Traveling went on just as expected.
The thick, wet snow that had fallen overnight had long since froze and made for a heavy layer on the ground that the horses crunched through as they ran forward. For a long while, that was the only noise to be heard.
The apprentice and knight weren’t going as fast as possible in case the ground was uncertain in so areas, but their pace was good enough. It was so much so that, despite leaving later in the morning, they made it to the inn in the evening.
When they were near the stable, Irene dismounted off of Sorrel and she turned to the knight who still sat atop his horse.
"Shall I put your horse away, sir?" she asked. "There wasn’t a stablehand last ti."
Sir Gunnar’s faint smile was revealed as he pulled the scarf off of his face. He was proud to see that Irene was already behaving even more dutifully than she did before.
"Yes," he responded. "I will check in with the innkeeper and find us sothing warm to eat."
The girl took his horse’s reins and led the two large animals to the stable which was tightly closed considering the season. Unlike the ti before, it seed there were a few more visitors.
Luckily, there were still plenty of stalls available for horses.
It seed that soone had been tending to them at least a little bit because there were small fires lit in tal cages hanging on the posts. Their chains were so long that there was no risk of fire, but they still kept the place a little bit warm.
Since she petted Sorrel so affectionately after giving him food, she decided she ought to do the sa to Sir Gunnar’s horse.
"I don’t even know your na," she realized. "I will have to learn so that we beco better acquainted. I will see the two of you tomorrow. Then we have a few more weeks of rest before your job is important once more."
The horses rely settled down, not seeming to care about anything except for the food in their buckets.
The girl exited the stables and made sure the door was tightly closed before she began her walk to the inn. However, before she could take a step past the edge of the stable, she was violently pushed against the wooden side of the structure and she glared up at whoever dared touch her.
A man with breath that slled of ale—sothing easily realized because he was breathing directly into her face—held her by her upper chest. She had worn her armor so at least she didn’t have to feel his hand directly on her clothing.
Regardless, her left hand gripped her sword since she couldn’t reach across her body as she normally would to un-sheath the blade. The man’s knees were pressed into one of her thighs as well.
"Yer a bit pretty to be an apprentice," the man slurred his words and she knew right away that he was drunk.
She wasn’t sure if it was this lifeti or the last that made her knowledgeable of this. No matter how old she was, she wasn’t fond of drunk idiots.
"What is that supposed to an?" she snapped back, refusing to show even a bit of fear.
"What are you, a mage?" the man continued on his drunk tirade. "Bit feminine like one of them. No wonder the King doesn’t want beings like that around n. How could soone control themselves if everyone looked like that?"
"What the hell?!" she shouted.
Not only was he targeting her because he thought she was soft-looking, he wasn’t put off by the fact that she was a re child! It disgusted her to no end.
The quickly changing moods she had been experiencing certainly weren’t helping how she felt at that mont.
Even though Irene didn’t see that Sir Gunnar had left the building and was running his way towards the stables, she still took the situation into her own hands. She refused to let soone try and have the upper hand over her.
Rather than relying on her sword, she had sothing else in mind despite her nondominant hand gripping the handle. Since the man was leaning against one of her legs, he was already exposing a vulnerable part of himself—sothing she would never feel the pain of.
In one swoop of her leg, she kneed the man in his family jewels causing him to double over.
"Ugh!" he cried and fell into her.
However, she was fast in pushing him away and letting him fall into the higher traffic area where the snow had lted a bit and was muddy ground.
That mont, she saw Sir Gunnar rushing forward with his eyes wide.
"Your father asked to take care of you, but it seems you can take care of yourself," Sir Gunnar observed.
"I was lucky there wasn’t more of them," Irene deflected a bit.
Sir Gunnar wasn’t finished there. The knight grabbed the other man by the back of his shirt and he tossed him towards the inn. There he removed a rope from the saddlebag over his shoulder and he tied the man’s hands together so he was attached to a post that held up the awning in front of the inn.
"Christ, you sll like ale," Gunnar observed. "Stay out here and sober up for a while. Soone will feel sorry enough for you eventually that you won’t freeze overnight."
"What the hell is—!"
"Shall I seek a higher authority?" Gunnar snapped. "Not only were you cornering a boy, but a child. Who knows what sort of sick intentions you had."
The man shut up at that. There were too many frowned-upon suggestions that Gunnar had ntioned. Becoming a eunuch simply because he was drunk wouldn’t make for an easy life. If he even lasted after getting his manhood taken from him... there was a likelihood of infection that could take him as well.
Since the problem was behind them, Gunnar turned to his apprentice.
"Ti for supper," he said. "Don’t mind soone like that."
"Yes, sir," Irene responded dutifully as ever.
As they walked back into the inn, the innkeeper greeted the two of them.
"Ah, so you found the well-behaved apprentice after all," the innkeeper realized. "Welco back."
Irene couldn’t help the light laugh at that mont. Considering what she had just been up to, it felt like interesting timing for him to say such a thing.
"I found him," Gunnar confird. "Now we ought to fill our stomachs before the rest of the journey."
Irene agreed wholeheartedly. Her stomach was growling by that point.
It felt nice to settle in even if it was for just a mont.
By the ti she woke up the next morning, she was eager for the journey ahead.
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