Irene’s shoulders slouched, and she felt brief relief.
However, a detail she couldn’t look past was the fact that the man in front of her seed to have doubled in age in the past few years—knight armor made everyone look so much older. Not only that, but he was knighted while she was still not.
It made the bitter taste that Felix should have been knighted by then all the more real.
"We must make haste!" a different knight shouted from where he was on his horse. "Only one dire wolf. Plenty more to go."
"Back onto your horse, apprentice," Alix ordered the girl. "Arrows for now. We’ve bought plenty."
She imdiately did as she was told, seeking out Sorrel, who ran into the tree line a bit further on.
The horse ca to her when she whistled, and she mounted the animal easily once he was closer.
Since the others had already headed towards the barking wolves, she did the sa.
With each arrow she shot off, she had to bite off the cloth at the tip so that her aim would be more accurate and she could shoot farther. It was a bit of a pain, but worth it when she landed an arrow in a wolf’s eye first and then the goblin’s neck.
The others were having similar luck with their own shots.
It wasn’t until there were no dire wolves actively pursuing them that the knights jumped off, and she did the sa.
Large goblins were left. One more intelligent than they were supposed to be.
It led to more of a sparring match where they would block strikes and seemingly aim. It was scary facing sothing that was very nearly close to the mannerisms of a human, yet still so very different.
There had never been a ti before then that she didn’t even reach a goblin’s shoulder, but when she found herself pursued by one that was nearly as tall as her father, a mont of panic struck her. She swung her sword at it a bit less precisely.
First, she had to block, then she was given a mont to slice at the goblin that had better control of its weapon than she was used to seeing.
For the first ti in a fight against a goblin, her shorter stature was used to her advantage. She sent her blade through its armpit and was only weakly struck in her back as its heavy blade was brought down one last ti.
"Impressive," Alix complinted as he approached the girl.
However, Irene realized that the goblin had fallen into its leather pouch and it swelled up.
She knew instantly that it was going to blow up if she wasn’t careful.
To Alix’s shock, the apprentice practically jumped on him, which forced them both to wind up on their backsides. They both then watched as a cloud of black smoke rose from the defeated goblin.
Irene’s shoulders slumped, and she could finally catch her breath.
"Forgive , sir," she muttered.
"Now I better understand why you did what you did," he admitted.
The knight then stood and offered her his gloved hand.
She looked up. His plate armor was flawlessly crafted. It was even better than the other Knights of Hydrogia she had seen. Was this a result of his own pocketbook? Did the second son of a Duke have funds like that?
Regardless of any of her thoughts, she took the hand offered and was hoisted back to her feet.
"Iro, wasn’t it?" Alix asked her.
"Yes. You were an apprentice the last ti I saw you," she responded in disbelief. "Alix, correct? Or, forgive , Sir Alix, I suppose."
Alix’s smile was wry and a bit unhumorous.
"Yes, forgive His Majesty’s slowness in granting all of you the honor," he requested. "There are a handful of apprentices from the north who I do believe deserve this title far more than I do. There’s that big apprentice nad Felix, who I believe should have been knighted when I was. I think he’s only a bit younger than ."
"We have been requesting as much," Irene admitted. "Forgive us for going against customs. Sir Gunnar considers Felix a knight already, practically. We’re all a bit more burdened than apprentices are supposed to be, but I prefer to do as much as I can for Chemois."
"Very honorable, indeed."
Another voice ca from behind Alix, and Irene peered around the knight to see the other knight who accompanied him coming up from where he had been taking arrows off of dire wolves.
He had slightly wavy light brown hair and green eyes a bit darker than Irene’s
"Sir Maximus," Alix introduced him. "He was knighted about the sa ti as I."
"It’s a pleasure," Irene greeted. "I’m Iro."
"The red hair," Maximus observed. "Who’s your father? The bear...?"
"Wolf of the North," Alix and Irene both responded in unison.
She gave the knight a bit of a shocked expression, but she still smiled politely.
"Right. It was sothing like that," Maximus relented.
Before more could be said, they heard more horses coming their way and turned towards the battle that had undoubtedly cald down.
"Get cleaning up," Commander Lothian ordered. "The day is long. We have supplies coming soon before the mountains can fully freeze."
"Yes, sir," Irene said to the knight and began to bow, but she stopped herself quickly, feeling Commander Lothian’s scrutinizing gaze on her.
For them, work ant piling up the goblins and tying them so that they could add them to the burn pile in the center of the field, where goblin bodies littered the place.
Irene tried to keep her eyes away from the white sheets laid out over the bodies of those who were likely knights, apprentices, or squires.
She silently begged the gods for it not to be anyone she was so familiar with.
All that day amounted to was their efforts to clean the area of goblin bodies. Only when the sun set and everyone started going off onto the next phase of their duties—whether it be to sleep or to guard—did their paths seem to change.
As Irene and the apprentices she was more used to went into the tents for what they hoped would be at least a slightly warm sleep, they were horrified when, only an hour after they went to sleep, the horns from the top of the wall sounded.
They left their tents only to see that the snow was falling.
There wasn’t a mont to enjoy it considering another wave of goblins was coming from the northeastern end of the Duke’s Tower and gaining ground fast.
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