"Here is everything that I have. Take it and I am done with you." Justin emptied the sack he once used to store oats for his horse but now was filled with coins of the realm into the tax collector's coffer. "I have sold my livestock and my belongings. Since the king granted me the use of this land for my council, I am sure that he will have no difficulty granting it to someone else."

The tax collector looked at the pile of coins now filling his once empty chest. His guards, six oversized bullies chosen for their desire to break bones rather than their education in gentlemanly warfare ogled the treasure. None of them had ever seen the box with more than the coarse wooden bottom covered with loot. For them, poor sots, this must look like a king's ransom.

In truth, the king was far wealthier than this. He preferred his people feeling like they lived in a poor land with a poor ruler. The people themselves were wealthier than they believed. They were well fed, had good clothing and shelter, and illness was uncommon. All in all, life was good here.

But Justin had had enough. Since he no longer had a horse, he let the feed bag drop to cover the coins, some old, some new, some copper, some silver, some gold. It had not been easy to amass that many coins in a land of barter. It made a statement, though, and that was his signature weakness. Where ever he went, he came and went with a flourish.

He preferred to travel light. Sturdy boots, serviceable clothes, and a few items to make traveling on the road easier wrapped into cloak serving as a backpack for the warm autumn weather.

The wilds was where his heart thrived. These enforced breaks to join civilization for a few years served to reinforce that opinion while they taught Justin how cope with mankind. Even though they never saw it that way, human customs and ideas were in a constant state of flux. Old people would say that the world was changing fast. Justin saw that the rate of change was not significant. The effects, however, were, as was the unpredictability of human history.

It took six days to reach the outlands. Each time took longer than the prior one. Men were settling the land fast. Bending it to their collective will. Making it inhospitable to the wild things, the scary things, the things so beautiful that only nature could understand.

Two days out, in a wooded patch that locals considered wild but was only one of the king's preserves, Justin was attacked by outlaws. They were rough and mean and acted more like wolves than men. He would have like to turn them into wolves, but that was not one of his skills. Instead, with superior speed and agility, he dodged among their clubs and swords until two managed to be beaten to the ground by their mates. The remaining two decided this was a purse not worth taking and ran away like beaten dogs. The broken two were alive but unable to run so Justin dispatched them to the carrion collectors of the forest.

The rest of journey was uneventful. The closer Justin got to the outlands, the more musical the world became. He never understood why the sounds changed like that, but it was a welcome sign. Once or twice he'd been followed this far by someone who wanted to know where he went. At this point, they would turn back. It was as if being in the presence of the true nature of the world terrified them. Yet collectively, they persisted in pushing the outlands ever farther away by claiming more tamed land for their own.

Some claimed that humans would eventually destroy all of the outlands. Part of Justin's job was to determine if and how mankind was progressing in that way. He was no mathematician but it seemed like the outlands could be reduced to almost nothing within the millennium. There was little he or any other inhabitant of the outlands could do about that. Nature was strict about things like that. Eventually, the outlanders would disappear or learn to live in the human world. Justin did what he did so that when the time came, he could teach them how.