[Aylwen Dreamsong]

Jisela shrugged at Barak’s orders. She didn’t particularly mind riding during the day or at night, and she didn’t have any preference to either, for she certainly didn’t fancy riding in the snow at all to begin with. There was no alternative, however, and Jisela was fine with moving on before dusk. Walking towards the fire again, Jisela picked up her boots, which were still damp. She sat down on the wooden floor space nearest to the inn door and began to pull on her boots.

Once she was done pulling on the boots, she clomped (for the boots were rather large on her) back over to the table where she had left her pack. On her way Jisela walked past a gloomy Rhys, who was still dumbfounded about upsetting Eorlyn. Jisela snorted at her brother, remembering how the teary-eyed Eorlyn ran away from him.

“Honestly, Rhys! When are you going to stop scaring away all the girls?” Jisela asked playfully. She punched him on the shoulder gently, or as gently as she could. “Really, I don’t know what you said, but if it made a Ranger run out into the cold weather crying, maybe you deserved to get beat up. Maybe I could show that Eorlyn girl a few moves!”

Rhys shoved his sister in the opposite direction. He wasn’t in the mood for his sister’s lighthearted and jovial attitude. What had he said wrong? Why would a Ranger be so upset by something he had said in the first place?

Rhys sighed and meandered through the group preparing to leave, and finally found Eorlyn. He tapped her on the shoulder, and after looking up and seeing who was there, the girl quickly turned away and avoided Rhys’ gaze. Rhys whistled; he must have done something really wrong.

“Eorlyn, I’m not quite sure what I said to upset you,” Rhys began, feeling rather uncomfortable with apologizing without knowing what he did wrong. “But I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I don’t want to have to go through the remainder of this mission with someone being mad at me.”

Rhys waited patiently for an answer, hoping that his apology would be accepted. Almarien, who was stood next to Eorlyn as he packed his things, put a hand on Eorlyn’s shoulder and smiled reassuringly to the girl.

Jisela continued to stomp around the inn as she waited for everyone else to be ready, and she peered down at the ground as she heard the familiar sound of papers fluttering to the floor. Near a cushioned chair that had been set by the fireplace, Krosan began picking up papers that had been dropped on the floor. Whatever made Jisela feel kind enough to go and help him pick up his papers eluded Jisela, and she instinctively went over to Krosan and bent down to clean some of the parchments off the floor.

Lifting a few and seeing what was on them, Jisela smiled wryly as she saw drawings of this and that. They were well drawn, better than anything Jisela could do, and the girl was surprised that Krosan would be the kind of person to draw.

“These are pretty good,” Jisela commented, smiling as she picked up a picture drawn of earlier in the inn. Reed and Darian were by the fireplace, and Eorlyn was…winking at Rhys who sat next to her.