Brock soon learned Dariel didn't say very much. He rode behind her on Prancer, an energetic, light brown pony with white mane and tail. He watched her bump in the saddle on her big, chocolate war horse mare, Steadfast, as they trotted at a slow pace up the mountain trail. All around them lay the stark beauty of the mountains: Tall, dignified pines, massive beeches, bushy evergreens, and an occasional poplar stand appeared around them. The only thing that was not spectacular was the weather. It was overcast and drizzling. Dariel's long green cloak covered her and her head, so that he really wouldn't have been able to tell if she was a boy or a girl if he had not already known. "A pity!" he thought, "The most exciting person to visit Hillsboro in years is my traveling companion, and she won't say a word!" "Well then," thought Brock, "What would be going on up North that would require a physician? Perhaps a battle, with wounded. I heard that the Drog Barbarians had tried to cross into Toridar before the Patrol stopped them. That seems to be a clear viola- tion of Arvetan Law. I will ask her if she will..." Just then, Dariel pulled up on the reins of Steadfast. As Brock stopped Prancer, all three of the horses acted nervous and tried to smell something in the air. Dariel turned Steadfast around and brought herself and her horse to a position blocking the road ahead of them, right in front of the two ponies. "Quickly, Brock! My bow and quiver!" Brock reached back, pulled them off the pack pony, and handed them to her. She slung the plain but durable quiver over her shoulder, drew an arrow, notched it, and took aim up the trail. Suddenly, two large black war dogs charged around the bend toward them. In the few seconds that followed, Brock's sharp eyes could see that they had black spiked collars with a pendant that had a double bladed red axe inscribed on it. When they came closer, Dariel tensed and then let fly an arrow... (Q1: What will you do?) End of Chapter 4 Back to Arveta 4 Table of Contents Back to Arveta List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Abram Paradies. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com