four dog nights ...

   "You're very perceptive, young Master Thalion.  He is indeed someone from my life, my past, although I don't know if I could identify him as one of the cowardly dogs that beat me that night.  To be honest, I'm not sure I would have been able to identify them even then.  I'm not sure who he was exactly, I only know that there is a sense of familiarity about him that causes my hackles to rise when he is about."

  "Kael has, or rather had, that effect on most people who meet him.  He's changed a great deal from the boy I grew up with who used to bully his way around the playground."

  "So, you believe he has changed?"

  "I believe I'm giving him the benefit of doubt for now, Vondran.  I think something happened to him while he was gone that frightened him a great deal, and if it caused him to change some things in his personality, then I'm willing to give him a second chance.  I think he realized that he had made himself a very uncomfortable bed of lies and enemies, and that whatever happened to him gave him the knowledge needed to move past his younger years and grow up some.  We've all made stupid choices in our lives, and we've all been grateful for another chance to get the help we needed to change."

  "You never cease to surprise me, Thalion.  Your maturity and knowledge, even without my assistance and craftsmanship in preparing you to become a future king, are not lost on me.  Now, before we rejoin the others, we should gather some wood for the fire.  The cold is settling into your bones, and it is going to be what we called a three-dog night once upon a time."

  "I should think that in our case it would be a four-dog night.  One to keep each of us warm."

  "Indeed."

[This is an ongoing chapter a week story that began with the first Words for Wednesday for 2025 on 1 January. I'm hoping to continue it through 31 December, the last Wednesday of the year. To start from the beginning, click on the Words for Wednesday 2025 label to the right and it will pull up all of the weekly posts, beginning with the most recent. To start from the beginning, continue to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page until you get to 1 January 2025, then click "Newer Posts" to read the next date. You can thank Blogger for the inability to list them by chronological order under the labels.]

This week's Words for Wednesday prompts can be found here.