At the end of the next day, we find a small forest about a mile off the main road and make our way over to it. It's farther than we want to go from the path, but a forest should mean small animals for Rulf to catch and likely a water source.

I lean back against a fallen log with Ellcia and Marleet, and we chat about how our feet don't hurt quite as much as they did the first few days. It's nice to talk about unimportant stuff. We haven't had any danger or threats since the day before when we saw the end of the assassins.

Neither Ellcia nor I have talked about what we saw. It bothered me a lot, but the truth is, the thing that bothers me the most is that I'm happy the assassins are dead. I wonder what's wrong with me that I would feel this way.

Mic sits off by himself. He never really engages much with any of us. It's hard to even remember him, because of his armor, but when we try to talk to him when Rulf isn't around, he pulls away and sometimes covers his head. We've left him alone for the most part. Marleet keeps trying to reach out to him and once even gave him a long hug. He didn't seem to mind the hug this time—in fact, he seemed to like it—but he pulled back after and stayed away from her for the rest of the day.

His big bruise on his face is just about gone. I've never actually seen him without either a large bruise or covered in mud and dirt. He hasn't been rolling around in the mud, so hopefully he'll stay a little cleaner.

I had heard that Rulf was the one who gave him the bruises all the time, but it's starting to look like it was someone else all along.

As the light begins to fade, Rulf and Hemot come back into view. The evening before, Hemot had asked Rulf to teach him how to set snares, and Rulf had grunted his disapproval. Hemot had misinterpreted Rulf's reaction and just took it as a resounding yes. Rulf seemed annoyed at first, but by the time they came back, the big guy appeared to have a smile on his face. Hemot has that effect on people. He wears them down. He either wears them down to a happy point or an angry point. I'm glad it seems to be more "happy" with Rulf.

When Rulf and Hemot sit down, we all dig into a meal, which consists of a bit of cheese left over from somewhere. I've lost track of where we got all our food. Most of what we have left came from the other Vanguards, although we have some dried pork that we bought off a merchant traveling along the road. We also have a small amount of rabbit left from Rulf and Hemot's catch the night before.

"Are you really only fifteen?" Marleet asks, interrupting the silence.

Rulf grunts and says, "I am. I've always been big for my age."

I settle in for tonight's conversation. It's ended up being a bit of a daily routine for us. We sit down and pelt Rulf with questions. Sometimes he answers; sometimes he doesn't. Often, his answers create more questions. But whether he answers or not, it breaks up the monotony.

Hemot dives in next. "I had heard in the city that you were descended from giants. Is that true?"

Rulf is silent at first. He doesn't normally like answering questions, let alone questions about himself. He's often quite difficult when it comes to those topics. I think that's why we push so much in that area. It's like a challenge to get something from him.

After a few minutes, he finally says, "Yes. My great-great-grandfather fell in love with a giant."

It's now our turn to be silent. I had heard the rumors many times and even spread them a little myself, but I never actually believed it—well, until recently. But even then, there was a lot of doubt. Finally, I say, "Really?" I look over at Ellcia to see she's struggling with the same thing I am. I've never seen a giant before, but I've heard of them. I've even seen drawings of them. They don't seem like something your average man would fall in love with.

Hemot appears to be emboldened by his recent win at getting an answer out of Rulf, so he takes it a step further. He says, "I thought giants were really, really, really ugly."

Rulf roars in rage, but then stops as if he's trying to control himself. He looks around at each of us, but I gather we're all thinking the same thing. We're thinking that Hemot shouldn't have said that, but now that he did, we'd kind of like an explanation. The pictures I had seen of giants were hideous. They're roughly twice the height of an average man, have thick impenetrable skin, big square teeth in a massive mouth, and they drool a lot—a LOT.

Rulf relaxes his body a little and frowns. He's normally frowning, so what passes over his face is more like a deeper frown than just a frown. Finally, he says, "Well, he fell in love with her for her mind."

I find my lips do something funny. I'm not sure exactly what they're doing, but it feels like a cross between a frown and a smile. I look over at Ellcia and see her lips are doing what mine feel like they're doing. I'm not going to say the obvious. I normally like it when we push Rulf to answer questions, but I'd kind of like it to end there.

Unfortunately, Marleet speaks up. Her eyes are unfocused as she stares off into nothing, obviously trying to work through her confusion. In a quiet voice, she says, "I thought giants were extremely dumb."

Rulf leaps to his feet and moves for Marleet. Before I know what's going on, I'm standing between her and Rulf, and Ellcia is standing behind me with Marleet behind her. Hemot stands in front of me, and he has both fists up in the air, as if that would do anything to stop Rulf.

I'm not sure if Rulf is going to attack, but the look on his face says he wants blood. I guess the comment about giants being ugly is one thing, but to call his great-great-grandmother dumb is too much.

Before Rulf can decide what to do, Mic steps in between. With an urgent tone, he says, "Bad hit girl. Bad hit girl."

Rulf glances down at Mic and then returns to his seat on a fallen log. He grinds his teeth—loudly—and clenches his fists, but he stays where he is. The rest of us slowly return to our seats. Everything feels tense, and I fear Rulf will charge again at any moment.

We all sit still. I dare not move or say anything. Rulf hasn't responded that way to a question for a while, and even then, it wasn't toward Marleet. After a few awkward moments, Rulf clears his throat. I watch as his face moves from angry, to uncomfortable, to awkward. Then his face does something that at first terrifies me, then confuses me. The next thing I know, he's broken into laughter. The rest of us join in, and we all have a good laugh.

We finish up our meal and then practice a little sword fighting with sticks, then with our actual swords. I don't dare use my sword against any of them, however, as I'm afraid that it'll chop right through the other's swords, or if I miss their sword, I'll kill one of them.

When we're finished, just in the fading hours of the evening, Mic steps up to Rulf. He grabs him and pulls him into the forest. He's not done this kind of thing before, but I can see that Mic wants to talk to his friend. They go just far enough that I can't make out any words they say. From the way Rulf paces back and forth and Mic waves his arms, they're obviously arguing. I want to go see if they're okay. I'm not afraid for Mic. Rulf treats him well and seems willing to do anything for the guy, but Rulf can be unpredictable.

Their arguing gets more and more intense, and I can see Rulf grow agitated. He begins to stomp his feet and shake his fists. Something Mic says is making Rulf very angry. I don't know what I can do, but I'm just about to head over there to see what's going on when Rulf backhands Mic right across the face.

My heart goes cold as I see Mic knocked back so hard his feet actually leave the ground, and he crashes down into the underbrush.

I rush forward and reach him. He's unconscious, and Rulf shakes with rage. I want to yell at Rulf, but I'm too scared. I've never seen Rulf so angry before.

Ellcia and the others reach us, and before they can argue with Rulf, I ask them to help me get Mic back to camp. I don't want any of us trying to talk to Rulf when he's in this state.

As we try to lift Mic's unconscious body, Rulf steps forward and pushes each of us out of the way. He kneels next to Mic and gently picks the boy off the ground. Tears flow down Rulf's cheeks, but I can see he's still enraged. He takes Mic back to camp, sets him gently down on his blankets, covers him up, and then walks a short distance into the forest and drops to the ground. We hear Rulf sob loudly as he lays in the darkening woods.

The next day, I awake before the rest to find Rulf cooking his recent catch over the fire. I try to talk to him about what happened, but he's gone back to his typical grunts and growls. I'm not sure I'll ever understand him. Maybe it's the giant blood in him. How can anyone go from laughing with us to beating his friend to weeping alone on the floor of the forest?

When everyone else wakes up, including Mic, we eat a portion of what Rulf caught and then head out. Mic's face has swollen up, and it's obvious now that his swollen face of the past was always the result of Rulf. The guy scares me, but I'm angry at him as well.

Marleet tries to tend to Mic's face, but he pushes her away. He seems to want nothing to do with her today.

I don't know how to react, but I'm not the only one. Ellcia looks like she wants to chew Rulf out, but then she keeps pulling back. I think we're scared of Rulf now, but we need him. I'm just not sure what the right thing to do is.

We move on in silence for most of the day, bunching together as we walk to keep the Shaloomd from grabbing anyone. Two Shaloomds circle above us for most of the day, but they're far enough up there that I don't think they see us as a likely meal. I expect, however, that if one of us wanders away from the group for even a second, the birds will drop down quickly to see if they can take advantage of the situation.

Mic has taken up position next to Rulf again. At one point, he slips back a bit, and I ask him if he's okay. He just responds with, "It's okay. It's okay." Then he runs up again to join Rulf.

We move on through the day with little to nothing of interest happening. I keep my eye on Rulf and Mic the whole time, but they seem to get along fine.

A nice breeze blows from the west, and the sky is cloudy. It makes for good traveling weather. By late afternoon, we're on the lookout for another forest where we can camp for the night. We find a small stream running near the road, so I figure we don't need a forest, but Rulf tells us the trees will protect us from the Shaloomd. Otherwise, we'll have to sleep nearly on top of one another or risk waking up with one or two of us missing. Again, he reminds us that it wouldn't be him that the Shaloomd would eat.

I spot what looks like a forest in the distance, and we push forward. It looks like the road runs within half a mile of the treeline. I like the idea of not having to trek so far off the road to find a place to camp for the night. Every step we take away from the road is one step we have to travel back again.

By this point, my feet are a little sore from walking all day, but I no longer have blisters... or I no longer feel them. When we reach the area of the road close to the forest, we move off the road and make our way to the trees. We settle in for the night.

The next day, we set out early. Rulf has already caught, skinned, and cooked four rabbits, so we're able to eat right away and get going. It's nice to know we have a little extra food. When we reach the road, we head east again. The mountains still don't look any closer, but I know in my head that we've covered a lot of ground.

This day's travel seems no different from yesterday's at first, but around mid-morning, everything changes.

My heart fills with terror as we hear something that we haven't heard for three days. A loud roar erupts from the south. It's the same sound we heard when the assassins met their fate with the troll—the sound that Rulf said was a Talic Wolf.

"Run!" Rulf hollers. He grabs Mic and me and drags us off down the road. When I can get my feet under me again, I push Rulf's hand away and run alongside Ellcia, Marleet, and Hemot.

"Did we disturb it?" Hemot calls out.

"No!" Rulf says. "It's probably been hunting us since that ruined city.

"If it's hunting us, why did it roar?" I ask. "Didn't it just announce its presence?"

"No!" Rulf hollers again. "The roar announces the hunt has begun. A Talic Wolf always announces its hunt once it's fully underway. It does that so we can run. It likes a chase."

We race down the road as Rulf gives us a bit more info. None of what I hear sounds good.

"Few people have ever killed a Talic Wolf," Rulf says. "It doesn't fear swords or arrows or spears. The only thing it fears is fire. I read a story once of a man who ran a spear through the heart of a Talic Wolf. The wolf just laughed and killed the man while his friends watched.

"The wolf can laugh?" Marleet hollers out. "The wolf can laugh?! Does no one else think there's something wrong with that?"

I do think there's something wrong with that. Not that Rulf is wrong. As much as I'm angry at him for hitting Mic, he's been right about just about everything so far. I just don't think wolves should be capable of laughter.

"Is it fast?" I ask.

"Really fast," Rulf replies. "We can't outrun it."

"What?" I holler. "Then should we just give up?"

"No," Rulf growls. "The Talic Wolf likes the hunt. It will chase us for as long as it's enjoying itself. Only when it gets bored will it attack. If we ignore it, we'll likely be dead by noon. So, we have a chance of getting away as long as it's having fun. We have to make it to sundown. A Talic Wolf only hunts during the day. During the night, it eats and sleeps."

"It eats at night?" Hemot asks. "What happens if it catches us during the day?"

"It'll keep you until the sun sets," Rulf explains. "If we can manage to keep away from it until dark, then we can travel all night and get far away from it. If we can reach Leito City, we might lose it."

We run on through the rest of the morning and continue as the afternoon passes by. The sun is still far from setting, but it is getting low in the sky. Now and then we hear the wolf howl again. Sometimes the sound comes from behind us. Sometimes it comes from the north or the south. There are either multiple wolves, or the creature is toying with us. I'm not sure which option I prefer.

After hours of running, we're all exhausted, but I'm impressed with how well we're doing. Day after day of running really does a great job of building endurance. My legs no longer feel weak, and my back is no longer as sore. The pack actually doesn't feel all that heavy anymore.

The Wolf roars again, but this time, it sounds like it's right behind us. I holler out, "If it catches us and keeps us until dark, does that mean we'll have a chance to escape before the sun sets?"

Rulf growls. "No! There will be no chance to escape. A Talic Wolf is too smart. It'll guard its victim well. But the good news is that it's not after all of us. There's always only one in the group that it wants. It'll have picked its prey, and the rest of us might be safe."

"That doesn't sound like overly good news to me," Marleet says as she gasps for air. "I think that's just not-as-bad news."

Rulf only grunts in reply.

"If it catches me, I'll fight it off with everything I've got!" Hemot says.

"Best of luck with that!" Rulf says. "I hear the Talic Wolf's speech is terrifying. Few people can manage to keep their courage when it speaks."

"This wolf laughs, and it speaks?" Marleet hollers. "It's an abomination!"

"I have to agree with Marleet on that," I say. "I really don't think something like that should exist."

We've settled into a fast jog. I'm pretty sure that no speed is going to be fast enough to stay away from this thing, but we have to keep moving.

"Wait," Ellcia says, as we all run. "If it speaks, maybe we can reason with it."

"No!" Rulf yells. Sometimes, too many questions upset him. "Talic Wolves don't see humans as intelligent. Humans are only food to them. They love to have a conversation with us, but the wolf will not consider any compromise for even a moment. People say the Talic Wolf enjoys chatting with its meal before it eats it."

"Then some people have escaped!" Ellcia says. "Otherwise, we'd have no idea that it likes chatting with its food!"

I find myself smiling, despite the circumstances. I hadn't thought of that. Leave it to Ellcia to catch that kind of thing. By the look of Rulf's reaction to Ellcia's comment, it sounds like he hadn't thought of it either.

"I don't know, but none of that matters right now," Rulf says. "What's important is that we have to get away. Now!"

We run on into the late afternoon. If we can keep the pace until dark, we might have a chance.

Continued in The Last Vanguard, Book 1 of 5 of the Sevordine Chronicles

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