Goodbye to the Knight✔️

25. A different side

The mood lightens after we stop talking about me, Godfrey grows redder and redder as he inhales more and more wine, talking and letting out bellowing laughs that I can't help but quietly giggle under my breath at. The drunker Sage gets, the more random horse knowledge he spouts upon Alexander who is looking down his nose at Sage, who luckily has no clue of the pure distaste that he's getting back. Killian sits silently on the side watching everything unfold, occasionally putting in words here and there, but a subtle shadow lies across his face.

"All right, we need to be off early in the morning," Alexander finally says.

Godfrey expression slowly sobers up, "You're right as always, we should get sleep."

"Me too, I'm not used to this celebratory life style!" Sage exclaims, cheeks flushed. He also has slowly been chipping away at the wine bottle, "Oh how I miss my darling Isabel and our early bedtimes, it was always so lovely tucking up together," He woeful wanders out the room, unaware of the rest of us now.

"Is he going to be okay?" Godfrey asks.

"Them villeins are used to drinking away time, he'll survive." Alexander states, "Let us go to our rooms now,"

They stand as well as Killian and I in curtesy.

"Goodnight my fine fellows," He bows is head, "we shall be gone in the early hours, probably before you awake, so I bid you farewell now."

"And if you see our girl, don't let her go." Alexander orders.

"What is her name?" Killian asks.

"Novella."

Surprisingly my heart didn't turn into a mess this time, maybe I'm so tired I just don't care anymore.

"We shall keep an eye out,"

I bow my head in agreement and they leave the room, leaving me alone with Killian. We sit in silence for a few moments before I start getting up.

"What do you common folk think of knights?" Killian suddenly says, his voice serious. I turn and look back at him, the shadow of the candle flames dancing across his face, emphasising his scar. I sit back down and turn to face him.

"In all honesty?"

"Yes."

"They have mixed feelings." I say softly.

He lowers his head, and I feel a sudden urge to embrace him.

"Its knights like Alexander who don't deserve their titles," And lords like Lord Golding and his wife, I think to myself, "they misuse their power and it makes my blood boil."

I realise that I am being shown a different side to him, the side that he shows Leo, the honourable man. I look at him and offer an agreeing smile.

He continues on, "But here I am getting angry at things I can't change, it is pointless, power will always get to the heads of many men who have it and they use it badly."

"Maybe, one day the system will change and they won't have as much power?" I tentatively say.

His expression darkens, "No. It will never change."

"You never know."

He raises his head and his dark brown eyes meet mine, "I do know." He pauses, "City boy, you have a lot to learn, going against power never works. Maybe it did in the safety of the streets but in the real world it's different."

He's both right and wrong. Inside Kahlo we were a lot less touched by higher powers, and instead just played between guilds and among the streets, but we still experienced the effects of the hierarchy.

"My life has taught me that we all face a choice at some point, to follow or to go our own way." I say, standing up again.

"Standing out gets you punished Leon." He says coldly.

"Goodnight Killian." I bow my head at and leave the room.

~~~

I awaken, feeling cold and slightly damp. Rain is still thundering down on the roof and I shiver, travelling today will not be pleasant. My back aches as I sit up, when I came in last night Sage had sprawled himself across the bed and of course it would not have been appropriate for me to lie on the same bed as him so I made do with the wooden floor.

Standing up I see that Sage is up already so I quickly grab my stuff, sort out my tangled hair and go to the kitchen.

"Good morn," I greet Sage who's bent over the bags.

"Morning," Sage groans, "lassy I drank too much last night!"

I look around quickly, "Don't worry, Killian is out preparing the horses already, here, eat this, we are leaving soon."

He hands over a roll which I gratefully take with a smile and start eating, "Thank you."

"No worries, we are lucky those knights aren't here anymore, I made a fool of myself last night," Sage laughs.

"You weren't too bad, Godfrey got pretty jolly as well," I take another mouthful of the roll, "hows Killian this morning?"

"Here take this bag," Sage passes me a bag and I quickly stuff that last of the bread into my mouth, "and he seems the same as always, though pretty keen to get going quickly."

I breathe a sigh of relief, tension is not what I want today.

We walk double check that we have everything and I take a stop in the privy shed out the back before we grab all of our bags and make a running dash outside and around to the stables. The rain not giving us any mercy, dry is now merely a dream of the past days.

Killian looks up as we clatter in, "I see the rain hasn't stopped." I glint of humour lies in his voice. Sleep must've done him good.

"No, it really hasn't," Sage replies, grimacing, shaking water out of his hair.

"We are in for a treat today." I say, going over to Griffin and greeting him.

"And there's no time like the present to begin the next leg of the journey," Killian says hooking my bag onto Griffins saddle.

I nod and smile, I am ready to leave this farmhouse and move onto the legendary Trouvaille Mountains because the further away I get, the more safe I am.

A/N:

They successfully navigated another knight encounter - Whoop whoop! - but what dangers will be lying in the mountains ;)

*Evil grin*

On a serious note, I hope everyone is staying safe, the world has been plunged into weird times with Covid 19 and my heart goes out to everyone being effected. Remember to wash your hands frequently and avoid going out as much as possible!

On a positive note, early update!

SouthernAlps over and out...