Before the sun graced the horizon, all of the birds in the forest woke up all at the same time. The constant chirping woke Dustin from his sleep. He had taken the first watch and was able to get some undisturbed sleep up until now. Marcus was on the last watch, he was awake and watching the fire slowly turn to embers.
The clearing was not very large. The horses were tied to a large stump near the edge of the clearing, the road ran through the side of the clearing and the four had made camp in the centre of the area. In the centre of the clearing you have a better chance against attackers, thankfully the night was uneventful.
Dustin got up and walked over towards Marcus, “So, what’s Pespid like?”
“Huh, oh well it’s larger than Norfolk. Probably three times the size of your home town of Atanna.” Marcus replied.
“Really, do all the villages get larger as we approach the Outer Circle?”
“Some do” Marcus answered. “Some smaller villages started popping up here and there around the larger cities. The distance between cities decreases as you get closer to the outer ring.”
“Will it be a long journey to Colodia from Pespid?” Dustin paused for a breath, “I know there are two villages in between Pespid and Colodia, but are the distances shorter?”
“I’ve never been to Colodia” Marcus replied. “I don’t know exactly how far Colodia is from Pespid, but I do know that it’s only a one day journey to the next town on your way to Colodia. Bingham is the town closest to Pespid. I think that’s as far as I will be going.”
“You’re not going on to Colodia with us?”
“No, I am needed in Bingham for some training. There seems to be a lot of that going on lately.” Marcus replied. “I’m sure the three of you will have no problems from there. I think there are a couple of apprentices in Bingham that will be going with you.”
“I haven’t been around many apprentices, Atanna is really quite small and the other towns really only had one or two Messengers.” Dustin said.
The others began to stir. The sun was just gracing the horizon when the four of them were ready to move on. They had to move quickly this time; the next clearing was quite far away. Another long ride began when the sun cleared the horizon.
As the day went on, Dustin could really feel the length of the journey. Was he really cut out to ride further than he had before, deep down he was positive. The day seemed to take forever to reach high sun; Dustin could not remember the last time a day moved this slowly. Wind on his face kept mixing with the wisps of dust stirred up by the two horses in front of him, stinging his eyes. The four rode on, wordless.
Come back next week for Part 3
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