Mortance: Summer's Snow

Fred Ⅰ

"We'd be there already if we weren't going so far out of the way," Daisy complained.

"I like to think of it as going the extra fun way," Cypress replied.

I laughed at her words, as I found myself doing often these days. "It's only fun until you get caught," I reminded her.

"Have we been caught yet?" she retorted.

"We will be if you keep speaking so loudly," Ser Robert said. "There are plenty about who would gladly expose our position and have us killed. We are unwanted here."

There were six of us wandering on a rough path that followed the course of the Elnut River. It had been too long since Ascenday and war for how much progress we'd made. Prince Angus had won his battle, but there'd been a suspicious few in retaliation. I frowned to think of it, for it made me uneasy. Instead, I pulled my cloak tighter over myself and rested an anxious hand on the steel at my hip to be sure it was still there.

"I've never been wanted here," Clover said quietly.

I kept onwards, pretending her words didn't affect me. The silence quickly made me feel I'd imagined them.

"Old man," Cypress broke the silence. "How much farther do we walk?"

"You ask as if there is a map in my head," Ser Robert said. The elf stared expectantly at him until he sighed and continued. "We're hardly halfway."

"It took us this long to get from Esson to the border on horseback," I pointed out. "We're making good time."

"The only good time is when we're free of here," Clover said.

What did they do to you? I would've asked. She seemed to thoroughly hate Elsinct, but then again, the whole of our party felt the same. It was possible that Ser Robert and I were better friends of the place than any of our elven companions.

"There's good time in brothels too," Daisy pointed out with a smirk.

"Not much in Elsinct's brothels," Cypress said.

"No, good ones are hard to find here," Daisy agreed.

"Some past sha decided that Elsinct wanted no brothels," Amber noted. "You're lucky to find any at all."

"Good thing our great and holy god can't see everywhere," Cypress retorted. "Brothels are plentiful if you know where to look."

"We're not stopping at any brothels," Ser Robert interjected.

"You're ruining the fun of it," Cypress shot back without skipping a beat. I couldn't help but to laugh.

"We're not doing this to have fun," the elder knight seemed annoyed.

"What's life without fun?" Cypress asked. "What say we find someplace a bit more blasphemous to stay tonight?"

"Even if I would've allowed it, I fear we'll not come upon another village by sunset."

"And I fear you've forgotten what Elsinct's map looks like, old man."

"There's a village off the main road only a few miles farther," Amber stated.

"So it may be," Ser Robert. "Perhaps we should stop for a rest then. 'Tis only midday, and my feet are sore already."

"Sure, old man," Cypress teased. The rest of us stopped as Ser Robert sat down under a tree. The elf drew her blade and motioned to me. "Gimme a practice fight, ser knight."

I drew my own weapon and motioned to a clearing off the path. "Gladly."

Cypress and I had been doing this regularly since we made it out of Shali. All the better to stay in fighting shape for the war. The two of us were near evenly matched, though she was surely much quicker. Both our cloaks were on the ground, and we were sweating together when it was over.