Dragon Knight 02

It was a frosty March morning just at daybreak in the Malencontri woods, which with a name like that should have been somewhere in France or Italy, but were actually in England.
Not that anyone who had anything to do with those woods- from the three hedgehogs curled up togetherfor warmth in their untidy, leaf-filled hollow under a nearby hedge, to Sir James Eckert, Baron de Bois deMalencontri et Riveroak, asleep with his wife, the Lady Angela, in the castle nearby- never bothered touse that frenchified name in ordinary conversation, mind you. The title of Malencontri had been pinned onthe woods by their previous owner, who was now a landless fugitive, possibly somewhere on thecontinent; and serve him right.With Sir Hugh de Malencontri safely out of the way, all the local inhabitants had gone back to referring to the woods by their real name, which was that of Highbramble Forest. All of which was a matter of supreme indifference to the one individual on his feet at the moment and passing through them, not far from the aroused but-happily-safely hidden hedgehogs and close enough to the Castle Malencontri to see it clearly between the trees.It was a natural indifference, since the early traveler was Aargh, an English wolf, who regarded not only this woods, but a number of others as well, as his own personal territory anyway, and so never botheredto concern himself about what others might call it.