All three heads turned to the sound of a grunt. One of the men was waking.
Bastian stood and carried the man down from his underarms and helped him to rest against a tree, the cloak around the man's back helped to shield his wounds from the rough tree bark.
Bastian nodded, "Ariston. How bode you?" He asked placing his hand on the younger man's shoulder.
"I've been better. How about you?" Ariston heaved deeply finding the strength to breathe, "How are you doing without your women?" He asked wryly.
Bastian glanced at the flower out of his peripheral vision but quickly regained his composure, "I've survived." He slapped Ariston on the shoulder only to see the man wince.
He withdrew his hand and Ariston waved his arm in remiss. Bastian still remained tense.
He carried Dimitri off of the horse in the same fashion he had Ariston and both brothers were next to each other, their backs resting on two trees side by side to the other.
He turned to see both women had started a fire and were settling down; unpacking their supplies and forming beds on the grass.
He decided they could rest.
Dimitri awoke with a start, his arm spastically shooting out and hitting his brother in the shoulder causing both men to yell.
When they'd recovered Dimitri looked up at Bastian in the waning light, "My goodness, you've let yourself go!" He exclaimed.
Bastian furrowed his brow at his friend's words, "I have not."
"You swore that you would never grow a beard unless your life depended on it, look what you've done." He said dramatically.
Bastian rolled his eyes, "What about yourself? You've let your own beard out of its restraints and look like a wild man."
Dimitri laughed heartily, clutching at his chest.
The crew then sat and ate their meal, exchanging questions as they did.
"How did you escape?" Was the first, asked by Dimitri.
Bastian's eyes met Hydrangea's grey ones before he answered, "Hadok, the head eunuch rescued us." He said simply.
"Ah, I always thought him a good man." Dimitri said cheerily, "I suppose he stayed back on the island?"
Bastian again watched the flower carefully she opened her lips and said quietly but loudly enough to be heard.
"He died shortly thereafter." She rose to tend to the horses.
"I'm sorry, your majesty. He was a good man." Dimitri said, his voice sober.
"That he was." She answered, her hands fidgeting with one of the stallion's saddles.
She walked back to where she was formerly sitting, "And please, call me Hydrangea, or Hydie." Her face was lit with a forced smile.
"Alright then. Hydrangea."
It irked Bastian for some reason, his friend's use of the flower's name. It was wrong that it come out of his mouth.
"How did you end up in the stocks?" The flower asked.
"We did not stop a riot against the Lords' new reign. We in fact reinforced it." Dimitri said in his optimistic tone.
"Would it not have been wiser to save your forces for when you truly needed them?" She asked, her head leant forward.
"Hm, maybe. But we didn't think of that and only thought of ways to prevent the Lords' rule."
"Indeed." Was all she said in reply.
Little was said after that and the sun sank below the mountains to the west and the moon arose, it's silver splendour shining through the leaves.
Bastian lay back, he head supported by one of their packs and he pulled out his sword, his hand finding his cloth to clean it.
He looked up hearing a gasp and saw the flower looking at him in outrage and horror, "You killed them."
He did nothing but waited for her outburst. None came but her quiet words edged in anger.
"For some reason, I expected more of you. I thought you'd changed, I thought-" She stopped, her voice breaking, "I don't know what I thought. I hoped, you were better than this."
He stood, leaving his sword on the grass, it's blade still glinting red with blood, "And why would you think that? Do you want me to change? You want me to be a better person?"
"Yes!"
"Why?" He marched towards her, the flame his guide, "Why? You want me to what? Be a hero? Be like all of the great Sovereigns of the past? Be like my father? Be like Hadok?!"
Her eyes burned into his with the same fire as his.
He inhaled a breath, trembling from anger and an emotion he didn't want to name.
She opened her mouth and replied, "I want you to be a better person for Cadarama-"
"That is a lie! You don't want what's best for Cadarama, you want what's best for yourself."
Her eyes diminished in their flame and he saw pain in them. She turned on her heel and left their encampment.
"Fine! Run away! And you call me a coward." Her form disappeared into the foliage.
The maid stood, her eyes fixed on the place where the flower had gone.
"Go ahead, follow her." He said waving his hand at the dark woods. The maid's eyes turned to look at him, her brown orbs filled with disappointment.
He staggered and then heard his friend's voice.
"You should-"
He held his hand up and Dimitri silenced.
Looking in the direction the flower had gone he stalked off into the trees. His feet crunched the leaves and fallen branches as he tread along the dark path. His face was abruptly attacked by a pointy branch.
He backed away and held the side of his face, grimacing in pain.
"Bastian…"
He looked up, his senses alert and his heart pounding.
"Bastian…"
Spinning in a circle, his eyes landed on a pair of glowing blue ones.