Guardian's Farm 18

I realized something was amiss as the sun started its climb in the sky while Eli was yet to appear. If it was just a few lessons, I might have assumed that he was lazy or changed his mind about the training, but the more I interacted with him, the less I found that believable.

He was too contentious for that to be the case, especially as the noon drew near. “What do you say, Sage?” I asked as I did my best to ignore that nagging feeling. “Should we go and check up on him?”

At any other time, Sage would have reacted negatively, as he treated Eli mostly as an unwelcome distraction, but that wasn’t the case today. Instead, he let out a sharp bark as he stood up, ready to move.

“It’s good that you worry,” I said. “Yes, you can come with me.”

 Once I grabbed my staff, we started our journey. Eli’s village wasn’t close. With the pace of an ordinary villager, using the common pathways, it would have taken about two hours.

I picked a more grueling pace. Not a run, but still faster than the common pace. However, the real difference came from using the paths the others would have avoided, either being too rough, or having potentially dangerous wild animals.

They weren’t a problem for me, not when I had a scary companion of my own. Any beast that lived this close to civilization wouldn’t have challenged a wolf, especially not at the height of the summer, when food was plentiful.

“Tell me I’m worrying for nothing, buddy,” I asked even as I touched Sage’s head. Going to the village was risky, as the less I showed myself, the better. Anonymity was my strongest shield. However, I couldn’t let my caution overshadow my responsibilities.

I might have accepted the offer to teach him on a whim, but that didn’t mean I would let him go when he was facing trouble — if he was facing trouble, I corrected myself, trying to convince myself that I was indeed paranoid.

“Stay hidden once we get close to the village. We don’t want to create chaos,” I requested once the outskirts of the village came into view.

I gave myself a minute to examine the view from a distance. It was a simple village, filled with wooden buildings, enclosed gardens, and chicken coops. At this time of year, with the hardest part of the farm work complete and waiting for harvest, the village should have been a calm, serene location, with villagers enjoying the sun while the children ran around.

Instead, I found an oddly subdued gathering. No children were outside, and while adults walked around, every single one of them displayed intense tension; furrowed brows, worried glances, and tense whispers.

Something was wrong.

That did two things. One, it showed me that my decision to check on Eli was correct. Two, it removed any chance of walking in and having a talk with the villagers about Eli … or talking about anything, for that matter.

Growing up a peasant meant I lacked many advantages my old companions had, forcing me to work more than them just to keep up. But, one thing I knew was the way the villagers behaved under any circumstances.

Currently, I was looking at a spooked, unsettled population, and in such situations, villagers would gather tight like a porcupine, doing their best to defend against any possible follow-ups. Currently, I was a total stranger, and any stranger that approached them would be treated with rightful suspicion.

Worse, doing so would be memorable; the kind of thing that villagers gossiped about.

I needed to be creative. “I need you to go and draw a few villagers toward me while I stay hidden,” I said to Sage, knowing that no matter what, the villagers would react to the presence of a wolf with the seriousness it deserved. “Try not to scare them too much.”

Sage nodded, moving toward the village while I picked a hiding spot with enough overgrowth to allow me to escape if necessary, yet concealed enough to stay hidden.

Hidden from sight, I didn’t know how Sage handled the task, but I knew he was successful when half a dozen villagers started wandering near my hiding spot, tense but not scared, which was all I could get based on their voices as they tried to direct each other.

As they made their way up a narrow path, they entered my field of view. They moved cautiously, peering into shadows and undergrowth with nervous glances, armed by wooden staffs and pitchforks, the way they carried them indicative of experience in chasing wild animals.

“A wolf in the middle of summer. Things are already going bad,” a man in his forties said.

“Maybe it has already run away,” a younger man replied. “We are wasting our time. We need to be in the village, in case the guards return.”

“They won’t,” answered the first one. “And, even if they do, there’s nothing we can do.”

“I always knew that boy was trouble. We should have kicked him out long ago,” the second one replied. “All that time alone in the woods, it can’t be normal.”

I frowned as I listened, a bad feeling growing in me.

“Hey, stop wasting time. I just saw it again,” said another man, this time older with a sharper tone. “Stop gossiping like old widows, and work. The wolf is about as tall as my waist. Might be dangerous.”

“Too bad the guards didn’t stick around —” the second one started.

“Are you stupid, boy,” the first one barked. “When has the guards ever done anything useful enough to make you want them to stick around. Do you want them to take away more people from the town?”

“But, they only took him away because he’s guilty. A cultist, they said,” the second one insisted.

The older one intervened. “And, you’re stupid if you believe that. It’s probably just a way to intimidate us, and they are starting with the kid, because he has no family to protect him. What cultist would live in a village in the middle of nowhere, toiling for the pittance you all pay him.”

As they inched even closer to my hiding spot, I held my breath. Not out of fear, but because I was afraid of losing the opportunity. All I needed was to learn where he was taken, and that would be it. Maybe I could ask Sage to find him with his smell, but that was not something I asked of him before, and I didn’t want to risk Eli’s well-being for a chance.

And, his well-being was certainly on the line. While the old man was right, and Eli being a cultist was nonsense, for guards to come out and declare him one was a bad sign regarding his continued well-being.

In the end, it was the second one, the one that obviously hated Eli, gave me what I wanted. Annoyed by the admonishment, he walked away from the group, murmuring in annoyance. “If you love that pathetic orphan so much, why don’t you go and join him in the town. The dungeon there must have a nice cell for your dusty old bones.”

For a moment, I imagined how he would have reacted upon learning he was the one responsible for saving Eli. However, it was just a passing amusement as they continued to search.

Finally, the old man who led them shook his head. “Must’ve slipped away. Wolves are quick. But, we need to stay vigilant.”

Their voices grew fainter as they moved away. Once the sound of their footsteps faded completely, I got out of my hiding spot, glad that I had learned his location. They might have not used his name, but there were enough details to leave no doubt about his identity.

Too bad the news was even worse than I had expected. Being in the dungeon instead of the guardhouse meant that it would be hard to reach him. I wasn’t afraid of a bunch of third-rate town guards, but an unknown warrior attacking the dungeon would be the kind of evidence they would need to sentence him to execution.

I wasn’t about to leave him in the hands of those guards.

Even if it revealed my identity.