They found the horses just as they had left them. Lenny snorted at Liam in a way Liam had come to recognize as affection. Liam rubbed Lenny's nose and fished an apple out of his pack. It was one of the ones they'd taken from Harv's place. Liam felt a little guilty about cleaning out all of Harv's food, but he had still taken about six apples to give to Lenny over the next couple of days. He couldn't get the whole "Harv" situation out of his head. Why was no one else seeing it as a problem?

They led the horses down the hill just a little ways. They didn't want to be too far from the village in case they had to run for it, but they wanted their horses to have a clear path ahead if they did come out in a rush. There were few trees and not many rocks in the direction they would need to go when leaving the Lizard Men village. It was also fairly flat and led roughly in the direction of the path on which they had been traveling, prior to meeting Harv.

Each one loosely tied up their horse. Everything was set so they could simply grab the reigns off of a tree branch, climb on up and ride away to freedom. That part of the plan seemed perfect.

They packed all the extra weight they would normally carry themselves onto the horses, keeping only armor and weapons. Liam felt an unfamiliar feeling in his gut. He had never gone into battle like that before. When the Booger Bullies had attacked, they weren't prepared for it. They simply had to fight for their lives. This time seemed different. They were choosing to go into battle. To add to the whole thing, none of them strapped on their practice swords but left them with the horses. It was a day for battle... it was a day for real battle.

Liam looked at Ezra and DOHNK, expecting to see confident faces, not worry or upset. Instead, he saw genuine fear in both their eyes. He began to realize that he was not the only one who was feeling tense. The only one who didn't seem nervous was Jep.

As Liam stood for a moment, considering Jep, he realized a couple things. He could see in Jep's eyes a great deal of experience and insight. He could see confidence in him, and he could sense that as Jep had survived many battles, Liam, Ezra and DOHNK could also survive. Jep's confidence and strength gave Liam and his friends confidence and strength. Liam realized they had a chance. They could do this!

As he looked over at Jep, he also realized something else. Jep wasn't going with them.

"Let's go!" Ezra said, starting to feel excited after Jep's enthusiastic pep stare.

"Jep's not going with us," Liam said. Ezra and DOHNK stopped in their tracks and looked at Jep.

"Is this true?" DOHNK asked, her voice a little less certain. "Is it because the Lizard Men look like kittens and, since you're a chicken, you don't want to go near them?"

Jep looked at DOHNK for a moment, and she understood. She leaned in close, and Jep gave her a little bite on the nose. Ezra leaned in as well, and Jep gave him a little bite on the nose as well. They seemed to all be having a moment with Jep. It was as if he was blessing them as they went to battle. Liam thought it was, like much in Arestana, a little odd, but approached Jep for his blessing. He leaned in close, and Jep latched onto Liam's nose with a chicken snarl. The pain was intense, and Liam thought his nose was about to be ripped right off his face. If it hadn't been for the Lizard Men village just a short distance away, he would have screamed out in pain.

"Help me, PLEASE!" he quietly begged the others. They came to his rescue and pried Jep's beak off his nose. Liam looked at Ezra and DOHNK, expecting to find shock and horror at Jep's actions, but found a look of jealousy instead. He could see that they resented Liam for Jep's attention toward him. Liam looked back at Jep and asked, "What's your problem? Why do you keep biting my nose?"

Jep looked Liam in the eye with a look which seemed to say, "Come here and I will tell you why I do this."

Liam approached Jep. He was angry but wanted to understand why the chicken would attack his nose so viciously. As Liam came close, Jep inclined his head as if to say, "Many years ago I..." then, lunging forward, he grabbed Liam's nose again, biting down as hard as he could. Liam fell over backward and rolled on the ground. The pain he felt before was nothing like this. He quickly found a stick and in anger, swung the stick as hard as he could at Jep's body, hoping that maybe he could teach Jep a lesson so he would not attack again. Just as the stick was about to hit Jep, the chicken seemed to lose interest and let go. The stick, unfortunately, kept coming and slammed Liam in the face.

Liam stood up, refusing to talk to anyone or anything and stormed on toward the village.

I hope you are enjoying Arestana: The Key Quest. Keep reading to find out what happens next! If you want to get a hold of this entire story, you can pick it up from Amazon, Chapters, Foyles or just about everywhere else!

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