"This is complete bullshit!" Nadea screeched at Greykin. "The king granted me charge of this expedition. You shouldn't even be here!"

"I took over this exercise in stupidity the second that I arrived. If that man really is the O'Baarni then we have no business with him anywhere near Jessmei."

I didn't know Greykin, but he scared me. He seemed to have two purposes in life: being grumpy and protecting Jessmei. Each punctuated word from his bearded mouth deepened his skin to a darker shade of red. He walked toward Nadea, but the duchess stood confidently with one graceful hand placed on her beautiful waist, while the other rested on the small sword on her side. I didn't think she would use it on Greykin, but they were both so mad that anything seemed possible.

It was the same conversation they had every night for the last three weeks. Of course, now the O'Baarni was awake and had killed eight Vanlourn warriors with ease. So I understood why Greykin brought up the danger of this mission again. The legends said the O’Baarni had slaughtered thousands of the Ancient people.

"He is coming with us. I was ordered by the king to find him and bring him back to the castle. Jessmei was not supposed to come and neither were you." Nadea shot an angry glance at her cousin.

"I'm sorry Nay. The castle is so boring and I figured we would only be gone for a few weeks." Jessmei's voice sounded like the beautiful bells at the temple. Sometimes I couldn't even look at her, every time she spoke to me I got nervous and stuttered.

"The Vanlourn soldiers must have found out you left Nia and tracked you," the tall woman glared at Greykin, "or your pompous bodyguard."

"I'm about as pompous as you are, girl. I've completed more sorties in this country than you've had bedtime stories. I am experienced with--"

"Your experience means naught to me. Jessmei slipped out of the castle on your watch and traveled a month before you caught up to her." Nadea took her hand off of her sword hilt and pointed at the massive man. "I'd take your advice if I wanted to find a tavern."

"Are you inferring that I am a drunkard who failed his duty?" Greykin's face turned a whole new shade of red and his hand clutched the haft of his axe so hard that his massive knuckles turned white.

"You just said it. But I would agree." Nadea's thin leather gloves rubbed against the hilt of her sword with a squeak. The tension seemed to rise to a boil and I wondered if they would come to blows this time.

"Hey, hey, hey." Iarin bravely thrust his body between them and raised his hands. "Can we calm down a bit? Half a minute ago we faced violent murder and now we are alive. It's a great day, no?" Nadea took her hand off of her sword and crossed her arms over her chest.

"We must escape Vanlourn and get back to Nia. It's a four week trip back, even if we make good time." Iarin nodded to the duchess's words. "I will finish my mission, even if I have to leave your old, cranky ass here." She glared at Greykin.

I shuffled my feet after she made her ultimatum. My mouth still tasted foul from the vomit and I wished I had not been so frightened. We had all been nervous after the twenty hired excavators disappeared a few nights ago. The workers had not wanted the job, they claimed that the area was cursed by demons and not fit to be visited by the living. Nadea's gold had won out though, and they had agreed to work for two weeks clearing the ruins.

After a week of work, they had all vanished overnight. When I first emerged from the tunnel and saw the Vanlourn soldiers, I guessed that the workers fled because we were traveling with the princess and duchess of Nia. I reasoned that the soldiers must have communicated with the natives, or perhaps the excavators just guessed that sooner or later we would be captured.

Now I considered the native jungle peoples’ belief that the land was home to demons. Maybe we had done a horrible thing by waking the O’Baarni. Perhaps he was more dangerous than we could ever imagine.

The threat of the Ancients was real though, not imagination. They had already conquered the Northern tribal lands and were pressing on our allies. From what Nadea said, the war was not going favorably. Our military was unable to stop the Ancients’ magic or stand against them on the battlefield. Our enemies would be at Nia's borders by next spring. The O'Baarni was thought to be a fable to scare children, but Nadea had managed to convince the king and my grandfather that he was real, and that she could find and revive him.

"He is not coming with us. Did you see what he just did? He killed seven trained Vanlourn soldiers before I got to my feet. We should have never woken him. The legends were right, he is a curse, a blight on this planet that could not be killed. They had to imprison him. You may be the person ‘in charge' of this expedition, but you are also the king's niece, and you cannot be put at risk either. I'm taking you and Jess back to your father." Greykin's skin lightened to a normal shade, but his voice still sounded like an angry bear's.

"Are you going to carry me over your shoulder kicking and screaming back to Nia? I am not a child; you can't manhandle me like you do with your lackey soldier boys. Besides, I don't need you. I am in charge of this mission. You and Jessmei can go on alone. Paug, Iarin, the man, and I will be heading back to Nia." She turned her back on Greykin and she walked back to the pile of belongings.

Greykin looked over to me and then to Iarin. The quiet woodsman shrugged and then turned to follow Nadea to gather their equipment. His loyalty lay with the one paying him, and Nadea had spared no expense in funding our quest.

"Boy, you can't go with her. You'll be in danger. Help me talk some sense into her." Greykin looked at me. This was the first time he had spoken more than two words to me since catching up to Jessmei. Our lack of conversation may have been my fault as well. He didn’t like talking to soft, over-educated boys, and I didn’t like talking to people that could crush my head between their thumb and pinky fingers.

"The letter the king sent my grandfather told me that I have to go with Nadea, sir," I managed to get the words out without stuttering.

"Get your stuff Paug!" Nadea commanded from behind me. I dashed away from Greykin, tripped on a rock and almost fell, then got to my small, organized pile of books and clothes. Greykin let out a moan of disappointment from behind me as I scooped them up and stuffed them into my bag.

It wasn't a good time to show Nadea the writing I had copied from the smooth stone pedestal. The duchess had already moved past the tree line, deeper into the jungle. We had all missed the markings; once the sleeping man had awoken he had caught all of our attention. I would show them to her once we found him.

I had not known what to think when we first saw him lying cold and motionless on his stone table. The rite to awaken the O'Baarni had been easier than I expected. The words and motions that Nadea had found and Grandfather had taught me worked with surprising ease. After we had completed the rite, the sleeping man had awoken. He had seemed so confused and harmless, not at all like the monster we half-expected him to be. Now that he had killed all those men, the idea of traveling home with him made my palms sweat.

Magic was a thing of mystery, and while real power had died with the O'Baarni's army, traveling magicians still performed minor feats such as lighting small fires, mending cloth, and moving little objects. These tricks were nothing like breaking an ancient spell that kept a legendary, powerful being imprisoned in sleep. I had done it though, Nadea had said the words with me, but my voice had awoken him.

It took a few minutes to see that our magic had worked. His chest slowly began to move and then his eyes fluttered open. I feared that he would wake and destroy us all, like the legends said he had done to the Ancients. Nadea's certainty that he would help us calmed me, but I had found it hard to believe that he was the O'Baarni. He looked so frail and weak, like the starving beggar I had seen while Grandfather and I traveled to visit the king in Nia's capital three years ago. When he opened his eyes they were a shade of deep green, like the tropical forest where we had found his tomb.

They were kind eyes. Peaceful and dreaming.

Conversing with the newly awoken man had proven more difficult than I anticipated. Grandfather had taught me the Ancients’ language, which had been taught to him by his father, and his father, and so on. Our line had lost count of the years and generations, but the kingdom of Nia had always sponsored our work.

I should have expected that our hereditary language would not match perfectly with the Ancient one. But Grandfather would be disappointed in how hard it had been to communicate with the O'Baarni. The countless generations of education without proper reference must have deteriorated our understanding of the language.

At least the O'Baarni somewhat understood my words. He had seemed nice enough. In fact, while the man was unconscious, Greykin and Iarin both tried to convince Nadea that he wasn't a powerful deity. This was just some weak man, imprisoned and left alone for unknown reasons.

I doubted that they thought that after witnessing the quick massacre of the Vanlourn soldiers.

I once observed a small wolf spider stalk its prey. It was tiny, about the same size as the three ants it was attacking, yet the fierce arachnid made giant leaps, bringing the ants down with relative ease. The battle I just witnessed reminded me of that spider's ruthlessness.

This man looked weak and starving, but had moved with inhuman speed and dexterity. He lifted the Vanlourn squad commander and spun him around as Greykin used his metal shield. The whole ordeal happened so quickly that I struggled now to remember what had actually occurred. It seemed that within mere moments our attackers were all dead, or screaming in the throes of an agonizing demise.

As I remembered the crunching bone and screams of anguish, I felt my stomach flip again. I didn't want to be sick. I was already so embarrassed from earlier, and there was no reason to vomit again now that we were safe.

I put my bag on and looked to the small hill where the soldiers' corpses lay. I didn't want to see their dead bodies, but the O'Baarni might need my assistance. It seemed like days ago I had practically carried him to the tunnel out of the ruins. How quickly the situation changed.

I didn't see the strange man on the hill. He had been gathering the weapons into piles and doing something with their belts when I last looked. How many minutes had passed? I looked around the campsite. Nadea and Iarin were gathering their equipment and talking softly. Greykin stood fifty yards away near the entrance to the ruins. The big bearded man was pacing back and forth and shooting mean looks at Jessmei. She looked worried and glanced between Nadea and the Old Bear.

The jungle was quiet. Small purple butterflies twirled through the rays of sun that filtered through the trees, incongruously serene and beautiful over the gruesome battle site. I tiptoed around a pile of swords and daggers placed between the corpses. The bodies lay twisted in the agony of death, their faces frozen forever in a grimace of horror and pain. It made my head spin and I choked back bile.

"Nadea!" I called back and saw her adjusting the straps on Iarin's large backpack. "Where is he?"

"What?" She looked back in surprise. Everyone stared at me.

"Have you seen him?" I looked around the clearing and my stomach began to churn. If the O'Baarni had escaped, our entire journey would be for naught. We would have nothing to show for our efforts but dead Vanlourn soldiers and a handful of other brushes with danger.

Nadea looked around the jungle and I imagined her thoughts matched mine.

"Shit!" Iarin called out as he ran toward me. The man rarely spoke or revealed any anger, so it was surprising to hear him curse. He searched the surrounding ground before pointing to footprints in the mud. "It looks like he went south on this trail, where the soldiers came from." He turned back to look at Nadea.

"We have to catch up to him. Let's go," she said as she slid into the thick straps of her large leather pack. "Are you coming?" she glanced over to Greykin and Jessmei. Greykin considered for a moment.

"You are all stupider then Jess. He is dangerous. I've met men like him before, they don’t value human life," Greykin yelled back. Jessmei turned red with embarrassment, though she must have known it to be true. The princess had sneaked out of the castle two weeks after Nadea. Then she used a few dozen gold coins and naïve bargaining to secure transportation south in an effort to catch up to us, leaving an obvious trail that Greykin followed. She put herself, us, and her father's kingdom in danger. Nia had plenty of enemies, and they would all give large piles of gold to have her captured and used as priceless leverage. One of the many townsfolk we had passed, or perhaps one of the excavators had guessed her identity and given the information to the Vanlourns.

"So are you coming?" Nadea said as she turned her back to him and walked up the hill toward us. "I don't really care about you, but Jessmei will be safer in a larger group."

"Fine," he snorted.

"Fine," she sneered back. "Get your shit and let's go. The O'Baarni might be halfway to Astical by now.

Iarin turned and disappeared down the small trail that led deeper into the forest. It was the opposite direction of Nia, deeper into Vanlourn. I followed him as I struggled to fight back vomit.

The path wound up and down green covered hills, across small streams, and would have required us to cut through layers of thick vines, had the Vanlourn soldiers not done the work for us already.

"He is easy to follow," Iarin said after ten minutes of hot perspiration.

"Looks like he is running, or perhaps jogging. His boots are making deep imprints in the mud," Nadea answered the question before I asked it. We tried to move down the trail as quickly as possible but the dense foliage and uneven ground made speed difficult. This looked like it was a large animal's path, but I couldn't guess at what type. I had only heard birds and monkeys, and seen the occasional lizard. I was grateful for the sparse fauna. Earlier in the week Iarin told me that more sinister creatures might be found in the depths of untouched wilderness.

There were many forks in this trail, but even my untrained eye found the man's tracks as well as boot prints from the soldiers. He seemed to be following them back to their camp and I couldn't fathom why. There would be even more Vanlourn warriors there. Why would the O'Baarni leave our company and dive into the viper's nest?

The air was hot and sticky. I looked back and tried not to stare at the small stream of perspiration that ran down Nadea's neck, across her chest, and between her breasts. Greykin followed behind her, his face a mask of pain as he carried his large body, chain armor, shield, axe, and equipment through the sweltering heat. Jessmei brought up the rear, her small backpack didn't seem to weigh her down, but she almost tripped when she got distracted by the butterflies circling her head.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Keep moving Paug," Nadea hissed. I turned my attention back to Iarin's feet and tried to keep up with the lanky tracker.

The day grew even more oppressive as we trudged along the trail. It felt like we might have been walking for at least four hours, but it had probably been no more than two. I found myself dreaming about home. Grandpa and I lived beneath the lighthouse in a small village on the south coast of Nia. The air there was cool and the soothing memory of the ocean's song helped me trudge through the mud and heat.

"We'll find him," I tried to reassure Nadea when the path widened for us to walk next to each other. She had been setting an aggressive pace that I knew we wouldn't be able to keep up for much longer.

"I hope so, or it's my ass. I wanted…ah, never mind," she said as she glanced back at Greykin.

I was about to reassure her again, but Iarin sharply signaled for us to stop and be quiet.

Ahead lay a Vanlourn soldier's lifeless body, his left eye a gaping hole the size of a dagger. He was tossed slightly off the trail and bent in half like a discarded rag doll. Down the path I saw a thick perimeter of trees and the impression of a small clearing. This must have been their campsite.

Iarin sunk down low to the ground and took his long bow off his shoulder, loading an arrow in a smooth movement. He sneaked forward with the stealth of a cat, his head swaying back and forth as he looked into the trees. The air was humid and oppressive. The giant, wet leaves and dense foliage seemed to press down on us.

He moved a few paces out of our view. My heart pounded louder in my chest than the rest of the jungle noises. By the Spirits, what were we doing here? The Vanlourns would capture us easily now. Nadea squeezed my left arm and I looked over to see her smiling at me. She had her slender sword drawn and her confidence almost made me relax.

"If this turns bad, run behind Greykin and protect Jess," she whispered. I glanced down at the little travel knife Grandfather had given me. Fear turned into terror.

After what seemed like an eternity, Iarin returned. He pointed at Nadea and beckoned, and then he gave the stay put command to Greykin, Jessmei, and me. Nadea crawled forward across the path and through the trees after him.

I used to be able to ignore girls. The thought of kissing one made me gag. I never understood why any man wanted to be joined for the rest of his life. Now, I couldn’t help but stare in wonder at Nadea’s leather clad backside as she shimmied through the dirt path and walls of green plants.

After another eternity, they came back and motioned for us to follow. I found myself breathing a huge gasp of relief when I saw that they were both okay.

"It looks like this is their main camp. He has killed them all. It's pretty gruesome." Nadea looked at me and then Jessmei. "If you want to wait here--"

"No!" we both said at once. "I'm the only one who can speak to him," I finished.

Nadea nodded and she turned to walk back down the path, through the trees, and into the clearing. I followed her and heard Greykin and Jessmei behind me. The jungle was dense for another ten paces, and then we emerged into the campsite.

It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the glare and the brightness of the clearing. The sun was at its peak overhead and beat down on us mercilessly. The clearing was larger than I expected, a rough oval shape encompassing five big tents, a large fire pit, latrines, and a makeshift stable holding ten horses.

In the middle of a group of horses, petting and cooing at them, was the strange man. The animals seemed completely at ease around him, despite the massive carnage in the camp. The man had a small dash of red over the chest of his robe, but appeared otherwise untouched by the slaughter he had wrought.

Bodies decorated the campsite like broken toys in a playroom. I counted ten with a glance and guessed there were more behind or inside tents. Some were armed like the soldiers we encountered earlier. A few appeared to be mere servants and packers. They were all brutally slain, and I felt my stomach begin to roll and tumble as I took in the cleaved up bodies and pools of blood. I didn't know anything of combat besides what I had read in books or seen on the trip down here when we encountered a small group of highwaymen. I was surprised that the thin man didn’t have more blood on his body or clothing.

"This is horrible," Jessmei said in shock. "Did he kill all of them? Even the servants? Why would he kill servants?" The Princess of Nia probably hadn't even seen blood before and must have been terrified.

"I stand by my earlier decision. You have made a terrible mistake. This man is going to ruin us all. He is as crazy as a sober man on the King's Birthday. Look at him over there kissing those horses, like he doesn't even notice the bodies." Greykin was practically spitting at Nadea. Her almond shaped eyes narrowed at the big man. The power of her beauty struck my chest and drove out the feelings of fear.

"Let's go talk to him Paug," Nadea said as she touched my arm. I was afraid to move, but the second tug from her strong hand forced me.

He didn't notice us approach. His attention was focused on the largest animal of the group and his coo-like whispers were a stark contrast to the bloodshed around us. The animal nuzzled him appreciatively, as if it understood his words.

"Hello," I conjured as much bravado in my voice as I could.

"I like horses," he said as he looked at me. His wild, shaggy beard went down past his chest and to his stomach, yet I saw the huge smile of white teeth beneath the dark hair.

"Horses are nice." I tried to remember the words. He looked puzzled for a second and then nodded as he looked away from me and started to inspect each horse's shoes.

"What do you want me to say?" I asked Nadea. Greykin and Jessmei approached now that it appeared that the man wasn't going to kill us. Iarin disappeared into one of the tents.

"Ask him if he killed these men."

I reached for my book. I thought I knew how to say the words, but his accent and pronunciation was altered. Finally, I croaked it out.

"Yes," he said, and nodded as he moved to the next horse.

"Ask him why," Nadea pressed. I asked him.

"They were going to kill us. I kill them first," he said. At that point he seemed to realize that we were upset. He stopped caressing one of the horses, a large black one, and looked between Nadea and me.

"Why? I wrong? No kill?" He did seem concerned. I translated for everyone.

"Hey. I had this guy all wrong. Anyone who wants to kill Vanlourn soldiers because he thinks, rightfully so, that they want to kill us, is okay with me!" Greykin let out a deep laugh. The man frowned for a second but he smiled when he realized that the Old Bear was pleased.

"We go home?" the man asked me with an eyebrow raised. "Take horses? I like them."

I nodded.

"He likes horses. He wants to go back with us, and asked to take them," I told Nadea.

"Perfect!" she said with enthusiasm. "This will be easier than I expected. I thought he might run away. Can you ask him why he left? Also, ask if he knows he killed servants."

I was getting better at the translations. He moved away from the horses toward us as he answered our questions. I found myself shuffling back away from his advancing walk and I noticed that the two women and big axe man retreated as well.

"He said that he intended to find us after he got some clothes. He believed that their base camp was nearby because they didn't carry rations or a lot of water. He said that he didn't realize they were servants but it wouldn't have mattered to him anyway. He didn't want anyone to report our presence." I noticed the man study my mouth as I spoke. Once I finished he looked at Nadea. She nodded instead of saying anything.

"Okay. Ask him if he can find some clothes that will fit him. Our own horses are a few hours walk north of here."

He nodded as I relayed the message.

The man began to walk around the camp, ducking into tents and emerging with sacks or chests, then dumping them in the middle of the camp without opening them. During all the commotion Iarin emerged from the first tent with some packs and he put them on the pile.

"We should bury the bodies,” Nadea said, as she took a shovel from the heap.

"Burn them. Put their weapons, boots, and any armor that isn't damaged in a separate pile first," the man commanded me. I translated to Nadea.

"There might be more of them in the jungle. They will see the smoke and attack us," Nadea asked me to translate.

"Let them come. We might as well kill all of them," the man said, without looking at her. He had discovered a shaving mirror, razor, and other tools in a small pack.

"No. We aren't going to burn them. We don't need the heat, or the smoke, or the possibility of it attracting more attention," I translated to the man, worried that Nadea would argue with him like she often did with Greykin.

The strange man didn’t seem to care anymore about the conversation. He was looking at himself with the small shaving mirror. He stared in amazement as he slowly touched his face and beard. We looked at him and then at each other. The tension rose between us as we anticipated some sort of breakdown.

"Paug, hot water," he said, as he set the mirror down and inspected the shaving razor. The fire in the center of the camp was still bright with embers. I spotted various piles of wood and pots nearby. I added some twigs, larger pieces of wood, and blew on the fire to get it going again.

"What are you doing?" Nadea asked, as I prepared the flame.

"He wants hot water. I think he wants to shave." I looked over my shoulder at the man and saw him examining a pair of hair shears. He put them up to his face and began to awkwardly cut his beard shorter. Before he could get a second snip in, Iarin stepped near him and offered his hand. The man flipped the shears over and placed them in Iarin's palm.

Iarin went to work, cutting the man's beard as close as he dared with the shears. I poured a water skin into one of the pots and set it by the fire to heat.

"If they aren't going to burn or bury the bodies, ask Nadea and Greykin to gather weapons," the man said. Nadea and Greykin turned to look back at me with questions on their faces when they heard their names. We had all been watching Iarin trim the man's beard with a strange fascination.

"He wants you to gather weapons from the bodies," I said.

"Let's do it," Nadea said as she moved to a corpse. Greykin grunted and joined her.

After a few minutes the man's beard was uniformly trimmed an inch from his face.

"Ask him to cut my hair please." The man tugged on his long mane. I didn't need to translate, Iarin got the point and then moved back and began cutting.

"Let me do that," Jessmei said as she stood up from a rock where she had perched. "I used to cut my brother's hair and sometimes cut my handmaiden’s when they wished."

"Don't get near him!" Greykin shouted as he turned from his task. "We still have no idea what he is capable of."

"Actually, we have a pretty good idea of what he is capable of," Iarin said with a laugh. "If he wanted to kill her, or any of us he would have done it by now. He wants to go with us. Besides, if the princess cuts his hair, maybe he will be less likely to want to hurt her."

"Don't worry Greykin. He won't hurt me. Iarin is right, he would have already if he wanted. Even you could not stop him," Jessmei said.

"Bullshit I couldn't stop him! I am Captain of the Royal Household Guard. I've been in more borderland skirmishes, onslaughts, and raids than any other man in this kingdom. I swore a blood oath to your father that I would protect his line when I was younger than you. And I've been living with that task for the last fifty years. I don't care if this man is who you all think he is. If he harms a hair on your head, I will rip his head from his shoulders and drink the blood that gushes from his neck."

Jessmei froze mid-step like a caught rabbit. Everyone seemed surprised by the big man's sudden outburst. The princess looked back at her protector and seemed about to burst into tears.

"No kill. No hurt," the man said as he smiled at Greykin and waved across the fire pit.

"Did he just speak our language?" Nadea said in amazement.

"He has been listening to how I have been translating." I tried not to smile.

"Is the water warm?" the man asked me.

"Almost." He looked confused. "Soon," I said instead, and he nodded. Jessmei ran her fingers through his tangled hair in an attempt to smooth it out.

"Is there a comb in that pile?" Jessmei asked. The man bent down and pulled out a large bone comb and handed it over his shoulder to her.

"Tell him to sit down. He is too tall," Jessmei asked me to translate but the man sunk down smoothly and kneeled on the dirt. It was a weird position, balancing on his shins and the balls of his feet, but he didn't seem to be in pain.

"I think he is able to understand us. Is that possible?" Nadea asked me. She threw some sheathed swords, crossbows, and daggers into a pile.

"I don't know. It seems that the Ancient language and ours have a few things in common. But theirs is more complicated. Our language is subject, verb, and then object. So we would say: 'I am drinking water.' The Ancient language has a different order depending on if it is the past, present, or future tense. The alphabet and sounds are also more complicated. There are forty more sounds their language makes. And it looks like I got most of them wrong."

"You're doing fine, Paug. You got him to want to come with us!" Nadea couldn't hide her excitement. Both she and her father believed that the O'Baarni would help us against the Ancient race. The legends said that the O'Baarni nearly annihilated all life on our world, but Nadea had found proof that someone, or some group, had changed the documented history. It was probably an easy task, considering that the Ancients lived over two thousand years ago and most of their art, writing, and creations were destroyed.

We sat back around the fire and watched Jessmei cut the man's hair.

"How short do you think he wants it?" she asked as she combed and cut small pieces of thick hair.

"As short. I am not allowed to have long hair," the man said to me as I finished translating. I looked at him in confusion and saw his expression looked lost. He was remembering something.

"He wants it short," I told Jessmei. She nodded and cut larger pieces off of his wild mane. Her hands did seem to know their way around shears and hair.

After ten minutes she had cut off most of the long hair and began working around his ears. The dark cuttings fell over his gray robe and face like discarded autumn leaves. I realized that I hadn't checked on the water in a while. It was almost boiling, so I moved it away from the fire. The man saw me move the water and nodded.

Jessmei moved in front of the man and appraised her work, brushing the tips of her fingers over his face to dust off hair, and running the comb through the top to make sure it lay evenly. The man glanced at her before staring into the fire. I looked over at Greykin, surprised that he hadn't given a yell of outrage at her being so close. Nadea had finished gathering the weapons around us and stood with her arms crossed over her chest. A look of annoyance was plain on her face but I couldn't guess why.

"I think that looks great!" Jessmei said, and I agreed. His hair was a few inches long on all sides, more organized, and he looked less like a crazy beggar. He motioned for me to bring the pot closer as he grabbed the razor and a piece of soap.

"I never thought it was that interesting to watch a man shave, but I am enthralled," Iarin murmured as he sat next to me. The O’Baarni splashed warm water on his face from the bucket, dunked the soap in, and then worked a lather with it on his face. Then he began to shave with the mirror in his right hand and the razor in his left.

After a few minutes he finished cutting the beard and set down the mirror and blade. He splashed his face with water to remove the soap and the hair. Then he raised the mirror again and studied himself. I could not guess if he was handsome or not. It looked like he might be two days from death through starvation, a skeleton covered in translucent bleached paper, with dark violet lines running down his neck and face. The veins were so apparent through his gaunt skin that I almost believed that they were on the outside of his body.

"I am thin," he said to me.

"Yes," I said back. "You should eat something before we leave."

"I remember my name," he stopped and touched the mirror, then his face, then the mirror again. "I am Kaiyer. I was a stable boy. I served the Elven tribe of Laxile. My father's name was Kai."

I sat stunned for a brief second before excitement made me vault to my feet. "Are you the O'Baarni? Did you destroy the Ancients?" I realized that my hands were clenched.

He looked at me sadly as he set down the mirror. In a smooth movement he went from kneeling to standing. Jessmei stood closest to him and she shuffled back a few steps from him in surprise.

"I remember being a stable boy. Washing horses, fixing shoes, shoveling manure. I remember standing in an army. I remember a red flag and a black skull. I heard wind and cheering. I don't remember more."

He turned away from me and started to sort through the clothes.

I quickly translated to my companions.

"A stable boy? I don't know if I can believe that." Nadea seemed disappointed. "What stable boy fights like that? How did he become imprisoned if he is just a stable boy? It doesn't make any sense."

"It could just be that he doesn't remember yet. I have trouble remembering what I ate for dinner when I wake up in the morning. If he slept for over fifteen hundred years, I can imagine that he might forget what happened during his life. It will just take time," Iarin tried to ease Nadea's worries, but she seemed pretty devastated.

"That doesn't look like the body of a stable boy," Greykin muttered to us as he pointed back at Kaiyer. We all looked over and gasped. He had taken off his robe and stood naked. His body was painfully thin, with ribs protruding so far I might grab one through his skin. I even thought that I saw his heart beating in his chest.

His skin was covered in countless scars, long, thin cuts that could have come from swords or whips, wide circular scars from an arrow or crossbow, burns, and rips. I hadn't noticed it before, but his left hand looked like it had been burned down to the mid forearm. He may have dipped the limb into a scalding pot of water or oil at one time. He found a pair of dark brown pants that he struggled to put on. His penis hung from his body and bounced as he maneuvered into the garment.

"Turn around and give the man his privacy ladies," Greykin commanded and the girls did. Jessmei's face looked bright red and her eyes opened in amazement before she turned her back to us. She was a bit older than me and may have never seen a naked man.

"He spoke of an army. He mentioned a red flag and a black skull," I said, suddenly remembering what Kaiyer told me in the ruins.

"Did he say anything else? No records indicate what design his banner carried. Did he say if he was a commander or the actual O'Baarni?" Nadea was grasping for anything that proved he was our savior. I shook my head.

"One thing's for sure. The boy needs food. Let's get out of this blasted jungle and back to our camp before nightfall," Greykin said.

I turned back to see that the thin man had put on socks and had already tied one boot on. It only took him another few moments to put on the other boot and slide into a cream-colored tunic. The clothes suited him, but he didn't seem happy until he had tied a few of the sword belts from the pile around his waist and studied the blades.

"Looks like we finally agree," Nadea said to Greykin with a smile. "And I think our friend is ready to go."