The first thing the children took notice of, was that owl sitting there staring at them. It was getting later but not dark yet at all. Leki saw it on the branch, she felt it was there. But, as close as that branch was to them, they never noticed such a big bird landing there. Surely it can’t have been there all the time. The bird made Leki uneasy: it was staring at her, observing her. Kyell smiled at her, he saw no harm in the bird, except for the leftovers of their meal.

He tried his best to make everything safe, but there was only so little a small boy and a girl could do in such a forest to make it feel safer. Mostly they tried to make as little noise as possible and no light or fire at all. An owl didn’t scare him; he was more worried about soldiers, poachers and thieves.
Still Leki could not relax with that bird sitting there.
’He has killed, Kyell.’xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

‘Who has?’

‘The owl.’

‘Of course he has. Who knows the amount of mice and rodents he butchered.’

‘No Kyell, I mean really killed.’

He gave the owl a glance, more to proof to Leki he wasn’t scared of it. Deep down he knew Leki could feel such things, as irrational as they seemed to him.

He went out a bit to get more sticks with leaves to cover the wagon up. Leki stayed as closed to Petta as she could. The horse breezed, sneering at the owl.
Kyell went out, but just as soon came back upon his steps. Literally: he set every step exactly back the way he had walked out. Very, very slow. With a soft voice, he said to Leki: ‘Forget about the owl, there’s something bigger out there.’

Leki looked at him and immediately felt his fear.

‘What is it Kyell?’

‘A wolf, a loner, and he’s prowling around us.’

‘Hold still Petta, we don’t want that wolf getting angry.’

Both children huddled up against the big horse. Kyell rolled aside the barrel behind Petta, as to give her more room for kicking. Nothing they could do but wait. Leki took a rope in her hands, no other weapon could ever make her feel more secure than a rope. This was her heritage. Even if her mother left their tribe, it was crystal clear that Leki was one of the Kaliari, ‘the rope people’. Kyell held a stick, as much his heritage as the rope was to Leki. Never had he seen his father wield anything more devastating than his mysterious black walking stick. More so now that he had discovered its strange secret at Kildur’s place.

The wolf was probably still there since Petta was still nervous. On the branch, calm as death, that owl still stared at them. He hadn’t moved an inch and that wolf didn’t seem to bother him.

The children waited, nothing else they could do.

’That horse must have quite a kick.’

The voice wasn’t hostile, but it gave them a fright anyhow.

‘Relax. If I meant harm, you would have been skinned by now.’

‘Skinned?’ Leki asked before she thought of keeping her mouth shut. The stranger didn’t answer that. She was a slender woman, dressed in furs and leather. She had kind eyes of a wild kind. Her left arm hang next to her body, holding on to something big that Kyell couldn’t make out.

‘The horse can kill you with one blow.’ Kyell threatened her.

‘So can I.’ The stranger lifted her arm and with a single movement she loaded what appeared to be a big blunderbuss with a leaver that made the gun make a half turn in her hand.

Kyell stepped in front of Petta, trying to swallow his words.
’Is that your owl?’ Leki asked her, seemingly less afraid for some reason.

‘She accompanies me yes, can’t say that I own her. Same goes for the wolf by the way.’

‘You tamed a wolf?’ Kyell pondered.

‘They are her friends Kyell.’ Leki corrected. ‘Right?’

‘Indeed they are.’

‘Your friends are scary.’

‘Good. They should be.’

The stranger sat down, holding her blunderbuss up straight. Kyell couldn’t help but be amazed at the technical marvel this weapon was. He whispered very softly to Leki: ‘Not even Kildur has this.’

‘Actually, it was Kildur who made this.’ The stranger replied, while it was impossible for anyone to hear this clear. ‘And next time that I see the drunken bastard, I will get his behind for letting two children run about unprotected.’

‘We aren’t alone.’ Kyell lied.

‘Don’t even try little man. There isn’t another human being, or anything that resembles human for that matter, in miles around. Just the three of us, kids. Oh, and all these friends of ours of course.’ She smiled.

‘Did you buy that gun from Kildur than?’ Leki inquired, more to clear the air than an actual interest in technical wonders.

‘He gave it to me, if you care to know.’

‘Leki, that is the gun from his wall, the one that was missing from his prize collection. The one he said he gave away to the best hunter he ever raised!’

Kyell tried to fit it in his mind but he couldn’t.

‘You can’t be raised by Kildur, you’re… euh… you’re too…’

‘… big?’

Leki giggled, her brother needed everything to fit logically. She had by now sensed in the way the stranger talked about Kildur, she had to be akin to him, or very close friends at least.

‘My name is Laynah. And yes: I was raised by Kildur and his dwarves in the mountains, and yes it is his gun that I am privileged to use.’

‘I’m Leki, and the one with the cracking brain is Kyell. Oh, and our friend here is Petta, the horse.’

‘How come you are alone here? Surely Kildur did not let you leave on your own when you visited him.’

‘He didn’t. One of his lieutenants came with us. A very rude drunken dwarf, but in fact the bravest dwarf that ever existed: Muredin. He risked his life for us, and we had to run while he stayed behind to fight.’

‘That’s Muredin for you. Any idea what happened to him?’

‘No. He told us to stay in these forests, whatever happened. Do you know what we are supposed to find here?’

‘Nothing. I think I was supposed to find the two of you. Muredin knows well enough I am scouting these woods. Can you tell me where the fighting was, and what exactly you were attacked by?’

The children told Laynah everything they could remember, as confusing as it was since they had no idea about places or the way they went.

‘First the two of you need to get to a safe spot. Than I will go find Muredin and see if that drunk needs another drink, or some real help.’

‘You don’t seem to worried.’

‘She is, Kyell, she just not showing it.’

‘Young lady, you seem to read both animals and people in a rather scary fashion.’

‘Well, I’m not the one who has a killer owl and a wolf as friends.’

‘You’re bound to make even stranger friends, the way you sense things…’

‘What exactly do you do in these woods? What does ‘scouting’ mean exactly?’ Kyell wondered, a little uneasy with that last prophecy about Leki.

‘I am hunting down an animal.’

‘To kill it?’

‘To find it.’

‘What kind of animal?’

‘That depends. One day it leaves bear traces, the next birdmarks. Pretty hard to keep track of, but I’ll get her after this is done.
First things first, break up camp you two, we’re leaving.’