As Edgar left he knew that he might be seeing the last of Estrier. His son was tall, about five feet. He had black hair coming to just past the ears. He was athletic and strong though he was only nine and he could ride a horse well. Edgar wondered if his son would ever accomplish anything great. He had shown the boy the works of poetry and the legends from writers of old and had even planned on sending the boy to the great prince Edwin who owned a fort filled with young men from ages 8-20. He had talked of this with Edwin the lord of the wealthy, prosperous fort and they had agreed that if anything happened to Edgar, Edwin would come and take Estrier to the fort. Edgar had talked with Estrier many times about the future and always the young lad would say, “Father, for know I am your son. And what the future holds will come to me when the future times come.” Many people had told Edgar that he had a bright young boy and would no doubt achieve wonders in the times to come. These thoughts passed through Estrier’s mind as he rode through the city.

That night the tournament was held. Edgar put the royal bull helmet on his head and called a messenger to immediately return to Estrier if he heard the horn blow for that would mean that Edgar had died. The messenger went to a place where he would be able to see all that went on. When the trumpets blew the two fighters were announced and entered the list from opposite sides. As the trumpets blew again the fighters started the battle. It was a rule that when the sword was thrown out of one of the men’s hands, it would mean surrender. Both countries had agreed to this beforehand. Then the fight began. Edgar was leading the fight and had pushed the man to the far wall. Then suddenly he hit the other man’s sword out of his hand. Cheers were heard from the Napolian side but Letton’s friend gave him a new sword and while Edgar was turning and exiting the lists, El Letton killed him.

He died instantly but not before blowing an ivory horn that was a call for help and for triumph. The messenger left immediately. He ran across the arena and looked into Edgar’s face, he was dead. Then the messenger ran swiftly to his horse. Letton saw him and said, “After him!” to his guards. The youth jumped on his horse and left swiftly. As he came upon the gates the guards barred their spears but the messengar took the standard of the bulls and killed them.

 In the 24 hours it took to get to Estrier’s castle the Acton guards were close behind him. When he arrived the royal party of prince Edwin was just arriving. Estrier had just turned ten. The messenger ran to Estrier and saluted in the Napolian fashion of the clenched fist up to the shoulder. “Here, my lord is your father’s standard.” he paused, “your country’s standard." Estrier stood stunned while the messenger explained the situation to the boy, “Your father is dead."

At that moment Rodrigo, one of Edwin’s men came over to the scene, “What have we here, are you a messenger?”

“Yes,” He replied. “The king has died. He fell by a foul play on Letton‘s part.”

Rodrigo then said, “Treachery and treason. I thought it would be so.”

 “Acton guards followed me to the gates", said the youth, "you may want to dispose of them, my lord.”

After a respectful pause the messenger said, “By your leave I must see to my horse.’ and he backed away. 

Rodrigo turned to the new king. A look of sorrow was on Estrier’s face. Deep in his heart Estrier vowed that from that moment on he would have revenge on the people of Acton especially El Letton. Estrier left. Torn by fear and grief mingled to make one thing, anger. And that anger stayed long until Estrier fully understood the meaning of love.

Camping

Last Friday, my family and our friends went camping. We packed Thursday afternoon. It was a lot of work and we didn’t get done till that night. Friday morning at twelve, our friends came with their large trailer. Everything couldn’t fit in our van so we had to use it.  Then we set off for Broken Bow, Oklahoma. It was a long trip and we almost went to sleep. Once we got to Broken Bow we went to the State Park campground. It took us a while to find a place because we needed water and some of us wanted to be near cliffs and some did not want to be in the middle of a whole bunch of people. We finally found a place by the river in front of a mountain and it had water pumps. We set up our tents and unpacked. By then it was five o’ clock so we had a large supper. Then we cleaned up and read The Ransom of Red Chief beside the campfire. Then we went to bed.

That night, the dog broke his leash and went after a raccoon while we were sleeping. The raccoon ended up sitting in mom’s lap with only the tent between the two.  It scratched her and woke almost the entire camp up. It took a while to get back to sleep after that. The next morning we woke up early and had breakfast. We debated whether we would go hiking, swimming or canoeing. In the end we did all three. My older sister, one of our friends and I stayed to watch camp while the rest went camping. While they were gone, Rachael and I went down to the water to walk out a ways with our pants pulled up to the knees. While we were putting out shoes back on, Rachael lost her balance and pulled me into the river with all my clothes on. It was sixty degree water and Rachael got out almost immediately but I swam a ways and she ended up coming too. After that, the hikers were back so we went and had lunch. After lunch we decided to go canoeing. We all put our swim suits on and rented three red canoes. We went about a mile or two down the river and got out ever so often to swim. Then we all decided to have canoe wars. We chased each other and tried to dunk ourselves. We did that for a while and then continued. It was the first time to see real mountains almost since I left Turkey.

We went down the river and came to this large cliff that was on the shore. So we all took turns jumping in to the very cold water from a high rock. (with an exception of the moms). After that, we went through some tall cypress trees standing in the river. Then we got to shore and went back to camp to have supper.  All our food was great! Steaks, chicken, s’mores, and lots more.  That was Saturday night. That night the raccoons had been scared sufficiently and they did not come back. The next morning, Charcoal (the dog) chased a deer along with another boxer dog. He almost got in big trouble. We ate breakfast and then, since it was Sunday, read some scriptures and sang some praise songs. We drank hot chocolate and then went hiking. It was just a 1.1 mile hike but when we got back we were ready to go swimming which we did. We had packed that morning so we changed back into our clothes and drove home. We had a great time! Everything was fun and my brother ended up wanting to live there.  

Gwyndolyn   

I have just finished reading a very good book by J.R.R Tolkien. Tolkien has four books in a series and this is the second. The first is The Hobbit, the second is The Fellowship Of The Ring, the third is The Two Towers and the fourth is The Return Of The King. I finished The Fellowship Of The Ring. It is a great classic story of a young hobbit, (miniature person). He is thrust into an epic adventure in Middle Earth. The Dark Lord Sauron has made and evil ring that has to be destroyed. The young hobbit, Frodo Baggins must carry the ring to destruction. I am not going to tell the end ‘cause I haven’t finished it yet. I am reading the third book. I advise everyone 12+ to read this book. I am writing my own story and it has helped me to be clearer in describing things, (as you will see if I ever get it published) which I love to do. Tolkien is quite descriptive, I will warn, but not too much. He has several poems as well, in these books and good ones at that. I love his books and my sisters do too. It reminds us of the struggle that we have here on the earth, trying to rid it of evil. And we must rally our friends in prayer to do so.

Gwyndolyn