Chapter 2

Arthur McCreedy, undoubtedly the oldest member of the village, looked out the front window of his hovel.  Across the road stood the young boy he knew to be Rory.  He was not at all surprised to see Rory standing there completely oblivious to the rain that was soaking him through to the skin, for he knew the reason the boy stood, unmoving, barely ten strides away from his own front door.

It pained Arthur to see the boy in so much torment, but he also knew he had to allow this scene to play itself out, to allow the boy and his mother their time to grieve.  Rory had been almost the last to know of his father’s passing and needed the time to allow all of what that meant to soak in as deeply as the rain into his drenched clothing.

Arthur never much cared for anyone going out alone from the village as Rory’s father had two days before on one of his usual early morning hunts.  He was attacked, rather viciously it seemed, by a timber wolf and would have died alone in the forest had it not been for the coincidental hunting party, that found him lying in a pool of his own blood and returned him with all speed back to the village to be mended.

At first his wounds did not appear so severe despite the amount of blood that he had lost, though once he had been returned to the village Arthur saw they were much more serious.  He hadn’t expected him to last the week.

Arthur thought it bitterly ironic that now the rest of the village heeded his warning to only leave the village in groups of at least two, if not more.  It was for this reason also that both Tomas and Benjamin were sent to watch over Rory and Kendal on their hunts that morning.

He did not like to take chances, which made the scene unfolding before him so much harder to witness.  Rory was only fifteen, yet now he was about to be thrust into manhood by the uncharacteristically foolish act of his father.  Arthur knew his duty as the defacto leader of this village, and made his way to his front door to head out into the rain to stand with the young man as he accepted his fate.

Chapter 1

Rory and Kendal walked out of their village and into the forest under a clear blue sky, though the ground was still wet from the rain they had had the previous day.  They would both prove themselves as hunters this day.  They were both of fifteen winters and rapidly coming into manhood.  It was the second part of a threefold test on their journeys into manhood.

They had already proven their worth at their chosen trades, Kendal at iron and metalworking, and Rory at carpentry and masonry.  Both young men had decided to combine their skills in the first part to build their village’s first watchtower on the north end.  Kendal had forged the nails, brackets and hinges while Rory gathered the lumber for the framing and molded and fired the bricks for the foundation. 

Together they worked feverishly for a fortnight, once the materials were in place, to complete it, barely taking enough time to rest and eat.  The elders were amazed at the craftsmanship and sheer size of the structure upon its completion.  The tower itself was roughly fifteen meters tall.  Each corner post was bolted to a three-meter brick pillar, which started another two meters in the ground making the entire tower stand a total of sixteen meters above ground.

The elders stated, before they left on the morning for their hunt, that despite the fact they worked admirably as a team while building the tower they must complete this portion on their own.  Neither one could assist the other.  So as soon as they were about a kilometer out from the village they were required to separate.  Kendal continued on to the north, mostly staying along the river, while Rory headed deeper into the forest to the east.

Kendal had with him the one weapon he had truly mastered, his longbow.  He had been training with the sword, but could never quite control it completely.  He knew that as part of the final stage he would need to prove himself with the blade, so he planned to practice constantly with it whenever he had time.  He was gradually getting better, yet he was still not confident.  His bow would be a better tool for this test anyway since his intended target would be a deer.

He walked along the river for a kilometer and a half then crossed over to the other side and made his way deeper into the forest to the west.