Darin hurried to explain, “Ducks are waterfowl. They fly towards good weather. So, they head south right about when the snows start. In fact, that when we know when winter is about to start. All the ducks head off. So, we hurry to finish our winter preparation chores.” She licked her lips, “Some stay.” She smiled at the Elf, “The liver is the best part. At least I think so. And we use their feathers to make pillows and mattresses. The bones make good soup.” She was counting on her fingers, “Every part of the animal.” She leaned over Talbot, “Even every part of Talbot will be used when he can’t work anymore.”

Talbot nodded. It seemed he agreed with her. Of course, they were both farmers, so they lived the same type of life before this adventure began. Even people were useful when they died; at least the village Darin grew up in used people when they died. They weren’t eaten, but they would be buried under farm fields. It was a fairly decent fertilizer. The was a ceremony and everything. Darin knew that the village where she grew up was a little odd in that regards. Most human cities had a cemetery. That seemed like a waste to her. She hoped when she died, she got put in a field to help things grow. That way she was useful. The Gardener have been put in her field.

She flopped on to Talbot’s back, “I don’t think anyone knows what evil is unless it’s staring them in the face. Even then they might be blind or not notice. I especially don’t think children should have to know what evil is. The interaction with Mark changed me. I don’t think it made me evil, but I will always remember it. I’m not sure the change or the memories are a good thing.” She sighed, “Evil is not something I would want anyone to know.”

Talbot must have been tired of Darin not riding properly, because he suddenly broke into a gallop. Darin tried to return to a sitting position. She got about halfway there before she just fell off. She let out a shout of pain. She landed right on her injured shoulder. What was worse was she thought she might have landed on something that tore her stiches. She carefully pulled her shirt up to check her shoulder. Her stitches looked fine so that was one good thing. Darin let out a groan as she laid back down. Talbot came over to circle her. Het let out a snort of what sounded like concern.

Darin reach out to run her hand over his nose, “I’m fine. I just took a tumble.” She used his reins to pull herself back up, “Though I’m starting to think that walking might actually be faster.”

She looked to see it she could figure out where she was. Nope! She still had no idea. It was a good thing that Ridahne was here. Otherwise Darin was sure to get lost. She would still be lost if she hadn’t found the Elf yesterday. Okay, the Elf had found her. Darin was going to be honest about that. There was no point in lying about it anyways; even to herself. Besides. The Elf’s plan was as good as any. It was certainly better than her plan which was to just wander until she got lost again.

She nodded at Ridahne, “That sounds like a great plan; unless I learn something specific at The Tree. But for now, it’s better than my plan. So, we’ll go with it.” She turned to Talbot, “I’m sorry for being a bad rider. May I get back on?”

Talbot nodded, so Darin held on to the reins. Talbot didn’t bend his knees, so it took Darin a few tries. She hoped one day swinging herself on to his back would be easy. She supposed that day would come the same day that riding was easy as well. The human didn’t think she would every be a professional rider, but she could and did hope that she would be good enough that one day falling off wouldn’t be a daily occurrence. That would make a very good start. Though right now she would settle on not making her horse upset with her.

Darin shot her arm out, “Let’s go!”

Then she let out another hiss of pain. It appeared that moving so suddenly after landing on it had been bad for her shoulder. She needed to be more careful. She rather not have to redo the stitches anytime soon. She wanted her shoulder to heal as well as it would possibly heal. She had a feeling it would scare, but as long as she could still use it that would be good enough for her. Talbot took her words to heart and started to gallop again. This time Darin remained sitting up. She smiled when he stopped, and she hadn’t fallen off again. She was doing it! She was pleasantly surprised when she discovered that.