Lightstar Family/Adaria/Roleplay 19

Planting Plans

The two Lightstars strolled through the palace gardens, discussing their next trip.

"Please don't ask me to lead a forward scouting unit again!" Adaria shuddered involuntarily, as she recalled her miserable experience in prison. "We should stick together this time..."

The duke smiled softly and nodded. "Of course, Ada. Worry not. However, you should move out a day in advance of my own departu--"

"What?! But you just said--" she panicked and started to hyperventilate.

"Be calm..." Xarnelf patted the air with both hands in an attempt to allay the young girl's fears. "We will move from Anacan together, I promise you."

She bit her lip with some skepticism and then breathed a sigh of relief as her cousin continued to explain.

"The extra day will allow you time to fully repair your men's equipment. Once I arrive, your unit shall then be ready to depart, good as new."

The pair walked some distance in silence, with Adaria stopping every few steps to crouch down and sniff a different flower. Soon, another thought crossed her mind, and she voiced it.

"We aren't going down to the inner regions for looting, are we? I don't want to get captured again..."

He sighed quietly, barely audible, as he considered the question. Of course, the duke wanted nothing more than to repeat the route of his first foray deep behind enemy lines, but he did not want to run the risk of his cousin being caught again. Perhaps he would plunge ahead alone, for he was no stranger to prison and could easily break out in the event that Soliferum did manage to nab him, as past experiences have proved.

"I will not ask you to accompany me, if I should choose to break through their front lines. However, it may not even come to that, with the way Soliferum is being slowly and steadily pushed backwards. Chances are good that we will be assaulting Hatdhes with the allied forces."

Adaria quietly listened with a slight frown. She did not want him to rush off recklessly by himself again and get himself into serious trouble; not if she could help it this time. He was already damned lucky the first time... Would his luck see him through a second attempt? Adaria did not know and therefore could not answer that, but what she did know was that Auntie Reia had asked her to keep an eye on him. So, the girl would try her best to keep her word, as hard as it was going to be in all likelihood.

"As the saying goes, we shall cross that bridge when we come to it..." As an afterthought, Xarnelf added with a wink, "Or take that ferry, I should say, for there is no bridge long enough to connect Hatdhes to Dsinanas."

Girly groans ensued.