“Are you really sure that this is a good idea?” Both Gerald and Roan gave Lani very sceptical looks. They knew that it was safe for two people to ride a horse together, but they had to be careful. Nela could be pretty protective of Mireille when she wanted to be and the consequences of upsetting Nela would be on their heads.

“The whole point of this was that we would be quick about it. Plus can you say no to that?” Lani pointed out the sparkling eyed girl that had been sat on Lani’s horse the whole time. Mireille had clearly not bothered to listen to their conversation, taking more interest in the horse that she was sat upon.

*sigh*

“It should be fine.” Roan was the first to give in, much to Lani’s surprise. He did not appear to be the one who would give in to emotional pressure between him and Gerald. Seeing that Roan had accepted it, Gerald followed suit in backing down.

“Good.” Lani mounted the horse, setting herself behind Mireille and holding the reins. There was no way that she was going to let Roan be the one to hold Mireille, Lani obviously knew that even if nothing happened there were some levels of modesty that should not be infringed upon. Regardless of intention, a man and a woman riding a horse together would be seen as romantic in some way.

“Then I will see you when you return.” Gerald said as Roan mounted his horse, getting Roan to turn around and look at him.

“Don’t think that I don’t know you have not got to Mapjess to get away from hard work. If you are still here when we return, I am dragging you back with me.” Not just Roan, almost everyone had figured that out already. Gerald was Braydon’s personal guard most of the time. He was not taken north with the army because Rhydian was at Braydon’s side and he could be useful back home. But now that Braydon had returned? It was clear that he knew that he would be dragged into whatever it was that Braydon was doing if he went to Mapjess.

*groan*

As they rode away Roan did not need to look behind him to see the expression that Gerald had. He was about as allergic to hard work as Braydon was, just that his position meant that he had much fewer responsibilities than the latter.

“I did not know that you had such a humorous side.” Lani giggled slightly thinking that there must be something about Braydon to attract such people to his side.

“Oh but I was being deadly serious, I’ll use a rope if necessary.” Roan said with an almost straight face. The slight upwards curve at the edge of his lips giving away that he also found Gerald’s reaction amusing.

“How far away are we going?” Lani asked, not quite sure about how big Braydon’s territory on the other side of the mountains was. Just because somewhere was labelled to be connected to a certain rank did not mean that it would be a certain size. Take her territory for example, it was little more than a city and the surrounding land. In pure size, Braydon’s land was a lot bigger than Lani’s, the difference was that she held an influential city and he barely had two towns.

“It is little more than an hour or two’s travel from the castle. Not particularly that far.” Roan responded, he knew exactly how long it would take to get to the construction site from the castle. As he had a hand in setting and managing the patrols in Cliforge, Roan knew the eastern half of Braydon’s territory like the back of his hand.

“Yes?” It was at this moment that Lani felt tugging at her sleeve and turned to look at the girl who was trying to face her.

“Teach me to ride.” Mireille had a look of hope in her eyes that almost made Lani agree without thinking. For the most part she had been stroking the horse’s mane, clearly enamoured with the thought of being on a horse. If Braydon had been there he would have been glad that Mireille had finally started to talk in slightly fuller sentences, rather than the ‘Teach me.’ that she would have said when she first started opening up to them.

“Why do you want me to teach you?” Lani was curious, after staying in Cliforge for so long there was no way that Mireille had not seen people riding a horse before. And from the amount of affection that Nela had for her, it was not likely that she would have been refused had she asked. This made her wonder why she was the one being asked instead of Braydon or one of his knights being asked earlier.

“Because you ride.” Mireille might have gotten better at saying what she thought but she still skipped just enough to confuse people. It was true that Lani knew how to ride, but so did many other people. What she wanted to know was why her specifically. Though Mireille’s answer was technically correct, it missed the point slightly.

“You could ask Braydon or one of the knights though?” She tried pushing a bit further, her curiosity getting the better of her. She would be more than happy to teach the girl to ride, if for nothing else but the joy of doing so. But Lani still wanted to know the reason why it was her being asked and not someone that Mireille knew better.

“...” The silence that followed caused a slight smile to appear on Lani’s face. It was clear that Mireille herself did not know why she had not asked someone sooner. They continued along in silence for some minutes as Mireille thought about her answer. Every so often, they would see a couple of farmers working in the fields. Something that would not have happened just a year ago. In the past year the number of people in Cliforge had doubled. From the migrants from the capital and those fleeing war in Shuluk, the barely functional backwater of a viscounty had become a scene of relative prosperity.

“Because you are a woman?” Mireille had finally thought of her answer but still sounded unsure of herself. It was all that she had been able to think of but just that did not sound like a proper reason to her.

“I see. If Nela is fine with it, then I will be more than happy to teach you.” Lani knew that Nela had some weight when deciding on something like that. After all, Mireille was her protégé and a woman learning to ride was not really a common thing. Though Lani suspected that Nela would be fine with it, she did not want to get Mireille’s hopes up on the chance that she was wrong.

“Thank you.” Mireille tried to turn around to give her a hug, but upon failing due to being on a horse she gave up and decided to say her thanks. Lani smiled at the girl’s actions, clearly not thinking Mireille’s reason for asking her as odd as Mireille did. ‘She is looking for a role model in me and Nela.’ Lani did not know what it was that the girl had seen in her, but she was still slightly happy at the indirect compliment.