Fated to rule

Alarming situation

Norrick and Dendrick went outside after their conversation has ended. 

"How is your farming going anyway?" asked ranger as they were walking towards the large enclosure.

"Good. I would say perfect. It seems there will be a great harvest this year. I will have enough plus huge reserves. Of course, I keep in mind supplying you even more now when you have another member to feed." Dendrick smiled at the thought of Norrick taking care of the baby. 

Now they were standing behind the fence that separated them from animals. Both were searching the place with their eyes in an effort to find the boy. No chance to see him, since he had climbed the tall oak tree standing in the place where was coming together the wooden fence and high stone wall surrounding almost whole homestead. Only by two entrances, you could get in without climbing the barrier, the first Norrick and Gellerion arrived, and the second that was now opened for free leaving and entering of the animals.  

Suddenly, something fell on Ranger´s head. It was a small acorn. Seeing the acorn falling on the ground, he raised his head and watched up to the tree. "Hello. Look how high I am!" shouted the boy with fervour.

"Yea, we see. Come down, buddy. We need to prepare for leaving." 

"No! I don´t want to!"  This surprised both of them. 

After boy´s protest, Norrick said in a low, but dead serious voice. 

"It wasn´t a proposal! Get down here."

The boy climbed down like he was living on the trees for his whole life. Just a metre above the ground his leg slipped and Gellerion felt down in the grass. 

"Ouch," he felt a sharp pain in his leg. It was ugly scraped. Spotting the fact that Norrick was approaching to him, the boy tried to hide the injury. The adult man helped him get on his feet. 

"Are you alright?" 

Gellerion moved his hand from the leg, but... There was no sign of a wound. Just like no fall ever happened.

"Yes, I am fine." "You are lucky." he made an acerbic comment about it.  

"I apologise. I´ve never done anything similar before. I just had so much fun." 

"All good. Next time just listen to me, alright?" "Okay." said the boy dejectedly.

"Now hurry up, we must pack all the stuff and leave so we will arrive home soon."

They gathered all needed, nails, tools, food and window shutters, so as the next visitors will come, it won´t be so easy to get inside. Dendrick had all of this stuff in the second building.

It was a smaller workshop, mainly serving as storage with an opportunity to create something. 

After some time, everything was ready, packed and tied on a new cow named Kelly. Visitors were ready to leave now, but they wouldn´t leave without farewell. 

"Goodbye Dendrick, I hope we will meet in a short time again. It was really nice to get to know you." saying that he smiled up to the giant´s face.

"Remember that you were afraid of me at the begging?" Smiled the tall man right back to him. 

"I am sor..." Dendrick stopped him in the middle of the sentence "No need to apologize." 

His eyes now rested on Norrick. "Goodbye friend, show yourself whenever you want.  I will be always pleased with your visit." 

"See you soon, old man." It was meant as a joke. Dendrick´s actual age was unknown to the ranger, but he mentioned he is much older than 37 years old Norrick and that was enough for him to make jokes about it. 

"Bye, youngster." said the giant man, waving at them from afar. 

What began to bother Norrick was the thought of further questions during their way back. Nevertheless, no conversation started. Gellerion was thinking about the mysteriously fast healing of his wound. 

When they got to the border between forest and meadow, Norrick stopped and so did the cow. He took a flask with water and gave it to the boy. Both quickly refreshed themselves. This was the time the ranger spotted something is on Gellerion´s mind. 

"What´s wrong?"

"What do you mean? What should be wrong?" said the boy with an incomprehension.

"Well, you are just quite." 

"Hmm." that was all that left young man´s mouth. 

"Alright then, let´s keep moving." as he said he did. 

Soon after their conversation, not far from the edge of the forest, they heard somebody calling for help. Both of them sat up. As they were approaching the source of the voice, its volume was increasing. It was necessary to get off the path, which was leading back home, to get to the stranger in need. He was about 20 metres far from them. By the armour and shiny helmet, he was wearing, Norrick recognized a messenger from the Capitol, the main city of Eden´s kingdom. They approached him. The man was trapped under one of the tree´s roots.

"Hey there." greeted him the boy. The ranger looked at him with a puzzled expression in his face, saying something like: "Why the hell are you speaking?"

The messenger looked around. Now he saw two figures coming from behind the trees. "Hi, please help me! I am stuck here." 

"Who are you?" asked him, Norrick, just to make sure he is a messenger as he thought. 

"I am delivering a message from the Capitol to somebody named Norrick, and in my opinion, it is you, sir, since you are the only person, I have met so far." 

"Don´t you say?" He chuckled a little, but then went serious again. "Why don´t you free yourself with your sword?"

"I have lost it in a fight with some monster, sir," he responded quickly back. 

Now the boy urged on Norrick. "Come on! We have to help him."

"No, we don´t," smirking on the boy, said, "but we will." He drew his sword and with a single swing freed the man under the roots.

"Thank you, sir. Would you be so nice and walk me out of this nightmare?" 

"Don´t worry, we will show you the way out of the forest." smiled at him Gellerion.

"I would really like to know how you managed to get under those roots," said Norrick, amused by the situation.  

They went all together back to the path. 

"Thank you one more time. Here is the message from the king I should deliver to you, sir." he passed the vellum to Norrick, who quickly put it in his pocket. "I consider my job done. Can you show me the way, please?" 

"Of course," said the ranger and pointed the way he should go. "After you reach the edge of the forest go to the homestead you will see. Tell the man I am sending you. He will take care of you." 

"Alright. Thanks for everything," with that he left them.

Norrick and Gellerion continued in their way when suddenly, after a few seconds, they heard something fell on the ground. They both looked back. The man was gone. Only his shiny helmet was lying on the path. 

"What happened to him?" Asked the boy nervously. A loud scream could be heard from the woods now. 

Norrick ran with the boy so he could see the exit from the forest. "Alright, boy. I need you to get back to Dendrick. Tell him what happened. I am going to save the messenger. Did you understand?"

"Yes, I did. Just, please be careful, Norrick."