"Yes, of course you have a choice. Raven is a fair and good man. And he'll teach you how to defend yourself against bullies. His word is gold, and he'll do right by you. In the juvenile center, who knows what'll happen to you? I think you'll do much better with him. I think you'll find it interesting and fun." Ben leaned forward, looked Caleb in the eye, and asked, "Do you want to keep running away like you're doing now?"

Caleb considered it a long minute. This had to be better than prison. He could always escape. He said, "Okay, I'll go with Raven."

"Good," Ben said. "You'd better be going because there isn't much time before the state car gets here. I'll see what I can do to placate the store manager. I'm a good friend of his son." Raven and the deputy signed some papers. Then they all stood up, and Raven said, "Let me properly introduce you to Amara."

Raven led Caleb outside to meet the redheaded girl, who now stood on the ground. She held the reins to four horses. Raven told Caleb, "This is Amara." Turning to her, he said, "This is Caleb." Amara quickly nodded and said, "I prefer to be called Red."

Caleb thought Red was a year or two older than he was, and she was a little bit taller than he was. She extended her right hand, which was small and calloused, took his hand, and shook it with an iron grip. She dressed similar to Raven, but she also sported a gray, hooded cloak with her curly, copper hair spilling out, brilliant in the morning sun.

"Why don't you like to be called Amara?" Caleb asked.

A small storm passed over her face. "Just call me Red, and we'll get along," she snapped. Then, in a calmer voice, she said, "Here, let me introduce you to Easy Rider." She passed the leads of three horses to Raven and led out a brown horse with the white legs that was saddled and loaded with large bags. "You'll ride him. He's a gelding and quite gentle."

"But I've never ridden a horse," Caleb said.

Red smirked and said, "Well, you could walk, but I wouldn't suggest doing that. We have an awfully long way to go. Besides it's easy."

He suddenly got a cold feeling in his stomach about the whole adventure. "I don't know," he said.

"You could still stay with the deputy," Raven said. "You don't have to come with us."

Caleb had heard enough. Just the thought of the juvenile center made him shudder. He walked over to Red and whispered, "How do I get on him?"

She smiled and showed him how to get onto the horse by first mounting the horse herself. She dismounted and had Caleb place his foot in the stirrup, grab the saddle, stand up on the stirrup, and swing his other leg over the saddle all in one motion.

Red kept the reins, tied a lead to them, and then she mounted the Percheron. She turned to Caleb and said, "It's easy to sit on the horse. Don't kick or squeeze with your legs. It'll confuse him, and he might try to run away with you."

Raven tied the brown packhorse's leader to his own black horse's saddle and quickly mounted.

Ben looked up at Raven and said, "You'd better hurry up. The state car will be here soon. I can't keep them from taking him if they show up. But before you go, I have something for Caleb." He stepped into his office and came out with a heavy coat with a deputy sheriff's badge on it. He pulled the badge off, handed the coat up to Caleb, and said, "You'll need this."

Caleb took the coat and thanked him, not wanting to appear ungrateful. He put the coat on despite it being too large and too warm.

Raven clucked his horse to a walk and turned it down a side street. Red followed on the Percheron with Caleb in tow. He found it easy to sit on the horse just like Red had said. He had only the saddle horn to hold onto, but he felt relatively safe.

They quickly reached the edge of town, started up a large, grassy hill, and soon entered a line of trees. "Watch your head or a branch will knock you off," Red remarked looking back at Caleb. He thought, She ought to watch out herself, sitting on the huge horse. They continued ascending through the trees, not seeming to follow any marked path.

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When they reached the top of the hill, they entered a large clearing in the woods. "We're going up there," Red said, pointing up at several mountains in the distance.

Caleb was taken aback by the immensity of the mountains, which didn't look that far away. "How long will it take to get there?"

"About a day and a half, then we go through the pass between those two peaks." She indicated two of the closer mountains. "Then it's one more day."

Caleb tried to figure the distance just in case he decided to escape. "How far is that?"

"Farther than you can walk in a week. It's all rough, up and down, switchbacks and rivers."

"Where will we stay tonight?"

"We'll camp out in the open. Camping is fun, but sometimes things don't go as expected, and you wake up with a wolf in your bedroll." Caleb almost gasped, but she grinned and winked at him, and he quickly realized that she had played with him. "Just kidding, but you really do get used to sleeping outside. Besides I've never seen a wolf in these parts."

They continued past the clearing, going back into the woods and following a mostly western course up and down hills until they eventually descended into a forested valley. The trees were enormous and spaced well apart. The going was easy, with very little undergrowth to slow them down, the ground, almost level and soft. The horses' breathing and hoof beats were the only sounds.

They soon came to a stream, and Raven stopped to water the horses. Red pulled three packets from the Percheron's saddlebags and gave one packet to Raven, who took it, went over to a large rock, and sat down to eat. She then gave a packet to Caleb and motioned for him to follow her.

They went upstream about fifty meters, found a log to sit on, and started to eat their dried fruit, which tasted surprisingly good. It consisted mostly of dried apples, pears, and raisins dusted with cinnamon and some other spices. "Do you like it?" Red asked. "I made it myself. Raven taught me how."

"Yeah, it's pretty good, if you're into this sort of stuff."

Red grimaced and said, "You'll eat plenty of dried fruit and vegetables in the next few months. You'll appreciate the variety soon enough."

Caleb looked in the direction of Raven and said, "He doesn't talk much does he?"

"No, but when he does, it's important. He teaches mostly by example. Pay attention to what he does." She brought up a soft, leather water skin and offered him a drink. Caleb suddenly realized how thirsty he was. He took several big gulps before he handed it back to her, and then she took a large swallow.

Caleb asked, "Why is he called Raven?"

Red chuckled. "That's easy. He's called Raven because he's a tracker. He finds people. Ravens are good at finding things. He received the name when he became a knight."

Caleb stared at Red in disbelief. "A Knight? There are no knights. You're joking, right?"

Red crossed her arms and gave him a challenging stare. "He's a knight. You'll see."

Caleb also crossed his arms. "I don't believe you."

Red shrugged and looked darkly at him. "Look, I'm not going to waste my breath. Wait and see."

Something about her manner said not to challenge her. "Okay, have it your way. He's a knight." Then Caleb asked, "Where are we going?"

Red's eyes lit up. She said, "We're going up to the high country, to the valley where we'll camp during the summer."

Caleb asked, "What do you do there?"

"We ride a lot, take care of the horses, learn self-defense, and archery.

"I mean what do you do for fun?"

Red laughed, "When the day's work is over, I get to ride Mary a lot. There's always something fun to do. Besides, most of the work is easy."

"Just us? All summer?"

"Oh, heavens no! Most everybody will be there." She spread out her arms to indicate a lot of people. "And yes, all summer. Isn't it magnificent?"

Caleb gulped, not sure he wanted the answer, and asked, "Who's everybody?"

"Just about the whole school."

"School?"

Red looked perplexed and said, "Well, yes. It's more like a summer school."

All of a sudden, it came crashing down on him, his worst nightmare. School, the place he hated the most. It was the reason he'd run away this last time. He'd been bullied and beaten, and his lunch money had been stolen. Boys would trip him in the halls, and girls would laugh at him. There had been no help from his teachers or foster parents. Now he was going to a school he couldn't escape from. He exclaimed, "I hate school!"

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because what?"

Caleb ground his teeth. "Just because."

Red was quiet for a minute, but then she sighed and said, "You must have your reasons. I won't ask again, but I swear to you this school is like no other. This school is really good. The classwork is hard, but we have a lot of fun afterward."

Caleb asked, "What do you do there?"

"We ride a lot and take care of the horses, learn self-defense, and archery."

"I mean what do you do for fun?"

Red laughed. "When the day's work is over, we get to ride the horses for fun, play horse games, and other silly stuff. There's always something to do. Besides most of the work is fun."

Some music came through the trees. Red pulled a small fife from under her cloak, signaled back by playing a similar tune, and said, "Raven is calling us. It's time to get going." They returned to the horses, which were grazing by the stream.

Raven went over to the packhorse and retrieved something out of its saddlebags. Walking over to Red, he whispered in her ear. She nodded pulled some clothes out of one of the saddlebags, and handed them to him. Raven looked at Caleb and said, "Why don't you come with me? You need to do something."

Caleb decided it must be important, so he followed Raven downstream. When they were out of sight of the horses, Raven said, "Take off your coat."

"What?"

"Take off your coat."

"What? No."

Raven furrowed his eyebrows and repeated in a more stern voice, "Take off that coat, or I'll take it off for you."

That got Caleb's attention. He opened his eyes wide, but quickly slipped the coat off and handed it to the Raven, who tossed it aside. "Now what?"

"Here are some clean clothes. Amara is loaning you one of her uniforms. You're going to take a bath"

Caleb yelled, "No, no way! Besides, I don't know you!"

"Before you get back to the horses, you're going to wash up, both you and your clothes. You smell like a goat."

"No!"

"Suit yourself." Raven grabbed Caleb by his belt and shoulder, lifted him, and tossed him into the stream. He landed with a large splash and was completely submerged before rapidly coming up, struggling for breath. The shock of the freezing water seized up his muscles, and he couldn't speak.

Raven reached into his pocket, pulled out a bar of soap, and held it out to him. "I'm going back to the horses. Wash everything, especially where the sun doesn't shine. Then wash those clothes and throw them on the bank. When you're clean, get dressed and come back to the horses. We'll be waiting on you." He turned, climbed the bank, and walked upstream.

Caleb hastily pulled his sweater off and started scrubbing it with the soap. He tossed it on a rock then started with the rest of his clothes. He managed to clean his clothes and himself while freezing in the process. He rapidly climbed out of the stream and put on the shirt and trousers Raven had left for him. Then he slipped on the deputy's coat. He walked upstream to where Raven and Red were waiting, his sneakers squishing water.