The Path of Decisions Read Online Free Page B

banks of the
swollen river. The recent rains had widened the river up the bank. A few trees
stood inside the edge of the water. He caught some fish and cooked them over a small
fire, not even waiting until they cooled down to devour the tasty meat.
    “This is fantastic,” he said out loud. He couldn’t remember the
last time he’d had a meal with meat. It wouldn’t take long for his small frame
to regain the strength he needed.
    He spread the blanket in his pack across the ground and lay down.
But he couldn’t sleep. In the darkness, his memory ran wild with the whips,
kicks, and inhumane treatment he had received in the black Belorian dungeons.
He tried to block it all away and turned his thoughts to earlier in his life.
He went back to that one time in the library with Darius when they had
accidently been locked into the dark basement.  It was then that Darius had
first discovered his powers. Their great need to find their way out must have
unlocked Darius’s mind to his magical abilities. It seemed like a lifetime ago,
but in reality it was only the previous spring.
    Kelln smiled at the happy memory and wondered if Darius still had
the sword he had taken out of the room. Thoughts of the sword made Kelln wonder
about Darius’s new magical abilities. He had seemed so reluctant to use them.
Kelln would have embraced the power and strengthened it until he became the
most powerful wizard in the Realm. He laughed out loud. It was easy to be tough
when no one was around.
    He wanted to return to Anikari and find Darius. The men in Belor
would be looking for him, though. If he headed west for a few miles farther and
then headed north he would circle around to the backside of Anikari, even though
it meant passing deeper into the Black Forest.  Looking around in the dark, he
shivered slightly at treading deeper into the trees.  He was aware of all the
rumors and magical stories, but how could a bunch of trees and small animals
hurt him?
    The next day, Kelln crossed the river. He
had taken most of the morning to find the narrowest stretch of river and gather
some large rocks, which he threw in the water to make a place to step.
Gathering some long branches, he tied them together with some roots to help him
cross the rocks to the other side of the swift-moving water. Once over, he
continued walking along the opposite bank of the river.
    The thousand-year-old evergreens, each the circumference of many
men, were dense and blocked most of the sunlight overhead. The modest light
that did make it all the way to the ground gave little light to brushes and
grasses, leaving the forest floor mostly bare and easy to walk through. By now,
Kelln thought, he must be north of the Gildan Swamp and would be safe to head
north towards Anikari.
    He camped again that night, finding a small grove that let in the
moonlight. Sometime during the night, a southeastern wind howling through the
trees woke him. The wind seemed to be speaking a language of its own, warning
Kelln of an upcoming dangerous storm. The moisture began to thicken the air and
the temperature plummeted. Storms from the Eastern Sea could travel fast across
the meadows. The starlit sky seemed to disappear as dark fog moved in.
    Kelln got up and tried to look around for some type of shelter. He
gathered up his belongings and moved quickly. As he stood behind one of the
larger trees he noticed a small mound of leaf-covered dirt a few yards in front
of him. Something came to his mind from a book he had read years ago. Men in
the Black Forest used to dig small holes to hide in. The mound he saw didn’t
look natural, and hope soared to his mind. He got down on all fours and started
digging with his hands. The dirt was soft and moved easily.
    He was still digging when the first drops of spring rain began to
pelt his back. He would need to find shelter soon. He turned back toward the
trees in abandonment of his search only to catch his foot on something. He fell
to the ground and wet