A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind) by Guy Stanton III Page A

now.”
    I saw a look of heartfelt gratitude flood into the boy’s eyes as if I’d just given him the moon. It was a nice feeling to give. I wanted to do more of it, because I liked feeling as I did right now.
    I asked, “What’s your name boy? I can’t keep calling you boy.”
    “Call me Larc.” The boy said.
    “Larc, it is then. Let’s get out of here and bed down somewhere else for the night.”
     
    After several days of walking and living off the land we saw the end of the moors come into view. The Litian River lay beyond the moors, as it snaked through the plains at the base of the majestic mountains that rose up in the distance. I had never been this close to the Vallian Mountains before.
    I wanted to see what lay up among those lofty peaks and the green valley’s it was said that existed on the other side of the mountains.
    The land of my father’s was so close! An intense desire to discover my ancestral homeland overwhelmed me and I found myself walking faster, but I pulled myself back to a sane pace for the boy’s sake.
    It took awhile to get to the edge of the moors, but when we did I saw something that disturbed me. A mounted warrior was stationed just on our side of the turbulent river. He was alone, but even more curious than that was that the warrior had three saddled horses with him. He was waiting for someone. Was the warrior waiting for us? It was unlikely, but what other explanation could there be for his presence here with extra saddled horses. Why three horses? They must have known about the boy, but hadn’t sought fit to inform me about the additional passenger. That annoyed me.
     
    Larc whispered, “Roric is he a Valley Lander?”
    “Yes, I think so.” I whispered back.
    I didn’t like it, but I saw little other choice in the matter. We needed those horses. “Follow close behind me.” I said, as I stood up from hiding and started walking down from the elevated knoll of the moor towards the warrior by the river.
    Larc stood and made to follow me but hesitated for a moment, “I don’t like it Roric. Something doesn’t feel right about this!”
    Glancing back at him I replied, “I don’t like it either Larc, but we need those horses.”
    The mounted warrior noticed our approach almost imme diately, but he stayed where he was with one hand holding the reins of the other three horses. The other hand I noticed was not far from the sword on his hip. As we drew closer to him some clue as to our appearance must have given him confidence that we were the party he had been waiting for, because he smiled openly and said, “It’s good to see you for it is tired I am of sitting out here in the open like a hobbled goat in front of a marsh cat den.”
    I liked the man. I replied simply, “Sorry for the delay, but we got here as fast as we could. I wasn’t expecting to find you here waiting for us, but it’s a good thing as we need to get out of here quickly. Pursuit might not be too far behind us.”
    The man nodded and then said, “I was told to expect three; an old man, a warrior, and a boy.”
    “The boy’s father didn’t make it.” I replied.
    Shaking his head solemnly the warrior glanced over to Larc and said, “Sorry lad! Your father was a good man. He will be missed. Here mount up now and let’s get you to your mother.”
    The sound of the whiffs of ruffled air announced the presence of the arrows even before I saw four of them smack into the warrior’s chest causing him to real back in his saddle from the shock of their impact. Choking on his own blood the warrior cried out to me even as he tossed the reins of the saddled horses at me, “Get away from here and save the boy!” He said as he coughed up blood.
    I leaped into one of the empty saddles and pulled Larc up behind me. I swung the horse around to face the moors from where the arrows had come from. Zoarinian longbowmen started standing up from their concealment all along the line of the moor dunes. There had to be at