Dispite our triumphant hunt last night, our morning spent mostly wrapped in a nervous silence.
By the time I staggered downstairs fully clad in my armour, the table was filled, and we all looked identical.
" We do look great, don't we? "
Demelza smiled at my appearance, and some of the heavy atmosphere was lifted. The boys snickered a little, looking at each other, playing with their capes .. one was missing.
" Zephyr ..
" He went to have some words with the Revels. He will be back soon. " Carlos anticipated my question.
" Want something to eat, sweetheart? "
Even my mother seemed a little nervous.
I nodded even though I wasn't hungry, but it made her smile.
Eli poured some tea and invited me to sit.
I took the tea but declined the seat. My excitement returned, but this time, it was a pleasant, not suffocating feeling.
We slowly started chatting about the hunt ahead, and I even managed a few bites of my eggs before Zephyr came through the door.
Him wearing that armour.. somehow looked so much better on than the others. The colour black matched his hair so well, even the cape looked different than ours, lighter more beautiful.
He sweeps across the room, nodding approvingly. " I see we all good to go, come my love. "
I took his hand without a thought and to my surprise he started walking towards the stairs.
" Say your final goodbyes, then gather the man we leave in 10 minutes. " He turned towards me as we walked. " .. Let's see her before we go. "
" Hmm .. "
———
We ended up admiring her as she slept and didn't wake her up. All this was fun. For some reason, I almost didn't wanna go looking at her.
I bet Zephyr felt the same way because we had been standing here for a while now, and he didn't seem like he was ready to leave.
" .. Come on.. if we hurry, we only miss a day with her. " I whispered and started slowly pulling him towards the door.
" ... Right. "
He took a deep breath and ended up leading me out. We closed the door silently and found the house empty.
Outside, all our horses were waiting, and the girls were kind enough to load my equipment as well on Sky.
" ~ Coming back to you .. "
We saw Carlos and Mother slow dancing as the man sang for her. His voice was decent.
" How come you never sing for me? " I asked, resting my head on his shoulder.
" Ugh.. "
" What was that? "
" Nothing, my love, but please give me some time to prepare, I mean, the last thing I want is to sing off tune or something. In fact, do you have some specific song requests? "
His sarcastic remarks made me smile, I guess we can't have it all, ladies.
Once our newly discovered singer finished his song and received his mothers adulation, she came over and hugged us each.
" Don't worry about Anna, sweetheart. I won't take my eyes off her. the same goes for Arnold. "
Demelza smiled happily, probably feeling the same relief I did.
I hugged my mother for a minute before letting go and let my husband help on my horse. The others were all on it.
After settling in on Fenex, himself, we slowly made our way towards the field of war, where the now 19 remaining soldiers out the 25 were all waiting, fully armoured and ready.
" I guess he never let them come back, huh? "
Demelza was riding on my side, and Eli, on the other, we were in the back.
" .. Hmm .. never question his training methods. " Eli remarked.
I remained silent, smiling to myself. My bet was his sexual frustration mixed with annoyance, leading those poor fools to suffer being left behind.
Meanwhile, the captains said there piece to the soldiers, and we were finally ready to move out.
Zephyr rode back towards us.
" Stay beside each other and don't break formation.. please. " He added the last bit, meeting my eyes.
I smiled as he rode ahead but kept looking back. It always made me happy when he was worried, but being behind the captains but front of the soldiers practically guaranteed our safety.
As slowly made our way towards the East gate, I did a quick check, bow, arrows, ohoh..
" What happened to the special arrowheads?" I asked the girls.
" They are already made into arrows Sis, unfortunately we only have 10 each, so we have to select it with shooting. The red ones. "
I looked at Demelza quiver and spotted the red feather ones. All of our arrows used the widely available black feathers.
With that sorted, I just reached behind my back to feel out Zephyrs daggers he gave me for this hunt, just in case. He really did want to cover all bases.
The Revel twins, both in similar armour sets, were talking to the guards at the gate.
" Before we go! "
We all paid attention to my husband, who looked behind the man.
" All remove those silly capes and hand them to Saam and Fipna here. " he pointed ahead.
Those mentioned were standing with a bag each Saam waving at us and Fipna .. well, he was unresponsive as ever.
I smiled as I reached back and unhooked my cape. He really disliked inpractical things, and that cape was practically forced on him. Also .. because of the colour, it was easy to spot at night. It's not like we planned anything at night ..
Out of all, only the captains themselves looked somewhat disappointed handing their capes to the twins who walked to solider to soldier collecting the fabric.
When they arrived before us and carefully put the cape away. They stayed to give us some encouragement and wished us good luck.
" Alright .. make sure you all keep this to yourself and not let Penny know. Understood? " He asked seriously.
I nodded with the girls only to be scared a little when ..
" YES, LEADER!! "
Should've expected something like this, I thought, playing with my ear a little.
" Very well, you all know the plan we ride until noonday sun, try and keep up. "
He searched out my eyes and gave a little encouraging nod, then the gates opened, and the HUNT was truly begun.