Any Hero failing in their duty will be stripped of their position within the Hero’s Guild

   -Hero’s Guild Book of Rules

   Rule #1  

   Feral strode into camp, hot and sweaty from the morning’s training. Riven sat on a log beside the fire pit, stoking the remaining coals back to life to prepare their breakfast. Skemm was still asleep; Feral and Riven had silently agreed not to wake her. Will was no where in sight.

   “Well now,” Feral said, sitting down beside Riven and pulling his pack closer to him, “What sounds good for breakfast?”

   He peered into the pouch where he stored their rations. Normally, the sight of nothing but the pale white and yellow roots that Riven was so good at foraging would diminish his excitement for breakfast. This morning was a bit different: he had a secret weapon.

   “I’m thinking mashed roots this morning,” he said casually.

   Riven cocked an eyebrow and gave him a quizzical smile.

   “Mashed?” Riven asked.

   “Yes,” Feral said and he pulled out a short knife and began scraping off the tough outer skins on  the roots. “Might improve their texture.”

   “Save the skins,” Riven said before rising to her feet and walking out of camp.

   Feral pulled a small square of scrap leather from his pack and began storing the scrapped off peels on it. He had no idea what Riven wanted with them, but he did as she asked. They might be useful, or it might just give Riven something to laugh about.

   Skemm stirred and Feral shot a quick glance to where Riven had just been, though she was now out of sight. He’d been enjoying the morning so thoroughly and didn’t want it spoiled by being alone in camp when Skemm woke up and realized they’d let her oversleep. He wondered if Riven had left when she did because she had already noticed Skemm waking up. Of course he could have just woken her up on time and then avoided the confrontation that he now saw as inevitable.

     Skemm sat bolt upright.

   “Wha- What time is it?” She asked.

   “Oh, good morning,” Feral said with as much nonchalance as he could muster.

   Skemm looked up and marked where the sun was in the sky.

   “Why didn’t you wake me?”

   Feral tried to think of a good excuse but each one he thought of was worse than the previous excuse and he ended up mouthing wordlessly until he settled on just shrugging and returning his attention to the roots.

   “Unbelievable,” Skemm muttered and left it at that.

   Relieved, Feral began smashing the peeled roots between two rocks. Their fibers were tough but not so much so that he wasn’t able to begin forming a decent paste before too long.

   “I’m going down to the stream for a wash,” Skemm said with a wary eye on Feral.

   “And I have every intention of staying here by the fire the entire time that you’re gone,” Feral reassured her. “Breakfast should be ready when you get back.”

   Skemm left and Feral, chancing a quick look around to make sure he was alone, pulled his secret weapon from one of his belt pouches: small rock shards with white stripes running through them. Feral poured a bit of water from his water skin into their small cooking pot and then added the rocks before placing it all onto the hot coals. The water began to boil before too long and by the time he’d finished mashing up the roots the water had all boiled out. Feral took the pot off the coals and inspected it. Sure enough, there were small white lines and grains stuck to the sides of the pot.

   Salt.

   Feral tipped the hot rocks out of the pot to save for later and then added the mashed roots and a bit more water before replacing the pot back onto the coals. He also took out his knife and carved off a piece of fat from one of the pieces of goat meat left over from the night before and added that to the pot.

   They were close to the armies now. They could catch up to them in just a couple of days if they wanted to but Feral had his doubts. It had been a long time since he’d last worked with a Hero and it was because of that experience that he was so uncertain. What would Skemm do when the fighting began? It was bound to be a difficult battle and if she decided it was too much, too insurmountable, would she hold to her Guild’s rules? Heroes aren’t supposed to lose, after all.

   Riven returned to their camp, followed shortly afterward by Skemm. Both of them had apparently had the same idea about washing in the stream and they were still wringing the water out of their hair.

   Feral offered them each a bowl of his mashed roots and then sat back to eat his own portion. Riven ate hers without giving so much as a sign that she noticed anything special about her meal but Skemm’s eyes brightened after her first bite.

   “What is in this?” She asked.

   “Just roots,” Feral said though it was obvious Skemm didn’t believe him.

   “Wait,” Skemm said suddenly, looking around at their camp, “Where’s Will?”

   “Oh, don’t worry,” Feral said, “I’ve saved him some.”

   Feral gestured to the pot.

   “That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Skemm said.

   “Well, he’s your apprentice,” Feral shrugged.

   “Well did you see where he went?”

   “He wanted to train with me this morning,” Feral conceded.

   “So you—

   “I said he wanted to, not that I let him. It’s not my responsibility to train your apprentice.”

   Skemm continued to stare him down and Feral was relieved to see actual concern for her apprentice in her expression.

   “He tried to follow me when I went running this morning,” Feral explained. “But he couldn’t keep up and fell behind after a mile or so.”

   Skemm was on her feet at once.

   “You left him out there?” She exclaimed. “A mile from camp? How could you? He’s only a boy!”

   “I ran him in circles,” Feral chuckled, “Never got very far from camp. Only a complete idiot would need more than a few minutes to walk back to camp.”

   “And it’s been how long ago since then?”

   “Oh come on,” Feral said, “You wouldn’t apprentice a complete idiot.”

   “How long ago, Feral?” Skemm demanded.

   “I don’t know,” Feral hedged, “A couple hours…before you woke up.”

   “What?!” Skemm shouted and both Riven and Feral signaled for her to lower her voice.

   “We are getting really close to the armies,” Riven said, “And shouting like that is a great way to let their scouts know we’re here.”

   Skemm left them without another word.

   Feral got to his feet a moment later and dusted himself off. “Wait a bit and then go after her,” he said, “I’ll have the boy back by the time the sun’s passing those cliffs.”

   Feral knew where he could find the boy, not because he’d told him to go there, but because he knew what the only thing worth watching for this long was and where the only place to watch it was as well. It was a decent hike to the lookout point, one he’d already made that day, and sure enough he found Will crouched among the rocks, looking down into the distant valley. A few lines of smoke rose here and there across the valley below and a couple of small groups of soldiers could be seen occasionally as they patrolled.

   Will started when Feral tapped him on the shoulder.

   “Your master’s looking for you,” Feral said and then nodded his head towards camp as a signal for Will to follow him.

   Feral still didn’t know whether he liked having the boy in their group or not. Certainly he wasn’t pleased with the prospect of trying to keep Will safe once the fighting began. He kept trying to tell himself that Will was Skemm’s responsibility, not his, but he was in charge of their group and whoever was in charge was responsible for everyone and everything.

   “Walk more quietly along here,” Feral warned as he caught sight of a scouting party moving along just a mile or so below them in the valley. “Like this,” he added and demonstrated the way a person could walk, rolling from the edge of their foot to the flat to minimize noise.

   Will caught on quickly and Feral allowed himself a brief smile.

   By the time they were back in camp, Riven and Skemm had returned and were just finishing packing up. As soon as she saw Will, Skemm rushed over to him.

   “Are you okay?” She asked, checking him over as though expecting to find some injury.

   “Yeah, I’m fine,” Will said and it was apparent he knew he was in trouble for being gone for so long.

   “I was so worried,” Skemm admitted once she was sure he wasn’t injured, “I’m sure you were too, being lost out there for so long.”

   “What are you talking about?” Will asked.

   “Feral abandoned you!” Skemm exclaimed, “You were lost for hours.”

   “No I wasn’t,” Will corrected her.

   “What?”

   “It only took me a couple minutes to walk back to camp after I was done running with Feral,” Will explained. “He kept us pretty close to camp. I could hear Riven whistling to herself the whole time.”

   “Then where have you been?” Skemm asked.

   “Oh, after I got back to camp Riven mentioned that there were probably some Western Realm soldiers nearby so I went scouting to see if I could spot them.”

   “And you believed her?” Skemm turned an accusatory eye on Riven.

   “Of course,” Will said, confused, “And I found them.”

   “And that’s why it’s time to go,” Feral cut in, hoisting his pack onto his back.

   “You knew they were out there and you let him go off wandering?” Skemm was beside herself.

   “I told you they were,” Feral said, “Last night, remember? I even drew you a little map. Besides,” Feral added, “The boy’s fine, see? No harm done.”

   “And Feral showed me how to walk all quietly,” Will told Skemm, “So they wouldn’t hear me.”

   Will demonstrated it for Skemm but she was only partly paying attention to him now.

   “Not your responsibility to train him, huh?” She said and Feral knew he’d been caught in his own words.

   “Well,” Feral began to defend himself, “If you trained him properly I wouldn’t have to pick up the slack. What do you think my real reason was for keeping so close to camp during my run?”

   Skemm was incensed.

     “You think you can do a better job training a Hero’s Apprentice?” Skemm asked flattly.

     “Yes!” Feral said before he could stop himself.

   What was he doing? He wanted to have as little to do with Heroes and  their hypocritical rules and pompous behavior, but he felt himself being swiftly drawn in.

   “Fine,” Skemm said with an air of triumph about her, “I’ve had Will for a week, so now he’ll be yours to train for a week and we’ll just see how that goes.”

   Feral was shaking hands with Skemm just as the reality of what he had agreed to finally sunk in. Judging from Skemm’s expression she too was arriving at the same realization. Though both were obviously regretting it, neither was willing to back down now.

   Will had stepped a ways away from the pair as they argued and Riven had gone over to stand beside him, her hand resting on his shoulder.

   “Good luck,” Feral heard Riven whisper to Will and he knew that she meant it.

   Will however looked ecstatic at the prospect of finally getting to learn from Feral. For his part, Feral wondered just how long that excitement would last.