Gray sits down on the bed, and picks up their book again, trying to read.
They get deeper into the story, when there is a knock at the door. Gray throws a blanket over Finnen, and calls out. "Come in!"
Ruven opened the door, and the curly hair of Asra pokes around the corner too.
"Guys!" Gray laughs in surprise. The guys quickly walk into the room, and close the door behind them.
"By the gods, Gray! Can't you keep this place clean for one day?!" Asra huffs, and starts picking up discarded items lying around.
"It's not that bad-" Gray says, amused.
Ruven simply chuckles, and sits down on the bed. Finnen's snout pokes out from under the blanket, and Ruven lifts him up.
"Well hello little man! How are you doing today?" Ruven coos to the little thing. He gently places it in his lap, and starts coddling him.
Gray looks at the two for a bit, and thought out loud. "How are we going to find the rebellion?"
"We're just going to have to try and find some good jobs. If we do well enough, they're going to find us." Ruven says, not looking up.
Gray looks at their Elven friend. The raven haired man is coddling with the small dragon, and doesn't look intimidating at all. But there are times, where they are so glad that they are on the good side of the Elf. They never think of him as scary, or dangerous, like so many others do. All they can see is the sweet man behind the curt and 'dangerous' elf.
He suddenly looks up, and the light highlights the grey and blue mixture in his eyes, creating a mixture of colours that Gray could stare in for hours. They've always liked looking in someone's eyes, obsessed by all the difficult and unique patterns.
Asra breaks the silence, by clearing his throat. "So. We still need to go over the last details, just in case."
"You're right." Gray and Ruven nod.
Gray looks at their freckled friend, the wood elf, still picking up items. He doesn't look up, only huffing in annoyance when another red curl falls into his face. He brushes it away, and looks at Gray with his green eyes. He gives them a small smile, and looks down again.
"Asra and Ruven, you'll be on top of the stables, right?" Gray asks, to which the others nod in response.
"And I'll be there too, at three Am exactly. Start getting ready at two. Finish by quarter for three, and get Finnen out of the stables. Sneaking past the guards will be easy enough, but we'll have to be careful when we saddle the horses. It'll need to go quickly. You have both got a horse that trusts you, right? That's good, that'll make the saddling way easier. Then, we lead the horses to the outer door, and run past the guards. They will however, alert my parents, so we'll need a proper distraction for them."
They nod, and Ruven adds "We'll see what we can come up with. Do you have ideas?"
"Well, we got the twins on our side." Gray says. "And they're masters in making subtle traps, or pulling a good prank."
Asra nods. "But can we be sure that they'll be fully aware of the situation? What if there are extra guards that they didn't anticipate?"
"That won't happen," Gray says confidently, "They have known how many guards there are since they were eight. They know exactly how much there are, and where they are. So that's not something to worry about."
"We'll keep them in mind." Ruven says quickly. Gray and Asra nod in agreement.
Gray suddenly bounces up, scaring Finnen. "You could sabotage the saddles of the guards!" They exclaim in excitement. "Because you're both allowed in the stables! We could do it overnight, starting the day before. They won't question you when you're working on the saddles!"
Ruven glances at Asra. "We could try it…" Asra nods in agreement. "But what if the guards can ride without saddles?"
Gray chuckles. "I've seen the riding lessons. Nearly none can do that. And besides, they wouldn't know their saddles would be sabotaged until they're lying on the ground."
"That's true." Asra says, deeply lost in thought. "But where do we even go? We can't just step into the nearest city and go 'Hellooo?? Owls?? We want to join your super-secret rebellion group!' what do you think? We'll simply get arrested!"
Ruven chuckles dryly. "How stupid do you think we are? We don't know a lot, but we do know that we shouldn't do that!"
Gray nods in agreement. "We'll probably have to show ourselves, by showing that we're on the same side! Then, we'll get noticed, and-" They abruptly shut their mouth, as there is a loud knock on the door.
Ruven and Asra quickly stand up, recognizing the aggressive knock as that of the lord of the castle, Lord Huxley. He is also called the father of Gray, but none of the people closest to them consider him like that. He hasn't done anything to deserve being called a father.
Before they can say anything, the door sweeps open, and the tall figure of Huxley stands in the opening, the light accentuating his silhouette.