"Ettinsmoor? Is that what we're calling it now?" Imira asked.
"Better than 'the northern lands the Ettins inhabit' don't you think?" Peter asked in return.
"I suppose it's catchy," she agreed. "So what do we do now?"
Peter looked around the room...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The time finally came, the time to travel North. The time to go to war.
All thrill for battle has vanished through the years. The expectation, the longing for a chance at glory, it's all over. Not out of desire but out of necessity I get on my horse, wave farewell to Lucy, and leave Cair Paravel.
Travelling with an army is a slow and boring endeavour, but with everything that needs to be transported (livestock, grain, weapons, tents, and other supplies), all the soldiers who walk on foot and all the stops we need to make, it takes us twice if not thrice the time it would have taken a single ridder to cover the distance.
As we make camp the fourth night at the height of the Great River, and before dinner is served, I take Peter aside to talk.
"I leave tomorrow," I state. The shadow of my departure looming since this morning. He does not want me to go alone, preoccupied I might run into trouble if I go unescorted by my assortment of guards, but right now what he wants does not matter. I have a job to do. And wether I want the job or not is irrelevant.
"I know," he does not look very happy about it. To be honest, neither am I. I would much rather stay with the army and take care of things at the muster, but somebody has to do this. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather send someone to inform him?" he asks, but he knows it is useless.
I scoff. "He barely listens to me, you think he'll listen to someone else? No, it has to be me,"
"Then I shall go with you," he says with a pained expression, taking my hands.
We addressed this when we started planning. and then again the day before we left the castle. We felt comfortable with the numbers we had, even if we were to be battling giants, but having an advantage would be nice. After all, even with all the planning, strategies, war machines, weapons and numbers, battling giants is no easy feat. So, it was agreed upon and established, once reaching this point of the journey, I would go West in the hopes of recruiting our fire-breathing ally and he'd continue East.
I shake my head at him kindly and place a hand on his cheek.
"You cannot. We've discussed this how many times? The army needs its leader, you need to stay," I move my hand down to his shoulder. "I will go and bring Firestream. I'll take one of the winged horses and be back before you even have a chance to miss me,"
"Not possible, I miss you already," He places his hands around my waist and so I place my hands around his neck and then we kiss for about one glorious minute.
"Too bad, I'm still going," I reply before going back to kiss him.
"I'm starting to think we could make do without him," he parts for a second before continuing his assault.
"Oh, I'm sure we could. But I'd rather be sure," I say between kisses, only this time I pull away before he can convince me to stay. "Come on, let's have dinner. I am starving and I'd rather get some sleep while I still can,"
