The Dragon's Sword

Chapter 4

Still glaring at Rollin she said, "Oh joy. A ship." Then she added under her breath, "I hope he drowns."

"I heard that."

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Eryn's eyes slowly fluttered open, she sat up groggily and looked around. She was in a guest room in the house of the guy she was now working for (she still had no idea what his name was). The walls were a pale lavender and the sheets a light rose, covered in flower embroidery. There was a ornate, white carved dresser with a mirror and a variety of paints and powders that seemed like makeup, not that Eryn could really tell. The edges of the mirror were covered with intricate carvings of pale pink flowers that had to be worth a fortune. A matching bureau stood in a corner with an assortment of hats on top of it. In the center of the room Eryn lay on a large, queen sized bed with a violet canopy and probably the softest mattress she had ever slept on. There was a small washroom with was painted in similar shades of pastel. Eryn hated it all with a deadly passion. She hated being stuck in a room decorated as if she were a 5 year old who wished she was some sort of princess.

She sat up and stretched, yawning. She was surprised to have slept so well, considering she was about to embark on a very dangerous wild goose chase with two idiots.

She rubbed her face and walked over to the dresser where she was surprised to find two outfits hanging on the hanger. She chose the one on the left because it was black, she didn't care if it was less comfortable than the one on the left because there was no way, ever, that you would see her wear pink.

Eryn quickly changed into it and was surprised to find that, number one, it was her size exactly and number two, it was completely her style.

It totally creeped her out. Did they like measure her in her sleep? She made a face and walked away from the disgusting frilly pink dress, gagging slightly.

Eryn heard a knock on her door and opened it hesitantly, hoping it wasn't the person who measured her in her sleep.

"Hello?" Eryn called out.

"Hi sweetie." A warm full voice said.

Eryn cringed slightly at the word sweetie, but opened the door all the way, knowing who was at the door.

"Hi sweetie! Come on follow me to breakfast!" The housekeeper's round face broke into a smile so large it looked like it literally stretched from ear to ear.

Eryn followed the housekeeper into another room that she hadn't seen before. She assumed it was the dining room because of the  large dining table in the center, the two people sitting around it eating also helped. The room was just as fancily decorated as the rest of the house. Meaning there were dragons everywhere. Ugh, Eryn was seriously sick of dragons.

"I appreciate you waiting for me," remarked Eryn dryly.

Sephris blushed and looked at her half eaten stack of pancakes, at least having the good grace to look slightly embarrassed.
Rollin on the other hand looked up with raised eyebrows, "I'm sorry, your highness, I was hungry."

Eryn narrowed her eyes and took a seat next to Sephris and started piling her plate with food.

"So, where is uhh..." Eryn paused, not quite sure what to call the guy who had tricked her into doing this whole wild goose chase thing, "where is our employer," she finished diplomatically.

"He had to go to some sort of meeting earlier this morning," Sephris answered. "He left a note saying that we would be supplied with horses that will take us to a nearby port where a ship is waiting for us."

"Which you would have known if you hadn't been lying in bed doing absolutely nothing," Rollin added.

"I was only lying in bed so that I would actually have enough energy to be civil to the people I'm going to be stuck with for the next two weeks," Eryn snapped, sticking her tongue out.

"Did you seriously just stick your tongue out at me? Real mature, Eryn," Rollan shot back.

"Guys, guys come on!" Please don't fight already," Sephris pleaded. Eryn could already tell that Sephris was the sort of person who always played the peacemaker.

"Fine, as long as he doesn't give me a good reason to," Eryn said icily, "Sorry Sephris, I just have a problem not insulting idiots!"

"And I can't help it if she takes offence at everything I say," Rollin sighed, "but since I clearly am the mature one, I guess I'll just be the bigger person here, literally,"

"I am not short!" Eryn practically shouted.

"Sure you aren't," Rollin replied sarcastically.

Eryn didn't bother responding to such idiocy and just crossed her arms and glared at Rollan. If looks could kill he would be long gone.

"Let's go get our bags and get ready to leave, the note said he had already gotten necessities together but we should feel free to get anything else we wanted from our rooms," What time do you think we should leave by, it's about 10:30 in the morning now?" Sephris said

"11:00" said Rollan and Eryn at the same time.

"See," Sephris exclaimed, "you two can agree on somethings!"

* * *
Eryn had never particularly liked horses, it wasn't like she hated them, but they had always seemed slightly... intimidating. So when Eryn entered the courtyard to see Rollan already seated on a large brown stallion holding the reins to an equally large black horse, her shoulders sagged.

"What's wrong? The big horses are scary?" Rollin mocked in a high pitched teasing voice, noting Eryn's discomfort.

This insult hit a bit closer to home than Eryn would have wanted, "As if I be scared of any horses," she lied, "but do we really need to ride such big ones?" she whined as an afterthought.

"You're just short," Rollan stated bluntly

"Don't you dare start of that again'" she snapped back.

"Hi guys!" The cheerful remark came from Sephris who had just entered to courtyard. "You ready to go?"

"Some of us," Rollan muttered under his breath and Eryn shot him a glare.

Rollan edged his horse closer and bent over, handing the reins of the black horse to Eryn. Eryn took them and then edged around to the horse's side. She took a deep breath and then grabbed the saddle horn pulling herself up the way she had been taught. She managed to do it without falling off or completely embarrassing herself, but it was certainly a lot less elegantly than she would have preferred.

Rollan smothered a snicker and Eryn glared at him.

Sephis jumped onto her pale mare with a  practiced ease Eryn envied.

"Are we planning on leaving this year?"  Rollan deadpanned.

In response Eryn gave her horse a slight nudge to get it moving and turned and trotted out of the courtyard, ready to begin her journey. Or at least that's what she intended to do. Instead she gave her horse a slight nudge and it jerked into motion, nearly throwing Eryn from the saddle.  It then briskly trotted out of the courtyard the Eryn desperately clinging to the saddle. Sephris and Rollan followed with Rollan also desperately clinging to his saddle because he was laughing so hard.