prologue

Prologue

Deep in the dark, tangled forests of Dumberkew, a small camp, built on the loose dirt of a clearing, was lit up with the glow of a growing fire. Circling the fire were five huts, put together with twigs and fern fronds that rustled despondently in the breeze.

Two men sat by the fire, one looking around the age of eighteen was sporting worn moleskin trousers and a loose, dirty white shirt that was ripped in several places. His clear blue eyes watched the fire spark and crack, watched the embers shift and the logs slowly be eaten away.

The other man was older with cropped dark hair shocked with gray and nut-brown skin that sagged slightly, causing an ugly causeway of wrinkles. His frown seemed embedded in his skin. He, too, stared at the fire.

“Boy,” the older man said, his voice gravelly but not strictly unkind. “Hope you understand how you be endangering yourself?”

“I understand,” the younger boy replied. He swept his fingers through his snarled blond hair. “But I no live on my own much more long. My supplies my skills keep me alive- just barely.”

The older man nodded assent. “Aye, the hot days are numbered now. Soon leaves fall. There less savaging. Only live off supplies.”

“But we find possibility in live here?”

“Aye,” the older man said again. “Mayhap we do.”

The younger boy picked up a stick and poked at the fire. A deep silence settled into the clearing, broken eventually by the older man. “You get rest,” he said, “next morrow brings many a thing.”

The younger boy perked up. “What things? You suggest I stay?”

The older man poked him gently. “Rest.”

“Aye, I retire for night,” the younger boy said quietly. “Good eve.”

“And a good eve to you also.”

With a fumbling smile, for it had been a long time since the he smiled, the boy rose and left to sleep in his lean-to, leaving the older man to his thoughts.