Living in a tower with a fantastic view had never quite prepared Ashya for experiencing the outside first hand again, and ever since leaving the tower she’d been wide eyed, drinking in every sight with bated breath and shining eyes. It was such a shame that they had no time to loiter, to simply chase after the birds, to catch the squirrels that they sometimes startled into motion, to have a quick nap in the sunlight.
She found, to her delight, that the rain felt deliciously cool on her skin, and hadn’t at all minded the soaking by the persistent rain. Now that it had stopped and their journey had continued, she found herself indulging by splashing into the natural puddles that formed on the uneven forest floor, stopping only when Lirana snapped at her. Ashya made a face at the elven mage, figuring that since they were all wet, getting wetter didn’t really matter anymore.
Still, Ashya decided to rein in her natural exuberance and act more proper, as most Circle mages tended to. She was the youngest in their group, and didn’t really want to remind everyone just how close to not being allowed on the journey she’d been.
It was now dark, and her robes felt heavy and stiffly cold. The slight brunette sneezed, brushing damp locks out of her eyes, and slowed her pace, hoping Aurin was going to disturb an entire nest of bloodthirsty bandits. The hours of marching, like cattle being herded by the templars, were starting to get on her nerves. A fight would be welcome, disturbing the somewhat monotonous peace that had settled over them.
Barring that, setting up camp and just sitting around a fire would be nice. It was really getting cold now. Ashya sneezed again, and moved forward to have a better view of what might happen – if anything did indeed happen – to Aurin. Not that she could see much, from this distance. It would have been easy enough for an army to hide completely undetected in the shadows created by the surrounding foliage.