| abstract | - Rand and Tam return to their farm and do chores until time for dinner. Tam locks the doors of the house, even though no-one in the Two Rivers ever does such a thing, saying it's best to be safe. While dinner is cooking, he goes upstairs and retrieves a sword from an old chest under his bed. Rand is surprised, he had never seen the sword, and decides to ask more questions over dinner. As dinner is being served, Trollocs burst into the farmhouse. Rand flees through a side window as Tam holds them off, killing three. The two men regroup in the woods, where Rand finds that his father has been wounded and is suffering from a high fever. He returns to the farmhouse to collect supplies. After entering, Rand meets a Trolloc named Narg who asks him to put his sword down and says a Myrddraal will be coming and will want to speak with him. When Rand lowers his sword, Narg tries to rush him. Standing his ground, Rand manages to raise the sword in time and kills the beast, mostly by accident. After collecting needed supplies from the house, he goes to the barn to get Bela and the cart, but finds the horse and milk cow are missing and the cart mostly destroyed. Wondering how he is going to carry Tam back to Emond's Field, he realizes timbers from the cart could be used for a litter. After using Tam's sword to cut the hard wood and finding the blade miraculously unaffected, he bundles all the gathered gear up and makes his way back to Tam.
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