Not Magic Enough and Setting Boundaries - By Valerie Douglas Page 0,46

far below them.

In all his life he hadn’t been so long away from the towering trees and lush greenery of Aerilann, of home, and he missed it sharply. He sighed, knowing as only he could that in the years to come it was likely he’d be away from Aerilann nearly as much as he was there, if this fragile peace that he and Daran had wrought between them was to hold. It was a price he’d been willing to pay, knowing it from the beginning, warned by his foresight.

Across from him, perched on a rock with one knee up on the other the young wizard coaxed a pipe alight with sparks generated by magic and then sat to smoke contentedly.

Something about that sight spoke to him.

Behind them Colath banked the fire for the night.

They’d left the firbolg behind but there was still the chance of another attack. There was no sign of boggins or boggarts. It wasn’t unknown for them to follow a back trail in the hopes of catching their quarry off guard. It was dangerous territory riding so close to the borderlands.

It was, though, pleasantly surprising to find they’d fallen into habits quickly and easily, with little need for talk. After unsaddling their horses, Elon set up the camp while Colath fetched wood for the fire and Jareth water - although in this place Jareth had done so under Colath’s watchful eye, with Colath’s bow strung and an arrow notched and ready.

Game was taken along the way but they also had journey-bread and whatever fresh fruits or vegetables they found along their path. Once the meal was cooked and done they took their ease while they watched the sun set, as now, Jareth smoking his pipe discreetly downwind, before those not on watch curled up in their bedrolls to sleep.

There was only the matter of the bedrolls, Elon thought with some amusement. No matter where Jareth set his there was always a rock beneath it so he awoke sore and grumbling to Elon and Colath’s mild entertainment, his brown eyes indignant. He was proving to be good company.

It was a companionable silence and Jareth found he enjoyed it as much as the Elves appeared to.

Truth be told, most people wore on him quickly. They talked too much. He had no need for the constant noise most of his folk seemed to enjoy.

Knocking his pipe against the stone, Jareth was careful to make certain it was empty and then crushed the dottle from the pipe thoroughly to make certain the fire was out - not that there was much to catch fire here except the thin scrubby grass.

In the sky above them the moon rose in a thin crescent.

Each of them took turn standing watch at the entrance of the little cup of stone where they made camp.

Colath came to take Elon’s place at the mouth of the little bowl of tumbled boulders for the first watch of the night.

After the fight and the flight of the day, it was a pleasure for Elon to curl up in his blankets - knowing Colath would rouse him if there was a problem. Elon could see his old friend standing at the entrance to the camp, his arms crossed. Across from him Jareth slept restlessly.

The horses browsed the thin grasses at the back of the bowl where they would be safe from the attacks of firbolg, boggin or boggart. It wouldn’t do, to lose the horses in these lands. It would be their lives if they did - slowed by two up or, far worse, caught on the ground.

Resolutely, Elon put such things from his mind and set himself to sleep.

A light mental nudge from Colath awakened him, the barest touch. It took little more than that. True-friends for more than two hundred years as men measured such things they knew each other’s ways well.

With a nod and a touch to the shoulder, Elon shrugged into the harness for his swords and took Colath’s place.

Jareth was a long huddle beneath his blankets. He would take the third watch, just before dawn, breaking up the darkest hours of the night between them.

It was calm and quiet, serenely beautiful, the pale moonlight casting a faint argent glow over the rocks, stones and boulders. Not far away an owl called softly to its mate. In the sky above him the thin crescent moon had reached its apex and begun its downward journey. Stars glittered like ice in the vault of darkness above him. A