There's Crows In The Garden | 3rd Life AU

.: Travels And Talks :.

TWs: mentions of death, mentions of arson

***

Three days after we left Cookie, in the very first days of July, Ren and I rode down a precarious road carved into a hillside and officially entered Flower Vale. It had to have been quite a sight watching us trudge down that road, miserable from the heat and the multitude of bug bites we'd received on the journey, but still trying our best to look regal. Ren was even still wearing his heavy fur robe!

Our horses were just as ornery as we were, so we decided to stop at a pond by the side of the road to refresh ourselves. The horses went and frolicked around in the water, and after Ren had shed his robe, we waded in ourselves. I stayed where my feet could firmly touch bottom while Ren swam out further and dunked his head underneath the water. I had to look away when he came back up and shook out his hair; otherwise, I was sure I'd be left in a trance.

When everyone was cooled down and in a much better mood, we continued on our way to The Flower Palace, which was located more or less in the middle of Flower Vale and was surrounded by flower fields of all kinds. It was evening when we arrived, so Ren decided we'd have our talk with King Scott the next day. Some servants led us to a nice little cabin on the property where we could stay and brought us anything we could possibly need during our time in it, including some immaculate cookies made by the king's head baker. Ren and I hung out and talked for a while, and then we went to bed.

Ren and I approached Scott at breakfast the next morning. Ren asked first if we could stay for a week, which Scott said yes to, but when it came to when he would be free to have a serious, private discussion, he didn't have so optimal an answer. 

"I don't know; I have a lot of things to do before The Sunflower Ball in a couple of weeks," he said, chewing on his lip. 

"We could always meet when the day's over, if you know what I mean," Ren suggested. "It shouldn't take too long to explain everything."

Scott shook his head. "No, it's a busy time right now. I need all the sleep I can get." He sighed, looking a little stressed. "Look, I'll try my best to clear out a little time before you have to leave, but it might not happen."

"Surely if you tell whoever you need to meet with that a very important matter has come up—"

"My liege," I interrupted, tugging on his arm, "c'mon. Let's leave King Scott be."

Ren huffed, but let me drag him away. When we were out of hearing range, he hissed, "Martyn, we need to talk to Scott about this as soon as possible! What if the desert folk get to him first?"

"It's not going to help if we push him around," I reasoned. "He's clearly pretty stressed right now, and causing him more stress is going to make him less likely to want to be our ally."

"You're right." Ren sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just . . . really worried about everything. I have a bad feeling, y'know?"

"We'll be fine," I told him, touching his arm in what I hoped was a reassuring way and making sure to not look him in the eyes. He'd know I was a hypocrite if I did— he could read me better than anyone.

Ren gave me a tight smile and repeated the words back to me: "Yeah, we'll be fine."

***

It turned out that Scott managed to find some free time on the day Ren and I were leaving, two hours before we planned to depart. Our meeting wasn't quite as private as Ren had hoped, as Scott insisted on having his personal guard there, but we didn't really have the time to barter. We were lucky to have been able to talk to King Scott at all before we left.