Children of Fyre

Chapter Three

Acacia and I could see the sun setting as we spotted the well in the distance. There was a man pacing around it, his horse nearby. Several young people, all boys from the village and surrounding areas, were milling around as well.

"Stay behind me," Acacia warned me. "I have a bad feeling about this. Don't do anything stupid."

"Okay and I won't," I promised, moving to walk behind her, though slightly off to the side.

As we approached, the men looked up at us, hiding in the trees. They were all dressed in shiny, silver armor. Swords hung by their waist and the other young men were merely walking around them carefully, scared even. I recognized a few of the young men; they were barely older than boys, but not quite of any age, so why were we congregated here?

"You may leave now, ma'am," a knight told Acacia.

However, Acacia never budged. "You're taking my son," she replied evenly, stubbornly. "I go where he goes." Her stare must have been menacing for the knight just turned and left without another word, looking spooked. Two more knights also tried to get her to leave within the next few minutes, but to no avail.

"I'll teach you this trick and others starting tomorrow." Acacia whispered in my ear as the third knight stalked off. It was rather amusing watching the men forced to accept Acacia's decision. "You'll need to know it anyway."

I smiled to myself as we sat down and watched the sun set over the vast ocean. "One day," I told Acacia, "I'm going to journey past the water." She merely smiled apologetically at me in response. Could I not dream? Did I say something incorrectly?

As dusk pressed on, the knights gathered the party and we set off, headed north. There was nothing north of us, except the king's castle and the city. These weren't the king's knights, were they? Why were all these young boys wanted? We seemed to range from 14 summers, all the way up to 20, maybe even 22, summers. I felt like I was on the older side of the selection of the boys, being 20 summers old. I would be expected to protect them should anything go astray.

We walked north for a long time, everyone much too nervous to talk to one another or learn more about their companions. Unwilling companions, probably, like Acacia and me. Plus, after being up all day and now much of the night, I was more worried about my next step than talking. Acacia stuck to my left always placing herself between the knights and me.

Around dawn, the men finally brought us to a stop to break camp. As the sunlight became stronger, I could just make out the people and their faces. Habrin's only son was there, and many of the other able, young men and boys in the village, which, honestly, was a rather small amount. The rest of the boys I did not recognize by name, but by face, but with how weary they were, I was betting they had been collected first from their homes in the surrounding villages.

"Lay down," one of the knight yelled at me, spotting me still awake. He was walking towards me quickly and Acacia was already fast asleep, unable to help me out of any trouble. I laid down quickly before he reached me, but that did not do me any good anyway, it seemed. Moments later, I felt a rough kick to my side, and I doubled over in pain, but refused to make a sound as I squeezed my eyes shut. Another kick came as I rolled to my back.

"Stop." I managed to tell him, barely loud enough to be heard. I cracked my eyes open just enough to see a flash of green and someone hitting the knight from behind as a foot slammed on my face and knocked me unconscious.