The Last Vanguard (The Sevordine Chronicles Book 1)

The Talic Wolf

At the end of the next day, we find a small forest about a mile off the main road and make our way over to it. It's farther than we want to go from the path, but a forest should mean small animals for Rulf to catch and likely a water source.

I lean back against a fallen log with Ellcia and Marleet, and we chat about how our feet don't hurt quite as much as they did the first few days. It's nice to talk about unimportant stuff. We haven't had any danger or threats since the day before when we saw the end of the assassins.

Neither Ellcia nor I have talked about what we saw. It bothered me a lot, but the truth is, the thing that bothers me the most is that I'm happy the assassins are dead. I wonder what's wrong with me that I would feel this way.

Mic sits off by himself. He never really engages much with any of us. It's hard to even remember him, because of his armor, but when we try to talk to him when Rulf isn't around, he pulls away and sometimes covers his head. We've left him alone for the most part. Marleet keeps trying to reach out to him and once even gave him a long hug. He didn't seem to mind the hug this time—in fact, he seemed to like it—but he pulled back after and stayed away from her for the rest of the day.

His big bruise on his face is just about gone. I've never actually seen him without either a large bruise or covered in mud and dirt. He hasn't been rolling around in the mud, so hopefully he'll stay a little cleaner.

I had heard that Rulf was the one who gave him the bruises all the time, but it's starting to look like it was someone else all along.

As the light begins to fade, Rulf and Hemot come back into view. The evening before, Hemot had asked Rulf to teach him how to set snares, and Rulf had grunted his disapproval. Hemot had misinterpreted Rulf's reaction and just took it as a resounding yes. Rulf seemed annoyed at first, but by the time they came back, the big guy appeared to have a smile on his face. Hemot has that effect on people. He wears them down. He either wears them down to a happy point or an angry point. I'm glad it seems to be more "happy" with Rulf.

When Rulf and Hemot sit down, we all dig into a meal, which consists of a bit of cheese left over from somewhere. I've lost track of where we got all our food. Most of what we have left came from the other Vanguards, although we have some dried pork that we bought off a merchant traveling along the road. We also have a small amount of rabbit left from Rulf and Hemot's catch the night before.

"Are you really only fifteen?" Marleet asks, interrupting the silence.

Rulf grunts and says, "I am. I've always been big for my age."

I settle in for tonight's conversation. It's ended up being a bit of a daily routine for us. We sit down and pelt Rulf with questions. Sometimes he answers; sometimes he doesn't. Often, his answers create more questions. But whether he answers or not, it breaks up the monotony.

Hemot dives in next. "I had heard in the city that you were descended from giants. Is that true?"

Rulf is silent at first. He doesn't normally like answering questions, let alone questions about himself. He's often quite difficult when it comes to those topics. I think that's why we push so much in that area. It's like a challenge to get something from him.

After a few minutes, he finally says, "Yes. My great-great-grandfather fell in love with a giant."

It's now our turn to be silent. I had heard the rumors many times and even spread them a little myself, but I never actually believed it—well, until recently. But even then, there was a lot of doubt. Finally, I say, "Really?" I look over at Ellcia to see she's struggling with the same thing I am. I've never seen a giant before, but I've heard of them. I've even seen drawings of them. They don't seem like something your average man would fall in love with.