The peaks of Askhandar and Kanat dyed red in the first light of dawn floated above the southern horizon. The first of the many mountains of the Dreaming mountain range appeared before Erhan’s team after two whole months of journeying through the queendom. Last night the teams went their separate ways from Rannat, the last city of the queendom along the southern border. The path that laid before them now was one full of wild forests and rocky ridges. The few villages that lay within these land were scattered and isolated. The people living within them seldom visiting others and are seldom visited by. And these were lands never visited by the flames of wars. The domain of sadhus.

Arban, Harker and Garan had competed last night to see who gets lead the team today. So Arban sat on a courser at the helm of the team. The other two didn’t seem bothered by that at all though. Not surprising since they planned this to avoid Arban’s mouth. Erhan sat in a daze as he looked around from the top of a brown palfrey at the tail of his team, riding behind Sena and Arda.

The tall oaks on moss-covered ground, boulders coloured with red or green lichen, inclines and declines stretched around their path. The smell of fresh greenery, the twittering of birds or the chirping of monkeys. It was all so familiar to him. He knew it wouldn’t be far now. He would see that land again soon.

Sena gave Erhan a worried look or two occasionally. He wasn’t himself since the start of the journey. The careless poise and confidence he always carried himself with even when he was injured, had disappeared. Always distracted, thinking something on his own, looking at them yet not seeing them. He had returned to the Erhan from the mining town of Rovert who always had a vacant look in his forest-green eyes. And the closer they got to the mountains the more different he became.

Sena slowed down her horse, bringing it beside Erhan. “Erhan?” she called as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Um?” Erhan gave a start and looked at her like a man woken from a long dream. “Oh, it’s you.” he exhaled slowly and asked, “Is there a problem?”

“Do I have a problem?” she said, with some amount of exasperation. “That’s what I want to ask you. What is going on with you? You aren’t even paying attention to all the meetings and plans we’ve been making.” she turned her head to stare at the three a the forefront of the team. “They are all useless, always arguing. Too busy to disagree with each other to come up with anything useful. We could’ve used some of your expertise in one of those.”

“Don’t put all your trust in me,” Erhan said. “Learn to lean on others too.”

Sena shook her head. “It’s not about trusting each other, don’t you think I’ve tried? But they are acting childish,” she said. “I mean, I can understand Arban, but the other two are old enough, Harker is even in his forties. At least shouldn’t he have some sense? I swear, whatever disease Arban has got, is contagious.”

Erhan couldn’t stop a chuckle from escaping his lips.

“Yeah, laugh away,” Sena pouted with a look of annoyance, but inside she was a little pleased. At least she made the man laugh again. But she didn’t stop with her complaints. “The only one who is a little normal is Arda. Except for the weird things she says from time to time, she’s nice. And she is good at all kinds of work.” she looked at the other woman riding a few steps ahead and as if sensing her gaze, Arda also turned her head. Her thin lips spread into a quick playful smirk. “Yeah,” Sena said, “she does that too from time to time.”

Erhan also looked at Arda and smiled at her. He leaned his head towards Sena and whispered, “Be careful around her.”

Sena wrinkled her brow quizzically. “Why? What’s wrong with her?”

“All I can say is, she isn’t what she seems.”

“Heh,” Sena smiled. “Just now you were telling me to trust my other teammates, and now you’re warning me against them.”

Erhan looked up at the clear blue sky with cotton-light plumes of cloud scattered around. The usual morning fog of the mountains wasn’t there today. The air was chilly but clear. “No trust is no better than blind trust. For all your trust, vigilance should also be in your heart. You shouldn’t give your full trust to anyone, not even me.” he looked at her clear grey eyes and smiled. “Trust others, but trust yourself more.”

Sena turned her head toward the front and observed the four on horseback with a pondering expression. “Trust myself…” she whispered.

The horses continued their brisk walk until the sun reached overhead.

“Halt!” Arban tried to shout in a great majestic voice. Though it still broke near the end. As the team stopped, he climbed down from his horse coughing and muttered, “am I catching a cold already?”

The others also started descending, Harker went forward and patted Arban’s back. “No, kid, it’s not a cold,” he said with a grave expression. “It’s another disease, an incurable one.”

“Yeah, I know. Lots of boys around my age at town hit puberty too. No need to be so dramatic.” Arban looked up at the Harker with an educating expression. “Act your age, old man.”

The bald man took a few sharp breaths as he clenched his teeth. Arban left him alone and turned around, facing the other members of the team. “Let us prepare for launch!” He declared.

The riders had started stretching their tired limbs as soon as they dismounted. Even with the little amount of chill in the air, journeying under the midday sun was exhausting. They prepared a place for rest near a bush of laurels. Red and white flowers decorated the green leaves and a couple of blue butterflies chased each other in circles over them. Somewhere among the oak forest a few thrushes and sparrows called in tandem as if bound in a strange debate.

Who knew what they were talking about? Perhaps Erhan's teachers would. They could talk all sorts of creatures after all. After reaching the heights they had, the language barrier was a trivial thing to overcome. Erhan never reached that height. He hadn’t been prepared to make the sacrifice necessary. To give up on the so-called mundane.

“Oi, you! Why are you bringing those out for,” Arda’s sharp voice shocked the birds into silence.

Garan who was pulling down a sack from top of the horse looked at her. “Preparing for launch. The leader ordered it after all.”

Arda walked towards him holding a bunch of twigs she had picked up from the forest nearby. “Why do you think I’m picking these up for? Stop being lazy and go hunt something fresh.”

“Hah,” Garan laughed as he stopped pulling the sack and put his hands to his waist. While stretching his back, he said, “have you ever been to forests like this? The scent of roasting meat here'll attract the bears.”

Arda pointed her free hand towards the mountains far ahead and said in the same tone as his, “have you ever been to mountains like that? A world of ice and stone. Almost nothing grows there and nothing to hunt.” she gestured at the ration sacs. “Those are for then.”

A hint of doubt appeared of Garan's face. The Ersta tribe was a dweller of forests and meadows. It wasn’t that he had no experience about mountains, that was hardly possible in ina land covered with mountains like Clover, but the ones he’d been to were small isolated ones with only a peak or two that would take no more than half a day to cross. Besides, they were always covered in mountain forests. A long and continuous snow-capped mountain range was a first for him. And it was also the largest mountain range right in the middle of Clover, the Dreaming mountains. He had heard stories that people spent months crossing it. And every year there were stories of people who went missing in there. He hesitated a bit and said, “But the bears—”

“Oh stop talking about bears already. Don’t tell me we can’t handle a bear or two. Besides, we have…” she stopped talking and looked back at Erhan who was staring pensively towards the south-east, the way their predetermined route lay. She looked back at Garan. “Anyway, get hunting. I think there would be a herd of mountain goats nearby. I’ll track them for you. Show me those archery skills you’re so proud of.”

“If you’re going hunting, I’ll come too.” Sena walked towards them. She had gone hunting into the forest adjacent to Brigsar with her father and brothers a few times. Those used to be huge events when some special guests came, or when a big celebration required lots of meat. Twenty to thirty knights on horses chased down and herded the animals with noisemakers and hunting dogs. Going to hunt with a few people, tracking down animals and hunting them unnoticed would be a completely new experience for them.

Harker looked at the back of the three as they disappeared into the jungle. Arban sat leaning on one of the only lichenless boulders a bit further away from them. An array of swords, daggers, throwing knives and other weapons lay on a large piece of leather in front of him. His blue eyes shone with a strange sparkle as he picked each weapon and scrutinized every inch of them with rapt attention.

Those were most of the weapons everyone brought with them and he was doing one of the only things he was good at, except running his mouth, maintaining the weapons. After all, he had trained a whole four months with his uncle in the royal smithy for this. He had maintained everyone’s weapons and advised them about maintaining them up until they separated with the other teams last night. And Harker had to admit, he was quite good at it. The only things he wasn’t maintaining would be the weapons the others had refused to leave in his care, weapons they wanted to maintain themselves, like Harker’s own bastard sword.

Harker unsheathed his sword from the side of the saddle of his horse. He examined his reflection on the glimmering polished steel. Many scars of battle lay along its length, but no chips along its edge. That was how it was supposed to be. Not many weapons would be able to chip such an expertly made weapon. He looked again at Arban who was now polishing a silver-grey claymore with a red dotted black hilt. Except for a weapon like that of course. Clashing with a weapon like that would shatter a blade like his. After all, It had done just that not too long ago.

Holding the sword beside him, Harker walked towards the only other man left here.

Erhan stared at the line of trees heading south-east along a cliffside. The ground beneath it, there used to be a path there. A little more than a trail, though a well-trodden one. He had walked through that trail thousand times himself. Three years ago he walked out of it and now he was here to walk back in.

“Only two more days,” he whispered.

The point of a giant sword only a few inches in front of his eyes and the giant man twice his size holding it obstructed his view.

Erhan looked up at Harker. The bald man held the three-inch-wide four feet long blade pointed at him almost effortlessly. The point of the blade and his hand both remained perfectly still, just like his emotionless face and cold eyes.

“Your skills are far better than Bruce’s,” Erhan stated.

Harker lowered the blade as he asked, “You knew?”

Erhan nodded, “You both share many similarities,” he said, looking up at the red moustache hanging above his lips. “And the swords. They are both made by the same smith.”

Harker sighed as he sat down beside Erhan. “Our father made them,” he said. “A prize, for coming out alive from our first war. Father… he was a good bladesmaker along with a good knight.” he looked up at the sky as nostalgia covered his eyes. “Our family used to be a family of knights under a minor farmer noble house. Nothing like the big names like Moras or Sergel. A no-name really. But a no-name who dared to not choose a side during the queen’s ascension. And unlike some of the big names who managed to survive being neutral, the Akhran house was ground to dust, caught between the struggles of the two sides.” he sighed. “Our family did survive the grinding, but now it’s only a shadow of its former self.”

He turned his head and bowed to Erhan. “Thank you, for sparing my brother and saving our family. I’m grateful to you and lady Sena.”

Erhan sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t do it for him. I had my own reasons.”

“Still,” Harker said as he glanced at the staff laying on Erhan’s lap. “The fact that you didn’t simply destroy him and instead allowed him to have the chance to ask for mercy, is enough for me to be grateful about.”

Erhan raised his brows in mild surprise. “You seem to know more than your brother.” he looked down at his left hand and gave a shake of his head as he said, “I wasn’t in any condition to do that at that time. Or else I might have done that.”

“Even so, you did save our family,” said Harker as he turned to look at the forest. “My brother’s a fool. He hasn’t seen much of the world, still lost in the past glory of our family. Even I couldn’t believe he’d involve himself in something sordid like slave trading. So he deserves what he got I guess.”

“So what are your intentions now?”

“The same as what my brother wanted,” Harker said. “Restore our family. Bring it out of poverty. However, since fate has brought us together...” he stood up and came in front of Erhan. Holding the sword straight against the ground with both hands on the pommel, he looked straight at Erhan’s eyes, “I pledge my blade to protect you and lady Sena.”