It was hard keeping up with Valen, being in his natural element, but I was young and springy enough to not lag too far behind. I kept going until he stopped in the middle of the woods. He stood there, looking around then turned back to face me.
“This is the end,” the ranger said. He pointed up with his finger, so naturally my eyes trailed upward. I didn’t see anything, but I almost jumped when I felt the tip of an arrowhead poke me from behind. “You’d best comply, runt. Rangers aren’t known for responding kindly to undetermined threats. And they don’t know you very well.”
It didn’t matter what I did, because a sack was pulled over my head. The rangers, like Valen, who was of course one of them, were skilled in moving undetected in the woods. It wasn’t until they were about to pierce me in the back of the head with one of their arrows. Thankfully they were skilled enough not to kill someone who didn’t pose any particular threat.
I was hoisted off of my feet in the next moment and carried, passed along, and dropped off at some point after a very long time. The amount of noise people were making made me think I was at another camp, so I pulled off the sack over my head.
I had never seen so many rangers at once. The most I had seen were Valen, Howard, and Carter, and only one of them had made it back this far. But now I was inside their enclave, their home. This was the ranger camp.
There were tents in clusters. They stood not too far away from campfires. But milling about were men in ranger cloaks, even some younger boys. The only women I saw were ones tending to home duties, or activities that related to using resources to better the home. Or tent in their cases. Just then, I noticed Valen standing next to me. He nodded to a couple of other rangers were carrying in a deer hung upside-down from a pole. With woodland skills like that, hunting deer must be a like a daily chore.
“I never knew there were so many of you,” I said blankly. I was still a bit awed by the whole idea of urban legends coming to life in front of me. Then again, I was chased out of my hometown and captured by General Warwick, and survived an attack from the rangers, give or take that I wasn’t the target. Still, I had been through a lot ever since I left Crossroads. I wouldn’t have realized it then, but my adventure had already started.
“So many of me?” Valen asked quietly. “You may have to elaborate on your that, runt.”
“I mean, so many rangers,” I clarified. He didn’t answer but instead walked off into the camp. Seeing as he was the only person I knew there, other than Elena was very ill and who knows where, I decided to stay near him.
We passed by a lot of tents and campfires and the occasional animal hide. I felt like I was being watched, so I glanced over at the people from time to time. Sure enough, they were staring at me. I was the outsider, they were only treating a newcomer with the distance they thought made them safe. It was a natural, for them at least. Being in Crossroads means you get a lot people to pass by. Other than Allensport in the North, it was one these least permanently-housed settlements in Andurovia. I wondered how many other people would be living a migratory-lifestyle now that the war was in full bloom. I imagined Crossroads, probably under Warwick’s occupation by now, had a dramatically smaller permanent population. It was saddening to think that I was one of those people who had lost their home, orphan or not.
“The clan leaders want to speak to you and I,” Valen said as we approached a very large campfire. It was much more prominent than the others, because there were at least two dozen men, grown and aged, standing. A number of them had the same ranger cloak, while the older members wore a different kind of cloak. There appeared to be some kind of debate or argument going on. “But I’m going to do the talking. Are we clear on that, runt?”
