The warning still glowed above the embers, private rows neither sleeping woman could see.
[ Recommended action: Eliminate carrier to prevent future threat ]
'She ate our venison beside our fire, and you want me calling her an enemy?'
Didi slept with one hand near the blanket he tugged back over her shoulder.
"Settle your feud yourselves, gods, I'm not killing someone who never joined it," he muttered under the coals' crackle.
He swiped the recommendation away once, and the stream stayed closed through his watch.
"Your turn, my ears work fine sitting down," Juna mumbled from the entrance, dragging the blanket across her knees.
"Bossy even half asleep, wake me if anything with claws comes knocking."
He lay down beside the pack with the sheathed sword in reach, and the night stayed quiet.
---
Bird calls woke him at dawn, pale light crossing the cup and Didi's blanket.
He kicked loose earth over the embers before the breeze could carry them into the scrub.
Juna froze mid-stretch when her dressing pulled, and Didi winced, pressing a hand to her temple.
Hajin slung the pack on, keeping the strap off his cracked side, "Up, the capital's a few hours out, and everyone there panics while we sit."
"Ow, fuck, still broken," he wheezed as a careless twist caught his ribs, "thanks, very informative."
'Sleep lets me stand, apparently, but nobody taught it how to make me bend.'
"Stop reaching like an old man," Juna huffed, shoving the bedroll's lighter end into his hands.
He fastened the bedroll and checked the separate wraps around core, tusk, and older sword.
Didi offered the folded blanket while he cinched the newer blade against its last strap.
"Keep it until we find a warmer room," he said, waving it back, "you own less luggage than I do."
"I own less luggage than anyone alive this morning."
She tucked the blanket under her arm without another word and followed Juna out.
Hajin pocketed the cup and knife, then reopened the broadcast with the rejected warning gone.
[ Stream: Active | Soul accumulation: Resumed | Fragment recovery: Resumed ]
They kept a pace that spared both injured sides, and Didi hugged the blanket against the wind.
[ CringeSlayer91: walking royalty home after a cave supper, perfectly ordinary morning apparently ]
[ ShadowMage44: the capital will ask about the strangers bringing her back ]
[ ashley(mod): let the road stay quiet, everyone earned that much yesterday ]
'Permission to escape is still permission, and I want somewhere that thing can't take back.'
Juna jabbed his sleeve with the hand not guarding her ribs, "Quiet since the coals died, is thinking supposed to make your face that ugly?"
"Rare condition, leave it alone and maybe it discovers something useful."
"Your thoughts make more noise than your feet," she drawled, "we hear them without asking."
Didi lifted the blanket clear of a branch and glanced between them, "Does he always answer like that, or did yesterday use up the agreeable portion?"
"That was the agreeable portion," Juna sniffed, stepping around loose gravel.
"Keep the memory while you can still recognize it."
A brief twitch tugged at Didi's mouth, almost a smile, before it died again.
"You travel with him by choice?" she asked, nodding at the dressing, "what does he offer that's worth keeping?"
"Food, troublesome plans, and a place by the fire, the food improved enough that I tolerate the planning."
"Wow, touching, I'm almost crying."
Her ears flushed pink at the tips, and her tail smacked the back of his leg.
Hoofbeats drummed beyond the bend, and Juna lurched toward the sound.
He planted a palm flat on her shoulder, "Easy, look first, charge on that side and you're bleeding again."
She stopped straining, and he lifted his hand from her shoulder.
Crossed hammers above an anvil marked the surcoats, not the royal crest he hoped for.
Dust sprayed his torn sleeve, two retainers reined in with lances upright, and the lead visor lifted.
"Oh, you have got to be shitting me."
'Kenny, whose side branch staged my fights against estate hounds, and the promised copper never found me.'
His gaze found Didi first, then dragged over the pack and the sword at Hajin's hip.
He rested his gauntlet on the pommel and leaned down, "Look where the family trash settled, royal luggage weighs more than the scraps you carried out of our doors."
Hajin's hand stayed on the strap, nowhere near the blade at his hip.
'One old audience was plenty, I'm not buying another with ribs that still need a physician.'
[ CringeSlayer91: another rider with an introduction nobody requested ]
[ NewViewer_02: family, someone from the house that threw him out? ]
Juna stepped across the road, shoulder between Didi and the horse, without crouching too low to rise.
[ ashley(mod): expensive armor, cheap manners, let him explain before anyone invents the rest ]
"Still mute when your betters arrive?" Kenny drawled, glancing back at his retainers, "the southern streets must love talents the family stopped believing in."
The retainers laughed, their lances and horses still blocking the road.
"Carrying things for the crown suits you," he sneered, flicking his gauntlet at the blanket, "your mother knew how to put herself beneath important people too."
The strap creaked under Hajin's fingers before he noticed how hard he was pulling.
'Answer him, and he walks off with another wound to show his friends, so shut up.'
Didi raised her empty hand toward the saddle, voice cracking on the first word, "Enough, speak with respect to the people bringing me home, or my father hears why his knight delayed us to insult them."
"With respect, Your Highness, House Flint doesn't answer every passing complaint like a servant called from the kitchen."
Frost crept through the loose soil around Didi's planted feet, and Juna's hand tightened on her dressing.
"Will you repeat that before the throne, Sir Knight, every word you chose on this road?" She turned her palm toward the ground, keeping the frost off the horse's legs.
Kenny raised his gauntlet as five Shards snapped into orbit, "We hold more than a household posting, Your Highness, take care what a public accusation asks our family to answer."
'Five Shards against her three, plus my cracked ribs, her head wound, and Juna's breathing, no thanks.'
[ Donation settled: NewViewer_02 | +100 Credits | Wallet: 100,165 Credits ]
[ NewViewer_02: support for the ice, she deserves to get home before he finishes showing off ]
[ Donation settled: DarkBlade | +250 Credits | Wallet: 100,415 Credits ]
[ DarkBlade: five usually beats three, get him off the road without testing it ]
Hajin stepped up and set his hand on Didi's forearm, loud enough for the retainers, "We're late, Your Highness, your father has riders searching, and every delay makes them ask who kept you waiting."
'Riders I'm hoping exist, anyway, since I can't point to a single witness out here.'
Kenny's eyes flicked to the bend behind them, and his five Shards faded as the gauntlet dropped.
Hajin kept his hand still until Didi drew her frost back.
Juna bared her teeth as the horse turned past her, though its knight never looked down.
"How considerate," he called, eyeing the hand on her wrist, "return your borrowed luggage before someone thinks the crown hired you for anything important."
"An active Gate waits for us by noon, we can't waste the morning teaching a messenger which family owns the contract."
They rode past without drawing a blade or dipping a single lance.
Once the hoofbeats rounded the bend, he released her forearm and let his shoulders drop.
"Smug bastard, I wanted to punch him so badly my teeth hurt."
'Not a win, but three of us still reach a physician instead of another shield line.'
"House Flint holds the regional Gate contract," Didi said flatly, staring after the heraldry, "and its family trash is standing beside me after lending me his blanket."
"My former house holds the contract," he corrected, shifting the strap away from his sword.
"I just keep the memory of leaving, and that needs very little cooperation from them."
"Explain the former part while we walk, we have an hour."
"Long story, and I'd rather count steps between the ugly parts," he grumbled.
Juna bumped his elbow with her good side, "He talks less when a story makes him squirm, keep him walking."
"Traitor."
"Fed traitor, soon, hopefully."
[ CringeSlayer91: she knows where commentary belongs, someone improve her supper ]
Didi kept the folded blanket beneath her arm as the capital road opened beyond the next rise.
[ Stream: Active | Viewers: 151 | Wallet: 100,415 Credits | Soul Energy: 83 | Trend: Rising ]