Chapter 2

"Where are we heading, Sire?"

"You may call me Cliff."

"Where are we heading, Cliff?"

"Where do you want to head, Kate?"

Her eyes go big because nobody has ever asked her opinion before. "Somewhere magical, Sire."

He smiles, because she called him sire again instead of Cliff, but he knows trust and familiarity will come in time. "As you wish, young miss. We will venture to the lands of unicorns, ghosts and magic. We will seek out the great treasure of the hobgoblin Mizer that he steals from innocent travelers as they sleep.

"We will seek him out and return the wealth to those who need it most. If it is your wish, young Kate, we will seek out other orphans and help feed them. We will let them know they have a worth as great as any."

"Okay," Kate says in a small voice. As every second passes, Kate is feeling safer and safer with the great knight known as Clifford The Brave.

After half of a day's travel they come to a good-sized stream that is cold but inviting. Cliff pulls Kate from atop the huge warhorse and sets her down on the ground. He immediately starts unloading Ghost, so that he too may relax unencumbered.

By the time the knight has the saddle unbuckled and ready to set on the ground, he sees that young miss Kate has already started to gather firewood so that they may have a campfire.

The knight looks on with admiration, because the girl saw that something needed doing and started doing it. With every minute he spends around this skinny and pretty eight-year-old girl, he realizes she has a keen mind, a sweet heart, and she is not afraid to put in a hard day's work.

Finally, after their camp is set up, he tells her, "Go into the stream and wash with this bar of soap."

She takes the bar of soap from him and walks over to the edge of the stream. She puts her foot into the water and she pulls it back very fast saying, "I'm not going to wash in there. It is too cold."

The knight walks up to her and picks her up and throws her into the stream, gently, of course. She screams from the cold, and he smiles like a beaver who has just found his favorite tree ever. Kate starts to get out of the stream, but Cliff blocks her with crossed arms and tapping toes. Kate grudgingly goes back into the stream and starts washing herself.

Many minutes later, "May I come out now?"

"Do you feel that you are clean, young miss?"

"Yes, Sire."

"Then you may come over to the fire. Please take your dress off."

She is glad she can get out of the cold stream. Although the longer she spends in it the less cold it seems to her. It isn't until she is halfway to the fire that it dawns on her that he just told her to take her clothes off. "I'm sorry, Sire, did you say for me to take my clothes off?"

"Yes," says the great knight, looking through one of his packs. The little girl Kate has courage, so she slowly pulls off her tattered and torn dress. Once the knight finds what he is looking for he turns to Kate. She is standing there bare as the day she was born. Cliff hands Kate one of his long sleeve green shirts and says, "Put this on."