for healing various ailments. Sasha placed the mushroom in a little basket that was on her shoulder and stood up. As she stood she noticed a little bean-sized black beetle crawling up the tree trunk. She smiled, not at the memory of having one of these creatures in her soup, but at the thought of getting back at Legon. More important, this was her last memory of a life that was innocent and seemly free of magic, Elves, and Dragons.
Of course, it had never really been free of these things. They had always been there and she just hadn’t known about it. She wondered what else had affected her world that she was now blissfully unaware of. It had been three days since they had talked to Arkin; three days of going into each other’s bedroom after their parents fell asleep to talk about what they thought was going on. Three days of Legon’s nightmares. He didn’t wake from them anymore, and he didn’t remember details in the morning. She noticed that if she came in while it was happening and spoke to him as he slept he would calm down a bit. She felt a pit in her stomach as she thought of the years that Legon had been doing the same thing for her, the times he had needed to restrain her and spend hours comforting her. She stepped over a fallen tree and looked on the ground for more mushrooms. She found one and walked to it.
Her mother sent her mainly because she was so good at finding things in the forest. They just seemed to leap out to her. I wonder why I’m so good at this, she thought. I guess it’s like the games I used to play at Arkin’s when I was a little girl. Arkin had spent many days watching Sasha when her mother was busy with a patient. He had played all kinds of interesting games with her, some with memory and others with finding things. She marveled at how the games she’d played as a child now helped her as an adult. The teacher was also interesting, especially lately.
Legon and Sasha had decided that Arkin was not working for the empire and that he probably wasn’t a major threat. They came to this conclusion after Legon made the observation that Arkin had taught him, Barnin, and Kovos everything they knew about fighting. It wouldn’t make sense to train your enemy how to fight. He had also taught Legon everything he knew about hunting, from tracking to stalking. In truth it scared her to see that many of the skills that seemed so unique and important were taught by one person.
She continued to walk, looking for places that the mushrooms would be. They had also decided that just because Arkin wasn’t an imminent threat didn’t mean that he wasn’t a threat. The fact was, they didn’t know how Arkin knew as much as he claimed and why he had taught them so much. Their training, because they now saw it for what it was, was different for both of them. There were similarities, but no two lessons were the same. He’d used memory games with both, so they both could remember everything with crystal clarity, and he had taught Legon how to fight and fight well.
Legon and Kovos went over to Arkin’s a lot as youngsters to learn how to fight with swords. Arkin would let them fight with wooden staves from the shop and gave them pointers. Kovos came out on top with the blade, although Legon was also extremely good. Arkin also taught them hand to hand combat. They always assumed that he did this because of how often Kovos and Legon got into fights with people about Sasha, but the training was too good for brawlers. Nobody in town could hold a candle to either man. There was so much more going on that she couldn’t wrap her head around.
She diverted her attention to some birds pulling worms out of the ground. She felt for the worm. It was how she felt, like she was being pulled out of her world and thrown into a much larger and more dangerous one. She could only hope that, unlike the worm, she wouldn’t be eaten.
* * * * *
Legon was tired. He hadn’t gotten much sleep, and from what Sasha had told him, the sleep that he was getting was haunted by nightmares. They didn’t wake him up anymore, and he