The orphaned children

The next day, as usual, he got up very early, with the first light of dawn.

Before leaving home, he opened the wooden table hidden in the ground. The notes and the stacks of papers that had recovered from Roland's house were still there. He sighed with relief and went into the forest with his bow and arrows.

Usually, going hunting helped him forget everything. He could set a goal and pursued it for much of the morning. Once the hunt finished, back home, he cleaned the dead animal and removed its skin. Then he stored it or got it ready for cooking it later. He did this every day, mechanically. It had become a habit, a ritual.

But that day he could not focus. Several hours had passed and his attemps to hunt a deer failed one after another.

As much as he tried, he could not take his mind off the horrible death of his friend, quartered by a Lamat. But the image that had more fixed in his mind was his expressionless face, as he was being devoured. Those empty eyes. That lifeless expression.
What had happened? Who were these people and why had they done something so horrible? His blood began to boil. He kicked one of the trees. He could not understand anything.

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Orphaned children of the Tower began to arrive, as usual, for training. Many of them had a tired expression on their faces. Their clothes were in tatters and dirty.

-When a Lamat is coming for you, never attack directly to the front- Ark exclaimed, with his booming voice - Say I'm the Lamat. Ok? And I am attacking Kullan - he pointed towards a scrawny and pale boy who reminded him when he was also an orphan boy in the Tower- What are you doing, Kullan? Be quick! - He pounced on him.

The child leaned back, with a jump, and protected himself with wooden sword. Ark, however, fell on him and made him fall to the ground. Everyone laughed out loud.

-A Lamat weighs 5 tons. If this monster is attacking you from the front, leaning back will not prevent you from being run over by it - he offered his hand to the boy, and helped him to get up- Come again! And this time use that pretty little head, which not only serves to grow hair.

After several hours of training, the children, exhausted but with a satisfied gleam in their eyes, gathered around Ark. He smiled.

-So? You hungry, lads?

-Yes! - They screamed in unison, with a laugh.