[While on a rescue mission gone crazed, a holy warrior and a rogue fight bandits, demons, and the urge to rip each other's clothes off.]
The mission, rescuing a princess, could be going better.
Séa is an earnest paladin, honest and gullible. Tash is...
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Frullan maintained a prideful silence as they rode. Séa barely noticed. Her own throat seemed wrapped in clingy caterpillar silk through which no word escaped. The bright day seemed gray. Her dull, watery eyes saw little. And so, the journey to chase down the King and the demon occurred without chatter. The two knights rode side by side in the clement breezes. Their chargers pockmarked the trail with their broad, shoed hooves. Their footfalls thudded like sluggish heartbeats in Séa's ears. Time passed.
They reached a crossroads.
"We should have caught them by now," Frullan said. "Oh, well, we didn't. Turn right for Omnius." After receiving silence for a reply, the blonde knight frowned at Séa. "What's eating you, then?"
The words buzzed like drunken bees in Séa's ears, but they eventually registered. A mirthless smile stretched her lips. "I learned too much in too short a time. I can't wait to return to the Priory. Let's bag this demon, shall we?" She urged Bayrump to the right-hand road.
"What do you know about the demon?" Frullan said.
After Séa failed to answer, Frullan gritted her teeth. "Are you being intentionally dense? You're not nursing resentment toward me, are you? This isn't the time for it."
When her words made it through the fog of Séa's preoccupation, she swiveled her head to examine the Dame's face. Séa expected haughty confidence and physical perfection. Frullan had always been a beauty. But at the moment, uncertainty clouded her clear features and trail dirt smeared across her cheek and nose. Séa forced words past the clog in her throat. "Not thinking of you at all, Frullan. And I don't know what Zorexis can and cannot do, or how much company he might have. Now, leave me alone, please. I need to think."
Wallow, more like. Feel sorry for myself. Three days ago I would have arrested Tash myself. Now, here I am, crying like a piglet without a teat. It feels like I am starving, but starving for a food I didn't even know existed three days ago. Merciful Torugg, have pity. I can endure anything but this.
A half-league later, they met an oncoming party of a half dozen footsoldiers showing Omnian colors. One of the company stood half as tall as the others. She carried a double-bladed war axe, but also a pickaxe.
"Hail!" Frullan called as they drew within vocal range. "Did you happen to pass the King just now?"
"No," said one of the humans. "Road's empty. Also, it's washed out."
"Washed out?" Frullan said. Her face scrunched and her eyes roved.
The female dwarf called, "And have you seen the wizard Ghomarck?"
Séa jolted out of her daze. "Yes, milady."
"Good. Does he still need a dwarf? Because I'm here."
A sad smile spread over the paladin's plain features. "He'll be most pleased. I think the urgency of the need has passed, however."
