*Tom's view*
Tom paced his nephew's bedroom, worried sick about what happened to Alex and Phi. The last he had heard they sounded as if they were about to be devoured by a gigantic spider-like immortal. That could mean one of three things: they had been eaten, they had lost their necklaces or they were broken in the fight, or they had gotten away and become so interested in their present situation that they had forgotten to talk to him. Hoping that it was the latter option, he sat back down on Devic's bed to gather his thoughts. They had been gone now for almost two days. Both Alex and Phi's work had already called to see why they were absent from their job, and Tom had told them that there had been a family emergency and they had left the area and no, he didn't know when they would be back. He was telling the truth, as long as they didn't ask for details.
Sighing, he stood back up and walked towards the kitchen. He was going to need some food if he were going to be standing watch all night...food and a serious dosage of caffeine.
*In Tortall (Devic's (y) View)*
The man bent over Devic, "Hello...You look like you need some help..." Devic tried to speak but only managed a squeak and the man shook his head, "I would call that a yes..." He reached his hand out from behind his cloak and offered it to Devic, who stared at it blankly. The man sighed, "Take it."
Cautiously, Devic raised his arm and gripped the hand lightly, and was hauled to his feet. After stumbling around a bit, trying to regain his footing he looked up at the stranger and said in a strained voice, "You're the thing that was chasing me...What did you do to them?"
"Nothing that you should be concerned with. After all, I thought I was doing you a favor, ridding you of those barbarians."
"You killed them, didn't you?"
The man shrugged nonchalantly, "Of course I did."
Devic tripped again, nearly falling to his knees, but caught himself at the last second as he tried to put some distance in between him and his pursuer, "Who are you? What do you want?"
A small grin reappeared on the man's face, "Nothing more Devic, than to assist you..."
Devic winced as some pain shot through his leg and he was forced to sit down on the grass, cornered in the small valley by the steep hill he had fallen down what seemed like only moments before, "How do you know my name?"
"I know more than that Devic...I know everything about you..."
"You're lying!"
"Am I? You are quite brave, or putting on quite a brave face anyway, for one so young. You are truly Alexander and Phiona's son...Soon you will discover for yourself that I not only know about you; I know everything."
The boy felt his hands trembling but hid them underneath his legs "Prove it!"
The man sighed again, massaging his forehead, "Very well, but only because it will amuse me to prove to you just how wrong you are...Your favorite color is green, favorite food is your mother's spaghetti, you enjoy playing on the beach or under your deck where you have built a small fort out of firewood and an old tire. The most embarrassing moment in your small life was when you forgot how to speak English in front of your fourth grade class, your favorite book is The Adventures of Robin Hood, and your favorite movie is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
Devic gaped up at the stranger, "But...how-I never told anyone about...Who-? Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm just getting warmed up...But I will not waste my breath, after all, I think you get the idea. You couldn't be that stupid...Come, we must hurry."
Devic scooted further away, "I'm not going with you! You'll probably kill me! And I still don't know who you are!"
"Listen boy, if I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead. However, if you do not come with me now, there would be no point in keeping you alive so I suppose I might as well kill you. And since you are being so persistent, and it really does not matter much in the grand scheme of things, my name is Trycos...It is a name I am sure you will remember. Now, follow me."
Devic was about to refuse, but suddenly his legs started moving without him wanting them to. He rose to his feet and began to walk along side Trycos, who was staring straight ahead as he began to pass back into the forest. Devic struggled, trying to grab onto passing trees with his arms and dig his heels into the ground, but nothing worked, "Where are you going?"
"You will see soon enough. Do not ask such silly questions. Everything I want you to know, I will tell you, and as of right now, you know nothing that I do not want you to know. Stop fighting or you will begin to give me a headache."
"Wha-You're doing this? Stop it!"
Trycos laughed and shook his head, "Very brave or very stupid, I have not decided which yet..."
"Let me go!"
This time, Trycos didn't even bother to reply, and just laughed again as if this whole ordeal was extremely amusing to him. After about half an hour of shouting, whining, and complaining, Devic finally lost interest and hope in the idea of trying to escape his involuntary march and instead amused himself by trying to think up an getaway plan that he could use after Trycos released him. Every once and a while, he heard Trycos snort or laugh, and it started to get on his nerves after a while. Of course, the weird tickling that he was constantly feeling in the back of his mind didn't help much either.
***
Alex woke up with a start, surprised into consciousness by a shout coming from outside. As his thoughts came back into focus, he realized that Devic must be getting his men ready to ride back to the capital. He smiled and pulled Phi closer. Good. That meant that they could sleep in a little longer. He was about to close his eyes when he heard a loud yawn coming from the other side of Phi and watched as Luke sat up groggily, wiping his eyes. Alex frowned, giving up on the idea of getting any more sleep now and sat up, reaching for his shirt as the crisp morning air hit him.
Phi blinked and yawned, then rolled over and grabbed Luke, pulling him into a big bear hug. He protested, and struggled to wiggle free, "Mommy! Let me go!"
She smiled playfully and tickled her son, causing him to fall back on their sleeping-mat laughing, "Oh, now that we found you, I can't even hug you anymore, is that it?"
Luke grinned sheepishly after he finished giggling, then sat back up and glanced over at Alex, "Hey Daddy, what did the Scarman say last night?"
Alex blinked, pulling his shirt on over his head, "Who?"
"Scarman; the guy with the scar on his face...What'd he say?"
"Oh...you mean Devic-"
"No, I mean that guy that you're talkin' too..." Suddenly, the boy looked excited, "You know where Devic is? I looked all over an' couldn't find him-"
Alex sighed, "No, the man with the scar's name is Devic. We're going to go out looking for your brother, the five of us."
Luke counted on his fingers, then gazed back up at Alex with his large brown eyes, "Five? Um...There's me, you, mommy, and Sca- I mean Devic...That's four..."
Phi found her sweater and put it on, "And Will makes five."
Luke turned to her, looking very confused, "Who's Will?"
"He's the other man that was sitting with us around the fire last night...The man with the curly black hair?"
"Oh!...Okay, so that's five I guess..."
Phi looked at Luke thoughtfully, "How did you get by without knowing their language?"
"Devic knew it...He would talk to them an' then tell me what to do... After he left, it was lots harder..."
Alex smiled down at Luke as he pulled on his jacket, "I would guess it would be...We should find you some new clothes, you've worn these ones ragged!"
Luke shrugged, then scampered out of the tent after Phi and Alex, who checked behind them to make sure he was coming. Phi spotted Devic leaning up against a tree that stood near the middle of the encampment, and they walked over to him.
When he noticed them coming towards him, he stood up straight and gave them a small smile, "I hope you all had a pleasant enough night, considering the circumstances. I am sorry if we woke you."
Phi grinned, "It's no big deal...When do you think we'll be leaving by?"
Devic, frowned, glanced around camp, then up at the sky, "Weather and Mithros permitting, we should be able to leave by about nine. I would estimate that it is about eight right now, so that gives you about an hour to prepare...Will that work well for you?"
Alex nodded, "Oh, that's more than enough time...We don't have much to pack up after all, although we'd be happy to give you a hand packing up those tents."
Devic shook his head, "Thank you for your offer but," he motioned towards their tent. They looked over and saw that it was already being packed up, "my men are already taking care of it. I was thinking that we could take just four horses between us when we go off on our own and take two tents so we could pack lightly. We will be able to travel faster that way..."
Phi nodded, "That would work fine. Luke can ride on one of our horses and than when we find Devic he can ride on which ever one of us has half a saddle left..."
Devic smiled softly, "Then it is settled...Once again, I apologize for being a poor host but I must make sure my troops are ready to head back to Corus. Excuse me." With that he gave them a quick bow and strode over to stand by Will who was giving brief orders to the knights on what to do when they reached the Palace.
Luke tugged on Phi's sleeve, "What did he say now Mom?"
She kneeled down next to him and rustled his hair, "He said that we get to go on a little horseback ride in an hour...Do you want to ride with Daddy or me?" The boy shrugged and Phi stood and turned to Alex, "Who do you think he should ride with?"
"How about he rides with me...That way when we find Devic he can ride with you and the weight will be more balanced. I'm heavier than you and Luke is lighter than Devic, so that will work out fine..."
Phi nodded and Luke poked Alex's leg, "So I'm riding with you?"
Alex grinned down at him, "Yep. What do you say we go find out which horse is ours and start packing it up?"
"Okay!" The little boy reached up and grabbed each of his parents' hands and walked happily in between them as they headed over to where the horses were tethered up.
***
It was close to noon and Devic (y) sat on a flat rock, his knees pulled close to his chest, and glowered at Trycos uneasily. The man was perched up on a tree branch, staring out over the forest, as if he were watching for something. Devic sighed and blew his bangs out of his eyes. They had been sitting for nearly an hour for no apparent reason, and every time Devic tried to protest he suddenly found that he had to sneeze, so he could never get a word out. He didn't trust Trycos in the least, but so far the stranger, although casting some weird spells on him, hadn't hurt him or really mistreated him, but Devic still remembered him from somewhere but he couldn't remember where. To be more precise, he remembered his face, and his laugh, and that was it.
Suddenly, a droning voice drifted down from the branches of the tree Trycos was sitting in, "Well of course you remember me...After I went to all the trouble to send you those dreams, it is the least you could do to finally remember them..."
No longer surprised by the strange phenomena of Trycos somehow knowing exactly what he was thinking, Devic replied dryly, "I have no idea what you are talking about..."
There was a pause, and a response came down softly from the foliage, "Oh, I think you do...Think about it. You were probably...Oh, I would say about three years old when they started, and lasted until you were about seven. You should at least remember some of them."
"Well I don't."
There was a sigh, and Trycos jumped from about forty feet up, landing on his feet with cat-like reflexes, "Stop being difficult. If you do not remember them at all, then how is it that you were able to navigate through this forest without me giving you directions? If you haven't been paying attention, I would like to point out that it is you, not I who led us to this place...And why is that? Because when you were six sent you a dream that repeated itself at least ten times in your budding mind that led you to this very spot every single time. How is it, do you suppose, that you were able to find the Scanran camp immediately after you landed here and then just happened to run straight to the Tortallan camp, hmm?"
Devic remained silent, but his mind was buzzing. He did actually remember that dream. He had had it when he was five. There had been a monster behind him and he had run off through the forest, taking the exact same path to escape the monster that he had taken in Tortall to escape the Scan.
"That is right, because you had already ran down that same trail seven times before in your mind. Of course you were only subconsciously aware of all that until now, but I thought that I should let you know so that you will be aware of why you are making the choices you are making in the future..."
Devic stared at the man, then frowned, "I just won't go the way you told me to go then. I'll go the opposite way so that I won't go where you want me to."
"But what if I was telling you to go a certain way for a good reason? What if I told you to go that way because the other way led to a terrible and excruciating death?"
Devic leaned his chin on his knees, his brain starting to hurt. There was only so much a twelve year old could easily comprehend. "Then I'll figure it out and go the other way."
"Even if that other way is the way that I told you to go, the same way where you just told me you wouldn't go because I had told you to?"
The boy blinked, "Um, ya...I think so..."
Trycos smiled, leaning back against the tree imperturbably, "Very good..."
He was about to jump back up into the tree when Devic said, "Why are we staying here anyway? Why won't you take me back to the Devic's camp?"
"Because of two very important details. First, it may not have occurred to you, but you may want to consider the fact that I may not want you to return into Tortallan custody. After all, if I had not cared whether they were watching you or not, why would I have gone to all the trouble of luring you away from their camp? Secondly, they have been traveling all of yesterday afternoon and all of this morning, resting only briefly during the night, and they are on horseback. With you tagging along it would be near impossible trying to catch up with them on foot, and unless a horse were to magically appear out of the trees, which mind you isn't impossible, I would not even bother to attempt such a thing."
"Wait a minute...If I wasn't tagging along you could catch up with them?"
Trycos rolled his eyes, "Boy, if you weren't here, I could get to Corus, lay siege to and ransack the whole city single-handedly and return to this very spot before the Tortallans even got half way there."
"So I guess that's a yes?"
"Yes...that would indeed be a yes."
Trycos returned to his perch in a single leap and a few more moments passed before Devic lifted his head with a thoughtful expression on his face and called up, "So if you know what's going to happen, then why are you even bothering with all of this?"
"Because it has not happened yet."
Devic scowled and began to trace little pictures in the dirt lying on the rock with his finger. He heard the gentle rustling of branches up above and muttered, "Freak..." In response, there was a low, chilling laugh that made Devic wish he had never opened his mouth. He remained sitting there for over another hour, standing up occasionally to stretch his legs or change his position on the stone. Finally Trycos reappeared by the tree trunk and motioned for Devic to stand, "Come. We have a long way to go, and we must get there by sun down."
Devic gaped at the man, "What the? Then why did we just spend forever just sitting here when we could have been walking?!"
Trycos flashed a sly grin at the boy and Devic once again felt his legs begin to move involuntarily and he walked over and stood in front of Trycos. "Because my dear boy, I find it enjoyable to cause you pain...Now, we should hurry. Immortals often roam these parts of the woods...It would be a shame if you were to be eaten when you have already been through so much."
Devic swallowed, and grudgingly followed the man as he passed, wraithlike, back into the emerald shades of the forest.
Tom paced his nephew's bedroom, worried sick about what happened to Alex and Phi. The last he had heard they sounded as if they were about to be devoured by a gigantic spider-like immortal. That could mean one of three things: they had been eaten, they had lost their necklaces or they were broken in the fight, or they had gotten away and become so interested in their present situation that they had forgotten to talk to him. Hoping that it was the latter option, he sat back down on Devic's bed to gather his thoughts. They had been gone now for almost two days. Both Alex and Phi's work had already called to see why they were absent from their job, and Tom had told them that there had been a family emergency and they had left the area and no, he didn't know when they would be back. He was telling the truth, as long as they didn't ask for details.
Sighing, he stood back up and walked towards the kitchen. He was going to need some food if he were going to be standing watch all night...food and a serious dosage of caffeine.
*In Tortall (Devic's (y) View)*
The man bent over Devic, "Hello...You look like you need some help..." Devic tried to speak but only managed a squeak and the man shook his head, "I would call that a yes..." He reached his hand out from behind his cloak and offered it to Devic, who stared at it blankly. The man sighed, "Take it."
Cautiously, Devic raised his arm and gripped the hand lightly, and was hauled to his feet. After stumbling around a bit, trying to regain his footing he looked up at the stranger and said in a strained voice, "You're the thing that was chasing me...What did you do to them?"
"Nothing that you should be concerned with. After all, I thought I was doing you a favor, ridding you of those barbarians."
"You killed them, didn't you?"
The man shrugged nonchalantly, "Of course I did."
Devic tripped again, nearly falling to his knees, but caught himself at the last second as he tried to put some distance in between him and his pursuer, "Who are you? What do you want?"
A small grin reappeared on the man's face, "Nothing more Devic, than to assist you..."
Devic winced as some pain shot through his leg and he was forced to sit down on the grass, cornered in the small valley by the steep hill he had fallen down what seemed like only moments before, "How do you know my name?"
"I know more than that Devic...I know everything about you..."
"You're lying!"
"Am I? You are quite brave, or putting on quite a brave face anyway, for one so young. You are truly Alexander and Phiona's son...Soon you will discover for yourself that I not only know about you; I know everything."
The boy felt his hands trembling but hid them underneath his legs "Prove it!"
The man sighed again, massaging his forehead, "Very well, but only because it will amuse me to prove to you just how wrong you are...Your favorite color is green, favorite food is your mother's spaghetti, you enjoy playing on the beach or under your deck where you have built a small fort out of firewood and an old tire. The most embarrassing moment in your small life was when you forgot how to speak English in front of your fourth grade class, your favorite book is The Adventures of Robin Hood, and your favorite movie is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
Devic gaped up at the stranger, "But...how-I never told anyone about...Who-? Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm just getting warmed up...But I will not waste my breath, after all, I think you get the idea. You couldn't be that stupid...Come, we must hurry."
Devic scooted further away, "I'm not going with you! You'll probably kill me! And I still don't know who you are!"
"Listen boy, if I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead. However, if you do not come with me now, there would be no point in keeping you alive so I suppose I might as well kill you. And since you are being so persistent, and it really does not matter much in the grand scheme of things, my name is Trycos...It is a name I am sure you will remember. Now, follow me."
Devic was about to refuse, but suddenly his legs started moving without him wanting them to. He rose to his feet and began to walk along side Trycos, who was staring straight ahead as he began to pass back into the forest. Devic struggled, trying to grab onto passing trees with his arms and dig his heels into the ground, but nothing worked, "Where are you going?"
"You will see soon enough. Do not ask such silly questions. Everything I want you to know, I will tell you, and as of right now, you know nothing that I do not want you to know. Stop fighting or you will begin to give me a headache."
"Wha-You're doing this? Stop it!"
Trycos laughed and shook his head, "Very brave or very stupid, I have not decided which yet..."
"Let me go!"
This time, Trycos didn't even bother to reply, and just laughed again as if this whole ordeal was extremely amusing to him. After about half an hour of shouting, whining, and complaining, Devic finally lost interest and hope in the idea of trying to escape his involuntary march and instead amused himself by trying to think up an getaway plan that he could use after Trycos released him. Every once and a while, he heard Trycos snort or laugh, and it started to get on his nerves after a while. Of course, the weird tickling that he was constantly feeling in the back of his mind didn't help much either.
***
Alex woke up with a start, surprised into consciousness by a shout coming from outside. As his thoughts came back into focus, he realized that Devic must be getting his men ready to ride back to the capital. He smiled and pulled Phi closer. Good. That meant that they could sleep in a little longer. He was about to close his eyes when he heard a loud yawn coming from the other side of Phi and watched as Luke sat up groggily, wiping his eyes. Alex frowned, giving up on the idea of getting any more sleep now and sat up, reaching for his shirt as the crisp morning air hit him.
Phi blinked and yawned, then rolled over and grabbed Luke, pulling him into a big bear hug. He protested, and struggled to wiggle free, "Mommy! Let me go!"
She smiled playfully and tickled her son, causing him to fall back on their sleeping-mat laughing, "Oh, now that we found you, I can't even hug you anymore, is that it?"
Luke grinned sheepishly after he finished giggling, then sat back up and glanced over at Alex, "Hey Daddy, what did the Scarman say last night?"
Alex blinked, pulling his shirt on over his head, "Who?"
"Scarman; the guy with the scar on his face...What'd he say?"
"Oh...you mean Devic-"
"No, I mean that guy that you're talkin' too..." Suddenly, the boy looked excited, "You know where Devic is? I looked all over an' couldn't find him-"
Alex sighed, "No, the man with the scar's name is Devic. We're going to go out looking for your brother, the five of us."
Luke counted on his fingers, then gazed back up at Alex with his large brown eyes, "Five? Um...There's me, you, mommy, and Sca- I mean Devic...That's four..."
Phi found her sweater and put it on, "And Will makes five."
Luke turned to her, looking very confused, "Who's Will?"
"He's the other man that was sitting with us around the fire last night...The man with the curly black hair?"
"Oh!...Okay, so that's five I guess..."
Phi looked at Luke thoughtfully, "How did you get by without knowing their language?"
"Devic knew it...He would talk to them an' then tell me what to do... After he left, it was lots harder..."
Alex smiled down at Luke as he pulled on his jacket, "I would guess it would be...We should find you some new clothes, you've worn these ones ragged!"
Luke shrugged, then scampered out of the tent after Phi and Alex, who checked behind them to make sure he was coming. Phi spotted Devic leaning up against a tree that stood near the middle of the encampment, and they walked over to him.
When he noticed them coming towards him, he stood up straight and gave them a small smile, "I hope you all had a pleasant enough night, considering the circumstances. I am sorry if we woke you."
Phi grinned, "It's no big deal...When do you think we'll be leaving by?"
Devic, frowned, glanced around camp, then up at the sky, "Weather and Mithros permitting, we should be able to leave by about nine. I would estimate that it is about eight right now, so that gives you about an hour to prepare...Will that work well for you?"
Alex nodded, "Oh, that's more than enough time...We don't have much to pack up after all, although we'd be happy to give you a hand packing up those tents."
Devic shook his head, "Thank you for your offer but," he motioned towards their tent. They looked over and saw that it was already being packed up, "my men are already taking care of it. I was thinking that we could take just four horses between us when we go off on our own and take two tents so we could pack lightly. We will be able to travel faster that way..."
Phi nodded, "That would work fine. Luke can ride on one of our horses and than when we find Devic he can ride on which ever one of us has half a saddle left..."
Devic smiled softly, "Then it is settled...Once again, I apologize for being a poor host but I must make sure my troops are ready to head back to Corus. Excuse me." With that he gave them a quick bow and strode over to stand by Will who was giving brief orders to the knights on what to do when they reached the Palace.
Luke tugged on Phi's sleeve, "What did he say now Mom?"
She kneeled down next to him and rustled his hair, "He said that we get to go on a little horseback ride in an hour...Do you want to ride with Daddy or me?" The boy shrugged and Phi stood and turned to Alex, "Who do you think he should ride with?"
"How about he rides with me...That way when we find Devic he can ride with you and the weight will be more balanced. I'm heavier than you and Luke is lighter than Devic, so that will work out fine..."
Phi nodded and Luke poked Alex's leg, "So I'm riding with you?"
Alex grinned down at him, "Yep. What do you say we go find out which horse is ours and start packing it up?"
"Okay!" The little boy reached up and grabbed each of his parents' hands and walked happily in between them as they headed over to where the horses were tethered up.
***
It was close to noon and Devic (y) sat on a flat rock, his knees pulled close to his chest, and glowered at Trycos uneasily. The man was perched up on a tree branch, staring out over the forest, as if he were watching for something. Devic sighed and blew his bangs out of his eyes. They had been sitting for nearly an hour for no apparent reason, and every time Devic tried to protest he suddenly found that he had to sneeze, so he could never get a word out. He didn't trust Trycos in the least, but so far the stranger, although casting some weird spells on him, hadn't hurt him or really mistreated him, but Devic still remembered him from somewhere but he couldn't remember where. To be more precise, he remembered his face, and his laugh, and that was it.
Suddenly, a droning voice drifted down from the branches of the tree Trycos was sitting in, "Well of course you remember me...After I went to all the trouble to send you those dreams, it is the least you could do to finally remember them..."
No longer surprised by the strange phenomena of Trycos somehow knowing exactly what he was thinking, Devic replied dryly, "I have no idea what you are talking about..."
There was a pause, and a response came down softly from the foliage, "Oh, I think you do...Think about it. You were probably...Oh, I would say about three years old when they started, and lasted until you were about seven. You should at least remember some of them."
"Well I don't."
There was a sigh, and Trycos jumped from about forty feet up, landing on his feet with cat-like reflexes, "Stop being difficult. If you do not remember them at all, then how is it that you were able to navigate through this forest without me giving you directions? If you haven't been paying attention, I would like to point out that it is you, not I who led us to this place...And why is that? Because when you were six sent you a dream that repeated itself at least ten times in your budding mind that led you to this very spot every single time. How is it, do you suppose, that you were able to find the Scanran camp immediately after you landed here and then just happened to run straight to the Tortallan camp, hmm?"
Devic remained silent, but his mind was buzzing. He did actually remember that dream. He had had it when he was five. There had been a monster behind him and he had run off through the forest, taking the exact same path to escape the monster that he had taken in Tortall to escape the Scan.
"That is right, because you had already ran down that same trail seven times before in your mind. Of course you were only subconsciously aware of all that until now, but I thought that I should let you know so that you will be aware of why you are making the choices you are making in the future..."
Devic stared at the man, then frowned, "I just won't go the way you told me to go then. I'll go the opposite way so that I won't go where you want me to."
"But what if I was telling you to go a certain way for a good reason? What if I told you to go that way because the other way led to a terrible and excruciating death?"
Devic leaned his chin on his knees, his brain starting to hurt. There was only so much a twelve year old could easily comprehend. "Then I'll figure it out and go the other way."
"Even if that other way is the way that I told you to go, the same way where you just told me you wouldn't go because I had told you to?"
The boy blinked, "Um, ya...I think so..."
Trycos smiled, leaning back against the tree imperturbably, "Very good..."
He was about to jump back up into the tree when Devic said, "Why are we staying here anyway? Why won't you take me back to the Devic's camp?"
"Because of two very important details. First, it may not have occurred to you, but you may want to consider the fact that I may not want you to return into Tortallan custody. After all, if I had not cared whether they were watching you or not, why would I have gone to all the trouble of luring you away from their camp? Secondly, they have been traveling all of yesterday afternoon and all of this morning, resting only briefly during the night, and they are on horseback. With you tagging along it would be near impossible trying to catch up with them on foot, and unless a horse were to magically appear out of the trees, which mind you isn't impossible, I would not even bother to attempt such a thing."
"Wait a minute...If I wasn't tagging along you could catch up with them?"
Trycos rolled his eyes, "Boy, if you weren't here, I could get to Corus, lay siege to and ransack the whole city single-handedly and return to this very spot before the Tortallans even got half way there."
"So I guess that's a yes?"
"Yes...that would indeed be a yes."
Trycos returned to his perch in a single leap and a few more moments passed before Devic lifted his head with a thoughtful expression on his face and called up, "So if you know what's going to happen, then why are you even bothering with all of this?"
"Because it has not happened yet."
Devic scowled and began to trace little pictures in the dirt lying on the rock with his finger. He heard the gentle rustling of branches up above and muttered, "Freak..." In response, there was a low, chilling laugh that made Devic wish he had never opened his mouth. He remained sitting there for over another hour, standing up occasionally to stretch his legs or change his position on the stone. Finally Trycos reappeared by the tree trunk and motioned for Devic to stand, "Come. We have a long way to go, and we must get there by sun down."
Devic gaped at the man, "What the? Then why did we just spend forever just sitting here when we could have been walking?!"
Trycos flashed a sly grin at the boy and Devic once again felt his legs begin to move involuntarily and he walked over and stood in front of Trycos. "Because my dear boy, I find it enjoyable to cause you pain...Now, we should hurry. Immortals often roam these parts of the woods...It would be a shame if you were to be eaten when you have already been through so much."
Devic swallowed, and grudgingly followed the man as he passed, wraithlike, back into the emerald shades of the forest.