“A truly difficult thing, indeed,” Dain agreed from a few horse lengths behind them. “Some aren’t afforded the chance to learn from their losses.”
“Master Dain,” Beleg chuckled, “always keeping us honest. Tis true though. Tis so very, very true.” Again, his eyes misted over slightly as he stared out into the distance.
‘Someday,’ Kre told himself, ‘someday I’ll have to ask him and learn just what makes a man like Beleg. A man so skilled, strong, and wise in a great many ways must have suffered a great deal in life to be as he is today… but to still look at life with the kind of cheeriness that he has… there’s bound to be a great story there.’
He considered for a moment and then chuckled. ‘Hells,’ he added, ‘I bet the whole lot of them have past lives far more interesting than anyone back home.’
Another chuckle, ‘Except maybe Cooter, may he rest in peace.’
They kept the idle chatter to a bare minimum, speaking only in low hushed tones when they did. Kre’s legs were still sore from the training some days prior and all this walking didn’t help any, but thankfully Beleg kept the pace casual and they stopped for snack breaks pretty frequently. Beleg seemed to have no end of random foods tucked away in various parts of his bags and Kre was amazed at the variety and volume of food that the large man consumed. During one of the stops, Beleg mixed some sort of greyish powder in with some cool water, added an egg that had been kept stored with a few others inside of a wooden box, and shook it all up to make an odd kind of liquid paste. Kre was appreciative of the fact that Beleg did not offer him a taste as he felt that there might be some hurt feelings if he expressed how revolting the drink looked.
Towards late afternoon, the forest thinned out considerably and Kre noted that they were much closer to the looming mountains than he had thought. Growing up in Mintas, the mountains had always seemed so incredibly distant, barely a hint of a line on the horizon. Now, he figured that they were only a couple of hours at most from reaching the rocky cliffs that loomed over them.
Beleg gestured to a part of the mountains just to the southwest of where they were, at an area where the cliffs parted slightly as if cut by a heavenly axe. “There is our destination. Yahaestra.”
Dain pulled up beside the two and nodded. “It roughly translates to ‘Mountain Cove’, sheltered as it is by the rocks. It’s hard to tell exactly when or how it was founded, and the stories vary greatly depending on who you ask. The most popular thought is that it started as an outlaw camp that continued to grow as the brigands recognized a need to have a safe place to trade and hide from the Rangers.”
Kre could only nod. None of this had been covered in his geography class but if it had been presented like this, he might have actually paid attention.
“Let’s go,” Dain said flatly, clicking his tongue to get his horse moving. “I’d like to eat a meal that isn’t made from dried meats and stale bread. A bath would be welcome as well… for all of us.”
Beleg lifted an arm and sniffed underneath. “I guess we have been on the road for a while,” he grudgingly agreed.
The idea of a home-cooked meal and a bath sounded so wonderful to Kre that he forgot how tired his legs were and half-jogged after Dain.