The Orphan Boy

Romantic Disapointments

Rayhanna rode with the stranger who said he was from the Arceon for some time. Longer than she cared to know. Through the night, with frequent stops because ??? had been been pushed so hard while Rayhanna had been trying to escape the servants of ???. For the first few hours they rode in silence. Rayhanna was still traumatized from the terror of her experience earlier that night. The stranger that rode next to her seemed to have no wish of an explanation. She went with him willingly enough, after all he had just saved her life.

However after a while, by now the sun was rising, she became curious. What was this man's name? Why was he here? How did he find her? Where was he taking her? She became curious enough to voice several of her questions.

"Why aren't you taking me home?" She asked. It probably wasn't the best question to ask first but it was the one that she wanted to know the answer to the most.

"By home I assume you mean one of the Star's castles?" He asked, she nodded. "That is a rather long story, I'll have to start from the beginning. I'll have to sum up the best I can for you or we'll be here all day.

I am one of the Arceon and a friend of mine and I were given a mission. There is a boy, a very special boy who we were told to retrieve and bring back to the Arceon. But as we were riding through the countryside today, we found a raven. This raven was flying to the Arceon carrying a message that a Star child had been captured or run away. This child they needed to have returned to them for they feared that she would be taken prisoner by Avadonn." He looked at her pointedly and she blushed.

"Anyways I volunteered to go and retrieve you. He and I decided that once I had found you and once he had found the boy, we would meet somewhere. We decided on the nearest Arceon outpost and agreed that whoever arrived there first would wait for the other. He is loyal to a fault and most likely won't leave without me until his enemies are on top of him and he can't leave even if he wanted to. And so it would give us both an extra day if the two of us ride straight to meet him instead of returning you home first."

"I see." Rayhanna said. "So you will bring me home eventually, just not yet."

"Yes."

"But there is one thing I don't understand." She said after a moment while she thought things though. "If the Stars wrote a message to the Arceon why would you find the raven? I mean wouldn't the raven arrive at the castle?"

"Ordinarily it would, for most people the ravens are sent to a place. However the Arceon is not a place it is a group of people. It only makes sense that a raven would find the nearest Arceon, and deliver the message. If a message is for someone in particular then that person will receive it but the Arceon is a very generic term and therefore the message could be delivered to any number of people." He glanced at her confused frown. "Do you understand?"

"I think so."

"What is your name?" He asked. "Mine is Brandon."

"Rayhanna."

"Rayhanna, how exactly did you end up on the high moors so far from your home?"

"I . . . ran away." She admitted.

"Why is that? I've heard that the Stars are a kind and generous people."

"Only to guests. They were never very kind to me. Few of them ever said a word to me and if they did it wasn't because they wanted to, I could tell from their faces. I don't think they thought of me as an equal."

"Is there any particular reason they were unkind to you?"

"I well my Father was a Star and he is reasonably powerful and well known among the Stars." She said quietly but didn't offer an other explanation.