The four of them made their way along the winding path which led away from the city. Liam looked back over his shoulder to see the city from a distance and was impressed. The entire city was surrounded by a wall with towers at each corner, plus another three positioned evenly along each wall. There were two gates on the wall facing Liam, and he could only assume there were two gates on each of the other three sides.

He stared back at the city and tried to take it all in. He had never before seen anything quite like it. As he stared over his shoulder, everything shifted, and he almost fell off of Lenny. He turned back quickly and grabbed hold of the saddle to steady himself.

"You need to keep your eyes on the road, at least until you get used to riding a horse!" Jrasta teased. As he spoke, his bare toes wiggled through the holes in his boots. "You're going to fall and hurt yourself!"

Ezra rode along with a big smile on his face. He appeared to enjoy seeing Liam struggle with his horse. He didn't seem to have any problem with the mare he was riding.

"Hold the reigns nice and tight and grip with your legs. No, put your feet in the stirrups and keep them there!" Jrasta was a good teacher, but not the most patient. He knew all the right things to point out but just expected Liam to pick everything up a little bit faster.

"Do they not have horses where you come from?" Ezra asked.

"Yah, but I live in a city, and in my world, we don't use horses in the city," Liam replied.

"Well, you'll have to learn here. We use horses any chance we get. We can cover a lot more ground on horseback than we can on foot. We can also carry so much more food and supplies," Ezra explained.

Since it was near the end of the day, they rode for only about an hour before they set up camp. Ezra made a fire while Jrasta built a simple shelter for them. Liam was used to camping. His family enjoyed the outdoors. Every summer they would pack up a tent and head out into the woods or the mountains. They would set up camp and enjoy the time together. The difference, though, was Liam had always slept in a tent that zipped up to keep out the bugs. The shelter had no sides, just a sheet held up by ropes and tied to the surrounding trees. It seemed more about keeping the rain off their heads than anything else.

They had a meal of some of the more perishable foods they had quickly collected earlier in the afternoon from the kitchen. Fruits and vegetables were on the menu. They had camped near a stream and were able to drink their fill and top up their water skins.

That night when they settled down and Liam crawled into his blankets, he immediately learned that he had never actually experienced living in the outdoors. The ground was like a rock under him. He could feel every bump, and the blankets simply weren't warm enough. When they camped back home, he always had a warm sleeping bag and a sleeping pad to soften the feel of the ground. A few minutes after they laid down, Jep started snoring and clucking in his sleep while Jrasta wheezed. He found it hard to fall asleep with such a racket, and his mind was swimming with the question, "How does a chicken snore?"

Then the bugs came. They came fast. They buzzed around his ears, bit any exposed skin and crawled all over him. They came in waves, attacking and eating. Some were small and crawled all over him. Others were large and would dive-bomb his cheeks and forehead.

He looked over at Ezra and saw that he struggled with the same problems. "Hey, you can't sleep either?" Liam asked Ezra. He spit a few bugs out of his mouth.

"No, I can't. It's kind of the bugs, the ground, the cold and the snoring that's keeping me awake. Aside from that, though, this is like sleeping in the castle. Comfortable and relaxing."

Liam smiled, despite how uncomfortable he was. Maybe he and Ezra would get along after all. "Have you ever gone on a quest before?"

"No, this is my first. You're actually the first traveler I've ever met. They come through all the time, but I've never met one. I've wanted to go on a quest for a long time, though. This is going to be a lot of fun."

Liam looked at Ezra. He was glad they were traveling together. "You're not scared of being eaten by a dragon or attacked by some strange monster?"

Ezra propped himself up on one elbow and looked at Liam. "I'm hoping that we get attacked by lots of monsters! That's what's going to make this quest so much fun! Sometimes people get boring quests like, hang up the laundry for the castle or give the servants some help down in marketing. One guy, a few years back, actually got a quest to design new hats for the Lords and Ladies across the land. He was, unfortunately, quite upset over this turn of events and actually designed the hat the Regent wears. Everyone makes fun of the hat, but he has to wear it because it's a quest hat."

By that time, Jrasta's wheezing had turned into an all-out snore. It was like Jep and Jrasta were singing a duet, a horrible duet.

Liam shook his head. "This quest thing is strange. So, we get this key and bring it back and open the chest. When they open it, there will be a little note inside that tells everyone who the next king will be?" Liam asked.

"Yep, that's exactly how it works," Ezra responded.

"Does the Regent want to be king?"

"Of course! Who wouldn't want to be king? The king has to do a little bit of work, but most of what he gets to do is sit around and have people feed him really tasty food. He gets to go where he wants, start wars or end them, go on adventures if he wants or not. The king gets to do whatever he feels like doing."

"If the Regent wants to be king, what will he do if his name isn't in there? Won't he get really mad? Do you think he might try to seize the throne?" Liam had been wondering that for a while. It seemed odd that the Regent would want the name of the king to come out and even more odd to think that he might simply give up his position of authority so easily.

"It would never happen! The people just won't follow anyone but the king. When the name is read, the Regent will step down, and the new king will immediately rule the land. He just gets to put the crown on his head, and away he goes!" It seemed to make perfect sense to Ezra so Liam figured it must be another thing about that world.

"So, no one ever questions the king's right to rule?" Liam asked.

"No, of course not! Why would they?"

Liam couldn't wrap his mind around it all. He liked the idea that people didn't fight over who was in charge, but he didn't know what he thought about living under a king. It made him miss home even more.

Ezra yawned and put his head down. "But for now, we should get some sleep. Good night, Liam. I'm glad we can do this quest together."

"Good night, Ezra. I'm glad too."

Liam was cold and damp, and the bugs were terrible, but eventually, he fell asleep. He dozed off and dreamt that Harry was chasing him through a crowded street filled with horses and soldiers and peddlers, selling their wares. He ran for a bit and realized he was starting to not be afraid of Harry anymore. In his dream, he wasn't sure he knew why he was running. Maybe it was time to stop.

I hope you are enjoying the first part of 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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