Chapter 11

"This is the last day we have to train. If you are to get to Spring Meadows before the wedding, we will have to leave soon." Cedric and the Hunter's blades sliced through the air, a sharp clink as they contacted one another again and again.

It had been two weeks since that first night by the fire and the death of Naria from his ignorance the next morning, and they only had that long to get through the Forest of All from one end to the other. Cedric could almost outmaneuver the Hunter now, his feet growing ever lighter and quicker in their matches. He could move silently through thick underbrush, right past a Howler and have it never even smell him. His chocolate-brown eyes had lightened around the outer edge into an icy blue, and the short beginning of a beard on his cheeks was speckled with white.