Once again, it was a dream. Terry knew this because he was back on the farm, walking toward his aunt and uncle’s house. He was also holding Delores’s hand and she was quietly talking about her plans for the day. He knew that she'd been here for a while. He'd been happy. He stopped dead and let his hand slip from hers. The dream Delores kept walking, not noticing he’d broken character. He looked around to find what he knew would be there.
A form massed from the trunk of the sycamore tree by his trailer. The form stepped out into the yard this time. It was tall. Taller than Terry. It was the shape of a man in a cloak but it was made entirely of tree bark so Terry couldn’t make out any of its details. Terry scowled at the form.

“Do you make these dreams?” he asked the form. “Because if so, we need to have a talk.”

The form turned its head to watch the dream Delores continue walking and talking. She was smiling. The bark-shape turned to face Terry. It tilted it’s head in curiosity.

“I merely come to your dreams, child. The contents are your own.”

Terry stood and watched the girl stand at the back door of the house. The door opened on it’s own and she nodded to no one before entering, the door closing a moment later. He shook his head and looked at the form.

“Look. I don’t know who you are or why you’re here.”

“You don’t remember me, do you?”

“Should I?”

The form walked around Terry. It seemed to be studying him. As it did, there was a familiarity to the voice. VOICE. He stayed silent. He needed to think and he'd have to think while awake.

“I like your friends, Terry.”

“I don’t know that I’d call Elton a friend, yet.”

“None the less,” it said as it continued a slow circle around him, “they will remain true to you. IF you remain true to them. And yourself.”

Terry watched as it finished its small circuit. He was losing his patience with this.

“Is that it? You just wanted to let me know you approve of my friends?”

It seemed to nod.

“Yes. That, and to give you advice.”

“Let me guess. It comes?”

It didn’t have eyes but Terry could feel it staring.

“No. Though that remains true. You will find your next task today. It is important.”

Terry blinked. He realized he was becoming entirely too petulant with this being. It was just trying to help. The beginning of the dream had him off balance. And if this was the voice. God, if it really was, he owed it to it to listen.

“Sorry about that. This setting has thrown me off. How important? Is another town in danger or something?”

“No. But there are few knights who live that can truly meet this task. They would face it in the only way they know. You are more. Be aware of what comes to you. Stay safe, child.”

And with that, Terry felt something in his soul pull him backwards, back into the wide world. . .

Terry opened his eyes. It was light and he was back in his sleeping bag. It was still overcast but the storm had finally moved on sometime in the night and even the dim morning light was welcome. Things had been dark yesterday. Darker than just the absence of light. He rolled on his side and his breath caught.

Delores was across from him, also on her side, and dead to the world. He laid there and watched her. He remembered the dream before the thing with the voice. He allowed himself a small smile. She'd held his hand. In the dream, yes, but last night as well. She'd held his hand.

It wouldn’t work, of course. The codes. The vows. His interactions with mages was strictly limited. But maybe it would be ok if he just thought of her every now and again? Just when he felt bad? To cheer himself up? It was probably too much. He didn't think good things were supposed to be something he could have.

“Morning!” a voice called out.

Terry sat up and looked as Elton came traipsing up from a small building Terry had missed in his exhaustion. He saw Delores stir and stretch in the corner of his eye and kept his gaze firmly on Elton. The guy had an arm load of cereal bars and sodas.

“Where’d you get those?” Terry asked, his stomach responding to the idea of any kind of food.

Elton gestured to the building with his head.

“Over there. There’s restrooms, some small shower stalls, and some snack machines. I know you guys missed dinner last night so I figured I could at least cover breakfast.”
He let the bars drop and carefully placed the cans down. He was smiling the whole time and Terry just shook his head. He remembered what the bark-thing had said. If he stayed true to them. . . .

Terry finally hazarded another look at Delores as she got up, rubbing sleep from her eye. She saw the cereal bars and sat right down and opened one.

“Elton,” she said, “I could kiss you right now.”

Elton sat at the opposite end of the table and laughed.

“Well, unfortunately I am married to my work. You’ll have to take it up with my laptop and tablet. We kinda have a thing.”

Terry finally stood up and looked around. The area looked like any rest area along the highways in Mississippi. He could literally be anywhere. He sat down, grabbed a Coke and a cereal bar, and started mechanically feeding himself.

After a time, he realized Delores and Elton both were watching him.

“What?”

“You were kinda out of it last night.” Delores answered. “You still seem a little, I dunno. Off?”

Terry looked at Elton. He raised his eyebrows to pose the question again.

Elton toyed with his wrapper before answering.

“I sort of joined you out of, well, I could have asked. I wanted to see if you were angry.”

Terry thought about that. He put himself in Elton’s shoes. Stuck with someone like Robert Lawless. The threatening step the man had taken toward Elton with a sword. The looks. “Shut your hole” replayed itself in his head. Several things snapped into place in Terry’s mind all at once and he felt terrible for the man. Before that though. . .

“I’m ok, D.” He said. “I just don’t think I’ve ever been that angry in my entire life. I hope to God I never am again. I still feel a little drained, but I’ll be alright.”

“You’re sure?”

He gave her a reassuring smile.

“Yeah. I just don’t want to fight anything for a few days. This is only my third day as an Errant and I’ve fought a dragon, a gargouille, and a massive jerk.”

Delores laughed.

“Fair. You’ve been a busy boy.”

Terry turned the smile on Elton.

“Look, Elton. I can’t pretend to know what your life has been like. What I can do is guess how you’ve been treated by Robert Lawless. You left that behind to follow me and D.”

The man still looked nervous about the two of them. Geez, Terry thought, what did he do to him?

“Last night, you took a vow for me. Well I’m making one to you right now.”

Terry reached down and pulled his sword from it’s pocket in his coat. He walked around the table and grounded the point in front of Elton. He took a knee and placed his right hand over his heart.

“Elton Beasley AND Delores. . .” His eyes got wide. He suddenly realized he hadn’t gotten the girl’s last name. She understood.

“Cody. Delores Cody.” She said. She and Elton both watched him with interest. Terry just mouthed thank you. He placed his hand back on his heart and bowed his head.

“Elton Beasley AND Delores Cody. I, Terrance Lingal, Errant Apprentice, solemnly vow that while you are a part of my entourage I will protect you from any and all dangers seen and unseen. I will place myself before you. I will keep you from any harm I am capable of keeping you from. I am your servant, your guide, and your protector. In the name of my father, the Lord, and the honor of the Order of Saint George the Dragon Slayer I do swear.”

The silence that followed was so complete even the birds were terrified to break it. He looked up to two shocked faces. Delores’s jaw was hanging open. When the silence was finally broken, it was Elton who did it.

“Where in the FUCK did you come from?!”

Terry smiled.

“Raymond, originally."

Delores walked over and kneeled beside Terry.

“You really didn’t need to do that.”

“I felt like I did.”

She shook her head.

“You can’t protect us from everything. I don’t want you to beat yourself up when one of us gets hurt.”

Terry nodded.

“I can try.”

Delores sighed. Terry tilted his head and looked at her. He thought he saw the issue.

“I won’t be a mother hen. I promise.”

Delores looked at Elton. Elton shrugged.

“If it keeps him happy, you know?”

Delores stood and threw her hands up.

“I give up. Let’s find a way station and find some work.”

Terry shared a quick smile with Elton. He knew he could have just sworn that oath to Elton, but something told him he needed to swear to both of them. Delores was right though. They were burning daylight and lunch today wasn’t going to buy itself.

Before leaving, he looked at the shield Elton had brought. The rounded cut in the top confused him. Then he looked at Thunder and he grinned. He walked up to the scooter. He knelt in front of it and sure enough, the cut seemed to be about the right size. He looked into the little thing's round headlight.

"Ok buddy, I'm not super excited about having a shield, but maybe you can make use of it."

He sat there and realized he was waiting for a response and shook his head, laughing at himself.

After a few minutes of work, the shield was in place, the bottom point behind the front wheel well and the headlight hanging through the cut out portion. He'd used the arm straps and some extra belting he had to attach the thing securely to the steering column. He stood back and admired his work. He turned to Delores.

"What do you think?"

She stood there with her hands on her hips, tilting her head back and forth. She finally looked up at him.

"I think I just watched you talk to a scooter and waste a shield."

His smile dropped and he gave her his best kicked puppy look. She sighed.

"Your scooter, man. I'm just riding it."

Terry was fairly certain he’d never been to Columbia before. The problem was that most small towns in Mississippi, if not the South, were built during the Reconstruction. That meant they were all made by the Army Corp of Engineers from the same couple of plans. They all had a central courthouse and a roundabout with a statue to a local hero. Raymond and Columbia were very different towns, but there was that sameness to them. Infinite varieties of blandness.

Terry and company rode into town around 10 in the morning on a Sunday. Elton, it turned out, had a lovely red Vespa he had picked up a few months before meeting Lawless. Delores kept looking at it over her shoulder as they rode and grumbled under her breath.

“Jealous?” Terry said to her, not even trying to hide his amusement.

“Why does the bard have to have a better scooter than us?”

“First, I guess he can afford to. Second, I personally know who built Thunder. I’ll take him any day.”

It didn’t do much to stop her grumbles.

Deep in the town, on MS-13, they found the way station in a strip mall next to a place that served fried pig ear sandwiches. That would be lunch sorted after a look at the board. When Terry mentioned eating there Elton turned a decidedly worrying shade of green before following them into the station.

The interior was in much better condition than the one in D’Iberville. It was clean, the fixtures were polished, and there were no bars or plexi-glass between the old African-American gentleman and Terry. He saw what he presumed was the man’s wife as well behind the counter sorting a stack of paper into antique wooden filing cabinets. The entire thing made him smile.

“Howdy!” the old man shouted. “Got an update for your tally?”

Terry heard Delores snort behind him. Elton came in right after her and set up at a small mid-century style table and set up his laptop. He began typing immediately.

“Uh, no sir. And g’morning! Just in to check the boards.”

Delores sat down at the same table as Elton and started scrolling on her phone.

“Feel free! Got a couple of new asks over there. One requesting Robert Lawless. You seen him? He quit answering his phone.”

Elton, Delores, and Terry all three froze. The man gave them a questioning look.

Elton and Delores let out a simultaneous “NO”.

At the same moment, Terry said “He’s on sabbatical.”

The man tried to nod and shake his head at the same time, gave up, and shrugged.

“Whatever. Still need someone over in Natchez. Kidnapping’s never a pleasant business.”

At the word kidnapping, Terry ran to the board and was pleased to see Delores had the same reaction. They scanned the note cards pinned to the old corkboard until they found the one. It was newer than the others. Printed at the top were the words “JURISDICTION PROBLEM”.

Terry pulled the card down. Delores read over his shoulder. The hand written text read:

Our daughter was kidnapped from our front yard two days ago by several goblins. Being Fantastics, the police will not take action and say we have to go through the Order. If any knight would be willing to help, we will reward you as best we can. We don’t have much money but we can offer room and board during your stay and can provide hot meals.
- Larry and Cynthia Short

Terry looked at Delores.

“We have to.” He said.

“Of course we have to!” she said, her voice going up an octave.

Terry turned to Elton, urgency in his voice.

“Elton! Run next door and get three pig ear sandwiches to go! We’ll eat on the road. I just need to get the address.”

Elton’s face sank and he went pale. He closed his laptop, tucked it under his arm, and slipped silently out the door.

Terry walked up to the counter.

“Sir, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Can you tell me where the family lives again? I missed it.”

The old man smiled at them both.

“Hot dang, I knew you’d be good kids. Natchez. Like “matches”. Ever been?”

Terry looked at Delores again and she shook her head. He looked back at the old man.

“Anything we should know before we get there?”

The man’s grin went crooked.

“Yeah. Forget everything you know about Mississippi when you get there and set your clocks back about fifty years.”

Delores looked up at Terry.

“Yikes.”