Charlie Treaty walked back to his home, a cabin in the woods at castle Redmont in Redmont Fief. His father was Will Treaty, hero of Macindaw and ranger in Araluen. Charlie's dream was to be a ranger, but he had recently discovered that he is very accident prone and has no talent for being a ranger.
"Charlie! Hurry up!" called Charlie's mother Alyss.
"Coming mother!" Charlie called back as he started running towards the house. He was already late for dinner and he was filthy.
"Glad you could grace us with your presence," joked Will "now go clean up and come to the table. Your uncle Halt should be here any minute." As he said this, there was a welcome whinny from Tug, Will's horse, and hoof beats approaching. A few seconds later the door opened and Halt, Will's mentor and Charlie's uncle (not really but Halt just wanted Charlie to call him that).
"And there he is now." Will piped in.
"Hi uncle Halt!" Charlie said running into his embrace.
"And how is my favourite, good-looking, dirty step-nephew?" Halt said smiling.
"I'm good. I have to get cleaned up now. Bye!" Charlie dashed off to his room.
"Good to see he's still in good spirits." Halt chided.
"Yes and growing by the day." Alyss said fondly.
"We are running out of food thanks to how much that boy eats." Will said cheerily. At that point Charlie came back in all clean.
"Hands" Alyss said meaning for him to show her his clean hands. He held them out palms up. Alyss inspected them and when she saw that they were up to her standards she said "alright everyone, sit down before it gets cold." The whole family sat down to dinner.