After setting out the next morning, they found the path to be more difficult. They first had to cross the freezing cold river in which they had bathed the evening before. The horses didn't seem to like the cold any more than Liam and Ezra. Both boys noticed the grass and plant life close to the river all looked somewhat dead that morning, flowing downstream from where they had bathed the night before. It was a reminder to them not to let the stink get so bad again.

The landscape after the river was very rocky and quite hilly. They had to climb down off their mounts now and then to lead the horses through rough terrain. The cold wind blowing off the mountains seemed to grow worse as the day wore on and they were grateful for the extra layers of clothing they had in their packs.

By mid-morning, they crested a hill and could see far across the land. Jrasta said they should reach the path again by lunchtime and that the shortcut through the foothills would have saved them a decent amount of traveling.

It was at that point that DOHNK pointed off into the distance. "There are some soldiers down there!"

Jrasta looked back in the direction DOHNK had been pointing. The path wound back toward Harv's house and the city of Kings-Home. At first, Liam couldn't see anything unusual, but sure enough, a short distance back was a group of soldiers making their way along the path.

"It's the Regent's guards. If we hurry, we can get to the path and be a little ahead of them," Jrasta said to the group.

They urged their horses on. The terrain ahead was smooth, and they were able to move at a good steady pace. Liam was grateful for the time he had spent on Lenny. He didn't fall off quite so often anymore. When they had first set out, moving at a trot or gallop was nearly enough to throw Liam off Lenny's back, but by that point in the journey, it was easy. Unfortunately, his butt still hurt from being in the saddle every day.

They arrived at the path and turned east. They kept up a fast pace, but as they looked back, the guards appeared to have picked up their pace as well. Up until that point, the guards likely thought they were ahead of Liam and Ezra and their group, but losing the lead seemed to give them the push they needed to drive hard.

"Why do we need to stay ahead of the guards? Why don't we just let them get the key?" Liam asked, after riding hard for about an hour, but not finding the distance between them and the guards getting any greater.

"Why are you here, Liam? Is it to ride a horse or complete a quest?" Jrasta asked.

"To complete a quest, of course!" Liam said. He wondered what that had to do with anything.

"Here's the situation. I've seen this happen before, Liam. You want to get home, right? The only way you can get home is if you complete your quest. But the Regent told the guards that if they complete the quest, they'll be advisors to the throne. That's a pretty sweet gig. You get to sit around all day, tell the king what you think he should do, you get paid well, and since the king doesn't make decisions on weekends or from September to February, you get a lot of time off. The guards all want to be advisors to the throne. They're going to try to finish the quest themselves and get that promotion. If they complete the quest, though, YOU won't have completed it, and YOU won't get to go home. This has happened before to travelers. Sometimes they manage to get another quest, but most of the time they get one chance, and if they miss it, then they are stuck here forever."

"I see," Liam said, more to himself than anyone. He hadn't realized that this could be his only chance to get home. It made him start to miss his family and school and even Harry... a little. Maybe not Harry so much, but he'd be willing to put up with Harry if it meant he could go home again.

They pushed on all afternoon and into the evening, but in time the horses started to slow down. Jep flapped his wings to get everyone's attention. He looked at them with his head slightly cocked to one side as if to say, "We're going to have to stop to give the horses a rest. It'll do us no good if we run the horses too hard and they collapse from exhaustion!"

No one wanted to stop, but as they looked back, the guards seemed to have come to a halt as well. It was time to give Lenny and the other horses a rest.

They dismounted. Each of them, aside from Jep, seemed to be sore and ready to head to bed. They made a fire, had a quick supper and pulled out their practice swords.

"These guards aren't playing around," Jrasta explained. "We may need to fight them tomorrow if they catch up with us. For now, both the guards and the five of us need a rest so we should be okay for the night. We will need to be prepared for a fight tomorrow, so this evening we will practice with real swords. Try not to cut each other up!"

They each practiced until sunset and then crawled into their blankets. Jrasta said they needed to keep an eye out that night and volunteered to take the first watch. Liam and Ezra dozed off almost immediately.

In what seemed like minutes, DOHNK was waking Liam up. "Your turn, sleepy-head. You have to take the last watch. Keep an eye out. Wake us up if you see anything out of the ordinary and when you see it start to get light in the East, get us up so we can get moving early. We need to be on the road before sunrise today."

With that, DOHNK simply collapsed on the ground and fell asleep where she landed. Liam took his blanket and spread it over her to keep her warm.

He had never taken a "watch" before. He wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do or how he was supposed to stay awake. He also didn't know what he should be looking for. DOHNK had said to wake everyone if he saw anything out of the ordinary. There was very little in Arestana that seemed ordinary to him.

After about fifteen minutes of nothing, just slapping himself in the face to stay awake, he was quite bored. It was cold, dark and lonely. There was no movement. There was nothing.

There was nothing, that was, until he heard a growl and a loud scraping noise. Something was on the road ahead. It was coming from the east, the direction they were heading. It couldn't be the soldiers as they were behind them and he assumed none of the soldiers could growl like that. He began to be able to make out a shape. The thing, whatever it was, appeared to be about the height of two elephants, one on top of another. It was moving slowly and dragging a large round something behind it. Liam wasn't sure what to do. He wondered if he should wake everyone, but thought he'd go over and take a look first. He moved toward the creature to scout it out before waking up his friends.

As he drew close, he was horrified to see that it was some kind of giant beast. It had scaly, gray skin, kind of like a fish, but the scales seemed harder and more like armor on its body. It really was about as tall as two elephants, one on top of another, but the creature was wide as well. It walked on two legs which were as big around as an old oak tree, and its arms were so muscular Liam thought there wouldn't be much it couldn't pick up and throw. It had claws on each foot and hand. Each claw was about as long as a baseball bat, and with its jaws and teeth, it looked like it could bite through solid steel.

The most terrifying part, however, was what the beast dragged behind itself as it walked. It was a giant net full of people! None of them were moving. They were just crammed in the net, one on top of another. Arms and legs were hanging out the holes in the net, but none of the holes were large enough for anyone to escape. The creature looked like it had collected about fifty people. Liam was terrified both of what would happen to those people and about the idea of being caught in there himself!

Liam looked on in horror as the creature passed him and then stopped. It slowly turned its head and looked right at the camp. When it saw the campfire, it turned and started making its way toward his sleeping friends.

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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