A ragged-looking Knight, wearing battered Full Plate, stands at a dock awaiting a boat. His blue eyes dart around, looking at the water, the dock, the young boy guarding the small fishing boat that is docked here, seemingly everywhere. His expression is haunted. Sweat beads on his forehead.
There is a light, morning fog over the river, limiting visibility to twenty or thirty feet. The air is humid, and hot.
The boy looks to him and smiles. The Knight manages to smile back at the boy, but even the boy knows the smile to be a lie. The boy says "Sir, I've seen many men come to these docks. Good men, bad men, rich men, poor men. I've only seen one other man with that look on his face, and he came by here yesterday, like you, seeking a boat to Endier."
The knight begins to speak, but it is more of a gasping whisper "What was his name?"
The boy replies "He didn't say. He wore heavy armor, like you, but he wasn't a Knight. He talked about the Moon-God saving him from his nightmares."
The knight smiles at the boy, genuinely this time. "So, two of us survived. Two is better then one."
The sounds of oars could be heard as a long, narrow ferry comes into view. As it approaches the dock the boy shouts out "Passage for one to Endier". The knight waits at the end of the dock as a handful of men disembark. He steps upon the ferry and sits low, on the wooden chair, waiting to cross this river, this wall of water, that divides Alamie from Endier. He thought to himself, for the first time, "maybe its a good thing there is no bridge. If all of Alamie is overrun by what he saw in the north, maybe the river would protect his own citizens."
As the boat lurched away from the dock, Guy thought "I'm almost home." He whispered quietly, "Raenwe, Coradan, Daene, Tanne, Norvien, Boeric, I'll not forget you. Adela, I am coming back for you, I swear it!"
