Embarrassed by his reaction to her initial statement, Kre simply nodded and kept his eyes downcast, staring at the map. He traced a few lines, trying to piece together some of the major landmarks that she had laid down. Despite his blustery attempt earlier to impose the idea that he was just as knowledgeable as she, he really had only a general sense of the geographic layout of Tehyn.
Basically, of the five regions, he was only passably familiar with his own. He knew the names of the others, of course, and the names of their capital cities but not really anything more than that. Professor Marxin would have cuffed him if he saw how much Kre had failed to learn about the geography of Tehyn.
He tapped the large rock farthest to the south on the dirt map. The Citadel. Essentially an island fortress in the Southern Sea, though it relied on no manmade fortifications. Instead, the vaunted home of the Dragon Knights was embedded within a group of islands, each covered in rugged snow-capped mountains and boasting crystal clear lagoons. Reaching the Citadel itself required hopping from island to island, without the benefit of larger sailing vessels to aid in movement and navigating the maze of tall mountains and pearl-white cliffs.
That Kre knew that was not because he had been particularly studious during that portion of class, but because the Citadel was often the very heart of so many songs and ballads that wandering minstrels played for the townsfolk of Mintas. Piecing together the magical lyrics with the grandiose visions he concocted in his wildest imagination, he could tell that the Citadel would be a breathtaking sight to behold.
He quietly slid his hand from the rock representing the Citadel and traced a line directly to the little pebbles that Kitalia had used to mark their own location. Even in the dirt, the distance seemed so vast and his goal so unattainable.
With horses and without the fear of being chased by Rangers, they might have made the trip south in two months, give or take a week. On foot and avoiding those that sought to incarcerate them, it could easily take them three times as long.
“One step at a time Kre,” he muttered to himself. “Assess the situation. Visualize the next five steps. Take the first one. Do it again.”
It was something that Terync had often told him while they were playing Tehynji. He had started out with advising Kre to look at his next two steps. Then, as Kre got better at the game, he upped it to three, then four, and finally five. Anything past that, he had told Kre, was pointless to try to plan for.
“The important thing,” Terync voice echoed in Kre’s memory, “is that you don’t paralyze yourself with what if’s and should’ves. Assess, visualize, act. The more you practice, the faster you can be at the whole process.”
“Okay,” Kre said, biting his lower lip. “Assess. We’re on the run, with routes here blocked off.” He drew a semi-circle around their position, starting from a point just northeast of their pebbles and circling clockwise until just a hair past the point directly south of them.
“North and northwest aren’t really options either,” he said, marking off those directions as well. “So west or southwest will keep us safe and still headed in the right general direction. He avoided the idea that the mountains lie in those directions. He told himself that was one step farther than he needed to plan for at the moment.
He traced a line roughly southwest until he intersected with a line that Kitalia had dug into the dirt. “That’s it then,” he said, as he tapped the ground and nodded.