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Chapter XII: Your humble author cheats, something important is remembered, and the boys find more trouble.

When the morning sun rose, it found Andrew leading a small pony with Sonja, unconscious, draped as carefully as he could manage over the beasts back. Raven sat perched carefully on pony’s head.

“That was a very clever plan you had,” Raven said.

Andrew smiled. “It almost got us all killed though.”

Raven launched himself into the air, stretching his wings. “It didn’t though, mostly because I was very brave.”

“Yes. Very brave. Why don’t you get up there and make sure I am still moving in the right direction.”
“Towards the forest?”

Andrew nodded and watched his friend climb into the air with little effort. Raven circled around above him for a few minutes and then glided back down to the pony’s head.



“We should be at the forest edge within a few hours if we just keep heading straight.”

Andrew nodded. “It was a good plan wasn’t it? Better than the stick plan. I mean I really like that part in the middle with the thing.”

Raven cawed loudly. “That was my favorite part. And what was that thing?”

He laughed and pulled the pony forward. “I have no idea. Let’s just hope we don’t run into another one before we get to the Royal Court.”

The black bird quickly flapped its wings and moved from the pony’s head to Andrew’s shoulder. It cawed, “So, why do you have to go to the Royal Court anyway?”

“She needs help. Between the Pooka and the kid with the club she took a pretty big beating,” he explained.

Raven shook his little bird head. “No, I know why we are going there now. Why were you going there before?”

The revelation that hit Andrew at that moment nearly knocked him to the ground. He couldn’t remember the last time he thought about finding and saving Colleen. He had become so wrapped up in his little adventure with Sonja that he had forgotten about his wife. The guilt engulfed him.

“I need to find my wife,” he replied. “They took my wife.” He paused and took a deep breath.” I was supposed to find her.”

“So, the lady there, what’s she then?”

Andrew looked back at Sonja sleeping there on the back of the pony and sighed deeply.

“I’m not sure.”

That seemed to be enough for Raven who took to the sky again scouting the way forward.

Andrew stopped, deciding it was time for a break and lifted Sonja of the back of the horse and laid her on the ground. “That can’t be comfortable,” he murmured to himself as he sat down next to her.

Raven circled high above him and Andrew absently reached over and brushed a stray strand of hair away from Sonja’s face. She was snoring again and the soft squeaking sound comforted him as he tried to work his way through the storm of thoughts that had started swirling through his mind.

“You think too much,” she said.

“Oh, jeez. You’re awake?”

She cracked her eyes open to a slit and looked around carefully. She was still very weak. “Where’d you get the pony?” she asked looking over at the white-coated creature that had lain down on the grass near them


.
“Well, last night I was thinking and I realized that there was no way I was going to make any kind of progress without a horse of some kind.”

She nodded.

“I mean I tried making a sled out of this ridiculously long shirt and some sticks we found but that didn’t work at all and Raven was very unkind in his criticism.”

She looked up into the sky and tried to focus on the dark spec that was Andrew’s new companion.

“So, your friend is still hanging around?”

“Yes, and he was a big help in getting the pony. We were almost killed!”

She seemed to draw a bit of energy from his excitement and he in turn fed of her interest.

“You should have seen us run when the…”

Raven dropped down on his shoulder and interrupted him.

“Hey! The lady’s awake. Did you see the pony we got? I was almost eaten!”

Sonja laughed and grimaced as a bit of pain shot up her side.

“That sounds horrible,” she said trying to smile. “What happened?”

Suddenly, across the plains, from the direction they had come, a sharp howling, keening screech cut the air. Sonja shivered as she heard the sound and Raven and Andrew quickly glanced at each other. The pony whinnied, stood up quickly and pulled at it’s lead.

“What did you two do?” she asked.

Andrew quickly bent down and helped her up. “It was nothing. Don’t you worry one bit.”

There was another howl and this one sounded much closer.

As he got Sonja back on the pony, he saw her looking at him with her classic raised eyebrow look.

He smiled sheepishly and said, “Well, maybe worry a little bit.”