Thank you for the reviews! It's always great to get some feedback.

Emily; I re-read the second chapter, and you were right, "glorious" totally doesn't fit. I switched it for "flawless".

The story is set in sort of a fantasy world... I'm still unclear on where and when it's set, but I'll keep on thinking.

Where am I?

Oh right. I was stuck in an ox-cart with two complete strangers. Lovely.

I stretched a little, sat up and looked around. We had stopped moving, and no one else was in the cart. Had they abandonned me while I slept?

I peered outside. We were parked on the edge of what seemed to be a small town. It was quite cute actually. People were buzzing about. Merchants where selling their goods at little kiosks here and there. It smelled of baking.

Then I realised something.

I was hungry. Very hungry, for that matter. It had been three days since I'd eaten anything.

I decided to go explore, and hopefully get myself some food while I was at it. I packed my quilt into my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and headed for the core of the village. As I walked along, I passed several stands that were selling delicious looking things.

Then again, everything looked delicious when you were ravenous. Even the pig head at the butcher's... On second thought, not so much.

I was wondering how I'd get my hands some chow when I saw a familiar face. It was the man who had been asleep in the cart. He was standing in line for some bread.

I went to greet him.

"You're the man from the ox-cart!" I exclaimed. (Not much of a greeting, really.)

"Oh, um, that's right. And you're the kid Teivel found?" He said, seeming a little uncomfortable.

The man looked to be in his fifty's. He was fairly average in appearence; greying hair, sun burnt skin, blue eyes...

"That's me." I smiled a little. Then I made a point of staring at the bread, longingly. He noticed.

"You're probably hungry. Keep me companie, and I'll spare you a little." He said, winking at me.

"Sounds like a plan." I allready liked this guy.

He bought the bread and we found a quiet place to sit. He introduced himselt as Haydn, and I told him my name was Alister.

"Before I forget to tell you, Teivel went off on his own for a while. Pit-stop, I guess. He said to meet him back at the ox-cart by six this evening." Haydn informed me, while handing me a big chunk of his loaf. I thanked him and chewed vigorously for a while, trying to think of something to make conversation.

"So," I swallowed, since my mouth was full,"Why are you travelling with Teivel?" I asked casually.

Haydn seemed to become nervous again.

"No reason in particular. We were going in the same direction, and he was kind enough to offer me a ride." He told me.

"Hmm, well that was nice of him. He picked me up too. Guess he's a just good guy." I said, not convinced of my own words.

"That's right, a good guy." Haydn agreed.

We munched some more.

"What happened to your arm?" I had noticed it a while ago. He had a little cut on his elbow. It was perfect in a way that made it look intentional.

Haydn almost choked on his bread. Why was he so edgy? He composed himself before answering.

"An accident...I'm clumsy sometimes."

An accident. Of course. As if I was going to believe that. I didn't want to pry though, so I let it slip.

Once we had finished eating, we continued to wander around the town.

"Do you need frechen up?" Haydn offered, "There's a swimming pool ahead. I'm sure they'll have showers there."

"That sounds like exactly what I need, actually." I said, brightning up. I hated being filthy.

There were indeed showers at the pool. The best part of it was that they were free of charge. Haydn left me at the door, telling me he'd see me back at the cart.

The showers wern't great, since the water was being pumped. I didn't mind though. I stood underneath one of them for a long time, getting rid of every bit of grime there was to get rid of. I scrubbed from my head to my toes, using the soap I had packed.

When I finished, I felt squeaky-clean. I dried off and got dressed before going to meet Haydn at the ox-cart. The sun was low in the sky, so it must have been almost six. When I got there, he was feeding the ox, which was apparently named Tom.

We sat around talking for about half an hour before Teivel showed up. He seemed to come out of thin air.

"Hello, both of you." He smiled at us. "Glad to see you look better, Alister."

"Thanks." I muttered.

"Haydn and I have to go off for a while. There are candles in the cart, if you need them. Books too, if they interest you." Teivel said. Haydn was frowning at him.

"Where are you going?" I didn't really care weather I sounded nozy.

"There's some buisiness we have to attend to." Teivel answered in a tone that warned me not to push for more, "We should be back in about twenty minutes."

"Fine. See you later." I replied flatly before watching them walk off towards a small wooded area, probably the only one of it's kind in this desert.

What buiseness could they possibly have to attend to in a forest? It was a mystery to me.

I crept inside of the ox-cart. It was dark allready, so I had a hard time finding the candles. I lit one and put it down on the wooden floor, a little afraid something might catch fire. Then I went to search through a heap of books.

Books might have been great entertainment, if it wern't for the fact that I couldn't read. I'd just never been taught. Luckily I found one with lots of images.

I sat on the mat, flipping through the pages.

The dark was making me somewhat weary. The flickering candle light made everything look spooky, so I began to whistle. Whistling always made me feel a bit safer.

I wasn't sure how I felt about Teivel. He had been kind to me, but he was hiding something. Something important.

You're exaggerating Alisa.

He's a great guy.

You're just to stubborn to believe it.

I decided to forget about the whole affair for the moment, and began analyzing one of the images in the book.

It was a landscape, and it looked wonderful. White sand, a turquoise ocean, clear skys... I tried to decipher some of the words in the caption.

"I brought you some fruit." said a familiar voice, from right beside me.

I just about had a premature heart attack.

It took me a moment to recover. Then I glared at him.

Teivel was looking at me, amused. His maroon eyes were reflecting the fire light. I wanted to slap him silly for scaring me, but I refrained.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to freak you out." He said, handing me the bag of fruit. I took it from him.

"You didn't freak me out." I lied, "Where's Handle?"

"Handle decided he wanted to stay in this town for a while. He won't be travelling with us anymore."

"What? How come?" I asked, surprised. I liked Handle. I didn't want to continue the trip without him.

" I don't know. It was his decision."

Why would Haydn decide suddenly that he wanted to stay in this village? He hadn't mentioned it earlier that day, while we were talking. Did it have anything to do with the buisiness he and Teivel had to attend to? Was he allrite?

We sat there in silence for a moment, before Teivel inched closer, to see which book I was "reading".

"You like travel books?" He asked, a little perplexed.

"Yes. Love them. They make me want to travel." I replied, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

"I see." He said not sounding convinced at all, "Alister?"

"Yes?" I looked up at him. He was staring at me, looking mischievous.

"You told me yesterday that you'd been searching for an 'adventure'."

"Did I? I forget."

"You did. Right before you started snoring. What if I were to tell you that I could offer you the adventure of a life time, for something in return?" He seemed ecxited. I didn't like it.

"What kind of "thing"?" I asked. He couldn't possibly be referring to- Yuck. Of course not.

Then he smiled impishly, and I noticed something I hadn't noticed before.

He had fangs.

"Alister." he said, suddenly very serious. "I have a proposal for you."