Tyler's Story (Tales of Quelondain) by Mireille Chester Read Free Book Online

her and smiled.
“Good job.”
    They practiced the frontal defense a dozen times
before Tyler was satisfied she’d gotten the hang of it.
    John grinned. “Remind me never to take you on in a
real fight.”
    Heidi blushed and Tyler laughed.
    “We’ll practice every time we stop.”
    “He’s not joking.” John faked a groan. “The man is a
slave driver.”
    “Oh, stop complaining. You’ll thank me one day when
you need the skills. You can’t spend the rest of you days just
throwing the dagger at whatever is coming at you.” Tyler laughed.
“One of these days, you’ll miss.”
    John put his hand on the hilt of his dagger. “Name
it.”
    Tyler grinned and looked around. “Alright, then…” He
pointed to a tree that stood a good thirty to forty feet away and
the small red lizard that clung part ways up its trunk. “The
yoll.”
    John smiled. “It’s a bit small for breakfast, don’t
you think?”
    “Not if you just cut the head off.”
    Heidi watched, amazed. “There’s no way you can just
cut the head off. It’s too far away.”
    John tilted his head and judged the distance before
nodding. “Off with its head, then.” He pulled his dagger and threw
it in on smooth motion from over his shoulder.
    The three of them watched as the yoll’s head stayed
pinned to the tree while its body fell to the ground.
    “Oh my god! That was amazing! That’s
unbelievable!”
    It was John’s turn to blush at the attention. He
shrugged and went to pull his dagger from the tree trunk. He bent
to pick up the dead lizard and grinned. “Here, catch!”
    Tyler cushioned the eggs as John tossed them lightly
to him.
    “Put your bread away, Heidi.” Tyler gave John a slap
on the back. “It looks like yoll egg omelettes are on the
menu.”
    She watched as John skinned and gutted the lizard
while Tyler prepared the fire to cook breakfast over.
    “How long have you guys known each other?”
    Tyler chuckled. “Well, if you count the time John
tried to steal my pack, it would be in the neighborhood of three
weeks.”
    John blushed. “I don’t count that day.” He looked up
at Heidi. “I prefer to remember our first meeting as the one when
he saved my life.”
    “What happened?”
    John’s hazel eyes saddened though his smile stayed
firmly on his face. “Let’s just say that two weeks ago I was not in
a good place in my life. Truth be told, the past five years have
been pure hell and had that buck managed to kill me, I don’t think
I would have minded.” He handed Tyler the cut up lizard meat. Tyler
took it and put it in the scrambled eggs.
    “You don’t mean that,” the younger of the two men
said. “There’s a reason you lived for five years in the conditions
you did. Any other being would have been killed or would have
starved long ago.”
    John shrugged. “Well, either way, that day was a
close call for me and Tyler happened to pull me out of a jam.” He
pulled the coffee out and put some water on to boil.
    They all watched as the eggs cooked.
    “Hello, camp!”
    John and Tyler stood, Tyler’s arm pushing Heidi
behind them. He felt her hand on the small of his back.
    Five men walked towards them.
    “Good day,” stated Tyler.
    The blond man in the lead nodded. “Indeed it is.”
    “Is there something we can help you with?” John
frowned as the man nodded again.
    “We heard a woman. Where is she?”
    Tyler stiffened. “Why do you want to know?”
    “We’re rogue hunters. Our job is to find the humans
and bring them to our captain.”
    Heidi’s hand tightened around a handful of his
tunic.
    “Well, you don’t have to worry about her. She’s with
us.”
    “But she’s human?”
    There was no point in lying, really. All they had to
do was look. “She is.”
    “Then she comes with us.”
    Tyler growled. “No. She doesn’t.”
    “She won’t be harmed.”
    “Like hell she won’t.” Tyler’s hand moved to the hilt
of his dagger. “She just crossed over. She had nothing to do with
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