Thoughts of her homeland—if not any concern for a lover or an embrace—were on Lucressia's mind, too, as she stepped out of her wagon into the night air. It had been years upon years since she'd been home, and though if she were given the opportunity to return tomorrow, she might not go, she still missed things of it, now and again. Tonight, it was summer. True summer; warm, dry summer, not this Ferelden weather that only got damper and dimmer as they traveled further south. If she had been going for a night swim in a pond in Antiva, it would have been balmy and warm, if not oppressively hot still from the long, sunny day; here, Lucressia anticipated more shivering, more chill, and lots of thick mud everywhere. Ferelden mud.
Maybe after this assignment was done, she would see about a transfer somewhere farther north. Somewhere warm, before winter came. But for now, there were the woods of the Bannorn, and a small lake surrounded by low green growth, and a bath.
Lucressia had with her many of the things that Lillie had taken with her, as well; a cloth to dry off with, and one to wrap around her hair as she came back to camp to go to bed, a bar of soap, and a nightgown. Her soap did not smell of roses, though; generally, Lucressia found little interest in that smell, and unscented soap was more useful if at some point she decided to sneak somewhere, anyway. She slipped through the grove of trees towards where the water was, feet quiet on the leafy, muddy ground. It wasn't that she was sneaking, precisely, or meaning to approach silently, but there was always a little challenge to be had in slipping around noiselessly, and the journey south had been so utterly without challenge so far. She needed to keep her skills sharp, and her mind amused.
When she arrived at the water, she took it in critically; it would be muddy, and she would want to check for leeches, and there was a half-decayed tree leaning in the small pond, but she would prefer muddiness and leeches to remaining soaked in sweat for another day. She set her cloak-wrapped bundle down, and started unlacing her gown; that was when she saw motion in the water; someone, one of her companions? A woman's silhouette, with long and dark hair, was moving in the pond, which narrowed it down between the people in the group quite directly. And then she saw the other things on the ground--she froze with her hands at her back, still pulling at laces. How thick-headed and blind was she? "Hello?"