The journey to the boardways was the highlight of the year for the sixteen students in the upper year at the keep. Although there were still several months to go before they finished their study, they knew that some of them would find work there once the course concluded. The others would either end up in the army or working for their families. The latter wasn’t an option for Nedric whose mother worked for a poor noble so he was determined to show his worth on this trip.

Apart from the students, two masters and two guards were going along to supervise and to ensure safety. Whilst no one would normally attack a party of that size, some one might decide that capturing the child of a merchant was worth the risk. The risk to the students was not that great as the kingdom was fairly law abiding. The dukes preferred it that way and their guards patrolled the regions ensuring that bandits and other lowlifes were rare. In the cities there was some theft and robbery but even there crime was small and people felt safe as long as they kept away from the seedier inns and houses.

The expedition itself took a while to get going. The students had all been taught to ride and were expected to saddle their horses and have everything packed on them but for some reason this took an incredibly long time. It seemed to Nedric that it was the girls in particular who had to go back to their rooms several times for more ‘essentials’. It was nearly noon before everything was ready and the group set off.

The students were travelling fairly lightly as they were not expecting to supply their own food and were travelling on some of the better routes away from Asgril and through more open countryside towards one of the larger rivers that bordered the country. They planned to take one of the boats along the river, as the journey was much quicker and easier than overland. With the weather looking fair and the sun sparkling from the stream they rode beside, they set off in high spirits.

Nedric who had never ridden before he arrived at the keep was particularly pleased to be setting off. He rode beside Rialto along the stony track that led away from the village and viewed the countryside with delight. The stream at this point flowed between craggy spires of granite and it was clear where the rock had worn slightly more, as natural weirs were apparent every few hundred yards. The trees by the stream hung down with thick foliage that was impossible to brush aside and so the path ran between the crags and the trees and the stream disappeared from view for minutes at a time. The sound of water running over rocks was always with them, as was the sound of sheep bleating to each other as they browsed the steep slopes.

Few travellers passed them as they made their way. The occasional shepherd could be seen, high above them, apparently doing little other than to watch the group as they passed. Asgril was not that popular a place to visit, being mainly a duchy of small hamlets, farms and some hunters and trappers. For young people it held very few attractions, which was one reason that it had been chosen as a school. There were few distractions to study, which was not to say that the students had not found most of them.

As they moved further down the stream, small islets began to appear. Some were formed where a tree had fallen in and become the base for further plant life. Others were caused where the stream had split in two around an obstinate piece of rock. In some places, the flow of water was slower and plants covered the stream so it looked as though there was yet another islet but one that could be easily disrupted by the passage of an otter.

The slopes became more interesting as the journey continued. At random intervals large gaping holes appeared in the cliffs as well as caves that Nedric and Rialto just itched to explore. They hoped that the party would stop but were disappointed each time a cave disappeared behind them. Some of the caves were clearly inhabited, as tracks led from them down to the stream but which animal had made them their home was not apparent, as the boys saw no movement from them during the day. Gradually they left that area behind them, although their imaginations still played with the idea of caves for some days to come.

As the skies started to darken the group entered a village and made their way towards the only inn. It was clear that they were expected as a boy who had been sitting outside ducked through a door and called out. A stout, dark and smiling man immediately appeared and anxiously bid everyone welcome. He directed the boy to help with the horses and the two masters entered the inn. The students were directed to attend to the horses and the guards looked after their own mounts, as they were so important to their job.

Dismounting Nedric turned to Rialto and remarked, “Now I know why they always teach the fundamentals of horsemanship. I have the largest pain in the fundament ever!”

“I know what you mean!” his friend agreed as he rubbed his own rear. “You forget when you haven’t ridden for a while just how painful it is to sit on one of these things.”

“I don’t know that I’ll be able to sit down to eat.” Nedric continued.

That was enough. The thought of food sent both boys hurrying to get their kit from their mounts and into the Inn.

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The food wasn’t that good but neither Nedric nor Rialto noticed it. They were too busy wolfing it down. The students had been assigned to two of the rooms in the Inn. Nothing fancy, they slept on straw pallets and fortunately these were in good condition as the students were too tired to worry about checking for vermin and went quickly to bed.

The following morning, the sunlight seeking it’s way through the small windows of the rooms woke the students and they groaned as they moved. The pain of the previous day was now a dull ache that made each movement something to be avoided. However by the time they had made their way to the common room they were beginning to feel more themselves. This didn’t stop them from cursing the guards under their breath, both of whom looked wide-awake and smartly groomed. The two masters looked about as comfortable as the students.

They broke their fast with large quantities of brown bread and stew left over from the previous night. The stew wasn’t any better served the second time but that still didn’t stop them from consuming most of it. As one of the masters settled the bill, the students made ready to continue their journey.

Surprisingly they were ready much more quickly that morning. Maybe it was because apart from the innkeeper there was no-one to see them off or maybe it was because they had already done the hard work of packing the previous morning and they only had to wait for Rhianna to go back to the room once before they could set off.

As they travelled they could see the countryside changing. The stream was widening, as were the valleys they travelled through. The land was becoming more open and that meant more arable farming. There were also plenty of sheep around but in addition there were also some cattle and swine.

The journey that day was uneventful, as it was the next day. The scenery slowly widened but that was about it. They stayed each night at an inn that was almost identical to the one they had met on their first night, even down to the fat landlord and the youth outside. By the fourth day Nedric felt that they were in some sort of never changing trip, forced to go through the same events day after day.

It was only towards the end of the fourth day that things began to change. The trees that they had passed in isolated clumps over the last few days began to form larger clumps and by mid-afternoon the group were spending more time in the shade of the branches and then there was the sound. It grew gradually as they travelled but by the time came to one of the endless rolling hills that they had been climbing over all day the sound was more of a roar. The weather had been fine all that week but there was a feel of damp in the air as they reached the summit and stopped.

The sight before them was incredible. A river perhaps three hundred yards wide lay before them. In one direction it could clearly be seen for miles. In the other direction it just stopped. Of course, it could be seen further away as a winding ribbon but the brain didn’t immediately connect the two sights.

The track they were following led along the side of the river and as they got closer they could see how the land dropped away in front of them. Still it looked like the river just ended as the water dropped away with no clue from above of its destination. The track then led away from the river and switch backed down the side of the cliff. The river was obscured from sight by the trees but the noise was deafening.

As they emerged from the woods they could see the waterfall in all its glory. The drop was perhaps a hundred yards, there were meant to be much higher waterfalls elsewhere on the planet, but the sheer volume of water falling took your breath away. Where the spray shot back in the air the sunlight fragmented into a rainbow that seemed to stretch the width of the river. The town that sat several hundred yards down river seemed tiny and insignificant compared to the splendour of nature.

The group were led by the guards, not to another inn, but rather to a substantial house that belonged to the duke. The guards directed the students to the stables, looking after the horses the masters had been riding themselves. By shouts and arm gestures they sorted everyone out and then led them inside.

Shutting the thick door that led from the stables cut the din dramatically. The students could now be heard and of course made almost as much noise themselves as they competed in trying to tell everyone else what they thought of the spectacle they had just seen.

Nedric was as bad as everyone else, shouting across to Rialto “That was fantastic! I can’t believe how much water was coming over that cliff and the power…” He drifted off as his friend interrupted with his own comments “That was spectacular! The immensity, the sheer scale of it all!”

Master Karik, of course, was just as enthusiastic as the students and was trying to emphasise his joy at the sight to Master Ernick. The latter seemed to be totally unimpressed with everything, of course he must have visited the town of Waterfall before but even so it was hard to believe that anyone could be so blasé about the sight.

After the meal Karik addressed himself to the students. “You know that this is the last of the journey on horseback so if any of you have left anything in the saddlebags, now is a good time to fetch it. Tomorrow we start a week’s voyage down the river and we will be leaving just after dawn. So there will not be time to stop and fetch anything that anyone has left behind.” He looked at the girls and particularly at Rhianna; she had been far and away the least organised person on the trip. “It might be of interest to some of you that this house, owned as it is by the Duke of Asgril, was one of the first to be built with two layers of wall, with the gap stuffed with wool. This has the joint effect of cutting out much of the noise, so you can hear me tell you all this, and also of making the house much cheaper to heat. Of course the cost of wool would have been much higher if the duke didn’t receive so much of it as taxes. I suggest you go to bed early tonight as the guards will be waking you an hour before dawn and we will leave anyone who isn’t ready on time here.”

The students were not really in the mood for sleep. Over the last few days their bodies had adjusted to the rigours of horse travel and they did not feel as tired and bruised as on previous nights. Also they had the waterfall noise, although diminished, to remind them of the sights of the day. In one corner of the boys room Rialto sat picking at the mandolin and trying to compose a tune about the waterfall. Nedric felt too energetic to just sit and listen and so had the juggling clubs out and was trying to practice with them. Surprisingly no one had commented unfavourably about the boys’ new hobbies and a couple of others had even tried to juggle with a set of cloth balls that Nedric had made. The clubs were just a little too dangerous for people to try without quite a bit of practice first and even then there was a tendency for Nedric to hit himself in the face. He was learning to move out of the way of the unforgiving wood when it swung towards him.

Eventually one of the guards put his head around the door and let the boys know that the lights were to be put out. Even then it took over an hour for the boys to finish talking and to go to sleep.