The journey from the pit was something extraordinary. Old Kane did not remove my chains until the pit was beyond my eyesight. He, the druid, and the poet spoke extensively about me. I didn’t understand all the words about me…. but I was the subject.

We stopped after marching for what I guessed would be 4 hours at the time. But the truth is I was only assuming time worked like it did on Earth. We sat down to break bread.

Old Kane took me by the shoulder and looked me in the eyes. He leads me out to the woods. He pointed to a rabbit. He gave me the indication that he wanted me to build a snare. I had done that in the boy scouts a few times.

I would like to tell you I was a very good scout. If I told you that I would be lying. He watched me build the snare and fail 3 or 4 times. He then motioned for me to stop. And Old Kane completed the work. He seemed ponderous of this failure.

He became like a second father to me, and we talked about this day often. But I didn’t need to guess what the look on his face meant. ‘How did this boy not learn this thing?’ Those were his thoughts. Indeed in this world, you learned how to hunt as soon as you were old enough to assist your kinsmen in doing so

We went deeper into the woods. Because a few hares were a gamble. He went to look for something more meaningful. He pointed to the ground. He motioned and spoke in a commanding tone. I saw the tracks of deer. I didn’t understand at the time why he wanted so much meat, but I accepted it was so.

He threw a series of Spears toward the deer. I was sent to retrieve them. Old Kane was a Lord of the frontier of the kingdom of Drayega. He was called the Dog of Drayega. He tended to howl and bark when we were in the heat of hunting…. he did it in battle as well.

He of course was studying me as I ran to retrieve the spears. He had a need for men who could fight as warriors. I went to pick up the third spear.

The stag was white as the winter snow and it leapt over me. It wasn’t a fully grown male….but then neither was I. As I fell backward, I pulled the spear back. The other two were pointing up but were somewhat Akimbo. I stabbed it in the gut. The creature cried out. Old Kane came quickly at the sound. He closed the distance.

The young buck staggered and fell to the ground. Old Kane handed me a knife and walked me towards the beast. He showed me where to cut and I slit its throat. He filled a clay cup with its blood. He gave it to me to drink…. which I did. And he made a single mark on my forehead with its blood.

We brought the beast back to the camp. The Druid studied the gut of the creature and supervised the cutting of its meat for preparation. The poet cooked a sort of porridge to go along with the meat.

As I ate I thought of the beast’s cries and the cries of the man I strangled to death. The next day the druid spent time trying to determine my knowledge of basic math concepts. Numbers, Addition, Subtraction, Division, Multiplication. I also showed off I knew some geometry as well.

This world was far from normal for me, but this was the first sense of normal I had. This was school. I was showing off to the teacher. We made our way to a farmhouse after eating. Old Kane offered them meat. I thought it was to buy our staying. I didn’t understand hospitality at the time.

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He offered the farmer the meat because he knew the farms out here struggled to eat. When I remember these days: I think so much about how frustrating it was to not be able to speak.

I went outside and studied the stars. I tried to draw what I thought were constellations. The old druid followed me. He would then erase what I drew and draw what it was. He would say the name of the constellation.

After of this, I drew a few that I could remember. Ursa Major and Minor, Orion, The Scorpion. The Druid seemed to nod at this. I then drew a compass needle pointing north to Polaris in Ursa Minor. He looked at me and at it. He stroked his long beard for a moment. “Fochlae” he said as he pointed to a star in the constellation “Neart.” Or at least that was what it was called at this point in the history of Ayalos.

He didn’t seem to like the story behind the constellation. But he seemed quite satisfied about my inability to understand it yet. The God-King when he first ascended to heaven was said to have taken the form of these stars…..but that was a lie of course.

The druid was different than the worshipers in the pit. He followed the old faith and the old ways. But at that point, I had no way of knowing such things.

As we broke from the farmer's house he spoke of me to Old Kane. They both spoke of me. I learned of the conversation many years later. Old Kane spoke of this day to me when I last saw him before his death. It was a story he recounted to me with some sense of pride. He had fulfilled his duty and honor in me.

I knew mathematics and the stars. While I had suffered under the yolk of hard labor for a season I still did not have the look of a ‘salt of the earth.’ And I hadn’t any sign of serious sickness or affliction they could see.

In a place such as this it gave me the appearance of being nobility. My inability to speak their language only seemed to enhance this theory to them. The druid however was concerned. The north star concerned him. My north star was not theirs. Old Kane dismissed this notion. And the old druid was mindful of the words of his lord..

The journey from the pit took most of a month. Spring had almost turned to summer. We arrived in a well-fortified community. In the center of the fortification was a citadel built on top of a hill. This place would become my home for some 10 or 11 years.

The community was preparing for a midsummer festival. It looked the like of a Beltane or a Walpurgisnacht on earth. I noticed an unusual sort of bird. We have black and white ravens on earth, but here on Ayalos I saw ravens who were black and red….these birds seemed most interested in the workings of the festival.

They called the birds Scáth Fui, which translates to Blood Shadows. Whenever there was a festival of animal sacrifice these Ravens would come. They would seek what was not sacrificed to the fire.

Old Kane assigned me to his daughter Gráinne and his son Conn. The druid had actually seemed to pick up some of the English words I spoke. He acted as an interpreter. The druid left at the end of the festival. I danced with Grainne and Conn about the sacrificial fire.

I was assigned a barrack. Old Kane saw to it I was educated with his daughter and son. He wanted me to become one of the House Guard for his son. So when his son inherited this domain he would have a good and trusted man close to his own age. The tutor they had was frustrated at my inability to speak….a frustration ameliorated by an increase in his pay. By the end of the summer, I was fluent enough that I was able to fully participate orally in my lessons. It took till winter that I was able to write. I would argue I wasn’t literate enough….but by the standards of expectations, I was fully literate. While I was property as a matter of technicality, I was never made to feel as such.

Conn was like a brother to me….and Grainne was well…. complicated. Pursuing the daughter of your foster father was certainly a troublesome matter. One I avoided in those early days when I was still finding my footing.