The Shadow of Eons

Chapter 7

He had been walking for some time, dragging the sword upon the ground and listening to it clang against rocks, for he hadn't the strength to carry it on his back. After he had gone perhaps half a league, he sat down against an oak tree and relaxed. It was cold, in the nether hours right before dawn, and he shivered and chattered his teeth, wishing he had the strength to get up and gather wood. He felt drained both physically and mentally, knowing that no matter what he did, the curse would follow him, for he was the heir to the godslayer's blade.

After listening to the wind moan between the trees for some time, he became aware of a high-pitched noise on the breeze. It sounded like a little insect, and steadily kept getting louder until it seemed like it was right next to where Jonas was sitting. Still, he could not see a thing. Then, he heard a stirring in the bushes.

"Master?" came a small voice from a few yards behind him. "Is that you?"

"Child?" he queried, astonished his small friend had found him here. "Rose? Is that you?"

"Jonas!" she ran out of the bushes and launched herself into his arms. "Master, what are you doing here? You must be so cold!"

"I am just resting, child. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be sleeping someplace warm?"

"I was found again, master, and so have been cast out of the village. I had hoped to find you on the road south, and so have found you. Here, let me make a fire for the two of us, and we can sleep into the late morning." She scurried off and started gathering some sticks for kindling.

Jonas sighed, then slowly lifted himself off the ground. His limbs were numb with cold, and he could hardly keep on his feet. He leaned against a branch above his head, and it cracked in the thick part so that he was able to bring down the entire branch. He set about stomping the thing down into thick sticks for use on the fire.

Once they had gotten the fire roaring, Rose set her head against his shoulder and they stared at the stars for a while. "Master," she finally said, her thin voice crackling in the cold air like one of the burning sticks popping in the fire, "Will we survive this journey?"

"We will certainly try, Rose," Jonas told her steadily. "We will certainly try."

***

"I used to be a very good girl," the child was saying as she walked her multiple tiny steps next to his slow, big ones. "My parents liked me and so did my entire village. I lived in Clearwater, which is east of Kronsdale and borders the kingdom of Galth. I used to tend the village gardens, and even learned a little in the school. I learned reading and numbers, and could write a little. On my fifth birthday I was gifted a quill, ink and a parchment."

"Impressive," Jonas told her. "I did not learn how to read or write until the age of twenty, after I quit my post in the city guard. My parents had raised me as a farmhand, giving me ample muscles, which I used in the guard to great effect, rising to the post of lieutenant. But after I fell in love with a maiden from a different country, I ran off with her to start my own farm. It was in Barrowtown, the village of her birth, that we settled and raised our two children."

"You have children?" said Rose. "What are they like? Are they my age?"

"Well, how old are you, child?" he asked her.

"Ten!" she said proudly, which gave Jonas a shock: By her size and manner of speaking, he would have guessed her to be seven, or eight at most.

"Listen, girl," he told her fiercely. "When you're with me, you will never have to be hungry again. We might have to eat carrion, but your belly will be full. Do you understand me?"