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If he’d had a daughter he would’ve wanted her to be like Amanda. Just minus some of the attitude.
    They walked along for twenty minutes when John sped up till he was beside Nathan. “Aren’t you going to teach?” he asked.
    Startled, Nathan jerked slightly when he heard John. He looked at him, “Oh sorry, just lost in thought,” he said. “Let’s begin.” First he tested them on what they had covered so far, then he started on new stuff till they saw ahead where the road turned from gravel to pavement. “Okay, this is it. Keep your eyes open,” Nathan said.
    As they walked the forest fell away on their left, gradually turning into an open field. Up ahead they saw the state road and could see people pushing carts in either direction. Coming up to the stop sign they looked in both directions to see about thirty people on the one-mile stretch of road right and left. Four people sped by them on bicycles, with one pulling a trailer. They all noticed everyone was armed with at least a rifle across their back.
    They crossed the highway, staying on the small blacktop road. “Can we get bikes?” Amanda asked in a low voice.
    “I’ve thought about that myself but I’ve never carried this much gear on a bike. The most I’ve ever biked with was fifty pounds. Then you need to realize it’s really hard to shoot when you have to steer. If anything, I would want some horses,” Nathan said.
    “Horses? I know they’re awesome, but come on. They can’t get us to Idaho,” she said.
    “Amanda, horses have been transporting men for thousands of years. You can carry a lot of gear, and as long as you have good grass the horse can live off the land with you,” Nathan said.
    Liking the sound of that, she asked, “How far could we go a day if we got horses?”
    “About thirty-five to forty miles a day if we had pack animals,” he answered.
    “That’s it? We could go more than that on a bike.”
    “Yeah, I’ve biked and averaged around forty-five miles a day, but I was dead tired every day. Riding a horse takes a lot out of you but not like riding a bike loaded with fifty pounds of gear. I also had this dog that wanted to chase every deer in the state of Idaho,” Nathan said, looking at Ares. Ares was in the lead but didn’t turn around, although his ears flickered.
    “Ares is too well-trained for that,” Amanda snapped, coming to his defense.
    Laughing, Nathan said, “He was only a puppy then so I cut him some slack. He did learn a lesson why bucks have antlers. That deer scooped him up and threw him twenty feet.” Nathan’s body shook with laughter.
    “Did you shoot that deer for doing that to him?” she demanded.
    He stopped laughing, “No, Ares shouldn’t have pissed him off. His dad, Apollo, went and had a talk with the deer though,” Nathan said.
    Amanda smiled at the thought of another dog. “Will I like Apollo?” she asked.
    Nathan shook his head. “Apollo is what a guard dog is supposed to be. He very rarely plays. It took me a year and a lot of training to get Apollo to listen to Tim and Sherry. Ares is not like any dog I’ve had before. He listens, does a good job, but he makes up his own mind.”
    “Well yeah,” she said.
    “Amanda, a guard dog is only supposed to follow one person or two at most. When you introduce someone to a dog like that, it’s to let the dog know not to rip their arm off if they walk toward me. When I introduce people to Ares, he decides if he’s going to listen to them,” Nathan said.
    “You mean he’s not supposed to do the stuff I say?” she asked, sounding a little disappointed. The way Ares acted with her, Amanda thought she was a dog whisperer.
    “Not really, but somehow he knows I like you and are no threat to me. Then you have to admit Ares really likes you,” Nathan said.
    “Well duh,” she said, and Nathan gritted his teeth. “So Apollo won’t listen to me?” she asked.
    “Hell, I don’t know anything anymore. I’ve had Shepherds since I was