The weather did not seem to want to cooperate with their travel plans. They awoke the next morning to a steady, dreary rain.
“Well, this is lovely,” Frédrik said.
“Yeah, no warm breakfast.”
“And rusty armor.”
“One day of rain isn’t going to rust your armor,” Waydin said patiently.
“Easy for you to say. You’re the only one who isn’t wearing any!” Frédrik said while soothing his skittish horse.
“Benefits of being a mage and not a knight. I won’t rust. Instead, I’ll die of pneumonia.”
“No one is dying of anything,” Anna said, wringing out her hair and idly noticing it was black instead. Her father must have used his magick to disguise her. The thought sent a crippling wave of homesickness rushing through her. Hoping to distract herself, she asked, “What is this?” The men around her looked dumbfounded. Partly because she had spoken of her own accord and partly because she kept flinching every time the rain hit her.
“It’s rain.”
“This is rain? But is so…annoying.”
“You’ve never seen the rain?” Waydin asked. Even the desert nomads knew what rain was and had experienced it a couple of times.
“Of course I’ve seen it!” she said. “From far away.”
“If you have other clothes, you’d better change into them,” Dayne said.
“Why?”
“Because a dress is impractical. The rest of you, mount up! We’re leaving in five minutes. It’s going to be a miserable day. We might as well get moving and get it over with.”
Anna’s mouth hung open as he sauntered away, off to mount his horse. But as she brushed her hair out of her face, she could see the wisdom in the human’s words. She didn’t know about traveling in this weather, or any sort of weather for that matter, but she could see how her dress was going to become a hindrance. Already it was soaked through and plastered to her legs.
“And how in the universe am I supposed to change?” she demanded, looking around the flat plains. There was nowhere for her to hide from the men’s prying eyes.
“Oh, it’s easy! You just take off all your clothes, then put them back on,” Nika said with an evil grin, thoroughly enjoying the resulting atmosphere of discomfort.
