Ing opened the wooden door to his house and let himself inside. It was a modest house like most of the houses in Ganwin. A small hallway led to the family room and the kitchen was at the back of the house. Off to the left was his mother's room. His room was off to the right. Through a window in the kitchen he could see through to Arlene's house as it was right across from his. He wondered if she had already fallen asleep.
He decided to take a look in Selenia's former room and see if it still looked the same. Inside the room he spotted a pair of brown boots on the floor. She must have been in such a hurry that night that she didn't even have time to put her boots on.
Then Ing proceeded to head to his own room and see how it fared. It was much the same as he had left it. On the floor were several pairs of boots and in a corner were a few pairs of clothes: shirts and breeches and socks. I am the man of the house now. Finding that he was hot he pulled his shirt over his back and threw it on the bed.
In a corner of his room stood his old bookshelf that held the books he had collected over the years. On one of the shelves was the leaf that he had forged in Borad Tabberly's forge. The other shelves were filled with various books: The Forest Mother, The Witch in the Waters, Spellbound, etc. On one shelf he spied The Warrior Erdwick. I've had it all this time and never even noticed. How strange. He pulled the book from the shelf and brushed the dust off its surface. Opening it to page 1, he read The Warrior Erdwick, by Hamill Roan.
In the days gone by that we now refer to as the days of Erdwick, there was one by that very name who was a warrior greater than all others...
That night Ing found his dreams were troubled. In his dream he saw Shamil wandering across the land in the dead of night and he looked frightened and lonely. Stars blinked in the sky above as the boy came across a strange figure that seemed to change shape in the moonlight. Ing awoke in a cold sweat.
