Camp

The mage before him stared at him as if she'd been slapped.

"Goodbye," I turned my horse to continue down the road, and she didn't follow.

I sighed relief flooding me. If I'd gone against her she would have been able to wound or kill me with a larger fireball. It was hard to gauge how much strength or experience a mage had, and therefore easy to underestimate them in battle. Powerful mages were hard to come by. If you were to take two boys of the exact same back round, and have one train as a mage, and the other as a soldier.

One would grow strong rather quickly as the physical training required to become a soldier was considerable. While the other would grow rather slow, but would have the potential to grow much stronger. Talent was another factor in their growth that could not be overlooked. Properly nurtured a man could become very dangerous very quickly.

I had been talented with the sword when I was young, and had been trained properly, but I also had real world experience with men, and beasts going against me. I knew how to fight dirty if it was needed, and that was the edge that had kept me alive all these years. No matter how poor my equipment. A path cut into the woods to my right, and I steered my horse onto the path. These paths right off the roads often led to good campsites.

From how high the full moon had grown I would have to guess that it was around midnight. The path opened to a humble clearing with a large boulder taller than me, and my horse to one side. The side that faced the clearing was almost flat. I dismounted my horse, and quickly unsaddled her. I removed the bridle quickly, and shook herself bobbing her head.

Happy to be rid of the annoyance of the saddle, and bit. I was easy to build a fire in the small fire pit made of a fist sized stones. There were plenty of sticks, and twigs to get it started with this close to the dense forest. If it wasn't for the small path that led into this little clearing it would have felt like being dropped in the middle of deep forest. The creatures of the night stirred, clicked, and hunted in the underbrush, but none would come near the fire.

I liked this feeling of solitude. It was the only time I could truthfully relax. I fell asleep with my back to the rock face, and my sword close to my hand.