“You’re crazy going out in thewoods at night,” exclaimed Arik. He wanted to add in a statementabout what they would do to get their hands on Tedi’s necklace anddecided not to let Tedi end the discussion and storm off. “What ifthe bandits saw you? Nobody would even know what happened to you?You would just end up dead and rotting in the forest.”

Tedi looked down sheepishly andshuffled his feet like a small boy being scolded by his mother.Slowly, though, his shame turned to anger and he thrust his chin upand his lips tightened with determination. “I am not a little boyanymore, Arik,” he shouted. “I know how to take care of myself. Infact, they did see me and they did try to kill me and they didn’tsucceed.”

“What happened?” Arik askedcalmly. “How did you get away?”

Tedi stood silently for a moment andcalmed himself. He reached into his pouch and brought out a smallmetal disk painted black with sharp points on it like an artist’sdrawing of a sunburst. “One of them threw this at me. I never evensaw it coming, but it missed and struck a tree. I grabbed it andtook off.”

Arik reached over and took the smalldisk, feeling the sharp points. Murmuring to himself Arik said, “Iwonder if they are planning to attack the town again. Maybe weshould alert somebody. How many bandits were there?”

His anger dissipated, Tedi repliedsoftly. “I didn’t get a chance to find out. I wanted to sneak backafter they chased me, but I couldn’t chance it. I don’t know howthat one bandit knew I was there. I pride myself on being able tosneak up on people, but I didn’t even get close before he hurledthat thing at me. I guess I’m not as courageous as I like topretend.”

“Not courageous!” Arikexclaimed. “Nobody I know would intentionally sneak up on a groupof bandits. What were you trying to . . . ”, Arik stopped. Itsuddenly dawned on him why Tedi was sneaking up on bandits.