“Don’t say anything!” she snapped as she cut him off. “Let’s just go.” Her voice trailed off as she mounted her horse. Eric reluctantly climbed on behind her. “We can only ride a few miles like this. Then we will walk a mile and repeat. There is no other way she can bear both of us all day.”
“What’s her name?” asked Eric, trying to do anything to lighten the mood. As expected, silence was the reply. Off they rode, down the light brown gravel path. Jade’s head was on a swivel, for she knew the many dangers of riding this far from a town or city. The few that ever did such a thing were merchants traveling in packs. They often hired leathers to help escort them through the rough country.
Now it was just the two of them, though, and they needed to be careful. Taron was a long way away, and they would need to get Eric a horse eventually, but first things first: they needed to get some distance between them and the battle site. It had been a battle worthy of songs and poems, it would seem, yet Eric had been the only witness to the epic struggle. He found that incredibly ironic.
On they raced through the green forest, a chill still hanging in the air from the heavy rain from the night before. Jade held her hood low with one hand to keep her hair from blowing in Eric’s face while holding the reins with the other. They rode on in silence, each consumed by their own thoughts. The trees continued to whip by, although the scenery never seemed to change no matter how far they rode. The gravel trail had now turned to a combination of rock and black dirt, and it had also narrowed considerably. Two wagons could not pass if they were going in opposite directions, although it made little difference this far away from town. They were very unlikely to encounter anyone on the path this far out—not anyone friendly, anyway.
Eric started to get a funny feeling that he was having a hard time ignoring. Regardless of what Jade thought, he had quite a bit of training; he just never knew why it was happening. Some of his experience translated into a feeling, sort of knowing when things were a little off. The air around him seemed to change as the hunter in him came out. “We are being followed,” he whispered in her ear as if someone nearby would hear.
“I know,” she replied, her voice at full strength. “They’ve been there for at least three miles. That’s why I haven’t stopped to rest the horse yet. The problem is I can’t determine how many there are.” She began reaching into one of the saddlebags, clearly having difficulty riding and fumbling to grab whatever it was she was looking for.
Eric reached around her waist with both hands to grab the reins. She paused, for a second seeming unsure of how to respond, but only for a second, as she accepted the help and used both her hands to rummage through the leather bag. She finally pulled out a looking glass and reached back to hand it to Eric as she retook the reins once again.
“I’m going to slow down to let them catch up,” Jade shouted into the wind. “Let me know exactly what you see. How many, what kind of horses—everything!”
Eric did his best to turn around as they continued to ride. He made it a point to be sure no matter what he saw, to turn all the way around again before reporting it to her. The last thing he needed was for her to take off suddenly and find himself face first on the ground. Opening the looking glass, he held it to his eye. It was hard to see anything with the horse trotting like this. It would have been easier to either keep galloping or stop, as there would not be so much up and down movement. He tried to sway his head up and down to the rhythm of the horse trotting along.
He could see something now! It looked like two riders. No, wait...two horses. He kept looking, trying to focus while squinting the other eye. Should they get ready for a fight, or try to flee? What if they were just merchants? What if— “Stop!” he shouted. “Stop the horse!” He jumped right off the back and began running toward the two horses with one rider.
Jacob could see his friend clearly now as he started riding faster. He was riding his own horse but had Eric’s by the reins. “It’s about time you waited for me,” Jacob shouted as he reared up. “If there weren’t two of you on that horse, I never would have caught you!” Eric couldn’t believe how happy he was to see Jacob. In all this chaos, at least one familiar thing seemed to wander back into his life. He didn’t feel so alone anymore. Jacob jumped off his horse and they embraced.