I had an Aunt who, back when I was in Junior High School, was a foster parent. What some of the kids she fostered had been through was horrifying. Most people wouldn't treat their dogs the way some of those kids were abused.
Love the description of wonder at the openness of the plains; and of the sky, moon, and stars that had only been seen in glimpses (reminded of the fable of the blind men and the elephant). Their arguing w. the wizard even after knowing they had lost the argument helps reinforce that these are still young guys, not adults.
I liked this, but it felt like the start of a completely different story than the chapters before it. Less of a Prologue, and more like an unconnected parallel tale.
@Dark - quite the off-label use for that; I've had a few different scrips for both depression and anxiety but never something designed for heart arrhythmia. But then my normal blood pressure is on the low end of "normal" so taking something that would drop it even further would be a horrible idea.