The Knights of Chemois already had their reunion when the other half of their knights returned in the first wave of help that arrived in the north.
As Irene wiped up the evidence of her al preparation from before, she couldn’t help quietly side-eyeing the reunions of knights with others from within their order. She wanted to feel happy like that. They seed so bright while she felt so unbelievably dull and sad.
Their voices filled up the space as they embraced each other. She even heard a few jokes that the others looked like hell from being on the front lines for so long.
However, she braced for the second wave of emotions that would flood the encampnt for even longer than the happiness, as it always did: grief.
The knights, freshly arrived from two weeks of travel, looked confused as if to silently wonder if that was all they had left. They would search for evidence of others while those who remained would shake their heads as if to say, ’they didn’t make it.’
Their happiness couldn’t make Irene smile, but their sadness made her feel that much heavier. It was the worst winter she had ever rembered in her life.
There was a sense of self-awareness within the girl, and she knew that she needed to get herself together and head on straight.
In two days ti, they were preparing to venture into the mountains and see if anything else could be gleaned from the environnt. It would be far easier to track monsters in the untouched snow on the foothills that surrounded the fields.
There was a bit to look forward to. It was the first ti she, Felix, and Leif would all be working together once more. For the longest ti, they had taken on the roles of being their knights’ backup on the battlefield. Whenever the war horns blew, they were ant to find their knights and do whatever was asked of them.
Most of the ti, it led them into a sea of goblins and their backs pressed firmly against their knights’ backs. Those tis felt particularly claustrophobic, but they always managed to pull through.
Getting onto horseback and scouting would be such a wonderful change of pace.
Their most urgent task was rebuilding a tent that had collapsed after the night before’s snowfall. Luckily, it wasn’t the infirmary tent, or it could have been much worse.
Once Irene went back to the cooking area, knowing that it was ti to start getting the knights’ als ready, she gasped when a knight walked onto the wood covering the ground and pulled off his helt.
"Felix!" she exclaid. "I had no idea it was you."
His hair had gotten longer. Well, all their hair had gotten longer since there wasn’t really a good ti to worry about haircuts. However, with Felix’s longer hair, his face looked older. He looked far more intimidating in a suit of armor.
"Then the armor must suit ," he responded. "You looked quite intimidated when I first arrived."
"Not at all," she argued. "I am rely trying to show respect to an unknown knight, only to find that it isn’t a knight at all."
She faintly smirked at him, finding that teasing him actually made her a bit happier. There was sothing nostalgic about only speaking with that goal in mind.
Of course, Felix knew she would deal him a low blow, so all he could do was shake his head and then ruffle her hair as he walked by. He would hit her with a low blow as well.
"You’re looking even more like a girl these days, Iro," Felix observed as he removed his gloves and started actually helping with the cooking. Even though he was being treated like a knight and burdened just as much, he still had to attend to a few apprentice tasks when the other knights were dealing with strategy etings and the like. "Your hair got longer. Your face got thinner. The n out here are going to start feeling really lonely if you keep looking more and more like your mother."
"Shall I tell my father that you’re attracted to my mother?" she wondered. "I wonder what he would have to say about such a thing.
However, it was also then that Leif decided to walk into the area and help prepare the evening al. He heard the last bit of Felix’s words, and his light eyebrows lowered as he looked between the two apprentices.
"Ignore what he said!" Irene shouted. "He’s being an idiot."
"You both are disgusting," the apprentice insisted.
Leif’s eyes quickly left the other two, and he pushed through the awkwardness to go deeper into the cooking area, where he found his usual workstation and began pulling out potatoes to cut up.
"Hold on!" Irene rushed after her friend. "Felix, tell Leif that you’re rely being a fool. We were just joking with one another."
Why did Leif look so hurt? She wondered.
However, Felix only knew how to make the situation worse. Even though he had been in mostly dark moods those days, he saved his teasing for the worst possible tis.
"Don’t tell ," Felix began. "Do you like this feminine face of our dear Iro? Is it sothing that keeps you up late at night?"
He smacked his hand down on Leif’s shoulder and smirked at him.
Leif’s face turned red, which only seed to worsen the situation for him as Felix’s amusent rose, and Irene’s horror did much of the sa.
However, quickly breaking apart the apprentices, Sir Gunnar ca into the cooking area with sothing in his hands.
"That’s enough," the knight ordered.
Just as he asked, they all separated from one another, looking a bit more sheepish than before.
Irene’s heart was racing because of how unknowingly truthful Felix was speaking. Leif’s response to her was confusing. Did he really think she was pretty enough to get bothered over?
But he thought she was a boy.
Those thoughts caused her face to turn red, and she had to keep her face angled a bit downward.
"Iro, a letter from your father ca in for you."
Her head snapped up.
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