"Was there supposed to be two?"

The shock of the jump and the proceeding lurch into an unexpected place, kept my eyes closed and my body rigid. I fought every urge to shiver in the cold night, to pull at my wet clothes which clung to my body with an uncomfortable embrace, and to search my surroundings with curious fingers. Fear and necessity fought off all my instinctual desires and kept the two men hovering somewhere above me, ignorant of my conscious state.

"Do you think the soldiers would have just left with the one if they had expected another?" He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I certainly only thought there'd be one. We understand so little of the Tearing. Perhaps there was two that formed the soul of Breydar."

"Oh the king will not be happy."

An urge to flick my eyes open and study the faces of the men nearly broke my composure, but a quick bite to the inside of my cheek settled me and I instead focused on their voices. The last to talk was sweet and thoughtful. He sounded young, but with enough maturity in his tone for me to place him somewhere in his late 20s. As for the other, he came off gruff, but was rather high in pitch. He spoke with a good deal of inflection and I pictured him as the type to speak with sweeping arm movements and dramatic rolls of his eyes. Neither of them necessarily frightened me. By voices alone, they seemed like two guys I might encounter arguing on the bus over the score of last night's game. However, the strangeness of the situation and their conversation would not allow me to move and until I knew for certain that these men posed me no harm, rigid I stayed.

"I don't care if his royal pretentiousness is happy or not," replied the grumbling man. "We followed brother superior's command and as far as I'm concerned the business with the king is done."

"Well, maybe I should still go get them. They can't be more than five minutes out."

"Five minutes out on horseback." I could almost hear his eyes rolling in his head. "No, no, young Haven, we were told to open the well for the king to retrieve the person who fell out. Not persons. This woman is in our control now and brother superior will certainly want to meet her."

"So will the king," warned Haven.

"We don't serve the king now do we," snapped the gruff man. "We serve Breydar and we watch his gate. Since brother superior is his mouthpiece, he is my king and commander, not some upstart who barely has hair on his chest."

"And brother superior has been acquiescing to King Delayne's request to check the well every new moon for over a decade."

"He wanted a human, he got one. You calling the king greedy?" There was a slyness in the other man's voice that left Haven fumbling for a few seconds before continuing.

"That's not fair Jendi, I never said that."

"That's what it sounded like."

"You're putting words in my mouth," said Haven with a stutter. The grass rustled not far from my ear as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"Just lift her up Haven."

Sensing he lost the battle, Haven reacted far more quickly than I was prepared for. A pair of strong, thick hands dug underneath me, placing one arm under my armpit and behind my neck. And as for the other...

"Oy!" Too many years on public transportation instilled in me a strong reflex to an unwanted touch on my backside. As Haven slipped his hand beneath my waist to cradle my back and hook under my legs, I let out a shout and sent a hand swinging at where I estimated his face to be. However, before my hand made contact with anything, a strong grip seized my wrist and kept my arm still.

"Figured you were awake," mumbled Jendi.

With a pop, my eyes opened and I looked upon the two men who had pulled me out of the well.

Haven stood taller than Jendi and bore a set of broad thick shoulders that complimented his sturdy, muscular arms. A wide neck sat below his squared chin and jaw. His big, brown eyes warmed the harsh scars on his face. Several valleys of pink, tender skin cut across his cheeks and over a nose that looked to have malformed after a bad break. Had he worn the snarl that graced Jendi's long, lean face, he would have been a terrifying and imposing man.

Jendi appeared far younger than I first imagined. Though I had pictured a crotchety miser who may yell at kids from his stoop, he was in fact maybe in his 40s. He wore a salt and pepper mane of hair that curtained an olive face punctuated by clear blue eyes. He was not as muscular as Haven, but he still had the body of a man who knew hard labor.

"Hello, what's your name?" asked Haven.

As sweet as his tone was, the events of the night came tumbling down on me now that my eyes were open and I didn't find myself in my bed shaken awake from a dream. Instead I found myself in a sprawling field with nothing but myself, a well, and these two men as far as the eye could see. I was alone in a strange and foreign place. My body reacted accordingly.

With a twist of my spine and a kick of my feet, I bucked out of Haven's arms, which released me either out of shock or consideration. With a thud I fell to the ground and before I could register how Haven or Jendi would react next, I hopped up and practically ran on all fours in whatever direction I was pointed. Eventually I gained some stability and got up on my legs proper, allowing me to pull an all out sprint. I once again thanked my lucky stars I wore flats instead of Gwen's heels that day.

I ran and I ran, never looking back. For all I knew, I slipped in that puddle, hit my head and got kidnapped by some unsavory men who had brought me out to this field to kill me. Or worse. So I prayed for a highway or a gas station. Some sign of life. Eventually I got it. A beacon of light bobbed up over a hill and I hoped beyond all hope that it was someone out for an evening stroll. Maybe they even had their phone on them, given they got reception out in the middle of that nowhere.

With that hope powering my wary muscles, I charged forward, waving my arms and calling for help. However, once I drew close enough to see the figure holding the light, I came to a stop before falling to my knees as my tired legs couldn't muster another sprint.

"Good evening child of Breydar," said the man in a robe exactly like that of Haven and Jendi. "We've been anxiously awaiting your arrival."