The Marble Tower

-17-

The fire popped loudly and continued to crackle as Raquel served herself more soup. He had met Raquel along with three other people in the group. There were eleven of them if you don't include Charles and a few hired hands.

He had been surprised when he saw a figure pop up on a horse while they all were mounting. It's been two days since that original meeting and mostly everyone was keeping to themselves.

He had met Raquel when they were mounting and she hopped up onto the morgen horse beside him. He met her brother, Richard, when they had stopped for lunch that day. He had run into Xavier (the tattoo man) while they were setting up for camp that day. The Ryder look-a-like was actually named Draco and was a business man. Turns out he was the one who hooked Charles up with the horses, gear, and plan.

He knew the name of three other people. The twins were actually named Ethan and Alexander. And Mira was the girl that had ignored Charles when she had arrived.

The soup had been made by a chef that had tagged along and Robyn had to admit that it was pretty good. But that wasn't much of an accomplishment when he remembered the meals that he was used to. Basically raw everything, no meat, and what you could when you could. It was almost weird to actually eat three planned meals a day. 

An owl hooted and the fire let out another loud pop.

It was Xavier who got up first. "I'm calling it a night." He left his bowl at the spot where he had been sitting and headed off towards the tents.

It was a while before Robyn followed. The mystery girl, Draco, Charles, and Richard were the only ones left sitting at the fire.

The tents were a fair bit away from the fire an it had gotten eerily quiet as he made his way to his tent. He could barely hear the soft snores of Xavier (who had a tent on the far side of the camp) when he heard it: the snap of a twig. His eyes shot to the origin of the sound just in time to see the end of a cape disappear into the forest.