by Cpt._Funkotron » Sun Sep 16, 2018 5:18 am
The Convoy
As the days pass, and the ladies and their knightly escort ride deeper into Frankish territory, Terwynn and Audofleda find themselves spending more and more of their time in each other's company. Audofleda is eloquent enough for the two of them, and even still she seems to find her scattered, nervous chatter endearing. In the evening, Terwynn flatters and enchants the princess with her poetry. One morning, they open their eyes to greet the dawn, and find the arms of each wrapped around the other, together in bed. It is the first of several such mornings.
Meanwhile, Leiryn's self-imposed distance seems to have made him an even greater curiosity then before. He is almost never directly approached, and he can't understand Frankish, but he can tell well enough when he's being talked about. Occasionally he finds himself being done some small kindness, such as having wine brought to him after meals, or having his laundered clothes (done by the servants in camp on evenings that the party is near a river), instead of being gathered up by the squires. At first, he is confused. Leiryn is hardly good looking in the classical sense, as his father's wife had been more than clear about from an early age, but over the course of several days, he manages to piece together that his other qualities seem to be working hard to make up the slack. For one, his rank, for another his extraordinary youth, a year too young to even be a knight let alone ten or twenty years too young to be a commander, for a third, his current role as one of their protectors, for a fourth, his elusiveness. The chattering, giggling, and stares follow him all the way to Vire.
About a day's short of their destination, the party is approached and hailed by a group of five British knights.
The Army
The army treads upon the ashes of their own previous making as they march to Caen, passing village after village of burnt out cottages and freshly dug graves. At long last, they come to the siege lines of Bayeux. The sentries who greet them a few miles from the camps and make sure they aren't Franks in stolen armor make a point of asking why division has returned so soon.