128 A Rescue Mission

The older lad smiled. “Learn an important lesson my dear boy. Always learn to pick your battles. If you venture into the forest, you won't last a day there.” “Why?” Kelley's eyes were round like saucers. “Are there monsters there? I heard there were monsters.” “Yeah there are.” He said slowly, thinking about the snadron that Gavadiol had said he fought. But that was a magical beast anyway. But then, magical or not, a beast was still a beast. And even if they could not see it, it did not mean that the beasts could not see them. “But it's not even about the beasts.” He went on. “You have to be skilled as a woodsman for one. Also, you have to know where you are going. When we traipsed about there, we had help from books that we recovered from Nordveka's study. Lara helped us read and distill them.” He trailed off when he saw the lad staring at him with shining eyes. “Kelley, what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?” “It's just that you have done so many things. Experienced