Troy’s imagination took over, and he began to tell me a story about a good knight riding through the forest on his white horse on his way to face an earth giant who was ravaging the woods. While his quest was to find the earth giant, ours was to find the knight and to help him. So, we followed his horse’s tracks, choosing our path based on which way the hoof prints led.
And we looked for other signs of his passing, like broken branches that he’d cut with his sword to clear the path of “pokies” for other travelers like ourselves. Or white paint he’d left on a tree to let others know that he’d passed this way. But we were startled to find a pair of black “gauntlets” and a torn “chainmail” shirt on the ground near the trail. A white knight wouldn’t wear black gloves, so there must have been a second knight pursuing the first. And this one was a bad guy. We had to hurry. The white knight was in danger!
We quickened our pace, continuing to follow the hoof prints. Now, we could clearly see the passing of multiple horses. We found some fresher tracks in the wet mud near a creek, and we knew that we were catching up. The path kept winding its way through the forest, and at every feature Troy would tell me a story about the white knight. A farmhouse was where the white knight had spent the night to give his horse a rest, and the black knight had stayed there too later on. A fallen tree was cut down to block the path, so the black knight couldn’t follow. But the black knight was too smart, and he rode around the tree. A gulch where several creeks combined was where the white knight had ridden to hide his tracks and throw off the black knight. But his tracks had merged back with the main trail further down, and the black knight was able to follow once again.
At some point, we became discouraged that we were too far behind and would never catch up. Suddenly, Troy stumbled upon…or almost into…a pile of semi-fresh horse droppings. This new discovery renewed our vigor and urgency, and we raced along with fresh legs. The path continued to follow Hickory Creek, and I began to worry that I didn’t bring any food or water with us. I honestly wasn’t expecting Troy to make it this far or to want to keep going. I urged him to give up his quest and turn back, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded. He kept saying that we needed to find the white knight.
Finally, my bum knee couldn’t go any further, and I told Troy that we had to stop. He was not happy with me at all, but he reluctantly agreed. We turned back, walked about ten feet, and Troy stopped. He turned to me and said that he was too tired to walk back. He asked me to carry him instead, and this was exactly what I had been afraid of. But I picked him up and put him on my shoulders anyway, and I walked down that now very long and daunting trail.
The going was a bit faster since we didn’t have to stop and examine every broken branch, rock, or leaf on the trail; but my knee and shoulders were throbbing. Troy continued to orate the story of the knight to me as we went. Somewhere along the way, the black knight had acquired a wolf (this after we saw a dog’s paw print in the soil), and it suddenly made sense how he was able to track the white knight despite that knight’s attempts to throw his pursuer off his trail. The white knight had doubled back, just like we had, and had circled around behind the black knight. The tracks suddenly appeared to be heading in the opposite direction, and Troy was convinced that turning around had been the right decision all along.
It occurred to me as I navigated the trail with Troy on my shoulders that I very much resembled a horse. I looked up at Troy, his noble face outlined against the blue sky above, and I was taken aback by how much he looked like a knight riding on his loyal steed; his face fresh and excited with adventure. As I thought about this imagery, I realized that we had accomplished our quest after all. We had found the white knight and his horse. They had been with us every step of the way. The heart of a knight was always inside my son. We just had to find it…out here in the woods.
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