Jon looked down at his plate for a few seconds, “Big boots you’re asking me to fill Germanius, I’m not sure I’m up to the task.”
“Paint my left leg black and call me a zebra boy,” said Germanius and walked over to Jon and put his hand on Jon’s shoulder. “It’s the thugs that are sure they’re right, they don’t doubt their capabilities. It’s the heroes that worry if they can do it. That’s what stops heroes and lets the scoundrels into the barn. Get off your arse and start acting like a man.”
“You sound like my father,” said Jon and put his own hand on the old warrior’s shoulder.
“I’m getting all weepy here,” said Sorus and put his arms around Mikus as the two young boys began to sob into one another’s shoulders.
“Okay, okay,” said Jon his arm still around Germanius. “I get it. Let me tell you all about what might be up in those hills. You too, Mikus. You’re father doesn’t much like me.” Mikus began to say something but Jon raised his hand and shook his head, “No, no, Mikus. He doesn’t much like me but that doesn’t mean I hold you responsible for the way he thinks. Actually, a lot of people don’t much like me. I’m a spoiled rich kid whose had everything in life go his way and sometimes I get a little full of myself,” he went on.
“A litte?” said Sorus.
“I’m baring my soul here,” said Jon, “and this is what I get?”
“You’ve got a thin hide for someone with such a thick head,” replied Sorus with a smile and Jon laughed.
“Fair enough, Sorus,” said the massive young knight of gray. “Mikus, you’re part of the team and that means you get to hear everything. You can make your own judgment about me. Does that sound about right?”
Mikus nodded his head and remained silent.
“I’m here looking for something called the Staff of Sakatha,” said Jon, “and I when I came over the Mountains of the Orc I spotted a strange mark on a rock up near the peak. It reminded me something my father said about the staff. I’m not getting anything done in town waiting for the First Rider so I thought now was the time to act.”
“That’s the boy,” said Germanius with a nod of his grizzled head. “You can’t wait for somebody else to be a hero.”
“I don’t know about all that old man,” said Jon with a smile on his face, “but I aim to figure out what that thing up on the mountain was and if the First Rider cares to join us then maybe we’ll let him have some of the glory!”
“Let him suck the blister juice off our feet,” said Germanius. “Ours is the glory!”
“Wahoo!” shouted Mikus.
“Who’s going to clean the plates,” said Jon his eyebrows raised.
“Being a hero is sometimes pretty unheroic,” said Sorus, grabbing the plate from Jon’s hand, and walking towards the creek.
“I’ll help,” said Mikus, with a laugh as Jon poured cool water on the fire and began to stomp at it while Germanius limped slowly over to the horses and began to pack up some of the equipment.
They reached the foothills of the Mountains of the Orc that night, but the main trail lay further to the north, so they stopped and camped near a small creek that meandered out of the hills and towards the Frosty Run behind them. Even though it was only their first night together they already seemed to have established a routine as Mikus gathered firewood, Jon and Sorus took care to set up camp, and old man Germanius brushed down the horses and prepared them for the long night.
“Should we let the horses run,” said Jon over his shoulder to Germanius who hobbled the horses with a length of rope.
“Not this close to the mountains,” said the old soldier, suddenly able to hear again apparently thanks to the daylong activity. “Strange critters roam these hills, you’re lucky you didn’t face off agin one on your way over the mountain.”
“I saw a big bear or something one night,” said Jon and walked over to the old man and helped hobble the last horse. “It growled pretty loud but I guess it wasn’t much interested in a tussle.”
“Bears won’t bother ya much unless you’re travelin’ with a lass,” said Germanius. “Them bears can sniff a woman’s blooding from a mile or more away. Then they come’s and kill’s you and leaves the girl as she was. I seen it happen.”
“Really?” said Jon and patted the old man on the back. “I’ll remember to tell my sister that when I get back to Tanelorn. If I ever get back.”
“You might get back one day,” said the old warrior, and then suddenly a pained expression came across his face as he bent over his hands on his legs and let out a grunt.
“What’s the matter?” said Jon and put his big hand on the grizzled veterans back.
“The leg shoots,” said the old man through gritted teeth. “Like a dagger in the back of the leg dragging up and down. Hurts like the rotted tooth needing to get pulled. I gots the Zosters about twenty years ago and now I get these shooters now and again. They get worse the older I get. It’s time to die, past time to die,” said Germanius, standing up, and looking at Jon, his teeth still clenched. “Find me something good to die for boy. That’s what I ask of you.”
Jon put his arm under the ribs of the old warrior and helped him to the small fire that Mikus got started, “You sit down here old man,” he said and helped Germanius to the ground. “I’ll find you something good, I promise you that. Something that folks will be talking about for years to come. What do you say to that?”
Germanius nodded his head and then grimaced in pain again as he sat down with a thump, “I’ll be fine come morning.”
“You just stay there and take it easy old man, me and the kids will cook up some supper, here, take a sip of this,” said Jon and pulled a small leather flask out from his belt. “I was saving it for a victory drink but we might be dead by morning so why not take a jolt now?”
“I like your thinking on that,” said Germanius, took the flask, pulled out the leather stop, tilted it back, and poured a generous amount down his throat. “Ahhh, by the fifth leg of the Black Horse that hits the spot!”
Jon laughed and turned his attention to the camp where he helped Mikus and Sorus finish the fire, get out the bed rolls, put a roast chicken they brought from Black Dale on the fire, and start the water to boil.
Two hours later they were ready for bed as the fire burned brightly in the night and only a few clouds dotted the sky where a half moon shone brightly. “It’s hard to get used to that sky,” said Jon as he looked up. “It changed when I was sailing from Sea’cra to Tarlton.”
“The stars are different in the north?” asked Mikus with a puzzled expression on his face as the two lay on their rolls and gazed skyward. Sorus sat nearby, his back against a tree, and watched the same sky but still wore his chain shirt with his sword out and next to him.
“The world is round,” said Jon. “So when you get past the halfway point the stars change. They’re all different down here, none of the same constellations at all.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Mikus. “I mean, I knew the world was round, everyone knows that cause you can see a ship’s mast come up over the horizon, I just never really thought about how the stars would be different when you look up.” Suddenly the boy stopped and thought for a long time. “Hey, if the world is round, on the other side, in Tanelorn, up is our down.”
“That’s right, Mikus,” said Jon with a smile. “I bet you’re wondering why we don’t all just fall off?”
Mikus laughed and Sorus gave a chuckle from his seated position nearby. “What are you laughing at, Sorus,” said Mikus.
“Not at you,” said Sorus. “I was just thinking about that too. What is up and what is down? I mean, if people up in the north half look up they see the stars above them, but we in the south half look up and see the stars above us, right?”
“Yeah, I guess,” said Mikus, “but that doesn’t make much sense.”
Just then a heavy snore from Germanius came from under his blanket and was followed by a staccato burst of several more.