• Mutual Pain

    Chapter One

    Grent chewed carefully on the apple, rolling the pieces around in his mouth, savoring its flavor. This was a rare treat, coming from a generous man wheeling around his apple cart. Grent had thanked him profusely, promising to tell tales of his wondrous apples to everyone he knew, and the man had only smiled at him. Grent licked his fingers, threw the apple core away, and looked at Mariah. "Hey, are you gonna-" He stared at her, quietly munching on her apple, looking over Rustborin, a small scenic town. Oh god. I can't ask her for anything, what if she thinks I'm a slob? That'd be bad. Then she'd never like me.
    Mariah was perched on a small rock, brown hair trailing behind her, deep brown eyes focused on something in the distance. She reminded Grent of an eagle, or hawk, focusing on prey in a valley, preparing to swoop down onto it. Mariah interupted his daydream with a shake. "Look, Grent, the scar guy's back. We've gotta keep going to Malindel, otherwise he's gonna catch up to us.
    Grent peered over her shoulder, eyes widening, and he started to feel panic. "Mariah, they've got riding wolves, we cant out run them. Maybe we should head south, along the river? Malindel is still a week away. If we go by boat, we can hit Shonek by tomorrow." Mariah glared at Grent, and shook her head. "That's where we first saw him, remember? What if he has more people back there?"
    Grent sighed. The masked man had been tagging them for days, a bounty hunter for some man, after Grent and Mariah's magic. It wasn't much, the ability to create a flame from nowhere, but if they could get to Malindel, they would be able to create small fireballs! If the MT would teach them, anyway. He was the only magic-teacher left for several hundred miles, and certainly the most powerful for a few thousand more.
    Mariah grabbed Grent and pulled him up, and started walking north. "Come on. If we get there before the end of the week, we'll be there in time to enroll in this months classes."