C11

"If you are willing to accept these things instead of the scabbard knife," he said to her, as he set down the other two objects and reached back into his own box once more, "then I think that we can trade them both to you for the scabbard knife instead." He pulled out the scabbard knife that he had wanted from her once more, and then handed it to her. "There will be no need for you to fight for us now," he told her, "for this will be a great weapon to help you cut your way through anyone who would try and attack you from horseback."

He stepped away and began to walk toward his own box of weapons, but she called him back before he could leave her completely. She held out her hand, and took back the scabbard knife that he had offered to her. Then she set it down by her feet as well. "I am still not ready to trade my sword yet," she told him. "For there is a weapon inside this thing that might make all the difference to me."

"You have already lost your horse," he replied without looking back at her. "So what difference does it make?" He walked away and reached into his own box once more, pulling out yet another knife this time. "I hope that you will find a use for this one," he said as he held it out to her. "If I were going to ride anywhere from horseback, I would certainly want something that could cut through someone's throat with as little trouble as possible."

She held up the other scabbard knife so that she could look at it in its full length. "This looks like something that can slice through anything quite easily," she said to him. "Even the most important of throats."

"What good will that do us?" he replied, as he began to walk away from her once more. "Unless it is used against people from horseback, how many throats are we likely to need to cut before we reach our destination? I think that you should keep your blade instead... just in case it might be useful to you after all."

He walked away, leaving her holding the knife that she wanted, even though she was not willing to trade it for anything else. And she could feel something strange happening inside of her heart as he walked away from her and began to walk toward his own box of weapons once more. Was this why he had been trying to trick her into taking the scabbard knife? So that she would be left all alone in this place where there seemed to be no weapons or magic to be found for her to use at all? Or did he have some other plan for using the scabbard knife that would turn out to be very important to her in the end? She felt as if she could never be certain anymore which way things were going to go for her as she stood there staring at the box of knives and swords.

But there was nothing strange about the feeling of loneliness that came over her at the same time that this happened. It was not a new sensation, and it seemed as if it would probably happen more than once again before she was through with this world. Perhaps the next thing that she might have to do was to try to find her way back into another sword and then ride all the way home by herself without any company. And she would surely not find a single companion in this strange world that might want to come along and help her find her way again... not unless she could make someone ride alongside her and fight with her for all the distance that lay ahead. She would need to look for such a person soon enough, even if she had not thought to do so yet. And this time she was sure that she would find such a companion if she tried hard enough.

But then she looked into the face of the young man who stood behind her, and suddenly all of those thoughts that had run through her head went away. The moment that she saw him standing there, smiling at her, she knew that she was safe. This time she was absolutely certain that she would not be left alone to struggle for her life all by herself in this strange place. For now there was someone who she could always depend on to watch her back, someone whom she could trust completely, someone whom she loved as much as she was ever likely to love anyone in the entire world. It did not matter at all whether he could understand what she was saying or not, for it seemed that all of the most important things that she could ever say to him came out through her very eyes when she looked at his face. "I am going to trust you," she said to him, and there was nothing at all that she would rather do than do exactly that.

***

They traveled northward across the plain as the sun climbed higher above the horizon, but they did not stay at their journey for more than three days. They stopped every evening because of how difficult it became to travel during the hottest part of the day. But they were not stopping merely to rest their weary bodies; they were also spending time searching for something new that might prove helpful to them in their search. On each morning of their travels, they would stop by the lakeshore while the sun rose high above the surface of the water… only to discover that no boats were waiting there for them this time around either. There were no signs of anything at all floating in the waters of the lake, except perhaps for a few small creatures that might be hiding among the rocks beneath it. Even if there had been something that might have provided them with food for their journeys, then there was no way that they would dare to eat any of these creatures in order to survive. These beings were too different from everything that they had seen so far within this world, and there was a strong chance that they might not be able to digest whatever food they ate as long as they remained here.

Yet there was something that they did see on several mornings of their travels: the birds flying overhead in formation as they returned to the skies after having spent an entire night sitting upon trees. But although they appeared to be larger than many of the others that they had seen before, it did seem as if these ones had wings much like the ones upon which the dragons themselves flew upon whenever they wished to soar above the clouds. But there were none of the large shapes that they had observed in the sky before this time, and so it seemed clear that the birds that they saw moving above the land were not as powerful as any of the creatures upon which they had arrived upon this island.

Still, there was one thing that they saw in flight upon the wind that proved to be quite unusual indeed: it seemed as if a flock of smaller winged creatures passed between them and the mountainside. Yet there was nothing else at all upon this mountain side save for the tall grasses growing all about it. How could something like this have possibly moved from place to place without being forced to flap its wings in the air at all? The creatures seemed to move swiftly over the ground, though, as if it had no difficulty whatsoever keeping up with the larger birds that flew overhead. When they reached their highest point, however, then they vanished beyond sight again... and they never reappeared until they reached some other valley somewhere below them.

The travelers were not nearly as surprised as they should have been by the sight of these creatures, but neither did they know what to make of them one bit. Nor did they know what to make of what they saw when they finally reached another river flowing out of another lake near the base of one of the mountains that stretched far up into the heavens. This time, they crossed into what seemed like another entirely new landscape altogether, and yet they did not feel quite as lost or frightened now... nor did they wish to return to what they had left behind upon the banks of the first river that had brought them into this country. Instead, they decided that they would spend a few more days here, exploring this new country that awaited them further northward.

***