still, and the rider still on it. For just a
moment, nothing happened, no one moved. Not the horse, nor the rider, nor
either of the boys. Then suddenly, the horse and rider vanished.
After
that, neither Rynn nor Stam moved or said anything. They had never seen
anything like that in their eleven years, and at first had no idea how to
react. Suddenly Stam knew exactly what to do, he leapt to his feet, yelled "Come on!!", and started to
run as fast as his legs could carry him toward their village. He had gotten a
good twenty or thirty feet when he noticed he was alone. He slowed down
slightly and turned his head, and saw Rynn wasn't with him. He stopped and
turned all the way around to see that Rynn was still where they'd been sitting,
watching the rider, although he'd stood up all the way now. But he was still
looking at the place the rider had disappeared. Stam couldn't believe what Rynn
was doing.
"What
are you doing Rynn?" Stam raised his voice as much as he dared, wanting
Rynn to hear him but not wanting to attract any undue attention, from either
nasty farmres, angry parents or disappearing riders. Rynn turned his head
slowly toward Stam, and then motioned for Stam to come back. Rynn began to take
a few tentative steps toward the spot where the rider had disappeared. Stam was
dumbfounded by Rynn's actions, he didn't know whether to run for safety or see
what Rynn was doing. Finally he decided to just go get Rynn and drag him back
if he had too. He started to run back to where Rynn was. Rynn was now walking
at a good steady pace toward the spot where the rider had disappeared. He heard
Stam running back toward him, and after a quick glance is Stam's direction,
began a slow run toward the spot where the rider had disappeared. Rynn thought
Stam had suddenly found the same enthusiasm he himselfl had for finding out
what had just happened. Rynn slowed down
to a slow walk as he neared the place where he thought the rider had vanished,
and he heard Stam running up behind him. Then heard heard Stams admonishment.
"What
in the heck are you doing fool?" Stam was almost angry, at it was
beginning to show in his voice,"You're going to get us caught, or
worse!"
Rynn
turned his head slowly toward Stam, looking almost puzzled. "I'm the fool?
We've just seen a man and a horse vanish into thin air, something that no one
ever sees. What if we can figure out how he did it? This is a strange place to
just disappear don't you think? There's nothing around here. Where did he go?
If we find out, we could famous in the village for the rest of our lives. Just
think."
All
Stam could think about was what would happen if the farmer or their parents
caught them out there in that field. Or that rider suddenly reappeared. He said
as much to Rynn.
"Who
cares where he went. I don't want to know, and I don't want to be famous. Not
for this anyway. What if the village decides we're magic users and wants to
turn us over to the Archmages. I haven't heard very good things about those
wizards, or any wizards for that matter. Come on let's get out of here while we
still can."
Rynn
acted like he didn't hear Stam, at least for a few minutes. He was busy looking
around to see of he could spot anything on the ground that might look out of
place. He motioned for Stam to look around as well, Stam saw him wave but was
having none of it.
"Look
I'm leaving. You can stay here and get caught by the farmer, or that rider if
you think being famous is so important. But I'm getting out of here."
At
that, a sigh escaped Rynn, and he stood straight up. He had an almost
despondent look on his face, and he was clearly dismayed that he hadn't found
anything. He looked up at Stam and started to say something, and then, right in
front of Stam, Rynn disappeared.
At
first, Stam was frozen in place, having no idea what to do, say or even think.
Whether it was his own feet or a small rock Stam would never know, but at that
moment he fell backward and landed flat on his back. Suddenly, in the very spot
where Rynn had been standing, the rider reappeared. He was just a few feet from
where Stam was laying. For what seemed like forever to Stam, the rider didn't
move, at all. Stam didn't move either, but at this distance, Stam could see
them very clearly. The horse was a solid black, and it had a black saddle. The
rider himself was draped in a black cloack and hood. He wore black leather
boots that almost seemed to shine as they were highly polished, and seemingly
unblemished, which even Stam knew was very unusual for anyone's boots, especially a rider. Both horse and
rider were facing away from him, and for a moment neither of them moved. Then,
without moving his head or looking around at all, the rider kicked his mount
into action and they rode off, directly away from Stam. But Stam dared not sit
up for a long time, or even move. Even his breath was drawn in shallows. His
mind was racing about who that rider was, and where had his best friend gone.
Rynn
was disappointed he hadn't found anything. And he was even more disappointed
that Stam wasn't helping him look. Stam was always worried about something. But
this was their big chance. The whole village always treated them like kids,
even though they were better swordsman than some of the guards. If they could
find out what had happened here, they could prove to everyone how they weren't
kids anymore. So Rynn was desperately looking around for anything that might be
out of place on the ground. So when Stam ran up to where Rynn was looking, he
hoped his friend would help him find it, whatever it might be. But instead Stam
called him a fool and instead of helping him, he just stood there complaining.
Rynn kept looking, but there was nothing there. At last, he began to feel
depressed as he realized he wasn't going to find what he was looking for. When
Stam stated his intention to go back to the village, Rynn realized he was
probably right, and he tore his gaze from the ground and started to stand up.
He was about to tell Stam he was sorry for dragging him out to look for
something that wasn't there, when suddenly Stam disappeared, along with
everything else. The field, the sky and his best friend simply faded from view.
Suddenly he felt lightheaded, and his strength fled quickly from his body. Rynn
thought he saw a figure approaching, far away. But that notion and the rest of
the world disappeared as Rynn completely lost conciousness.
